Athena's Ashes (27 page)

If she took that path, she could end all of this. She had the element of surprise, and Samil wouldn’t be expecting an attack from inside her own walls. The thought of watching the woman die for all the lives she’d already taken sent a sick sort of joy through Renna. Retribution was a bitch, and Renna was more than happy to be the one to deliver it. Easy decision, then.

She slid toward the right-hand vent but paused, glancing back in the other direction. If she did this, if she went after Samil and failed, they were all lost. And Viktis would never forgive her for breaking her promise.

It was so tempting to do this alone, to not have to worry about anyone else. But after what had happened back on Tartarus, Renna knew Samil was a slippery bitch. She’d need all the help she could get to stop her. Working with Viktis was the smart thing to do. And smart was the only thing that would get her through this.

Slowly, Renna pushed herself backward until she could take the left-hand turn. She counted three sections of vent before she found a grate that opened into what seemed to be an empty room. Renna craned her neck, searching the space for any sign of life, but only silence greeted her.

Shit. With her implant not working, she had no idea if she’d drop down into a room full of guards or set off an alarm.

Silently, she pulled out her nanospanner and unscrewed two of the vent screws. Curling her fingers into the grate, she lowered it, letting it hang open.

This was it. Her heartbeat hammered in her ears as she waited for a reaction, but after a few long seconds of silence, she leaned through the hole to survey the room.

A worn desk, a bank of dead monitors, and an old wooden chair facing the door were the only things there. Didn’t look like it had been used in weeks. Renna slid feet first from the hole and landed softly on the ground in a crouch, casting a quick look about the space to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. Her racing pulse slowed when everything stayed nice and quiet. Just how she liked it.

In three steps, she’d crossed the room and switched off the door alarm.

“Get your ass in here, Viktis, I don’t have all day,” she said, throwing open the door with a grin.

Viktis appeared in the doorway, arms raised. “Renna, we have a little problem.”

Major Larson stepped up behind him, blaster aimed directly at Viktis’s head.

THIRTY-ONE

“So nice to see you again, Renna.” Larson’s voice could have frozen lava. “Why don’t we all go inside?” He no longer wore the gray-and-gold MYTH uniform. Instead, a black jacket with a green lapel covered his lanky frame. He gestured with his gun. “Don’t try anything or your friend is dead.”

She glanced at Viktis, trying to keep her expression even and calm. He nodded slightly as if he could read her mind. But she couldn’t risk trying to take down Larson with Viktis in the line of fire.

Dammit. When had she lost her nerve?

She raised her hands. “Fine. I’ll behave. Leave him alone.” Renna backed up into the guardroom until she bumped into the wall.

Larson pushed Viktis into the room, the gun never wavering. “Against the wall, scum.”

Viktis stood beside Renna, frowning. “You had a shot at him. You should have taken it.”

“Shut up,” Larson snapped. He slammed the back door closed and reset the alarm with one hand. The other still pointed the gun at them.

“I didn’t think you’d fall for it, but Dr. Samil was sure you wouldn’t be able to resist coming here.” Larson’s lips twisted into a sneer. “You’re even more predictable than I thought. She’ll be so pleased to know you’re here. Just in time to start phase two.”

“Just in time to stop you, you mean.” Renna leaned casually back against the wall and crossed her arms. “We knew exactly what we were walking into, Major.”

“Of course you did.” His smirk deepened. “Always have to have the last word, don’t you? You really should learn when keeping your mouth shut is the smarter option.” He strode to the door on the other side of the room and pressed his index finger to a bioscanner, wincing as a small needle pricked his skin.

Godsdammit
. A biolock. Almost impossible to hack, even if you did have a sample of the person’s blood. But it wouldn’t do to let Larson see her reaction. She kept her face expressionless as the door slid open and he motioned them to start moving.

“So does Dr. Samil pay well?” she asked. “I can’t think of any other reason someone like you would join up with an undisciplined mob like this.”

Larson let out a low chuckle. “You really are a thief, only concerned with money.” He forced them down a narrow hallway. “Do you want to know how well Samil pays?” he asked, pulling up the sleeve of his new uniform coat and pressing a finger to his wrist. The skin on his forearm pulled back, revealing a mess of wires and human nerves. Just like Myka’s.

Renna stared at the familiar panel, her whole body going icy.

“I was diagnosed with an incurable disease three years ago,” Larson said. “Samil offered to save me in return for my help. It was an easy decision. Even better, I just got an upgrade—state-of-the-art brain and nervous system. Bionic limb, even a shiny new implant, thanks to you.”

Renna blinked at him in dismay. Dr. Samil must have started shipping Renna’s test results out here as soon as Renna arrived at MYTH HQ. There was no way they could have developed this tech without her DNA.

Which meant that by turning herself in, Renna had actually helped create a whole new level of hybrid.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. Even Larson shouldn’t have to go through something like that.

“Why? I’m alive because of Dr. Samil and better than I could have ever imagined. Of course, I believe in her and her cause. And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her,” he added with a growl.

Renna and Viktis exchanged horrified glances. She hadn’t thought there could be anything worse than humans being experimented on against their will, but this was it. What kind of insane person would choose that path?

“Enough talking. Inside, both of you.” Larson shoved Viktis through the door into a cavernous warehouse.

Renna gazed around the once-familiar space, jaw slack. She recognized it, and yet it was completely different. Back in her day, Blur had set up his desk at one end, out in the open so that everyone could see him. And so he could keep an eye on them.

Finn had had his own office area at the opposite end of the space, but he’d rarely been there, preferring to be down with the rest of the members in the central space. They’d had a dozen long tables scattered about, where gang members could play cards or work through jobs. They’d hung out in low couches in each corner, while a sparring ring was set up at one side for whoever wanted to use it.

Now, Samil had set up an open-air lab area where Blur’s desk had been, with machines and medical devices. The sparing ring was gone, along with the couches, but the tables were still there. A whole group of different faces turned to stare at her as she and Viktis entered the space. Renna bit back a gasp. Each one was in some stage of becoming a hybrid—a metal arm or robotic eye or other technological implant clearly visible on each person.

The people standing around the tables in the warehouse space wore neat, nondescript clothing, their skin clean and hair groomed. They were all still obviously human. But how much longer before they turned into the unthinking machines Renna had destroyed at Navang’s facility?

Did Samil have a neural network here, too? Once they connected to it and she controlled them, would they even know the difference?

Would Renna?

Viktis risked touching her arm when Larson turned to glance behind them. “You all right?”

She nodded, swallowing away the fear clogging her throat. “I’ll get us out of this. I promise.”

Before he could respond, a door opened at the back of the hall, and Dr. Samil walked out, dressed in a crisp black suit. The click of her heels against the floor resounded through the space as she approached, and a smile stretched her pretty face.

The hybrids followed her with their gazes, each one wearing the same identical expression of worship.

“Welcome, Renna. It must be strange to come back to your origins after all this time.” Samil’s tone was friendly, and Renna still had a hard time reconciling the woman who’d helped her back at MYTH with the monster trying to destroy them all.

Renna shrugged, faking boredom. “Not so strange. I escaped from here once. I can do it again.”

Samil frowned. “There’s no need to be so belligerent. I wish you’d realize that I want to help you.”

“By turning me into a robot. Not exactly what I’d call helping.” Renna glared at the woman. “I don’t care what you do to me, but let Viktis go. He has nothing to do with this.”

Samil turned her gaze to the Ileth. “I haven’t been able to experiment much on aliens yet. Larson, take him to one of the holding cells. I’ll look at him after I’m done with Renna.”

Larson grabbed Viktis’s arm. The alien tried to struggle, but Larson clapped an exovise around Viktis’s wrists before he could move and shoved him to the floor. “Alien scum.”

Viktis landed on his hands and knees, wincing as his skin scraped the hard cement. Larson kicked him in the stomach with a thud.

“No!” Renna cried. “Leave him alone.”

But Larson smiled at her as he kicked out again with his heavy boot. Viktis collapsed, curling into a fetal position, but he didn’t make a sound.

“Major, take him away and do that where the test subjects won’t see,” Samil said, wrinkling her nose. “I’ll be in my private labs. You won’t resist if you know what’s good for your friend,” she added to Renna.

The fight went out of her. Viktis was here in this mess because of her. She’d do whatever was necessary to ensure he made it out alive. If that meant cooperating with Samil for now, then so be it.

The doctor led her to a large office at the back of the warehouse and held the door open for Renna. A large mahogany desk with two soft chairs in front of it took up one side of the space, while the other side was dominated by a wall full of lab equipment and holomonitors.

“Is this where you destroy lives?” Renna asked sweetly.

“This is where I save them.” Samil sank gracefully into the chair behind her desk. “Do have a seat.”

Standing would only look petulant at this point, so Renna sat down and crossed her legs. “You call experimenting on people saving them?”

“You’ve seen these people. They’d be dead or dying without me.”

“But at least they wouldn’t be monsters.”

Samil shook her head sadly. “Now we get to the truth of it. To you, these enhanced people are monsters, things to be destroyed. Is that how you feel about yourself, too? Is that why you came alone? So that I could end all this pain for you?”

“I’m hardly alone,” Renna said.

“The alien doesn’t count. You’ve left your MYTH friends to come chasing after me.” A knowing smile curved Samil’s lips. “Or wasn’t that your choice?”

Renna curled her hands into fists in her lap. “You planted that false information.
You
turned them against me.”

“And it was so easy. I know you already know how it feels to be all alone, but now you’ve had something even more important ripped away from you. Love. Trust. A life.” Samil leaned back in her chair. “And who did this to you? MYTH. They are a cancer that needs to be purged.”

Renna shook her head. “You’re completely insane. You’re the one who did this, not MYTH.”

“No, I just gave them the information. They decided to believe it. To betray you.” Samil’s expression turned businesslike. “It’s nothing personal. I just needed you to understand why I’m doing this. To understand that I’m truly not as bad as you think. That MYTH has its own problems.”

“You’ve killed thousands of people and experimented on thousands more, but you’re not evil?” Renna shook her head. “Could have fooled me. Just because some organization hurt your feelings, it’s their fault that you’ve turned into an evil bitch?”

“Oh, I don’t blame MYTH.” Samil leaned forward to rest her elbows on the desk. “I actually am grateful to them for making me stronger, for showing me what real ruthlessness is. When they greenlighted the experiments on Banos Prime after the explosion, they showed me what was possible, even amidst all that death. I couldn’t save my fiancée, but I can save so many more now.”

Renna shook her head. “Then what is it you want exactly if it’s not revenge on MYTH for killing your fiancée?”

“This has nothing to do with revenge anymore. Perhaps it did once, but I have a bigger goal now.” Samil’s face took on the glow of a true fanatic. “MYTH has resources beyond your imagining, but beneath their shiny exterior, they’ve become corrupted. They experiment on children. They’ve destroyed whole colonies at a senator’s whim. MYTH no longer serves the galaxy. They serve themselves. And I plan to change that.”

Samil got to her feet, pacing behind her desk. “MYTH is only concerned with how to make more money, how to amass power, how to rule instead of how to serve. I want to create an organization that will become something people can believe in.” She nodded to the door. “Those people out there are only the beginning. The poor, the hungry, the crippled. They all want a better life. They want something more. And I plan to give it to them.”