Landlocked (Atlas Link Series Book 2) (29 page)

I simultaneously wanted her here and wanted her gone. I wanted to see if she cared I’d almost died, but didn’t want her to find out about Lexi. Though I’m sure Sarah told her. Most of all, I wanted her to know all of this information about the Lemurians and Link Pieces despite her coming back to TAO and jeopardizing anything she had her hands in right now.

“You can’t hide it from her forever,” Pike said.

“Sure I can. I’m already halfway to healthy.”

Pike’s mouth set in a hard line. Obviously it was a lie. I’d passed out in Dr. Hill’s office because my reaction had triggered the Waterstar map, something I still hadn’t told them about. How could I? It was so strange. “Fine. She won’t learn about you getting sick, but the next time she’s got a minute, we’re filling her in on the Altern Device.”

I closed my eyes, resigning myself to her finding out about Lexi. If Chelsea came back here and if our telepathy was still intact, she’d know in seconds. Then I’d be a dead man.

Juxe
.

Shit. I couldn’t not show up to support the band. Sophia wanted to go, and it was in a few days. She’d question why I suddenly didn’t want to.

Could I blame it on being sick? No. It’d land me right back here in the Infirmary.

A frustrated groan escaped me. I wasn’t getting out of this, and Chelsea would see through me the moment she saw me.

ichael.” His name rolled off my tongue as my body grew heavy again. Waking myself up from nightmares was a skill I’d mastered sometime after SeaSat5’s disappearance. Confusion clouded my vision as I chased the last remnants of the nightmare away. I was not in SeaSat5’s Artifact Room. Michael was not lying dead in front of me. I was not being held by Thompson.

My shoulder ached. I shook it out, only to find the aching grew worse. I shrugged down the sleeve of my oversized sweatshirt and found a bruise already in the last stages of healing.

This isn’t over
.

The air grew cold despite my face heating up. I’d let General Allen walk all over me.

“You better be careful whose name comes rolling out of your mouth while you sleep.”

I jumped off the couch and yanked my shirt over my shoulder. It was only Truman, fixing himself some coffee in the common room. He laughed at my reaction.

I covered up my fleeting fear with a weak laugh. “I had a nightmare,” I said. “Michael was a friend on SeaSat5.”

Truman frowned. “Oh, geez. Sorry, Chelsea. I was joking around.”

I shrugged. “It’s fine. Make it up to me with a cup of coffee?”

Truman reached up to a cabinet and pulled out a second mug. He poured me some coffee and I watched the steam rise. It reminded me of the smoke that’d risen from Thompson’s finger as he’d burned the Lemurian seal into me.

Suddenly the coffee smelled like burning flesh. I set it down on the table in disgust.

“Did you sleep here last night?” The corner of Truman’s mouth twitched. He probably thought Josh and I had our first couple’s fight or something.

Great. What excuse could I possibly give him that he’d buy? I couldn’t tell Truman the truth, not when I wasn’t sure if General Allen was bluffing.

“It’s quiet here,” I said. “Josh and Weyland’s apartment has neighbors on all sides. I must have fallen asleep right after.”

Truman shrugged and sipped his coffee. “Are you going to the barbecue today?”

“Barbecue?”

“Out of town,” he thumbed in a general direction behind him. “We go out every month to the campsites.”

I bit my lip. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Three seconds of anger hit me before I realized Josh might have told me about it if I’d actually gone home to see him last night. I started toward the door.

“I should probably go figure out details with Josh. Thanks for letting me know.” I flashed him a smile. “See you tonight.”

The morning air tasted like fire burning and sand as it passed through my nostrils. Each footfall became a breath, became a much-needed clarity while I ran. My body had recovered from the General’s assault, but not my mind. He knew. He
knew
the truth about SeaSat5, thought me or Trevor was to blame. Thought we were
spies
.

I ducked beneath a cable that ran between one building on the TruGates complex and another. The early morning sun chased off the chills that’d plagued me since last night. If the General was now a threat, this whole “join TruGates to keep tabs on what Lemuria’s activities” plan needed rethinking. And what about Josh and other others? Did they know? Did they
agree
with General Allen?

I swallowed hard, allowing the smell of burning wood to calm me. My eyes wandered the flat horizon beyond the TruGates complex as I ran. The smoke from campfires in the nearby national park had stretched all the way here, as far-reaching as General Allen’s power seemed to spread.

If he came after me again, I’d have to act. Even thinking about it sent an ice-cold shiver down my spine, the super soldier part of me rising to the surface. I had to figure out what he knew, but I couldn’t risk my life to do it. It’d defeat the purpose of joining TruGates in the first place.

No, I needed to stop it from happening again or find something to hold over him. I had to figure out the extent of what he knew, and what that meant for the search for SeaSat5, and get out.

That wasn’t the reason for me going on a run this morning. I’d decided to do so to stretch my muscles, to work out the leftover kinks from last night. But now that I was running, I couldn’t stop. Each lap around the TruGates complex brought a new insight I hadn’t previously gained. I didn’t know what was restricted, so I explored anyway. It was high-time I gathered more information about this group, and anything that shed light on General Allen would be time well spent.

The complex consisted of the main building that held offices and the gym, the shooting range, and three other buildings. Little could be gleaned from casing the outside. Standard windows with blinds drawn over them, brick walls. It looked normal, like an office or business park.

On the fourth loop I switched directions and ran through the complex instead of around, heading for the area behind the biggest of the three mystery buildings. Nothing looked sketchy or amiss. Just… business-park-like.

“He knows how to hide,” I breathed, pausing to rest my hands on my hips. A bird chirped as it flew overhead. I hadn’t even gotten a “I’m a bad dude” vibe off the General until last night. The shift in him, it was so unexpected. So night and day.

The sun caught something shiny as I looked over the area, a piece of metal in an otherwise brick and cement laced area. A door?

I glanced around. There didn’t
appear
to be cameras, but even if there were, whoever might be watching already knew I was here. I approached the metal door anyway, which had been embedded into the third building’s wall. It was a squat construction, a Wonderland type door that rose only five feet in height.

I let my fingers hover just above the metal, half-expecting it to be electrified or otherwise protected. It wasn’t. Had I hoped I’d find this?

I tugged on the handle. Locked.

Looking over my shoulder and seeing nothing, I pressed down hard. The metal twisted beneath my grip, giving away. Bending to my super strength. I forced open the door and stepped inside. A staircase downward met me immediately, and I took it, one step at a time. Slowly. Very slowly, until I came to a landing and opened the door at the bottom. A dark room awaited me on the other side.

I roamed around the wall blindly with my fingers, searching for a light switch until my fingers flipped one on. Bright fluorescents assaulted my eyes and I slammed them shut. I reopened my eyes slowly, waiting for them to adjust and what they saw…

The small chamber—and that’s what it was, all dark and dank—was brick-lined like the outside. A reflective film covered the walls. Soundproofing? Tile floor coated the area all the way to the other end, with rubber mats on the floor in front of tables. Lab tables, with beakers and test tubes and clipboards. I’d have thought it all normal except for the fact that TruGates was a paramilitary group, and this chamber seemed to be a secret.

A literal secret lab. General, you cliché asshole.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

My stomach dropped when my eyes connected with the giant tubes lining the middle throughway of the chamber. Bodies floated in some sort of purple solution in each tube, male and female, all appearing to be in their early thirties, give or take. I walked up to one and laid my fingers on the glass. A hissing whipped through the air, followed by a static shock that bolted up my arm straight to my head. I fell back, collapsing to the ground. My shoulders shook as I cursed and looked back up at the tube.

Static and electricity zapped between the tube and the container next to it that was filled with a turquoise liquid. What was the General doing here?

Despite my shaky legs, I stood and continued down the main aisle, determined to find out what else the General had hidden here. And maybe even figure out just what that something was. People in tubes with electricity? I had no idea what to think, but maybe…

I found a wall of seven large cabinets lining the back wall. My heart sank, breathing becoming shallow, as my eyes roamed over them. No. These weren’t cabinets.