by Leigh Walker
“Yeah, of course I do. She’s such a hypocrite. She says she’s killing people to save the world. It’s such bullshit.”
“Right?”
We spotted Cranston at the other end of the hall. “He had the vials,” I reminded Finn. “We need to talk to him.”
We walked faster than was probably safe for Finn, but Cranston’s long legs carried him quickly away from us, and we needed to catch up.
“Sir.” Finn was breathing hard by the time we reached Cranston. “It’s nice to see you back with us.”
Cranston stopped walking and turned his steely gaze on Finn. “Don’t lie to me, soldier. I’m back, and I have more discretion than ever.”
Finn cleared his throat. “Good for you. Not that I care, but good for you.” Abandoning his weak attempt at a nice guy routine, he continued. “We need to know where the vials went. And we need to see Nora. Now.”
Cranston crossed his arms against his chest. “You don’t have the clearance necessary for information on the vials, and Nora’s in a meeting.”
Finn quickly looked around the corridor, which was empty. He took a step toward the older, taller man. “I’m the one who got those vials. I’m the one who brought them back. You tell me where they are right now, or you and I are going to have even more of a problem.”
Cranston turned away, but Finn grabbed him and threw him back against the wall. They glared at each other in a hate-fueled alpha-male pissing contest.
Cranston’s lip curled. “Watch it, soldier.”
Finn grabbed the sergeant’s jacket. “You watch it. Now tell me what I need to know, or I’m going to beat the crap out of you.”
Finn didn’t back down. I might’ve imagined it, but I thought Cranston wavered a bit. He knew Finn well enough to know that he meant it.
“They’re in the lab, dumbass,” Cranston spit. “And they won’t let you in there.”
“To the lab, then. We’ll just bring you and your security card along.” Finn grabbed Cranston and dragged him beside us. “It’s a good thing we passed it earlier, ’cause I know right where we’re going.”
“I didn’t miss you two.” Cranston struggled against Finn. “Not one bit.”
“Stop fighting him, or I’ll lift you up and fly you down the hall,” I warned. “We might bump into light fixtures or that scratchy popcorn ceiling. Very chafey.”
He cursed and muttered something under his breath, a super-vulgar swear followed by the word teenagers.
I smiled a little. I’d almost missed Cranston.
Luckily, we didn’t pass anyone in the hall. When we reached the lab, Finn yanked Cranston’s security card out and ran it through the scanner.
We went inside and looked around, trying to get our bearings.
But then I stopped. She was there, sitting calmly at a table.
Who the hell had let Althea Remington into the government’s top-secret laboratory?
16
Both Sides Now
What is Althea Remington doing here?
Finn let go of Cranston as he joined me in staring. Cranston angrily adjusted his shirt, making sure no one had seen Finn manhandling him.
Althea was seated at one of the lab tables with a microscope. She peered into it and explained something to Nora and a nearby lab worker.
Finn scrubbed a hand over his face. “There goes the neighborhood.”
Nicole was nowhere to be found, but I wanted to talk to her badly. What on earth were they doing with Althea?
As if she sensed us, Nora whipped her head around. Frowning, she approached us with determined steps. “You two don’t have clearance to be in here.” Her gaze flicked to Cranston. “I’m guessing you had an escort.”
“An unwilling one,” Cranston seethed.
She tilted her chin at him. “I brought you along to babysit, Sergeant. You need to do a much better job.”
She turned back to us. “What do you want?”
Finn clenched his hands at his sides. “How is my sister? And Riley’s mother?”
“Alive. We’ve isolated the antidote. That’s what Althea’s doing.”
“And you trust her?” Too sharp, my voice attracted stares and whispers from the workers. I leaned forward. “Do they know who she is?”
“None of them care. They just want the antidote, just like you did when Finn here was sick not so many hours ago. It’s a business arrangement, Riley. She’s helping us.”
“And what are you doing for her?” Finn asked.
“You need to report to your temporary barracks,” Nora said smoothly, ignoring him. “Don’t leave them until you’re summoned.”
“We did what you asked on our mission. We want to see Riley’s mom and my sister.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“Why not?” Finn raged.
“The cameras are down. As soon as they’re up, I’ll come and get you. Now go.” She glanced at Cranston. “And Sergeant Cranston’s been reinstated with full authority. So please don’t manhandle him again or steal his security card. You’ll face discipline if you do.”
She turned on her heel, dismissing us.
C’mon, let’s go find the others. Maybe Nicole knows what’s going on. But I had a funny feeling in my stomach, a sick one.
It was as if the game was the same, but I’d realized I was playing for a different team.
Nicole unlocked the barracks door for us then quickly secured it as soon as she ushered us inside. Everyone except for Rachel and Emma, who hadn’t been discharged yet, was sitting on his or her bunk.
Nicole paced the length of the room, looking pale.
“Have you seen or heard anything about Trey or Dave?” I asked her and Morgan.
“No.” Morgan sat up on her bunk. She looked exhausted. “Nora said the camera’s out.”
Finn and I looked at each other. “That’s what she said about my mom and Tess, too.”
Nicole didn’t stop pacing. “I think the reason they brought us here is because it’s a non-communicative facility.” When she was met with our blank stares, she explained, “It’s dark here. Nothing’s coming in, and nothing’s going out. It’s a top-secret facility.”
“Can you tell us what’s going on with Althea?” I asked. “She and your mom were looking pretty chummy just now in the lab.”
She stopped pacing. “I have no idea what’s behind that. They know each other. That’s the first thing that caught me off guard.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, and I don’t remember what they said specifically, but I could tell from the moment we got into the car that they’d met before. It was not a good feeling.”
“What did they talk about?”
“The antidote, the virus. That was it. They dropped me off in here before I could find out what was really going on.”
“And what do you think about how Althea’s being treated?” Maya asked. “It’s like she’s a visiting professor, for Christ’s sake.”
Nicole, always pulled together, looked completely flabbergasted. She raked a hand through her hair. “I have no idea. I knew my mother didn’t want Althea dead. I had no idea that she wanted to consult with her.”
Josh raised his hand. “There’s less staff here. And it’s dark. Do you think…do you think she’s doing this off-book?”
Nicole frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know… Just that maybe this base is Nora’s little private domain, where she can do what she wants? How else can you explain people not freaking out about Althea being here?”
“Do you mean… Are you saying…” Nicole was tongue-tied, unable to get a full question out.
“I’m saying, what if she’s doing this on her own?”
We all looked at each other, unsure.
Nicole paled. “Are you suggesting my mother’s a double agent?”
“I don’t know. And I don’t know if it’s your mother, or if it’s The Division, or what the hell it is.
” Josh shook his head. “I just know that being here like this, being off the grid when there isn’t really even a grid left—something’s not right. You can feel it, can’t you?” He turned to Finn. “Have you been listening in at all?”
“Of course, and I thought it was all normal.” Finn frowned. “But maybe they’ve been warned about us.”
Unease, as heavy as a weighted blanket, settled over our group. “Are we…” Morgan looked around the room. “Are we in a prison?”
“We need to get Emma and Rachel discharged.” Nicole sprang up. “Because no matter what’s going on, we’re sticking together. Don’t let anyone in here.” She motioned to the door. “Keep it locked it until I get back.”
She took off down the hall.
Micah locked the door and stood beside it. “I don’t know about you guys, but I think it’s time to make a plan. We need to go our own way.”
“But we have our families to think about,” I reminded him. “I want to get as far away from Nora and Cranston and the rest of them as I can, but I can’t abandon my mom. I won’t.”
“We all understand that.” Kyan shook his head. “But they have the antidote now. Maybe that’s the best we can do.”
“And leave our families to rot, or worse?” Morgan asked. “No way!”
“But how are we going to get them back?” I asked. “The only way Nora would release them is if we have leverage. We gave her everything she wanted tied up with a bow. And now we’re screwed.”
We were all quiet for a few minutes, each lost in our thoughts.
Maya shrugged. “Unless…”
I looked at her. “I’m listening.”
“Unless we take back what we gave her. Or take something else she needs badly.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
Nicole opened the door then. Maya stared at her as she ushered Emma and Rachel inside.
“Yeah, I do, actually,” Maya said.
17
All For Nothing
Maya explained her idea to us. “Either we desert and say we won’t come in until our demands are met, or we fake-kidnap Nicole.”
“I don’t think either of these are viable plans.” Nicole shook her head. “We have powers, but their resources are something that we can’t compete with. We’re fighting our makers. We wouldn’t have the element of surprise, which is something that’s really concerning me about Althea. She knows what each of us can do now. And who knows what else Nora’s told her?”
“I’m not saying we attack them.” Maya bit her lip. “I’m saying we leave. They need us. We’re their precious trillion-dollar pets.”
“But even if they bargained with us—which I doubt—how would we even work out an exchange?”
“They give us our families back, and then we leave for real.” Maya’s voice shook, echoing the jittery feeling that coursed through me. Our backs were officially against the wall, and I had no idea what our best move was.
Nicole started pacing again, which meant her thoughts were firing a million miles a minute. “Even with the antidote, Riley’s mom and Tess are going to be weak. They’ll be recovering for a while. If we leave, we don’t have a medical staff to care for them or even a place to stay. We’ll be on the run. And you know as well as I do that there’s not a lot of safe places left out there. And who knows what Althea has planned next?”
“But we could figure it out.” Maya twisted the edge of her T-shirt. “I don’t feel like it’s safe to stay here.”
“I don’t mean to be negative, and I don’t want you to think I’m on their side. I’m not. But think about it,” Nicole said. “We’re not in great shape. Emma and Finn are weak. Riley’s still recovering from getting shot. I don’t think this is our best idea.”
“Nora promised us that she’d save our families if we did what she wanted,” Morgan said. “We did that and more. But it’s as though none of that matters. We came back, and nothing’s different. They’re still not giving us answers. They aren’t delivering on their promises. We don’t even know if our families are still alive. We have nothing, and we’ve given them everything.”
“I know.” Nicole sighed. “Let me try talking to her. Maybe I can appeal to her as my mother. She has to know I’m freaking out about Trey, just like the rest of you are upset about your loved ones.” She frowned. “Even though that’s exactly what she wants.”
“We all need to hear what she has to say. See if she’ll meet with us too, okay?” Morgan asked.
“I’ll do what I can.” Nicole was gone again in an instant.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Maya started in. “I like Nicole as much as the rest of you, but if we kidnapped her, Nora would break. Then she’d have to negotiate.”
“I think Nora knows we’d never hurt Nicole, though.” Micah frowned. “I don’t think she’d view it as a credible threat.”
“What about stealing back the vials or the AI?” Rachel asked. “They’re all hot to trot about that.”
“We need them to send the antidote to Riley’s mom and Tess.” Finn shook his head. “Stealing it isn’t going to help.”
“We have to do something,” Morgan said. “We’re no good to everyone else if we’re dead.”
Emma, still pale, suddenly spoke up. “Whoa, how’d you get to dead?”
Morgan shrugged. “Things seem…hopeless. I feel like I’m caught in a trap.”
Emma leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
“We did what we were supposed to do. If Nora’s working with Althea Remington, I’m kinda thinking this is game over.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I thought I was going to save Dave and my family. I thought this time would be different, but now Althea’s here, and I don’t know… I don’t know who the enemy is anymore.”
“I understand what you’re saying, but we know whose team we’re on—our own.” Emma rubbed her temples. “Hold on, guys. Something’s coming through. Let me take this.” She flopped back on her bed, acting as if the vision she was about to have was an important call she needed to answer.
The rest of us gathered together while Emma closed her eyes.
Josh shook his head. “This doesn’t add up. If Nora was working with Althea, she could’ve just video-chatted her and politely asked for the antidote and the AI back. Plus, Althea wouldn’t have had to steal it in the first place if they were buddies. If they’re actually on the same team, they could’ve accomplished a lot of this without having to involve us at all.”
“But Nora still answers to her superiors.” Finn scrubbed a hand across his face. “If she’d stolen the antidote and given it to Althea, she’d have to answer for it. And she fought to get C-fab back. She didn’t give that robot up on purpose.”
“Maybe Althea and Nora have been playing their own little game,” Maya said. “Maybe they’ve been challenging each other all along, but now they’ve decided to pool their resources. Whatever’s going on, I am never going to be okay working for a government that would harbor a mass murderer like Althea Remington. I want to save our families, too. But I will fight Nora, and I will fight The Division. If we don’t, Morgan’s right: it’s game over. For everyone.”
Emma suddenly sat bolt upright. “Holy shit.”
My heart stopped. “What did you see?”
She rubbed the base of her neck. “We are so, so screwed.”
18
A Short Leash
Finn’s face visibly paled as he listened to Emma’s thoughts. He absently rubbed the back of his neck, and my stomach sank.
Kyan shook his head in disgust. “I knew it.” His fingers ran over the scar at the base of his neck.
My panic was rising. “Why are you all grabbing your monitors?”
“Let me tell them.” Emma’s voice was hoarse.
Finn reached for my hand and held it tight.
“Because that’s what my vision was about. Remember how they implanted Riley’s mother into Micah and had Kyan all possessed and creepy in Levels? They’ve finally figured
out how to control us.” Absolute fury etched Emma’s pretty face. “And what’s worse is that Althea helped Nora figure it out.”
“Why?” I croaked. “Why would she do that?”
Just then, the door jerked. Someone outside of it cursed then slid their security card through.
Nora strode into the room. “Finn, Riley, I have an update for you. Come with me.”
Emma looked at us, her lips set in a grim line.
We have to go, Finn said, but we might not be coming back. Per Emma just now.
In a very un-Finn-like move, he reached down and hugged her. “Thanks for always having my back.”
She squeezed him hard. “Don’t you say goodbye to me.”
He looked down at her and smiled, but his face was taut. “I’m not.”
I hugged her too, trying to ignore the knot in my chest.
Nora pursed her lips. “Move it, soldiers. Time is of the essence.”
I looked at each of my friends as we followed her out. Why did I feel as though I was never going to see them again? “Tell Nicole we’ll be right back.”
Micah’s gaze locked with mine. “I will, Freak Show.”
His use of his nickname for me did nothing to quell my rising jitters. Outside in the hall, Finn addressed Nora. “I thought Nicole was with you.”
The admiral didn’t bother to turn around. “We finished our meeting. She’s being debriefed on another matter.”
“What other matter?”
“It’s classified, Finnegan.” She walked briskly down the hall.
“What’s going on with Tess and Gail?” he asked, refusing to be brushed off.
“I’ll update you in a moment. Not in a hallway.”
We turned down another corridor, and Finn squeezed my hand. If they do something to us, you have to fight it. I won’t be able to, but your power’s different.
What do you mean? I thought back.
Our monitors. I won’t be able to stop them. But you can use your telekinetic energy to block it. He nodded toward Nora. And I think you better be ready sooner rather than later. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know what they’re going to do to us. But I love you, Hanover. Always have, always will.
