Siege of Shadows

by Sarah Raughley

  Rhys. My throat closed up as I thought of him struggling in that nightmare thanks to the orders of his father.

  “Saul infiltrated the city and took over the defense center,” Howard continued. “It won’t be long until their APD is down. The place is a war zone now, but once the phantoms come in, there won’t be much we can do. We need the real Effigies.”

  “And I’m betting that’s exactly why we’ve been locked up here without so much as a word,” Chae Rin said. “Damn it!” I heard the slam from her fist against the wall and the grunt of pain immediately following. “Okay,” she said. “I really need my powers back.”

  “We’re working on that. Your next inoculation is coming in just under four hours. Once you cross the four-hour mark, you’ll start to feel your powers return rapidly. There’ll be one, at most two people coming to your cell. Check underneath your tray.”

  There was another surface underneath the bottom of the tray. I lifted off the first layer. A small syringe.

  “It’ll knock them out temporarily,” Howard said. “But you’ll have to be fast. And you’re only going to have one shot. After that, one of us will tell you where to go.”

  We had a plan. In four hours, we’d strike. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too late. Howard and Eveline couldn’t use even a secure connection for too long at the facility when you never knew who could be around the corner. But the girls and I could talk. Belle explained how to hold the syringe while concealing it, which tissue to hit for maximum effect.

  “It’s a bit creepy that you know this,” Chae Rin said.

  “It was part of my training,” Belle answered, annoyed. “It’s small enough to fit inside your palm. You can use a napkin to hold it.”

  “Then what? We force them to take us to Saul?” Lake sounded skeptical. “I don’t see how that would even work.”

  I picked up the syringe and inspected it closely, turning it every which way. “Have a little faith, I guess.”

  But only one hour had passed when my earpiece picked up the sound of a door opening to one of the cells.

  “What’s happening?” I said. “Are you guys—”

  “What is it that you want?” I heard Belle ask whoever had entered her room. “My inoculation isn’t scheduled for another three hours.”

  “Director Prince Senior’s orders. Your interrogation over the attempted murder of Naomi Prince starts now,” said one agent, and though his voice grew farther away, I could still hear him when he said, “Congratulations. You’re first. Take her to the interrogation cell. And prep her for the Surgeon.”

  First I was on my feet. Then I was at the door pounding it with my fists. There was no point; it was soundproof. I knew they couldn’t hear me yell, but Belle could. Her earpiece would have picked it up.

  “Belle, fight them! Use the syringe!”

  She didn’t. She couldn’t. First, from the sound of their voices, it was clear there were more than two of them. If she attacked, she’d give us all away, and we’d never see the other side of these cells—until it was our turn to be “interrogated.” But I was well aware of how liberally the Princes interpreted that word. And I knew all too well the horrors the Surgeon was capable of.

  “Belle, it’s okay!” I cried, and the other two girls agreed with me. “Save yourself!”

  “Quiet,” she said suddenly. “You think I can’t take this?”

  Her words were followed promptly by a slap to the face. I heard the impact crisp and clear over the comm.

  “This one’s got a mouth. The little uppity French bitch,” the agent said. I was sure she’d made them think she was talking to them. She wasn’t.

  I kicked the door in frustration as I heard Belle’s tray skid across the floor.

  “Take her!”

  Belle waited for the agents to leave and the door of the interrogation room to slam behind her. I could hear her earpiece moving, muffling between her fingers, then inside her palm.

  “Welcome.” A deep, chilling voice. One I remembered.

  It was the last I heard before Belle crushed the earpiece.

  30

  “WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING,” Chae Rin said frantically for the twentieth time in thirty minutes. “She could still be in there!”

  “You guys don’t know. Maybe he’s doing something different with Belle. Maybe he won’t . . .” Lake stopped.

  I could tell she was shaking. I almost wish I hadn’t told them what the Surgeon was capable of. And if I remembered Brendan correctly, it wasn’t just torture. Head games. Hours of emotional manipulation. Belle was mentally strong, but even she had her buttons. And buttons were easier to press when your prisoner’s defenses were being battered by intense pain.

  “Howard. Howard!” Chae Rin called again. “Eveline! Are you there?”

  After a few minutes: “I’m sorry. It’s me, Eveline.” She lowered her voice. “I had to find an empty room. I . . . I heard everything. I know about Belle.” The tremor in her voice as she said the name made that too clear. “I just couldn’t respond.”

  “You guys have been gone for, like, years! Where were you?” I yelled.

  “Getting ready to deploy,” she said. “Howard’s already down in the hangar. They need reinforcements in Oslo. Thing are getting worse.”

  “The APD?” Lake sounded too afraid to ask.

  “They’ve started evacuations of the city.”

  I crouched down by the door. “We need to get out as soon as possible. We need to free Belle.”

  “You won’t get another chance until they come for you. Just make sure that after you get out of the Hole, you follow her directions exactly.”

  “Whose directions?” I asked. “Eveline?” I tapped my ear because the sound was shorting out. “Eveline?”

  She was gone. There wasn’t anything more I could do but wait, each minute stretching into infinity until my door creaked open again. Quickly, I grabbed the syringe, tucked inside a clean napkin, and held it in my fist.

  “Mellie.”

  The skin of my lips cracked and thinned as I pressed them together. One of Dot’s assistants entered my room with a security agent in tow. I slid back until I was against the wall, but she didn’t seem to care. Without greeting me, she pulled her hand out of the pocket of her long white lab coat and began opening the silver briefcase she carried.

  “I thought the R & D department was under investigation after the stunt you pulled, and yet here you are.” I smirked. “Guess you passed the loyalty test.”

  “Yes, I did,” she answered coolly, her bob tilted to the left with her head as she began fiddling around in the case. “Unlike Dot and Pete. But then, I’ve always been loyal.”

  Dot and Pete. Those two had run from the Sect. But had they run because they were guilty? Or because they were scared?

  Mellie used a pad to clean the area around my neck. And not for the first time.

  “You were the one who injected me with that mind-control crap.”

  She laughed a little at my limited technical vocabulary, but it didn’t deter me. I peered up at the bodyguard by the door, who stared down at the both of us through his thick shades.

  “Tell me the truth,” I said. “Did Dot tell you to do all that?”

  “Dot’s a brilliant mind in her field,” Mellie replied. “She also needs help remembering what day it is. You really think that’s the kind of player you want on board for a conspiracy?”

  “But you are, right?” I flinched at her touch, the wetness of the alcohol pad picking up the chill from the room. “They had nothing to do with it, did they?” A wave of relief washed over me, but it was short-lived. Mellie pulled out the inoculation gun from the briefcase. I eyed the pen-like device as Mellie checked its contents, then turned my attention to the agent standing at the door. “So who do you take your orders from?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Don’t worry.” Mellie flicked the gun with her finger. “We’ll take you to see him soon enough.”

  “You really t
hink so, don’t you?” I gave her a generous smile as she lifted her arm. “Poor you.”

  A crash. It was from Chae Rin’s room. Mellie turned around sharply, her eyes wide as the commotion began. Without wasting another second, I took advantage of her distraction, punching her as hard as I could across the face, knocking her out. “I really don’t feel sorry for that,” I said, jumping to my feet with the syringe in hand.

  I was fast, too fast for the agent to overcome his shock as he reached for his gun. I kicked the weapon out of his hand, ducking his swing. He managed to grab my neck as I straightened back up, but he’d left his exposed.

  This was my chance.

  I jammed the syringe into his neck. Only one shot—and this shot hit its mark. He sputtered and gasped, letting me go as I squeezed the pump. Even with the chemicals coursing into his system, he still had enough strength to continue attacking before the effects set in. And while his next punch was less focused, I couldn’t afford to be hit. Taking advantage of his sluggishness, I cracked his kneecap with another hit, and when he doubled over in pain, I gave him a swift uppercut. My powers weren’t back yet, so the impact battered my knuckles, but the attack did the trick. He fell back through the door, hitting the ground with a satisfying thud.

  “I’ve had just about enough of the Sect’s bullshit,” I said, striding out the door after him as he moaned and struggled to get up. “We’re done with you.” One kick to the head and he was out cold.

  Lake and Chae Rin had come out at the same time to watch me deliver the final blow.

  “Damn, kid,” Chae Rin said, “you’re—”

  “Search their pockets,” I said, crouching down over the agent’s unconscious body. “They use a keycard to get into the interrogation cell.”

  They didn’t waste any time, disappearing back inside their cells to search for what we needed. This agent’s pockets were empty. So were Mellie’s.

  “Found one!” Lake said, and she ran out into the hall with the same little white keycard Brendan had used to get inside.

  Grabbing it from her, I swiped the pad. The door opened.

  Tears were swelling in my eyes before I even saw the blood wetting Belle’s blond hair and dripping down her stomach. Her T-shirt was discarded on the floor, so I could see all the cuts he’d made on her stomach, the holes, the burns. I thought, if anyone, Belle would be strong enough to take it. But mingled with the sweat and blood were tears staining her cheeks. For me, it was three hours of her silence. In reality, it was just that I couldn’t hear her screaming.

  The Surgeon didn’t seem to care as we ran across the deep, white cell to get to her. He didn’t put up a fight, either. Brendan was right about him. He wasn’t a Sect agent in the sense of duty. He’d already gotten what he wanted. Stepping back, he put up his hands in surrender as a crying Lake helped to unstrap Belle from the operating table.

  “You learn a lot when you’re inside someone,” he said suddenly. “This one . . . has a lot of pain. She told me many things.”

  I grabbed his bloody scalpel off the table.

  “I don’t think you’re capable of that.” His eyes were serene as he watched me approach him, half his expression obscured behind his mask. “But she is capable of many things under the right circumstances. Or so I’ve learned. Especially now. You don’t know what torture can do to someone.”

  “Maia!”

  Only after Chae Rin’s cry did I realize that I’d already raised the scalpel above my head.

  “We have to go,” she said. Lake and Chae Rin had helped Belle put her shirt back on. One of Belle’s arms was around each of their necks.

  They were right. Besides, June wouldn’t have wanted to see me like this. I lowered my hand, dropping the scalpel, but the Surgeon had one last thing to say.

  “I think you’ll be surprised soon, little one.”

  A hard punch in the face was all it took to shut him up. He went down hard, unconscious.

  “Let’s go,” I told them.

  We dragged the unconscious bodies into our cells and shut the door behind them before we took off. With Belle disabled, we had to march up the long, dark stairwell slowly, but with each step, I felt my power stir up inside me. Our magic was coming back. Which was good, because we were going to have to fight our way through security.

  Up the stairs, through the corridors. They were shooting at us the moment the door slid open. We ducked behind a corner as the bullets whizzed over our heads. Belle was groaning from the impact, covering her head feebly with shaking hands.

  “Someone do something!” I said, trying to call forth fire, but while I felt the energy swell inside of me, it wasn’t powerful enough to even make my fingers spark.

  “Trap and release, trap and release, trap and release,” Lake muttered furiously under her breath before she let out a cry. “Ugh, I’m tired of all you people!”

  A spontaneous burst of wind funneled through the room and crashed into the security. I got to my feet in time to see their bodies smashing against walls, landing at odd positions across the room, their weapons flying several feet away from them.

  Lake blinked. “I guess my powers are coming back.”

  “Well, you were always better at it than us.” Chae Rin picked Belle’s arm up again. “Let’s go. Come on, Ice Princess, heal fast. We can’t carry you around forever.”

  Belle muttered something incoherent as we went through the scanners and out the entrance. We were free, for the time being. Only problem was, we had no idea where to go.

  “Hello.” I tapped my comm as we turned a corner into an empty hallway. “Eveline? Howard? Anyone?”

  “If we can find the parking lot, maybe we can swipe a car. I know how to hot-wire,” Lake said. And when we all stared at her, she shrugged her shoulders, indignant. “What? I can’t know how to hot-wire cars?”

  “That won’t be necessary. We have a car waiting for you.”

  In the middle of the hallway, I froze at the sound of her voice in my ear. I couldn’t believe it. “S-Sibyl?”

  “Duck!” Lake hissed, and pulled me into the nearest corridor while some agents came around the corner.

  “Sibyl,” I whispered. “Where are you?”

  “Later.” She was all business as usual. I didn’t have time to question her. The agents disappeared into another room without seeing us, but it would only be a matter of time before we were caught. “Nathan, tell me their coordinates.”

  Too many things had happened in the past few minutes, and I wasn’t sure if my mind was just playing tricks on me. That couldn’t have been my uncle who’d answered Sibyl with a calm and assured voice.

  “They’re in the east wing of Building A-4.”

  “Uncle . . .” My breath hitched in my throat. “Uncle Nathan . . .”

  “Later,” Sibyl repeated, and I knew how much she hated having to do that.

  “Maia, take the emergency stairwell three doors down until you get to the basement floor.” It sounded like he was reading off of a computer screen, monitoring our movements. “Then go out exit two into the parking lot. We have people waiting for you.”

  I wasn’t having it. Even as we made our way through the exit and down the stairwell, I didn’t stop until I prodded an answer out of them.

  “You know as well as I do, Maia,” Sibyl said. “There’s something going on inside the Sect. I set up this communication line for only those people I knew I could trust.”

  “Wait, you’re the one who set this line up?” Lake stumbled under Belle’s weight. Belle muttered something, but no one heard her.

  “You didn’t think I was back home twiddling my fingers this entire time, did you?” For the first time maybe ever, I was happy to hear the twang of bossy annoyance in Sibyl’s voice. “The Sect is a very large organization, girls, and if it’s compromised, then the world has a reason to be afraid. If we’re going to fix what’s happening, we’ll have to work together on this.”

  “That’s why she sent someone to pick me up in New
York and take me to her safe house,” said Uncle Nathan. “Someone from the MDCC was onto me. Sibyl intercepted a message they sent the Sect.”

  “So there really was a leak at the MDCC.” I grasped the baluster tightly.

  “More like leaks. Saul couldn’t have gotten all those APDs down with only one person helping.”

  “Saul’s in Oslo right now,” Chae Rin said. “We’ve got to stop him. How do you plan on getting us there, Langley? Or do you have a jet waiting for us too?”

  “You’re not going to Oslo,” she said. “You’re going to Communications. You have to stop Director Prince Senior.”

  Rhys’s dad?

  Lake stumbled again, earning an angry grumble from Chae Rin, who had Belle’s other arm around her neck. It was Belle herself who gently pushed them both away, waving her hand to stop them when they approached her again.

  “I’m okay,” she said, though she was still wincing in pain. “I’m starting . . . to heal.”

  Her eyes didn’t show it. They were off focus, their blue pupils dulled. Shutting them, she shook her head and took in a deep breath. “It’s okay.”

  Our feet finally touched the pavement of the basement floor. Running out the second exit, we searched for our accomplices. Section B-2, Uncle Nathan told us. And there they were, two agents standing by our getaway car, waving us forward.

  Shots rang out. The elevator several feet away had just spat out two security guards, who started firing the moment they saw us. The agents flung open the car door and hid behind it for cover.

  “Get in!” they yelled.

  We made a run for it. Chae Rin had just enough power to cause a sinkhole underneath the security guards, but even when we hopped into the van and the agents drove out into the night, more security streamed out of another exit in the parking lot.

  “Sirens,” I said as they began to ring out over the entire facility. They knew we’d escaped. “Sibyl, we need to get out of here. Why the hell are you guys taking us to Communications?”

  “Because according to my sources there, Brendan Prince can’t stop his father with words, and he’s too cowardly to do it through action,” Sibyl answered. “But Arthur Prince is between a rock and a hard place. Oslo is a war zone. Saul promised death and he’s delivering. With the phantoms around the perimeter of the city, nobody can go in or out. It’ll become another Seattle Siege.”