Eden reached for the door handle and pulled, but the door didn’t move. Jacob felt a strange prickle at the back of his neck. He stepped past Eden and took the handle, giving it a harder tug, but the door still didn’t move. He touched the lock pad, checking it carefully.
“What is it, Jacob?” Eden asked.
“This lock,” he said. “It shouldn’t still be engaged. Rilex destroyed the master controls when we first arrived. All of the locks in the building were destroyed.”
“That means that this lock wasn’t on the master controls,” Eden said. “It was put here independently. Whoever made it didn’t intend on anyone else being able to access it.”
“But if they didn’t think that anyone else was going to know that it was here, why would they bother to lock it?” Pyra asked.
“Not they,” Eden said.
“What do you mean?” Jacob asked.
“Not ‘they’,” Eden repeated. “He. This is Ryan’s doing. He made this just like he made all of those hybrids.” She touched the lock pad and then flattened her hand on the door. “Locks aren’t always to keep something out,” she said. “They can also be used to keep something in. Whoever we are supposed to help is here,” she said. “We just need to find a way inside.”
“Rilex,” Jacob said. “He was able to destroy the master controls. Maybe it will work for this lock, too.”
He turned and started back up the stairs, his heart beating heavily in his chest. When he had agreed to come to Earth with Jem and Angela it was because he had wanted to spend more time with the one friend he had had during his long and challenging time on the frozen planet. He had seen little of her since she had decided to leave Vyker’s stream and join Jem on his planet, even before she had become Jem’s mate. The thought that she would be going to Jem’s planet with him was upsetting to Jacob, though he hadn’t told her that when they discussed it. Angela had suggested that their time on Uoria would be brief, but Jacob doubted it. Even though Jem understood that he had moved through a portal to get to his planet from Uoria, he didn’t know where the portal was or how to find it again. That meant that they would have to travel back to Earth and then follow the other portals, hoping that they would all still be open as they moved. The sheer risk and challenge that this presented would only make Jem’s attachment to his planet more pressing and the chances were low that they would ever leave Uoria again.
If he had known what they would face when they got back to Earth, Jacob didn’t know if he would have been so willing to go along. As he got to the top of the stairs and started for Rilex, though, he reconsidered the thought. The compulsion to be a part of what was happening burned in his gut and told him that he was meant to be here. This was more than just traveling to Earth to help Jem get to his planet. Jacob had a purpose here. It was only a matter of time before he discovered it.
Chapter Four
Jacob found Rilex crouched down beside Jem. The warrior’s eyes were open and Jacob felt a flood of relief. He regretted how he had felt toward Vyker and Galadriel when he first encountered them, and he had been committed to not allowing himself to be controlled by his distrust and the coldness that had set in during his time stranded. Though he was still having a difficult time in some ways with Rilex, he trusted Jem completely. Now he knew that he was going to have to put his trust into Rilex as well as he asked for his help, and the sight of him checking on Jem reassured him.
“How are you feeling?” Jacob asked as he came to Jem’s side and crouched down beside Rilex.
“Tired,” Jem admitted. “Ciyrs’s healings are phenomenal, but they take a lot out of you.”
“So, he’s healed you before?” Rilex asked.
Jem nodded.
“This isn’t the first time that I’ve been wounded in battle,” he said. “It will likely not be the last.” He gave a soft laugh. “And Ciyrs will be there again.”
His eyes started to drift closed and Jacob patted him on the leg.
“You rest,” he said. “When you are ready, I’m sure Angela will be beyond relieved to see you.”
Jem nodded, seeming nearly asleep even as he spoke to him. Jacob turned to Rilex and gestured for him to follow him out of the room. When they got out of the chamber, Rilex looked harried and uninterested in what Jacob had to say to him.
“I need you to come with me,” Jacob said. “Eden found a door downstairs and it’s locked.”
“It can’t be locked,” Rilex said. “I disengaged the master controls. There’s nothing to control the locks.”
“That’s what I thought, too, but the lock is fully engaged. Eden says that the door must have been built independently and never integrated into the master controls. She thinks that Ryan built it.”
As soon as he said it, Jacob suddenly remembered everything that Rilex had told them as they approached the University. The name Ryan jumped out at him, reminding that that was the man who had tried to send Eden to her death among the Denynso and had now thrust them at the mercy of his engineered army. They ran back down the stairs toward the door and found Pyra standing at the bottom of the stairwell trying to pull the door from its hinges.
“Step out of the way,” Rilex said as he approached.
Pyra looked back at him, the disdain that he had carried in his eyes lessened now. He stepped away from the door and Jacob watched as Rilex examined the lock pad. He touched his access chip to it as if experimenting just to ensure that this was not the one lock of the building that had escaped the destruction of the master controls. When the lock didn’t release, he gestured toward the corner of the stairs.
“Go up there,” he told the three of them. “Go around the corner and stay there until I tell you that it’s safe.”
“What are you going to do?” Eden asked.
“I’ll explain later,” he said. “Just go.”
It was the same thing that Rilex had commanded when he went into the administrative office to deactivate the master controls and Jacob knew that it was best that they do as he said. He moved up the stairs and turned his back to the corner. He closed his eyes and an instant later he heard a sound that wasn’t as loud as the one that came from the office but that still shook through him. Then he heard Rilex’s voice call up to them, telling them that it was safe to come back to the door. Jacob followed Pyra and Eden down the stairs and saw them staring at the now-destroyed lock pad on the wall. Pyra reached up and touched his fingertips to it, hissing and pulling them away almost instantly.
“Don’t touch it,” Rilex said. “It’s going to be hot for a while.”
“What did you do?” Eden asked. “How did you do that?”
She sounded frightened and Rilex held up a hand to quiet her. He reached into the leather pouch that he wore and drew out what looked like a small pebble. Jacob knew what it was from his time with Vyker. He should have suspected that Rilex would use that astounding capability to break through the locks, but until that moment he didn’t think that it was possible. Now as he looked at the newborn star in Rilex’s hand he felt suddenly humbled by the experiences that he had had after leaving Earth and that he had come into the company of a species so breathtakingly powerful that they literally controlled the starlight and yet so heartbreakingly rare that Rilex was only one of a few left living of his kind and few, if any, on Earth knew or believed that they had ever existed.
Rilex held the small stone in his palm and gently blew on it. The stone began to glow, weakly at first and then increasingly brightly until it was almost painful to look at it.
“This,” Rilex said, “is a newborn star. I come from an ancient species, one far older than human or Denynso. When our kind still flourished, it was our responsibility to nurture the stars until they were ready to be put into their positions in the sky.”
“You destroyed the lock with a star?” Eden asked incredulously.
“Yes,” Rilex said, reaching carefully into the lock pad to withdraw the small stone he had put there. “Even these young stars are astoundingly p
owerful. Their glow is far more than just light.”
Rilex slipped the two stones back into the pouch and turned his attention to the door.
“I’ll go first,” Pyra offered. He stepped toward the door and rested his hand on the handle. He glanced back over his shoulder at Eden. “Are you ready?” he asked.
Eden nodded and Pyra pushed the door open. The first thing that Jacob noticed was the cold rush of air that washed over them. It was biting, almost painfully cold and it smelled sharp. Pyra stepped beyond the door and a bright light burst on overhead.
“Automatic lights,” Eden murmured. “He doesn’t want any contact with switches.”
Jacob looked around the space, noting the vibrant metal surfaces and pristine floors. Nothing was out of place and it seemed that little had ever been done in the room if anything at all.
“It’s a clean room,” he said. “It’s designed for total lack of contamination.”
“But if he didn’t want it contaminated, he would have a prep station right inside the door,” Eden pointed out. “There would be a place to put on a suit and shoe covers and get properly sanitized before stepping in here. There wasn’t any of that. The door goes straight from the abandoned hospital ward into here.”
“So, it’s not really a clean room,” Rilex said.
“No,” Pyra said. “It’s a front.”
Eden nodded.
“But for what?” she asked. “What is Ryan hiding in here?”
They spread out through the room unconsciously, each taking a small section and examining it carefully. The space was uncomfortable for Jacob, too perfect. He agreed that Ryan was hiding something with this room and that they needed to find it. Jacob ran his hand along the edges of the table set up in the middle of the room, then crouched down to peer into the cabinets built into the base. The doors opened to reveal only unopened packages of laboratory and medical supplies lined up neatly along the shelves. He picked one up and glanced at the date of manufacture stamped on the bottom.
“These packages are years old,” he said. “Nobody has touched them.”
“Here,” Pyra said from across the room. They all hurried to him and saw him touching a small dial on the wall. “What is this?” he asked.
“It’s a thermostat,” Eden said. “It measures the temperature inside the room.”
“If there’s no light switch because he doesn’t want there to be contamination, why would there be a thermostat?” Pyra asked.
“There shouldn’t be,” Eden answered. “The clean rooms upstairs don’t have thermostats. Their temperature is centrally controlled, like the locks.”
“But could that be why there is one?” Jacob pointed out. “The door lock wasn’t activated by the master controls. Maybe the temperature down here isn’t controlled by the central system, either.”
“It still doesn’t make sense,” Eden said. “A thermostat in a room that is designed to look like a clean room doesn’t make sense. If this room hasn’t been used, why would he add it? What’s the point of putting an inaccurate detail in a room that was going to go untouched?”
“If this is a front,” Rilex said, “Ryan might have designed it to look like this to throw off anyone who might accidentally stumble into it but that wouldn’t be surprised by another clean room in the laboratory. It is extremely unlikely that anyone who works in the laboratory would find it. They are too familiar with the building and wouldn’t go looking for anything. If someone was going to find it, they would be outsiders. They probably wouldn’t know what to look for so they wouldn’t notice something like an out-of-place thermostat.”
“Then why put it there?” Jacob asked. “If this room serves no purpose but appearance, why bother adding something that wouldn’t be there?”
“It’s another front,” Pyra said.
Jacob saw Eden look up at him strangely.
“Another front?” she asked.
“You’ve noticed that there is a thermostat here, but what haven’t you noticed isn’t here?” he asked.
Jacob looked around and it suddenly occurred to him.
“Doors,” he said.
Pyra nodded and Eden’s eyes widened.
“Why would he have a clean room to front for nothing,” she said.
“Exactly,” Pyra said. “This thermostat will show you what Ryan’s hiding.”
“How?” Eden asked, then her lips parted in a silent gasp. “The cold,” she said in nearly a whisper. “It’s so cold in here. Give me something that heats up.”
Rilex reached into his leather pouch and brought out one of the stones he had held earlier.
“This should still be warm enough,” he said.
Eden took it from him carefully and touched it to the front of the thermostat. Almost instantly the numbers on the screen began to change. Suddenly the screen went red and there was a loud scraping sound as the wall sank back several inches and then slid sideways out of the way, revealing a rectangular doorway cut into the wall. As soon as it was open Jacob felt slightly warmer air coming into the room, carrying with it the sound of low, agonized groans.
Chapter Five
A light came on above them automatically just as it had when they stepped into the clean room, but instead of being such bright, intense white light that it had a blue cast to it, the light was red. The effect was eerie, but it was only the groaning that Jacob could focus on as they continued into the slightly warmer, larger space. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the light, but when it did Jacob could see that the room they were standing in was curved, the dark outline of a window running along the center of the wall.
The groaning seemed to be surrounding them, coming from behind the wall, and he rushed up to it to try to see through the window. It was dark beyond the glass, but as soon as he lifted his hand to instinctively touch the window, a light came on, on the other side. The red glow from inside the room where he was standing made the image through the window clear and he immediately felt his stomach turn.
“No!” Eden gasped.
She had seen the same thing as Jacob had: a row of cold metal tables, tilted at an angle, with battered-looking hybrids strapped to each one. They had been stripped of their clothing and the straps that held them in place on the tables were cutting into their skin as they fought against the gravity that was trying to pull each of them down onto the floor. Some of the creatures groaned and occasionally cried out, while others hung heavily from their straps in a way that told Jacob that they might have already succumbed to their injuries. Each had black cords attached to their temples and necks, and what looked like small screens in front of their eyes.
“It’s like Creia,” Pyra muttered.
“What?” Jacob asked.
The warrior was standing at another section of the window, staring through at several other hybrids, all in the same position as the ones in front of Jacob.
“Our king,” Pyra explained. “He was captured and held prisoner by Ryan and several Valdicians. This is what happened to him.”
“What is it?” Jacob asked. “What is happening to them?”
Pyra shook his head.
“I don’t know, but this confirms Eden was right. Ryan did this.”
“We have to get in to them,” Eden said. “We have to help them.”
Jacob expected Pyra to protest, to resist as he had the first time that Eden asked for help. Instead, he nodded. They started moving around the edge of the room, trying to find a door that would lead them into the torture chamber. Jacob finally found it and called the others over. Unlike the other doors throughout the building, this one didn’t have a lock pad. Instead, it featured only a simple lock that kept the doorknob still. Pyra didn’t hesitate before planting his heavy boot into the center of the door, crushing it beneath the pressure of his foot. They streamed into the space and Jacob rushed up to the first table. He looked at the screen in front of the hybrid’s eyes and saw horrifying images flashing across it in rapid succession.
He pulled the screen away from the creature’s face and saw it go limp. From the other side of the room he heard Eden’s voice.
“Here,” she said, “It’s here.”
Jacob, Pyra, and Rilex ran over to her and found her standing at the side of another of the silver tables. A smaller hybrid was strapped in place, the positioning of the straps doing little to conceal the fact that this creature was female. The reality hit Jacob hard and Pyra seemed to have the same reaction. It was easier to think of these hybrids not as true living beings, but as crafted weapons. Even if he was to embrace that they were alive, he wanted to think of them only as men. Now that he was confronted with the reality that this hybrid, one who fought in the same battle as the others, his perception of what was happening shifted. He understood that they were still a threat, but in the same breath he wondered if they were the only ones threatened by their existence and what they were trained to do.
The creature lying on the table seemed to strain against the straps that held her to the table, her fingers twitching and reaching. Eden noticed this and reached down to intertwine her fingers with the creature’s.
“Save them,” the hybrid said. “Please. Find them and save them.”
“Who?” Pyra asked. “Who do we need to help?”
“The others,” the hybrid moaned. Her voice was getting weaker as she spoke and her eyes were barely open. “Save them.”
Jacob & Phaedra's Story (Uoria Mates IV Book 2) Page 3
