Collide (Entangled Teen) (The Taking Book 3) (14 page)

“How do you know?” I asked.

She leaned down to kiss my cheek and said, “Because your spirit is too strong to be anything else.”

Strong.

Strong.

Strong.

My eyes flash back to Law, anger fueled by pain. “You are dead,” I say, but Jackson gets to him first, pinning him to a wall.

“I won’t let her kill you. I won’t let her have that regret, but trust me when I say that I have nothing in me for you, brother.” Jackson presses his gun to Lawrence’s temple.

“Wait!” a voice calls from the stairwell, and we all turn to see Emmy hobbling toward us.

“He saved her. All of us. He saved us.”

“Emmy?” I can barely say the word.

“I’m here.” She wraps her arms around my shoulders, and the tiny bit of control I’d held shatters. I slump into her, sobbing as memory after memory of Mom rises to the surface. Her kind voice. Her unwavering love. A fresh sob breaks free, and while a small voice is screaming for me to be the strong girl she knew me to be, I can’t make myself stop. Not yet.

After several minutes like this, I feel Jackson lift me up and wipe away my tears, cradling me to him. “What happened?” he asks, his eyes on Law.

“Kelvin,” Law answers. “He’s been working with Zeus all along. He had Ancients breach the Underground. It was a slaughter. I got to her, Commander, and I tried. I promise you I tried. But it was too late. I’m sorry. Ari, I’m sorry.”

“Shoot him,” I say to Jackson, my throat raw from crying.

“Ari…”

My eyes turn to fire, and I pull back to look at him. “He may not have held the gun, but he aided the hand that killed her. He has been in line with Kelvin all along.”

“No, I’ve been spying on Kelvin at Mom’s request. I told you that. She never trusted him.”

I study him. Could he be telling the truth? Did President Cartier put him up to this? It would explain why he missed any vital organs when shooting me. Law was never a fighter, but he knows how to shoot to kill.

“Read his mind, child,” Emmy says, reaching for my hand. “He’s telling you truth.”

I close my eyes, torn between my desire to avenge Mom’s death and my gut, which tells me that I’ve known Law my entire life. He wouldn’t hurt Mom. He wouldn’t hurt me.

“Ari, you know me,” he says.

“I don’t know anything anymore.”

I turn to face Dad, taking in Mom’s body for the first time. Her skin is gray, shriveled. Her eyes and cheeks sunken in. She’s been Taken to death, the life literally drained out of her. I start toward them, fresh tears rushing down my face. “Daddy…”

Dad tugs me toward him so Mom’s between us, her aura once so bright, now nothing, a void, and the loss of that light is enough to make me want to give up completely. I cry as I try to take in her smell, recording it to memory, desperate to keep it with me forever. I swallow hard and then nod once to myself. “Dad, we have to go. We have to leave her.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says. “I won’t leave her.”

“I need you, too,” I say, and his watery eyes find mine. “I need you, too.”

For a moment, I worry that I’ve lost them both—Mom to the Taking, Dad to grief—but then he secures his hold on her. “Okay.” He lays her down, and I grit my teeth, steeling myself for the rush of pain at leaving her. I want to bury her body. I want to give her a proper funeral. But I know there isn’t time. Zeus hit Sydia. The war has officially begun.

I turn to Law. “Tell us everything you know. One hint that you’re lying and I will shoot you myself.”

Law’s gaze meets mine, full of purpose. “I know where they are, Ari. I can get you to Zeus.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“We need to get some backup,” I say. “Mitch, do you still have your T-screen?”

He shakes his head. “Negative. It was destroyed in the crash, but I sent a message out before the plane crashed to the other bases. Hopefully someone received it.”

“We can’t count on hope. Not anymore. Law, how long until the attack begins?”

He checks his watch. “One hour.”

“All right,” I say. “Let’s get to Sydia’s base and see what and who we can scour there to help.”

We make our way through the broken streets of Sydia. The autowalks that haven’t been destroyed are still. There is no one else in sight, no hint of life at all. I hold onto hope that people have survived and are simply hiding.

The airport comes into view, and I’m relieved to find it undamaged and at least ten hovercrafts waiting to be used.

“Hold on,” Jackson says, gripping my arm. “Why would this area be untouched?”

I glance at Law and then scan the area. There’s no sign of a threat, but then the RESs wouldn’t be out in the open. They would—

And then before I can finish my thought, the trees around us move in unison, their leaves swaying forward then ripping back. The bark of each trunk crumbles and then Ancient upon Ancient emerges from the trees, ten in all, surrounding us. They’re dressed in all black, each with a weapon I don’t recognize strapped to their waists.

Jackson steps forward, and I can tell by the Ancients’ expressions that they aren’t comfortable fighting him. They were raised to respect and fear him, and now, he’s the enemy. I wonder if they feel as unsure about this war as we do, but they are RESs, trained to shield their emotions. “Stand down, soldiers.”

“We can’t do that,” a male in the center says.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Jackson says. “You could join us. You don’t have to continue this war.”

“Join you?” the male spits out. “We have seen what humans do to Ancients here. There is no peace, no coexistence. And there is only one dominant species.”

“There doesn’t have to be,” I say.

The male’s eyes dart to mine, and then I can tell that he’s done talking. Whatever Zeus has brainwashed them to believe runs too deep to talk them down now.

The male reaches for his weapon but freezes midmotion. He looks at me, but I’m not controlling him. He starts to back away and the others try to help, when Emmy steps around me, her power too great to be ignored.

“Healer Emmy,” he gasps. “You’re one of us.”

“No,” Emmy replies. “I want life. Not death.”

And then I watch in awe as the Ancient reaches for his weapon and starts toward us.

“Emmy!” I say, but it’s Vill who answers.

“Trust her.”

And then the Ancient reaches out a shaking hand, his eyes wide. “What are you doing?” he asks.

“Give her your weapon,” Emmy says.

I reach out, and it drops into my open palm. Immediately, I pass it to Jackson, hoping he knows how to use it.

“What is it?”

“It destroys its target on contact.”

“And they all have them?”

“Now, so do we,” Vill says, grabbing the weapon from one of the frozen Ancients.

“What now?”

“Now,” Dad says, his tone cold, emotionless, empty, “we prepare.”

Dad leads five of us to the base around the back of the airport and into the woods, while the rest handle the Ancients we left behind. I feel exposed here, surrounded by trees, wondering if any moment one of them—or a thousand of them—will emerge from the bark and attack. And then an idea occurs to me, and I reach out to stop Jackson.

“What if…what if we hide in the trees like they did when we get to Virginia? They won’t suspect it. We could ambush them.”

Jackson shakes his head. “It doesn’t work that way, Ari. I could hold myself here for a few minutes, but Mitch, Myers—you. I don’t know that you could. You could teleport somewhere else on accident, and I would have no way of finding you.”

“How are they doing it, then?”

“They aren’t waiting here, Ari. Zeus is sending them from wherever they are based. Plus, thanks to Kelvin, they’re trained for this exact fight. We aren’t.”

I stare at the ground as we crunch through the forest, wondering how I’ve spent my life training only to feel now as though I’m going in blind.

The base comes into view, visible only by the square opening in the forest bed where steps lead down into the earth. Beyond the steps, you would never know the base is there, but even they should have been hidden. Someone has been here. They could still be here.

Dad stops. “Let me go first. I don’t know if there are Operatives in there or not, but it’s safer if it’s just me.”

“No,” I say. “What if Ancients are down there? I can’t—no.” I can’t bring myself to say out loud that I can’t bear losing him, too.

“I wasn’t asking you, Ari. This isn’t up for discussion. I go in alone.”

I bite my tongue to keep from arguing. Dad has lost his other half. He deserves to handle that in any way he can—even if it means turning into his old, hard self.

“Fine. Five minutes. If you’re not back out in five minutes, we come in.”

I can see the argument in his eyes—we are so much alike—but then his jaw sets. “Fine.”

Dad descends the stairs into the base, and I want to rush up and hug him. Tell him that I love him, and I’m sorry, and so many other things that I never got to tell Mom, but then he’s gone, disappearing through the composite-steel doors, and I release a breath, fighting to keep from crying.

Jackson’s fingers thread through mine, and he grips my hand. “You okay?”

“No,” I say without looking at him.

He nods. “Good.”

My head jerks toward him. “Good?” I snap.

“Yes, good. You’ve always thrown yourself into things without worry over consequence. Without worry over whether you’ll make it back out. Losing someone you love can give you the restraint you need. It can help you pause and think instead of just acting.”

His words are a slap to the face. “You think I’m reckless?”

“No. I think you’re selfless. And I think it’s time you think a little more about yourself and your safety.” His eyes level on mine. “For me.”

I glance down at my watch. I can’t think about myself right now. Not when everyone I love is dying around me. I feel desperate to hold on to each of them, desperate to protect them—to protect myself from the pain of losing them. “He isn’t out yet.”

Myers glances over his shoulder at me. “Four minutes is long enough. Let’s go in.”

“I’ll take lead,” I say, knowing that if someone is in there, holding Dad, I want to be the one to shoot. After all, I trust my aim better than I trust anyone else’s.

We start down the steps in a straight line. Me, then Jackson, then Cybil and Mitch and Law, with Myers taking the tail. The door slides open as soon as I approach, another sign of trouble. I should have to enter an access code or allow the reader to check my fingerprints or irises, but no, it opens without any hesitation.

Like it’s been waiting for me.

I edge inside the door and onto an autowalk that goes in two directions—straight and then another one cutting through the first, creating a T-shape. There are no sounds beyond the hum of the autowalk. I hesitate before stepping onto it, listening, feeling, sensing everything around me, but there is nothing there—or there’s no one close enough to read. My eyes drift up and around, searching for cameras that I know are there, but they must be hidden within the walls.

I feel a hand reach around my forearm, and I instinctively jerk away just as Jackson thrusts Law back. “Touch her again, and I break your arm.”

Law holds up his hands and then cautiously points to the ceiling, to a tiny flashing red, then green dot in the far right corner. The camera.

I nod to him. “Do you know which way to go?”

“The command center is down another floor. The elevator is that way.” He points to the left.

“Would Dad have gone there?” I ask.

“You tell me.”

I glance away, thinking of what Dad would have done. Of what I would have done. “Is there another way to get there? Stairs?”

Law pauses in thought. “Emergency exit. Straight ahead.”

“That’s where he would have gone. Think they’re watching us?”

Law focuses on the tiny light. “The question isn’t
if
. It’s
who
.”

I nod slowly and start forward, wanting to run, to find Dad quickly, but that will only raise the chances of alerting someone. I press the panel to open the emergency exit door and immediately a wave of emotions hits me—anger, nervousness, excitement. Jackson and I leap into the stairwell at the same time to find three Ops waiting for us, their guns poised to shoot. I fire first, hitting one, two, while Jackson takes out the third. A siren sounds through the base, making it impossible to hear anything else. They must have been wearing sensors that triggered the alarms—no doubt a product of Kelvin’s thinking.

“We don’t have long. Law, we need you to lead.”

Jackson shakes his head. “What if—”

“We can’t worry about that now. We have to trust him. We have to find Dad.”

Law starts down a set of stairs and my memory flashes to the masquerade ball at his house, he, Jackson, and I sneaking down the secret stairwell to listen in on the Trinities’ meeting. It feels like so long ago now, and then I realize, with horror, that he doesn’t know about Gretchen.

“What?” he asks.

I hesitate and then see Jackson’s head shake just a touch. It isn’t the time to tell him. “Nothing.” When we’re out of here, safe, I’ll find a way to tell him. If we make it out of here…

I race down behind him, the others on my heels, and Law bursts through another door, but there is no one waiting for us there. He winds us through hall after hall, and I question my decision to let him lead. Maybe he’s steering us the wrong way. Maybe he’s leading us into trouble, but Emmy said we could trust him, and I trust her.

Finally, Law stops outside a wall with a large portrait of his mother hanging in the center like a gatekeeper. I stare at her face and wonder where she is now. “Law, where’s your mom?”

“She’s in Europe. She’s been there since her sickness first came on.”

“So, you don’t know…”

His eyes land on me. “I don’t know anything anymore.”

Law glances back at the photo, and I can see the pain in his face. He presses his palm into the panel beside the portrait, and we wait for authentication. A second passes, and the door starts open, and then we’re surrounded, Ops racing out from the open doorway, from other doorways behind us and beside us, too many to count. I draw a breath, prepared to freeze as many as I can, hoping Emmy and Vill will do the same, when Kelvin steps out from the hidden doorway, followed by an Op holding a gun to Dad’s head.

My stomach drops to my feet, my breath catches in my throat. “Dad…”

His eyes land on me. “You shoot without thinking. You understand me. Shoot.”

“Dad—”

“Shoot!”

And then everything happens at once. Emmy freezes the room, everyone there unable to move, their pulses loud, muffling my thoughts. There are too many feelings. Too much fear. Too much hate. I grit my teeth and spin around, aiming, and that’s when I realize the Op beside Dad isn’t human, isn’t an Op—he’s Ancient.

My eyes snap to Kelvin. “Law was right. You’re working with Zeus.”

“It is time for change here on Earth.”

“You’re such an idiot. Do you really think he’s going to let you live after the dust settles? Do you think he’ll allow any human to live?”

“Who says I’m human?”

I release a breath as I take in his appearance, his skin, his eyes. “Of course. You had someone heal you.” He must have done it after we left, knowing we’d recognize the change if he’d done it while we were in the Underground.

“Ari!”

And then before I can process the sound of the bullet zooming toward me, I fire, shooting the Op holding Dad, and then we’re all in motion, me dodging the bullet before it would have hit my stomach. Firing, praying I hit an enemy instead of a friend. I realize if they aren’t frozen then something has happened to Emmy and maybe Vill, too. But there is too much happening at once for me to stop and check. Dad joins the fight, and I toss him a weapon, grateful to have him back beside me. I tear away from the others, my eyes searching for the one person that can get us to Zeus, but Kelvin’s disappeared. I rush through the hidden doorway behind the portrait, the sounds of gunfire echoing behind me.

I try to sense for Kelvin, but there’s no hint of him, no sounds beyond the fight behind me. I turn down another corridor, then another, going deeper into the maze of the base. I stop at what appears to be a dead end and then hear the electrical charge of a laser gun behind me. I spin around just as it fires and barely jump out of the way. I remember the strange weapons we took from the Ancients out front, but I have no idea how to use it. What if I destroy the base, causing it to crumble down on us, trapping us down here?

I stand up, my own gun raised, and square off against Kelvin. “What? Too cowardly to face me without a laser?”

He grins. “I don’t need to face you. I just need to kill you.”

I shoot before he can respond, and he dips away, rushing back into the open hallway and through a door, but I can’t tell which one he went through. I edge to the first and hit the open panel, my gun out, ready, but it’s empty. I go to the next and the next, wondering if he ran farther into the base instead of into one of these doorways, when I open the next to last one and immediately receive a punch to the face. I stumble back, blood trickling down my face.

“Ari!” I hear Jackson call, but his voice is far away.

“Here!” I scream back. “Here!”

Kelvin charges me, but I’m fast to duck out of his attack. My dad trained me well, and I laugh. “Really? You think a Chemist is going to win in combat against an Op?”

I focus on his muscles, focusing on freezing each of them, but he continues to move. “Zeus warned me about your little trick. But I have tricks of my own.” He moves quickly, thrusting me against the wall. I leap back up and start for him, just as he thrusts again, tossing his weapon to the floor. “Your arrogance is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. You assume that you cannot die. Well, watch me kill you.”