“I’m glad Mojica slipped us bio-coin. At least now we can survive without stealing,” Treva said.
“It should be right around in here, shouldn’t it?” Selah asked. They’d been walking for ten minutes, back in the opposite direction.
Treva fingered her ComTex navigation, then looked up. “It’s over there.” She nodded toward a sandstone structure that stretched along the inside of the Mountain, molded to the wall.
“Do you see any damage?” Selah checked both sides of the security gate area. Nothing.
“No. That’s a good thing. Everyone should have remained where they are. We’re going to C-35.”
Selah pulled back on Treva’s arm. “How are we getting into that area?”
Treva stared at her. “I thought you’d have that answer by now, since you’re the crazy one who wants to go in there rather than leave and return with Bodhi.”
Selah slowed her steps. “If Varro’s with Bethany, then Mother and Dane or even Mari may be there. We can’t miss a chance to find them. And we’re late now. Going back and forth may evaporate too much of our time.” Selah watched an AirTrans-type vehicle stop and pick up several women. Several others walked away up the street. They all wore hats and one-piece tan coveralls belted at the waist, with a logo on their left shoulder that Selah couldn’t read from her position.
“Who are they?” Selah pointed discreetly.
Treva glanced up from her communicator. “They’re cleaners.” She looked down again.
“If we get a couple of those uniforms, could we walk in there or do we need security clearance?”
Treva looked up and smiled. “No, cleaners don’t need security clearance. These are temporary gate inspection meeting spaces. No one leaves their documents here. Come on. I think I know where we could find uniforms.”
Selah followed Treva down and around corridors. The next door she opened proved to be a storage closet with uniforms hanging on a rack. Selah found one close to her size. “How do you know all this stuff?”
“It’s the curse of being a child with a photographic memory and limited stimulus to commit to memory. I don’t think there’s a place in this Mountain I haven’t been at least once.” Treva smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Ancient passageways abound.”
They dressed quickly, putting the coveralls on top of their regular clothes. They each pulled on a hat. Selah twisted her hair and shoved it up under hers. Treva grabbed a cleaning center cart and led the way through the corridors to the office area. They peeked around corners to avoid Bethany.
“This next set of offices is where we heard her,” Treva said.
Selah pursed her lips. “I was hoping one of the doors would be open or there would be a window. But I’ve got an idea. I’ll pull my cap down tight and stick my head in, pretending I want to clean the space.”
Treva looked at her without speaking.
“What do you think?”
“I’m trying to think of ways this could go wrong, but we won’t know until you try.”
Selah pulled her cart up to the door and reached out her hand.
“Wait!” Treva yelled in a hoarse whisper.
24
16 Hours to Egress
Selah tensed and her eyes widened. She snatched her hand back from the palm reader and pulled the cart over to the corner where Treva hid. “What’d you do that for? You could’ve gotten me caught.”
“When I stopped running my mouth, I remembered that the next office shares a utility closet with hers. We can listen from in there.”
“But we can’t see who it is,” Selah said.
“You know Varro’s voice, and I’m sure you remember Jaenen’s voice. If it’s anyone else, we don’t care, so it won’t matter,” Treva said.
Selah agreed. Treva held the door as Selah wheeled her cart into the darkened office. It took a half minute for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Closing the door cut off all but the LED pin lights on the base communications grid attached to the desk.
Treva felt her way along the wall to the closet opening. She slid the door open and used her ComTex light to see the space. Selah peered over Treva’s shoulder. A muffled voice filtered in from the other side of the door they faced.
They crouched low with their ears to the door.
“Are you going to loop to that subject again? This is the third time in an hour. I’m tired.”
Selah whispered, “Bethany.”
Treva nodded.
“Don’t you turn away from me. This whole operation was my plan,” Varro said.
Selah made a V sign with her fingers. Treva mouthed, OK.
“Don’t you forget it’s my technology that’s going to unlock this code,” Bethany said.
“So you’ve got the technology. Well, I’ve got the transitioned novarium. Without me, all you still have is just your technology. I can sell my novarium to the highest bidder. There are other Protocol factions looking to crack this also.”
“You’re bringing me an unknown commodity, and you want compensation I’m not willing to give.” Bethany sounded like she was walking away as she spoke.
“I’ve fulfilled our original commitment,” Varro said.
Selah scowled. “How?”
Treva shrugged.
Bethany snorted. “I don’t have Selah now.”
“You took a large enough blood sample to do every experiment you wanted a hundred times over,” Varro said. “Jaenen Malik arrived on time with Mari Kief, and now that you have her back in that cell, I’ve fulfilled our second agreement. I expect to be paid accordingly.”
Selah didn’t understand why Varro and Jaenen had involved Mari, but she sure wasn’t going to leave the woman behind with these crazies.
She leaned back and closed her eyes. “We have to save Mari too,” she whispered.
Squatting for so long had stiffened her legs. She lost her balance and slammed against the closed door.
“You’ve been here—”
The door burst open and Selah, with Treva trying to stop her momentum, rolled into the room. Bethany jumped behind the desk while Varro pulled a weapon from under the back of his tunic. “Nice to have you back. Your mother’s been fretting something awful about your whereabouts.”
“I don’t think she’ll be too happy about you pointing a disruptor at me.” Selah talked calmly as she assessed their escape route.
Treva attempted to creep away behind her. Bethany rushed from behind the desk and grabbed her by the hair. “Oh no you don’t, you ungrateful wench. To think I felt sorry for you.”
Treva clutched at Bethany’s hand as the woman pulled her to her feet. “I know you were part of the operation that executed my parents,” Treva said.
Bethany’s expression froze.
“And I can’t prove it was you personally, but I will avenge my uncle. His condition is definitely your fault,” Treva yelled. She threw a punch at Bethany but it grazed her shoulder.
Selah round-kicked the pulse disruptor from a startled Varro. The initial shock kept him anchored where he stood. Her heart thudding, she swung back the other way and swept her leg under him from behind. His feet flew into the air and he crashed to the floor at the same moment Treva shoved her elbow into Bethany’s solar plexus.
Bethany grabbed her stomach, gasped for air, and collapsed to her knees.
Treva darted to Selah and scrambled to gain footing as they charged out the door.
Selah turned to the right. Treva grabbed her overalls and pulled her left. They ran like mice working a maze. Finally, breathless, they stopped.
“We’re safe. They’ll never find us here.” Treva paced, hands on hips, trying to regulate her breathing.
Selah inhaled great gulps of air. “How can you be so sure?” She leaned against the wall.
Treva pointed. “They’re on the other side of that wall.”
Selah jumped to her feet and stepped away.
Treva snorted. “They can’t get at us and we’ve got an advantage. I pushed Bethany f
ar enough back in the room to get a look at the holding cells. She’s only got Mari in there.”
Selah nodded. Better. One less. “How do we get her out?”
“That’s why I came around here. If I counted right, we should be on the other side of her wall.” Treva fingered the edges of the individual wall panels.
“We’re breaking into the room? Won’t there be guards in there?” Selah stared at her.
Treva pulled out the panel, unlocked the other side, and peeked in, then most of her body disappeared into the opening. She emerged, frowning. “Either I counted wrong, or they moved her already.”
“Which do you think?”
“I counted wrong.” She hurried to relatch the panels and count off a few more. “They wouldn’t have sent guards for Mari, because from what I read in my quarters when Bethany first sent me there, they’ve pretty much banned her from everything but her husband’s lab. So the only security she has left is in the medical containment.”
“You mean her jail,” Selah said. That encounter had involved more captive people and violence than she’d ever experienced in her life.
“Yes, but they’re private security. They can’t come out here and throw their presence around. And Mountain security thinks she’s a joke. They purposely wouldn’t arrest an actual criminal if she was the one dropping him in the station.”
Treva finished counting and again removed the wall panels. This time her effort was rewarded by the shocked look on Mari’s face. “What in the name of Jupiter is going on here? I’ve been drugged, dragged, gagged, and starved. This is not the way that Jaenen is supposed to treat someone when he first meets them. Not a good first date.” Mari stepped through the opening and hugged Selah.
Treva replaced the panels and stood up. Mari wrapped her in a hug too. “Thank you.”
Selah smiled as Treva awkwardly extracted herself from the smothering hug.
“C’mon, ladies, we have to get out of here before those two find reinforcements.” Treva darted them around another corridor and through two hallways. They turned the last corner to the triple-glass door front and ran for the exit.
From the other end of the hall, Varro and another man with a laser dart came into view.
Selah knew they wouldn’t shoot and risk injuring her or Mari. The three girls charged to the doors. The men tried their best to outdistance them, but they were out the door before the men got halfway up the hall.
“Run into the neighborhood over there and hide in someone’s fenced yard. They wouldn’t dare open a gate to search,” Treva said.
Selah spun, panic filling her. “Where are you going?”
“Go! I’ll try to slow them down.” She pushed a large street canister in front of the doors, then took off running behind Selah.
Selah ran halfheartedly, looking back the whole time, until Treva caught up with her. They turned a corner and Mari popped up from behind a tall bush. “Where are we going?”
“Nowhere until they stop looking for us. In here.” Treva opened a tall gate made of real wood. The hinges squeaked but no boards were missing, and the fence was too high to look over.
Selah glanced around at the strange little white house set back in the yard. It had cone roofs on two rooms jutting from the second floor on each end of the building. The first floor had a porch wrapped around three sides with spindle railings. From the ground there were four steps to reach the first floor. Very strange. Selah had never seen anything like it.
“Do you think we’ll be safe here?” Mari crawled over to Selah.
Selah wondered herself but nodded. “Treva lived in the Mountain. She knows what’s safe.”
They huddled in the grass behind the gate. Voices approached. One sounded like Varro. His footsteps and communications faded from hearing. The other one answered a call from a voice sounding like Bethany. Selah balked at the idea of being caught and hauled back to her mad science headquarters.
Treva signaled them to move closer to the house. A row of tall evergreen bushes butted up to gardens on either side of the stairs. They slid in behind the fragrant evergreens. Mari sat on the ground and leaned against a pile of leaves to see the gate. She cried out and jerked her hand back from the pile, exposing a dead plant stalk with sharp barbs, one of which was anchoring the stalk to her palm. Mari winced and pulled it free.
Suddenly the gate slammed open. Selah recognized the uniform of Bethany’s security force. Her heart seemed to quiver. A bulky man dressed in all black and carrying an evil-looking weapon Selah couldn’t identify strode in through the gate.
He planted his feet and took aim. “You’re all under arrest. Drop to the ground and put your hands over your heads.”
Mari looked at Selah and Treva. “I’m sorry. This is my fault.” She moved from behind the bush and laid herself prostrate on the ground.
Selah stared at the security guard, wondering how much she could get away with. He motioned her out from behind the bush. She stood and came around it, slowly raising her hands. Running wouldn’t help. She looked up to face the guard.
A large black metal pan swung around the side of the gate and caught the guard square in the back of the head. His eyes rolled up. The weapon slid from his hands and he fell over.
Selah’s jaw dropped open. She stood still, transfixed by the way the extremely large man had been brought down with a cooking pan. Mari and Treva rushed over.
A little old woman with skin the color of a roasted chestnut, a weathered complexion, and a severely tight hair twist on top of her head marched into the opening. She pulled the guard’s legs out of the way and locked the gate. “You children git on in the house. He won’t invade my home looking for you.”
“But ma’am, he’s awfully big and he already saw us,” Mari said.
“No, she’s right.” Treva smiled. “They won’t come in her house.” She herded the other two up the steps and into the haven.
Selah stripped off the cleaner coveralls and plopped into the plump old-people furniture. Sinking into it gave her a comforting sensation of being surrounded and protected. The day had been hard, and it was seven in the evening, meaning fifteen hours left before they ran out of time to get safely out of the Mountain. Her body wanted rest, her mind wanted her family, and her heart wanted Bodhi. All drained parts of her, but curiously, at the same time she felt stronger. She’d been naive and immature when she started this journey, but now, even though bruised and battered, she felt secure—a confident young woman had taken the child’s place.
The old lady shuffled in, wiping her hands on the long apron covering her skirt that went almost to the floor. “Are you children ready for some food? I haven’t had to cook for a family in a long time. It was quite a treat. Come on in.” She motioned them into a dining area. Like the front room, this one also had bold colorings. Selah marveled at the colorful walls covered in old artwork framed with golden-colored edging. She had only seen this much clutter in historical imagery during her studies.
As Selah walked into the room, wonderful aromas caressed her senses. “How soon will we be able to leave?” She wanted an idea of how long she’d have to digest dinner, and thus how much of this wonderful assortment of fruits, vegetables, and meats she could sample.
Treva looked to the old lady. “How much longer? Maybe an hour?”
The woman nodded. “Yes. I pulled him outside the gate and locked it again. I heard him stumbling against the fence about a half hour ago. So I’m assuming he left. Give them a little more time to clear the area and move on.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, why were you so sure they wouldn’t come in your house looking for us?” Selah took a seat along with the others. Mari handed her a bowl of aromatic roasted vegetables.
Treva cleared her throat. “Because she’s a descendant. She has a direct familial line to a worker of the original Mountain project.”
“I’m ninety-nine years old. My mother lived to be a hundred and three, my grandmother lived to be ninety-seven, and my great
-grandmother lived to be a hundred and four. That was G-G-maw’s cast-iron frying pan I hit the guard with. That pan is as old as the concept of people living in this Mountain,” the old lady said with a chuckle. “I still got a swing after all these years.”
“It means she’s like royalty in here. She doesn’t pay for anything she needs, and her house is like a free point, a sanctuary, if you will, that no one can trespass.” Treva sopped up the gravy on her plate with a fat sourdough biscuit.
Selah’s mouth watered. She grabbed a biscuit and a ladle of gravy. “Is that why you stay in the Mountain when you could go outside and be free?” she asked.
“Selah!” Treva’s eyes widened. She stopped with the bread halfway to her mouth. “It’s rude to ask a citizen that, especially an elderly one.”
“Now, now. She asks a valid question, and the answer is . . . not just because I’m an old lady, but you must look at it as a revolution of sorts. My whole existence has been a life of privilege and convenience. Why would I go outside where I’d have to take care of myself? I’m a little too old to take on an occupation. Must say, though, I’d be much happier if they weren’t always giving us needles.” The old lady shivered. “I hate needles.”
Selah pulled her eyebrows together and glared at Treva. You ask the questions then. Treva got the hint and laid the half-eaten biscuit on her plate. “What kind of needles are you being given? I didn’t know of any such thing when I lived here.”
“They started a few months ago. We get them regular as clockwork now. Said they’re inoculating us against some germs they think got in the Mountain when there was that big assault a few months back.”
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