Westler’s question echoed in her mind. “Why would he lie to you about that?”
Leah closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. As she reached for another, this time picturing the word Lancaster, the dizziness hit her again. She staggered backward. Her vision blurred, and the light in the room dimmed. There was a sharp ripping sound that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside her skull, and then the library was gone.
43
White-hot agony ripped down Leah’s spine. She screamed.
Cool hands pressed against her shoulders. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
Leah’s vision was too blurred to see. She knocked the hands away and kicked out. Fresh pain tore through her body. Her chest tightened, and the pressure squeezed the air from her lungs. She clenched her fists and swung wildly in front of her.
“Whoa, Leah, it’s all right.”
Leah pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. When she removed them again, her vision was still blurry, but it had improved enough to see she was back in the Transport facility.
She forced herself upright, gasping. Her body was ice cold, her sweat-soaked clothes clinging to her freezing skin. She hauled air into her lungs, and each breath eased the pressure around her chest. Gradually, warmth began to seep back into her limbs.
The muscles in her left arm and leg were stiff and ached, and her cheek was sore. Memories of a steel blade tearing through her flesh filled her mind, and she cried out, but the excruciating pain she’d felt in the VR was gone. She ran her hands along her arms and legs. They were still intact.
Her relief was quickly replaced by crushing guilt. The torture Westler had inflicted on her was all imaginary. Deep down, she’d known that, but she’d still betrayed TRACE. People would die because of her weakness.
She shook her head. “No, no!” Something tugged at the back of her neck, and pain cascaded down her neck.
“Hold on.” The voice from behind her was quiet, barely more than a whisper.
Leah felt hands touching the back of her neck. There was a click. Metal scraped across her skin. Something wet slid down her back, making her shudder. Her vision blurred again then resolved. Nausea rose up inside her. She lurched forward and vomited over the side of the chair.
When she’d finished, gentle hands eased her upright again.
Leah blinked tears from her eyes. Her vision was returning to normal.
“Here, drink this.”
Leah felt a plastic cup being pressed into her hand. She took it and raised it to her lips, but as she started to drink, she turned her head and saw the woman who’d killed her father.
44
Leah threw the plastic cup at Katherine and pushed herself off the chair, ignoring the pain that shot up her leg as she moved. Her hips collided with something hard—another chair. She gasped. Alice was lying on it. Her face was bruised, and there was an angry-looking cut above her right eye, which was almost swollen shut. Her head had been shaved, and her skull was covered in nicks and scratches. Her skin was pale, ashen, but she was alive.
Relief mingled with fear as Leah’s mind tried to reconcile what she was seeing with the images Westler had shown her.
Alice frowned at her. “What’s the matter?”
Leah saw Katherine take a step forward and grabbed a clipboard hanging from the side of Alice’s chair. She held it over her shoulder, ready to swing.
Katherine held her hands out, palms up. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
There was a gun clipped to Katherine’s belt, but she made no move to go for it. Behind her, Leah could see the body of the nurse. She was lying on the floor, unconscious or dead.
Leah risked a glance toward Alice. Was she really there? Had Westler been lying?
Katherine lunged forward, and Leah threw the clipboard. It flew wide. Katherine grabbed Leah’s left wrist. Leah swung her right fist at her face, but the movement was slow and clumsy.
Katherine blocked it with her forearm then fumbled with Leah’s arm until she got a solid grip on that wrist as well. She pushed Leah back. “Stop it! Let me explain.”
Alice began to climb off the chair. Her hand slipped, and she fell forward, almost tumbling to the floor.
Leah swung her foot uselessly at Katherine’s shins as she was backed against the wall.
Katherine shook her arms. “Listen to me! I’m on your side.”
Leah spat in Katherine’s face. “Like you were on Isaac’s side?”
“Leah!” said Alice. “What’s going on?”
“She’s responsible for the bomb in Columbia. She killed my father!”
“Is that true?”
Katherine wiped her face on her shoulder. She locked eyes with Alice. When she looked back at Leah, there was sorrow on her face. “I had no choice. Transport forced me.”
Leah stared at Katherine’s scarred face. She hated that face. For months, she’d imagined what she’d do to Katherine once she found her. She twisted in her grip, but Katherine held tight. A sharp pain ran down Leah’s arm, and she winced.
“Please, you’re both hurt, and we don’t have much time. I can help you get out, but you need to trust me. I’ll explain everything once we’re safe.”
Leah gave Katherine a look of utter disbelief. How could she ever trust the woman who’d killed her father?
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but—”
Leah yanked her arms down, freeing them from Katherine’s grip. She’d grabbed the gun from Katherine’s belt and turned it to point at her before she could react. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Katherine raised her hands. “All right!”
Leah’s hands were shaking but not with fear. The desire to kill Katherine there and then was so great Leah had to move her finger away from the trigger. “Explain.”
“Okay, okay.” Katherine took a deep breath. “Transport had my husband, James. They captured him in a raid and threatened to kill him if I didn’t help them get the storage module from TRACE. I didn’t know what they were doing until it was too late.”
Tears welled in Leah’s eyes. “You shot my father.”
Katherine clenched her jaw and swallowed. “I know it won’t bring him back, but I’m sorry. It was an accident. I was just trying to scare you. I didn’t even know I’d hit him.”
“What about Isaac? Were you just trying to scare him?”
Katherine looked down at the floor. “I…”
“You what?”
“I don’t have an excuse. It was…” Katherine shook her head. “I don’t know what it was.”
Leah let out a strangled laugh. Her finger moved back to the trigger.
“Look, I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve been helping you. The man in the VR at the data center? That was me. I gave you the information about Morgan. And I helped you get away from Transport at the inn, remember?”
“But why would you do that? Why betray the people you work for?”
“I don’t work for them.”
“Why?”
“Because I know Eric Morgan is part of TRACE. He was there when my husband was captured. I thought if TRACE freed him, then they would free my husband as well.”
“Why not just tell TRACE about him?” said Alice.
Katherine gave Alice a scathing look. “Would you have done anything? Would your commanding officer have sent in a team to rescue the husband of a traitor?”
Leah knew the answer to that question herself. She looked at Katherine. She was wearing a blue jacket, not a Transport uniform but the right color. A plastic laminated pass clipped to the pocket on her chest read KATHERINE BRADLEY. The surname Leah had seen during her first visit to the virtual recreation of her dollhouse library.
Her aim wavered. It all seemed to make sense. Hadn’t there been a man called James on the train? If Katherine was part of Transport and knew about Morgan, she could have just told them about him. But she’d betrayed her once before. It could just be another trick. This Katherine might not even be real. Westler might
be creating this to trick Leah into revealing more of TRACE’s secrets. She felt a sudden wave of frustration. She needed time to work out the right thing to do, and time was the one thing she didn’t have.
“Leah, I know you don’t have any reason to trust me right now, but I distracted Westler so that you could break free of her interrogation.”
“That was you?”
“Yes, I forced her to isolate the feedback circuits. It bought me enough time to get here.” Katherine gestured to the VRI hanging from the wall beside the bed. “I was the one that pulled you out.”
“It’s true, Leah,” said Alice.
Leah looked at the interface dangling there. A drop of dark blood fell from its tip to the floor. She touched her hand to the back of her neck. Her VR port was slick with blood. Her fingers brushed against the metal collar, and a spark of pain ran down her spine. “But I wasn’t ready. I was about to find out…” Her voice trailed off. What was she going to find out? Something Westler had said about her father.
Cold dread crept down Leah’s spine. “Westler! Where is she?”
Katherine pointed toward the observation room. “In there.”
Through the window, Leah could see the shadow of a figure slumped in a chair. “You killed her?”
“No, she was like that when I got here. Whatever you did to her in the VR, she didn’t survive.”
“No, I—”
The memory of the rot spreading across Westler’s face filled Leah’s mind. A sliver of guilt lodged itself in her gut. She tried to ignore it and focus on the deaths in Columbia.
Leah waved the gun in Katherine’s direction. “Stand over there.”
“Leah, we—”
Leah jabbed the gun at Katherine, and she retreated into the corner.
Leah moved closer to Alice. “Can you hold the gun?”
“Yes, but why?” said Alice.
“I need to see Westler.”
“Leah, she’s dead.”
“I need to see her.”
After a brief pause, Alice took the gun from Leah and trained it on Katherine.
Leah made her way to the door to the observation room. It felt as though her body were rebelling against her. The dregs of the adrenaline that had been burning through her system made the world shift and tilt as she walked. Splinters of pain worked their way into her neck.
She held on to the side of Alice’s bed for as long as she could. When she reached the door to the observation room, she leaned against the jamb until she was sure she wasn’t going to collapse. Then she opened the door and went inside to see the woman she’d destroyed.
45
The air in the observation room smelled of blood. Leah flicked the light switch, and the fluorescent lighting stuttered to life overhead.
Westler was sitting in a high-back leather chair. Her head was tipped back against the headrest. It was tilted away from Leah, but she could see her jaw hung open. Her chin was covered with a thin layer of white foam.
The guilt in Leah’s stomach burrowed deeper as she walked around the front of the chair. Westler’s face was twisted in agony. There was none of the rot Leah had seen in the VR, but her eyes were stained red, and there was a trickle of dried blood beneath her nose.
Leah stared down at Westler’s disfigured face. She’d done this. She’d taken her revenge in as cruel and heartless a manner as possible. Did that make her as bad as Westler?
Another bout of dizziness hit Leah. Instinctively, she reached out, and her hand touched Westler’s arm. Westler pulled in a wet, wheezing breath. Leah jerked her hand away.
Westler’s jaw moved. She took another of those sickening breaths. Leah moved to step back, but Westler’s hand darted out and gripped her wrist. Her fingers were strong. Nails dug into Leah’s skin. Westler’s eyes rolled and then settled on Leah. Her mouth twitched as she fought to speak, but the words were paper thin, and Leah couldn’t make them out. She leaned forward, turning her head to hear.
Westler let out a rattling wheeze. “He lied to you.”
“Who?”
Westler released her grip on Leah’s wrist and began to laugh. It was a dry, rattling noise that quickly turned to a hacking cough.
Leah grabbed her shoulder and shook it. “What did he lie to me about? My mother? Tell me!”
Westler’s coughing deepened. Fresh spittle flew from her mouth and trickled down her chin.
Fighting back her revulsion, Leah shook Westler again. “I have to know!”
Westler gripped the chair and managed to get her cough under control. She gazed at Leah. Her bloodshot eyes were filled with amusement.
“If you won’t tell me,” said Leah, “I’ll find out myself.”
Westler’s lips curled into a vicious smile. She slowly shook her head. “You’re too late.”
The amusement in Westler’s eyes turned to a smug satisfaction. A breath caught in her chest. The smile vanished. Her head lolled back against the headrest. Her chest shuddered, then she took two slow, ragged breaths and was still.
Leah shoved her. “Wake up!” Tears spilled from her eyes, pouring down her face.
Westler’s head rocked forward.
“No! No…” Leah sobbed and let herself slide to the floor. She rested her head against the side of the chair and let the tears come.
46
Leah sat on the floor until Alice appeared in the doorway. She frowned at Leah. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and to Leah she looked even paler than she had just a few minutes earlier. “Are you okay?”
Leah wiped the back of her hand across her cheek. “Yes.”
“We need to go.”
Leah nodded. She was halfway to her feet when a sudden surge of fear set a new wave of adrenaline flooding through her system. “Where’s Katherine?”
“She’s still here, but—”
Leah pushed past Alice. Katherine was standing beside one of the computers, tapping at the keyboard.
Leah tried to take the gun back from Alice, but she pulled her hand away. “I think she’s telling the truth.”
“I don’t know what she told you, but she’s a liar.”
“If she wanted to turn us in, why bring you out of the VR? All she had to do was call security.”
“She helped destroy Columbia.”
“Because Transport forced her. She had no choice.”
A sense of betrayal settled over Leah. “You’re defending her.”
“This is a war. Things aren’t as black and white as we’d like them to be. She can help us. We aren’t going to get out of here without her.”
Leah let out a frustrated moan. Everything was jumbled up in her head. Westler. Katherine. Her father. The bomb.
Her eyes widened. “There’s more bombs!”
“What?”
“While I was in the VR, I found a map in Transport’s database showing three more targets. They’re going to destroy New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. Just like they did Columbia.”
Alice ran her fingers through her hair. “We need to tell Billingham. Maybe we can stop them. Katherine, can you get us a ride out of here?”
“I can try.”
Leah looked at Alice with red-rimmed eyes. “I can’t go yet. I have to go back in.”
“There isn’t—”
“I have to. Westler told me my father was lying to me about my mother.”
“Westler was messing with your head; that was her job.”
Leah shook her head. “I don’t know who I am anymore, and the answers are in that database.”
“We’ll get them later, once we’re safe.”
“No, you won’t,” said Katherine. She’d looked up from the computer, a worried look on her face. “Westler has initiated some sort of purge. I don’t know how deep it goes, but it’s wiping masses of data. I’m guessing whatever information you’re looking for is probably going to be gone in a few minutes.”
“We’ll find it somewhere else,” said Alice. “Transport will have redundant systems.”
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Leah moved to the VRI. “No, I can’t risk that.”
Alice went to stop her and winced. She put a hand on her ribs. “Leah…”
“You can leave. I’ll find my own way back.”
Alice raised one eyebrow. “Oh no, that’s not how it works.”
Leah grabbed the VRI and sat on the chair. The blood on the interface’s spike had dried to a thin crust. She scraped it away with her fingernail. “While I’m there, I’ll see if I can get more information on the bombs. Maybe there’ll be something we can use to stop them.”
“It’s too dangerous. You’ve already pushed yourself too far.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not! I can see it in your eyes.”
“The more we argue, the longer this is going to take.”
Alice took hold of Leah’s hand. “Leah, please.”
“I have to do this.”
Alice hesitated, then let go. “You’re one stubborn girl, you know that?”
“I said you can go.”
“That’s not going to happen. Katherine, can you get me access to a communication feed?”
“If Transport hasn’t noticed something’s wrong, yes.”
Alice looked at Leah. “You get the answers you need. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Leah felt herself tearing up. “Thank you.”
“Wait until we get back to the power station, then you can thank me.”
Leah’s heart was pounding as she positioned the VRI above the port in the back of her neck. She glanced at Alice, who nodded. Then she took a deep breath and pushed in the VRI.
The transition was jagged. Leah felt the world shift around her, and for a few seconds she was in two places at once. She could smell the antiseptic odor of the room in the Transport facility blended with the dry, dusty odor of the books in her library. She could feel the chair beneath her and the deep carpet between her toes. Her brain struggled to reconcile two views on the world—Alice’s concerned face and the dimly lit library.
The Girl in the Machine (Leah King Book 3) Page 16
