Once they’d all gone in, Omar followed and held the door as it closed behind him, careful not to let it slam. “We’re in,” he said to Zane.
“All right. Let me find you. The cameras here aren’t labeled.”
Omar leaned against the wall just inside the door and took a breath from Skottie’s PV. It felt good to be back to normal.
They were in a waiting room with rows of chairs and a counter that was dark. A short hall on the other side of the waiting area stretched out for a few yards before turning a corner. Light illuminated the back end of it.
“Got you,” Zane said. “You guys were hard to spot. What’s your plan?”
“Hold on.” Omar waved Mukwiv and Tupi over and stepped close to Kendall. “Zane wants to hear the plan. Talk close to my ear so he can hear you.”
When they were all huddled together, Kendall explained. “First we need to stun the femmes at the caretakers’ station. It’s straight ahead and to the right. Once they’re down, we can find the kids. The hallways are a big U, and there are rooms all along it. That’s where they keep the babies.”
“I see the station,” Zane said. “The caretakers are just sitting there talking. Two of them. Have your SimScanners ready.”
“I’ll take them out,” Omar said. “Stay close behind me.” He drew his SimScanner and walked forward, trying not to let his shoes make noise on the tile floor. He passed through the waiting area and down the hallway. The light got brighter and he squinted. He reached the corner and could hear voices.
“He didn’t even listen to me,” a woman said. “So I told him to take me home. And then he got angry, started treating me like I was the one being ridiculous. I mean, I can understand if he has another femme, but to try to pick one up while he’s out with me … I’m sorry, but that’s not acceptable.”
Omar stepped around the corner. The caretakers’ station wasn’t as close as he’d expected. He could see both women’s heads, just above the top of the high counter that circled them, but they hadn’t seen him yet.
He flipped off the safety on the SimScanner, keeping the weapon ready at his side. He strode toward them and reached the counter before either woman looked up.
“You did right,” a second woman said. “Did I ever tell you about the time I had dinner with — ”
She stopped, and Omar realized the first woman had turned slightly and was now staring right at him. “What do you need, trigger?” she asked. “We’re closed.”
Omar lifted the SimScanner and shot her, then aimed at the second woman and shot her too before the first had even hit the floor.
“SimTalk: Enforcer 10.” A woman’s voice, coming from a little office in back of the caretakers’ station. “I’ve got a man with a gun in the nursery. Two caretakers have been stunned.”
Maggots! “Someone called Enforcer 10, Zane.” Omar heaved himself up against the counter and slid over the top to the other side. He leaped over one of the stunned caretakers and charged into the office. The third woman was cowered behind a desk. “Please don’t shoot me!”
“It’s just a stunner.” Omar fired, wincing at the look of horror on the woman’s face as she collapsed. “Zane? Anything you can do about Enforcer 10?”
“I’ll try. But you’d better move fast, just in case.”
“Spread out,” Omar said to the others. “Bring the kids here, and we’ll help each other strap them on. Be quick about it. Enforcers are on the way.”
Kendall took off for the nearest door. Mukwiv and Tupi ran to the rooms on the left. Omar banged out a swinging half-door and walked to the right. The room on the far right was empty. So were the next three. Then he found a sleeping boy — Eliza’s Ben. Omar grabbed him and ran him to the caretakers’ station, where Mukwiv was setting down another toddler. Tupi stood cradling a smaller baby in his arms.
“My boy, my boy,” Tupi said, nuzzling the kid’s neck.
“Love on him later.” Omar laid Ben on the floor. The boy’s eyes were still closed, and his legs curled up to his chest as he rolled to his side. “We’ve got five more to find.”
“Four more,” Kendall said, pushing through the half door and setting little Carrie down on her feet. The toddler’s cheeks were red and she was sucking her thumb.
“Find them.” Omar ran to the next room. Inside he discovered his cousin Hazel, Aunt Chipeta’s youngest. He carried her back to the station and saw that both Mukwiv and Tupi had found another child each. One of them was crying.
Kendall ran out of a room and into another. She came back out. “You guys checked all those?”
“Yes,” Tupi said, helping Mukwiv strap a kid to his back.
“And I checked the rooms on this side,” Omar said. “Who we missing?”
Kendall’s voice came out in a whimper. “Elyot.”
Figured. “I’ll see if I can wake one of the caretakers.” Omar ran behind the counter and slapped the cheek of the first femme he’d stunned. “Where’s Elyot?”
She groaned.
Kendall crouched beside Omar. “Baby Promise. Where is he?”
The caretaker’s eyes widened, and her voice came out a raspy whisper. “He doesn’t live here.”
Sure he didn’t. “Where else would he live?”
“She’s lying. I saw him here before.” Kendall grabbed the gun from Omar’s waistband and pointed it at the woman. Jordan’s gun. “Where is he?”
“Walls, don’t, Kendall!” Omar said. “That’s not a stunner.”
“Good.” She prodded the barrel against the woman’s chest, then set it against her forehead and held it there. “This is an Old gun. Loaded with bullets that send you to the next life. So, tell me where my baby is, now!”
Omar could only stare at Kendall, horrified. Two of the kids were crying now. He stepped to the side to try to block the view through the doorway.
“I can’t,” the caretaker said. “If I do, I’ll be liberated.”
Kendall used her thumb to pull back the hammer. “If you don’t tell, you’ll die right here.”
Omar stared at Kendall in total shock. She could use a gun? “How do you even know how to use that? To pull back the hammer?”
Kendall glowered at the caretaker. “I know all about guns, Omar, and drugs and liars too. My uncle was the biggest liar of all.” She jabbed the gun at the woman’s forehead again. “Tell me!” she screamed.
The woman shuddered. “He lives at Champion House. The task director general has a live-in caretaker who’s responsible for him.”
“Why?” Kendall asked.
“An experiment, I was told. His assistant said the task director general wants to see how an infant is raised.”
“He took my baby,” Kendall said to Omar, her tone wistful yet filled with understanding. “It’s all he ever wanted from me.”
Omar didn’t know what she was talking about, but he didn’t like the look in her eyes. The screaming babies probably weren’t helping. He reached out his hand. “We’ll get him, I promise. Can I have the gun back?”
Her eyes shifted to his, then down at the gun that was still pointed at the woman. She lowered it a little and released the hammer.
Good. He reached for it and —
The caretaker jumped up and knocked into Kendall, stealing the gun. She ran to the corner of the room and pointed it at Kendall, then Omar. She frowned at the gun and used her other hand to pull back the hammer.
Omar froze. He couldn’t be certain she’d correctly cocked the gun, but it sure looked that way. “Kendall, get down!” He slowly reached for his SimScanner.
“Don’t you touch that!” the caretaker screamed, and Omar lifted his hands where they could be seen.
“What’s going on?” Zane asked in Omar’s ear. “I can’t see in that office.”
“The caretaker has my gun.”
“I won’t let you take our future,” the caretaker said. “The children stay here.” And she fired the gun at Kendall, the recoil deafening in the tiny space.
Omar
quickly pulled his SimScanner and shot the woman. She collapsed. He ran to her and ripped away the gun. Then he looked back to where Kendall had been standing, but she was on the floor. “Kendall? You okay?” He couldn’t see any blood, but she was wearing all black.
“Omar?” Zane asked. “Speak to me, peer. That didn’t sound like a stunner.”
Mukwiv stood in the doorway to the room, staring wide-eyed at Kendall. A kid was strapped to his front.
Omar ran to her side and saw the wetness seeping through her shirt. “Kendall’s been shot in the chest. One of the caretakers got my gun.” Had the bullet missed her heart? Did it even matter?
“Where did you get a real gun?” Zane asked.
“It was Jordan’s,” was all Omar could say.
Zane muttered a string of curses. “No one was supposed to bring that.”
Omar grabbed hold of Kendall’s body, pulled her onto his lap, which left a smear of blood on the white tile floor. Oh no no. “We need a medic,” he said to Mukwiv. “Zane, we need a medic.”
“No, Omar. You need to get out, now. Enforcers are in the building and there are all kinds of medics in the hallways, looking around. Someone will find her.”
“You have to go,” Kendall whispered.
“We can’t leave you like this. We should have brought Mason.” Mason would have known what to do.
“The gunfire will have drawn the interest of other people,” Mukwiv said.
“Omar, you have to get out of there, now!” Zane yelled. “Enforcers are coming.”
“I’m so sorry, Kendall,” he said. “I’ll get your baby, I will.”
“Take care of him?”
“Yes, of course. We all will.”
“Wait,” she whispered. “I told Otley you were the Owl. Because … the summons. I went. And Lawten let me see Elyot. My baby was here then. He’s so beautiful, my Elyot.”
Seriously? Did everyone have a price in this world that they’d betray anyone for? Did Omar have a price too? Shay, perhaps? If someone threatened Shay, what would he to do keep her safe? Could he even —
“There’s something else.” Kendall fumbled for his shirt and pulled him toward her. For half a second he thought she would kiss him. But she pulled his head past her face, putting her lips by his ear. “When I first got here. Lawten … He bought me from my uncle, said I was his wife. But when I got pregnant he sent me to the harem. And when I asked why I couldn’t be his lifer, he said he already had one. Ciddah, the medic. Tell your brother for me? Mason has always been …”
Her hand fell away from her shirt, and her eyes were frozen, staring at the ceiling.
“Kendall?” Omar grabbed her shoulder and shook it. “Kendall!”
“We must go,” Mukwiv said.
Omar screamed out his frustration and pushed Kendall’s body off his lap. But he couldn’t look away from her face, the way her eyes stared open at the ceiling. His hands shook as he reached out to close her eyes, something he wished he could have done for his father.
Then he jumped up and ran back out into the caretakers’ station. At least half of the kids were crying now. There was so much noise, and they’d just seen adults shooting each other and falling to the floor. And all the blood. Omar wanted to scream for everyone to shut up. Instead he grabbed Hazel and tried to put her leg through the harness.
Mukwiv and Tupi had already harnessed the Jack’s Peak children to their fronts and backs.
“Help me,” Omar said to Mukwiv.
The older man helped Omar strap Ben to his front, while Tupi strapped Hazel to his back.
All that was left was Carrie, who was crying around the thumb in her mouth. Omar squatted and picked up the girl and settled her on his hip. Three kids weighed a lot more than he’d expected. “Let’s go.”
Omar pushed out past the half door and walked toward the entrance, shushed Carrie and tried to bounce her. His heart was racing. His limbs shaking. He could feel Skottie’s PV pressing against his hip and wanted a vape, but he had no free hands. “Zane? How about those enforcers?”
“Two getting off the elevators now. You’re going to have to stun them to get out.”
“We’ve got two enforcers coming.” Omar shushed Carrie again. “Can you guys stun them?” He changed the tone of his voice, trying to sound soothing. “It’s okay, Carrie.” The other babies had quieted, but Carrie’s cry was going to give them away.
Tupi drew his gun. Mukwiv already had his in hand. “Should we wait for them to come in?”
“No,” Zane said. “Those doors have an alcove that will be good cover. Go, go.”
Omar relayed Zane’s message. Tupi held the door for Mukwiv, and the two men slipped out. The door started to close, and Omar caught it with his foot. He heard a man yell, shoes squeak on tile. He heaved Carrie up on his hip and crept forward.
“They’ve got them down,” Zane said. “Get out of there. To the stairwell.”
Omar pushed all the way out the double doors and into the hallway. Tupi and Mukwiv were waiting. “To the stairs.” He tried to run, but the kids bounced so much that Ben’s head smacked into his chin, and the boy started to cry. Great, now two were crying. At least Hazel was happy on Omar’s back.
“Hold him while you run,” Mukwiv said.
Omar pulled his arms tight around Ben and Carrie and jogged toward the stairwell. Awkward, but much better. Ben instantly quieted.
“You’ve got two more coming up the stairs,” Zane said.
Omar warned Mukwiv, who took the lead into the stairwell. “Be careful to keep out of their line of sight,” Omar said. “The babies have SimTags and could get stunned.”
But Mukwiv and Tupi had the advantage of height as they came down and easily stunned the ascending enforcers. They made it down the stairs. Omar paused at the door to the back parking lot. “Zane? Can we come out?”
“Yeah, yeah. More enforcers are coming in the front, but the back is clear. They still don’t know I’ve hacked the grid and taken over their cameras. Dim shells, anyway.”
Omar pushed out the door and walked across the empty, dark parking lot. Carrie had mostly quieted and hopefully would stay that way until they were safely in the truck. In the distance, headlights flashed twice, and Omar changed direction, headed for Dayle’s truck.
Just before they reached the vehicle, the back doors opened and Mason looked out. He took Carrie from Omar and set her inside, then pulled Omar up into the back. “You did it, brother.”
“Yeah.” But not without loss. Another person dead. Omar’s fault. Omar’s gun. And nothing but bad news about Mason’s medic. He dug in his pocket for Skottie’s PV, and once he had it in hand, he fell on his knees on a pile of blankets that covered the floor of the truck and took a long drag.
“Where’s Kendall?” Mason inched over to help Omar remove Hazel from the back harness and laid her on a pile of blankets.
“May.” Hazel crawled over Carrie’s body back toward Mason.
“Hey, Hazel.” Mason swept her up in a hug and touched her nose. “How are you?”
“Wuv May.”
“I love you too,” Mason said, setting her back on the blankets. “Though you won’t like me very much in a minute.” He looked around the interior of the truck. “I thought Kendall went with you. And where’d you get that PV? I thought yours was gone.” He moved over and started to unhook the baby from Tupi’s back harness.
Omar leaned back against the wall of the truck, keeping one hand on Ben’s back. He held the vapor in his chest, shaking, wishing it were brown sugar. Some of the kids were crying and he shut his eyes, wanting this to be over, fighting back tears of his own.
Once everyone was in and the truck was moving, Mukwiv answered Mason’s question. “The one called Kendall was killed.”
“Killed? How?”
“It’s my fault.” Omar opened his eyes and met his brother’s. “Shay gave me Jordan’s gun. We weren’t supposed to take anything more than the stunners, but she was worried and …” Oma
r squeezed Ben and rocked back and forth, more comfort for him than for the little boy. “One of the caretakers said Kendall’s baby is with Renzor.”
“Talk about this later,” Zane said in Omar’s ear. “Get the SimTags out.”
Never a moment to rest. “Zane says we have to get out the SimTags.”
“Right.” Mason shook the shock from his face and picked up a black backpack. “I’m going to need some help holding the kids.”
“I’ll help.” Glad for something to do, Omar scooted across the back of the truck until he was beside Mason.
“It would be best if you held her.” Mason picked up Hazel and handed her to Omar, but the little girl clung to Mason’s neck.
“May. Wuv May.”
Mason had to pry her hands free. “I’m not looking forward to this. It’s pretty rough.”
“How many you do tonight?” Omar asked, suddenly realizing he hadn’t even asked how things had gone at the boarding school. “Did you get the others out?”
“We did.” Mason pulled a backpack onto his lap and removed a bottle of rubbing alcohol. “Thirty-four. The kids brought friends, and we only lost one, a Safe Lander. He got stunned, not killed.” Mason swabbed Hazel’s hand with the alcohol. “Hazel, I have to make an owie on your hand, okay? Omar is going to give you hugs.”
Easier said than done.
Mason used his scalpel to slice the side of Hazel’s hand. She shrieked, a high-pitched sound louder than any siren. And her tears were contagious. Carrie and one of the Jack’s Peak kids started to cry too.
The next fifteen minutes were horrible. Babies screaming, tongues curled, faces red, blood and more blood. But Mason worked quickly and kept calm and soon had a collection of seven SimTags in a little plastic container.
“Knock on the wall, will you?” Mason asked Mukwiv, who was closest to the inner cab wall.
He did and the truck slowed to a stop.
“I’m just going to toss this,” Mason said, “then we’ll be good to go.”
Mason slipped outside and returned in seconds. He closed the door, motioned to Mukwiv to pound on the wall again, and the truck sped away.
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