“Learned it when I was eight years old.”
Victor turned toward him. “I see.” He gazed at the dome Torin was standing in. A shadow of doubt flickered across his eyes but, he appeared to have made up his mind because he moved closer to the pod and slowly released Torin from its confines.
The holocuffs disappeared as if they’d never been there to begin with. Torin rubbed his wrists, the skin slightly pink in color, tender to the touch from the electric currents.
“Get to work,” Victor instructed as he headed toward the door. “Oh, and that gentleman you see just outside the door?”
Torin’s gaze landed on a large, burly man standing outside of the glass walls. He was half human, half machine. He gulped, waiting for Victor to continue.
“That’s Von. Try to escape and you’ll be down for the count before you know it.” He smirked, then strolled through the sliding glass doors.
Torin looked down at the screen in front of him, then at Von, then back at the screen. He eyed the holographic schematic. This is going to take a while.
28
Four days had passed since Emery’s escape from Novak’s chamber. Four days, and she was still free. She’d stayed safely tucked away in the cave with Naia and her father, spending every waking moment brainstorming ways to defeat Victor. Needless to say, their brains were fried.
Unable to process another thought, Emery picked up a tablet from a nearby table and loaded a mindless game that required her to guide a cartoon bunny through a maze of hunters. Her objective, of course, was to keep it alive. Story of my life.
Naia emerged from the back of the cave, her hair tousled and unkempt. Clearly, she’d just woken up from a nap. “Come up with any bright ideas?” she yawned.
“I don’t know how you sleep back there on that ‘bed’ of pine needles and leaves,” Emery responded, dodging the question.
“I’m going to take that as a no,” Naia murmured as she walked over to the SmartMeal machine. “On a different note, if you happen to have an idea as to how to make my coffee arrive faster, let me know.”
“Har-har,” Emery joked. “While speeding up the delivery time of your coffee is super important, there are other things topping my list at the present moment.”
Naia smiled. “I still think that turning yourself—”
“Don’t even say it,” Emery interrupted, knowing exactly what she was about to propose. “I just escaped. I can’t go back there. Novak will just throw me in a cell again and leave me to wither and die.” She shuddered at the thought.
Naia rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic.” She smiled as a cup of coffee slowly materialized underneath the SmartMeal machine. “Three minutes. That has to be a new record.” She picked up the mug and blew on the steaming liquid before taking a sip.
“Impressive,” Emery mumbled, distracted by the game on the tablet. She directed the bunny to crawl and hide under a hedge as a hunter tiptoed by with his spear raised and ready to strike. The feet stopped where her little creature was hiding. After what felt like an eternity, the hunter finally walked away. Without realizing it, she let out the breath she’d been holding in. Not so mindless after all.
Naia marched over and grabbed the tablet right out of her hands. With indignation, she pressed the “off” button.
Emery pouted as the screen went black. “I almost won, you know.”
“Oh, come on, you didn’t stand a chance. That hunter was going to find you one way or another.”
An awkward silence filled the room.
“You mean like Novak’s going to find me? One way or another?” Emery asked, her voice barely above a whisper. The thought was truly terrifying. How had he not found her yet? He was one of the most powerful people in the world and she was right underneath his nose.
Naia waved away her insecurity. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Come on, we need to focus,” she scolded as she sat down across from her. “What if you turn yourself in and—?”
Emery folded her arms. “I already told you to not even mention that. You need to wipe the idea from your mind.”
“Just hear me out,” she pleaded. “Draw us a diagram of what you remember from President Novak’s Chamber. That way, after you turn yourself in, your father and I can work our way in and kill the rat bastard.” Her eyes gleamed with devious intent.
“There’s just one problem with your plan,” Emery pointed out. “I don’t remember anything from the chamber. I was completely unconscious and when I woke up, I was in a prison cell.”
“But you said he took you underground. To see the bodies . . .”
Without warning, an image from that day resurfaced. With wide eyes, Emery moved forward to the edge of her seat. “I’m remembering something. A long hallway. I thought there’d be a door at the end of it, but there wasn’t. Just a giant wall.” She scrunched her face, trying to recall what else she’d seen. “The floor suddenly began to lower while we were on it until we reached a basement. It was pitch black.”
Naia scratched her chin. “Did you notice any exits or entrances while you were down there?”
Emery shook her head. “Honestly, no. It was so dark and I was so disturbed when I saw the bodies . . . that was all I could focus on.”
Naia sighed, taking another sip of her coffee. “Well, it isn’t much, but it’s a start.” She powered on one of the tablets and handed it to her. “Can you try to draw it?”
Emery nodded, taking the tablet into her hands. “I can’t promise it’ll be pretty, but I’ll do my best.”
Naia sat back in her chair and closed her eyes while Emery tapped away on the tablet, moving her finger back and forth and up and down on the screen.
Five minutes later, she nudged Naia’s shoulder and handed her the child-like illustration. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. “Art was never my strong suit.”
Naia laughed. “Like I said, it’s a start. Hey, Byron!”
In a split second, Emery’s father appeared from the back of the cave, looking disgruntled and tired. “Based on this drawing, do you think we can pinpoint where the entrances to the chamber are?”
Byron rubbed his eyes as he walked over to where they were sitting. “I was trying to sleep, you know,” he grunted.
“Well excuse me, but I think we have more important things to be doing than sleeping,” Naia teased as she extended the tablet to him. “Here, look.”
Byron examined the drawing, zooming in and out a few times before speaking. “If I’m being completely honest, I’m not sure there’s enough information here.” He shot an apologetic glance at his daughter. “It’s good, just not enough. We need more.”
Emery shot Naia a knowing look. “I tried.”
“When you say we need more,” Naia began, “what exactly do you mean?”
Byron ran a hand through his grey-flecked hair. “Ideally, we need someone who’s on the inside.”
Their silent unison confirmed what they were all thinking.
Emery sighed. “If only we had Torin.” She stood up, offering to take the tablet back from her father. “He’s our inside-man.”
“Keep your chin up,” Naia reassured. “We’ll figure this out somehow. We always do.”
As badly as Emery wanted to believe those words, she knew it was a long shot. Without Torin, everything felt hopeless. She’d gone from being an insider to an outsider in the blink of an eye. Torin was the one person they needed most, and he wasn’t here.
Emery turned away from her father and Naia, hoping to hide the bleak expression that was clouding her face. She reloaded the game on her tablet, watching hopelessly as her rabbit was brutally decimated by a hoard of angry hunters.
29
What am I doing? Torin thought as he threw a piece of carbon steel to the side of the desk. He’d been working in the lab for seventy-two hours straight with no sleep and very little food. In that time, he’d managed to create two prototypes of machines th
at he truly thought would destroy the carbon steel, but during the testing phase, the samples had remained unharmed and untouched.
Not to mention, all he could seem to think about was Emery. She’d know what to do. As strange as it sounded, she was always the one coming up with ideas and strategizing her way through the muddiest of waters. Sure, he had the knowledge, but Emery had the drive. She probably would have figured out a way out of here by now. His heart sank as he realized that he had no idea where she was. If she was safe. If she was even alive.
Of course she’s alive. No more negative thoughts. He focused his attention back on the task at hand. There was only so much coding he could do before everything started to blur together. Victor had entered the lab that morning, asking him for an update on his progress. Torin had lied, saying that he was close to having the final prototype ready, even though he was far from it. Victor had reminded him that it needed to be completed by day five.
It was day three.
Torin spun his chair around, noticing that Von wasn’t in his usual spot. His eyes searched the outside of the glass, looking for some sign of the half-robot bodyguard, but he was nowhere to be found. Ideas of freedom flourished in his mind, if only for a brief moment. In his heart, he knew it was too risky to try to escape on a whim—there were guards everywhere and cameras documenting his every move. He needed a plan, and a good one at that.
This is where having master hacking skills came in handy.
His side project, in addition to building Novak’s disintegration machine, was Project Contact-Anyone-In-The-Outside-World-And-Soon. He needed a better name, but for now, it’d have to do.
He’d decoded the lab’s main phone line, allowing him to discreetly make a call or send a message. Now he just had to make sure that no calls nor messages were tracked or registered on any of Novak’s communication logs.
He looked over his shoulder, checking once more to confirm Von hadn’t returned. The hallway was still empty.
This might be my one and only shot.
He whirled back around in his chair, quickly typing the slew of codes into the control station. A green box appeared with the words: Direct Communication To. He leaned forward in his chair, licking his lips as adrenaline coursed through his veins. This was it.
He tried to recall Emery’s phone number from the top of his head, but the numbers were a giant jumbled mess, like everything else he was working on. Victor had confiscated his phone before he’d entered the lab, so that wasn’t an option. He banged his head on the desk in front of him, his aggravation climbing. When he lifted his head, another box appeared at the bottom right corner of the screen. This one said: Search Signal.
Memories of years past flooded his mind. He’d been the one to program all of 7S’s tablets and electronics when he’d first started working there, before he’d gotten promoted to Junior Head of Technology. Every device had been programmed with the same four-digit code, 7STC followed by a dash and a number to differentiate between the different devices. He typed in the letters, waiting impatiently as the database searched for a signal.
Two minutes went by slower than a tortoise making its way to water.
He was about to give up hope when the screen lit up.
Available Network: 7STC-14N.
Torin almost fell out of his seat. He touched the holoscreen, watching as the system attempted to establish a connection with 7STC-14N. His fingers flew as he typed a message, then pressed send. The message icon hovered in the air. It pulsed slowly at first, then grew more rapid.
Come on. Send.
The icon was hardly recognizable, like a mirage in the desert heat, as the pulsing grew quicker. Torin blinked and when he opened his eyes, the icon was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief as a new icon, a green light, blinked in its place to indicate the message had been sent.
Success!
He made some ludicrous hand motions in the air, air-fives and the like, feeling proud of his nearly impossible accomplishment. And then it dawned on him. He wouldn’t get an answer right away. He’d have to wait.
He brought his hand to his mouth, biting on what was left of a hangnail. Torin had no idea who would receive the message, or who was even on the other side, but he could only hope that whoever it was would be the ticket to his freedom.
30
“This isn’t possible!” Naia shouted from the back of the cave. In a flash, she appeared from behind the back wall, tablet in hand. She ran over, waving it in the air frantically.
“What isn’t possible?” Emery asked in a disinterested tone. She was starting to get cabin fever, or in this case cave fever, which made it hard to feel energized or even the slightest bit hopeful.
“It’s a message,” Naia huffed, trying to catch her breath. “Just . . . here, you read it.”
Suddenly interested, Emery jumped up from her seat and grabbed the tablet from Naia. She scanned the words on the screen: Sergeant Torin Porter here. Anybody out there?
Her heart swelled like a dozen balloons that had just been released into the air. He’d found them. He’d found a way through.
“Quick! Write something back before we lose the connection,” Naia urged, peering over her shoulder.
Emery here. With Naia and my father. She pressed send, waiting anxiously for him to respond. After only a few seconds, the screen lit up again.
Thank god. Where are you? Are you safe?
Emery tapped the letters onto the screen as quickly as she could manage. We’re safe. We’re in a cave on the mountains, west of President Novak’s Chamber. Where are you?
It took longer this time for the response to come through. Emery ran her fingers through her hair, hoping that it hadn’t been lost somewhere in holospace. Two minutes passed before the screen lit up again.
In Novak’s Chamber, in the lab. Has me building a disintegration machine to destroy the ring and the pendant. SOS.
“The connection’s getting weaker by the minute,” Naia warned, pointing to the signal strength.
Emery nodded as her fingers picked up pace. Can you send us a schematic of the chamber? We need to find a way in.
They waited anxiously behind the screen—their beacon of hope, their guiding light.
Thirty minutes passed without a response. Emery continued to stare at the screen, trying to keep what little hope she had left alive.
“We lost the connection,” Naia said with a sigh as the last bar on the signal disappeared.
For some reason, Emery just couldn’t accept that the connection had been lost. “We need to try to reconnect. He will reach out to us again. I know he will.”
With a sad smile, Naia shrugged and patted her shoulder. “I sure hope so, but Torin’s the guy for that, remember?” She gestured to herself and her father. “If anyone can fix the signal and reconnect, it’ll be Torin, not us.”
Emery’s shoulders slumped. She knew Naia was right, but didn’t dare admit it.
“Hey, look on the bright side,” Naia added quickly. “At least we know where he is and that he’s safe.”
“Safe?” Emery retorted. “No one is safe in there.”
Naia sighed. “There’s not much we can do about it right now, so we may as well order dinner and get some rest,” she suggested as she walked over to SmartMeal. “We’ll need our strength once the schematic is in our hands. Agreed?”
Again, Naia was right, but Emery didn’t say a word.
Naia ignored her pouting. “Does anything in particular sound good?”
Emery wasn’t hungry. She couldn’t even think of eating nor sleeping at a time like this. Naia’s question went unanswered as she powered on a nearby tablet. Poor Torin. Stuck in the chamber all alone. She could only hope that Novak was treating him better than he’d treated her. Albeit a prisoner, it sounded like Novak needed him sharp and focused, which meant he probably wasn’t being thrown into a cell to rot every night. And he was probably being fed better food than she’d had the luxury o
f tasting; but even if this wasn’t the case, she had to pretend it was, for her own sanity.
Tablet in hand, Emery sulked to the back of the cave, away from her father and Naia who were conversing quietly over a makeshift table. She knew she should join in, but the thought of discussing Novak and his plans, Torin’s potential plans, plus their own plans was exhausting. Enough already.
All she wanted at that moment was to be alone to process everything, to feel everything she was feeling. Anger, hurt, worry. What if they failed? What if Novak won, forcing all of humankind to live in a world where their every action, their every move, was controlled? Never to speak an original thought or feel a true feeling ever again?
These feelings of doubt were familiar. The last time she’d felt like this was a few months ago. And who had been there to guide her through it all and help keep her head high when all she wanted to do was let it fall?
Torin.
With a loud sigh, Emery laid down on the makeshift bed. She fluffed some pine needles underneath her neck for support, but they didn’t do much in the way of comfort. Her eyes focused intently on the tablet’s black screen. Come on, light up.
She prayed for a message to come, but after an hour had gone by, it was clear there wasn’t one coming. Not tonight. Her eyes didn’t leave the screen until finally, her mind forced her eyes shut, and she drifted away into a restless sleep.
31
Von was back.
Torin moved quickly to shut down the system as fast as possible without looking hurried or panicked. Von entered the laboratory, followed by an irate Victor. Torin hastily grabbed one of the prototypes and started messing with it, pretending to be hard at work.
Victor approached his work station, his mouth pressed in a firm line. “Is this the one?”
The Order of Omega (The Alpha Drive Book 2) Page 15