When Night Falls (16 page)

“What happens if someone overrides the safety and there are monsters on the other side of the door?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Silos splayed his hands. “What happens if someone removes the doors separating us?”

Cold, slimy terror slithered down her spine. “Why are you telling me this? I’m not an operator or a marshal.”

“Because you are the only one with people on the other side.”

Scarlett shook her head. “I don’t know where they are.”

“Perhaps not, but would any of them know how to override a direct command?” Silos asked.

“Jack would,” Hunter answered.

Silos looked at him. “Is he a mentor?”

“Novice. He was an operator before he transferred to marshal.”

That explained his knowledge of the ship, Scarlett thought.

Silos shook his head. “Then no, he would not have the clearance or the knowledge. Not even all mentors are given those codes.”

“But who would have them?” Scarlett wondered.

“The commanding operator and the captain.”

“Why would the captain be riding up and down on the transporters?” Hunter cut in. “Assuming that she’s alive, why wouldn’t she have already gotten onto a pod and left?”

Silos glanced from one to the other. “Why would the captain open the security hatch knowing we’re all here? Because let me assure you, she knows we’re here.”

“Well, I don’t believe it,” Kiera said the moment Scarlett finished telling her and Mac what Silos had told her and Hunter. “The captain would do no such thing.”

“We’re not saying she would,” Scarlett replied. “We’re trying to determine why someone would put everyone’s lives at risk.”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Kiera looked from one to the other. “It’s the same person who tampered with the boosters.”

“Why would anyone tamper with the boosters?” Hunter questioned. “Killing off an entire ship … an entire species, is just stupid.”

“Maybe they’re crazy,” she decided with a delicate shrug. “Three years aboard a ship. It makes sense.”

It did, which was the scary part. Scarlett hadn’t thought Kiera capable of logical thought.

“That still doesn’t help us come up with a plan,” Scarlett said. “We’re sitting ducks here if those doors open. All these people … no one will survive.”

“Especially since there’s only one escape hatch on this level,” Hunter pointed out.

“Why do
we
have to come up with a plan?” Kiera huffed. “We’re only novices. The mentors should deal with it.”

“Because it’s our friends out there,” Scarlett retorted sharply.

“And what exactly do you plan on doing?” Kiera challenged. “Single handedly saving an entire ship? Please.”

“She could do it.” Hunter glowered at the blonde. “Unlike some people, she actually has two brain cells to rub together.”

Even as Scarlett cast him a grateful smile, she knew Kiera was right. She couldn’t save an entire ship. She didn’t know how. But she could save her friends, or at least attempt to and together they could maybe come up with something.

“We need to find a way to locate Rolf and the others,” she said. “If we could get them here somehow, I know—”

Click. Click.

Everyone in the room froze as the locks disengaged then reengaged once more in rapid succession. Low murmurs and people scurrying away from the doors broke another series of clicks. Scarlett’s gaze swung from Hunter to Mac for answers, but they looked as shaken as she did.

“What’s happening?” Kiera demanded.

“The manual override,” Hunter said, his voice portraying the fear rippling through the room. “Someone’s tampering with them.”

Chapter Seventeen

“What is he saying?” Scarlett demanded, staring at a baffle-faced Kiera.

Across from them, Mac was rapidly signing something that made no sense to Scarlett. But Kiera was watching him with a growing expression of disbelief.

“That’s crazy, Mac!” she kept telling hm.

“What?” Scarlett snapped, stopping short of shaking the girl.

Mac stopped and jabbed at Scarlett with a finger while staring expectantly at Kiera.

With an exasperated huff, Kiera threw her arms up and turned to Scarlett. “He’s saying he wants to go out there and find the others.”

Scarlett straightened. “Then I’m going with you.”

“Wait.” Hunter put his hands up to stop her. “Are you crazy?”

“If they’re out there, then they could be in trouble and need help,” she rationalized.

“Right, because being in a red zone has given you special super powers that will help you defeat a herd of … whatever those things are.”

“Well we have to do something.”

Mac interrupted with another series of gestures that they turned to Kiera for translation.

“He’s heroically offering to go alone.” She folded her arms. “Well, I’m not going. We barely made it out alive the first two times.”

Mac patted his chest and nodded his head.

Scarlett grinned “Well, I’m in.”

Kiera rounded on Mac. “Are you actually going to do this? You’re going to leave me here?”

Mac signed something that had Kiera’s lips pursing.

“You’re being unreasonable!” she exclaimed. “You’re going to get killed!
” More signing, these ones frustrated and almost bitter. “What do you mean what do I care? Of course I care!” Mac signed something that made Kiera gasp. “I promised my father—”

Mac’s hand gestures became fierce, nearly a blur, but it was the hurt and anger on his face that told the story.

“What do you want me to say?” she practically screamed. Tears brightened her eyes, making them sparkle.

Mac’s gestures slowed, became jerky as his face contorted with pain.

“You know I want to be with you.” Kiera’s voice wavered.

Mac made one final gesture, shrugged his shoulders and dropped his hands to his sides. He was breathing hard. His nostrils flared with the effort, but he never looked away from Kiera.

“I don’t know!” Kiera growled through her teeth.

The absolute heartbreak on Mac’s face wrenched Scarlett’s insides. He gave Kiera a shake of his head before turning on his heels and marching away.

“Mac!” she called after him, but he never glanced back.

With a
n aggravated snarl-sob, Kiera whirled around and sprinted in the opposite direction.

Scarlett and Hunter exchanged glances.

“That was awkward,” Hunter mumbled.

“That was heartbreaking,” Scarlett corrected. “God
, what is wrong with her?”

Hunter snorted. “Hell if I know, but I’
ll gladly take him off her hands. She clearly doesn’t deserve him.”

Chuckling, Scarlett started in the direction Mac had gone. “I don’t think he plays for your team.”

“Sweetie, they all play once I teach them how.”

Mac stood by the stairway, head bent as he adjusted the holster at his hip. He glanced up when they approached. He signed something
slow and remorseful.

Scarlett shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault you two are fighting.”

Mac waved his hand dismissively. He sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. “Love. Her,” he groaned out, his voice thick and awkward.

The sound of it momentarily rendered her speechless before she caught herself.

“She loves you, too,” she said. “She’s just … confused.”

“Stupid,” Hunter added behind a feigned cough.

Scarlett elbowed him.

Mac
grinned a little and nodded. With another burdened sigh, he pointed to the door and made a walking motion with his two fingers.

“I’m with you,” Scarlett said with a nod.

Together, they walked to the door. The
marshals there eyed them as they approached.

“You don’t want to go out there,” one of them said.

Hunter folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah, that’s what I said. No one listened to me either.”

Scarlett shot him a glower before facing the four in front of them. “We
need to leave, but will return when we find our friends.”

“
A stupid decision, clearly,” Hunter added.

Scarlett
ignored him.

“You will be risking your lives for a possibility that may not exist.” Silos made his way towards them, his footsteps barely audible in the large room.

“It’s a risk we’re willing to make,” Scarlett said. “They wouldn’t leave us behind.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t let you.”

Scarlett stiffened, as did Mac and Hunter as they all turned to face the man watching them.

“What?”

He unclasped the hands he’d folded in front of him and splayed them palms up. “We have no way of knowing what’s on the other side of that door if we open it. I can’t let you risk the lives of all these people.”

“You let us in,” Scarlett reminded him. “We were surrounded and—”

The door behind them clicked, casting the entire level into an unnatural silence. For a full stuttering heartbeat, no one moved or even breathed as they watched the locks disengage.

“Lights!” Silos hissed. “Marshals, positions!”

It happened so fast. One minute the lights were on and the marshals were standing post by the doors. The next, darkness descended throughout the level and Scarlett, Hunter, and Mac were the only ones left standing in place, not yet familiar with the protocol of such an event.

Hunter grabbed her hand as Mac positioned himself in front of them. And although she couldn’t see the other marshals, Scarlett knew they were there, weapons drawn, waiting. But in no way did that ease the icy dread leaking down her spine. The terror was a physical wave tearing through her. Her hand tightened in Hunter’s as the door gave way, spilling a thin stream of light from the stairway into the murky darkness inside. It formed a square carpet across the polished floor, punctured by two lumpy and distorted figures.

Scarlett slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the gasp that bubbled in the back of her throat. She was only vaguely aware of Hunter propelling her back, concealing her with his bulk.

One of the figures shifted. Something long was removed from somewhere on its side. There was a click and Scarlett winced as light burst from the object, chasing back the darkness Silos had so wisely put into place as protection. The door was shut behind them, sealing them in with the rest of the survivors.

“Scarlett?”

The gasp did escape then as the familiar voice whispered her name. Her heart stuttered a moment, as she stood torn between disbelief and euphoric delight. It wasn’t until it was said again, a little louder that she came to her senses.

“Rolf!”

The light swung across the room in her direction, but she was already tearing away from Hunter and running. Her bag hit the ground as she tore it off and removed herself from the weight keeping her from reaching him faster. The light bobbed once then dropped with a deafening clatter as he reached out and scooped her into his arms just as she threw herself at him. Her arms bound around his neck as his went around her middle and she was lifted off the ground.

“Scarlett.” Her name left him in a murmur one reserved for prayer, and she tightened her arms around him.

“You’re back,” she breathed into his shoulder where the fabric of his blazer was wet from her tears.

He shook his head. “Nothing was keeping me away.”

Drawing back, she kissed him. It was rash and impulsive and no doubt a very stupid mistake, but common sense no longer had control of her. She couldn’t think beyond the wild drumming of elation and relief coursing through her, fueling the desperate need to be as close as humanly possible to the man crushing her in his arms. At her back, his hands fisted in her top as he returned the frenzied and reckless kiss. His hunger drove her to push harder for more. Her finger curled into his hair and held him to her as the world around them melted and vanished.

He pulled back when breathing became a necessity. His hands came up to take her face gently between them. His dark eyes devoured her with a wild abandonment that left her blood scorched under her flushed skin.

“Tell me you don’t greet all your friends that way.”

Her chuckle came out wet and weak as her fingers traced the harsh contours of his face. “I’ve been so worried. I thought I would never see you again. I thought…”

“I told you I would find you.” He smoothed her tangled hair off her tear-stained cheek. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “Are you?”

“Nothing that won’t heal.” He studied her face as though he couldn’t get enough of seeing it. “Scarlett—”

“Uh, Rolf…”

Having been lost in the isolated bubble cocooning them, the rude intrusion was like a shove back into a reality neither of them wanted to be in. They blinked and raised their heads. 

The lights were on, which explained why she could see him so clearly. But more than that, they were surrounded by a little over a hundred people, all watching quietly.

Heat rushed up Scarlett’s body that had nothing to do with the way Rolf made her feel and flooded her face. She quickly detangled herself from his embrace and stood shakily smoothing down her top as she avoided looking at anyone.

“Perfect timing.” Silos broke away from the crowd as he had before and walked to where Rolf and Scarlett stood. “You must be Rolf.”

Rolf gave the smallest of nods as his gaze swept over the room. He bent down and snatched up the torch he’d dropped. He flicked it off.

“What is this place? How are you all here?”

“This is currently our home,” Silos told him. “Possibly the last of the survivors of this ship.”

Scarlett glanced past Rolf at the only other figure standing there, looking as bloody, exhausted and wary as Rolf.

“Rolf, where’s Lance?”

Rolf cast a glance over his shoulder to where Jack stood cradling his enforcer. Grief danced over his features when he turned back to her.

“He didn’t make it.”

Scarlett gasped. “Oh no! I am so sorry.”

He shook his head, but didn’t speak.

“But you’re here now,” Silos interrupted. “You’re safe.”

Rolf met Silos’ calm gaze with narrowed ones. “No one’s safe so long as those things are still out there.”

Silos nodded in agreement. “Which is why we need to speak once you’ve cleaned up.”