I heard a rustle next to me before Alan stepped into the light, my gym bag in his hands.
“Thanks,” I said at the same time all the lights came back on in full force.
Alan cursed again, covering his eyes with his hands.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Just fine,” he said, sounding anything but. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the sunglasses I had thought made him look like a douchebag. Now, I could see why he wore them.
“Ah, speaking of how many operatives, you’re not going to like the answer,” Dana’s voice came through the phone.
“How many?” I asked.
“Well, there are about seven vehicles making their way through the garage right now.”
“Shit,” I said. “Seven vehicles.”
“And we’re sitting ducks,” Connor added.
“Okay,” I said, looking up. “Maybe we can use this space. Can you get enough distance if you climb that—”
“Or you could, you know, just take the exit?” Dana’s voice came through the same time Connor asked, “what, the staircase?”
“Wait,” I said, “Dana what do you mean by exit? Is there a second way out through the lab?”
“Nope just the one,” Dana said.
“Then what—”
“There is, however, an exit about thirty feet from you.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve got the security cameras up on my screen. Turn to your right—I mean left! Sorry, weird camera angles. That exit.”
I frowned and headed toward the one door we had yet to use on this level. It was made of the same fogged glass as the double doors. I reached out and pushed it open. It didn’t even require a security code. I blinked in surprise.
“As someone who worked as a short-order cook for years, I am getting uncomfortable flashbacks,” Connor said.
In front of us was an industrial-level kitchen, complete with multiple stoves, a large island for preparing food, and cabinets upon cabinets. I would have bet my helmet that that big door in the back led to a walk-in freezer.
“Makes sense,” Alan said, as we stepped inside. “Given the amount of beds we saw, they would have cooked for a large amount of people.”
“Yeah, but I don’t see any exit,” I replied. “Dana?”
“I have the blueprints for the building, or whatever the fuck you call a friggin’ underground fortress. Is underground fortress too James Bond?”
“Yes,” we all chorused.
“Well, fuck you, I’m using it. When they built this underground fortress, they utilized a pretty extensive set of existing caves that apparently someone had tried to mine at one point. They used an old elevator to bring everything in from the back of the mountain, where they wouldn’t be seen by the public. And that elevator is just behind that middle stove, if these plans are correct.”
I looked to Connor. “You up for picking up a stove, or is your heart going to give out on me?”
“Oh, ha ha, I’ll be fine,” he said, waving in my direction.
“I wasn’t kidding,” I replied, slipping my bag to the floor. “Seriously, when’s the last time you saw a doctor?”
“You should probably make this quick considering the—count it—twenty-five SynergyCorp operatives are currently making their way through the lab,” Dana piped in.
“Wonderful,” I said, then let out a grunt of frustration as we each grabbed a side of the stove and pulled it from the walls. I mentally thanked Dana for pissing me off and boosting my strength. Alan slipped behind the appliance to unplug it and dropped it to reveal a metal panel bolted to a half-crumbling stone wall.
“Got a screwdriver.” Connor reached for his belt.
“Don’t need it,” I replied. “Stay back.”
I closed my eyes for a second and thought back to Gardiner’s stupid, mustached face and the way he had talked about hurting Dawn. The anger came easily. I stomped my foot on the ground and a crack emerged, forking out and up the already rough-looking stone wall. Those cracks ran high, higher than I intended, and the room shook around me like we were in the middle of a damn earthquake.
It was more than enough to shake that panel loose. It fell to the ground with a clang.
“Shit, don’t bring the mountain down on us, man,” Connor said, passing me my bag before heading toward the exit.
“That’s a little beyond me,” I replied with a frown. At least, I thought…
I slipped my bag back over my shoulder, and I could hear the sound of candy bars clacking against the hard drive. The panel led us to exactly what Dana had described. A cave, complete with a damp, dripping ceiling. The second we stepped into it, the lights flickered on, but they weren’t as strong as the ones inside of Project Regen, which was appropriate in a way. It made the rickety-ass lift we were supposed to use look even more terrifying.
“What is with everyone trying to get me on crappy elevators?” I said, then turned to the guys. “Listen, this thing isn’t strong enough to take us all at once. We’re going to—”
“Have to speed it up, they’re about a minute away from you,” Dana ordered.
“Shit,” I said. “But there’s no way—”
“I can transform and get to the bottom that way,” Alan said. “I’ll see you down there.”
And then, without any further discussion, his body disintegrated into shadow. He hovered in the air for a second before diving down the elevator shaft, leaving me and the big archer behind.
“This is a bad idea,” I said, sliding the door open.
“Now you sound like Lilah,” Connor replied.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” I pushed a button with a clearly marked down arrow.
The elevator let out a moan that didn’t exactly make me feel comfortable, before descending slowly. Far too slowly. I felt tension build up in my neck and jaw. There was no way we were getting out of here before SynergyCorp—
“Shit,” Connor swore at the sound of rustling in the nearby room.
And we had left them with a big gaping opening, announcing our escape route.
I craned my neck upward to see the first SynergyCorp goon arrive at the landing we had just exited, which now stood about ten to fifteen feet above us. He shouted and pulled out his gun.
Only to have Connor shoot him in the head.
“Hey, man,” I said, backing up a step.
“Best to keep your distance,” Connor replied with a grin, before nocking another arrow so bright I had to look away.
Three more operatives arrived, and Connor hit two of them so fast that I didn’t have time to figure out how he had managed to draw the second arrow. This left the third one just enough time to draw his weapon and point it directly at Connor’s un-helmeted face.
“Look out!” I cried, then moved to push him aside, suspecting the armor could at least take a single bullet.
Not that it had time. Because the second I moved, the entire structure let out a massive groan. The cable above us snapped, sending us plunging down the elevator shaft.
19
Dawn
It was just like before. I was fully immersed in my memories, and then I was back to lying on that cot at Birchwood Realty. Or was I? The cot blurred and suddenly I wasn’t there at all, but on my bunk bed at Project Regen. I looked down to see Karen sitting up in her bunk, her blond and purple hair a halo around her head.
“Dawn?” she asked. “Are you okay? Dawn?”
I blinked, and my podmate changed into Lilah, who sat next to me, her hands resting gently against my forearms, her face a mask of concern. It took me a second to realize that she was waiting for a response.
“I, uh…yeah. I think.”
She let out a sigh of relief. “My goodness! I’m so sorry you had to go through all that. I tried to drag you out before, but…”
I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. My gaze wandered to the exit, and for a moment it wasn’t the white walls of Birchwood Realty, but the stone of Pod Four.
Mark stood next to the doorway, a frown on his face.
“Dawn?” Lilah asked. “Are you—”
I blinked, and he was gone.
“The cave-in,” I blurted out. “You tried to pull me out at the cave-in?”
“Only I couldn’t.” She moved. “It was like trying to work against quicksand. The more I tried, the harder you sunk in.”
“But you got me out this time?” I asked, then frowned. “Lilah, your—”
She reached out and touched the space between her lips and her nose, then drew back her fingers to find them wet with blood.
“I’m fine,” she said. “It just took some effort. Probably a result of the volume of memories you went through. The first bout was hours, but that was weeks.”
“With more weeks left,” I replied, voice distant.
“Absolutely not,” Lilah said. “After what just happened? I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to pull you out again. You’d be without a safety net, forced to see it through to the end. Not to mention that Connor, the boys, they’ve found quite a lot at Project Regen already.”
“Really?”
“The facility itself is one thing, but they’ve also found a hard drive that contains a partial recording of one of your fellow prisoners going through testing.”
“Who?” I asked.
Lilah’s eyes dropped. “Your…Mark. It was Mark.” She swallowed. “They were testing that exoskeleton of his that he showed you.”
“Oh god.”
“And I just received notification that they’ve found a guard, who had been put into some sort of dreamlike state. It allowed him to survive down there all these months.”
“Bixby.”
Lilah opened her mouth to reply, and then stopped when the phone on her lap started to vibrate. She picked it up and nodded.
“It’s Connor,” she said. “Probably needs help interrogating that guard. Let me take—”
“Will it be enough to take down Project Regen?” I asked. “Including the people in charge?”
“That’s…beyond the point. I’m not putting you under again.”
“But we might need—”
“No, Dawn. I can’t put you under knowing that I might not be able to pull you out. You’re staying firmly in the present.” She held the phone to her ear. “Yes, Connor?”
And with that, she left the room.
I shook my head, still woozy from the effects of waking up. And while leaving my memories unfinished didn’t sit well, if the guys had found enough evidence to take SynergyCorp down (or at least, for the police to), then maybe it was time for me to take a step back.
“Leaving us behind so easily?”
I jerked at the familiar voice and looked up to see Diego standing near the doorway, his hands crossed over his chest. It was so like Mark that I half expected him to vanish the next time I blinked.
But he didn’t.
“Diego?” I asked. “How are—”
“I see you’re abandoning us.” He shook his head. “So much for being brave.”
“I’m not…” I paused, frowning. “Lilah said that there would be no point to it. That we had enough evidence to take down SynergyCorp. That we—”
“And aren’t you the least bit curious about what happened to us?” Diego pounded his hand against his chest. “Did we die strapped to one of those tables or choking on SynergyCorp’s gas? Did we manage to escape? Or maybe we’re still down there stuck in one of Bixby’s trances.”
My eyes widened. “Do you think—”
“And even if we are nothing more than rotting corpses, don’t we deserve justice? Doesn’t Teresa?” He shook his head. “Brave. You’re not brave. You’re afraid of shadows. Didn’t Forecaster say that you had to see this through if you wanted to succeed?”
I sat up straighter.
“You’re right,” I said. “But Lilah would never agree to it.”
“You don’t need her.”
“I don’t know how—”
“Of course you know how. You’ve been there before.”
I blinked. The locked door in my mind, where all those lost memories were. But how could I…
My eyes flickered up to Diego, questioning.
“Didn’t that Jane girl tell you that your powers were based on will? I’m pretty sure there’s plenty you could do if you put your mind to it.”
I nodded and moved into a supine position. I looked back toward my visitor.
“Thank—” I began.
But he was already gone.
Not that that mattered. If all went to plan, I would see him in a matter of seconds.
I closed my eyes and thought back to that hallway with the many doors. The memory of the courtroom where my father’s killer had met justice. The set of doors that had lay there.
I opened my eyes to find them standing there, feet away. That locked set of double doors made of fogged glass (how could I ever forget the meaning of those doors!). I stood up from my seat and made my way across the empty courtroom. As I approached, I noticed that one of the doors was slightly ajar, my memories already waiting for me.
Answers that I had to find.
I grabbed on to the door and yanked it open. I was immediately surrounded by white light.
My first round of “testing” with Dr. Hale wasn’t my last. Over the next eight days I was called in four times, and each time they broke my arm and waited for me to heal it.
I wondered if they were waiting for the transformations to come faster, easier. For whatever reason, they never did.
They were a little better about tightening the restraints before I tore them off again, though. That and they invested in tranquilizer guns.
They also tested my newfound super-strength. Piling on weight, forcing me to lift until I could lift no more. They never told me the exact numbers, and Dr. Hale’s masked face was too difficult to read to gauge her reaction.
The second time I broke free, I made it out of the lab where, to my shock, I discovered that I could cross the entire hallway in one jump. Not quite leap-tall-buildings-in-a-single-bound-level, but a nice surprise regardless. Unfortunately, they hit me with a tranq before I could get back to the Big Room.
“Why did she run back to the pen?” I heard Gardiner ask Dr. Hale, as my woozy, half-conscious body was dragged back to the room and shoved onto a new, less-broken chair.
He didn’t look great. Apparently, being thrown into the lockers had left him with a minor concussion and some nasty bruises that still decorated his face. He had returned to work a few days later, but the lockers had been dragged away.
“It doesn’t matter,” Dr. Hale replied. “I have no desire to study her mental state. What I need is hard data.”
Gardiner let out a grunt before saying, “So, does this data indicate the new version of the vaccine—”
“Let’s stick to our strengths, Gardiner. Science clearly isn’t yours.”
My constant bouts of testing didn’t go unnoticed by the other people in the Big Room. Every time I met someone else’s eyes, I was met with an expression of sympathy, or even guilt. Which was understandable, I guess. Since I was being called in so often, that lowered their own chances.
But I wasn’t their only favorite.
“I don’t see why they need to focus so much on us,” Mark grumbled as we sat outside of our pod after breakfast, Gerry’s cards divided between us.
“What, you don’t enjoy the hospitality of Chez Regen?” Diego examined Mark from over his cards.
“You know, I don’t think I would have found that funny before all of this,” he replied, voice deadpan.
“Glad to know you’ve always been a humorless bastard.” Diego slapped him on the back. He winced as his hand met with the hard exoskeleton beneath Mark’s skin.
I frowned, because that would have certainly made Mark chuckle before, or at least smile. But over the last couple of weeks, it seemed like things were getting worse for him. Sure, the angry rut he had been stuck in had been s
uper uncomfortable. Now, he never seemed to rise above vaguely grumpy, and that was even more disturbing. It was like the vaccine was wiping away who he was, one emotion at a time.
I realized something and frowned. “Actually, Mark has a point. In the past…what, eight days, they’ve only been calling in the three of us, Luiz, plus that woman from Pod One? I think her name is Anna. What can she even do?”
“Create warmth with her hands,” Mark grunted. “Saw her melt a plastic fork once.”
“There’s another reason, actually.”
I looked up to see Gerry standing in the doorway, notebook in hand. He immediately flipped it open and turned several pages back.
“The three of you, plus Anna and Luiz, are the only ones remaining of the last batch to come to Project Regen. There were twelve total, including five that did not survive the first night.”
He paused, giving Diego a sympathetic look. Diego remained silent, looking down at his cards.
“Since then, we have lost two more. There was Chloe, over two weeks ago, and in the last week, the Russian woman from Pod One. Her name was Vera.”
He closed the notebook in front of him.
“Why would they be focusing so much on one group?” I turned to Gerry. “Um… is that normal?”
“To be honest, there hasn’t been much of a pattern in how they chose to test people or not,” he said. “At least not from what we’ve seen. Karen and I have long suspected that it has to do with how we are monitored.” He nodded up to the glassed-in areas above, where a man in a lab coat stood taking notes. “From our occasional audience member or the cameras that line most rooms. We suspect the so-called “testing” never really stops. I suspect that’s why they waited so long to pull you in after you first displayed your powers, Dawn. They wanted to see if you could summon them at will or if they needed to be forced out of you.”
“The latter, unfortunately.” I frowned. “So it sounds like this level of focus is new?”
“Yes?” Gerry sounded unsure. He riffled through his pages. “Sorry, yes. Although it’s also fair to say that the level of powers you all have displayed have been much more…showy. Apart from Bixby and a couple of others, most people are like Justin or Karen. Their abilities are more tricks than anything else. But you three, Chloe, and Luiz…”
Silver and Gold (Red and Black Book 3) Page 20