by Mary Ting
“Is that all?” Cleo yanked on Mitch’s shirt. “We have to know more. We came all the way here just for that?”
Mitch’s eyes dropped to Cleo’s hand and she backed away.
“I just told you South. Run with that.” Mitch dusted his collar as if Cleo had left a dirty handprint. “And as for you ...” He met Cleo squarely in her eyes. “You came to help drop off Ava. Perhaps you followed to see her go so you can have Rhett all to yourself.”
He’s a piece of work.
Mitch’s face whipped to the side with the impact of Cleo’s slap. He placed a hand over his cheek and scoffed, glaring at Cleo, who disappeared into the hallway.
Good for you, Cleo. He was so lucky he hadn’t said it to me. I would have knocked out his teeth and then some.
“You certainly deserved that,” Reyna muttered under her breath.
“Enough.” Rhett took a step toward Mitch. “Take Ava back. She’ll tell Mr. Novak her side of the story, and you’re going to back her up.”
“I always back her up. Don’t I, sweetheart?” Mitch winked at me.
I advanced two steps before Rhett stopped me from pouncing. “You put a gun on my head. You knocked me out. You ratted us out. I will always remember that. I don’t trust you.”
With every word, my face felt hot and my body trembled with rage and loathing. Rhett tightened his grip as I struggled.
Mitch blanched. For a moment, an apologetic expression crossed his face. Then he cleared his throat.
“I did what I had to do. I have no regrets. But you’ll have plenty if you don’t get the rebels in the South out.”
Rhett looked to a painting, but his eyes were unfocused. “Well, at least we know somewhat where they are targeting.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and released a long sigh. “We don’t know where they are located—that’s the problem. We don’t have time. Maybe Frank will know. Reyna, get Cleo. It’s time to go.”
“Rhett?” My heart palpitated, panic twisting my gut. As if somehow my body knew to alert me, Helix emerged without my permission. Too many hologram forms came out from the elevator.
Ozzie clenched his jaw and hiked up his shoulders. He pointed to a small screen on the counter in the kitchen. “We have company. Lots of it.”
“Is there another way out?” I searched my map. Nothing.
“You’re not going to like it.” Rhett pulled gloves out of his back pocket, shoved them on, then pushed the buttons on his puffy jacket.
A drilling sound by the door made me flinch.
“Intruder alert. Intruder alert.” A mechanical voice kept ringing.
“We have to go with Gambit B. We have no other choice.” Ozzie secured Mitch from behind and pointed his Taser on his temple. “Plan B, Mitch. Just go with the flow.”
Mitch’s jaw clenched, but he nodded.
Rhett wrapped his arms around me and moved us next to the window by Ozzie. “Sorry, babe. Get ready.”
The door burst open. I flinched. ISAN guards rushed in, dressed all in black and high-tech gear, pointing guns at us.
“Stop right there. Drop your weapons or I’ll blow his brain out.”
Ozzie’s face was such a convincing mask of rage, even I was afraid.
“Drop your weapons or I’ll shoot her. Nobody needs to get hurt.” Rhett moved us back farther, keeping the Taser steady on my head.
“Do as he said,” Mitch commanded.
They raised their hands to surrender, but something wasn’t right.
Too easy. Shadows fell in front of me, but they weren’t ours. Too many.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Shapes attached to the window. Before I had the chance to look, the glass shattered like sharp icicles.
Bombs.
They had exploded, taking down the outside wall. Wind whooshed into the room like a giant hand and smacked us down.
Rhett covered me with his body and pushed us to the side. I tumbled with him still holding me, glass crunching underneath us. High-pitched ringing replaced all other sound. I didn’t know if I was breathing. Rhett jerked me up as bullets rained around us.
Cleo and Reyna shot from the hallway. Guns and Taser beams flashed at every turn. Bullets pierced the wall, shattered paintings, and destroyed kitchen appliances.
“Cleo. Reyna.” Rhett’s voice rumbled over the ruckus. “Ozzie and I will hold them back. Go.”
Where would they go? There was only one way in and out.
You’re not going to like it.
Dammit. I fought the urge to pick up a gun or a Taser and start shooting myself, but I’d blow my cover.
Not now, Ava. We’ve come this far.
Reyna and Cleo disappeared, and Ozzie next, their wigs lost in the harsh gusts.
Rhett spun me around to face him, all the fierceness gone, replaced by somberness. If death had a look, he wore it.
He brushed up against my ear and whispered. “I love you. Stay safe. I’ll see you in three days.” He kissed me and jumped. I was sure no one saw.
That kiss, that simple kiss on my lips—soft, tender, and quick—said a thousand words. And I felt his love deep in my marrow.
I love you too, I wanted to say, but I didn’t have the chance. Pebbles settled in my throat, swelling to choke off my airway.
Rhett dove backward over the balcony like he had at the Shooting Stars restaurant. The throb in my heart did not lessen as I watched him glide away from me, toward the rest of his team. Where I should be.
I belonged with them.
His vest had produced something like a parachute from both sleeves and he seemed to be in control. The four of them soared like eagles. I ducked when Rhett’s team fired at the ISAN guards near me.
When I peered again, Rhett flipped backward, firing two guns at once. Crazy Rhett, but he’d earned his nickname, Sniper. His aim was pinpoint-accurate. ISAN guards fell off the edge, one after the other.
I wondered if the rebels would land on the street or fly until they were out of reach, but Rhett’s team aimed for the roof of the next building.
Come on. Almost there.
I cringed when a bullet clipped Cleo’s bat-like wing and the other Ozzie’s. She tumbled in circles while Ozzie flipped sideways. Then more ISAN guards formed a line and opened fire.
My friends weren’t going to make it at this rate.
Reyna lost both wings. Though they all wore bulletproof jackets, the force of the impact caused the rebels to lose control. Then the next bullet hit Rhett, and then another one, and again.
No! No.
Rhett was nosediving, struggling to steady himself while dodging a volley of bullets. He tried to fire back, but the speed of the wind and losing control of his flight suit made it that much more difficult. Almost impossible to land accurately on the roof.
Do something. Anything.
Oh, God. He wasn’t going to make it. I had no time to shoot everyone down, even with Mitch’s help. And where the hell was Mitch?
The need to protect them outweighed my own self-preservation. Something new inside me awakened and burst through, blazing through my veins and bones. This foreign, burning sensation gripped me strong. I would do whatever it took to save them all.
Damn Mr. Novak. Damn my cover. Damn the serum.
They won’t know if you use Helix, a part of me said. But Helix only heightened my existing senses. Russ had wondered if I had more than five after they’d discovered my maps. Perhaps even telekinesis. I had never tested that theory, but my body knew. It craved more.
The more I understood how to will Helix to the surface, the easier and faster it came. I knew I was capable of more, maybe more than I’d imagined, but I had to want it bad enough. To trust I wasn’t a freak. I had to believe in myself and not ISAN.
I wasn’t just a daughter whose father had experimented on her. I was the very thing ISAN should fear.
I am my mother’s daughter. I am a woman. I am a person.
I am Ava.
Like the dandelion, be resilient. My mot
her’s words.
I closed my eyes. Inhaling a deep, soothing breath, I allowed Helix to work through me. Warmth bubbled in my chest, and the tingling sensation zapped to every nerve ending, through every vein, muscle, and bone.
My vision hazed. Then, like wiping a dirty window, colors emerged. I saw the whole building blueprint, every single level, clearly—the family having a dinner on the 10th floor, the couple hugging on the 18th floor. I smiled at the children playing tag on the 5th floor, so carefree and full of life. Every person on every floor filled my mind.
Use me. Guide me. Become me. Helix coaxed those very words in my thoughts.
When I’d thought about what I wanted to do, blinding lights swirled as if I traveled through the center of a rainbow, through its peaks and valleys. When the lights died, I opened my eyes.
The bullets en route to Rhett and his team froze merely inches away from impact. All of them. Every single one. They dropped straight down like bombs when I could no longer hold on to them.
Rhett smacked into the building, followed by the others. They never made it to the roof, but it was better than dropping to their deaths. He used his gloved hands to attach to the wall and then slid down roughly twenty stories. His team did the same. I could kiss whoever invented that gadget.
Relief flooded through me, and my roaring heart eased a bit. Safe. They were safe for now. But how many ISAN guards awaited them when they landed? I tried not to think about that.
ISAN guards cursed, shuffling back. They all looked at me, but they had no clue what I had done. What could they report back? Ava had stopped bullets? That would sound ridiculous.
“You let them get away?” I used my infuriated, strong voice. “Why didn’t someone give me a weapon? I wouldn’t have missed. And where the hell is Mi—”
I never got to finish my sentence. My blood ran cold, so cold I felt like I had been tossed in the snow naked. My body had shut down, as simply as switching off a light.
Something wet and sticky dripped from my nose down to my chin. My head pounded and pulsated like a drum thrumming.
The world spun and darkness engulfed me.
Rhett
“No matter what happens, get your asses down to our hideout.”
Those were my last words as I braced for impact. But nothing came. Nothing. I let out a ferocious grunt and slammed into the wall, the suction from the gloves strong enough to keep me steady. I peeked behind me.
Bullets that should have ended us, dropped like they had run out of juice. Then I spotted Ava, but only for a second. Had she fainted? Had someone knocked her out? She didn’t have a gun.
It had to be her. I knew Ava could do more than she realized. Was that telekinesis? This was incredible. She’d stopped all the bullets. All of them.
My team members were below me, making their descent. I maneuvered while calculating their speed, making sure I didn’t go down too fast. I also assumed ISAN guards would be waiting for us, so I engaged my chip and fed the team instructions via Zen’s most recent cool bit of tech.
Stop. ISAN guards below. I’m going to break the next window. We go through.
My team got the message and halted on the twenty-eighth floor. I fished out a mini bomb from my jacket pocket and attached it to the fiberglass window. Waving to my team, I crawled away from the device. They understood to move.
The window shattered, blasting shards into the air. Luckily, the fragments would fall on the covered walkway and not on civilians. I climbed in, and my team scrambled up after me.
There was a desk with a TAB on top and nothing else in the room. A simple, cramped office with a nice view of the city. Then a door popped open, and a man casually entered, oblivious to the intruders inside his office until his feet crunched on the shattered fiberglass.
I pointed my Taser at him. “Stop. I don’t want to hurt you. We’re passing through. Do you understand?”
He nodded, his eyes shifting to Reyna, Ozzie, and then Cleo.
“Good. Now step aside.”
After he did as I asked, we marched out to find many scared and shocked eyes on us. I needed to calm everyone down before they called the Council guards.
“We’re not robbing you. We’re just passing through.”
I made the mistake of waving my gun when I told them to get back to whatever the hell they were doing. Everyone ducked. When we reached the elevator and I thought the coast was clear, the alarm wailed.
“Can this thing be any louder?” Cleo covered her ears.
“Great. It’s never easy.” Ozzie pushed the button over and over.
Reyna cocked her gun. “Of course not. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“Trigger happy.” Ozzie arched an eyebrow.
“Scare Bear.” Reyna stuck out her tongue at Oz.
“Then what’s Cleo?” Oz asked.
“Nothing. I’m nothing. Stop talking and focus.”
“This is how we roll. You should be used to us by now.” Reyna shrugged lightheartedly and looked from side to side. “No guards so far.”
That was all the time we had for joking around. Footsteps pounded from either end of the hallway. Cleo yanked me through the slightly opened elevator just as guards rounded the corner.
“Stop!”
The door shut.
I looked out the window of the elevator. The elevator to my left came down about five stories above us and the other at three, Council guards. The Council guards were talking among themselves and pointing at us. I stared right back and gave them the bird.
Can you be any less obvious?
“Rhett.” Cleo slapped my hand down. “Stop that.”
Oz busted out a laugh, and Reyna crossed her arms and shook her head.
Quiet. I took in the peace, mesmerized by the tall skyscrapers as we descended. I tilted my head back, and the plump, gray clouds came into view, promising rain. Ava invaded my mind and I tried not to think of her.
“Get ready,” I said.
“Ah, no big deal, Rhett.” Reyna glanced at the floor number getting smaller. “We’ve got this. ISAN guards won’t shoot us down in front of the Council guards.”
True, but I didn’t know how many ISAN guards were waiting. No doubt they would tail us. Once we lost the Council guards, ISAN would be right there.
After I shoved my Taser in my waistband and covered it with my fluffy jacket, I told my team to do the same. I inhaled deep breaths and prayed we wouldn’t be ambushed by ISAN.
“Here we go. Align into team formation and report. If we get split up, meet me at the glider.” My fingers twitched with readiness when the door opened.
Ozzie stepped out first, then the rest of us in a wedge. We blended in with the late afternoon rush on the dome-covered walkway. Perfect. This setting was perfect. Even if the ISAN guards were here, they couldn’t risk shooting at us.
I put my head down and rushed past an elderly couple.
Reyna went to the left and Cleo to the right. Ozzie jogged a couple of feet behind me. Our formation.
“No ISAN so far,” Reyna reported as we continued.
“Nothing here,” Cleo’s voice came clear through my transmitter.
I looked over my shoulder when Ozzie didn’t respond.
He had put on a pair of glasses, more rebel tech. This helped him see what was happening behind him.
“Council guards just got off the elevator. Stay alert.” Ozzie chuckled lightly. “They look confused. Too many people to search through. One is pointing at Reyna.”
“We have another problem.” I let out a soft growl though I wanted to roar. “The walkway is ending and I spotted ISAN guards.”
“Are you sure they’re ISAN guards?” Cleo’s exhausted pants radiated through her mic.
I didn’t blame her. I was tired too. But we couldn’t stop.
“Well, either these men think I’m super hot and can’t stop staring at me, or—”
“Shut up, Rhett. What do we do?” Reyna threw in her usual attitude.
&nb
sp; “Hurry up, Rhett. C guards are closing in on Reyna.”
Ozzie’s breath brushed right behind me.
“On the count of three. Reyna, you run. When you’re close to the guy with a black cap, turn and shoot at the C guards. They’ll be right behind you, so run fast. Cleo and Ozzie, you take out the ones to the right. I’ll cut through the middle. Then find me in the center. If it’s too risky, hide behind one of the holograms. Don’t do anything I would do. One ... two ... now.”
Reyna bolted, C guards running behind her, shoving citizens aside. Screams erupted, causing chaos and confusion. It became difficult to move forward. I must have apologized a dozen times for pushing people out of my way before I got to the end.
I fired at the ISAN guard in the center, but I hadn’t seen the second one behind him. I ducked. He missed but gave me a baleful grin. I stole a glance behind me and saw Reyna go down.
No. Reyna. Why were you behind me?
To my relief, Reyna opened her eyes and winked. I somersaulted to my right, clearing her view of the idiot who thought he’d shot her. He shook like he was having a seizure and collapsed on the ground.
Reyna got up. We stood back-to-back and fired at the C guards, but I had lost sight of the ISAN lackeys. Then I searched for a place to hide. When I turned, something hit my chest, and I dropped to my side.
Not only had I been hit, but I had been Tased. My suit abated the impact, but I still felt the pinpricks of needles stabbing me all over. The heat was so intense I felt as if I had been tossed in a fire.
“I’ve got you.” Reyna dragged me with one hand while she fired away with the other. “You’re so heavy.” She groaned, out of breath as she hid us behind an advertising hologram. “Are you okay? You’re so lucky you had the bulletproof suit on, or you would have been unconscious.”
Frigid cold replaced the heat. I shivered like I’d gone skinny-dipping in ice water.
“Rey ... na.” My teeth chattered, my muscles spasmed, and parts of my body twitched.
“Hold on, Rhett. I have something. Zen made me take it.” She reached inside her back pocket and pulled out a one-inch tube of blue liquid. “This should help you.”
She pushed it onto my neck, but I didn’t feel anything.