by L. B. Carter
By the time anyone
Sees this, we'll be
T
U
He paused at the T.
"Terminated," Henley suggested with an out of place giggle.
Reed spelled it out and finished with five more letters next to the U: nless...
He capped the marker and tapped the board with it, addressing the room at large. "Right folks. We need to combine our genius and tactical and managerial experience. This is our motivation. Brainstorm. And go."
He reseated himself at the head of the table and folded his hands together waiting for someone to voice a solution.
His team meandered back to their seats. Father took Katheryn's. The animosity and blame from earlier was replaced with teamwork. They came together to rescue their missing member.
"We could—"
"I believe that—"
Two voices overlapped.
Nor extended a palm toward Henley. "Ladies first."
"Well, I was just thinking that perhaps if Ace could hack into their servers and..." She mulled it over, twisting a strand of hair into a tight spiral. "If I could remotely access one of the bots in the engineering lab..." Her metal finger tapped the table rhythmically. A gentleman, Nor waited for her to finish her train of thought. "If it responds, I could get it to break through a wall?" It was a question.
"That's a lot of ifs," Val said morosely. "What about the mini-drones?"
Henley's nose scrunched. "That's a lot more programming than I can do; I'm more hands on." She laughed at her joke, wiggling her mechanical fingers. "Ace, could you get in?"
His answer was a rumble. "I could try."
"Will that attempt be noticed? I doubt an institution as big as BSTU doesn't have the best firewall," Reed noted.
Henley bit her lip. "They didn't notice my modification to the drone's directives." She was not a natural or happy rule breaker, not equipped with a wealth of escape and diversion tactical plans.
Nor was, however, making Reed proud. "But doubtful from inside, from their own people. And instead of a literal break-out with a lot of ifs, could we simply generate a diversion?" Like Father had done. "Generate some chaos? Reed, feel like being chased by some drones again?"
Henley's eyes bugged. "Now that is a huge if!"
"It appears I can't get all the way in from here," Ace informed them.
"What? How do you know?" Reed looked around in case he'd missed some computer screen hidden among the whiteboards. He stopped for a second, wondering if they made two-way whiteboards and they were being spied on as was standard in all prison cells. Too late at this point.
Ace held up his arm. The watch glinted.
"Right." He was impressed Ace and Henley could do so much from a tiny inch-square screen and no keypad.
"I was able to get partway in but couldn't find the right back door. They've disabled my login." As expected. "I need to get to the server room."
"So we need a diversion for you to get to the server room to create a diversion," Reed summarized. Reed was shocked Father didn't provide an opinion. Perhaps he had picked up on the fact that this was Reed's team.
"Swell." Val flopped back in her chair and began to swivel back and forth. "Where's the server room? Is it even in this building?"
"Yes. Floor seven."
"What floor are we on now?"
"How do you not know where you are? Didn't you live here for a while?" Val had disappointed Reed with her faulty awareness of her surroundings. Like brother, like sister.
"Not a while. Only a few—"
Suddenly, the door burst open, and everyone shot to their feet, unprepared for the end at which Reed's poem hinted.
"Sorry!" A young girl with a short mousy brown bob and bangs stared with wide brown eyes under thick dark eyebrows. She wore a lab coat. She resembled the spitting image of— "I got an email that said my class was moved to this room after the fire drill." Her head shook, thick hair swishing. She eyed the drones. Strangely, they had not registered her entrance. Were they only watching for an exit?
"Must be a mistake." The girl began to back out, pulling the door closed behind her.
"Wait!" Reed and Father recovered first, years of missions and training helping them spy an escape when it presented itself. But neither of them were the first one to reach the girl and prevent her from shutting the door. His reanimation had spurred another person into action.
"Bromley!" Henley tackled the girl in a hug by the time Reed wrapped his fingers around the door edge to hold it open.
"Hen?" Bromley pushed Henley back to arm’s length, inspecting her appearance. "What happened to you? I've been emailing you to meet up since I got here. Why haven't you answered?" she accused, hurt. "And I haven't been able to get a hold of mom either." Her lip wobbled. "They won't let me."
"Oh, Brom. I'm so glad to see you. Mom's fine. She made it to one of the refugee stations."
"I have contacts keeping an eye on her," Ace said, stepping up behind the girls who Reed surmised were sisters.
Could they fit any more family reunions in during this trip? They were all learning that you can't escape your family. He ignored his father.
Without releasing Bromley, Henley turned a megawatt smile on Ace. "Did you do this?"
Reed was confused when Ace gave a small nod. Then he put it together. He'd penetrated far enough into the network on his watch to scan their student database and send a message.
"Thank you." Her eyes shined. She released one hand from her sister to reach back and give his a squeeze of gratitude.
"I don't renege on a deal." He gave a soft smile.
"Who are you?" Bromley asked with interest. "Hen, what's going on? Why do you look like you've been rolling in a mud puddle?"
Henley laughed, more carefree than Reed had seen her before. "Like mom would allow that. It's a tedious story I can divulge another day. Right now—"
"Right now, we need your help, and we need to decide what we're doing fast because I think someone is going to notice this door wide open pretty soon," Reed interrupted. He eyed the floating devices. "Maybe something."
"Quick and dirty explanation," Val said. "We need to get out of this room unseen and find a girl with green hair. You didn't see her on your way here by chance, did you?"
Bromley didn't ask more questions like her sister, which Reed appreciated. "No. But I could find her."
"Actually you can't," came a male voice behind her. One of the BSTU bodyguards loomed in the doorway with blood dribbling down from his temple. He must have been bowled over in the explosion. "We request your presence at this meeting as well, Miss Bickford, since you've decided to join us." He lifted a radio to his lips.
Chapter Fifteen
Val didn't wait. She flung the marker from the whiteboard over the guard’s head, out the door, then dropped and rolled under the conference table.
The drones activated in response to the movement. There was chaos of buzzing engines and electrical zapping that told Val the mini-drones had tasers set to stun their prey—presumably they were not deadly in their wattage since BSTU would not want murder on their hands on campus. Grunts and groans punctuated the motorized soundtrack. Val couldn't tell if the vocalizations meant people were getting stunned or if they were fighting back ...or if they were launching themselves out of the way in time.
Something bumped into Val's side.
"Thanks for the warning, sweetheart," Reed said with sarcasm.
Val grinned. "Aren't you guys trained for this kind of excitement?"
"Yeah, but your brother and Henley and her sister aren't," he grunted, shuffling slightly.
Her smile slipped.
"Don't worry. They're smarter than you and had already put up their own defense. Brilliant kids. We might have to hire them at Green Solutions now that they're forced out of their positions with BSTU. And because Father's new team is out there getting their asses handed to them." The last sentence was a growl.
"You're welcome for weeding
out the weak," Val chirped. "Ready?" she asked, getting in position.
"Been waiting on you, sweetheart."
Her grin rolled into gritted teeth. "Stop calling me that."
"No can do. There's no way I'm calling you ... your name. You're not her. Not even close. She was perfection. You're a shitshow."
"You were attracted to me before."
"Yeah, because, apparently, Jennifer had a rockin' bod that you stole."
Val rolled her eyes and pursed her lips as she got into position on her back. The racket of 'bot-on-human battling continued beyond their table cave. "And the body she had was mine—you know, the body of your girlfriend? You admitting to not being attracted to your girlfriend?"
Reed lay down next to her, bending his knees deeply to fit his feet against the underside of the table top. Something clanged against the surface above, sending vibrations reverberating down Val's legs.
"No," Reed intoned. Val rolled her head to look at him. "I'm saying that I was attracted to so much more with her. She was the first and only time I've ever been roped in just by how amazing she was on the inside. Although, I guess you kind of help reassure me that there is no substitute, regardless of whether you stole her DNA."
"Go!" Val shouted, shoving the table with a touch more umph than necessary.
Reed was only a beat behind, but with his added leg strength, they managed to leg-press the heavy table onto its side with a huge thump, giving them a cover to cower behind while Val kicked a few times at a table leg until it snapped off the table.
She snatched it from the floor and tossed it in her palms. "Ah, it's good to hold a weapon again."
Reed rolled to a crouch. "I wouldn't know. If you hadn't stuck my dagger in some guy's—"
Val gave a war cry and leaped over the table, bat swinging. A few drones were down, a few more being wrestled by the Green Solutions crew, and Ace and Henley were dissembling another on the floor. Val shoved the burly men aside and swung her bat down between them, smashing the drone they'd been fighting over into the floor with a crash. She hurried on, running to the next and repeating her efforts. This was way better than therapy.
She carried on until she reached the door. "Ace, Hen... Mini-Hen, go! We'll clear a path."
Reed had caught up and shoved the door wide, letting Val pass.
"Right behind you," Ace shouted back.
Val darted into the hall, skidding across the tiles. "Shiiii..." she trailed off, the bat falling limp in her hand. One end of the hall was completely in shambles, flames licking the walls, debris everywhere, the ceiling drooping and even slumping to the floor in places.
"This way," Reed suggested.
A few drones zoomed out of the smoke cloud, doubly blocking that direction. Val hefted her weapon, shifting her weight from foot to foot, raring to go.
"This way," Reed repeated, grabbing her arm and spinning her around, towing her with him as he built into a jog.
"But I wanna smash it."
"Do that when we get farther away; we gotta draw them away," he reminded, arms pumping as they powered down the hallway. "We're the distraction."
Students had vanished when the alarm went off, and any stragglers would have skedaddled when the explosion hit, so the area was deserted. The end of the hallway approached, terminating with a heavy door. The plaque next to it depicted an image of stairs. A silvery elevator lured from the adjacent wall. And opposite it, a bisecting hallway branched off.
"Which way?" Reed demanded.
"I don't know!" Val was overwhelmed. "I was only here for a few weeks, and you think that woman ever let me leave the lab?"
"You got out."
"Yeah, with Ace and Henley's help."
"Well, do you remember what route you all took?"
Val wracked her brain. "Ya know, it's hard to remember these things when you're running for your life... then and now!"
"Take your time," he panted sarcastically.
"Forget you." Val made a choice. She slammed into the stair door and skipped down, using the railing under her fingers to swing herself around the one-eighty turn between floors and fling herself down the next set of stairs. Down seemed logical. They'd made it into a basement garage last time, that much she could recall.
"They're pursuing," Reed called out as he tripped after her.
"Good." Her voice was also sarcastic. It was good—it helped her brother and his girlfriend and her sister get to ...wherever they needed to go to trace Sirena. But then again... they had deadly bots on their heels.
Val hissed when the stairs dumped her at a door with a large "1" painted on it.
Reed barely avoided tripping over Val. "What?! Locked?"
"Wrong floor. We need the basement."
Reed was faster at recalculating, being more used to action as a pawn on the chessboard, whereas Val was more comfortable directing her pieces. He shoved onto the floor. "So we find another stairwell. Move your ass." He beckoned, and hearing the buzz behind that had haunted them in the Midwest, Val took his advice.
She sprinted after him, her shoes slapping on tile, watching the muscles in his back move as his arms pumped. Her eyes dipped, enjoying the power in his legs and backside as he propelled himself. He was definitely thinner than when she met him, but his daily exercise on the farm had kept him capable of quite a hustle. Val grinned, pushing harder to overtake him.
Loping up next to him she goaded, "You run like a girl."
His eyes slid sideways, twinkling. "If you mean like you, then thank you. You've got dizzyingly long legs."
Val laughed. He'd checked them out enough to know. "But do you have stamina? Will we finally find out if you really are a thirty-second kinda guy?"
He gave a playful growl, body-checking her. It wasn't hard, but she tripped into a classroom, caught herself and went after him with a more menacing rumble in the back of her throat. He laughed and glanced over his shoulder at her. The jubilant smile whipped from his face. "Val!"
Just that look and her name, which he'd avoided saying before, spurred her from a fun frolic into a terrified gallop. She wanted to look, but that would delay her. She trusted Reed. Adrenaline sent her hurtling toward him.
He kept going, but she knew it was slower than his fastest pace, and he held a hand out as he went.
She ignored their surroundings, tried not to obsess though her senses were screaming that the whirr was closing in, and instead kept her eyes on the goal, her hand stretching out to catch his.
"Val," he warned in a bass.
Great, something ahead too? Forgoing his hand, Val launched herself with a wild screech onto his back all crazy-obsessed girlfriend-like.
Reed, to his favor, didn't stumble. He just added a second hand to support her backside and then made the turn he would have missed if she hadn't launched herself on him, slamming open a heavy door and then bouncing down the stairs toward a basement. "You're. Just trying. To. Grope. My ass." Val accused with each bounce as her butt lifted and reseated, saddle-like, in his palms repeatedly. Her chest mashed on his shoulder-blades.
"Trust me, I'd prefer not to be running right now. Walking is even hard."
Val gave a secret triumphant smile against his neck.
Then they barreled through another door into an echoing cement garage.
"Okay, which way is out?"
"Don't you want a car first?" she asked over his shoulder, settling against him more comfortably now that he'd paused to look around.
"You know how to jump one? I was under the impression that was Henley's trick."
"Hell," Val huffed, thinking of a way around that snag.
He pirouetted, and she clung to his shoulders with her nails. "We don't want to move too fast anyway; we're still the bait."
"Right." Val was starting to regret that plan. Hopefully, Henley and her brother figured out how to turn off the drone attack from their nerd lab as well as locate Sirena. She pointed a finger past his ear. "Well, the exit is that way, but there's a security guard. La
st time, we used Katheryn's ID and some advanced handiwork my brother did to get permission to leave."
Reed shrugged, hoisting Val with the movement. "We'll figure something out." Yet he didn't move. His hands shifted under her bum, and Val got an idea of why he hadn't moved.
"Okay, buddy. Feel me up when we're not in an emergency escape situation. Giddy-up." She hitched herself, swinging her legs to kick his thighs with her heels.
Nothing.
"Hello?" Val leaned around, chin pressing into his corded shoulder, trying to see his face. "What's wrong? Why aren't we moving?"
"Happy to. As soon as you get down. Unless you're incapable of walking?" His tone was snide, if a tad gruff.
Val sniffed and dropped her legs to the floor, taking a full step back. She cleared her throat as his chin twisted to the side so he could give her amused side-eye.
She marched around and past him, denying the blush shooting up her neck. "Shut it." She also didn't turn around to stare at his front side. She knew he hadn't really wanted to put her down either. He just liked to make her uncomfortable. "Hilarious," she congratulated aloud, her voice echoing off the low cement ceiling.
"You shut it," Reed hissed, jogging to catch up to her, gripping her arm. "You want to forewarn the security guard we're coming?"
She wrenched free. "Then don't be a dick," she stated plainly, stalking toward the ramp up and out into the sunlight. "If that's even possible for you."
He deigned to chortle at her comment. "That's a matter of opinion."
Val didn't answer as she trotted up behind a massive gray pillar and peered around at the security hut next to the barrier that admitted the rare, privileged vehicle to leave BSTU grounds.
The pole no longer seemed wide when Reed joined her. In order to stay hidden, he had to crowd close enough that his body heat warmed her back. The sensation was somewhat welcome given that Boston was a lot colder in autumn than the drought-ridden Midwest had been. Her shorts suddenly felt incredibly insubstantial now that they were within range of the outside air.
Last time she was here, that crisp autumn scent had been a sign that she'd made it, that her plan was in motion. She hadn't anticipated all the obstacles it would bounce over or smack into, thwarting its momentum.