I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, feeling each muscle in my body relax, knowing in some way I was safe in the darkness.
Chapter 24
I had completely drifted to sleep and was swimming in unconsciousness until something woke me. The lights were dimmed to the point of near perfect darkness. Fear gripped me with such strength I could barely breathe, my chest rising and falling in shallow pulls. I rose to a sitting position and reached for the bedside rail to turn the lights up to where I could see. I didn’t want to be caught blind in that place. Still so unfamiliar with no one I felt I could trust. Not even Nero and Julius were friendly faces at that point. Especially not Nero.
My mind was racing with possibilities, none of them reassuring in the slightest. I had had too many close calls for any thoughts I had about what was happening to be encouraging. I didn’t expect my mind to go to a good place once it had seen so much human evil, and I knew with a creeping certainty that there was plenty more where that came from. Then a warm hand closed over my own, making anxiety rage through my body at the contact. My fingers found the button but had frozen before I even had a chance to press it.
A voice hushed me and said, “Don’t say a word.”
I recognized that voice in an instant. The same one had told Jones to let me go. Ryder was there.
“I have been waiting for a chance to speak with you, but the hospital wing of the compound is the only place not too carefully monitored. HIPPA and all that.”
There was a moment of silence as if he was waiting for me to respond, but I had no idea what to say. I felt like a block of ice. I couldn’t move and couldn’t speak. My mind refused to process what I was hearing, and I could feel his warm breath on my iced-over flesh. I even had goosebumps. Then I heard him say words that sent air sharply into my lungs in surprise.
“I have a message from your mother,” he said in a breathy voice. It was like the words caused him to lose his breath as well.
“What? How?”
He placed a finger on them to silence me. “Something has started on the outside of the compound. After the testing was completed and people began to disappear, people started to ask questions.”
He kept his words hushed, and I had to strain to listen. I didn’t know what to say, but once he moved his finger away from my slightly parted lips, I knew that it was okay for me to speak. I still couldn’t breathe so I knew anything I said would need to be forced out.
“What does this have to do with me or my mother?” I still didn’t trust him, and the only detail that interested me was the fact that he somehow knew my mother. Curiosity was eating at me.
“I need you to come with me. I have brought you some clean clothes and shoes that I will need you to put on. Don’t ask any questions or say a word until I say it’s okay. I will wait just inside the doors. Once you are ready, just tap me on the shoulder.”
I thought about the electrodes on my chest, and it was like he had read my mind.
“You can leave those on. They will continue to transmit as long as you are in the hospital wing. We aren’t going far.”
I gestured with my head and did as he said. What did this have to do with my mother? He moved my hand away from the buttons on the rail and slowly increased the intensity of the light until I could see well enough to make him out, as well as the clothes and shoes he had placed at the foot of my bed. The clothes surprised me. They were entirely black. Standard military issue. There was even a gun and holster placed neatly beside them.
I opened my mouth and closed it as soon as he stood and began to walk to the doors, stopping just mere inches in front of the glass. He clasped his hands behind his back and stood just as if he was guarding the outside of my doors. He was trained and trained well. His military lifestyle had become second nature.
I rose from the bed and put the clothes on, mirroring the way Ryder had his cargo pants tucked into his boots and the way he tucked his shirt into the waistband of his pants. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be until I got to the holstered gun. As I dressed, I watched his face in the reflection of the glass doors. His eyes never swayed from their front-facing position.
A real gentleman. He stood in silence, and all that I could hear in the dim lighting was the movement of fabric across skin. Once I was fully dressed, I brushed any lint from my shirt. When I picked up the holster with the gun safely tucked away inside, confusion crossed my face. I had never used a weapon, let alone put on a hip holster.
“Would you like some assistance with that?” Ryder’s voice crossed the distance between us.
Apparently, he had stolen a glance to see I had no clue what I was doing. I couldn’t keep a smile off my face, smirking past the lump in my throat.
“Yes, thank you,” I said as I looked up at him.
Our eyes met in the glass, and I could feel heat rush into my cheeks. He turned to me and closed the distance with two long steps. I took a small step backward on instinct. The smile fell from my face, and I couldn’t stop the apology that slipped from my mouth. I opened my mouth to explain that anyone who had come near me since I had arrived there was either a doctor wanting to take pieces of me to test or someone who wanted to hurt me, but he held his hand up in silence.
“I understand. You don’t have to explain anything to me.”
He moved closer to me once more, and I had to force my feet not to take that involuntary step backward.
The tension was rippling through every muscle in my body as we stood not even an inch from each other, chests almost touching. He took the holster from my hand and reached around me, fastening it much like a belt.
Normally, I didn’t have a problem figuring something out for myself. That place was doing something to me. Either that place or him. I wasn’t sure which. Once it snapped in place, his eyes met mine, the light catching the tiny gold flecks amongst the grassy green of them. It would have taken my breath away if I hadn’t already been breathless. He continued to adjust a few small things on the holster for a few more minutes.
“I’m sorry about your friend. I really am, but if I had stepped forward, it would’ve risked all we’re trying to do,” he apologized again.
I couldn’t keep the shock off my face.
“We can make his death mean something. Just like he said.”
“And how do you suggest we do that?” I couldn’t help letting the annoyance creep its way into my voice. He had barely told me anything, and I was expected to fall for it hook, line, and sinker. That wasn’t going to happen. I needed proof of what he was telling me, and I had a feeling he was about to give it to me.
He let go of the holster, took the two steps to the pair of glass doors, and then turned back to me. There was only sincerity in his expression and posture. There was no doubt he was about to say something important, and he would mean every word of it.
“Let me show you.”
With that, he raised his hand to me, and I took it.
Chapter 25
We walked down the hallway in silence, the blue lights around us making our surroundings seem surreal. It was almost as if it wasn’t happening at all. The adhesive on the electrodes was making my chest itch and they were resting on my flesh uncomfortably. I resisted the urge to scratch at them as best as I could, but even my patience for it was wearing thin. If it weren’t for the random people we passed in white lab coats I would have had my whole arm in my shirt, scratching and peeling the things away.
Ryder walked next to me like we were equals. It was a refreshing feeling, but I was extremely terrified. People had to know who I was, or did they see the military garb and assume I was one of them without concentrating on my face? I wasn’t walking behind him or in front of him as if I didn’t belong. I definitely wasn’t a part of their regime, and no one was the wiser. That didn’t stop my increasing heartbeat or the sweat rolling down my back. We were breaking a lot of rules, I was sure, but it didn’t matter anymore.
I cared more about what he and my mother had to
tell me. Even though I still had no idea what the message was, I felt that where we were going had a lot to do with it. I kept my eyes on the ground as we moved through the halls, taking a few turns in a few places. He was leading me into a part of the compound I had never been in.
I knew we were safe. I knew no one was paying attention to us. Still, I couldn’t help feeling that unseen eyes were on me, and they were watching every step I took. I felt as if I was under the microscope, even in the military uniform. Then, before I even noticed, we came to a door, and Ryder stared at me yet again.
It was like every time I turned around he was staring at me, but that time was different. There was a look on his face that sent chills up my spine. There was determination, as well as resolve, but something else hid underneath all of that. Sadness. And it was overwhelming, even to me.
“Are you ready?” he whispered.
I had to strain to hear him, but it didn’t seem as if I was the one who had to prepare for what I would see beyond those doors. It looked as if Ryder was preparing himself for what he would see because he had seen it before, and it was something truly awful that he didn’t want to see ever again.
“Are you?”
He looked so scared and so sad, as if just walking through those doors would cause him to fall apart as soon as he crossed the threshold. There was something truly horrific behind those doors, and I was the only one out of the two of us that had never seen it before.
He turned back to the doors and put a code into the keypad next to them, a small beeping sound coming with each press of a button. The door seemed to require a code as well as a retinal scan to get into the room. A probe slid out from the inside of the wall toward Ryder, and I saw him put a finger to his eyes, seeming to adjust something. A contact of some sort that would help him pass the retinal scan. It was obvious highly classified information was beyond that point, and we were breaking the law to see it.
I felt a sense of importance at that moment, but terror ran rampant through my bones and muscles. I wanted to turn and run, but my mother thought it was something important enough for me to know so I would do whatever it took to know it.
A light flashed in his eye, and there was a small trilling beep, showing that he was cleared to enter. The doors slid open, and I followed him inside with a hesitant step, the doors sliding closed behind us. It was dark for all of a second before lights flashed on, causing me to blink the darkness away. My eyes were still trying to adjust when I noticed something in the distance. Rows upon rows of something, but I couldn’t tell what just yet. The sudden light had caused my eyes to have an issue adjusting, and it was clearing more and more every second. A gasp left my throat, and my hand flew to my mouth, covering it in shock of what I saw before me.
Along the walls of the expansive room, there were rows of hospital beds that looked more like the metal table I had woken up on when I’d first arrived at the compound. The blue lights reflected off the surface of their occupant’s white, plastic-looking gowns as they lay there, tubes down their throats to keep them alive. IV tubes erupted from the bends of each elbow and flowed into the wall, disappearing into it with clear and colorless liquids flowing out and into the people on those slabs.
“What is this?” I demanded, the words coming in a soft hint of a sound. My feet rooted to the spot; the muscles seized in such a way walking would be impossible. It had to be a dream. There was no conceivable way it could be real. The soft blue haze of light reflected off their white clothes as they lie perfectly still, no hint of life besides the rising and falling of their chests as the air was pushed into their lungs by machines and the beeping of the EKG. An image of the room flashed through my mind. Cato had shown it to me in the brief glimpse of a second, but it was recognizable all the same. A silent tear escaped and rolled down my cheek at the remembrance of my friend and the reality of what I was seeing. The pieces were beginning to fall into place.
Ryder came around and turned to face me, hands folded behind his back and feet shoulder width apart. “This is the Harvest.”
“And what exactly is the Harvest?” Anger began to fill me, threatening to spill over as I clenched my fists at my sides, my nails cutting into the flesh of my palms. Another voice echoed through the large room, answering my question as heeled shoes clicked across the linoleum floor coming in our direction.
“The Harvest is a solution to what King perceives as a growing problem,” Doctor Aserov bellowed as she made her way to us from an unseen door. “It started five years ago with the assassination of our leader and King’s rise to power. At first, the objective was simple. Find others like you and try to bring them to King’s side, promising them anything so they would help trap even more people with abilities. When most of them refused, he began to experiment with chemical induced brainwashing, but that failed. More experimentation was needed, and this is the result.” She turned, pointing toward the resting bodies around us with a flourish of her hand.
“For what reason?”
Ryder spoke up then. “Complete and total dominance of the United States. A stronger military base where only the power of others will do. With a clairvoyant, you can know your enemy’s next move before they do. This power would ensure widespread compliance.”
The puzzle pieces were falling into place, completing the entire picture one block at a time.
“The next step was to remove the power from these individuals, using a chemical compound to concentrate them into the brainstem to be removed and placed into another that was already enlisted and had volunteered. Some died, some had permanent disabilities, and some…” Doctor Aserov’s voice trailed off.
My thoughts went to Caius, and I understood. “They needed more subjects, which is where the widespread testing came in.” I caught the gist and knew exactly where it was headed, but I still had one question.
“But why kidnap us? Why not just lie about the testing so we would come willingly?”
“Mila, you know how King works. You have seen it first hand,” Ryder replied.
Cato’s lifeless form barged into my mind, and I shook it away.
“Fear is his ultimate weapon, and it’s one he isn’t afraid to use.” He paused, took a deep breath, and said, “And now you know how far he is willing to go.”
“Cato had known about this before. I don’t know how long, but he knew.”
“Yes, the clairvoyant. He—”
I interrupted the good doctor’s words. “Cato.”
She tilted her head down slightly, meeting my eyes behind her squared frames. “Cato did know, and he understood that he couldn’t fight what he had seen. He endured King’s torture so you could meet your destiny.”
My eyes flicked to Ryder and just looking at him caused a blush to creep into my cheeks. An image of what I had seen through Cato’s eyes flashed through my mind again.
“How do you know what Cato saw?” My eyes shot back to the woman, meeting hers with equal scrutiny.
She cleared her throat but remained silent other than that. There was something they were both hiding from me, and I was not about to tolerate any more secrets.
“If you insist on keeping secrets, I will not cooperate, and you can worry about taking care of it yourself.” I turned to walk away, one foot hanging in the air when Ryder said my name.
“Please, Mila. Don’t go.”
I froze in place, not daring to move.
One heeled shoe ticked against the tile floor, hinting that Doctor Aserov had taken a step toward me. “I have a similar gift and saw what he had when I’d touched him upon admission. I had been assigned to the both of your care, but when Cato felt the link, he refused any treatment from me.”
I turned my head only slightly to see her expression was filled with honesty.
“I had been hiding it from King’s tests with a special serum your mother created before all of this but had hidden away from him. She knew one of her children possessed a gift that could be well-used by King, but she didn’t know the testing wou
ld happen, so she never got the chance to inject you.”
“How did she not know?”
“She had been removed from the assignment before any of the experimentation began and placed on another project,” Ryder explained.
The shock of recognition hit me again, and I knew exactly where I had seen him before.
I turned, raising a finger to point at him and taking a few bold steps forward. “You. You were the one who came to our home five years ago. You were the one who told her that she was reassigned. I knew I had seen you before, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until now.” I was fuming but had to keep my temper under control. I couldn’t risk losing control. “But why are you here now? What does any of this have to do with you?”
“At the time, I did not have the clearance for certain information. Your mother confided in me, and I have worked with her ever since. We didn’t know how or when everything would happen, but we did know it wouldn’t be until King was firmly established as dictator of the United States. We thought we had more time.” His eyes dropped to the floor. “She will be able to explain more once our escape from the compound has been successful.”
A laugh escaped from my vocal chords before I had a chance to stop it. “Escape? Escape from here? You are a mad man.”
“So I’ve been told.” A smirk crossed his lips then, reaching into his brilliant eyes, so they sparkled. “But this isn’t my plan.”
“Then whose plan is it? Because I can honestly say that I’m not sure if I can trust either one of you after you stood back and watched me kill the man who was like a brother to me. I don’t care if it’s fate.” Silence filled the room, and before I had a chance to say anything else, Ryder was taking steps toward me with an outstretched fist. I eyed him suspiciously, not wanting to take whatever was in his hand for fear of what it was.
The Harvested (The Permutation Archives Book 1) Page 17