by Caryn Lix
I jerked awake some time later. The prison was completely silent and mostly dark. A dim light illuminated the common area, where Mia and Alexei were hunched over the table. Their whispered voices carried through the room, although I couldn’t make out definite words.
Across from me, Rune murmured in her sleep. She shifted, but didn’t wake.
I sat up slowly. Mia and Alexei gave no signs of noticing. I was dressed in black, and shadows cloaked the corridor. This might be my best—my only—chance of escape.
Of course, Mia would kill me if she caught me. I couldn’t hope to escape without any risks, though. Steeling myself, I slid my feet off the bed. I waited for the cot to creak, but it was surprisingly solid. With agonizing care, I fell into a crouch beside the bed.
Still no sign of alarm.
I crept along the floor, my pulse hammering in my ears. I stayed as close to the wall as I dared. Who knew if the other prisoners were awake? If anyone saw me, they’d raise an alarm—or come after me themselves.
I breathed easier once I moved past the view of the common room. Alexei and Mia continued to talk softly behind me. Almost no light illuminated this area of the hall, and I didn’t see movement in any of the cells.
My every instinct screamed to bolt, but I forced myself to creep. My hands spidered along the wall, inch by inch. If someone shouted, I would run. Until then, slow and stealthy gave me the greatest chance of success, even if the adrenaline coursing through my system argued otherwise. This wasn’t my first rodeo. Two years ago at camp, I’d snuck out of bed in the middle of the night with a boy named Mohammed. We’d circumvented every alarm, stolen a couple XE suits, and gone for a midnight space walk. Afterward, I realized how stupid that was. With no one monitoring us, we could have been hurt or killed in an instant, and if we’d been caught in our little stunt, we’d have been expelled at best, maybe even lost any hope of future employment with Omnistellar. It was one of my rare moments of rebellion, and like my adventure in the alley, it only reinforced in me why company regulations existed, and why I needed to follow them.
This time, the consequences were a little more dire.
I reached the door without incident. At the same moment, Mia’s voice carried loud and clear through the hall: “What was that?”
I had no idea what she’d heard, and I wasn’t waiting around to find out. The sector door still stood ajar; I slipped through and bolted up the stairs.
The entire stairwell illuminated ahead of me, which was strange and unusual but probably had to do with Rune’s tinkering. I didn’t hesitate outside sector 4—Rune had released the prisoners, making sector 4 just as dangerous as 5, maybe worse. My only hope lay in reaching the exit before my captors realized I was missing.
I didn’t hear pursuit, but who knew what freaky powered kid might chase after me? There might be one who didn’t even make sound. I shot up the stairs, catching the railing and yanking myself around corners. I reached the second landing before someone shouted behind me. No problem. It only took seconds to get through the exit—except that Mom had almost certainly blocked my code by now. That was okay. It would only take an extra few seconds to contact her using the ship’s comms at the prison exit, and she could open the door from the command center in an instant.
But when I rounded the corner on the top stairwell, I found Cage leaning against the door.
It is time.
The rush rises. Fully awake now, as one and yet separate, united in its goal, their goal, its drive, theirs . . .
Which does not matter.
Which cannot matter.
They are one, and they are coming.
TEN
“HEY, KENZIE,” CAGE SAID. HIS hair was disheveled, his face lined with sleep, his chest bare. But somehow, he’d beaten me to the exit. “Funny, the people you meet.”
I stared at him, cursing myself. Of course. He’d removed his chip. And his power? “You’re the Flash,” I said dully, remembering the old comic books I had found in the library during a three-month stint at some random high school. I’d smuggled them onto my tablet and spent most of my lit classes reading them.
Cage snorted, apparently recognizing the reference. “You really thought you were just going to walk out of here?”
I shrugged. Somehow the accusation in his voice left me with the sense he felt betrayed—ridiculous, since we were very clearly on opposite sides here. So why did I feel a twinge of guilt? “I had to try.”
“I guess you did,” he replied softly. “But you haven’t left me a lot of choices here, Kenzie.”
Before I could demand to know what that meant, he pushed off the wall, caught my arm, and propelled me down the stairs, ignoring my resistance. Tight muscles corded his arms, and the force of his grip told me I’d have better luck fighting off Alexei.
We met Mia and Alexei at the bottom of the stairs. His face remained impassive as always, but hers twisted in a mask of rage. The second she saw me, she flew at me and slapped me hard across the face.
Cage caught her and shoved her back. She bounced off the wall and came at me again. I yanked against Cage, trying to get my arm free to defend myself, but he pushed me behind him. “Knock it off,” he snapped. “Don’t blame her because you weren’t paying attention.”
She leveled a finger in his direction. “Drop dead, Cage. I was watching for people breaking in, not out.”
His neck grew taut. “Which isn’t what I asked you to do.”
She let loose a string of curses that would have made Rita blush and punched the wall so hard I winced. She must have shattered every bone in her fist.
Alexei sighed, reaching for her, but she shoved him aside and stormed back into sector 5. “Sorry,” he said. “I guess we were more tired than we realized.”
Cage shook his head. “It’s as much my fault as yours. I should have realized we couldn’t let her run around loose.”
I didn’t much like the sound of that, but it wasn’t like I could refuse. In a moment reminiscent of our first meeting, Cage marched me into sector 5 with Alexei at our backs. He hauled me past the cells, where most of the prisoners still slumbered.
Rune sat on her bed, tangled in her blanket. “Sorry,” she said, although it wasn’t clear who she intended the apology for.
Cage turned on her. “Give me control of ten. Now.”
“But . . .” She glanced at me. For a moment I thought she might leap to my defense, but she only said, “Okay. Give me a sec.”
She darted past us toward the server room, and Cage dragged me to an empty cell at the end of the row. I yanked against him, digging in my heels, but he put on a burst of speed—preternatural speed, the first time I’d seen him do it. It was only a heartbeat, but the force of the movement twisted my feet and sent me plummeting into the enclosure. I would have landed flat on my face if he hadn’t been holding my arm; as it was, I gasped in pain as he wrenched my shoulder.
“Wait,” I said.
In a blur of movement, he retreated from the cell and slammed the door. The panel beside it sprang to life, and he keyed something in. A second later, the bolt slammed home.
I grabbed the bars and glowered at him. “You want to at least make sure Mia’s not hiding in here, waiting to kill me the second you leave?”
“I’m not.” Mia materialized behind him, her manner more subdued. She shot me an angry glance and retreated to the common room, where Alexei waited.
Cage didn’t move, and I suddenly realized how close we stood. If not for the bars between us, we would have been touching. My breath caught in my throat, but I didn’t dare retreat. “You’d better get some sleep,” he said. “And for God’s sake, would you let me get a few hours?”
“You need to stop this while you still can.” I forced myself to meet his eyes. “I might be able to help you if you back down now. Take it much further and you’re going to get yourself and everyone in this sector—maybe this prison—killed.”
“I can’t do that. This place . . . you can’t unde
rstand. It’s soul crushing.” His lips thinned, his eyes blazing into mine. “We have to get out. If we die trying, well, better than a lifetime of this.” He searched my face, and I didn’t like the look that settled over his, as if he was seeing far too much. “Actually, maybe you can understand.”
I shook my head, maybe too quickly. “I’ve never been in prison.”
“Haven’t you?” he asked, and unbidden, all the rules and regulations Mom had loaded me down with, the constant obligation to Omnistellar, the responsibilities and pressure to succeed—the things I had always thought gave my life meaning—seemed to take on the edge of burden.
Cage was starting to get inside my head.
“How’d you end up here?” I demanded, desperate to change the subject. “You and your sister don’t seem like criminals. Not like Mia.”
He tipped his head against the bars. His hair brushed my fingers, but I didn’t pull away, staring at him in sudden fascination. I wondered how much time and effort he’d put into planning this escape, how much he was really the mastermind behind it all, and whether the fate of everyone in the sector weighed on him the way my responsibilities as a guard weighed on me. Maybe we really did have more in common than we realized. I drew in a breath, inhaling the scent of his hair and something else that I didn’t quite recognize.
His hand slid up the bar until his fist rested under mine, our fingers brushing so lightly I might have imagined it. “Kenzie . . .” He closed his eyes in what looked like exhaustion. “This isn’t . . . It was supposed to be easier. You were supposed to be less . . . less human.”
I laughed in spite of myself. “So were you.”
He raised his face to mine. With my neck craned to meet his eyes, our foreheads touched.
And what the hell was I doing? Omnistellar policy was to pretend empathy for your captors, not develop some stupid juvenile teenage crush on them. I forced my features into a sympathetic expression and said, “I know you’re a good person, Cage. This isn’t what you want. Whatever you’ve done in the past, now you have a chance to make it right.” I winced. Even I heard the condescension in my voice. In my attempt to regain control of my emotions, I’d gone overboard.
Sure enough, his eyes flashed, and he took a step back from the bars. “You don’t know my story or anyone else’s in this pit, and you sure as hell don’t get to judge us. Not now, not ever.”
I retreated as well, cursing him, cursing myself. “I was just offering friendly advice. The fact is, sooner or later, you’re going to be recaptured or killed. If I’m lucky, I won’t have to watch.”
Cage’s eyes narrowed. “Sleep tight,” he said, rapping on the bars. “And if you start feeling claustrophobic, remind yourself you only have to put up with it for a few days. Some of us have lived here for years.” With that, he turned and stalked away.
I threw myself on the bed, angry tears stinging my eyes. That made, what, three failed escape attempts? So much for the top scores in training. Not to mention the fact that in just a few hours, Cage had me questioning Omnistellar, my obligations, my duty. My parents wouldn’t even recognize the sniveling heap I’d become.
That is, if they ever saw me again.
On that cheerful note, I fell asleep.
* * *
In what was becoming a pattern, I woke to the sound of sirens. The screaming and swearing of teenagers was a bit less familiar. “Hey!” I shouted, shaking the bars of the cell door. “What’s going on?”
Tyler, who was hiding in a nearby corner, hesitated a second before drawing closer. “We don’t know,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “The alarms started again. Rune’s trying to turn them off.”
Hope surged. Mom had regained control of the computer. All I had to do was sit tight and wait for her to free me. . . .
Or vent the entire prison. But she wouldn’t do that, would she? Not with me in it. Not at all, I hoped, as the image of Rune—and, for reasons I didn’t want to think too hard about, Cage—flashed before my eyes. Whatever these kids hid in their pasts, they didn’t deserve to die, not if their rebellion could end without bloodshed.
I swallowed, wiping the doubt off my face as I turned to Tyler. Terror suffused his expression. I still hadn’t forgiven him for violating my mind—I shuddered when our eyes met, seeing the darkness of the ability lurking there—but it wasn’t like the others left him much choice. Besides, if I got him on my side . . . “Everything’s okay,” I assured him. “Sanctuary does stuff like this. No one can control it completely. It’s a really advanced AI.”
“Yeah?” He moved closer. If I’d wanted to, I could have grabbed him, yanked him against the bars, and knocked him out, but why bother? If I took him hostage, I’d only have a handful of superpowered teens call my bluff.
“Yeah,” I said, giving him my best smile. I was too exhausted to muster much effort, but it seemed to comfort him. “Don’t let it worry you.”
Cage appeared in a rush of wind. “Good, Tyler,” he said sarcastically. “Why don’t you lean against the bars and put your throat in her hands too?”
He blinked, stumbling, and cast me a look as if I’d betrayed him. “Sorry, Cage.”
Cage shook his head in disgust. He punched something into the keypad to open the door and beckoned me forward. I folded my arms, glaring at him, but he just shrugged, moving to grab my elbow. Fury lanced through me, and I recoiled. I didn’t want his hands on me. “I’ll walk,” I snapped.
He arched an eyebrow and gestured for me to precede him. “What’s going on?” I demanded.
“That’s what we need you to tell us.”
I shook my head, twisting my face into a scowl. “I’m done helping you.”
“I really don’t have the energy for this,” he said, staring at the ceiling as if searching for help. “Or the patience. And by the way, what the hell do you mean, you’re done helping us? What exactly have you done to help so far?”
I shrugged. “I held Alexei down.”
He gave me a considering look. “That’s true,” he admitted. Was I getting through to him? But after a moment, he shook it off. “Either way, you’re coming with me now, if only because you want the damn alarm to shut up as much as I do.”
Well, no argument there, but I needed to stop blindly following orders. For a second I was back at my advanced training camp, struggling to keep a straight face as I acted out a hostage negotiation with another girl, who rolled her eyes whenever the instructor turned away. Something must have sunk in, though, because every detail of that lesson burned into my brain. Step one: establish a pattern of bargaining; and step two: build a personal relationship with your captors. I’d already gone a little too far into step two, so time to back up to step one. “I’ll come, but you have to tell me how you wound up in prison.” I remembered the basics from his file, but it had been light on details.
“That’s what you want in exchange for helping us?”
I nodded, resisting the urge to grin at his confusion. His mouth moved like he wanted to say something, and then he stopped, fixing me with an appraising stare.
A particularly loud klaxon blared through the room, and a pained look crossed his face. “Can I do it after we kill the alarm?”
“Hell yes.”
“Then let’s go.”
We found Matt, Rune, and Mia in the server room. Rune and Matt were arguing about something. Her pixie face flushed with anger, and her hands clenched into fists at her side. “Not if it puts you in danger!” Matt snapped, leveling an accusing finger at her.
Rune stamped her foot. “I heard you the first time! Right now we need—” She caught sight of me and sighed in relief. “Kenzie, thank God. I need your help interpreting some of this information.”
“Mine?” I asked dubiously. Even without her abilities, Rune had an instinctive way with computers. I knew precisely enough to realize how little I knew. She was my polar opposite, treating any sort of technology like a child clamoring for her attention.
“It’s some kind of
security code,” she explained. “I assume the guards know them, because they’re not listed in any part of the system. Another security feature. And the system won’t shut up until we input the appropriate protocol.”
Matt rolled his eyes. “The station’s just full of surprises. Which is why Rune should keep her hands out of it.”
“Yes, we know your opinion,” said Cage patiently. “Rune?”
She tugged an image loose from the console, creating a virtual screen, and let it float midair. “I can’t shut the alarm off, and I don’t think your mom triggered it. I’m getting code 5614. What the hell does that mean?”
I frowned; I’d drawn a blank. Omnistellar literally had hundreds of codes, and I’d memorized all of them at one point, but this one didn’t ring a bell. “5614, 5614 . . . ,” I said. God, why wouldn’t those klaxons shut up? “5614 . . .” Suddenly, the memory rushed back to me—a stuffy library on a hot summer day, me surreptitiously watching a table of laughing kids while studying Sanctuary’s codes by myself on a nearby couch. They were company kids too, but not Omnistellar—something minor, maybe an accounting firm with fewer rules and regulations. I usually didn’t even notice how restrictive my life was compared to other kids’, but that day I’d wondered what would happen if I tossed the regulations aside and asked to join them on the trip to the pool they were discussing. The memory became increasingly vivid, right down to the page on my tablet. But . . . “That can’t be right. Rune, check it again.”
“I am checking it,” she said patiently. “I’m looking at it right now. Kenzie, what’s wrong? What’s 5614?”
“It’s the code for an external threat. Someone’s invading Sanctuary.”
It is time.
It is come.
The harvest has begun.
ELEVEN
ALMOST IMMEDIATELY, I CURSED MYSELF and my mouth. Mom was forever telling me that I needed to think before I spoke, and I’d just proven her right. An external invasion meant only one thing: Rita, or maybe even Noah and Jonathan returning early. Rita might have come back and realized something was wrong. It could be Mom, staging a daring rescue and breaching Sanctuary from outside—but no, of course not. That would be against regulations.