“So, listen up,” Trig says. “The harnesses are ready. I got a little more welding to do on the base and I’d like the thing to be perfect, but I just don’t think we’ve got that kind of time. I’m thinking, since we’ve got everybody together, we ought to grab Garrett’s gang and Nok and get on out of here while the gettin’s still good.”
“How about Larson?” I ask. “He came here with us. Has anybody seen him?”
“He was traded back to the Ianua.” Trig says, but his frown deepens like there’s more to it that he doesn’t want to say. Milo doesn’t give me a chance to ask either.
“How soon are you talking about leaving?”
“Now-ish.” Trig grins. “How ‘bout one of you go back and gather up the troops.”
Mark scratches the back of his head, looking over at the Ball. “Wait up. Did you get the launch problems fixed?”
“Launch problems?” I gulp and Trig grimaces.
“See, the problem is, that this Ball,” he spreads his hands in front of himself to show us the width of the Ball, “has got to go up that ramp and clear the trees outside.” He brings his hands much closer together, to indicate the size of the ramp.
“Doesn’t math still work the same down here?” Mark says. “The Ball’s too big.”
“He’s right,” Milo says, looking from the Ball to the ramp and back again.
“And somebody’s still got to stay back to launch it, right?”
“What? There’s no automatic launch?” I turn on Trig and he sighs.
“Sure, sure. It’s automatic. Hey Mark, go on and unbuckle the harnesses for me, wouldya? So we’re ready for the finale?” Trig says. He waits for Mark to jog across to the Ball and scramble up inside. Then Trig turns back to Milo and me and continues in a lower tone.
“Some things got to be sacrificed when there ain’t time to do them right,” he says with a sad grin. “It’s nothin’. I just got to hit the button on the wall, so who knows? Maybe I can grab hold like Garrett did.” His whole face says something different though. It says that what happened with Garrett and Zane was a one-in-a-zillion thing. And looking at the button panel on the wall and the way the Ball is aimed to launch, the bottom of the Ball is facing the panel.
I remember the violent explosion that propelled the Ball out of Zane’s barn. The gases that propel the Ball will be even more explosive in this small space. They’ll annihilate everything, including whoever’s standing at the control panel. It’s brilliant because Trig’s made it so that no one will be able to bring the Ball back down to the Cache. No one will be able to, because anyone who happens to be there, won’t be alive after it’s gone.
“Tell Ruka I made one helluva launching system, huh? She’d love it. This thing could blast a lead-filled rocket out of here. We’re going to take out the side walls if it goes right, so everybody in the Jamb’ll be gettin’ outta here too. And I’ll be the last one out, so I can be sure to close the door.”
We all stand there, silent. I think Milo and I are both quietly thanking Trig or saying good-bye or honoring the sacrifice or just too freaked out by it to say a word. I’m doing all of it, all at once.
Trig claps the thumb-side of his fist into his opposite palm. “Alright then. We got a job to do, y’all, and I think we ought to get on it. Mark, I don’t think you should go back out there to collect everybody, if you got bugs after you.”
“I agree,” I say. “I’ll go. I told Teagan I’d bring her baby the teddy bear. It’s the perfect reason for me to be there.”
“Agreed,” Trig says at the same time Milo shakes his head and says, “Disagree.”
“I don’t care which one of you goes,” Trig says, “so long as somebody does.”
“Then we’ll both go,” Milo says, turning to me. “You can grab Garrett’s fake family and I’ll get Nok.”
“Groovy,” I say.
“Leave the gun here,” Trig says. “Might raise a bit of suspicion to have you draggin’ that thing all over the place.”
“Around here? You think so?” I say and he actually thinks on it and shakes his head. He unlocks the door.
“Naw, you’re right. Take it with you. Might come in handy.”
“See you soon,” I say. As we slip into the hall, I realize what our quick return means to him.
The countdown is beginning on his life.
“I’d like to say there’s no hurry,” he says just before he closes the door on us. “But hurry.”
***
Milo and I split up at the end of the hallway leading to Garrett and Teagan’s door. He leaves for the Hub, to find Nok. All I’ve got to do is bang on Garrett’s door, give Teagan the bear, and tell Garrett to club her and drag her to the Free Ball. Like, now.
But I’m still just standing here, shifting from one foot to another, glaring at The Fury that pass by, so they won’t try to jack my teddy bear. I just have to knock, but I keep hesitating, afraid that Teagan will answer, or that Garrett will answer with her, or that something will go wrong.
“You alone?” I hear a man say as he stumbles up the hall toward me. I raise my hand to knock, but before I can bring my knuckles down on the door, Garrett swings it open.
For one second, maybe less, we share the mutual shock that he opened the door and that I’m standing in front of him. Garrett’s eyes hit the gun at my hips and then flick up to my face, and for just another split second, he can’t seem to place me. Not with a gun. Not knocking on his door.
And then his arm shoots out, grabbing me and yanking me into his room. The man in the hall shouts something as Garrett slams the door.
I’m standing in a tiny entry, with a wall behind me and an open archway leading into a kitchen. The back of a dirty couch is on the left, separating the foyer from the living room. Garrett whirls to face me, and moving as quick as if we were fighting, he disarms me and deposits the gun on the couch. Willow hits the floor. His hands are on my waist. He pushes me against the wall, beside the archway. His body presses mine flat.
I gasp.
He kisses me.
His mouth exhales a whole citrus grove into my lungs and his lips crush against mine. I feel every muscle of his body flex against me, hungry and desperate and relieved, all of his need for me exploding through his touch, flooding my senses. I let my hands move over his shoulders, tracing the familiar path to his neck. The curls of hair at the nape are missing. But the explosive shiver his touch sends through my body is not.
He could paralyze me for days with his kiss.
“Where’s Teagan?” I ask weakly, after he releases my lips. He leans his forehead on mine. I don’t know if I could stand it if he moved away. I keep my hand on his arm, in case he tries. His hand remains anchored on my waist, as if he’s thinking the same thing. “I’m here to tell you that it’s time to get out of the pralines.”
“Trig sent you?”
“Yes.”
Garrett closes his eyes, which looks to me like one big Cyclops-eye, since he’s so close. He sighs.
“She’ll be back in about ten minutes.”
“Okay,” I say. But not one of his muscles even twitches with the hint of him moving. I roll my forehead to the side, so my lips fall into his cheek. They fit there, as if his face was sculpted just for a kiss like this. The muscles of his arms finally flex as he snakes his arm around my waist and pulls me even tighter against him.
“Just don’t move, Nalena,” he whispers. His lips are on my neck. “I want us to be together, safe, like this, forever.”
“We will,” I say. “But we’ve got to get out of here first.”
And the door shocks us both as it swings open. It’s too fast for Garrett to step away.
Teagan is in mid-sentence, “I forgot to take that lousy purple lipstick to trade…”
Grace is in her arms.
Teagan’s voice dies like a flower thrown on a flame.
And then she turns away and bellows down the hall, “TRAITORS!”
***
Grace
breaks into wails.
“Go!” Garrett shouts. I shoot past Teagan, into the hall, and Garrett follows. He grabs Teagan and drags her and the baby along with him. Teagan howls like a fire alarm, “TRAITORS! THE TRAITORS GOT ME! TRAITORS!”
I hesitate. “The gun!”
“Leave it!” he shouts. People pour into the hall like they’re being called to dinner.
A man with shocking white hair and a profound limp stumbles toward us, followed by Honey and her refrigerator of a boyfriend, Kevin.
“Them’s my traitors!” the limping man shouts. “Those ones is mine!”
Kevin surpasses the man easily, stomping down the hall toward us and knocking away The Fury like he’s running for a field goal. “Not this time! I’m gettin’ me a island castle! These ones are for me!”
We bolt away from Kevin. It’s crazy easy to knock away The Fury. They grab for me, but with my field up, they’re like swatting away flies. I think most are Simple or crazy or, if they were once Contego, they’ve been out of practice too long to be effective. And if they’re Alo, they know better than to try and fight us.
I clear the way so Garrett can drag our Traitor Alarm and Grace along with us. But we can’t make a direct line for the garage or the growing mob will follow us and there won’t be time to get into our harnesses. I take the hall leading to the Hub. Garrett shouts something to me that sounds like an atta girl or a that’ll work, but either way, I know he’s with me and I full steam it ahead.
Kevin and Honey are still behind us. Focusing in on them, I can hear Honey puffing as she slows down and quits the chase.
“If you can’t catch ‘em, Kevin, then git that baby for me!” she howls to her boyfriend. “I love that baby’s eyes! I want that baby, Kevin! Git that baby for me!”
“I’ll git that baby and we can put it up in our castle with us, Honey Bear!”
Teagan stops yelling about us being Traitors when she hears Honey and Kevin yelling about Grace. She clamps her mouth shut, but it’s too late. The Fury are coming at us from all angles and there are so many, I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it to the Hub. Teagan picks up speed. Garrett and I drop into perfect sync on either side of her, punching and kicking like we’re playing Whack-a-Mole with The Fury that pop out of the doors to join the chase.
“This way!” Teagan says, pushing toward the left split in the hallway, instead of the right. The left hall is piled high with so much furniture and junk, the hall narrows, and it looks like only two of us can fit through at a time.
“Go!” Garrett shouts. We take the left. Good thing. The right floods with bodies who have joined the chase. Garrett, behind us, leaps up and drags down a bureau and a desk, stacked end to end so they touched the ceiling. The furniture tumbles down with a loud crash and then we hear the screams of The Fury, who are caught under it and behind it. There are double doors up ahead. We push through them as Garrett pulls down another teetering pile that includes a huge metal filing cabinet. It lands with a colossal crash as we burst through the doors and into the Hub.
Our grand entrance isn’t even noticed. The Hub is already exploding with screams and fights all over the place. A guy shoots past us from a corner, with another man in pursuit. Teagan grips her baby close. I glimpse Grace’s eyes, wide open and blinking, but she is silent, as if she understands and wants to escape as bad as the rest of us.
The only way out is through the doors across the room. We weave our way toward the doors, avoiding and knocking away The Fury. Pursuers trickle in behind us, from the demolished hall, but they’re caught up in the fighting almost immediately, and mostly, we are forgotten. Only a few are still screaming, Traitors! but their shouts are swallowed in the chaos.
But even if we make it across the room, I don’t know how many pursuers might have circled around and are waiting on the other side of those doors. I feel the anxiety sink into me. I can’t let the fear win. These what ifs are just empty balloons of fear, with dangling nightmares attached to them.
I change my mind.
Mom, mom, mom.
I wish she could hear me through the walls. I wish she could help. But she’s the one who needs saving now.
And we’re the only ones that can make that happen, by getting everyone to the Ball.
A girl flies at me and I knock her back. That’s when I finally see Milo. He’s lying on the floor, his nose gushing blood. The end of the Cornerstone sock exposed and frayed; the Cornerstone’s been cut from his belt loop.
“Garrett!” I shout and he automatically changes direction with me, pushing through the crowd toward Milo. Teagan yanks back on my arm.
“Leave him!” she screams. “Leave HIM! THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE MY BABY!”
I break away from her as she shrieks even louder. Garrett punches out a guy who grabs hold of Teagan’s hair. I cross the floor to Milo in four strides. He’s alive, but he’s just lying there, blinking and stunned. I pull him to his feet.
“They got it,” he says. The blood gushes down his face, over his lips and chin, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He’s too caught up in his failure to hang onto the Cornerstone. “We got to go after them.”
There are a bunch of them’s all over the room, fighting and running and shouting. I have no idea how we’d find the them’s that Milo’s talking about. I get that leaving the Cornerstone behind means the Mastermind will have it. That he is a step closer to stopping a Reset. But we don’t have any hope of doing anything at all, if we can’t get out of here first.
And then a chick with a gun throws open the doors and sprays a corner of the room with bullets. The room goes silent for only a split second, long enough to hear the injured moans and for her to shout, “I said that was my ham sandwich, you bastard!”
Then three people jump on her and they go down in a heap, everyone grabbing for the gun.
“We’ve got to go now,” I say, pulling Milo back to Garrett and Teagan. The room is focused on the gun fight in the corner and most of The Fury are climbing over each other to see what’s happening. Teagan’s wild-eyed, hanging onto Grace as Garrett spins in a circle, looking for a clear exit. There isn’t one. We lock eyes and I say, “What’s the plan?”
But there are only two doors. The one we came in and the one blocked by the gun fight.
“Here,” a voice says behind us. Garrett, Milo and I all turn at once to see the tall, itchy guy, waving us toward a couch near the wall.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
We don’t say his name. Even Teagan doesn’t ask any questions. We just follow him around the back of the couch. Nok smashes us in behind the couch, huddled together but facing the crowd. Milo looks at me and I shrug. I have no idea what we’re supposed to do. Nok goes to the end of the couch, beside Teagan.
He motions to Grace, locking his own arms across his chest.
“Tight,” he says. Teagan nods, squeezing the baby to her.
Nok eases the toe of his shoe under the couch as his fingers dig behind the back cushion at the same time. He taps three times with his shoe.
One moment, I’m looking across the room at the gun-squabbling pile of bodies, and the next, I’m falling through a flap in the floor. We land on something soft. On my back, looking up, I see the puckered, black, fabric flap and I hear what I think is the actual floor, as it slides back into place in the Hub. We’re in a Veritas tunnel.
“Magnet and sensor-rigged trap door,” Milo says and Nok grins. “Impressive.”
“Come,” Nok says as he jumps up and we follow. About fifty feet away is a trapeze lever, hanging from the ceiling. Nok vaults up and grabs it, riding it back down until his feet touch the ground. The moment they do, there is a loud thump and a cloud of dust follows us down the tunnel.
“Sand?” Garrett asks. “You collapsed the tunnel with sand?”
Nok grins again, but waves us on. “Hurry.”
We break into a run. Teagan’s breathing hard right away, but won’t let anyone else carry Grace. We follow Nok and ask at intervals if we can ta
ke the baby, but Teagan always refuses. All she asks is, “Where are we going?”
I don’t know if I should answer, so I don’t. Nok and Milo don’t say anything either, but Garrett finally tells her, “We’re getting out of here.”
“How?”
“You’ll see.”
“I don’t want them to get my baby.” The fear clots her voice.
“They won’t,” I tell her. I don’t know if it’s the truth and I don’t care. It’s a luxury to even be able to think it. Either way, Teagan seems encouraged and picks up her pace a little. All I see are Grace’s big, green eyes, staring at me as she remains silent and cradled to her mother’s chest.
“They’ve got the Cornerstone,” Milo says.
“They got it? Off you?” Garrett asks.
“Yeah.”
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it right now.”
We turn a corner and Nok pulls up short to a door, a regular door, in the tunnel wall.
“Here,” he says. He opens the door and we step into the garage, from the shadows close to the control panel. Our feet crunch across the glinting shards of glass. Teagan tightens her grip on the baby, as she wobbles over the uneven floor. When I put my hand on her elbow to steady her, she doesn’t pull away. She actually gives me a ghost of a grin.
Judging by how the light is filtering into the garage, I figure it must be midday outside, until I see the glow of the welding torch go out. Then, I think it is only the twilight, from the soft blue shadows that are cast on us.
Trig pulls off his welding helmet and drops it on the ground.
“Good timing,” he says. “Let’s get y’all outta here. It’ll be good to see you go.”
When we’re close enough to him, even in the dim light, I can see the pinch of his forehead and how his eyes are swollen with the tears he’s holding back. I have to look away before I run all the scenarios in my head of how we’re leaving Trig behind and how he’s getting through the last minutes of his life right now, for us. Living it and unliving it, having to wait for us, while we contemplate climbing into the harnesses, so he can launch us to a safety he’ll never see.
Jamb (The Cornerstone Series) Page 24
