The Girl Who Dared to Fight

by Bella Forrest

  I stopped and looked at him, my shock at his revelation causing my jaw to drop. “He declared the entire department psychologically contaminated?” I repeated, unable to help myself. By doing that, he’d condemned every Knight in the Citadel to death in the eyes of the Tower. He was trying to wipe out an entire department! But why? What purpose would it serve to eradicate the entire department? Was it just to kill more people, or to punish them for voting me in as the Champion?

  Lynch nodded, his face twisting in sympathy. “You’ve been painted as the ringleader, which calls into question the entire department. They elected you, after all. And before you go getting upset about that… it gets worse.”

  My stomach twisted, and I steeled myself for more bad news. “What is it?”

  “Scipio’s announcement included a report that all departments were under lockdown, and that power would be cut to them until they selected new department heads, to prevent further rioting and insurrection. If anyone from any department is found to be aiding and abetting you, then the entire department will suffer the consequences. Which means you need to avoid any other departments once you get out of here.”

  I nodded. It wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be, but it wasn’t optimal. Still, I felt less awful about heading away from the Citadel to fetch Tony, knowing that the Citadel still had power and was fighting back.

  “Anything else?” I asked as he stopped at an open shaft where a basket hung from a woven metallic rope. I had seen these all over Cogstown before but had never ridden in one.

  “The power that Scipio is supposedly cutting off is actually being diverted,” Lynch told me as he approached the basket and gripped the edge of it tightly with one hand, waving for us to get in. I quickly did just that, hauling myself over the edge while he continued to speak. “We can’t figure out where it’s being diverted to, but based on the legacy memories of the last Requiem Day, we know that it’s going somewhere in the Core, and that they need every bit of power the Tower can produce to do whatever they’re doing. Now that Water Treatment is breached, it’ll only be a matter of time before the sentinels divert that department’s power to the Core, and then they’ll mount an attack on Cogstown to do the same.”

  “Do you have weapons to mount an adequate defense?” Dylan asked, stealing the question from my very lips as she got into the basket.

  “Not against sentinels,” Lynch said, warily watching Rose as she approached the basket. “They’re tough to kill.”

  He wasn’t wrong, although I knew for a fact that electricity in high enough amounts could slow them down. I turned my attention to Rose for a second as she tentatively put one foot in the basket, and tried not to yelp as the concave bottom flexed under her weight.

  “You are sure this is able to hold my weight?” Rose asked the engineer. “I can always climb down if it would be safer.”

  “It’s made to hold five tons,” he said flatly. “We use it for hauling heavier things. Now hurry up. We don’t have much time.”

  I wasn’t sure I liked the snap in his voice, but I kept my mouth shut and waved for Rose to come join us. The metallic rope screeched slightly as she settled her full weight in the basket, and I looked up at the ceiling above, where the wench mechanism for the rope was seated, eyeing the brake to make sure it wasn’t failing. The components continued to groan as Rose sat down, and the basket started to sway some, offset by her weight.

  Lynch quickly hopped in after her, and then turned a hand crank on the side, and within moments, we were descending into the shaft. We descended for several seconds while I thought about what he was telling me. Sage was diverting the power from other departments to the Core, but for what? Surely it was part of his plan to kill Scipio and replace him with Kurt, but how would more power do that? If anything, wouldn’t that make Scipio stronger?

  And somehow, amid all this chaos, the Citadel was fighting back, resisting the energy drain. I knew it was Leo and Quess; they had to be doing something to keep the power going, which gave me at least some small hope that they weren’t completely unaware of what had happened in the cells. I just hoped that they were able to mobilize the Knights to stand against Eustice and the others, and that they didn’t ask too many questions when the fighting hit the fan. They needed to focus on their survival.

  I needed to focus on slowing Sage’s plan down. And that meant getting Tony.

  Yesterday.

  11

  Lynch wasted no time leaping over the lip of the basket as soon as we hit the bottom of the shaft, waving for us to follow. I jumped out quickly, taking a moment to give Dylan a hand, and then walked at a brisk pace behind him. I wasn’t sure why, but the few minutes we had spent in silence descending twenty floors seemed to have given my body some sort of permission to start feeling every ache and pain from the last two days, coupled with a deep exhaustion that made even my bones feel heavy.

  I did my best to shake it off, but with every step I took, I became more aware of my discomfort, as well as how thirsty and hungry I was. It was like my body was just rubbing salt in the wound, and I couldn’t help but feel angry at it for trying to remind me that I was only human. I couldn’t afford to be human today. Today, of all days, I needed to be more than that.

  Moving helped, and as soon as we emerged from the forest of girders that made up the bottom floor and hit the crowds of people racing around the massive central air processing unit, my guard went back up and my head went down, Lynch’s warning still bright in my mind.

  Rose was a big enough deterrent to have people scurrying away from us without even casting Dylan and me a second look, but the closer we got to the air processing unit, the thicker the crowd became, until we were practically surrounded by people, their eyes dark with mistrust and wariness. The only thing that seemed to hold them back was Lynch, who repeatedly bellowed, “These individuals are allies to the department and have been given safe passage through Cogstown,” in a loud voice that seemed to help pacify those who looked ready to assault Rose outright.

  We made our way through them, enjoying the path Rose carved out of the crowd for us, and heading directly toward the central air processing unit. It was still operational, and the roar of the machines began to drown out all ambient noise. The rumbling in the floor plating grew more intense as we moved closer, until I was convinced that the air around us was practically vibrating. And if I thought it was loud now, I knew it would be even more intense below.

  Lynch approached a break in the railing that surrounded the unit, right under a flight of stairs, then reached into a bucket, pulled out several sets of earmuffs, and held them out to us. I grabbed a pair and fitted them over my ears, cutting off the vicious assault to my eardrums. He pointed at himself and then held up one finger, then at Dylan, producing two, three with me, and four for Rose, and then waved for us to follow. As he started to go down, I realized he’d been giving us a marching order, and reluctantly stood aside to let Dylan go before me. There might be a reason he wanted the larger girl to go second, but a part of me resented not being right next to him, in clear control of the situation.

  Still, I knew the most about what was going on, which meant that my knowledge had to be protected at all costs. I might have done my best to fill Dylan in, but the entire conspiracy was just too large and too complex to fully explain in one sitting, and I needed to do everything to preserve that information, if only so I could keep filling people in so they could form a defense. Not everyone would believe me, but if everything else failed—if I couldn’t stop Sage before he replaced Scipio with Kurt—then I had to be responsible for recruiting people to work against him after the fact. But that was only if he won today, which I had no intention of letting happen.

  Besides, Leo and Grey would kill me if they found out I had been breaking the rule about not going in first.

  So I stood back as Dylan went after him, and then followed her down the narrow steps that dead-ended at a pressure door. I paused as Lynch turned the hand wheel, his teeth ba
red in a tight grimace as he fought against the mechanisms inside, and then exhaled in relief when it finally moved.

  He pulled the door open, and a wall of heat and sonic pressure hit us, simultaneously making me sweat and pushing at my exposed skin, telling me that the noise being emitted from inside was beyond deafening. Lynch continued to pull, revealing the red-hot glow of the forges that seemed to serve as the only lighting in the staircase.

  Great, I found myself thinking as he stepped through the door, heading in. As if I weren’t dehydrated enough.

  Dylan waited a few seconds before following him, and I followed suit, giving myself a moment to swipe some of the sweat from my forehead. I really hope we don’t have to spend too long in here.

  I descended the stairs, stepped through the door, and found myself in a stairway shaped like a square, with steps running along the wall, separated from a central shaft by a thin metal railing. The glow of the forges came through square holes cut into the walls of the shaft. The staircase only went down from where we had just entered, and we followed it, hugging the walls. Periodically, landings in the corner of the stairway held doorways, but Lynch ignored them at first, continuing his fast-paced descent.

  We passed two doors before the heat grew so intense that my sweat started evaporating from my skin the moment it appeared. It was at door four that my eyes started to feel parched, the lack of moisture in them making it difficult to blink without some discomfort.

  By door seven, I was beginning to feel lightheaded. I tried to shake it off, placing one hand against the cage-like wall, but the heel of my boot caught the edge of the step in a funny way and I stumbled, almost falling forward. I managed to catch myself a few steps down—with my knee—and sucked in a deep breath, trying to ignore how dry and parched my mouth was, before I slowly got to my feet again and looked around.

  Dylan had paused on the stairs and was giving me a concerned look, but Lynch hadn’t seemed to notice my distress, and was already making his way to the next landing, and door eight, unless I was mistaken. I waved her off as I pushed myself to my feet, and then almost sagged back down in relief when Lynch stopped in front of the door and began spinning the hand wheel. Instead, I used the promise of a nice, cool hall in the next room to put one foot in front of the next, and lumbered down after Dylan.

  When I reached the door, I almost moaned in pleasure at the frosty air that was blowing through, cooling flesh that felt like it was about to be baked right off. I stepped in and made room for Rose. Once she was inside, Lynch signaled for her to close the door. Moments later, the heat and sonic vibrations that I had been feeling in the shaft suddenly died down, and Lynch started taking off his earmuffs, indicating that we should as well.

  I quickly pulled them off, and was stunned by how quiet the hall seemed. It had felt as if everything outside of us had been falling apart in some terrific volcanic eruption, but somehow, here, in the heart of it all, we’d found a deep stillness. Disconcerted by how different it was, I took a few steps down the hallway, and found that it grew colder the farther I went. My breath came out in a vapor cloud, and a sudden chill erupted along my skin.

  “Where are we?” I whispered, compelled to do so out of an instinct that told me not to give my position away.

  “The server farms,” Lynch said in response, his voice also pitched low. “We hide them over the forges. Not that it matters. One of the legacy spies we arrested was one of our internal IT workers. Sadie and Sage knew where they were the whole time, and had probably been working to undermine our system. We were in the process of analyzing what damage was done when everything started. I left a crew down here when I received word that Lacey was back. They’re working in the main room, but door controls are farther down. C’mon, I’ll show you.”

  He moved past me down the hall, heading for the only turn there was—an abrupt right—and I followed a step or two behind him, looking down to check my watch. This journey hadn’t been quick, and I saw with shock that we only had fifteen minutes left to get to Tony and prevent Sage from downloading him.

  How were we going to get him out in time? Where were we going to put him?

  I was so engrossed with wondering that I ran into Dylan’s outstretched arm, and grunted softly in surprise. She pushed me back a few feet, and I let her, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end in warning at the intensity on her face. I shifted my gaze past her toward Lynch, who was perched at the corner, looking down the next hall. He glanced back at us and then motioned for me to change places with him. I slid by Dylan, worried that the sentinels had somehow gotten here first, and took a quick peek around the corner.

  Two gray-clad Eyes stood guard outside a door about thirty feet down. Their hands were crossed in front of them, and I could see that both had their pulse-shields at the ready. I drew back as the one closest to me started to turn down the hall, and quickly began signaling to my companions in Callivax.

  Two Eyes are standing guard in front of the main server room, I explained. There are probably more inside.

  Dylan’s eyes widened, and the hand that she had placed on her baton began pulling it out, her other hand signing, What do you want to do? You lash in while I draw their fire? Or should we send Rose in and see what they do?

  I stared at her for several seconds, thinking. To be honest, I didn’t want to do any of those things. I wanted to handle this quickly and efficiently, not waste time with any of that nonsense. Besides, I wanted to know why they were down here and what they were doing. If there were two guards outside, I was betting there was at least one more inside, if not a few of them. And whether they knew what they were participating in or not was irrelevant: if they were part of IT, I couldn’t trust them.

  I pulled out my gun, ejected the clip, saw that I had three bullets left, and slapped it back inside, a very simple plan forming in my mind that hopefully wouldn’t take up more than two or three bullets. I had two spare clips with me, but that was only twenty extra bullets. Not nearly enough for everything we’d come across. Dylan gave me a surprised look when I glanced at her, and then I signaled, Wait here, before moving around the corner and bringing the gun up.

  I was five steps in when the first guard spotted me, but I had expelled a breath and squeezed the trigger, a deadly calm coming over me, before he could even open his mouth. The bullet caught him in the chest, and his body jerked backward and down. The second Eye, a woman, started to lift her weapon, a shout of warning forming over her lips, but I sighted down the barrel of the gun, not feeling one iota of remorse as I squeezed off a second shot. The bullet caught her in the stomach, and she staggered back, clutching her abdomen, while I took two more steps forward and shot her in the head, dropping her. I ejected the empty clip and inserted a new one.

  The door they were guarding slid open, and I fired a round at the frame causing it to ricochet. A surprised yelp inside told me I had gotten their attention, and I quickly announced, “This is Champion Liana Castell, and you have two options right now: surrender, or I come in there and kill you all. You have three seconds to throw out your weapons and pads. Make your choice now.”

  I waited a beat, and then began counting down for them. “Three… two… one…”

  My lips were around the “one” when two bags were tossed out, followed by two pulse shields. I gave a satisfied nod and then turned to look over my shoulder at where Dylan, Lynch, and Rose were standing. Dylan and Lynch were looking a little alarmed at my violent display.

  I didn’t care. The Eyes had been standing in my way, and were currently the enemy, as far as I was concerned.

  “Rose, can you come here and make sure they are being honest for me, please?”

  “Of course,” she said in her synthesized voice. “Stand by.”

  I moved to one side, keeping my gun trained on the door, and waited as Rose passed me and went in, taking care to step over the two bodies on the floor.

  “There are only two of them,” she reported, her voice carrying down the hall.
“And they are unarmed.”

  I was already moving toward the door, and stepped through it a moment later, to study the server room. It was almost exactly like the ones in IT, but much smaller, maybe only one hundred feet in length, though still filled with cages. The cage on the wall opposite from us was open, and several wires were connected to the computer towers there, which told me the techs had been working on it when we had interrupted them. The two techs, both men, were huddled against one of the cages, staring at Rose with fear in their eyes.

  “We are just following orders,” one of them practically wailed when he saw me enter. “We got a message from the Core telling us we had to divert power to—”

  “Shut up, Lidecher,” the other man snapped, straightening some. “She knows. She’s the one responsible for the attack on Scipio!”

  The first man gaped at me, his eyes wide, and swallowed audibly. I stared at both of them, wondering whether I should even waste my breath trying to tell them they were wrong, but decided against it. The Eyes would undoubtedly blindly believe whatever messages they were getting from the Core, and with Sadie in control of it, and Sage in control of Scipio, there was nothing I could say to change their minds. So instead, I focused on getting information.

  “How did you get in here?” I demanded.

  “Why should we tell… AH!” He had been cut off by Rose, who had reached out and grabbed a fistful of his uniform, then hauled him off his feet and slammed him against the ceiling, cutting off his cry.

  I was so alarmed by her act of violence that I took a step back, wondering if she was malfunctioning again. “Rose?” I asked.