Zoe cried harder, but I turned back to Baldy, trying to think of what I could use to cut his neck open. His gurgles were growing further and further apart, and I swallowed the excess saliva in my mouth as I tried not to think about how that could’ve been me just two days ago.
Then hands were cutting across my vision, a black kit in them, and I snatched at it and looked up to tell Maddox to get Quess. Instead, I got a face full of my brother, his expression concerned and bewildered.
“I didn’t know it was—”
“Save it,” I said curtly, tearing the bag open with quick movements. It wasn’t about him not knowing; it was about him blindly reacting. I grabbed the laser pen, took a firm grip on the back of Baldy’s head, pressed the button to emit a slender blue beam, positioned the tip over the pink scar tissue, and started to cut through the subdermal tissue.
I heard running footsteps behind me, but I focused on the incision. The skin split easily, and only a small amount of blood seeped out of the edges of the wound. I dragged the laser down, the blue beam slicing through his skin as if it weren’t even there. After I’d made an inch-long incision, I pulled the skin back.
Baldy was still now, and I threw the cutter aside and pulled out a pair of tweezers. Inside the wound, the tendrils of the net were beginning to retract, and I waited long enough for them to weave themselves into a flat, hard rectangle, glistening white amid the pink tissue and white fat. I quickly extracted the net using the tweezers and dropped it into my hand.
I shook as I carefully picked up the hard square, inspecting it for any sign of damage. Blood clung to the sides of it, making it seem like it was bleeding. I quickly wiped the blood away with my thumb, fighting back a sob as it left a pink smear in its wake. Taking it between shaky fingers, I wrapped it in the edge of my sleeve to wipe the remaining blood away so I could see it clearly. My hand trembled as I dug the small thing out again, trying not to lose my grip on it, and held it up to the light, praying. It looked intact—flat, rectangular, and white—and as I stared at it, I realized I had zero idea how to identify damage on the net.
“Liana!” Quess shouted, dragging me away from the net. I looked down at where he was now leaning over Eric and flinched when I saw how pale and still my other best friend was. Quess shot me a look over his shoulder, and I could see his own fear in his eyes. “I need Grey,” he told me.
I blanked for a second, confused as to why he would need Grey, and then I remembered. Grey was a universal donor. Eric had lost a lot of blood and would need a transfusion. Even better, putting Leo back inside Grey’s neck would tell us very quickly if Leo was damaged.
“Keep working, Quess,” I said, standing and tucking the net into my fist.
I looked over at my brother, and to my surprise I saw that he was staring at Baldy, his eyes dark and hooded. I started to check on him, but Zoe’s soft sobs, punctuated by Quess’s softly spoken orders to her, turned me away. Time was already running out for Eric. I needed to get Grey now.
I ran down the steps and across the conference room, and then up a different set of steps to the hall, passing the first doorway, then the second, finally coming to Leo’s room. I pressed the button, and the door slid open, revealing Grey in mid-step. He turned toward the door, his eyes widening in surprise, but I was already moving toward him.
“Come with me,” I said, grabbing his arm. “I need your help.”
He didn’t move for a second, and I tugged him hard as I whirled to look at him. “Please!” I begged.
His brown eyes filled with concern, and then he nodded and started to move. I hauled him behind me, my legs tearing up the distance at a quick walk, then a jog.
“What’s going on?” he asked from behind me.
“My friend’s hurt,” I told him, dragging him around the corner to the entrance. “And you’re a universal donor.”
“Wait, what? How do you know that?”
I ignored his question and pulled him through the door just as Quess was shaking his head at Zoe and causing my best friend in the world to collapse on Eric’s chest.
Eric’s unmoving chest. I sped up, bodily yanking Grey behind me as I raced over to them. “No,” I said, my teeth clenched as I slid to my knees, unconcerned by the puddle of blood.
“He’s gone, Liana,” Quess said, his dark blue eyes almost black with grief. “He—”
“Hook him up to Grey, now,” I said, my hands pressing insistently on Zoe’s back. “Zoe, move!”
I shoved her, harder than I should’ve, but I didn’t care about hurting her feelings. I wasn’t losing anyone else to that man or his legacies—not even one. I didn’t care that Quess thought it was hopeless. Eric wanted to live. He had everything in the world to live for. And I wasn’t going to let anyone give up on him.
“Liana!”
“DO IT NOW OR GIVE ME YOUR BAG AND GET THE HELL OUT!” I roared.
Quess flinched and then nodded jerkily, his hands dipping into the bag to pull out a bit of plastic tubing with two patches at the ends. As he did, I tilted Eric’s head back, trying to ignore how easily his limbs moved. I tucked the net with Leo into a pocket before lacing my fingers together. Then I began to compress his heart, counting off in my head. After thirty compressions, I stuck a finger in his mouth, clearing his airway, and then fitted my lips over his and began puffing air into his lungs.
I repeated this twice, and then switched back to pushing on his chest to compress his heart. Meanwhile, Quess had finished attaching Grey to Eric, via the hose.
“Adrenaline for his heart,” I snapped.
Grey’s eyes were wide and horrified, but he sat there quietly, watching us.
Quess nodded and pulled out a pneumatic injector. “Here,” he said, pressing it to Eric’s neck and clicking it. “It’s the last dose we can give him, though. I’ve already given him two ampules.”
I ignored that, focusing completely on Eric. “Breathe, Eric,” I said. I fitted my mouth over his and puffed more into his lungs, then pulled back. “Breathe!”
Eric’s chest rose and fell with each breath of air I shoved into him. His body jerked up and down as I pumped on his chest. But his eyes continued to stare up at the ceiling. Empty and devoid of life. Panic set in, and I redoubled my efforts.
“No,” I said, bending over him once again. “C’mon, Eric!” I cried. I blew more air into him, getting steadily dizzier from breathing too fast, but unwilling to stop. Unwilling to let him go. “You don’t want to die like this!” Blow. “You have to propose to my best friend.” I changed over to compressing on his chest and kept talking. “Invite me to your wedding.” Push. “And then make me little nieces and nephews I can spoil and love on!” Push. “So you’re not.” Push. “Allowed.” Push. “To die!” Push. Push. Push.
I could hear Zoe sniffling behind me, see the broken look on Maddox’s face, and feel the defeat rolling off Quess.
“Liana,” Quess said, his voice a hesitant string of pain. “He’s…”
“He’s not gone,” I said between clenched teeth. “I’m not losing anyone else. We’ve already lost Cali, Roark, Ambrose, my mother… I’m not letting him die.”
To prove it, I balled my hand into a fist and slammed it down on his chest. Over and over again, trying to force his heart to pump, to draw blood from Grey, to—
Eric gasped so unexpectedly that I jerked my hands back and toppled over onto my butt. His eyes fluttered open and closed, and he began to cough.
“Quess!” I called, afraid that Eric was going to stop breathing again. But he was already there, fitting a filtration mask over Eric’s nose and mouth, holding the other man’s head still.
He looked up at me, eyes wide, even as Zoe wrapped her arms around me and began to cry.
“Don’t you stop working on him,” I muttered, but it was a plea more than anything. I wasn’t arrogant enough to assume that I had brought Eric back. I had just refused to quit—and it had paid off. Eric was still pale, and there was every chance in the world that he woul
dn’t make it if Quess couldn’t figure out where the damage was and fix it quickly. But I had bought him some time.
I only prayed it would be enough.
14
I wasn’t sure how long I had been holding Zoe before Maddox suddenly stood up. I had been watching Quess work, fixated on the blood that seemed to be everywhere, but jerked when she let out a sharp curse.
I looked up to see her standing over my brother, bent at the waist and holding his wrist. She looked up at me, her eyes round with fear. “Liana, his rank is falling.”
My heart sank into my stomach as I pulled away from Zoe, practically leaping over Grey to get up the stairs to Alex.
My twin was still sitting, his eyes now fixed on Baldy’s blank gaze, a lost and horror-filled look in his eyes. He was shaking slightly, his skin pale and clammy, and I realized he had gone into shock.
But that didn’t stop his number from dropping, and my heart skittered along my breastbone, placed there by the terror of watching the eight on his wrist click to a seven with a sharp snap. I met Maddox’s gaze, and realized that although Alex had thought he was defending us, Scipio had somehow read his emotions and decided that this was cold-blooded murder.
That was bad. Murderers were considered an anathema to the Tower, a danger to productivity, and were automatically reduced to the rank of one. We were witnessing it now, here, with my brother. And as soon as the system registered his fall, the alarms would begin to go off, and the Knights would come running. If they found him here, with Baldy’s dead corpse, it would be a done deal, and he would be shipped to the expulsion chambers.
And I wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it.
I stood up and shoved Leo’s net toward Maddox. “Get Leo back into Grey as soon as you can,” I told her. “I don’t care what you have to tell Grey about what you’re doing and why—just get him in there.” I needed to know he was okay, that he hadn’t been hurt when Baldy was shot, and the fastest way to do that was to get him into Grey’s head. Hopefully Leo wouldn’t have the same problems with Grey as he had with Baldy.
A dark fear rose at the thought of that, and I wondered if Leo would be able to reestablish control with Grey. What if the process only worked when someone’s waking mind was resting, or in a comatose state, like Grey had been? Maybe the design was intended for the AI to only aid in the healing process, not take control. Now that Grey was back, what if Leo could only be in his thoughts and healing his mind, rather than actually taking part in the outside world? Pain rippled through me at the thought, but I quickly shoved it inside, deciding to worry about it after I saved my brother.
Maddox nodded and accepted the chip, but I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. No doubt she was wondering what she would even say to Grey, and I didn’t know how to help her. I wasn’t sure what to say to him either. All I knew was I had two major problems before me, and one of them needed my immediate attention. Namely, my brother.
“What about him?” she asked, pointing at my brother.
“The Paragon,” I reminded her. “If I get it in his system fast enough, it’ll boost his rank back up, and keep him off the sensors. Where did we leave it?”
“In the kitchen,” she replied without hesitation. Her eyes flicked down to my brother’s wrist, and I followed them in time to see the seven morph into a bruised and bloated six. He was falling fast, and if anyone in IT was monitoring or recording his rank status, they would see that something significant had happened.
And I knew for a fact that Sadie was having him watched. I had to get him up and moving and get a pill down his throat as quickly as possible. It might already be too late if someone was watching right now, but I had to try. I couldn’t risk them taking my brother away.
I grabbed his arm and yanked. To my surprise, he allowed himself to be dragged up and forward, but his movements were stiff and laborious.
“Where are we going?” he asked, and the hopeless sound in his voice made my heart ache.
I wanted to turn around and comfort him, but as soon as his rank hit three, the alarms would go off. With Quess working to save Eric, and Leo trapped in the net until Maddox got him back into Grey, I couldn’t count on them to shut off the sensors in the apartment to buy us time, and I doubted Cornelius would be able to obey that request without some AI help, which meant I had to make it to the Paragon before he hit three.
“To the kitchen,” I told him, hauling on his arm and pulling him forward, practically dragging him behind me. I urged him both orally and physically, trying to get him to understand the urgency of the situation through the tightness of my grip and the insistent tugging on his arm. His feet picked up the speed, from a stiff-limbed lumber to a slight jog, but it still wasn’t fast enough. “Hurry up, Alex!”
“Huh?”
We were making our way around the hairpin turn now, and I chanced a glance back to his wrist—and felt a spurt of adrenaline as the six slid into a sickly orange five. The alarms were going to go off as soon as the sensors in the area registered the three, and they’d already be picking up the fact that he’d dropped all the way to five.
But he didn’t even notice. His eyes were blank, hollow, and empty, his half-hearted burst of speed already flagging.
I knew I had to snap him out of it. He had to get moving or we were going to lose him entirely—because if he dropped down to a three, I wasn’t going to be able to do anything to save him from Scipio and those expulsion chambers. So I did the only thing I could think of.
I slapped him. Once on the cheek. Then again at the blank-stare look he gave me, and again at the dazed and confused one that followed.
The third time was the charm, because he shook his head, his hand going to his cheek. “Liana?”
“Come on.” Squeezing his arm in what had to have been a most painful fashion, I continued pulling him along the hall, picking up the speed as he followed my impatient urgings.
“Where are we going?” he asked again as we wound our way through the switchback and into the hall.
“Your rank is falling,” I called back, trying to speed up into a run as soon as we rounded the corner. It was clear he was in shock, and I wasn’t helping matters by forcing him to move, but there wasn’t any time. “Trust me, Alex, there isn’t time for this.”
My brother didn’t say anything for a second as I got us to a jog, but I heard a slight intake of breath that sounded shocked enough to make me look back. A four glared brightly at me from his wrist, the orange like a beacon in the well-lit hallway.
“I… I didn’t know it was Leo,” he said, his voice quivering. “I didn’t know what that thing in your hand was. I don’t understand… Why is Scipio punishing me? I was defending you.”
“I don’t know,” I told him, but in my heart, I had doubts. Maybe my brother had been acting in my defense, but he had also been calling for Baldy’s death ever since he’d beaten him. So which was true? Maybe both, but it didn’t matter. All I knew was that Scipio had chosen not to interpret his emotional state that way and was now shaving away his rank as punishment. I was angry at him for what happened, but I was more concerned about what this would do to him if we didn’t get him to take the medicine. I loved my brother no matter what; he was half of my heart and soul. He drove me up the wall sometimes, but I was not going to let him fall like this. He’d watched over me his entire life, trying to protect me.
Now it was my turn.
I picked up the pace as we passed the bedrooms, then the bathrooms, a stitch forming in my side as we ran. I was tired—exhausted, really—but I still poured as much energy as I could muster into getting into the kitchen.
Relief filled me as the hall widened slightly into the steps that would take us down into the large dining/kitchen space. I spotted the bag containing the pills on the counter in the kitchen and started to run over to it, my arms and legs trembling from exertion and fear.
But Alex planted his feet halfway there, almost jerking me off my feet. I caught my balance and twiste
d around, looking at him. “Alex, c’mon!”
“It’s too late,” he whispered, holding up his wrist. The three on it seemed to throb rhythmically, as if counting down, and I dropped his hand and sprinted up the stairs to the elevated kitchen area, snatching the bag off the counter. “You have to arrest me. If you don’t, they’ll arrest you, too.”
“Shut up!” My fingers fumbled with the fastener as I whirled around and raced back to my brother, and I gave a frustrated little shriek seconds before it slid open. I had just been through the bag earlier today, so I knew exactly what I was looking for. Thrusting my arm in, I felt for one of the largest pill bottles, and found one almost immediately, my ears straining for any sign of the alarms.
Please let the sensors be sweeping slowly today, I prayed as I yanked the bottle out, barely paying attention to the handwriting on the side, and focused on unscrewing the lid as I came to a stop before my twin. His eyes had adopted a faraway look, and he was mumbling something.
“…Not protected like you are. I wanted to tell you at the funeral… discovered an irregularity in the way Scipio handles ranking. Positions that require a ten are locked there. Councilors can’t fall… Knight Commanders can’t fall. Explains how they can murder people, huh? Not me, though. I’m going to get caught and—”
The implications of what he was telling me were huge, but I barely registered them. I was too focused on the task of saving his life.
The lid came off in my hands, and I turned the bottle on its side and fished out a pill, then shoved it between his lips before he could say anything else. “Swallow,” I ordered him.
His eyes met mine, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, telling me he had done so.
I let out a shaky breath, and then grabbed his arm, turning his wrist up so I could see the number there. The three had disappeared during my rush to the bag and back, and the two had somehow come and gone in the short time it took me to get the pills. Now a single vertical line remained. One.
The Girl Who Dared to Endure Page 11