“When my dad was killed,” Lilah continued, her voice low, “I didn’t blame myself. He’d made his own choices, and though I’d always tried to look after him too, I knew there was nothing I could have done. All I could do at that point to keep my promise to my mother was keep Damon and Shawn alive and well. We fled the Red Zone—something I should have done years before, whether my father would go or not—and went to a crisis center.” She stopped for a moment again, taking a breath and trying to compose herself.
“That’s where you met Jenna,” Zane remembered. He did know this much about Lilah’s past.
“Yeah,” Lilah agreed. She sighed, but it was more nostalgic than sorrowful. “She was one of the prettiest girls I had ever seen, and she was just so nice. She was the first person outside my family who seemed to care about me specifically. The boys loved her too. Shawn called her ‘the Angel,’ and part of me agreed. Jenna was an angel sent right from my mother to me. A sister and a best friend all in one.” Zane smiled at that.
“We hit it off so well that we decided to find a place to live together. Jenna was the one who helped me work out a plan to get the boys on their own. She helped me get them registered in the school courses they needed and then helped them get through the enlistment process with the Armada. I breathed a sigh of relief then. I’d done what my mom asked, you know? I’d kept the family together, and I’d gotten my brothers set to take care of themselves.
“And yet after all that, Damon . . . I’ve failed my mother. I tried—stars and heavens, I did all I could—and I still couldn’t save my brother.” The tears were flowing fast now, and Lilah put her head down in her arms. Zane had a sudden desire to wrap his arms around her and hold her close, letting her cry against him. He stifled it, knowing that the last thing Lilah Armenta wanted was physical contact from him. Still, it made his stomach twist unpleasantly to watch her misery and be unable to do anything. There had to be some way he could help.
Eventually, Lilah rubbed her cheeks again, trying to stop the tears. “I just don’t understand it,” she said finally. “Did he want to die? Why didn’t he leave? He was right there by the door, right behind me!” Her voice was plaintive.
Zane knew the answer to this, but he wasn’t sure that Lilah would want to know. Would it make things easier? Or just give her another way to blame herself for not saving her brother? He debated internally for a moment, but finally decided that she deserved to know the truth. “Damon didn’t leave because the other man in the room—Grainger, I think?—stabbed him before running out after you,” Zane told her quietly.
She stopped swiping at her cheeks and turned to fully face him for the first time. “What?” Her voice was hoarse.
“That’s what he told security during his interrogation,” Zane explained grimly. “He’d been ordered by the Lobos boss to . . . eliminate . . . Damon.”
She stared at him, her eyes boring into his, but she didn’t say anything at all. Zane had expected an explosion of anger from Lilah. Threats against the Lobos. A demand to confront Grainger herself. Anything but this expanding, thick silence. When she spoke, it wasn’t exactly what Zane was expecting.
“Who threw the firebomb through the window?”
“I don’t know. The security team was covering the entrances on both sides of the building. They never saw anything.”
Lilah continued to stare at him, her jaw tightening. “They never saw anything,” she repeated, her tone hard. “Really.”
Her suspicious tone blindsided him.
“You think Quintan Security firebombed the building? While you were inside, the person they were supposed to protect?” he asked incredulously.
“Damon knew something,” she said. “The Lobos are afraid he’s going to spill, so they order his roommate to kill him. That actually makes sense, in a sick and twisted Red Zone kind of way. But why then would they firebomb the room and risk Damon getting away? Or killing their own man? But who else knew that Damon would be in there, at a time of day when the building was mostly empty? Just me. And you.”
She was accusing him of trying to orchestrate Damon’s death—and hers as well. By all the moons of Titan, what would it take to earn Lilah’s trust?
“And at least a half dozen Quintan Security personnel,” Zane reminded. He grimaced. “And we already know security’s been infiltrated.”
Lilah processed that silently. He could almost see her debating. Were there traitors among security who answered only to outsiders? Or were there Quintan Security officers doing shady dirty work for Zane?
Come on, Lilah, he mentally urged. Trust me. Please.
24. Escape
The next day was the longest of Jenna’s life. Without windows or any change in the dim red lighting above, she could only guess at the time by the visits from the guards. By the first time the guards returned with a tray of dehydrated food packs and two cups of water, Jenna had cried herself dry. Drawing from every drop of willpower she had, she tried to control herself. She had to be strong, for Kendra’s sake. Kendra had stayed burrowed against her, not crying but clearly shaken the whole time. Her fingers had twisted tightly into Jenna’s shirt, as if she were afraid that she would be torn from her mother also.
The guards completely ignored Jenna’s demands to know where Erik and Berry were. One kept a laser trained on her the whole time, while the other wordlessly put the food down on the floor next to her. They turned and stalked back out, the door sliding shut behind them with an ominous thud.
Jenna persuaded Kendra to eat one of the nutrient bars and drink her cup of water. The guard had not brought nearly enough water for two people, especially two people that had not had anything to drink for hours. Jenna’s uncontrollable tears had left her feeling terribly thirsty too. Jenna munched down a bar, trying to swallow the dry crumbs without any water. She sipped just enough to wet her mouth and then let Kendra have the rest. With at least a little food in her system, she tried to get her legs moving again. Eventually Kendra dozed off, and Jenna carefully shifted her daughter to the floor and continued to try and stretch her limbs. As the hours went on, sensation gradually returned to her legs. In time she was able to stand again and take a few halting steps with her hand on the wall to support herself. By the time Kendra woke up again, Jenna had worked the kinks out of her legs enough to move around slowly without touching anything, though she was still very weak. It was a huge relief to know that she hadn’t been permanently paralyzed.
The wait became endless. Twice more guards brought nutrient bars and small amounts of water, though they refused to answer any questions. Even weak, her legs still trembling from the effort to stand, she would have risked fighting back if it weren’t for Kendra. She couldn’t risk anything happening to her daughter. She would have to wait until she was stronger. Instead, she stared past her captors, trying to get a sense of where they were or of what might be in the hallway. Both times she had been able to see nothing but a well-lit empty hallway with plain gray walls. No windows. No natural light at all.
Later Jenna slept herself, one arm wrapped around her daughter. When she woke, she could sense that something was different. After straining all her senses, she thought she could hear some kind of rhythmic banging. Was it machinery? A person? She moved closer to the door, but it didn’t get any louder.
Kendra was already awake, sitting against the wall near where Jenna had slept.
“Do you hear that?” Jenna whispered.
Kendra nodded. “You can hear more over by the toilet too. It sounds creepy.” She rubbed her arms. There was a grated ventilation duct near the back corner of the room, and Jenna crouched near it, wondering if that was the source of the sound. The banging noise echoed down the shaft, louder than the mechanical fans blowing air through the vent. It sounded familiar, though it took Jenna a moment to recognize it.
“It’s the wind outside,” she realized. “It sounds just like our bathroom fans
do when a storm hits Tarentino.”
“You mean there’s a storm?” Kendra didn’t sound scared. She sounded hopeful. Jenna tapped her lips, wondering if she could work a storm to their advantage. Suddenly, as if the universe heard her unspoken request, the lights went out in the room. The mechanical fans whirring in the background shut down too, leaving it eerily quiet. Kendra clutched at her. Their room was completely and utterly pitch black. Jenna couldn’t even make out the outline of her daughter, though she must have been right next to her. She tried to catch hold of Kendra with her free hand, hoping to keep her calm in the utter blackness. Gingerly, she led Kendra over to the door. When the power went out, some doors automatically unlocked. It was worth a try, anyway. However, just as she started to finger around the thumblock for a release switch, the door started to slowly slide open. Jenna shoved Kendra behind her and looked around desperately for a weapon, even though she knew there was nothing. A fistfight it would have to be. The door was still inching open, someone grunting on the other side. Manually opening a sliding door took some effort.
Jenna leaned over and whispered in her daughter’s ear. “As soon as the guard comes in, run. Get out of this building as quickly as you can.”
Finally the door stopped sliding, and a masked figure slipped in sideways, a torch in hand. Jenna didn’t hesitate. She kicked out, catching the guard in the stomach. The guard grunted and dropped the torch. Jenna pushed at her daughter. “Go!” she hissed. But Kendra shrank closer to Jenna, trying to climb behind her. Jenna brought her fist back, intending to launch herself at the guard, when the figure shoved both hands into her chest. The force was too much for Jenna’s unsteady legs, and she staggered backward, knocking Kendra over before slamming into the wall. She was just about to lunge forward again when she saw the target light of a laser aimed directly at her daughter. The light flashed over Kendra’s scrunched-up face and wide eyes. Then the figure pulled off her mask.
“Are you bloody insane?” a voice hissed. Jenna recognized the voice at once. It was the woman named Lenata. “Attacking someone who is trying to help you?”
“You’re aiming a laser at my daughter!” Jenna hurled back.
The target light switched to Jenna’s chest. “Better?” Lenata said dryly.
“I still don’t see how this is helping.”
“This is our chance. The storm is flooding the area. A mudslide just took out the generator.”
“What?” So she had been right. There was a storm. But a mudslide? A mudslide in Omphalos? That made no sense whatsoever. “Where are my other children?” she demanded. Lenata ignored her.
“Get moving, Mrs. Forrest! If we don’t leave now, Archer will kill your daughter,” she ordered. Kendra clambered off the floor and rushed to her mother. “Follow me,” Lenata said brusquely. She scooped her torch off the ground and stepped back through the partially blocked doorway.
Jenna groaned and pushed herself shakily toward the door, Kendra holding tightly to her leg and waist. When Jenna dragged herself out of the room, a quick glance around showed that they were in a dim, empty hallway lit by a single emergency globe. Lenata headed to the right, her torchlight bobbing along the floor. Jenna tried to follow quickly, but her legs didn’t want to respond. The sudden jolt of adrenaline from her attack on Lenata had drained away, and she felt weak and stiff again. Kendra was nearly impossible to move along; though the hallway was lit by an emergency globe, she was nervous in the dark. Lenata glanced over her shoulder, saw that they had barely made it a meter from the door, and hurried back.
“Most of the guards are outside right now. They are trying to sandbag the building,” Lenata hissed. “But anyone could be back in at any time, so we have to move quickly. And quietly,” she emphasized sternly. Lenata grabbed Kendra with one hand and nearly dragged her down the hallway. Jenna tried to breathe deep as she forced herself forward, determined to keep up.
Why was Lenata helping them? Jenna wasn’t sure she trusted her; what reason did she have to trust, after all? However, this seemed infinitely better than sitting in a room until they handed Jenna over to the mysterious buyer who wanted her to be able to walk. Plus, for some reason Lenata seemed particularly interested in saving Kendra. Jenna would find some way to work that to their advantage.
At the end of the hallway there was another door. Lenata pressed her thumb to a pad, and it silently slid forward. She peered through the door, looking in both directions before waving Jenna forward and hauling Kendra through. Jenna limped after her and found herself in a small hangar. There were a couple of ships, air transports that could make continental hops, as well as five off-road crawlers. She had never seen transports like that before she moved to Tarentino Bay; most ground transports used runners and magnetic tracks on the roads. But in Tarentino the loggers worked out on rocky, hilly areas only reachable by dirt paths, and they used these rough crawlers with treads. Lenata strode to the nearest one and opened the door, first lifting Kendra inside and then moving around to the back of the crawler.
“We’re not leaving without Erik and Berry!” Jenna protested, staring wildly around the room.
Lenata came back around the rear of the crawler. “They’re already gone,” she said. “They were flown out long before the storm hit. Either get in the crawler with your daughter, or stay here and let them send you to that perverted creep. Your choice.”
Jenna only hesitated for a second. Lenata could be lying to her, or she could be telling the truth. Either way, she was not going to let this woman take Kendra without her. She staggered across the hangar, reaching the door of the transport with a groan. Kendra sat on the bare metal floor, her arms wrapped around her knees and eyes staring at her mother like a frightened rabbit’s. Jenna struggled to get a knee up onto the transport floor but failed, finally dragging herself up and in by using mostly her arms.
While Jenna lay gasping on the floor, her arms burning from the exertion, Lenata tossed a bag onto the floor beside her. “You’ll need those,” she said before shutting the door with a loud snap.
Jenna pulled the bag open and found Kendra’s shoes and a battered pair of combat boots. She helped Kendra slip her shoes on and tied them, then pulled the boots on with a sigh. They were too big and rubbed roughly around her ankle. Why hadn’t Lenata brought Jenna’s own shoes if she’d had access to Kendra’s? Not to mention their clothes. She and Kendra were both wearing nothing but thin gray tanks and shorts, standard clothes for use with a medical capsule. Hopefully they weren’t going to have to go outside in the storm that Lenata had mentioned.
A brief glance around told her that the crawler was clearly made for transporting cargo; it still had a few crates, but there were no seats in the back. Jenna settled herself on the floor with her back against the wall and immediately Kendra darted next to her, sinking beside her on the floor and practically crawling into her lap.
“Where are we going, Mommy?” Kendra whispered, her chin quivering.
“I don’t know yet,” Jenna answered, smoothing Kendra’s hair.
“Are we going home? I don’t like it here.”
“Soon, I hope. But this may be very dangerous, and I need you to listen very carefully to what I say,” Jenna said. Kendra nodded solemnly.
The driver door opened, and Lenata swung herself up into the seat. “Find something to hold on to,” she commanded. “It’s going to be a rough ride.”
The engine rumbled to life, and Jenna tried to find something to hold on to. There were thick nylon loops attached to the walls; she threaded one of her hands through a loop and told Kendra to do the same. Then she wrapped her free arm tightly around Kendra’s shoulder and craned her neck, trying to see forward through the front windshield. The crawler shuddered forward, and Jenna could see that the hangar door was sliding open in front of them. Lenata didn’t even wait until the door was all the way open before accelerating right through it.
Jenna gasped w
hen they made it outside. They were riding out into a furious storm. It was completely dark, and torrential rain immediately pelted the windshield. Even with wipers moving at a furious speed, it was nearly impossible to see outside. The crawler jolted over bumps and swerved, gusts of wind trying to shove it off the road. They were moving up a sharply inclining dirt road at an incredible speed, and Jenna wondered how Lenata could see at all. She must have been relying mostly on the autodriver to direct the crawler. Tall trees with intertwining trunks and thick foliage lined the road, their branches whipping furiously in the wind. Leaves and other debris pelted the window and thunked against the side of the crawler where Jenna tried to wedge herself precariously. Kendra was still holding on tightly with both hands to the cargo loops, but she looked sick. Any moment now she would probably throw up from all the jolting.
They drove that way for at least an hour. There was no sign of any other transports, and the storm didn’t seem to lessen. Kendra did throw up, but managed to get it mostly all over the floor rather than all over her clothes. The smell made Jenna’s stomach clench, and Kendra cried softly, tears streaming down her face.
“It’s OK, Kendra,” she tried to soothe, though there was nothing she could do to make it better. “Just hold on tight, all right? No matter what.” Kendra subsided into sniffles, complaining about the taste in her mouth. Eventually, the storm seemed to calm. It was easier to see out the windshield, and there was no longer any flying debris. The ride was still bumpy, but at least gusts of wind weren’t buffeting the crawler. Jenna was stiff and tired, and she tried to stretch her legs. The feeling in them was completely back, though Jenna wasn’t sure that it was a good thing. They felt like they were on fire.
Suddenly, Lenata swore and braked hard. Jenna’s head smacked against the crate next to her, and she nearly let go of Kendra. Kendra lost her grip on the loops and tumbled forward, almost jerking Jenna’s arm from the socket.
Lenata flung open the door and jumped down. Rain came in through the door, but Jenna could see that it was gentler now. Then the cargo door beside her was wrenched open.
Rift (Roran Curse Book 3) Page 21
