Inside Out (23 page)

“What do you mean not responding?” the captain demanded.

I lowered Zippy a few inches into the room and flipped the switch. No hum or spark, according to Logan the pulse would be silent. Still I would have felt better to at least see a flash. Trusting the technology, I yanked Zippy back.

The captain pounded on his computer. “Damn thing.”

“Engage the override, we’ll control the systems from here,” the fleet admiral ordered.

My turn. I dropped down onto the fleet admiral. A few cries of alarm had alerted him, but all he had time to do was look up. We landed together in a heap. The stun guns from
all the Travas aimed at us, but none of them worked. I wore one of Anne-Jade’s anti-stunners just in case. Yanking my protected stunner from my belt, I neutralized the fleet admiral, the captain and the uppers working near the override controls.

It didn’t take long for a flaw in my plan to become obvious. I needed more time to aim and shoot than I expected. The other uppers left their seats to join in the fray, grabbing for me. Takia remained at her post.

Outnumbered, it was a matter of time before I was unarmed. Stunned bodies littered the ground and a few uppers moved awkwardly with half-stunned body parts. Two men held my arms with tight grips. Not part of the plan. I was supposed to stun everyone and open the Control Room door from the inside.

The admiral remained by his station. He glanced at his stun gun in his hand, then tossed it aside. “Report,” he ordered his team.

Except for the two holding me, the uppers returned to their posts.

“Override engaged, sir,” an upper said.

“Lieutenant Commander Karla is at the door,” Takia reported.

I suppressed a grin of triumph. The override would be knocked out as soon as the door opened and Anne-Jade, Jacy and his group stormed the room.

“Let them in,” the admiral said.

Preparing to join in the fray, I braced for action. The double metal doors slid aside with a hissing noise.

My heart shattered and the men beside me grunted and supported me as my legs turned to liquid.

Lieutenant Commander Karla Trava stood at the door with Commander Vinco on her right side and Doctor Lamont, or rather Kiana Garrard on her left.

SPEECHLESS, I STARED AT MY MOTHER. DOCTOR LAMONT’S
expression fluctuated between fear and hope as she scanned the faces in the room with a frantic intensity. She clutched something with both hands. When she met my gaze, guilty pain flared for a moment. I marveled at my own stupidity. Even when we knew she had betrayed the last group of rebels, she had conned us again.

Karla swaggered into the Control Room with a smug smirk. Vinco followed with ten Pop Cops behind him. One of them pushed Doctor Lamont into the room. The door hissed shut with a thump that crushed the remains of my heart.

“Report, Lieutenant Commander,” the admiral said.

“The lower levels are secured, sir.”

“Excellent work. How did you manage it so quick?”

Karla glanced at Doctor Lamont. “We had a few hours’ notice.”

“Well done. Braydon, send instructions to our men below and have them separate the leaders.”

“Yes, sir,” an upper called, typing at his computer.

Takia remained at her post. Her fingers rested on her keyboard, and I hoped she countered the admiral’s order.

The admiral pulled his kill-zapper from his belt and advanced on me. “I’m going to enjoy weeding out the first troublemaker.”

I shrank against my captors, but they held me tight. My heart trembled when he pressed the nozzle to my chest. Hell of a way to find out if Zippy worked and neutralized the kill-zapper.

“Stop,” Doctor Lamont shouted.

The Admiral paused. He frowned, turning toward the doctor. “Why?”

“She’s the leader of this whole thing. She knows everyone involved. If you recycle her before you question her, you might miss a few troublemakers.”

“Trella’s proven resistant to torture,” Karla said. “If you keep her alive, the scrubs will have someone to rally around.” She scowled at Vinco. “Or she might escape into the pipes again.”

He hunched his shoulders and ducked his head.

“She might become a martyr and you’ll have more scrubs revolting,” the doctor said.

“I don’t care,” the admiral said. His focus returned to me. “Clear.” The men holding me let go. He pulled the trigger and I screamed. Nothing else happened. I swayed with relief.

My relief was short-lived. The admiral scowled, threw his weapon down and gestured for Karla’s kill-zapper. She hadn’t been here when Zippy had knocked the other weapons out. Hers would work.

Before he could press it against me, I smiled. “Go ahead. That one won’t work either.”

“She’s bluffing,” Vinco said. “If she’s so confident, why did she scream before?”

I shrugged. “I was having a little fun.” My voice remained steady despite my muscles turning to mush.

Vinco flashed his knife. “This will work.” He grinned in delight.

Breathing was difficult, I sucked in air through my tight throat, trying not to gasp.

The admiral considered then returned Karla’s kill-zapper. “It’s too messy. Take her to the brig, Commander. Find out what she knows, but if you don’t learn anything new, feed her to Chomper.”

“Yes, sir!” Vinco snapped to action, striding toward me.

“Wait,” Doctor Lamont said.

“Now what?” Annoyance creased the admiral’s face.

She turned to Karla. “What about our bargain? You said
she
would be here.”

“And she is.” A nasty glee sparked in Karla’s eyes. She pointed at me. “Meet your daughter, Kiana. Trella, or should I call you by your birth name, Sadie?” She rubbed her chin as if deep in thought. “I liked the name Trella. Guess I’m partial to
TR
s and
A
s.” She shrugged. “Anyway, Trella, meet your mother.”

Horror gripped Doctor Lamont’s face, but she shook her head. “You’re lying, Karla. It’s too big of a coincidence.” She uncurled her fingers. My pearl-handled comb lay across her palms. “I fell for it, too.” The faint words just audible.

“Troublemakers tend to breed more troublemakers,” Karla said. “Although, I must admit I was a bit surprised when I went digging into Trella’s records. I knew keeping your child alive would come in handy sometime—she’s your weakness.
I suspect Domotor also did a little digging into the computer files and recruited her to his cause.”

“No. I don’t believe it. She looks nothing like me or Nolan,” the doctor said.

“Really?” Karla cocked her hip, studying me. “With her new blue eyes wide with fear, she looks exactly like Nolan did right before we fed him to Chomper.”

A murmur ran through the Control Room as the others either agreed or disagreed.

“Touching as all this is, there is much work to be done.” The admiral issued orders for the Pop Cops to carry the stunned officers to the infirmary. “Doctor, please make sure they are comfortable. Commander, take this scrub from my sight.”

As Vinco’s hand wrapped around my upper arm, I said, “This is just the beginning.” It was a delay tactic, but the truth of the words knitted my heart together. Even though our rebellion failed, and we had been betrayed, I stood in the Control Room. A future effort might bring the scrubs even further.

I laughed. “You can try and weed out the troublemakers, Admiral, but you’ll miss one or two and they’ll multiply. Think about it. How do you think we managed to get this far? If I can take advantage of Karla’s incompetence, then it’s only a matter of time before others do the same.”

The lieutenant commander yanked her kill-zapper and shoved it into my ribs. “Let’s see if my weapon works.”

Vinco released his grip.

“Hold on, Karla,” the admiral said. “What do you mean by incompetence, scrub?”

“Look at what we accomplished. Domotor disappeared. We opened Gateway. I escaped the brig and have been living
in the upper levels for a week. We infiltrated the computer system. And I’m in your Control Room and your captain is stunned. It was ridiculously easy to break into her office. The list of her incompetence is endless.” I tsked.

She dropped the kill-zapper—the upside of my taunt. And wrapped her hands around my neck—the downside.

“I’m going to feed you to Chomper myself,” she said, and then squeezed.

She cut off my air and I feared she would crush my windpipe. Groping for her belt, I found her stunner and pulled the trigger. A jolt ringed my neck, but her fingers kept the pressure on my throat. I dropped the stunner and pried them from my numb skin, I shoved her back into the admiral and they fell to the floor together.

Now I would go to Chomper happy.

I almost jumped a meter when Logan’s chuckle vibrated in my ear. “
That
must have felt good,” he said. “Wish I could have been there.”

Jacy added, “We have regained control of levels one and two.”

“Trell, stay with us,” Riley said. “Once Takia can open the Control Room door, we’ll send a rescue party.”

Distracted by their voices, I had lost track of events in the Control Room. After a quick scan, my mind raced to plan a way to delay the inevitable. The admiral’s red face failed to encourage me. Vinco helped him to his feet.

“Messy or not, silence the scrub,” the admiral ordered.

Vinco advanced on me with his knife in hand.

“Overconfidence, Commander, will be your downfall,” I said. Weak, but all I could come up with.

“And a sharp blade through your heart will be yours,” Vinco replied.

Why didn’t I hold on to Karla’s stunner? I thought fast. “Actually time is against me right now.”

“Time?”

The admiral answered. “She doesn’t have any left. Finish the job.”

Vinco raised the blade to slice my throat. Movement across the room caught my attention for a second.

“The admiral’s wrong,” I said. “What I meant by time was I didn’t think I had enough of it to distract you. But I did. So I guess I was wrong, too.”

Armed scrubs streamed into the room. Before the room erupted into chaos, a number of uppers had been stunned.

Vinco managed to dodge the initial blasts. With his knife still aimed at my throat, he lunged at me. I kicked him in the chest. Instead of cutting deep into the skin, his slash skimmed my neck.

Single-minded, he stepped closer. My back hit a wall, trapping me. He grinned with satisfaction as he pressed his blade under my chin. The steel bit into my jaw. Then strong arms yanked him from me and spun him around.

Riley gave him a mocking salute.

Vinco was amused. “Okay, boy. You first, then the scrub.” He pounced.

Riley twisted his hips to avoid the knife thrust and knocked Vinco’s arm aside with his hand. Vinco tried again and this time Riley grabbed Vinco’s wrist, pulled him off balance and pressed a palm to his elbow, forcing him to the ground.

“Thanks for all those lessons, Commander,” Riley said. “They’ve really paid off.”

After the takeover of the Control Room, events blurred together. Lack of sleep and the stress of the previous eighty hours caught up to me. With my body aching from Vinco’s attack, I blindly followed Riley back to the infirmary to have the cuts on my neck stitched. At this rate, I would use up all the thread.

The male doctor who had helped with Doreen was pressed into service while the others decided what to do with Doctor Lamont.

I woke hours later in the infirmary’s extra bedroom. Searching, I found the doctor bustling about the infirmary, tending the others wounded in the fight.

“Go back to bed, Ella,” he ordered.

I didn’t bother to correct him. Trella, Ella or Sadie—at this point I didn’t care. Instead I said, “Every bed is full. You’ll need my help.”

He scanned the room. “Nothing serious, thank air. And only a few Pop Cops were recycled. You need your rest. Once things settle down, it’s going to be…interesting around here.”

I shuffled back to my room, thinking my task was complete and I’d leave the others to figure out the rest.

The second time I woke, Riley sat on the edge of my bed. He beamed as if he knew something I didn’t.

“What?” I asked.

“You look much better.” He smoothed a strand of hair from my face.

“I’m sure you didn’t come here to tell me that.”

“No, but it’s nice to see. Especially after…you know…Vinco.”

I shuddered at the memory of his wicked knife. Touching the tender area on my throat, I remembered how it could have been worse. “Thanks for saving me.”

“Anytime.” He flashed me another overly bright smile.

I pushed to a sitting position. “Okay, Riley, tell me what’s going on.”

“I found my brother.”

“Wonderful. How—no, let me guess. You went to the lower levels with Mama Sheepy and found the man who still had Dada Sheepy.”

“Yep. The Sheepy family is whole again. His name is Blake and he works in the kitchen.” He beamed.

I squinted. “You have more news.”

This time, he shot me a nervous smile. “I was hoping—” he pulled a necklace from his pocket “—we could make a commitment.”

A brief pulse of fear shot through me. “You mean be mates?”

“No. At least, not yet. Our tradition is to give a gift as the first step. Sort of a symbol that we plan to see how well we get along.” He laid the necklace in my palm.

A silver pendant swung from a thin chain. “A sheep?” I asked.

“I thought it appropriate, considering what has happened.”

So much had happened, and Inside would no longer be the same. But the thought of Riley by my side sent a comforting pulse through my body.

“How do I accept?” I asked.

“You wear the necklace.”

I marveled at the detail of the sheep. “Are you sure? You don’t know everything about me—”

“I do know I felt as if my heart had been shredded when I found you in our storeroom, unconscious and bleeding. And leaving you with Vinco in the holding cells was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close. “We can take it slow. We have plenty of time.”

He kissed me. A sizzle traveled through me that didn’t stop when he drew back. My mouth tingled.

“Your answer?” he asked.

I kissed him, enjoying the sensation of happiness blooming inside me for the first time. Too soon, we parted.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Riley unhooked the clasp of the necklace. “Another one of our traditions is for me to make the pendant myself, but I had help from Logan and Anne-Jade.” He looped it around my neck then secured it, sweeping my hair out of the way.

I fingered the sheep. “Logan and Anne-Jade? Is it one of their gadgets?”

“Yes, but,” he hurriedly added, “it’s inactive. If you ever get into trouble and need help, you can squeeze the pendant and it will send a signal. We can trace the signal to your location and send reinforcements.”

I laughed. “Do you really think it’s necessary now?”

“I may not know everything about you, but I do know that if there is trouble, you’ll be in the middle of it.”

He stifled my squawk of protest with another kiss. After a while, I forgot to be mad.

The transition from the Travas controlling Inside to a more democratic method wasn’t smooth. Even though each family elected a representative and each scrub “family” had
a person attending organization meetings, many uppers still viewed the scrubs with suspicion and the scrubs in turn made planning difficult with their distrust and bitterness.

I had hoped to avoid all the political wrangling, but, since I understood both sides, I attended all the meetings to smooth relations. Even so, we had a long way to go. Overcrowding remained a problem, and a few people resisted the change in their lifestyles. Violence erupted on occasion, and Anne-Jade organized a security detail with members of all the families to keep the peace.

Being able to walk the hallways of the upper levels without worry felt liberating. Domotor also enjoyed his freedom from the hideout. He was busy preaching to everyone to be patient and understanding. All the Travas had been incarcerated for now. The Committee would decide their eventual fate. Doctor Lamont had been confined, too.

It was week 147,007, and I had received a message to meet Logan in the Control Room at hour ten. He had been camped out there since the takeover, using the computers to harvest lost information.

He hunched over a keyboard, muttering and humming to himself. I touched his arm and he almost jumped from his seat.