Heart of Tartarus

by Lucy Smoke

  "We're locked in at the roof," Haze's voice filters through the stairwell as well as in the tech comm unit in my ear.

  "Working on it," I hear Noaz reply.

  We wait for several more minutes until Haze huffs and presses into his collar again. "What's taking so long?"

  "It's complicated," Noaz shoots back unperturbed. "The company's building that we're using has had issues with people up on the rooftop. They had an employee commit suicide up there, so they've doubled up security for it."

  "Great," I moan.

  "Don't worry, I've almost cracked it." As soon as he says 'it', a green light flashes over the locking mechanism and Haze slams down on the handle, stepping out onto the rooftop. I follow him.

  "Going comm silent," Haze says with his fingers still on the inside of his collar. He pulls them away and takes my hand again, leading me towards the edge of the roof closest to the pod complex.

  "What if they do have exterior cameras?" I ask. "Won't they be able to see us?"

  Haze's eyes sharpen on mine and using his grip on my hand, he turns us so that he's backing me into the lower half wall that surrounds the top of the roof to keep people from just going over the edge. My heart thuds in my ears as I hold back a gasp.

  "W-what are you doing?" I ask.

  "I'm making sure that whatever they manage to see on their cameras, it's what we want them to see," he whispers. Dipping his head to my neck, he slides his backpack off his shoulders and lays it in front of my feet. "Kneel down," he orders.

  I do as he says, my hands going to the zipper on the backpack as his go to my hair. He pulls my hair out of its ponytail, spreading the strands over my shoulders. I shiver as I reach into the backpack and pull out the zip wire rope.

  "So, this is a clandestine meeting then?" I whisper, unwinding the rope. His hands trail down grabbing my hands and helping me loosen the rope.

  "That's what they'll see," he murmurs. His lips get frighteningly close to my mouth.

  "Right," I say trying not to gasp. Holy hell, these guys are...electric.

  "Put your arms around my neck and press your chest against mine," he orders. "I want to get out the crossbow.” I shiver and drop the rope between us, doing as he asks.

  "Crossbow?" I whisper, touching my lips to his cheek. It's the closest I'm willing to get.

  Whatever it takes for Kida, I remind myself.

  "A zip wire crossbow," he affirms, hands searching through the bag as he tilts his head down against my shoulder. Lips brush my neck, sending shock waves through me. "The zipcar companies have more advanced technology to attach their zip wire ropes around to various buildings. This is temporary. We only need it to hold us, not a car full of people."

  I nod my head, my mouth grazing against the underside of his jaw. I like his scent. He smells like strawberries, the rich juicy fruit, and midnight champagne.

  "Almost got it," he says. I nuzzle against his chin, partially wishing he would hurry and guiltily hoping he takes all night. No, that's wrong. I shouldn't want that when I have...

  Haze snaps his head up from my neck and slams me forcefully against the half wall, bending me nearly in half. His mouth slides over mine and though I feel something at the small of my back as he presses against me, I'm absorbed in what's happening to my front. Something jerks against my back—the crossbow I assume—as Haze's mouth turns ravenous and he opens his mouth against mine.

  Guilt swarms me. It isn't right. No matter how good it feels. I squeeze my eyes closed and Haze finally pulls away. "Are you okay?" he asks. I nod, keeping my eyes closed. First Levi, and now Haze. I know it's for the mission now, but I'm still wracked with the horrible feeling of being a cheating whore.

  "Hey," Haze says, gripping my chin. "It's okay, the shot made it. We're almost done."

  I nod and suck back my tears, opening my eyes. I'll have to come clean when this is all over. It's the only way I'll be able to live with myself.

  "You ready?" he asks. I nod again, and he hugs me close, my head over his shoulder as he shoots the other half of the wire into the half wall of this building. He reaches up and presses against the inside of the collar of his shirt again, he must have some sort of honing button attached there.

  "Noaz, can you make sure any cameras are jammed for the next ten minutes?"

  "On it," Noaz replies.

  I pull away, startled. "Why didn't you ask him to do that before?" I demand.

  "If the cameras are down for five or ten minutes that's one thing, but any longer and they would be suspicious. I couldn't ask until the last minute."

  I glare at him, but I can't fault his logic. It makes sense. We wait to break away from each other until static sounds in our ears again and Noaz says, "All clear." Haze reaches over the side and tugs the rope to test the tautness. He reaches back into the backpack after making sure it’s suitable and pulls out two harnesses and four metal clips.

  "These are going to be attached to the zip wire rope for each hand," he explains holding the clips in his hands. "Your lower half will want to drop down and hang at first," he says. "You can't let it."

  "Do I put this on?" I ask, holding up a harness.

  He nods his head. "Go ahead and do that," he instructs, pulling his own on as well before doing it up and then checking mine. I blush when he checks the crotch straps. "You're going first, you okay with that?"

  "Gotta die sometime," I reply, nodding.

  He frowns before releasing a snort of amusement when he gets my meaning. He shakes his head instructing me to lean over, front to the wire as he attaches it to my harness. "So long as you follow my instructions," he says, "you're not gonna die tonight."

  He finishes attaching my harness to the wire before handing me gloves to strap on. I do so, and he then hands me the clips. "I'm going to have you put your feet against this wall and push off. Keep the clips in your hands. If you drop them, you'll have to use your hands. With the gloves it's not so bad, but still pretty uncomfortable and it'll take longer. Do you understand?" he asks.

  "Yes." I nod emphatically.

  "Good," he says. "When you push off, your body is going to rotate—it's startling, don't scream." I nod again and take a deep breath. "Okay, then," he continues. "After you push off and turn, snap your clips to the rope and then use them to pull yourself to the other side, once you’re already a little over halfway, I'll follow. We're on a time limit here, so hurry it up."

  "Got it," I agree.

  "Go ahead and push off," he orders.

  My belly quivers at the thought, but I don't think, I just do. I press my feet against the wall and shove with all my might, trying to get as far down the rope as I can in one leap. I manage to get myself a fifth of the way at least. It feels odd falling attached to something, but as my body turns like Haze warned me it would, it jerks against the zip wire rope, holding steady. Thank God for small favors and Haze's skill with climbing shit.

  I snap the clips he gave me to the zip wire rope and start to pull myself across. It strains my muscles, pulling against them. Huffing, I yank hard and manage to slide myself another fifth of the way, but I lose my clips.

  "Dammit," I gasp, hands gripping the rope.

  "Are you okay?" Haze asks. I duck down, looking under me as best I can. He's already on the rope, slowly edging his way towards me.

  "I lost my clips," I whisper call back.

  "That's okay," he replies. "Just use your hands, the gloves should protect your skin from any burn."

  I nod and realize he can't see that. "Got it," I call back.

  Gripping the rope, I pull harder. Already over halfway there, the second part of this climb-pulling experience seems to take excruciatingly longer than before. Breathing heavily, I manage to hit the other building. This time, it's not the rooftop, but an exterior balcony half wall. I reach for the railing and using the last of the strength in my shaking muscles, I pull myself back until I'm facing the ground again, something I hadn't looked at before. It was a good thing I hadn't. It's over ten
stories down.

  My thighs hit the wall and my knees and lower legs drop down the inside. Once there, I release a breath and reach up to start undoing the straps of my harness keeping me attached to the zip wire rope. Haze is almost to me, so I back up, waiting on the balcony until he gets closer. His brow is wet with sweat when he swings his legs over, similar to the way I had, and unstraps himself.

  "Good job," he commends, dropping his harness next to mine on the balcony floor. I smile at the compliment but don't reply as he reaches inside his shirt once more. "We've made it," he says to his comm unit. "Heading inside now."

  "Cameras are back up," Noaz replies. "Be careful."

  Haze takes my hand and pushes up the sleeve of my shirt revealing my wrist scanner. With a smirk, he rolls up his own sleeve and reveals a similar model. He presses them together and then starts tapping furiously at the miniature screens.

  "Okay," he whispers. "I've linked us up and shared the blueprints and layout of the building."

  I pull it up on my scanner as he talks. "What exactly is the plan for us?" I ask.

  Haze levels me with a serious look. "We infiltrate, find the target, and determine from there."

  "What do you mean, determine from there?" I narrow my gaze. "If we find Kida, we're getting her out of here."

  He shakes his head. "If it's feasible tonight, then yes. If it's too dangerous, we fall back and wait for further instructions." I suck in a breath, but before I can lead into a tirade, Haze grasps my arm and squeezes lightly. "We won't leave her here, Cassie. Vincent wouldn't do that. But if just the two of us can't rescue her, there's a plan set in motion for another team to head for her. We're simply getting the information and if we have the opportunity to grab her, we will."

  I release my breath and nod. "I'm sorry," I say. "We just...I have to get her out of here." Haze looks at me strangely, brows puckered and lips frowning. "What?" I ask.

  "You seem to be extremely close with Vincent's goddaughter," he says.

  "She's my–"

  "Yes, I know she's your best friend," he interrupts.

  "It's more than that," I say.

  He sighs, releasing my arm and backing away. "It seems as though you're so close with Kida that you ignore anyone and everyone else."

  "There is no one else," I reply, confused.

  "Exactly," he says. "That's what I mean. You're so focused on your friend that you don't have anyone else. You push other people away. You don't have any friends."

  For a moment, I'm stunned. I had thought that we were friends or becoming friends at least. Haze catches my hurt expression and when I go to turn away from him, he doesn't let me. He corners me against the balcony railing, both hands coming down hard on either side of me.

  "I don't mean that you aren't making friends now," he corrects himself, tipping my chin up when I try to keep my gaze averted. He grips it hard when I try to yank it out of his hand. So, instead of blissful avoidance, I'm left glaring at the douchebag with unfiltered irritation.

  He sighs. "Think about it," he urges. "Before you met me, who did you talk to?" Before I can open my mouth, he answers for me. "Kida, you talked to Kida. You live with Kida. You work with Kida." He releases my chin and backs up. "I don't know how Kida is with you, but according to Vincent, she's been disappearing regularly more and more lately—before this all happened. She's been ignoring her family in favor of you, I suspect. I'm not saying it's a bad thing," he quickly explains when I frown at him. "I think you just need to look into why you may be so dependent on each other."

  "We're not," I say.

  He sighs and, with a shrug, turns away. "Whatever you say," he replies. I growl in frustration, wanting so badly to punch him in his face. I take another step forward to do just that when he closes the distance between him and the balcony doors leading inside and says, "We need to get going."

  Why is everyone questioning my relationship with Kida? I ask myself as Haze and I covertly move through the dark hallways of the upper floors in the Tanks pod complex. It's not like she and I are completely alone in the world. She has Vincent if she needs him. It's not just her and me. I know that wouldn't be healthy...

  I know Haze isn't intentionally trying to be cruel and neither are the others—not Thayer nor Levi. But they can't really understand me or even Kida without knowing us, and they don't yet. I want them to, eventually. My thoughts spiral into their observations and warnings. I didn't even know that Kida was pulling away from Vincent. I know Haze isn't suggesting that it's my fault, but now I feel like it might be.

  Before she left, we had been considering our future. Whether or not we both wanted to continue messaging. I don't want to be a messenger forever, but I don't know what else I might want to do. Kida had tried to be understanding, but I could tell that I frustrated her. Maybe we were just growing apart. People did that, right?

  Haze pulls me out of my own head as we come to an intersecting hallway and he holds his fist up for me to be still. I freeze a step behind him and wait for further instructions as he leans closer to the wall and listens intently. In a whirlwind of movement, he spins and grabs me—shoving me into a nearby utility closet and covers my mouth with one firm hand.

  Shock courses through me as not even thirty seconds later, footsteps approach the utility closet door and then pass it. My eyes glance up at Haze in the darkness. His hearing must be extremely sensitive. I hadn't even noticed the footsteps. The utility closet door eases open and we step back into the hallway, stealthily moving towards the back end of the building. The blueprints on our scanners show a small delivery stairwell in that direction that leads all the way to the basement.

  When we hit the stairwell, we don't waste any time. I take two steps at a time as we descend, and with his long legs, Haze takes three. Static sounds in our ears and Haze freezes, leaning down to finger the inside of his shirt collar.

  "Noaz?" he whispers.

  "Vincent wants to send in a team," Noaz replies. "Can you get to the service elevator and send it down?"

  "You can't control it from where you are?" I ask.

  More static filters over the comm unit before he answers. "I'll need Haze to bypass some extra controls someone has attached to the locking mechanism that decides which pod residents can access which floors. I need our team to have access to all of them."

  "Will do, we're en route now," Haze replies.

  Grabbing my arm, he hauls me onto the nearest floor in search of the service elevator. He curses as soon as we push through the door and turns around, trying to shove me back. I half gasp, half scream in shock as a massive body slams into Haze from behind and he shoves me back into the stairwell. I curse my volume and how it echoes throughout the stairwell as Haze goes down under the onslaught of a giant, angry Tank.

  Scrambling backward, my leg snaps out and kicks the Tank square in the face. Instead of breaking his nose or shoving him off Haze, my eyes widen when his grip tightens, and he looks up at me with a growl.

  Haze turns, flipping the man over and delivers a blow to his throat, effectively cutting off any sound that may escape as he lands another punch to the Tank's solar plexus and then his face. One more punch to the temple and the man is an unconscious mess on the floor.

  "Fucking shit," Haze growls brushing away a stray drop of blood from his cheek. I try not to follow the smear with my gaze as Haze grabs me once more and yanks me back into the hallway, nearly sprinting for the elevator. He slaps his chest once, twice, growling when whatever he's doing doesn't seem to accomplish what he wants. I look at him strangely until he finally reaches inside his shirt and I realize he's trying to initiate contact with Noaz.

  The static that I've come to associate with the comm units alerting either us or Noaz that someone is trying to talk reverberates in my head. Haze squeezes my arm tighter and picks up the pace. We hit the elevator and two Tanks come around the corner ten or so yards down the hallway.

  "Haze? Cassandra?" Noaz's voice comes over the comm as Haze shoves me at the
door and turns to face the oncoming Tanks.

  "Tanks have found us," he says into the comm unit. "I can hold them off for a few minutes. Tell Cass what she needs to do to get you into the service elevator system."

  "Cassandra?" Noaz asks quietly as if wanting my permission. We don't have time for permission though.

  I get on my knees and face the lock box on the side of the elevator as one of the burly Tanks reaches Haze. "Tell me what I need to do," I demand.

  "Pull the box off of the locking mechanism," he says. I clasp my hands together in a fist and bring it down over the top of the box once...twice...on the third try it comes off, clattering to the ground.

  "Alright, what next?" I stare at the mass of wires, not unlike the one on my own lock screen box from my pod when Thayer had disabled it.

  Noaz instructs me to pull several wires away from the wall. "Cut the black one," he says.

  "They're all black!" I snap as I hear Haze grunt when the second Tank joins the first. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as they converge on him. He never seemed overly masculine before, but Haze holds his own against the two giants.

  "The one on the farthest end to the right then," he replies.

  There's nothing to cut it with, so with a yank, I rip it from the wall completely. "Uhh." I stare down at the wire in my hand and hope to God he doesn't need me to attach it to something.

  "There should be a switch along the inside top part," he says. "I need you to hit it. It should reset the entire system for all the elevators in the building. Wait thirty seconds and then hit it again. I'll be able to slip in and control the elevators when the system comes back online.”

  I scramble back to the mass of wires, shoving my loose hair back over my shoulders, hooking the strands behind my ears. Haze grunts and pins one Tank to the ground behind me as the other attempts to put him in a chokehold. All three men roll, narrowly missing me as I press against the elevator doors and reach my hand into the electrical outlet, hoping I don't get fried, and search for the switch.

  "I got it!" I exclaim excitedly as my fingertips brush the switch. I hit it once and sit back.