Lightning (29 page)

Day 3
10 Hours to Egress

“Your family was here,” Mojica said to Selah. “But Varro moved them closer to the center of his shrinking operation. I hear Bethany is pushing her team to reduce his rental space until she squeezes him out of the Mountain like a pus bubble.”

Selah gagged. She closed her eyes for a second.

“Are you having flashes or dizziness?” Mojica stared into her eyes.

“No. It was just the visual of what that would look like.” Selah grimaced.

“I was a little graphic. Sorry.” Mojica handed out ear appliances and a ComTex to each of them. “Keep these on your arm, and keep those in your ear and turned on. They will give us instant communications in case there's trouble.”

“How do we find my mother and brother now?” Selah put
on her equipment, checked it, and walked to the floor plan laid out on a table in the center of the room.

“This is where Bethany is squeezing the rental space. See for yourself.” Mojica pointed to the holo-map.

Selah looked down at Varro's diminishing area. Each area that had been closed off to him recently turned from black to red on the map.

“This last section is where they are now. It means we'll have to go in the same door as you instead of using the side entrance to the other space,” Mojica said. “Bodhi and Cleon will come with me for search and seizure. I'm putting you three ladies in as the extraction team. I've observed all three of you and your abilities, so I won't tell you or your team how to fight. But if I give an order, please follow it. I want all of us to get out of here.” She turned to the group. “Ladies and gentlemen, it is twelve thirty in the morning. We have nine and a half hours before we reach critical mass and have to be on our way out of here or risk being sealed in the Mountain forever. So let's make sure we are nowhere nearby when it happens.”

Selah felt odd carrying a pulse disruptor. Like Mari and Treva, she was better with her hands than a weapon, but Bodhi wouldn't hear of them being unarmed. Not a sound other than their footfalls, and every so often they synced into one sound before slowly falling out of rhythm again. They crossed the road single file and continued to the end of the section. They took a quick right, and fifty yards in, the first building to the left led to a number of passages, offices,
laboratories, and living units that spiderwebbed along and up the inside wall of the Mountain.

Everything they were doing happened at ground level, so toward the back of the building where the floors started their climb up the Mountain, Mojica buzzed them in through a delivery area with her credentials. Her logic—in a few hours she'd be gone forever and it didn't matter who knew she'd been part of this.

They cleared each room they passed, working their way down the hall. Selah stuck her head in an office and pulled back. She keyed her appliance. “Somebody needs a bedtime story.”

“Be right there,” Mojica answered. A few seconds later she came striding down the hall, pulled the pin on a black ball, and rolled it into the room.

Selah closed the door and they walked away as a poof sounded.

“Will those really keep people asleep for ten to twelve hours?” Selah asked. The balls were smaller than a person's palm and the sound was barely audible. How much damage could they really do?

“Yes, they will. I know what you're thinking. These people don't have a chance to get out of the Mountain before it closes. Personally, the only ones I hope get to stay here forever are your stepfather and Jaenen Malik. If it will make you feel better, most of the people in this section never ask for passes to go outside anyway,” Mojica said. She passed off another bag of the sleepytime balls to Mari.

Laser dart fire sounded at the end of the hall. Mojica and
Selah ran in that direction. Bodhi and Cleon had two men pinned down in a temporary security office only utilized when the section was full. Mojica checked their proximity IDs.

“They're Mountain security from the Politico Board. They're the only ones allowed to off-zone at a second job. Don't hurt them. I'll take care of this.” Mojica pulled out a ball, yanked the pin, and used a hook shot to bank the ball in their door. Considering the extra time it took to bounce off the walls on its way in, the security men had no time to toss it back before it poofed. The room went silent.

Mojica headed back and they moved swiftly down the hall, over a few corridors, and into Varro's section. The girls moved quickly through their set of rooms. The sound of weapons fire erupted from behind them. Mari looked back.

“No, we have to keep going. My mother and brother are in here somewhere,” Selah said.

Mari followed Treva as she opened a door expecting an empty room, and a short man jumped her like a monkey. Selah cracked him in the head with the butt of her weapon. He dropped to the floor, limbs splayed out in all directions. They backed out of the room and Mari tossed in a black ball.

“Where'd he come from?” Treva asked as she straightened the appliance in her ear. “And why didn't you just pulse him instead of slapping him with the weapon?”

“You were too close. I thought I might hit you with the pulse. I wasn't sure whether to beat him with hand moves or beat him with the weapon, and it looked like he might get the best of you, so I just swung.”

A door ahead of them opened, and a laser dart aimed out
and fired several bursts. They dove to the floor. Selah rolled to the side and fired her pulse disruptor. It blew the door open, which in turn hit the guy so hard it knocked him unconscious.

Mari looked in her bag. “At this rate I'm going to run out of sleepytime balls before we run out of customers.” She rolled one in with the guy and closed the door.
Poof!

Selah tapped her appliance to call Mojica. Nothing happened. “I've got no signal. Mari, try calling Mojica.”

Mari tapped her appliance. She shook her head.

Treva tried her ComTex. “Okay, we're back to no communications.”

Selah wondered if it was Mojica again giving them latitude. But that didn't seem to make any sense in this situation.

“Treva, go back and get another ball bag from Mojica, and find out why we have no communications,” Selah said.

“Are you sure? We're not supposed to separate,” Treva said.

“We need to know why we don't have contact, and you know these corridors better than we do. We're doing fine. Just get back fast.” Selah moved down the hall with Mari, and when she looked back Treva was gone. Good. She was afraid Treva was going to disagree.

Mari yelped. Selah charged into the office without thinking. The guy behind the desk had them in his sights with a pulse disruptor. Selah pulled up short. She knew that pain. She let her weapon slide to the floor and raised her hands, kicking herself for sending Treva back to the front.

“What are you doing in the building? Is this a government takeover?” His hands trembled. He seemed to have a hard time keeping the weapon trained on them.

Selah took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She worried he'd accidently shoot them—he didn't look like he had the willpower to shoot them purposely. “How about you put the weapon down and we talk about it.” She slowly moved toward him.

“Stay back, lady, or I'll shoot you.” The man thrust his weapon at her. Selah flinched.

“Selah, listen to him. Come back,” Mari pleaded with her. “Stop. He'll shoot.”

Selah focused her eyes on his and continued slowly toward him. “He doesn't want to shoot me.” She was now close enough to see the whole area around him.

“Stop or I'll really do it,” the man yelled.

Selah made contact and wrestled with him for a few seconds. The ordinary office guy didn't seem a fair match so she didn't hurt him, just put him to sleep with a handhold.

Mari rushed over and slapped her in the arm. “Why did you do something so crazy? He could have shot you.”

“No he couldn't,” Selah said. She held up his pulse disruptor. “I don't know where he got this but it wasn't his, and he couldn't fire it because he wasn't wearing any Mountain technology and there was none anywhere around him. I figured if he was asking if we were government, the odds were that he wasn't.”

Mari shook her head. “You think fast. That's very observant.”

“Sometimes. Toss a ball in there.”

They continued on to the end of the corridor, but the additional rooms were empty. Selah stopped and turned back.
Her observation skills picked up something else. Why were these random men in rooms and offices that weren't actually occupied? And why was it so easy to subdue them? It seemed as though they were being manipulated—or was it her imagination?

She turned to another corridor. The door off to the right should be Mother and Dane. Her hopes soared. She motioned to Mari to watch the hall.

Selah opened the door.

Mother and Dane sat behind a plascine wall on the left, and on the right . . . Bethany Everling stood facing her with a pulse disruptor aimed at her chest.

Selah flinched to a stop, a lightning flash charged her body, and her weapon dropped to the floor. All in the space of two seconds.

“It's about time you two got here.” Bethany smiled.

“I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'm alone,” Selah said.

Mari's voice became clearer as she approached the door. “I was checking back there. I'm positive that was a corridor and now it's a—” Her eyes grew wide. “Wall.”

Selah dropped her chin to her chest in resignation.

“Yes, you're right. That was a corridor as you came this way,” Bethany said as she waved her hand above the panel in front of her. “And this controls which areas are open corridors and which ones turn into walls.”

“Don't you think we've had enough of each other?” Selah raised her chin and angled her body away from the woman. She glanced over at her family. Mother looked drained and
Dane clung to her. Selah turned back to Bethany. “Let's get it over with. What exactly do you want from me this time?”

Bethany waved a hand over the right side of her panel. The door slid closed behind Mari, causing her to jump closer to Selah. The plascine wall lifted between Selah and her family. Selah started toward them.

“Not so fast. Get back.” Bethany came from behind the panel, staying about ten feet from Selah.

Selah stopped. “I asked what you wanted.”

“I've got it—you and Mari.” Bethany laughed. “I'll bet Glade will just be beside himself when he finds out I have both his daughters.”

Selah's head jerked back at the same time Mari looked up at Bethany.

“Daughters? Who, us? You're mistaken,” Selah said.

Bethany pointed at Mari. “Mari Kief, daughter of Flander Kief.” She turned toward Selah. “Kief left his colony and changed his name to Glade Rishon—father of Selah Rishon.”

Mari turned slowly from Bethany to Selah, her voice almost a whisper. “We have the same father.”

“Glade is
your
father too?” Selah's heart beat faster.

Mari nodded, and one side of her mouth lifted in a little smile.

“Oh, this is exceptional! You two didn't even know you were sisters. Great, I'll give you years to get acquainted. It's time for us to get going, though. I have to get you back to my lab.” Bethany motioned the two stunned girls forward.

“But my mother and brother—are you going to let them
out now?” Selah wasn't sure what to think at the moment, but getting Mother and Dane out of here was paramount.

“Oh, them. No, sorry. Too easy for wagging tongues to bring other Protocols looking for my science. I never had any intention of leaving witnesses to this.” Bethany reached down and dialed the pulse disruptor, then raised it and turned toward Mother and Dane.

A guttural scream burst from Selah as her palms thrust out with more force than she knew possible. Bethany flew through the air, slammed to the back wall, and dropped to the floor.