Temper (28 page)

“That’s not my plan.”

“Really?” She doesn’t bother to write the skeptical question. The word is easy to read on her lips and her raised brows.

I don’t want to be alone, but if she comes with me, I’ll have to tell her the truth. It’ll also give her time to warn Keane. She’s already been through so much. “I think I should go on from here alone.”

She attacks the tablet with her finger. “After all this, you’re going to leave me here?” There might not be tone in the scrawl but her frown tells me enough.

“You’re hurt.”

“You too.”

“I don’t want to argue with you about this, Megs. If we separate now you can take the bike and make it back to camp to get help.” I don’t know what I’ll do for transport, but I’ll find something in the city. It can’t be far from here. She opens her mouth to speak, but I look away. “I never asked you to come.”

It comes out harsher than I intend. When I glance at her again, her eyes are closed and the color has leached from her cheeks. She turns her back, grabs her pack and heads back along the trail. No farewell, no wish of luck. Her head is high, her back straight. She strides with all the confidence of the girl who caught my eye in a gaming bar when I didn’t even know my own name.

But I know her better now.

She’s hurting because of me.

I take one step. Two. Open my mouth to call her back.

All it would take, I’m sure, is the shout of her name. She’d turn and grin. I’d be unable to help smiling back. I could admit the truth—I couldn’t have made it this far without her. She’d laugh and agree. Maybe punch me in the arm for almost letting her go.

And then I’d have no choice but to tell her where I’m going and why.

The moment passes. I don’t call. It’s better this way. She doesn’t have to choose between me and the people who took her and her brother in off the streets.

As I walk along the trail toward where I left the bike I think about the question she asked when I first explained my loss. She wanted to know how it felt.

I shrugged her off then. I couldn’t put into words the muffled noise in my head. The guesswork, the sheer effort it took to try to understand conversation, and how simple words were a monumental challenge.

This is different.

Alone in a strange place, knowing the enemy could be anywhere around me. I turn my head left and right, twisting to look behind me in perpetual motion. It’s like constantly having that creepy sensation someone has snuck up and might be standing right behind you.

In my head they’re right there, breathing down my neck. Every time I turn, I’m almost surprised to see nothing but patchy undergrowth, jagged rock, and dirt.

Something brushes against my shoulder. I spin, weapon in hand, heart thumping.

It’s Megs.

It takes a second to relax my stance. For all my looking around as I walked, she caught me completely by surprise.

“What?” I snap.

It’s been a few minutes but I’m stupidly glad to see her. I try not to let it show.

She ignores my tone and shows me the screen with shaking hands. Flashing red on a black background is a single word, ‘HELP.’

“What does it mean?” I ask.

She swipes her finger across and it changes.

‘Meet Asher at Gan’s.’

I force a breath into lungs so tight, it’s like a fist has curled around my ribs and squeezed. “Is that it?”

She touches the screen again, and it returns to the flashing cry for help.

I look at her face, pale and worried.

“Who is it from?”

She shrugs. “Hacked.” She motions to show that beyond switching between the two messages, the tablet is locked. “What now?” she asks.

Of course I’m going. There’s no question of me ignoring the possibility that Asher needs me, but I’m not stupid.

“I know it could be a trap.”

“But you’re going anyway?”

“Yes.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“It could be a trap,” I say again. With no idea of what I’ll find or who sent the message. I can’t resist the offer of help, but I feel obliged to remind her of the risks. “A Company trap,” I add in case there’s any doubt.

She nods. “I’m still coming with you.”

As we hurry to pack the bike, the plea for help flashes in my brain. If Asher’s caught in the city, it’s somewhere she’ll know I can find. Gan’s … the gaming bar where I met Megs so long ago. The man himself is at the camp with the other green robes. I hadn’t stopped to consider what would have happened to his place. I guess I’m going to find out.

But I can’t ignore the questions bouncing around in the quiet of my head.

Where’s Davyd? There’s no mention of him needing help. As far as I know, Asher left camp carrying no tech, and she certainly didn’t have the ability to hack into the green robes’ communications. As we head down the trail, I can’t escape the biggest question of them all: who sent the message?

[Asher]

The screams of the Doctor blur with the heavy breathing and thud of the steps of the officers chasing as I push Rael through the gap in the fence and follow on my belly. A piece of wire cuts into my back, but I push through. We’re on the other side.

The rush of victory is short lived. The Device cost us valuable seconds, and already the closest chasing officer is bending, preparing to follow us under the fence.

Ahead is a clearing. Fifty feet of nothing along the fence line before we’ll reach scrub and hope of cover. Something flies past me, kicking up some ground ahead. They’ve been armed with old-fashioned guns. I launch left and then twist right, keeping low, ignoring the pain in my leg and making myself a small target. Rael does the same.

Doctor must have called for them to arm themselves such as soon as he realized we were missing. They must have called for them via the wristbands. The officers are too close now, too organized. Something constricts inside me. What hope do we have?

“Keep going,” I tell Rael, but I can’t help looking back.

Doctor is shouting unintelligible orders from the shelter of the domed building. The officer is halfway through the fence. I think I see Davyd, silhouetted against a distant light. He raises a hand, and I think he grins.

There’s a crackle in the air.

The scream of the officer under the fence rips through me. Mouth gaping, he arches once and then is still. Smoke rises from his body, and I smell burning flesh.

I gag. “They won’t be following us that way.”

The officer behind falls over himself to get away. “The fence is back on,” he shouts.

Somehow, Davyd’s bought us a little more time.

We don’t hear our pursuers again until we make the top of the hill. Despite the lingering aches from the Device, I’m half carrying Rael by the time we reach the top.

“Sorry,” Rael murmurs. She repeats it over and over.

I’m thankful Davyd carried her earlier. He was right to make me save my strength, damn him.

As instructed, we turn left at the top of the hill and head through thick undergrowth. I look down at my wrist but the band has remained silent since we left the compound, although it’s lit by a faint glow. As we run, we duck and weave, changing direction every few feet. The agony in my leg fades to a faint throb, and I try not to look at the deep gash.

If they can’t track us, we’ll be difficult to find thanks to the dark and the trees. We pass old vehicles and have to jump over a chasm that appears in the rock at our feet like open, hungry jaws, waiting for one of us to fall.

The trees keep us mostly dry, but muffle and distort sound. I fire my Q twice into a shrub, sure we’re about to be caught by one of the officers on our trail. But both times, there’s no one there.

Rael trips, jerking free of my grasp and lands hard in the mud.

“Come on,” I whisper, holding out my hand. I can hardly speak, my breath comes in wheezing gasps.

She tries to get to her feet but falls again. “Can’t. Stuck.”

Her hand slips from my numb fingers. I kneel at her side, feeling along her leg because it’s too dark to see much. It takes a second but I find the problem. Her foot is caught in a twisted tree root.

I use the faint glow of the horrible thing around my wrist to see better. She’s covered in mud, and her dark hair is plastered against her cheeks. I don’t know whether the red around her eyes is from the rain or the sobs she’s tried to hide as I’ve forced her on.

“Leave me here,” she begs. “Go on without me.”

Ignoring the plea, I use the knife to slash at the root and free her before helping her onto my back. “If not for you, I’d be in Doctor’s hands right now.”

It’s slower carrying Rael, but I’m guessing we’re close. I suck in oxygen and force myself on. Step by step, in time with the pounding of my heart against my ribs. Everything aches, but we’re nearly there, we have to be.

We go over a small crest, and the shed is ahead. The white roof Davyd mentioned shines like a beacon. Relief floods me with fresh energy. We’re going to make it. I up the pace.

“See it?” I whisper to Rael.

I glance back at her, but instead of joy there’s terror in her eyes. “Look out,” she cries.

I drop. Breath rushes from my lungs as I hit the ground. Something hits a tree branch above me, exploding it into splinters, which rain on us where we fell.

The officer came out of nowhere, and he’s not going to miss a second time.

This time there’s no hesitation in me. I bring up the Q and fire. It’s us or him, and damned if it’s going to be us when we’ve made it this far.

He falls, and I don’t stop to check if he’s going to get up. Rael’s hand is tight in mine, and we scramble toward the shed and then behind it. The hollow he mentioned must be here somewhere, but all I see are a few bushes and a sheer rock face.

“Asher.”

I know that voice. Davyd appears from nowhere, his hand reaching out, dragging me and Rael through a narrow crack in the rock wall hidden by brush. Once inside it opens up into a small cave, tall enough for us all to stand and wide enough that when Rael drops to the ground and curls into a ball there’s room for me to let her.

Davyd brushes a hand across his wrist, and the wristband glows like a lantern. He flashes that cocky grin. “Here I am to save you again.”

“Save me?” I scorn, trying to focus on the fact that we’re momentarily safe. Trying not to think of the officer I killed a few seconds ago.

“As usual,” he adds.

I want to tell him I would have been fine without him but the lie won’t come. He’s at home here in the Company stronghold and it gives him an advantage. Unfortunately, he’s the kind of person who always seems to have the advantage.

“You need me,” I say instead. “Without me to rescue, you wouldn’t have a purpose.” It begins as a flippant response to his arrogance but hearing it aloud and seeing the complete, studied non-reaction on his face makes it more than that. It becomes the truth. A truth I roll around in my mouth like a strange fruit you can’t be sure is sweet or sour.

He folds his arms. “I don’t need anyone.”

I don’t waste breath arguing. Knowing Davyd, he’ll trick me into changing my mind and I want to hold on to this. Give it some more thought. As soon as I’m safe.

“What now?”

Rael has stopped crying. Instead, she sits at our feet, staring up. Snot faced and pale, but with determination in her eyes. “We’re trapped,” she says.

Davyd shakes his head and uses his wrist to shine light on what I thought was the back of the cave. It’s actually a tunnel. “You can follow this and come out a long way from the Company base. I’ve left your bike there and some supplies under an old piece of iron roofing.”

“You thought of everything.” Grudging admiration colors the admission.

He shrugs. “Not everything.” He looks at something flashing on his wristband. “You two have to go now.”

“You’re not coming?” It shouldn’t surprise me that he has his own agenda, but I was sure when he talked of escape he meant us all.

“I have unfinished work here.”

I don’t ask what he means. There’s no point. He won’t tell me the truth and I’m so weary of the lies.

I wave my wristband. “They won’t be able to use this to track us?”

He shakes his head. “As far as the tracking system is concerned, you disappeared the moment you went under that fence. Wait a few minutes and then go. I’ll create a diversion on the opposite side of the compound, but they’ll be looking for you in every direction. You’ll need to be careful.”

How stupid does he think I am? “I will.”

With a sob, Rael throws herself at his waist. “Thank you,” she says, sniffing. “For everything.”

I expect him to shake free in distaste. Davyd isn’t exactly the cuddly type, but instead his arms wrap around her slim shoulders, just for a moment, before he gently unwraps her from him. He drops to one knee to look her in the eye. “Catch ya later, Runt.”

She wipes at fresh tears, turning away.

He stands.

I stand.

“I’m not going to throw myself at you if that’s what you’re waiting for,” I say.

His mouth twitches and I’m reminded I once thought he was ice. Back then I meant cold and lifeless, unfeeling. But he’s like a shard caught in the early morning light, reflecting and refracting the sun’s rays with a million faces.

Still too hard to understand and unlikely to melt.

He reaches out and almost, almost touches my cheek. “You’ll be needing me.”

Of all the arrogant things to say. “Don’t hold your breath.”

“Don’t miss me too much, Princess,” he says and then slips through the crack in the rock without looking back.

I hate that I stare at the last place I saw him for long moments. Hate how lonely I feel with him gone. Hate that I can’t remember the last time I thought of Samuai.

***

Time blurs in the tunnel. It climbs steadily upwards and we hear nothing of the outside world. Finally it widens and there’s faint light ahead. It must be nearly morning.

We reach the opening and look out. For all I know there’s a ring of Company officers hidden in the nearby bushes, waiting for us to emerge, but we can’t stay in here forever.