Sloane (26 page)

At the end of the hallway, there was a big, white
door with a small window in the top.

The door opened, and two women in lab coats came out
of it. They were chattering to each other, and they didn’t even
give us a second glance.

When the door opened, I saw into the room behind the
door, and I realized that it was the same lab that I’d been in
before, when I’d seen French and Leigh.

And that was when I realized what we needed. We
needed to get to the elevator, and we needed a swipe card.

I stopped short at the door to the lab and put my
back against the wall. Axel followed suit, so that we were both
flanking it.

Who would have a swipe card? Would the guards have
them? I guessed they would if they needed to get down to that
bottom level, right? I began to feel inside my pockets. I didn’t do
this surreptitiously, because that would have made me look
suspicious. Instead, I adopted an air of annoyance, as if I’d lost
something.

“What?” said Axel.

I ignored him. And then I found it in the upper
breast pocket of the guard uniform. I yanked it out and showed it
to him. “Swipe card. Get yours.”

He reached into his breast pocket and took one out as
well.

It was all I could do not to grin. Things were
looking up.

Instead, I managed to keep my expression all
business. I opened the door and stepped into the lab, with Axel
right behind me. Barely glancing at the room, I charged through it,
focusing only on the elevator, which was my destination.

“Excuse me,” said a voice.

I ignored it.

“Hey!”

I turned. It was the same guy from before. Would he
remember that I was a delivery girl just a few days ago?

“How many times have we asked you guys not to come
through here?” said the guy, glaring at me.

“Sorry,” I said. “We’ve got to do a sweep of the
lower level. We’ll be out of your hair in a minute.”

The guy should his head. “You know, ever since
Armstrong disappeared and that French woman took over, things have
been getting weird around here.”

“We’re in a bit of a rush.” I started walking
again.

“This is supposed to be a lab, not a military post,
you know!” the guy yelled.

But we were at the elevator by that point, and the
doors slid open when I pressed the button.

Axel and I both trooped inside.

The doors whisked closed.

I hit the button for the bottom floor.
Swipe
card
, blinked the message. I swiped.

The elevator came to life.

I grabbed Axel by the front of his uniform, pulled
him close, and kissed him hard.

But we had to stop that right away, because the
elevator stopped moving.

We managed to break apart just before the doors
opened again.

The bottom level of the secret lab was nothing more
than a glorified basement. The walls and floor were concrete,
painted a sea foam green color. The overhead lighting flickered a
little bit, making a buzzing noise above our heads.

To our left, there was nothing but open space. Gray
poles were spaced every fifty feet or so, supporting the
structure.

To our right, there was a wall. And down a little
bit, there was a door. It was the only door down here.

And then I heard a scream.

“Leigh,” I said.

Axel nodded.

Leigh was screaming, and it was coming from behind
that door.

I raced to it.

It was bolted shut on the outside, just like the room
that Axel and I had been in. Quickly, I undid the bolt and threw
the door open.

The first thing I saw was Silas. He was sprawled out
on the floor, blood trickling out of his mouth, his eyes unfocused
and staring. I let out a tiny noise, covering my mouth.

But then I saw that Leigh was on the floor,
struggling with someone.

He turned his face to us, and I gasped. Griffin? He
must be brainwashed! He was trying to hurt Leigh?

Or was Leigh brainwashed, and he was trying to
protect himself?

“Sloane!” Leigh gasped. “Help me. He’s trying to kill
me.”

I raised my gun. If she could talk, then she wasn’t
brainwashed, right? Except… what if French had changed the
brainwashing stuff? What if she’d tweaked it so that Leigh could
speak now, trying to trick me? I hesitated.

Griffin was intent on his task. He was pushing
Leigh’s head down into the floor, so, so hard.

Axel lifted his gun. He pulled the trigger, and
bullets roared out, tearing into Griffin’s body.

Griffin tumbled backwards off of Leigh.

Leigh sobbed. She scrambled away from Griffin.

Axel ran forward, kneeling down next to her. “You
okay?”

“Wait, Axel, she might be brainwashed,” I said.

Leigh was out of breath, but she stared at Axel in
disbelief. “Axel? What are you doing here?”

“Well, you stopped calling me,” he said, helping her
to her feet. “That was really rude, Leigh. What did you expect me
to do, just forget you ever existed?”

She took several deep breaths. She looked at me. “Why
is he here?”

“He’s helping,” I said. “Are you okay? The last time
I saw you—”

“Yeah, I don’t remember that,” said Leigh, “but
French told me that I tried to kill you. I didn’t mean to. She’s
got this new serum that makes people do whatever she says. She used
it on Griffin and told him to kill me.”

I looked down at Silas. “What about Silas?”

“He’s just dark,” Leigh said. “He should be awake in
a few minutes.”

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “French told me she
was going to make him kill Axel in front of me.”

Leigh looked Axel over. Then she looked at me. “Why
would you get
him
to help? What kind of help could he
possibly—”

“Hey, I think I just saved your life,” said Axel.

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t go getting any ideas,
Axel. You’re never going to be my Prince Charming.”

Her
what?
I looked at Axel. “Prince?”

He cleared his throat. “We need to be getting out of
here, don’t we?”

That was true. I was getting sidetracked. I looked
from Silas to Griffin. “Well, how are we going to get both of them
out of here dark?”

“Wait,” said Axel. “You’re going to take him?” He
nodded at Griffin. “Wasn’t he just trying to kill her?”

“It wears off,” said Leigh. “He’ll be fine.”

Silas twitched.

“Oh, thank God,” I said. I hurried over to him.
“Silas?”

He slowly managed to turn. His eyes focused on me.
“Sloane?”

Tears sprang to my eyes. “Hey. I’m here.”

Silas threw his arms around me. “God, I am so glad to
see you.”

* * *

Axel and I took the lead, since we were both armed.
Leigh and Silas came behind us, dragging Griffin’s lifeless body on
one of the cot mattresses.

We got to the elevator, and I started to press the up
button, but the elevator doors swished open, and I came
face-to-face with French, who was flanked by two guards.

We were both startled, neither expecting to see the
other.

“Shoot them,” French yelled.

And the guards opened fire.

My first thought was Axel. He was vulnerable. If he
got shot and killed, he stayed dead. I screamed at him, “Axel get
out of the way!”

Why had I thought it was a good idea for him to be in
the lead with me?

He dove to the left, into the open space.

And I started to fire.

The guards were coming out of the elevator, and
French was sinking back inside.

Leigh dropped the edge of the cot and stormed after
her. “Oh, I don’t think so, bitch.” She grabbed French by the hair
and yanked her back out of the elevator.

I pumped bullets into one of the guards, and he fell
backwards, his head getting lodged in the elevator doors.

And then searing pain bloomed in my stomach. I
grunted. I’d been shot.

“Sloane,” yelled Silas.

I pointed at the downed guard. “Get his gun.”

Silas streaked forward and snatched the gun out of
the man’s hand. In one fluid movement, he brought up the weapon and
blew the other guy away.

It was quiet.

I settled down on the ground, holding onto my wound
and gasping. Motherfucker. How many times had I been shot today?
Never got any easier, did it?

Axel was right next to me. “You okay?”

“Will be,” I groaned.

Silas balanced the gun over his shoulder and knelt
down. “Hey, sis.”

I shook my head. “They have the fucking serum, and
they heal in minutes. You gotta kill the guards.”

He stood back up. “Fine.” Silas kicked the guy he’d
shot over on his stomach. “No one has a knife, do they?”

Leigh reached into French’s top pocket and fished out
a small scalpel. “How’s this?”

“Perfect.” Silas took it from her.

French’s face was red. “You’re not going to get away,
if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Oh yeah?” said Leigh. “Watch us.”

“We’re going to do more than get away,” I said
through clenched teeth. “We’re going to stop you once and for
all.”

French swallowed. Something like actual fear flicked
across her face.

Silas finished cutting the neck of the guard and went
to the other one. The elevator door was closing, hitting his head,
and then opening again, and then closing—

Silas dragged his body backwards, flipped him over,
and slashed the back of his neck. He stood up. “You want to grab
that guy’s gun, Leigh?”

Leigh let go of French. “Don’t mind if I do.”

Silas pointed his weapon at French. “So, here’s how
this is going to work. You’re going to take us to wherever you make
this stuff you’re injecting into us.”

“Or what?” said French, lifting her chin.

“Or I’ll shoot you,” said Silas.

“You know I have the same serum you have,” said
French.

“Yeah,” said Silas. “So, I’ll shoot you and wait for
you to come back, and then I’ll shoot you again, and then I’ll wait
for to come back, and then I’ll shoot you again. And we’ll keep
doing that until you tell me where it is. You going to save us some
time?”

French narrowed her eyes.

Silas leaned close. “Because let me tell you, I think
it might be a lot of fun killing you over and over again.” He
snatched her by the chin and forced her to face him. “Remember what
you called me when you brought me in to Op Wraith?”

French flinched.

Silas smiled, and it was a nasty smile. “You said I
was an artist. So, how much you feel like being my canvas?”

French drew in a slow breath. “It’s upstairs,” she
said in an unsteady voice.

Axel touched my shoulder. “So, you were saying how he
wasn’t
a psychopath?”

I was in too much pain to glare at him.

Silas turned to Axel. “Who is this guy, anyway?”

Axel got to his feet. “I’m Axel Whitman.”

Silas looked him over. “Yeah, okay, whatever.” He
pushed French back into the elevator. “Let’s move it, all.”

I tried to get up, but it hurt.

Axel helped me.

I leaned into him, and he put his arm around me. But
then I turned to see Leigh surveying the mattress and Griffin. I
pushed out of Axel’s grasp. “Help Leigh with Griffin.”

“But you’re—”

“I’ll be fine.” I stumbled into the elevator.

Once there, Silas grabbed me and braced me against
him. “How bad is it?”

“I’m healing,” I said. “Give me ten minutes, and I’ll
be a hundred percent.”

Together, Axel and Leigh dragged Griffin into the
elevator.

Silas pressed the gun into French. “Which floor?”

“Next one up,” said French.

And up we went.

* * *

“That’s right,” said Silas as the guards filed into
the lab. He was taking their guns away from them and tossing them
on the floor.

We’d made French radio everyone in the entire
building and now they were all here. The lab workers and
secretaries and even the intern that Axel had flirted with were all
huddled up in one corner. Leigh was standing over them with a gun.
French was with them too, seething.

Griffin was by the door, still dead to the world.

Enough time had passed that I was mostly healed, so
Axel and I were going through the lab and smashing everything that
we could find. All the glass bottles of various colored liquids.
All the beakers. All the cabinets full of ingredients. It was all
getting destroyed.

“So, Sloane?” called Silas. “You sure that everyone
involved is here?”

“Unless someone’s home sick,” I said. “The regular
workers at Costello Labs have no idea what goes on here.”

“Good day for a sick day,” said Silas, shrugging. He
looked over the guards. “Guess you guys are probably all wishing
that was what happened to you, aren’t you?”

None of the guards said anything. They were all
giving Silas a defiant glare.

“Oh, fuck it,” said Silas. He pointed one of their
guns at them and the loud rattle of gunfire exploded through the
room.

Silas went back and forth over the row of guards,
pumping bullets into all of them.

They writhed as the bullets hit them, like morbid
stringed puppets, and then Silas stopped, and they all fell down.
Silas took the scalpel back out again. He grimaced.

Axel swallowed, hesitating over a beaker of red
liquid.

I knocked the beaker over, maybe more forcefully than
I needed to.

“What are we doing?” said Axel. “Killing
everyone?”

“We have to,” I said.

“But this is just a job for these people.”

“Yeah, and they’ve all been complicit in using human
test subjects,” I said. “The fact that we haven’t found more people
can only mean that—” I broke off. I turned around. “Knox?”

Silas didn’t even look up from cutting the necks of
all the guards.

Leigh turned to me though. She shook her head.
“Didn’t make it.”

“Fuck,” I said.