by Lola Dodge
Three Black Helixes had cornered Dex in the bathroom. His disguise was gone, and he had his palms open as they advanced with their weapons drawn.
“Easy,” Dex said. “I’m not fighting back.”
“Fuckin’ traitor.”
The Helixes’ weapons weren’t tranqs and with their gun barrels they trained on Dex, they weren’t planning on taking him captive. I lunged for the guy closest to me and drove my own gun into his jugular. I pulled the trigger twice, emptying the last tranq cartridges.
The other two shifted toward me, but I ducked behind the Helix I’d tranquilized. Dex jumped into action, grabbing for one of the guns. A deafening shot pierced the ceiling. While those two struggled, the third man advanced on me.
Pasha Petrov. The fighter. Boxing wasn’t my forte, but I had other skills.
When he lunged, I pushed the drugged man into him. Pasha shoved the body aside, but I’d already slipped into a better position. I scored a hit, knocking free his gun. It skittered across the bathroom tiles and landed in the shower. Dex and his target were still trading blows as Pasha and I engaged.
My mind blanked as I fell into the motions of the fight. Dodge, strike, reset. Block, strike, reset. I’d spent the past weeks training the rust off my martial arts, and the motions flowed as smoothly as ever.
I could’ve taken him easily in a competition, or on an open mat. Fighting in a bathroom wasn’t as easy. Defending against his heavy punches, I ended up cornered in front of the wall of shower glass. The abandoned gun lay on the other side of the barrier. Before I dived for it, Pasha went down in a heap.
Dex stood over him, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. “Sounds like the others handled their guys.”
“Thanks.”
“You save me, I save you. Where’s Q?”
Heart pounding, I dashed out of the bathroom. Cipher and Knight were dragging the rest of the bodies in from the hallway. As long as all the Helixes were down, they didn’t need my help.
Quanta did.
Devan crouched at her side, trying to heave Todd off. I wrenched the bastard away, sending him spinning into the wall.
“Quanta?” I lifted one of her eyelids. Her pupils were dilated. Shaking, I checked her pulse.
Sluggish, but there. I pulled up her biometrics on my com. Her delta waves were still in the normal range. No serious danger.
I deflated in relief. I half considered giving her an adrenaline patch to wake her sooner, but it would be safer to let the tranquilizer to metabolize on its own. I grabbed a pillow and tucked it under her head, wishing I could speed up the process. Waiting would be torture.
“Will she be okay?” Devan’s hair was plastered to her sweaty face, and she wore a thousand-yard stare as if she hadn’t slept in weeks.
“She’ll be fine.” I tried to listen to my own words. She was tranquilized, not injured. Hovering over her wouldn’t help or make me feel any better. “Are you all right?”
“I’ll be better when they’re tied up.” She rubbed her arms.
That was something I could help with. “Will you watch over her for me?”
Devan nodded. “Sure.”
Knight and Dex were dragging the Helixes into a pile. We needed them tied down and knocked out before they stirred. While the others took care of zip-tying them, I administered the sedatives, sticking patches liberally on their exposed skin.
I kept an eye on Quanta as I worked, but she was still motionless. My shoulders tightened. We’d made progress, but this wouldn’t feel like a victory until she was awake.
Dex bound Todd to the desk chair, but I didn’t patch him yet. First, I had questions about his role in apprehending Cass.
“Deleted the hallway cam footage.” Cipher relaxed from her frantic typing.
I relaxed, too. We’d almost screwed ourselves over by getting caught in the hallway. We’d hoped to make a clean enough capture that we wouldn’t have to delete any vid records, but I was willing to take a partial win. The night could have ended much worse.
I dragged my pack to Quanta’s side and pulled out my med gear. First, I stuck a membrane patch onto her arm that would give me a blood work readout.
While it processed, I turned my attention to Devan. She’d curled up with her head between her knees, and her condition worried me almost as much as Quanta’s. “Would you let me scan your blood levels?”
“No.” Her voice was muffled. “I’m fine.”
I dug out an energy bar and a bottle of water and set them at her side. Devan might not want help, but our entire plan hung on her powers. “I won’t force you, but you have to tell one of us if you’re struggling.”
She peered over her folded arms. “Will it hurt?”
“Not at all. See?” I showed her the patch on Quanta’s forearm and the readout that fed to my com. Thankfully, the readout confirmed that Quanta was okay. I showed Devan the numbers. “Her electrolytes and blood sugar are low, but the tranquilizer’s weakening.”
“Fine.” Devan stuck out her wrist.
I gently applied a patch. The results confirmed what I’d feared. “You have some serious vitamin deficiencies.” Her Vitamin D level was shockingly low, but all I had for her now were the multivitamins from our first aid kit. “Take these and eat something.” Later, we’d have to find more supplies.
Leaving Quanta and Devan to recover, I set to my next task. Collecting the DNA. Not knowing what Roboloco would need, I erred on the side of over preparedness. I filled two vials of blood per man and took a few hair samples and cheek swabs for additional insurance. Part of me couldn’t believe the plan had worked thus far. I wasn’t confident we’d keep being lucky, but at least we’d taken a step closer to freeing Cass.
I was almost finished labeling the samples when Quanta finally stirred.
I hurried to kneel at her side. “Easy.”
“What…” She blinked a few times, then scrunched her eyes shut. “Is everyone okay?”
“We’re fine.” I smoothed back her hair and cupped her cheek. It might be a while before I was willing to let her out of my sight again.
“Speak for yourself,” Dex called. “I got punched in the face.”
True, but we’d all survived. “Just superficial injuries.”
Quanta let out a frustrated growl. “I was so stupid. What if one of you got killed and I couldn’t—”
I pressed a finger to her lips. “That didn’t happen. We’re all alive and we haven’t gotten caught yet. That’s already a success.”
She grumbled but didn’t try to argue. “Do you want to try sitting up?” I asked.
“I want to try changing out of this stupid dress.” Quanta reached for my hand and I eased her upright.
“Still okay?” If she was worried about the dress, she must be feeling better, but she was still moving sluggishly.
“Just have to get the drug out of my system. I’ll be fine once I’m up.” I trusted her to know her body’s tolerance. She’d been drugged too many times in the past.
She balanced with a hand on my arm as I carried her pack into the bathroom. “We’re waiting for Todd to wake. After we question him, we’ll call Roboloco.”
Quanta let out a heavy breath. “I’ll dig more into his past now. It’s just…”
“What?” I didn’t like the way she was frowning.
“That was way too close and I didn’t see it coming.” She shook her head. “If I pulled a stunt like that in the Citadel, we’d all be dead.”
I couldn’t disagree, especially when Quanta had taken the worst hit. “Why did he attack you first?”
“That’s what I was wondering.” Quanta paused digging through her pack. “Devan had our faces hidden the whole time, so we must’ve done something that screamed ambush. The one started looking a little shifty when we had a chip instead of the fingerprint scanner.”
“I noticed.” Something else was going on, and only Todd could tell us the truth of it. “Why don’t you change and I’ll—”
Quanta thumped into me, wrapping her arms tight around my ribs. “I should’ve been dancing with you.”
I folded her deeper into my arms, wanting to wrap her in safety. “What should we do for fun after we get Cass back?”
“I want you to coo—” She shuddered, then laughed. “Never mind. I want Knight to cook us a huge feast. Then we’ll stay in and play games all night.”
“I’m an excellent cook.” And I’d agree to whatever she wanted, but staying in sounded much better than another night of noise and watching degenerates stare at her.
Quanta laughed again at the bold lie. “You’re good at hitting the buttons on the food printer. I wouldn’t trust you with a stove.”
“What else?” I asked. Quanta was always talking about the futures that posed a threat to us, but she rarely opened up about what she wanted to see.
“We’ll talk and laugh and play your sister’s games.” She pulled back to look at me. “Then I want to go somewhere quiet. Just us. Somewhere up in the mountains where no one will ever find us. I’ll draw lakes and trees until my fingers bleed. It’ll be the best.”
I couldn’t see what Quanta saw anymore, but I loved the picture she painted. We’d go off the grid with no one to order us around, and no enemies waiting around the corner. Somewhere peaceful, where I could catch up on reading with Quanta at my side.
Just the two of us was exactly what I needed. “You and quiet are two of my favorite things.”
“I know.” Quanta grinned. “That’s why we get along.”
I kissed her forehead. “Change. Todd should be waking up soon.”
“Good. I’ve got a few words for him.”
And so did I.
Chapter Seventeen
QUANTA
In leggings and a T-shirt, I finally felt like myself again. I balled up the white dress of doom and tossed it over with the gun hanging out in the shower. A splash of blood already decorated one of the towels. We definitely owed the cleaning staff a serious tip.
Especially with the seven Black Helixes lined up on the bed. The guys barely fit with their height and pumped-up muscles, but someone had stacked them on their sides like sardines, and they’d be fine that way until they woke up a few days from now. We planned to be far, far away by then.
I was still kicking myself for getting tranqed. It was my fault for trying to stay in the moment. Then again, I was equally likely to get blindsided when I was fixating on the future alone, so the whole clairvoyant thing didn’t give me as much of an edge as it should’ve. That frustrated me to no end, but all I could do was work at it.
And that was fine as a long-term goal thing, but I only had another day to peak. If I failed at Alpha Citadel, we were all royally screwed. The pressure clamped down hard.
I needed to chat with this Todd character and find out what he knew about Cass and the other captives. I didn’t need to check the future to know he wouldn’t talk easily. He was a Black Helix commander, and even though we wouldn’t ever torture him, not even extreme pain was going to loosen this guy’s lips.
I nibbled on a protein bar as we waited for him to stir. With the sardine guys on the bed and Todd taking up our one chair, there wasn’t much room to move around.
Devan and Cipher were dozing in the corner. I felt the slightest bit headachy, but I hadn’t been playing with time that much. Just watching the timeghosts didn’t drain me too badly.
Or it hadn’t yet. We’d see about that.
We were all getting antsy by the time Todd finally started twitching. We needed to get on our way, and still had a bunch of crazy transpo to get us from Ibiza to wherever Roboloco was. And we couldn’t call them until Todd was knocked out.
Dex moved behind his chair, ready with a full tranq gun, but I didn’t see any futures where Todd started screaming for help. He had the perfect view of his buddies lined up on the bed and no way to tell if they were alive or dead.
He was definitely going to keep his mouth shut.
Still, we had to try asking. Tair knelt in front of Todd’s chair. “You brought a captive into Alpha Citadel before your vacation. What was her name?”
Todd stared dead ahead. All the swagger and douchebaggery had disappeared from his attitude, and he looked like the perfect square-jawed soldier as he lifted his chin and refused to answer.
I hadn’t thought much of Todd to begin with, but he was well trained. He knew exactly who we were and probably what we could do, but he wasn’t so much as breathing hard. I tugged Tair’s shirt, pulling him up. “I’ll handle this one.”
Nodding, Tair stepped away.
Todd’s nostrils flared. He definitely knew what I could do, and as far as Nagi knew, I was still in the brain-melting business. I was pretty sure I could only overload others with timeghosts when I was at the absolute edge of instability, and right now I was as close to stable as any Red Helix could be.
But Todd had no way of knowing that, and I wasn’t here to be nice to him. I waggled my fingers. “Can you guys give Todd and I some space?” I wanted the guys near enough that they could step in, but not so close that their own pasts got tangled up with Todd’s. I needed to do some serious digging.
Tair and Dex both backed up a few steps, and I advanced. I’d be able to see some of Todd’s past just standing here, but the closer I got, the easier it would be. I didn’t like touching people I didn’t know, but I was all about easy when it was an option.
Setting a hand on Todd’s forearm, I lowered my mental walls. Bluish wisps of energy twined up my fingers as the shapes of Todd’s past dropped over my reality. His life’s highlights hit me first—getting named commander of his squad, being honored at some big fancy banquet, and a flash of something so X-rated that I had to jerk away for a second.
“Okay?” Tair asked.
“Yeah.” I rubbed my hands together, casting off the ick and trying to get my head in the game. It wasn’t like I wanted his credit codes. The recent past should be easy enough to dig out of Todd’s brain.
Focus. Find Cassie.
I waited a few moments, sifting for images of her, but nothing popped up. It made sense. To Todd, Cassie was just another nameless target to be brought in, so her capture didn’t register as anything special. It would be easier to back up the past few days scene by scene—or at least as many scenes as I could still read.
Gripping Todd’s forearm tighter, I took a deep breath and started paging back through his life.
Strobe lights flash as Todd dances in the club; he and his Helix bodies jab holes in bev cans and suck them down on a speedboat flying over the sea; Todd and his squad mates sit in a briefing room, deadly focused on the big screen in front of them where several familiar faces are blown up larger than life.
I paused the backtracking to focus on the briefing. What were they saying about us now?
“…may be disguised.” The man at the front of the room stands with his arms folded behind his back, presenting the faces and facts that scroll across the projected screen. “They will try to approach you to steal information or credentials. Be aware of their power profiles and be suspicious of any attempts to get you or your squad members alone.”
Pasha raises his hand. “Any fighters in their group, sir?”
“Orpheus, Marquez, and possibly Miles.” The screen flicks to the guys’ faces. “They’re traitors, but they trained with us. It’s the Reds you have to watch out for.” The screen scrolls again, and photos of Cipher, Devan, and me pop up front and center. “Quanta is clairvoyant with possible psychic and time manipulation powers. Boyd can hit you with an electric blast strong enough to kill, and Coda manipulates light both to disguise and attack. These are triple-A priority targets, gentlemen.”
Letting out a breath, I blinked back to the present. The Seligo knew way more about us than they needed to, but one point worried me the most. “All the Black Helixes were warned that we’d approach them. Nagi must’ve expected us to make a play for his guards on the way into the Citadel.”
“So these guys suspected us from the beginning,” Knight leaned against the wall, appraising.
“Maybe.” If only Cipher and I had lured the guys away, they might not have caught on, but then four more “ladies” had shown up. For all I knew, Dex’s crappy falsetto had blown our cover. That wasn’t really important, though.
I was most worried that Doctor Nagi was briefing his people on such a wide scale. Not that there’d ever been a doubt we were walking into a trap. Still, seeing more of Nagi’s prep work made it that much clearer what we had to beat to win.
I tried to bite back a shiver, but Todd must’ve felt me shake the littlest bit because the corner of his mouth twitched. That was just annoying. I was afraid of Doctor Nagi, but I refused to be laughed at by some muscled-up bozo in khakis. For a split-second, I almost wormed back to his childhood just to embarrass him, but no matter how annoying Todd was, I didn’t have time to be petty. “Give me a sec and I’ll you what he knows about Cass.”
That shut down the smirk right quick. Diving back in, I let Todd’s timeghosts flutter around me.
Todd’s recent past was a blur of missions and meetings. Fights and briefings. Minus his little squad vacation, all he did was soldier work. He had no parents—but most Black Helixes were test tube babies—and not one hint of romance in his whole life. I couldn’t spot a single past where he hung out with anyone besides his squad or other officers. It was sad enough that I didn’t feel like embarrassing him anymore.
“Anything?” Knight asked. “We can’t hang around much longer.”
“Almost.” I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I was going to get us info on Cass before we left this island.
Focusing in on the endless blur of missions, I dove in and started sorting. The line quality told me how old the timeghosts were, so I banished the oldest, most ghostly looking ones. Recent pasts were more solid. I zeroed in on those until my head pounded, and I spotted what had to be Todd’s last opp.
Todd lifts his hand and closes his fist. His squad halts behind him. They stand in front of some sort of bunker, but the details are blurry as Todd points, silently directing each Helix where to go.
