Modified- The Complete Manipulated Series

by Harper North

  “To serve the Savior?” Lacy ventures.

  “What a waste,” Sky says.

  “Are they still active?” Elias asks. “The laser cutters?”

  Talen reaches out and waves his hand through the air in front of him while guiding Lacy back with the other. “No. Once inside, the SNA must have deactivated them.” He strides forward and through the first three doors. “The servers are underneath what used to be the EHC headquarters.”

  Holding my breath, I follow. The air smells of dust, ash, and death. Another light flickers and dies. Bellaton’s emergency power must be running out. After stepping through a dozen cut doors and over more dried blood, the space opens into a huge cylinder. Intense light shines up from the floor and makes me squint.

  Four guards collapse from Lacy’s attack as I set eyes on them. They fall around a stack of huge metal boxes with wires sticking out everywhere. One fires a shot at the ceiling before convulsing on a light panel and foaming at the mouth. Lacy steps forward, staring the green-uniformed men down.

  I’ve seen enough. The light panels on the floor make the sight too detailed. As the men finish dying on the other side of the space, I eye another open doorway with a rubber tube going from it to the servers. It seems the SNA has brought in power to keep the place running, probably from the distribution complex.

  Four archways lead in and out of here. Air conditioners blow down coolness. The servers give off rippling heat. Rolling desks with laptops and tablets stand all over the room. Printouts lay on the floor. Hackers have been hard at work trying to get into the system. None are here now, so they seem to have taken a break.

  “Why are there only four guards?” I ask. “There should be a team of SNA goons trying to get into this thing.”

  Talen pulls Lacy back to the doorway. “These are rigged bodies,” he says. “I feel it. Their energy is strange.”

  “They’re not humming,” Elias says. “Everyone stay near the doorway. We could have to get close to activate them.”

  “Still doesn’t explain the lack of hackers,” I say. The air holds a faintly bitter smell. The papers scattered over the floor look abandoned, like they fled.

  We wait by the door. The guards lay on the other side of the room near the wall, as if they know that dying and blowing up will wreck the servers and their chance to open the whole border. This room seems too unguarded, even though the SNA has already dealt with tons of death to get in here. I don’t like it.

  “Ops,” Elias orders, “stand near the server and see if that activates the bodies. If you hear humming, back off.”

  Four EHC ops run out to stand beside the server. The bodies do nothing.

  “You must need to get close to make them blow,” I guess. “We have any more of those portable drives?”

  “Here.” Sky pulls another stick from his pocket.

  “Can we get any data out of this thing?” Lacy asks. “I’m not a hacker.”

  I grin at her. “Are you turning a new leaf? Since when do you admit you can’t do something?”

  She punches me in the shoulder in response. It stings.

  Sky walks around the server. A gray wire extends from it to one of the laptops. “We have this,” he says, shoving the memory stick into the laptop. “Looks as if the hackers have already downloaded some data from this thing. Here’s a whole folder.”

  Elias pushes him aside. “You’re right,” he says. “It’s password protected, but Emma will find a way around it.” He copies the folder into the drive. “Easy mission. Let’s go.”

  A computer voice sounds from above. “Illegal download.”

  Then a metal screech fills the server room.

  Panels slide over each door in the cylinder, though the rubber tube stops one from closing the last few inches.

  “That’s not good,” Lacy says.

  “Open that!” Elias shouts, pointing to the only ajar door.

  Four Century class EHC ops run to the panel, crouch, and try to lift it, but it won’t give. Instead, the panel slams down, slicing the giant wire in half. Sparks fly. An EHC op shakes and screams, unable to pry his hand off the wire. Smoke rises from his body as it electrocutes him.

  A hiss sounds from above.

  Sky grips my arm. “Gas!”

  I look up. White vapor curls out of the air-conditioning vents, thickening above our heads. The cloud drops toward us.

  Now I know why the hackers are gone. Bellaton had more traps of her own.

  Elias curses. “Open a door, now!”

  I stuff my nose in my shirt. It might buy me a few seconds. Sky keeps his grip on my arm as Talen does the same to Lacy. My mind spins.

  “The bodies!” I shout, pulling Sky toward them.

  “No!” Lacy shouts.

  But Sky releases me. We bolt across the room, covering it in two seconds. I take the shoulders of an SNA corpse, he takes the legs. The hum fills the air. Behind Sky, the gas consumes more space, pushing down the breathable air. It hangs, stagnant. We have to get the others out of here.

  “Throw it!” I shout.

  Sky and I swing the body back and toss it at the nearest panel. The dead man flies from our strength and strikes the door ten feet away.

  The explosion rocks the room, making more metal screech and knocking me off my feet. I face the lowering gas, a layer of white haze from the floor panels filtering through as smoke curls up to join it.

  Sky falls over me. “Get up! This way—crawl!” He grabs my arm and I roll over, dropping my pistol, but there’s no time to grab it. Elias shuffles beside me, toward the opening that vents out gas and smoke.

  I crawl over the hard floor as my eyes start to sting. The first fingers of death scratch at my face. An EHC op stumbles through the dark opening in front of me. Talen shoves Lacy through. The first thing I see is blood splattered on the floor. I have to crawl through this?

  “Hurry,” Sky growls.

  I drop to my stomach, slithering like a snake through the gore. But then darkness falls and the air clears as I blink away tears. I reach for Sky, pushing myself to my knees as I find his arm. We rise as the smoke and gas turn into a stony gray and lift through a vent above our heads.

  We’re back in the corridor. I cough to get rid of any gas that I might have breathed in and take another breath. The bitter smell still hangs, and I pull Sky deeper into the tunnel and past another cut door.

  Lacy and Talen eye the door while the four surviving EHC ops do the same. I search for Elias.

  He’s missing.

  “Elias!” I shout.

  “We can’t leave him,” Sky yells, running back to the door and diving onto his stomach. He scoots back to the deadly server room. Gas continues to pour out and rise just feet away.

  “Sky!” I dive after him.

  A dark shape lies face down in the doorway. Elias lifts one hand and slaps it down on the floor. He coughs in the tiny, clear layer of air that hugs the floor. Sky grabs his arm, but he can’t crouch without putting his head in the gas. I seize the other arm and pull, but Elias only slides forward a few inches. Even with Century and Noble strength, we have no leverage while on our stomachs.

  “Lacy! Talen!” I shout. “Pull us!”

  Lacy wraps her hands around my legs and pulls. She grunts, but from behind me she can crouch. The three of us slide back as the bitter smell fades.

  Elias gags and looks up at us with red, watering eyes.

  “Up!” I yell, rising. “Get down the tunnel. Breathe. Don’t die on us.”

  Elias staggers to his feet and sways. “We lost two ops.”

  “I know,” I say, trying not to look at Sky. “Put your arms over me and Sky. We’ll get you out of here and call a hover. Stay awake and you should heal.” How well do Noble class mods work against toxic gas?

  Elias rests his arm over my shoulder and his other over Sky’s.

  And then he leans over and retches.

  “We’ve got to get him back to base,” Lacy says. “Talen and I will kill anyone who
gets in the way. Hurry!”

  The exit tunnel isn’t the same one we came through. No dried blood splatters the floor. New blood dries on my top and face. Sky’s, too. Elias throws up again as we walk through the last cut door, but not much comes up. He mutters something as we re-enter the main storage tunnels. No lights shine here. One of the ops turns on a flashlight on one of his guns and leads the way.

  “Hover to Sector 7G,” he says into a hand radio. “We will meet you on the surface.”

  Elias manages to climb a ladder, but he’s slower than an unmodified Dweller. One of the ops helps him onto the surface. Night’s falling. We wait in another alley, this one covered in burned furniture, splintered wood, and busted glass. The apartment building towering over us borders a giant pile of rubble. In the distance, men shout to each other. SNA ops.

  We wait, and Elias sits against the half-crumbled building. “I’m sick.”

  “I know,” I say, hating that Sky and I have hurt him. A lump forms in my throat. “We’re going to get you out of here, and then you’re going to feel better.” Sky and I got him out of the gas pretty fast. Maybe he won’t die. Maybe we managed to save almost everyone.

  The hover appears above us minutes later. Again, it’s a small civilian one.

  Elias doesn’t worsen, but he doesn’t get better, either. His eyes remain red and watery. He can’t blink all the way.

  “My eyes are swollen. It hurts to breathe.”

  “What kind of gas makes it hard for a Noble to heal?” Talen asks.

  The hover lands and crunches into the rubble under it. The door rises, but no one comes out to greet us. Sky and I help Elias into the backseat as the others cram inside. We take up all the seats. Sky pats his pocket to make sure the drive is still there. Once he nods, I say, “Close the door. That’s everyone.”

  “Hold on,” the pilot, a young, red-haired woman, says. “We’ve got Cho back at base, and Emma is working on him right now. She uncovered some very interesting information about the SNA, and from the sounds of it, you also have some fascinating news.”

  “Great,” I say. “But I don’t think Reinhart will be glad we didn’t blow up the servers.”

  CHAPTER 6

  HUMMING, THE HOVER rises from the busted landscape as Sky and I sit shoulder to shoulder in the cramped space. Elias sits on the other side of me. His eyes are still bloodshot and watery and he lets out a wheeze with each breath, but at least he’s awake.

  “Maybe something back at base can help,” I say.

  Elias shrugs. “What kind of gas was that… EHC tech?”

  “I don’t know,” Talen says, sitting beside Lacy in the next row. “Bellaton didn’t let anyone near her private servers, but I heard that they existed while they had control of my body.”

  “We’ll see what she was hiding.” Sky pats his pocket. When he does, he brushes my thigh, making Elias look away.

  Elias and I won’t be friends again. The thought makes my stomach twist.

  As the civilian hover climbs, I realize Ethos looks like a ring of electricity surrounding a dark central area—the bombed-out center of the city. Some people might not have run away yet. I wonder if they know the danger of the SNA and their messed-up ideas.

  But we can’t warn them now.

  “Hold on to your seats!” the pilot shouts.

  The hover banks to the left, making me lean into Elias. He grunts.

  “Sorry,” I mutter.

  Something explodes outside, shaking the hover. I turn and look out the window to see flames rising from a skyscraper. We’re under fire. The SNA’s even shooting at civilian hovers that go into the city center. They don’t care about anyone.

  My breathing picks up as the pilot banks to the left again, missing another explosion from below. This one sends me off my seat. My head hits the ceiling and stars blow up in my vision. I flail, reaching for Sky, and I find his hand and squeeze.

  Drape died like this.

  His last breaths replay in my head. His wide eyes. His last smile. His skin losing all color. I can’t do it again. Not with Sky.

  The hover dips, and I grip the bottom of my seat with my free hand, holding myself in place. At last, we stabilize.

  “We’re out,” the pilot says. “We dodged a big SNA hover that didn’t have the maneuvering ability we do.”

  I open my eyes to find Sky facing me.

  “We didn’t lose anyone?” Sky asks the pilot as if he knows my concern.

  “No. We didn’t lose a soul,” the pilot answers.

  I bite my lip, not daring to let my guard down. Elias coughs.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  “I’ll be fine, Fin.” Elias shifts his body away from me.

  I lean back against Sky’s shoulder. The lights vanish below as we sail over the rest of the city and cross the outskirts. We soon reach the barren parts of the EHC territory, where the SNA hasn’t gone yet.

  The rest of the flight takes twenty minutes, give or take. The redheaded pilot flies into a cave on the side of the mountain. Rock passes as we slow, and eventually the cave opens into a landing bay where we stop on metal grating. The doors rise, letting us out.

  “We should get something to eat and drink before doing anything,” Elias says, looking healthier than before. “We’re all tired. Lacy, Talen, go rest or recharge or whatever. We might need your abilities for the general soon.”

  Elias twists and walks off without saying a word to Sky or me.

  Fine.

  Sky reaches for my hand, but I pretend not to notice and walk towards the showers. He follows. The underground bunker has a large community shower where Sky and I draw a curtain and wash the blood, dirt, and grime off ourselves.

  I toss my bar of soap at him, but he’s oblivious and it bounces off his bare chest. “Try not to make Elias mad.”

  “What did I do?” he asks as another shower turns on somewhere past our round curtain.

  I scoff. “You know Elias is in love with me. I don’t feel that way about him but try not to rub it in his face. That’s all.” I press my lips together.

  Sky grabs the spray nozzle and gets me in the face. “That’s for throwing stuff.”

  “Hey!” I blink water from my eyes.

  “Knock it off, you two,” Lacy says from outside the curtain.

  “Lacy!”

  But she has a point. Now isn’t the time to horse around, even if we all need a break. Sky and I finish cleaning off, dress, and head to the cafeteria to get some grub. After eating a meal of raisins, fried potatoes, and canned vegetables—nothing special, but it beats our miners’ rations—Reinhart strides into the room with his hands folded behind his back.

  “So,” he begins, “you didn’t destroy the servers. The SNA will get access at any time now.” His lip twitches. We’re still rats to him, and he’s not letting go of his superior attitude.

  “They can’t grab the codes unless they want to get gassed,” I tell him.

  “It looks like they tried,” Elias says, walking into the cafeteria behind him. “And failed.” The red in his eyes has faded. The gas is finally wearing off.

  He leaves out the part about us blowing up one of the trap panels, leaving an escape route. That could be a problem unless the panels fix themselves, but I don’t correct Elias. The last thing I want is for him to get angrier at me.

  “Gassed?” Reinhart echoes.

  “There’s got to be a reason Bellaton wanted nobody in her personal stuff,” I say. “And it might have to do with wherever the EHC gets all its power.”

  “Reinhart,” Emma says, pushing past Elias, “I’ve found some information about the SNA that I think we should all hear. After that, Sky will show us this data he found.”

  Hope swirls in my core, and we scarf down our food and follow Emma. I trail her through a metal door that hangs open.

  Cho lies on a hospital bed, wrists and ankles tied to the railings with plastic rope. He still wears his uniform, though Emma has unbuttoned the front to attach elec
trodes to his chest. Two more stick to his forehead. Another pair clings to his forearms, held with medical tape. The general stares at the wall beside the door.

  “So?” I ask. “Is he like the Aura ops?”

  “Yes and no,” Emma replies, eyeing a computer monitor on the wall. “He has technology inside of him, but not nanites like Talen and Lacy have. It seems the SNA implants tiny chips inside its military and possibly its citizens as well. Cho shows no signs of genetic modification, natural or artificial.”

  “We are pure humans,” he says.

  I roll my eyes. “Not this again.”

  Lacy pushes into the small room beside me. “Keep saying your lines.”

  General Cho’s jaw tightens like he wants to lash out at us. He reminds me of Talen, in a way, like he’s hiding something human behind a machine.

  “He has one chip in each forearm, and in each foot as well,” Emma says. “They give off a strong magnetic field. Enough, possibly, to cause a person to hallucinate or suffer other mental symptoms.”

  “The SNA wants their people crazy?” Lacy asks.

  I jab my elbow into her side. We don’t need to tick him off.

  “This magnetic field must repel the cosmic radiation coming from the sky since the start of the Flip,” Emma continues, ignoring her. “Before the Flip, the Earth’s magnetic field did this for us. It seems the SNA gives everyone their own personal field when they’re born.”

  “So they stay ‘pure,’” I say. “What about naturally modified people?”

  “I’ve been asking Cho about this,” Emma says. “But all I get are his rehearsed lines about the Savior, who invented this technology.”

  “Cho, you’re brainwashed,” I say, stepping forward. “If you help us, we can keep you away from the government. Tell us what the plans are for this magma plume, and we won’t hurt you.”

  “I won’t betray the Savior,” he replies firmly.

  Emma frowns at me. “He’s not like Talen, Fin,” she whispers. “Talen never aligned with the EHC the way Cho aligns with the SNA. He’s likely been loyal to them his entire life. Disabling his technology will only kill him. It won’t bring him to our side.”

  General Cho turns his head to look at me. His eyes widen, as if he’s trying to tell me something.