Quanta Rewind

by Lola Dodge

  The longer she took to respond, the more tension ratcheted through me until I was gripping the edge of my stool. If we couldn’t take a pod, we were screwed.

  Finally, Quanta blinked back to reality. “It should work. I mean, I can see us riding the pod okay, but only on the way in. But as far as leaving the Citadel…” Her voice trailed, leaving us in ominous silence. The stakes were too real.

  “This is so fucking stupid.” Sparks crackled from Cipher’s arms.

  “Hey.” Knight quickly wrapped an arm around her, stopping the sparks. “We’re figuring it out. Nobody’s risking their life until we have a solid exit strategy.”

  I didn’t say anything when Knight was trying to be reassuring, but we were risking our lives. When the logistics of sneaking into Alpha Citadel were this complicated, sneaking out with five prisoners was near impossible. I wasn’t going to despair about it, but without Quanta’s powers, I would’ve had to admit it was impossible. “But you see a version of the future where we all get out alive? Even the prisoners?”

  “It’s not so straightforward.” Quanta knocked her head with her fists, scrunching up her face—trying to pull out a future?

  I gently took her wrists, and she let me pull her hands away. “Hurting yourself isn’t going to help.” And it wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t ever want to push her to that.

  “I just wish I could tell you something more helpful, but everything’s a mess once we’re in the Citadel.” She gripped my hand as if she needed to hold on to something solid or be swept away. “We still have long-term futures. I can see flashes of Cass walking around here, or Cipher and Mona sitting somewhere hazy, so I know there are paths where they survive, but as far as what we need to do to make that happen? I’m just praying I can figure it out when we’re on the ground.”

  “That’s good enough for me.” I couldn’t speak for anyone else, but I was willing to work on a little blind trust. There was no other way this time. “I think Devan will be on board regardless, but if anyone else wants to back out…” I let the question hang, but I hoped no one took the offer.

  “You definitely see a future where Mona’s alive? And Oliver?” Cipher asked.

  “Yeah. I don’t know how we rescue them, but I wouldn’t steer you guys into a total lost cause.” Quanta lifted her chin, determined. “I have to try.”

  “I can’t say I’m feeling good about this….” Cipher let out breath. “But I trust you. Let’s get them back and then stay the fuck away from the Citadel for the rest of our lives.”

  “That’s a plan,” Knight said. “And I’m in if she is. Dex?”

  “I still want it on the record that this is all bullshit.” Dex ran a hand through his hair. “But, yeah. I’m in. Oli wouldn’t leave me to rot in a cell.”

  “Then we’re all in.” Whatever happened, I’d feel more confident heading into this mission together than alone. Otherwise, the reality of what we had to accomplish would be too overwhelming.

  We leaned in to finish planning. By the time we’d reviewed the Citadel maps and agreed on the rest of the details, I wasn’t the only one yawning.

  “We better call this a night,” Knight said after a jaw-cracking yawn. “Meet at 0600 at Ai’s?”

  “Sounds good.” I pushed back my chair.

  We headed back to the bunks. With so many of Roboloco’s original members absent, there were plenty of smaller caverns jammed with too many beds. We’d have our own rooms for the first time in weeks. But privacy wouldn’t make sleeping any easier.

  I felt wired with tension, impatient for the morning. Quanta tugged me to a stop as we crossed the main cavern. “Still worrying?”

  “Still worrying.” So much was at risk. Cassie’s life. Quanta’s life. And all the lives at risk depending how we fared tomorrow. The consequences were too heavy.

  “Tell me about it.” She shivered.

  We were both getting too deep in our own heads. I wrapped her in my arms. The others disappeared into the tunnel ahead, leaving us alone on the catwalk.

  Cupping Quanta’s chin, I bent down for a kiss. She lifted onto her toes, pressing up to meet me. She tasted like chocolate, and her life and energy shot through my body, warm and compelling. She yielded, opening her soft lips, and gripping my back to pull me closer.

  Tomorrow could be our last day.

  I’d fight to make sure it wasn’t, but the possibility hovered, making me want to hold her as tight as I could for as long as possible. So I breathed Quanta in while I was lucky enough to have her at my side.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  QUANTA

  Dawn. Waking up snuggled with Tair almost made up for the insanity of the hour, but dread crushed down as soon as my eyes creaked open. I wiggled tighter into him, hoping for a crazy second that we’d both fall asleep again and wake up on another timeline.

  The illusion lasted until Tair’s heavy breath gusted over my hair. “It’s time.”

  Time. Right. It was always time for something.

  I just hoped today wasn’t our time to die.

  But that was a morbid way to start the morning. Looking at the positives, if I had to go, I’d rather go out on a high, and nothing was beating last night. I should’ve set a reset point so we could relive it a few times.

  “Tair…” I nuzzled against his chest, trying to stay in the moment, but I could already hear the cacophony of timeghosts signaling what we were in for as soon as our feet touched the ground.

  “What do you want to do when we get back tonight?” He asked, not moving even a scoch away from me.

  I closed my eyes and built my own future instead of looking for one. “First we laser off these god-awful tattoos. Then we can split a cake and play chess, and after I win you have to snuggle with me for at least five hours.”

  “Who says you’re winning?” The challenge in his voice set my blood buzzing.

  “At chess? Now? You’ve got zero chance.” My powers were way more on point than ever these days. Maybe I couldn’t pick my fate out of the ether that easily, but I could definitely see where Tair planned to move his next pawn.

  “I still have some tricks.”

  “Mmm. I noticed.”

  He laughed, and the sound rolled down to my toes. I didn’t want to leave this bed. Not ever.

  “The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll be back.” He kissed the top of my head before he started tugging down the covers.

  I thought about yanking them back up and being a total baby for a few more minutes, but Tair was right. It was time. After disentangling from the sheet, I swung my feet off the bed.

  The timeghosts were straight-up teeming to tell me about the day. I let down my walls to entertain them a second, but it was the same old chaos—lots of bad endings, no specific advice. But as I watched our boat get bombed out of the harbor, I made a mental note to figure out where the life jackets were stored.

  I dressed for battle. Or my version of it. I put on a pair of long gray pants instead of my preferred leggings. I clipped a holster to each hip—one for a tranq gun and one for a real gun. Extra magazines of ammo went in each pocket, and I tucked a tiny folding knife into my bra just in case.

  That was as ready as I’d ever get.

  The others should be done with breakfast by now. Tair and I had slept in instead. If I was going to be reversing time back to this morning a million times, I’d more than learned my lesson about rewinding near food. The nausea was no joke. I’d already ruined pancakes for life, and that was just a crime. So, we’d bring protein bars to eat along the way—if we could stomach them. I dug through my pack until I found one I could shove in my back pocket. I tossed another to Tair.

  He wore black cargo pants and a clingy black T-shirt. He set his glasses on top of his pack and turned to face me. He had a bunch more guns than I did, plus knives and who knew what else tucked in his pockets. With the Black Helix on his forearm, he looked like the perfect soldier.

  It was just an outfit, but I didn’t like it one bit.r />
  Luckily, his caramel-brown eyes were still full of warmth, and when he grabbed my hand, I felt the zing of connection that was purely ours. He was my Tair. Always.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Yup.” More or less. And hopefully more as the seconds ticked past.

  We found the others waiting back in the wannabe spaceship room. Teddy sat in his corner downing an energy bev. After tipping the last drops into his mouth, he set it in the pile of empty cans around his station and cracked open a new one. He was even more stubbly and rough looking than yesterday.

  Ai hovered nearby in a graceful contrast. “Altair. Quanta. Did you sleep well?”

  “The best.” At least the best in a while. If we pulled this mission out, tonight’s sleep would be even better.

  Her peaceful smile smoothed out my nerves. I wondered if Cass had programmed Ai for stress relief? If so, my future sister-in-law was a genius.

  Knight was flicking through info on his com. “I updated Lady Eva. We’ll brief her again as soon as we get back.”

  Good thing he was optimistic. I scanned everyone else to check where group morale was. Dex wore the same dark clothes as Tair and Knight and was humming to himself as he cleaned his gun. The guy was impossible to read, but knowing him, he was ready to roll.

  Cipher shifted from foot to foot. She wasn’t packing weapons—she was the weapon—and I wouldn’t say she looked confident, but the way her jaw was set said pure determination. She’d get Mona back or die trying.

  Devan. Poor thing. Our sunflower sipped at a repulsive-looking green smoothie, which hopefully had all the vitamins she needed to get herself recharged. Her knuckles were white around the cup. I knew she’d give everything she had today, and that was all any of us could ask. It was up to us finish the mission if and when she lost her energy.

  As for me…

  I was just exhausted with this whole situation. I hoped this day ended without us meeting Nagi in the flesh, but if we did cross paths, I’d break space-time just to punch him in the face.

  “Everyone set?” Knight asked.

  We all nodded. I waved to Ai and Teddy. “Thanks for your help.”

  “I hope we’ll see you again soon,” Ai said.

  Teddy lifted a hand without turning away from his workstation. “Get Cass back here so I can kill her myself.”

  Tair shot Teddy a death look that he was lucky he missed, and then we all strode for the exit. Nobody else was around and our footsteps creaked along the catwalk.

  I made sure to get out of the blast door first so I could hold us up in front of the holographic exit. I was on deck.

  Taking Tair’s hand, I sucked in a huge lungful of air. I didn’t need to be touching him to use my powers anymore, but if I had a choice, I wanted to be. It made the whole process easier.

  Letting out my breath, I fixed this moment in my mind. Tair holding my hand the dim tunnel. Cipher, Devan, Knight, and Dex all tense nearby. The musty cave smell and the chilly air. The weight of the guns on my hips and the suffocating tension that had us all shifting our feet.

  Reality doubled. The sensation rolled over my body, and then it was done. I had a horrible feeling we’d all be back to this place sooner expected.

  The lightest peek into the future showed a parade of timeghostly nightmare scenarios featuring running, screaming, chaos, and death. For starters.

  But I was the idiot who’d led us down this path. For better or worse, I had to walk it.

  I took a deep breath and then started forward. One step at a time.

  Devan fired up her illusions while we strode across the shore to pick up our boat. We were close enough to the Citadel that their drones could hear us sneeze, and getting caught on the beach before we left wouldn’t be the best start to this mission.

  I was Kendrick Govender for the day. I wore camo shorts and a fitted black T-shirt that showed off my pecs. The illusion made me look almost a foot taller, but it gave me a weird kind of reverse vertigo, too, because I wasn’t actually taller.

  With gelled hair and icy blue eyes, I looked douchey enough that I didn’t want to hang out with myself. According to Tair’s research, Kendrick’s hobbies included high-stakes poker and high-price escorts.

  It creeped me out even more that Tair was Pasha. Knight had taken Todd’s mask as squad leader since he actually was a Black Helix squad leader and knew how to act. He’d also coached us while we were all waiting to get encoded, and I’d paid attention enough that I was pretty sure I wouldn’t blow our cover in the first minute.

  Once we were safely tucked in the boat’s cabin, Devan dropped the disguises again. She needed to save her energy, plus none of us wanted to look like mercenaries in our free time.

  My stomach swooped as Knight started the engine. Even if everything went perfect, I was still heading for my least favorite place in the world.

  The one place I’d never wanted to be again.

  Whatever happened today, I promised myself this was my last trip to Alpha Citadel.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  ALTAIR

  I wasn’t the only one humming with nervous tension as we neared the Citadel. But we’d stolen the right boat. Its codes were up to date, letting us pass into Seligo waters as planned. We coasted into the marina and docked in an empty slip.

  I half expected alarms to ring out, but the only sounds were lapping water and an occasional honk from one of the boats in the harbor. The silence wouldn’t last much longer.

  “Looks clear.” Knight peered out the cabin window, but other than a scattered worker, no one was out and about in this part of the dock. A few drones hovered in the sky, but we’d been expecting them and they wouldn’t have reason to notice us unless we did something suspicious. “You ready, Devan?”

  She rubbed her hands together until they kicked up a yellow glow. One by one, the air around us shimmered until I stood packed into the cabin with five other Black Helixes.

  “Okay,” Devan said. “Just try not to touch stuff and stay close to me. The less you move around, the longer I can keep us hidden.”

  I flexed hands that weren’t mine. My fingers looked thicker and more callused, though my skin felt the same. It was even more jarring to look for Quanta and find a warrior standing in her place. Devan was managing an insane level of detail and no matter how determined she was, she’d hit her limit eventually. I hoped we had enough time to get through the Citadel before that happened.

  “Let’s get this over with.” Dex opened the door and stepped onto the deck.

  Past the boats crowding the marina, the Citadel’s walls loomed high overhead. I spotted the entrance we were heading for not far off—just down the dock. An archway cut into the stone, and we’d have to cross security to pass through the tunnel.

  The six of us fell into the agreed-upon formation as we made our way to the wall through the maze of docked boats. Cipher and Knight walked at the front of the group, followed by Quanta and Devan, with Dex and I at the back.

  We had two goals. Get to the point where Cassie had disappeared, and protect Quanta at all costs.

  I planned to do both.

  There was no line at the security checkpoint, but a squad of eight Black Helixes in body armor flanked both sides of the archway through the wall. If any of us failed the Helix scan, the tunnel would self-seal, leaving us between the guards and the arsenal of weapons wired to the tunnel itself.

  Knight approached the woman sitting in the narrow gatehouse. “Skipping out on leave to report for early duty.” He jerked his head back at us. “Heard we might be able to get dibs on an opp.” He extended his arm before she asked him to.

  The woman lifted a scanning wand to his Helix. My pulse hammered, but I tried to keep my breathing even. I knew our vitals and body temps were being read and didn’t want us being flagged as suspicious on my account. At least with Devan controlling our appearances, we didn’t have to worry about giving ourselves away with facial cues.

  It seemed to take too long
to scan Knight’s info, but the woman finally waved him along. She gestured for the next person to approach.

  One by one, we passed through. Last in line, I finally offered my Black Helix to the scanner. After several long seconds, the woman waved me past.

  And we were in.

  Alpha Citadel.

  After betraying the Seligo and my family, I’d never expected to see it from the inside again. Nothing had changed in the short time since I’d left. As soon as we crossed through the tunnel, a plaza opened up with sterile fountains and a series of lifts climbing the wall of skyscrapers that loomed over us. Everything clean and white and chrome. The air had the same flat, filtered scent as ever, and breathing it again made it feel like the walls were crushing in. I’d forgotten how much I hated it here.

  Knight led us to the nearest pod station. I stepped slightly ahead to whisper to the Kendrick version of Quanta. “Anything?”

  She shook her head and kept her voice low. “I’ll tell you when.”

  After taking a lift up to the station, we stood to wait at the tracks. It was the middle of morning rush hour. Helixes waited in orderly lines, heading off to work or a day of leisure, depending on their standing. We slipped to the back of the group queue and waited our turn. Eventually, a six-seater pod coasted to a stop in front of us.

  We settled in for a quiet ride. The girls’ voices didn’t match their bodies, and Knight, Dex, and I had been in the system long enough that Doctor Nagi likely had our vocal samples. One word into the wrong sensor, and we’d be coasting toward prison.

  I tried to relax as our pod wound through the forest of skyscrapers, but advertisements kept flashing over the screens and windows, and the oppressive silence only amplified my stress. I wasn’t the only one tapping my feet, ready to be done with the ride.