In My Skin

by Shannon McKenna

  And that was the last of the ones with any fight still left in them. Luke staggered to his feet, looking around the room for more opponents.

  Dani. She was running toward him, Ivy in her arms. Zade brandished a knife—

  “No! Not her!” Luke yelled. “That’s my girlfriend!”

  “Whoa,” Zade lowered the knife. “Sorry.”

  “You stay ahead of her, I’ll go behind.” He herded Dani before him, wishing he could take Ivy from her arms, but not yet. He needed to stay on guard, weapons at the ready. “Zade, what the fuck?” he said as they ran toward the exit. “He kill coded you!”

  “Simone fixed it,” Zade led the way, stepping over sprawled bodies on the floor. “Told you she was smart.”

  “But your heart stopped! I listened for it!”

  “New trick.” Zade shoved the auditorium door open. The guards at the entrance were on the ground like the others, shocked and disoriented. “I dropped real fast down into hibernation mode the second he coded me. Slowed my heart way down, but didn’t stop it. Scared ya, huh? Sorry.”

  “Catch up later, guys,” Dani said grimly. “Let’s scram.”

  “Right. Got a message from our people,” Luke told her. “River canyon, southwest entrance, lower level—”

  “I know where that is,” Dani broke in. Come on!”

  She took off running. Zade and Luke gave each other a startled glance, and followed her.

  * * * *

  Ivy’s gaunt face was expressionless, her eyes clouded. Blood trickled from her nose and ears.

  Just live, little girl, Dani thought. Just live. We’ll take it from there.

  She held the child closer and murmured in her ear, wondering if she even spoke English. “Hey,” she whispered. “Me and my friends are trying to get you away from the bad people, and you have to hang on tight. Arms around my neck. Can you do that?”

  Ivy trembled when Dani stopped. Then her arms slowly reached up, encircling Dani’s neck. Her thin legs wrapped around Dani’s waist. Squeezing. Yes.

  “Great job,” Dani huffed out, breathless. “You’re an awesome kid. So brave.”

  She led Luke and Zade straight back to the elevator where she’d met Bailey and Stu. The stairwell door next to it was locked. Shit.

  The elevator light was lit up as it rose from below. “Just a second, baby,” she murmured to Ivy. “Hang onto my friend here. I gotta try something.” Dani pulled Ivy’s arms from her neck and held her out to Luke.

  The little girl looked up at him with wide, startled eyes. Luke hung the knife handle through the belt loop on his jeans and took her carefully, cradling her in his strong arms. So gentle.

  Dani pulled her gaze away with difficulty as she sprinted for the elevator. No time now to get gooey, but damn. From raging warrior to real man. In a single heartbeat.

  She skidded to a halt right as the door opened. A forklift emerged from it.

  As luck would have it, it was Stu again. He gawked at her, surprised. His forklift stopped halfway through the elevator door, holding it open.

  “Give me your keycard, Stu,” she said briskly. “On the double.”

  He didn’t do shit. Just stood there, eyes popping, mouth open. Blocking them.

  She hated to be the hag from hell, but whatever. Up came the stun baton, right to his throat. A long, hard buzzzzz. Stu went down fast, gurgling.

  She wrenched the lanyard off his neck and ran back toward Luke and Zade with her prize. “We’re taking the stairs,” she said breathlessly. “They all hate the stairs. Fewer people.”

  She swiped the keycard through the lock. It flashed green and the door popped open. A light on a sensor snapped on, revealing a rough tunnel of blasted rock and a heavy steel staircase spiraling down into the darkness below.

  Dani moved to go first, but Zade held out a hand and swiftly went ahead into the dark. Luke was last. Ivy seemed even smaller huddled against his big torso. Her eyes had closed, as if she didn’t have the strength to keep them open.

  The descent seemed endless. Sensors flipped lights on and off as they went, a weak bubble of light following them down…and down. Water trickled over the rocks around them. The stale air was heavy with the smell of mud and mold. The silence was deadening.

  The staircase ended at the jagged opening to a cave, lit only with a single bulb that sent flickering shadows moving over strange mineral formations that filled the huge cave. A huge, lumpy stalactite hung down from above, blocking the passageway further on. All Dani could see was a faint, winding path leading deeper into treacherous blackness.

  At one side of the cave, a cinder block wall had been built, and in it was a huge armored door.

  “I smell fresh air,” Zade said. “There’s another opening somewhere.”

  Good to know, but she didn’t like the wide foot plank that descended into the water, submerged by an underground flood. The faint light from the stairway cast an ominous glimmer over the oily black water.

  It was undoubtedly deeper than it looked.

  Zade waded right in, all the way to the middle. Dani watched with dread. The water came up above his waist.

  He turned back to them. “Pass me Ivy,” he said to Luke. “You help Dani.”

  Luke waded in. Zade reached out for Ivy. The poor kid shrank away from him.

  Dani was about to tell Luke she didn’t need help when a huge dead weight hit her from above, knocking her backward. Going down, a huge splash—

  “Calliope! Banner! Ibex!” Hale screamed the words out.

  The water swallowed her.

  Chapter 30

  Someone dragged her up by her body armor. Dani gasped and choked, coughing up weird-tasting water. A blade stung her throat, breaking the skin. A heavy arm crushed her ribcage. No air. Lungs burning.

  Hale. That bastard.

  She blinked the water out of her eyes, sputtering. Luke and Zade stood, motionless. Zade had both arms wrapped around Ivy, his big hand cupping the back of her dark head. As if trying to shield her.

  “Say one word of his release code and this bitch dies, you piece of defective shit,” Hale said to them. “So you beat the code, huh? You thought you won? Your kill code was a dud, but what about his? Let’s try it right now.”

  “Fuck you!” Dani yelled. “You sadist motherfucker! Shut up!”

  “Trapezoid! Acorn! Albatross!” Hale screamed out Luke’s kill code over Dani’s bloodcurdling screech of protest, digging his knife deeper into her throat with each word.

  Luke’s eyes locked with hers for one timeless instant—and then he crumpled, sliding into the dark, gurgling water. It closed over his head.

  “No!” She struggled wildly, heedless of the knife.

  “Your turn, bitch,” Hale spat out. “My operatives will put down this bad dog and take the Manticore girl. All the trouble you caused is coming right out of your skin, you stupid cunt. Since everyone else will be dead.”

  The huge metal door in the cave wall swung wide. They turned and saw a figure stumble forward, backlit by the fluorescent blaze of hanging lights in the warehouse space behind her.

  Jada.

  Barefoot, black hair hanging loose and wild. Wearing only a blood-drenched undershirt and panties. An automatic rifle with a long clip was slung over her shoulder, and she held a crossbow in her hands. Her face was streaked with blood. Nose, ears, even her eyes ran with bloody streaks like tears. The front of her shirt was soaked in red.

  “R-48!” Hale yelled. “Kill him! But don’t hit the Manticore!”

  Jada’s crossbow swung up. Dani yelled out a shriek of agony as the knife dug into her throat. Hot blood gushed down her neck, soaking into her shirt. “Jada! No!”

  A wet thunk …

  The vise grip around her ribs loosened. Hale’s knife splashed into the water.

  His thick, massive body sagge
d heavily against hers, bearing her down into the water beneath him. Again.

  Dani struggled out from under his dead weight and shot up into the air, sputtering.

  Hale’s body was half submerged. The bolt of a crossbow protruded from his throat.

  She dove back in, right where Luke had gone down, groping around in the liquid blackness down there among the huge, tumbled rocks until she found him. It was so hard to get a grip on him. He was huge, wore no shirt, had no hair.

  She got her arms beneath him finally, trying to hoist him up, but he was so damn big, and fuck, now she needed air…had to breathe …

  She came up gasping. Found Zade in the water with her.

  “Take Ivy, quick,” he said. “I’ll pull him out.”

  Dani seized the shaking child, hugging her tightly as Zade dove into the roiling dark water. He emerged moments later with Luke’s dripping body in his arms.

  Zade carried his brother to the far side and laid him on the rocks, his legs still dangling in the water. Dani set down Ivy next to him and mumbled a few soothing words to the child as she and Zade started on the CPR. Compressing Luke’s chest in a steady, lifesaving rhythm, doing mouth to mouth, alternating.

  She swallowed back her tears as they kept at it. Pumping harder. She gave him her last breath and changed places with Zade, trying not to let herself sob.

  After several minutes of that, Zade looked up at her, his eyes bleak.

  “We should keep at this,” he said. “But they’re coming for us. I can hear them getting closer. We go now or we go never.”

  Her throat clutched. “Fuck,” she whispered, but her hands couldn’t seem to stop with the compressions. She looked back at the door to the warehouse.

  Even she could hear them approaching now.

  Zade was waiting for her nod. She drew in an agonized breath…and gave it.

  Zade lifted Luke up, loading him over his shoulder. Dani struggled to her feet, lifting Ivy with numb arms.

  They turned to Jada, still slumped on the ground in the doorway to the warehouse, dragging in harsh, raw breaths.

  “Come with us,” Dani said impulsively. “You can’t stay here now.”

  Jada glanced behind herself and shook her head. “Can’t walk.” Her voice was hoarse and halting. “Too late…for me.”

  “Try,” Dani urged. “I’ll help you, if you can just stay on your—”

  “Follow the water.” Jada forced the words out. “Hurry. They’re coming.”

  Zade shook his head and turned, heading into the blackness between the huge tumbled boulders. “Stay close to me,” he said. “I can see in the dark. Let’s go.”

  Dani hugged Ivy close as she backed away, tears still streaming from her eyes. “Jada, please,” she begged. “Come with us. They want you back. They miss you.”

  A sad smile briefly curved Jada’s mouth. She set aside her crossbow, touched her mouth and blew a kiss. “For Zoe,” she whispered.

  Then she swung up the automatic rifle and aimed it at the giant mineral formation hanging over the sinister dark pool.

  “Run! Now!” she yelled.

  Jada waited until Dani stepped further into the dark, and then emptied the clip, a long, punishing rat-tat-tat-tat that echoed through the cave. The big stalactite blew apart and crashed down into the pool in huge chunks. Blocking the walkway, blasting water everywhere.

  They made their way through the damp, stifling blackness. Dani tried to stay close to Zade, feeling her way through jagged clefts in the stones. Ivy wound her arms tightly around Dani’s neck again, and thank God for the kid’s strong grip, because she kept tripping and stumbling in the utter blackness, straining to see Zade leading the way.

  Ahead was the faintest bit of light, or rather, a lesser grade of darkness. Finally she could see Zade against it, hunched over. Luke’s limp body loaded onto his back.

  Ivy. Think about Ivy now. All you can do. One foot in front of the other.

  She hugged the little girl tighter with one arm, and felt her way through the rocks like a blind woman with the other. Suddenly, fresh air. A cool breeze dried her wet eyes.

  She looked up…and saw the stars above her.

  Gunfire. Sharp bursts, cracking and whining against the rocks.

  They scrambled for cover behind big boulders by the canyon wall. A punch to the back knocked her violently forward against a huge boulder. She’d caught a bullet with the body armor.

  She braced herself on the rocks, clutching Ivy, who made no noise at all. Dani put her mouth to the little girl’s ear. “Hey,” she whispered. “Honey? You OK?”

  A tiny whimpering noise. Yes. The kid was still there. Still hanging on.

  “Zade! About fucking time.” A low voice from across the canyon startled her.

  “Who’s there?” Zade hissed. “Is that Asa?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. Luke?”

  “Kill coded. The rest of them?”

  “Got fried by a bad frequency. Had to retreat. I’ll tell them you’re coming. Go around the bend, stay to the right. Long straight stretch on the riverbank. Where the bushes stop, stay down until the chopper comes for you. Run like hell. I’ll cover for you. Go!”

  They did. Gunfire hissed and whined all around them, zinging off the canyon walls. At one point Zade’s stride hitched. He stumbled, limping.

  “You hit?” she asked.

  “Just run,” he huffed out. “Go, go, go!”

  They heard the rhythmic whump-whump of the helicopter, and then it was all a confusion of noise and wind, yelling, more gunfire.

  Someone pulled Ivy from her arms. She saw the little girl’s mouth open in a wail of pure panic but couldn’t hear the sound over the roar of the helicopter. People hoisted her up. By her arms, under her ass. She tried to help them, but her arms and legs no longer responded. Too much screaming that didn’t make sense. Couldn’t make out a damn word.

  Luke lay on the floor beside her. A dark woman was crouched over him, her eyes closed, face intent. Hands resting on his bare chest. She looked like Jada. Zoe.

  Luke looked still and cold. She couldn’t reach him. She was lost in the dark and the noise and the space between her and Luke was getting wider.

  They were drifting farther and farther apart into the darkness.

  * * * *

  Asa raced back after them, staying low and going on instinct, ducking the occasional bullet that whined past his cheek or over his bent head. The body armor was taking a real pounding.

  But fuck it. He deserved to be shot. For pure stupidity for agreeing to this. Mostly because—zinggg, another near miss—he didn’t want to disappoint his baby sister. Wanted to make up for abandoning her. Zannng…a bullet hit the rock face inches from his face, stinging him with flying fragments. He kept running, blood streaming down his face.

  Like he could ever make up for that.

  But he was going to punish those bastards for hurting her and Noah. One way or another, they were all going down.

  The chopper was hovering, Sisko at the open door, throwing down a rope ladder. He leaped for it, stretching out, and was lifted in a long sickening swoop into the night sky.

  A white-hot stab of pain at his side. Bottom of the vest. Fuck.

  He risked a one handed hold to reach down and touch it. He pulled his hand back drenched with blood.

  Shit. If he bled too much he could pass out. Fall to his death on the rocks down there. The chopper was climbing swiftly. The fall getting longer by the second.

  Nah. Not happening. Not tonight.

  He hung on to his perforated guts, to the ladder, to consciousness. Tried to climb, but that wasn’t happening either.

  Hanging on. All he could do.

  Sisko was yelling down, mouth open. Confused, frustrated. Asa conserved his energy. None left for yelling back.

  Good thi
ng Sisko was a big muscular brute. Braced at the door, he hauled both Asa and the ladder up by himself, then seized Asa by the arm and pulled him inside.

  “What the fuck?” he snapped. “You hurt? Shot?”

  “Some,” Asa gasped out. The rest of the team was all bent over Luke. “Took a round. It’ll wait.”

  Sisko turned away and Asa crumpled into the metal framing, out cold.

  * * * *

  Luke was in a deep well. Impossibly deep. Clinging to the sheer side.

  The wet rock walls were disintegrating, chunks falling down into nothingness without a sound. He felt so heavy. So tired. His fingers shook with strain. He wouldn’t be able to hang on much longer. About to fall.

  No. He felt a desperate urgency. Don’t let go. A voice, low and pleading. Please, baby. Come back to me.

  Light burst in his head. Pain detonated in his chest and screamed though his failing body. His heart seized…and stopped …

  Started.

  After a while, he started to see again. There were anxious faces hanging over him. Glowing greenish from his night vision implants. Their names were out of reach, but he knew their eyes.

  “Luke? Can you hear me?” The beautiful shining woman with the wild curls and the bright furious eyes. “Luke! Guys, his eyes are open!”

  Luke. Yeah. His name was Luke. Right. Good to know.

  “Jesus, man.” Another man, leaning over him. “He kill coded you! And your heart’s beating again!”

  Got the idea from you, you sneaky bastard, he wanted to say to his brother, but couldn’t find enough air. Hibernation mode. He’d gone into hibernation mode as soon as Hale had stun coded him. Worth a shot, to see if he could live just a little bit longer.

  He had. Holy fucking shit, he had. He was still here.

  They lifted him carefully to a semi-sitting position. Sisko wrapped a thermal blanket around his shoulders and Dani hugged him, resting her forehead on his shoulder.

  He looked around, taking stock. Zade was on the other side of him, slumped in exhaustion, a bloody bandage around his thigh. Ivy was huddled between two crates of equipment, eyes huge and shocky. Crazy spikes of dark hair stuck straight up from her scalp. She’d been snugly wrapped in a thermal blanket. Even swaddled, she looked so damn small.