Amazingly, nobody greeted us when we stepped inside. The interior station was suspiciously empty. Worrying thoughts sprang into my mind. Have they detected us? Did the guard go for help? Or is this the norm? Is this station no longer manned?
“Keep moving,” Flint said in clipped tones.
He was right. We didn’t have time to wonder.
Flint took the lead. A stale smell permeated the air like fresh air never circulated these halls. Our footsteps tapped on the gray, concrete floors. Tall solid walls lined the hallway. There were no windows anywhere. Closed doors flew past us in our rush. I knew from the blueprint that most of those doors led to labs. The layout was exactly as the blueprint and Father described.
I took some comfort in seeing an identical layout to what we’d known, but I couldn’t shake my growing sense of dread. Where is everyone?
At our first turn, we passed another empty guard station. My heart rate increased. Nobody hesitated, however. Our training had been drummed into us. Move! Move! Move!
When we got to the elevator, I knew my instinct was right. Something was wrong. Other than the two guards outside, we hadn’t encountered anyone else. The twins eyed me with worried gazes. Amber looked like she was going to pass out, while Mica’s heightened energy was almost palpable.
Flint’s energy rolled off him in seismic waves. “Do you smell anyone, Amber?”
Amber shook her head. “Nobody’s close.”
“Mica, switch your retinas.” His voice was tight, his words clipped.
I used our heightened emotions to grow my energy ball. Just in case.
Mica stepped closer to let the security device scan her eyes while she swiped the stolen badge. A long minute passed.
A soft ding sounded that the security information was accepted. Flint pushed the elevator button forcefully. Red digits above the elevator lit up. S3. The elevator had been at the bottom level. That was where we were going. We’d have to wait for it to ascend.
The hum of the elevator filled the silent void. We all stood staring at the metallic doors. Nobody said a word. It was so quiet that I could hear blood whooshing through my ears. I took a deep breath. The red digits moved slowly.
Jet and Jasper twitched beside me. One of them tapped a foot.
“Come on, come on, come on,” Jasper muttered. “What’s taking so long?”
Another ding sounded and the humming stopped. Amber made a quiet mewling sound and stepped back. “Something’s not right.” She reached for her gun. “Something’s not right! I smell–”
The door slid open. Two men stood inside the elevator, their guns aimed at our faces.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Flint and I reacted before my brain fully assessed the situation. One second, the guards looked ready to pull the triggers, the next, they lay knocked out on the ground. Between my energy ball followed by two, powerful blows to their heads from Flint, each guard fell in milliseconds.
The guards probably hadn’t known what hit them.
Amber stared wide-eyed. Flint and I had been so fast, she hadn’t had time to draw her gun. Flint rubbed his fist while I leaned down and felt the guard’s pulses.
“Both alive.”
With shaky legs, I stood. My heart raced, yet I summoned another energy ball in case we needed it. At first, I couldn’t. I took another deep breath and tried again, briefly closing my eyes to call upon my energy. It slowly formed.
“Do you think you can contain them?” Flint asked Amber and Jet.
Both stared mutely at the fallen men.
“Amber! Jet!” Flint yelled.
“Um, yeah…” Amber finally mumbled. She gripped her gun tighter.
“I’ve got my chloroform.” Jet’s normal joking demeanor was gone, his mouth a tight line.
“Let’s move.” Flint reached down and snatched the guard’s badges. He moved them out of the elevator to lay in a heap at Jet and Amber’s feet. “Mica, you should match your retinas to one of these guards.”
“Oh, yeah,” Mica said.
I hadn’t thought of that either. Luckily, Flint was thinking faster than any of us. Who knew if the outdoor security guards had clearance in the subterranean levels which was obviously where these two guards had come from.
Flint, Mica, Jasper and I stepped into the elevator after Mica’s eyes shone hazel.
I stared at the buttons inside. There were three subterranean levels. Father had prepared us for that. We needed to descend to level three. That’s where the lost children were kept.
I hastily punched in S3. The elevator doors closed. The last things I saw were Jet’s worried blue eyes and Amber’s brown ones. Both stared at us through their ski masks. The image of a panda bear abruptly entered my mind since that’s kind of what they looked like in a weird, morphed way. A surge of hysterical laughter almost followed. I swallowed it down.
Get a grip, Lena. You need to stay focused!
The elevator hummed as we began to descend.
We all stood motionless, our bodies tensed and ready. The ride seemed to take forever. I used the moment to take a few deep breaths until my heart rate slowed. I kept my energy ball in place and made it grow. Thankfully, it was relatively easy since so much energy strummed between the four of us.
The elevator finally reached S3 and came to a jolting halt. We pressed ourselves against the walls and tensed. The doors slid open.
I expected more guards.
None waited.
The elevator opened to an empty, dimly lit hall. Cautiously, we stepped out. This was our weakest moment. The cells started ten yards to the right, but we still had to pass another guard station and get through one more access door. The station stood at the end of the hall. I didn’t see anyone in it.
Mica’s head whipped around. “There’s no one here.”
Jasper nodded toward the empty guard station ahead. “Those two guards must have come from there.”
“There’s really nobody else?” I said.
We hurriedly walked to the station.
Nighttime lighting illuminated dark gray concrete walls. The farther we got from the elevator, the more I noticed the stillness in the air. Nothing lingered in it. It was vacant feeling, empty almost, like the world down here didn’t exist. Like time stood still.
My heart pounded again despite my efforts to remain calm. I remembered that feeling. A brief memory stirred deep within my mind. It was of me when…
“Keep it together, everyone,” Flint murmured.
Hearing his voice jolted me back to the present. The memory vanished.
When we reached the station, Flint cautiously peeked inside. “It’s empty.”
Jasper stepped in front of the desk and assessed the screens and computer system. His blue eyes darted around, taking in the array of monitors. A dozen of the screens were fuzzy, probably from the cameras we’d disabled outside and upstairs. I guessed Di also had a hand in it. Some of the screens had descriptions etched into labels beneath them. West loading dock. Rear laboratory, S2. Holding cell, S1. The screens were all fuzzy. My gaze alighted on a working screen.
Elevator door, main level.
The screen showed an image of the two unconscious guards laying on the floor. Amber and Jet stood above them. All I could see were Jet and Amber’s darkly clad bodies. Not even their eyes were visible.
No wonder the guards had known we were coming. They’d seen us. Now, the question was whether or not they’d alerted anyone else.
My gaze drifted farther along the vast wall of security images. Jasper’s fingers flew across the keyboard. One by one, the screens grew fuzzy.
Mica fidgeted quietly beside me. When my gaze traveled to the next wall, my breath sucked in.
The screens that monitored the cells were still lit up.
I stepped closer, my mouth dropping. For the first time, I got a glimpse of the three individuals we were attempting to rescue. All three lay asleep, each in their own cell. Their bodies were covered in blankets. I had no idea if
they were men or women.
The sight of those chambers brought memories crashing back like an avalanche ripping down a mountain. They were memories I didn’t want to remember.
Memories I’d worked so hard to forget.
I felt myself sucked into a void, my grasp on reality slipping from my hands. My vision swam in and out of focus as a memory pummeled me.
“No, please! I don’t want to go!” I cried.
Hands reached for me, a sinister voice telling me it was all okay.
I clenched my teddy bear tightly to my chest. “Please, no!” I cried again.
“It’s all right, Lena. Be a good girl. This will only hurt for a moment.”
The man reached for me. A syringe rested in his hand. The sharp needle looked ominous and deadly.
I shrank against my bed. Tears sprang into my eyes.
“Lena!” a voice shouted.
Flint hunkered down in front of me. His dark, bottomless eyes searching mine. His hands rested on my shoulders. He shook me slightly.
“Babe, are you all right?”
It took a moment for me to realize what happened. The memory had felt so real, so vivid. I slowly nodded as the memory faded. “Yeah. I’m…yeah, I’m fine.” I shook myself internally and took a deep breath.
Seemingly satisfied, he turned and assessed the screens. The energy rolling off him increased. I stepped closer to him and inhaled deeply. His unique scent flooded me. It was the sweetest smell I’d ever experienced. I inhaled again.
His scent anchored me to reality.
Despite seeming calm and focused, I still picked up on the tense way Flint stood and the fearful gleam that coated his gaze. His eyes darted from screen to screen as he assessed our situation. I could only imagine what ran through his head right now.
“Don’t we need to get moving?” I said.
Jasper’s fingers shook as he worked on the computer. After a few minutes, the remaining camera screens went blank.
“Done,” Jasper said.
Flint nodded curtly. “Let’s move.”
We hurried to the last access door. Flint swiped the badge he’d grabbed from the guards in the elevator while Mica placed her eyes on the scan. The door opened with a hiss. According to the security camera, the three lost children were kept in the cells closest to the door. I knew we needed to race to them, but after I stepped inside, I faltered.
The smell here was different from the hallway – sharper, more distinct. The air inside this locked, subterranean prison smelled like metal and had a stale, almost man-made taste to it. I didn’t know how else to describe it. I’d never in my life smelled anything like it except here. It brought back something inside of me that had died when Father had taken us away.
Fear, in its most basic and primal form, consumed me.
I felt like cowering to the ground or hiding under a chair. I took a deep, staggering breath as I tried to stay focused and grounded in the present. When Jasper spoke, I jumped.
“Anyone want to get out of here as much as I do?” he whispered.
“Yes,” Mica squeaked.
What stood in front of us was too malicious to comprehend. The corridor stretched farther than I could see. It seemed to go forever. Empty cells lined each side of the hall. Door after door stared back at me.
I knew the warehouse could hold up to ninety kids even though Project Renatus had never grown that big. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, as another deeply buried memory surfaced. It was of being held down on a metal table while something was injected into my arm. A man stood over me. It wasn’t Father, but the bad man.
Marcus.
Flint was the first to take action. Sweat dripped from his face, and from the tensed flexing of his hands into fists over and over, I knew he was reliving memories too.
“Let’s get them and get out,” he said.
Flint and I hurried to the first cell while Jasper and Mica went to the second. Luckily, the doors only required the card swipe to unlock. A beep sounded after Flint swiped it. He threw the badge to Jasper.
Flint and I stepped inside. The cell was dark, only a dim light above the door showed any illumination. I squinted, trying to make out details. The person contained within lay under covers in the bed. He, or she, I couldn’t be sure yet, stirred when Flint and I entered.
“Hello?” I said.
“No!” the person abruptly yelled. It was a female voice.
Wild eyes met ours. Long, dark hair fell in snarls around her. She bolted upright and pulled her covers with her, cowering in the corner of her bed.
I switched my vision. Her cloud appeared. All concern I had for what had been done to them multiplied by a thousand.
Dozens and dozens of bright colors shifted above her. More colors than I’d ever seen. More colors than even Father. This woman had been drugged again and again. It was a miracle she was still alive.
“We’re not here to hurt you.” I stepped forward with my hands up. “We’re here to help. We want to take you away.” My voice shook.
The woman didn’t seem to hear me. She shouted and clung to her covers, trying to bury herself beneath them. Angry yells and obscenities came from the cell Jasper and Mica had entered. A male voice told Jasper and Mica exactly what he’d do if they came any closer.
It wasn’t pretty.
For a moment, I stood rooted to the spot. Of all the scenarios our group had practiced, and of all the obstacles we thought we’d have to overcome, the one we didn’t see happening was exactly what was unfolding.
Trying to rescue captives who didn’t want rescuing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
My gaze whipped to Flint’s. “What do we do?”
The female cowered in her bed. In the dim lighting, I could barely see her. Blankets bunched around her, hiding her body and face. She was small, I knew that much. She also had long dark hair. Besides that, I had no idea what she looked like.
“We need to get them out of here. Now,” Flint stated. “We spent too long in the guard station dismantling the cameras.” Flint put his hands on his hips. Sharp power radiated off him. “Jasper! Mica!” he yelled. “What’s your situation like?”
“Not good!” Mica replied from the room next door.
A snarl sounded from that direction. Goosebumps rose on my arms.
“We have no choice.” Flint pulled a cloth rag and bottle of chloroform from his pack.
The woman watched us, the blanket pulled up to her eyeballs. She tensed when Flint carefully wet the rag. He made sure to keep it at arm’s length.
“Should we tell her that we’re going to drug–”
Before I could finish my sentence, Flint was behind the woman with the rag to her mouth. She fought violently. The blanket fell, revealing thin arms and lean legs. She thrashed against him. It was heartbreaking to watch. I could tell she put every ounce of strength she had into escaping, but she didn’t stand a chance against Flint’s grip.
When she slumped in his arms, he let go. “Tie her up. Just to be safe.”
He disappeared out the door before I could reply.
I quickly pulled a rope from my pack as the woman lay unconscious on the bed. My fingers brushed the explosives that laid at the bottom of the backpack. Those would come next.
Guilt smothered me as I tied quick release knots around her wrists and ankles. Never had I ever expected to bind somebody like this in my lifetime. It was too cruel for me to process right now, but we needed to get them safely out of the warehouse.
Just do what needs to be done, Lena!
I finished tying her and rolled her over. She was so thin it was easy to move her. I brushed the hair from her face and glanced at her features as I stuffed the remaining rope in my bag. A frighteningly thin, almost gaunt face stared back at me. Long, dark lashes rested against her cheeks, and matted hair fell almost to her waist.
A commotion sounded from the hallway. Another snarl reached my ears. I quickly double checked my knots before racing out. My eyes widened when
I saw what was happening.
A huge man, bigger than Flint, fought with Flint, Mica and Jasper in the hall.
The man’s shoulders had to be three feet wide. Hands that would have spanned a dinner plate were fisted. He swung and fought against Flint and Jasper. Mica had him around the legs, but she couldn’t get his legs to buckle.
At one point the man, dressed in loose pants and a t-shirt, almost nailed Jasper in the head. Luckily, the twin ducked in time. Flint meanwhile had his arms around the big man’s neck while Jasper tried to wrench the man’s arms behind his back. Neither was succeeding. I could tell Flint was trying to choke the man enough for him to lose consciousness. It wasn’t working.
“A little help!” Jasper panted.
Panic rose in me as I saw the man raise his arm to hit Flint. He was aiming for Flint’s head. In that moment, the world around me disappeared. Power welled up inside of me, radiating into my cloud until it crackled. Not Flint! Nobody is allowed to hurt Flint!
“Get back!” I yelled.
Flint, Mica and Jasper jumped out of the way.
Turning, the large man’s gaze met mine. Gold, almost glowing eyes, stared at me with absolute hatred. He took a step forward. I slammed the energy ball down on his shoulders.
He fell in a heap.
When the huge man rolled listlessly, Mica hesitantly approached his side. She nudged him with her foot. He didn’t move. Leaning over, she placed her fingers against his pulse. “Still alive.”
Jasper doubled over, panting, his hands on his knees. “Shit.” He shook his head, still panting. “Just…shit.”
“He’s stronger than you?” I asked Flint.
Flint’s chest rose and fell heavily. His ski mask had come off during the fight. Wild chestnut colored hair swirled around his head, sticking out on all ends. It was a good thing we’d dismantled all of the security cameras or O’Brien Pharmaceuticals would have a clear image of his face.
“Yeah, he’s stronger.” Flint put his mask back on. His hands shook. It was the first time Flint hadn’t been able to overpower someone.
Remembered Page 20
