Parched (31 page)

“Careful with the glass,” I pant. Maybe I can use the butt of my gun to smash away some of the leftover pieces that cling to the bottom of the sill. Benji moves past me to help. No, he keeps walking past the window. “Benji?”

I look up ahead of him, along the corridor we'd first run down earlier tonight. I can see the aftereffects of the two grenades Ling and Naz hurled into the sea of Quicks that'd filled this corridor. Walls and parts of the ceiling have been blown away, but the rubble has been cleared. But it's what I see at the far end of the corridor that makes my heart stop.

Lana.

White tape cordons off the area around her, but apart from that, she looks as if she's sleeping. Hair the color of ripe wheat fans out around her.

“Benji!” I yell, running after him. “We don't have time.” I grab his arm to stop him but he shakes me off.

I stumble back. He keeps moving like he's sleepwalking. I refocus on what we're here for. The mirror matter.

I'm careful as I swing myself over the jagged ledge. As I run back to the Trust meeting room, I can hear Ling behind me. The door is already open. I burst in, and stop short. The garden is gone. A ragged, gaping hole is all that's left, and even though I don't need to fall to my knees to confirm that the mirror matter is gone, I do anyway. Ling's in the doorway behind me as I turn, stricken. “It's not here.”

“C'mon.” She pulls me to my feet. “Not over yet.”

We race back through the lab. How is it not over? Hunter has it, I know he does.

Back in the corridor, I see Benji, a walking corpse, drawn hopelessly to the body of his girlfriend. I jog a few steps toward him, confused and panicky. The alarm screeches. The blue lights keep flashing. Naz joins Ling and asks, “Not there?”

“No,” Ling replies. “Tess, come back here—”

The alarm and flashing blue lights stop. And then we are plunged into total darkness.

I widen my eyes as much as I can to soak up any scrap of available light, but the darkness is all-encompassing.

“Hey!” Naz yells.

“Where is everyone?” Ling calls.

“I'm here!” I say. I sling my rifle onto my back and put both hands out in front of me to move gingerly in the direction of her voice. I know what the blackness means.

The Trust has arrived.

I hear a scuffle. Something falling. Something heavy. “
Oof
.”

“Benji?” Ling calls, voice rising in fear. “Benji?”

No reply. I pull my knife but have no way of defending myself against an attacker I can't see. My breathing is shallow and panicked. The darkness magnifies every sound, and I hear swift but heavy footsteps. We are not alone.

A fumble, a click, then a tiny flare of orange light. Ling and Naz are right next to me, Naz holding her lighter. Illuminated in the darkness are a circle of four razer tips pointed straight at us. We are surrounded.

“Lights,” orders a tinny voice.

I wince at the sudden brightness.

“Drop your weapons,” the voice says again. Blinking my eyes open, I grasp the full horror of our situation. Naz, Ling, and I are surrounded by four Tranqs; the human guards of the Trust. Helmets cover their entire faces, giving them night vision. Farther up the corridor, Benji is on the ground, a fifth Tranq pointing a razer straight at his head. “Away from you,” barks the voice again.

Naz, Ling, and I slowly put our weapons on the ground. Where is Achilles? I flick my eyes to Ling. She returns my gaze, steely and even, but with no suggestion of what to do except obey.

“All of them. And your comms.”

The razers. The rifles. The flamethrower. Smoke bombs. Grenades. The Tranquils crush our comms with their boots. A wave of panic hits me. How are we going to coordinate our escape? Then I realize how stupid that is. We aren't
going
to escape.

“Hands behind your head. Now!”

“L-Look guys,” I stutter, my mouth making decisions without first consulting my brain. “There's obviously been a misunderstanding—”

“Shut up,” barks one of them, slamming the side of his gun into the cut on my head. Warm blood flows into my eyes. My head rings like a bell with the pain.

“Tess!” Ling cries, reaching for me. A brandished razer stops her. Slowly, she puts her shaking hands behind her head. Naz does the same.

“How does Gyan want them?” one of them asks, and I'm surprised to hear it's a woman's voice.

“Preferably alive. Dead if they give us any trouble.”

A snort. “I'd say these lot qualify as troublesome.”

Ling lets out a low growl and the Tranq immediately aims her weapon at her. I lunge forward to put myself between them. “Really?” I snarl through gritted teeth. Blood drips from the bottom of my chin onto the floor. “You'd kill three unarmed teenage girls? Your mothers would be so proud—”

“I said
shut up
!”

The cold tip of the razer presses into my sweaty forehead. I squeeze my eyes shut, anticipating pain. I hear the loud sound of razer fire and exhale, hard. Nothing. No pain. Opening my eyes, I see smoke coming from the female Tranq's body. Her gun slips from my forehead and her body drops to the ground. Behind her, a wide-eyed Achilles stands holding a razer pistol. He looks completely terrified.

Before the rest of the Tranquils even have time to turn around, Achilles shoots another one, hitting him right in the back.

Mayhem explodes around us.

The Tranquils spin to return fire. Achilles lets out a shriek and flees back around the corner. Pulses miss him by inches, exploding the wall behind him. Naz, Ling, and I drop to the ground, scrambling desperately for our razers. From the corner of my eye, I see Benji whip his leg up to kick his captor hard in the side of the head.

Naz is the first to grab her gun, rolling out of the way of a blast of white light, then returning fire while still on her back. Another Tranquil collapses—but not before his last blast of fire hits the top of her right arm. Naz screams in pain, eyes rolling back. The gun falls from her hand. Ling dashes to grab it.

I grab my razer and scramble to my feet, head pounding savagely from the reopened wound. A Tranquil darts in front of me and I take immediate aim. At the same time, another Tranquil takes aim at me. Movement in the corridor stops.

Benji is on his feet, his gun trained on the Tranquil who is aiming at me. The Tranquil I'm aiming my razer at is aiming at Benji. The four of us stand in a tense square: enemy, friend, enemy, friend. Ling is on her feet, her razer switching focus between the two Tranquils.

“Don't do anything stupid, kids,” the Tranquil aiming at Benji warns. “Surrender now, and no one gets hurt.”

“You just said you wanted us dead or alive,” I mutter, my aim steady. “You'll forgive me if I don't take your word for it.”

Naz cries out, clutching her arm. She can't help. Achilles has disappeared.

Unsure of what to do, I catch Benji's eye. He gives me a small, sad smile. “Benji,
no
—” I cry.

Before I can move, Benji pulls his trigger. The Tranquil aiming at me screams in pain. Quick as a flash, I shoot the Tranq aiming at Benji—but not before my target fires off one shot at Benji. Both Tranquils and Benji fall to the floor, bodies smoking. I'm the only one left standing, gasping for breath, every muscle taut.

“Benji!” Ling races to him and flips him over. Smoke drifts up from his skin in wisps, forming a delicate garland. At least his death was quick. But Benji really died hours ago, in this same corridor.

Naz is still writhing on her back, clutching her arm and making a low, guttural sound.

“Achilles!” I yell, scooping up my knife then running over to help Naz. “Let's move!”

The slightest sound of shoes on the squeaky floor has me whirling around and taking aim. A petrified-looking scientist whom I don't recognize stands with his hands sky-high, hiding behind a potted palm tree.

“Don't shoot!” he cries.

“Don't give me a reason to,” I say, hooking Naz's good arm around my neck and hauling her to her feet. “Just tell me where I can find the mirror matter.”

“Wh-What's that?” he stutters.

“You know what it is!” I scream, brandishing my gun at him. “Tell me where it is!” We do not have time for this—soon this floor will be teeming with more Tranqs than we can possibly handle.

Ling strides past me, heading straight to the petrified scientist. She shoves the tip of one of the Tranquil's huge razers under his chin, forcing it up. “I've seen two of my best friends die tonight,” she says, her
voice spookily calm. “Killing you would really help with the healing process.”

Ling is over the edge. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.

“The roof,” he whispers, pointing up. “It's on the roof. We're moving it to the Towers.”

Naz reaches for the flamethrower, moaning in pain as she tries to strap it across her body. There is no way she'll be able to aim that thing properly with a dud arm.

“I've got it.” Ling snatches the flamethrower from Naz.

“You know how to use it?” Naz croaks.

Ling aims the weapon up the corridor and fires. With a deep
whoooosh
, a massive stream of orange flame shoots out in an uncontrolled burst. It knocks her back a few steps and sets fire to the wall.

“I'll learn,” she says. “Let's go.”

Achilles is on his hands and knees scooping up the smoke bombs and grenades.

“Leave them!” I yell back, starting to run toward the stairwell we'd come from. “Just get the razers and the rifles!”

Naz barely lets her injured arm slow her down, even though she must be in excruciating pain. We move as fast as we can up the stairs, Ling and Achilles behind us. We are only one flight from the roof.

The blood from the cut on my head keeps getting in my eyes. In desperation, I shove my hand into my pocket, hoping to find something to staunch the flow. My fingers find silk. All the chaos and pain stops for just a second as I pull out the red scarf Hunter had found by the river. It is exactly what I need right now. I don't have time to ponder the irony. Wrapping the scarf once, twice around my head, I tie a quick knot, but not before his face flashes in my mind.

Where are you now? Do you know Kudzu is back?

I told myself I would be able to destroy Hunter. People I care about have died because I said I could go through with this.

You can do it, Tessendra. You have to
.

We reach the top of the stairs. The door in front of us is marked
ROOF ACCESS
. Beyond it is the sound of humming motors and people yelling orders.

“Stay here,” I tell Naz.

“Screw you, Rockwood,” Naz mutters through clenched teeth. “I'm covering you.”

“Okay.” I thrust my razer at her and grab the one Ling throws to me. “Don't get smoked.”

She snorts and checks the sights.

I tell Naz to watch the stairs. Then Ling and I cautiously push open the door, no more than an inch.

A flurry of activity greets us. Scientists, Quicks, and a dozen-odd Tranquils, all in the process of moving equipment and boxes and messy stacks of scratch up the wide ramp of a huge blue-and-white Trust cargo ship that's parked on the far side of the roof. Everything is being transported from a freight elevator that opens directly onto the roof about fifty feet from where we stand. The cargo ship's motors whip a dirty wind around the roof, sending loose pieces of scratch flying. White steam pours out from inside it—refrigeration or decontamination gas.

I can't see Hunter. But I also can't see the mirror matter. Are we too late?

“Careful, careful,” I hear a scientist cry in a panic. “That specimen is extremely delicate!”

It's the scarred mutant boy I saw in the cloning lab. He's being transported onto the ship by the Tranquils, his case now horizontal, his pale body sloshing in the thick blue liquid.

“Who—what is that?” Ling asks, staring at the mutant. “Is that Aevum?”

I don't want to lie, so I say nothing. The concerned scientists shuffle with the case toward the ship, and suddenly, I see it.

The mirror matter.

On a cart, about halfway between our doorway and the ship. It's in a case within a case, but this one must be new as the sides are all intact. Scientists hover around it somewhat uselessly. I nudge Ling and nod in its direction, heart pounding. Ling shifts the flamethrower from her back to her front, eyes fixed on the mirror matter. “Found you,” she murmurs softly.

“Five agents down on the sixth floor!” yells a nearby Tranq. “Fugitives on the loose. Fall out!”

The mass of Tranquils races for the rooftop door. Adrenaline surges through me, white-hot and powerful.
They're coming straight for us
.

Ling's eyes meet mine, pulsing with grim fire. Her words come through lips smeared with dark blood. “Child's play.”

Ling bursts through the rooftop door to meet the Tranquils head on.
With an animalistic scream, she shoots out a massive wave of orange fire. The first three Tranquils light up, flames finding instant purchase on their uniforms, and they drop to the ground. I'm right behind Ling, managing to take out one more Tranquil with my razer before they realize what's happening. Immediately, the roof lights up with blasts of lethal razer fire. As reliable as the sun, the gleaming black-and-silver Quicks come for us, a frightening display of precision and speed. Using air rifles, Achilles and Naz blow away both the oncoming Quicks and the Tranquils.

A blast of razer fire shatters the mutant's case. In a gush of blue liquid, he flops out onto the roof, a fish on a dry land. “
No
!” A gaggle of scientists rushes to his side.

Achilles shrieks, his cry piercing the roar of the ship's motor. He's been hit. His rifle drops to the ground as he clutches his thigh.

“Get back in the stairwell!” I yell at him. Achilles slides his razer to Ling, who has her hands full with the flamethrower.