“Are you OK?” Moss’s pupils flared, his face was wet from the sprinklers.
Ruby nodded. Her stomach felt light and fluttery. Her heart pounded in her chest and she thought she might need to throw up.
“Sit down,” Moss said, leading her to a bench against the edge of the gardens. “Take a moment.” He stood in front of her, staring up at the building that had been the telepaths’ refuge and safe house. A place where they could live and work and be untroubled by the prejudices of the outside world.
“Could it have been an accident?” Ruby asked, her voice not much more than a whisper. But she knew as she voiced the question that it hadn’t been. Moss didn’t reply. She thought he might be hearing something she couldn’t.
A woman she didn’t know in a business suit slumped on the bench beside her, two men alongside. All were fighting back tears. And people were still coming out through the main entrance. Ruby stood and viewed the crowd, looking for Candice. She had to be out here or on her way out. This could be her chance to speak to her. Langer’s imperious stare locked into hers from across the square and she recognised the same look of hopelessness that she herself was feeling.
The sirens were still playing through the main building, but at the edge of her hearing came the sounds of the emergency services. They’d be on site in minutes.
Moss came back to her. “I need to speak to Langer. See if there’s anything I can do. Are you going to be OK?”
“I’ll be fine. Go.” And then, in a move that surprised Ruby, Moss leant in and kissed her on the cheek. Before she could react, he was back racing through the crowd towards Langer. Her skin tingled, and she lifted a finger to it.
She couldn’t see Candice. Ruby scanned the crowd, recognising many but none were the young woman she’d been warned away from. She saw Langer and Moss hurrying over. Langer was already talking to Jack Winston and two other men. She recognised one man as the one that had accompanied Jack into the building. The other was tall with a teep tattoo but she didn't recognise him. Ruby couldn't see the woman they’d originally gone inside with. They were talking agitatedly about something and Ruby noticed both looked more dishevelled than most. It was difficult to see clearly from here, but she could have sworn that Jack had a cut on his face. Could they have been closer to the explosion?
Looking up at the building, she wondered about the fourteenth floor and the project space that Moss had talked about. The lifts would be out of action—was that the reason that Candice hadn’t made it outside yet?
The fire engines arrived, forcing the crowd to move aside as they pulled up in front of the building, A police car and ambulance were already at the gates to the compound. And above her head, she heard the distant buzzing of dozens of drones flying around the building, sending pictures back to whatever news or security service they belonged to. This would be all over the feeds by now, Ruby thought. And then she had a scary idea.
The explosion had taken out the one office overlooking the atrium. It had been at least ten minutes since that blast and she had heard no others. Was it just the one localised explosion? The rest of the building was probably safe to travel through.
Without a backwards glance, Ruby broke away from the crowd and headed towards the entrance to the underground car park. The barrier was up and she hurried down the ramp, breaking into a run as she disappeared from the view of the people in front of the building.
The lifts were out, but the stairwell would be safe. Most people were already out or on their way out and there was a chance she wouldn’t meet anyone at all. She glanced up the centre of the stairwell and heard distant footsteps several floors above. This wasn’t the only stairwell servicing the building, and as Ruby raced up the first flight of stairs, she prepared herself to meet with resistance.
As she approached the ground floor, she saw movement on the other side of the door leading to the atrium—firemen were already in the building. They would kick her out if they found her, and they would also be using the stairwells to move around the building. She didn’t have much time. They’d be using equipment to check for body heat and life signs and head towards it. Evading them in the long term wouldn’t be possible, but Ruby didn’t need more than a few minutes. She’d satisfy her curiosity then whatever they wanted to do with her, so be it.
She passed three teeps coming down as she rounded the corner at the third floor. They stared at her. “What’s going on?” the older man in the group asked her.
“You need to get out. There’s been an incident on the lower levels,” Ruby said confidently. Then realised that she was probably passing the level where the explosion had occurred. None of them tried to stop her heading up; they were too concerned with their own well-being.
By the time she got to the tenth floor, it was clear there was no one else above her making their way down, and she took a second to catch her breath. She slowed by the time she got to the thirteenth floor, her senses were sharpened. What would she find up here? Her skin prickled like ants running amok. She hoped Moss hadn’t yet realised she was missing. He’d be worried about her. Strangely, she found her thoughts drifting back to the look he’d given her immediately after that peck on the cheek, his wet hair, his round searching eyes.
The power was out. Emergency lighting lit the stairwell, giving ground to the shadows. She got that tugging in her belly that made her think of falling. She grabbed the handrail and pulled herself around the corner to the door on level fourteen.
There was nothing unusual about it, secret projects or not and she hurried up the last steps and yanked the door open.
A short corridor with deep green walls. Photographs of Devan standing in front of the OsMiTech building. A moving poster advertising the InfiniteYou launch—a red silhouette of a man with the logo ’The Future’s Yours’, in the inside of his brain. Twelve feet away, a desk blocked the access to a second door. No one was sitting at it and the doorway behind looked more secure than most of what she’d seen in the building. She approached warily, listening to the sound of her breath as she got closer, wondering whether this would be the moment when she’d get caught.
Beside the door was a sensor pad. This was it then, she wouldn’t get past this. Almost as an afterthought, she tried the door handle and gasped in surprise when it opened for her. The explosion and subsequent power loss must have affected the building’s security features.
What she saw on the other side of the door, however, took her breath away.
*
Rows of chairs. Dozens of them. Lined up on the left and right. Her first thought was that these were dentist chairs, but they seemed more upright. Half walled cubicles separated them into distinct areas and each area had its own trolley of tools, equipment and a stool.
What the hell was this place?
Straps had been fitted to the chairs at the arms and legs, and another harness around the headrest. Her heart beat faster as she worked her way along the level, noting the uniformity of each station.
Then she saw Candice. The woman was strapped to a chair at the far end of the room. Ruby ran across and Candice gasped in surprise at the arrival of a familiar face. A mouth guard was fitted into the headrest and as Ruby worked the fastening free, Candice spat it out and took a few deep breaths. Ruby continued working on the straps and had the last one undone in seconds.
Candice collapsed out of the chair and grasped Ruby for support. “I thought I would die in there.” Her breathing was ragged.
“What the hell happened?”
“They left me alone when the sirens started. Why are they still sounding? It’s not a drill then?”
Ruby shook her head. “Did you not hear the explosion?”
“Explosion. God, no.”
“An office on the third floor. I don’t know the details but the whole building has been evacuated.”
“The bitch left me. Why didn’t they come back for me?” Candice hurried to the window and looked outside. Ruby followed and saw the people down below. The emerge
ncy vehicles were blocking the main road into the compound. Drones hovered around the building. “They can’t see in. Special glass,” Candice said.
“What is this place?” Ruby turned around, taking in the strange sight of the ‘dentist’ chairs. “What were they doing to you?”
“Adjustment.”
“As in adjusters?”
Candice nodded. “Yes.”
After a long silence, Ruby said, “Does everyone know you have adjusters at OsMiTech?”
“I didn't know until they took me up here.”
“What do you know about them?” Despite the explosion and the danger of them being caught in this off-limits zone, all Ruby could think about was that her dad had been in a situation like this. “Have you been locked up against your will?”
“I suppose they would make me forget that.”
Ruby didn't know what she was supposed to do. The adjusters had some answers to give regarding Dad, but she knew she couldn't stay up here for long. If they had already incarcerated Candice, they'd make no qualms about holding her as well.
Ruby held up her HALO and swept it around the room, capturing video of their surroundings. “Why are they interested in you?”
“They want something I have and I won’t give it to them.”
“What’s that?”
Candice hurried away from the window and back towards the stairwell. “You didn’t pass anyone?”
“I think the building is empty. A few stragglers but the fire service is in now. Candice, you haven’t answered my question. Why were you in that chair?”
Candice ignored her and opened the door to the security corridor. “We can’t go that way. It’s not safe. We need another way out.” Hurrying, Candice ran to the far side of the open space, back to where a pair of doors waited. “We’ll go this way. Come on.”
Ruby took one last look at the place and hurried after her. On the other side of the doors, Ruby was confronted with what could only be described as cells. Glass walled with toilets and a sleeping bunk, there were ten such booths. “How long have you been here?”
“Since the day after you began work here. Devan didn’t like us two meeting. He spoke to me that first evening and the following morning I was brought up here.”
“They think this floor is where secret projects are undertaken.”
“In a way, they’re right.”
Ruby remembered the missing teep reports she’d read several weeks’ ago and the comments Scott Logan had made about telepaths going missing. It was all connected to this. It had to be. Candice ran through the space and into a second shorter corridor beyond. A service lift and nothing else. “The lifts are out,” Ruby said. “We can’t go that way.”
But Candice wasn’t listening. “We can. We’ll have to unless you want to find yourself in one of those cells alongside me.”
Ruby wanted to counter that and say how ridiculous she was sounding. No way would Devan remove her and keep her prisoner. But, then she remembered how ruthless he’d been with Nikoli. Candice had her fingers in the gaps between the lift doors.
“Help me!” she shouted, as she tugged at the doors.
Ruby took one last hesitant look behind her, reminding herself of the life she would be heading to if she went back the way she’d come, and then imagined how things might be if she followed Candice into the dark future.
“Tell me why Devan had you locked up. What had you done?”
Candice looked around at her, still trying to force the doors. “He wanted to know why I’d arranged for the Wei’s eyes to go to those remnant keepers. He found out I’d hacked the system. But, now, I’m not saying another word until you help me out of here.”
Ruby stared at the back of the woman she’d felt such pity for only a few moments ago.
“Did Devan kill him?”
“I’ll tell you what I know, but you’ve got to help me. The only way out of this is to come with me. What are you going to do?”
Ruby’s head was a mass of tumbling ideas and worries. She doubted whether Candice had been truthful about anything, but the promise of finding out who Nikoli’s murderer was was too much. Ruby moved to Candice’s left side and dug her own fingers into the space between the lift doors. They both worked at the gap, pulling the metal doors apart until eventually, after a few seconds of concerted effort, the doors sprang fully open. Candice grabbed Ruby’s shoulder and pulled her back from the edge. “Be careful. It’s a big drop down there.”
Ruby peered over the edge then immediately wished she hadn’t. The air was heavy with stale air and oil.
“Where are we going?” Ruby asked.
“Out of here is our number one priority. Anything after that is secondary.”
“The fire service are using heat-seeking drones. They’ll find us.”
Candice shook her head. “No chance. The lifts are lined with lead and shielded. Part of the maglev system that powers them. It’s hot and it will distort the readings.”
“How do you know all this?” Ruby asked.
“Have you any idea how boring it is being a PA?”
“Don’t be facetious.”
Candice sighed. “Nikoli was obsessed with the workings of the building. He made me get hold of plans for him.”
“He was looking for the tombs?”
Candice nodded. “Come on,” she said, reaching beyond the lift doors. “There are access ladders and crawlspaces all through the building. We can get all the way down.”
Ruby stepped forward and gripped onto the door edges on either side of the lift opening, staring down into the shaft.
What the hell am I doing? Carefully, she reached around the door and found the ladder with her left hand. Candice was already a floor below and didn’t seem intent on waiting. Glancing up, she saw the lift carriage several levels above. What would happen if the power came back on? Would she be trapped in the shaft? Was she about to get squashed by lift?
Gritting her teeth, Ruby carefully swung her foot through the gap and pulled herself onto the ladder. Once there, she felt calmer than she thought she would. The adrenaline may be pumping through her body, but she knew the feeling of the chase well and despite never being on the receiving end of the hunt before, at least she had some direction and a way to use up that energy.
She found her pace, keeping her eyes straight ahead as she travelled. Candice was moving quickly down the shaft, the clunking from her boots on the rungs reverberated up around Ruby and she felt the ladder move under her hands.
“Where are we headed?” Ruby called down.
No response.
“Candice!”
The ladder stopped shaking. Ruby glanced and saw that Candice was nowhere beneath her. Crap, what had happened? Where was she?
“Candice?”
Ruby increased her pace, praying that the women hadn’t slipped. The gloom in the shaft prevented her from seeing all the way to the bottom, so if her broken body lay down there, she wouldn’t be able to see. But, as she reached the next level, a hand reached out and grabbed her.
“Shit!” she spat, as Candice moved out from a dark alcove on the wall beside the lift doors.
“This way. Come on, I’ll help.” Ruby grabbed Candice’s arm and reached out to the lip of the alcove, and once she felt steady, she let go of the ladder and stumbled into the gloom. Emergency lighting lit the walls of a narrow corridor leading off into the distance. The shaft was a little over three feet tall, and Ruby had to bend low to get through the opening, but once she did Candice shuffled along, giving Ruby room to fit in comfortably.
“You could have warned me,” Ruby said.
“I wasn’t certain I’d find one. The building is full of maintenance tunnels.”
Ruby sighed. “Well, where does it take us?”
“Anywhere in the building we want to go.”
“And outside?”
“It can take us down to the car park.”
“Good. Let’s go. I’ve got my car down there.”
&nb
sp; “They’re not just going to let you drive out of here now. Not with what’s just happened.”
“Of course they will. You might have to travel in the boot, though.”
Candice’s eyes had a haunted look. “You’re not listening. They have the emergency services here.”
“I’m with the DRT. I’m not an employee. I can leave whenever I like.”
Candice shook her head gently. “You don’t get it. If Devan wants this place locked down that’s what he’ll get. This will only fuel his paranoia and he’s the worst possible man to cross.”
Derelict.
The same voice in her head. Candice wasn’t touching her, but she had a quizzical look on her face. “Did you hear that?”
“U-huh.” Ruby tipped her head to the side. “What is it? I sensed it earlier. Before the explosion.”
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s been around for days, weeks, letting its presence be felt.”
“It’s telepathic.”
“But it doesn’t feel telepathic. Broadcasting to multiple people at once is unheard of. I don’t know anyone that can do it.”
“If it’s not a telepath, then what is it?”
“We need to take this to Devan. Force him to tell us.”
“You were strapped to a chair only ten minutes ago as per Devan’s instructions. I don’t think you’ve got any leverage over him at all. Are you ready to explain why he had you in that place?”
Candice leant her head back against the side of the maintenance shaft. Shadows crawled over her pallid features. “He knows that I was having an affair with Nikoli. And he knew that I’d hacked into the database and chose the remnant keepers that would deal with the investigation. He wanted to learn why that was.”
“And he was using adjusters to do that?”
“They’re the best interrogators you can get. And the beauty of them is, once they’ve found what they need, they can rewrite those memories so you forget you ever told them anything at all.”
The Infinity Mainframe (Tombs Rising Book 3) Page 19
