I leaned back against a wall, tugging off my helmet. Exhaustion and emotion flowed through me. “Well, there is a bright side. By vacating the city, they are giving us time to plan a counterattack. They’ve basically relinquished this building, including the medi-pod.” I wiped the back of my hand along my brow. “They don’t know about the scientists, or their resources, and they don’t know we know what that medi-pod can do.”
“Yes.” Case nodded. “They understood that showing their hand and exposing themselves before they were ready meant that they would lose. It gave us an advantage.”
Bender said, “We also have that asshole Reed, and Claire and the rest of the loyalists will be able to give us the names of those missing, so we will know exactly who they are.”
“Yes,” Darby said. “The first thing we need to do is bring Mary here and assess whether the medi-pod works. If it does, we can cure more seekers, and if we can do that, we can gather more and more people on our side, building up a strong alliance.”
“That will give us time to develop an adequate plan to defeat this militia before they arrive here,” Lockland said.
I glanced down at my boots, which were covered in red grime. “I don’t think they’ll come back here,” I said. “They know we have hidey-holes and weapon stashes all over the city. They might not know exactly where, but they know we have access to an arsenal. They also know that we will be able to convince people to follow us. They won’t risk it. If we were in their position, we wouldn’t either.”
“They have no leverage to lure us out of the city,” Lockland said. “Which is the only other option.”
Pushing off from the wall, I shrugged. “Give them time and they’ll do something to make us come for them. They need us gone before they can resume their plans. If we achieve our goals of gathering support, they lose.” I bent over one of the monitors again. “We have to remain vigilant. We can’t give them any opportunity to get us out of town before we’re ready. That means we keep a low profile and remain on high alert continuously. None of us can go back to our residences, or any of our known haunts.” Bender grunted. “That means you, too.” I bobbed my head in his direction. “Your place is the most visible, and don’t forget, we’re referred to as Bender’s crew. That’s how they see us. If they were going to try to pick one of us up, they’d stake out your place first.”
“So, what’s the short-term plan moving forward?” Darby asked.
“In my opinion”—I glanced around the group—“we gather Claire and a few people she trusts and install them in here immediately. Then we pick up Daze and Reed. We’re bound to get more useful information from Reed.” I met Lockland’s eyes. “Mary needs to be in the medi-pod as soon as possible, just like Darby said. After that, we gather as much intel as we possibly can. Then we ready a solid plan and take a trip down South to meet with the scientists. After that, we strike.”
Lockland nodded. “We scour this building from top to bottom, nothing left unturned. We make sure this place is not rigged with even the smallest hazard, then we go get everyone. If this is going to become our new base of operations, Bender and I need to hit a few of our remote places to gather some supplies.”
Case added, “I’ll retrieve Daze and Reed and enough dried food to last us a few weeks.”
“After we’re done with the sweep, I’ll head to Ned and Mary,” I said.
“I’ll track down Claire and explain everything,” Darby said. “She said she would either be at her office or her residence. I can get there by walking. I’ll go through the other building, so I don’t attract attention.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed. “We move with caution, but we move quickly. We’re not sure if they even know we’ve taken this building yet, since Haven didn’t sound the alarms. But they’ll know soon enough.” Everyone nodded. “After the hazard check, we take one hour. No more.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
I held Mary in my arms. We’d sedated her with Quell before moving her. She hadn’t been doing well in the little room she and Ned had been forced to hide out in, so I was relieved to have her here. I laid her gently in the medi-pod.
Darby, Claire, and Ned stood next to me.
I’d made it back before Lockland, Bender, and Case.
Even though I’d entered the canals on foot, I’d risked getting Luce out of the basement of Yazzie, where she’d been stored for a while, to transport Mary. I’d parked my craft a few blocks away from the Emporium. Ned and I had carried Mary down the street and loaded her into Luce, which was now parked in a deserted building half a kilometer from here. I’d had no choice. I’d move her later.
Lockland and Bender had gone on their errands on foot, and Case had headed to the east entrance to get Seven to fly to the barracks. We’d been lucky enough to take off shortly after we adjourned the meeting, having cleared the building with Maisie’s help in under fifteen minutes. We hadn’t found much, other than a cache of guns and bombs. Nothing had been rigged to blow, which had proved we’d taken them by surprise. They hadn’t expected us to come to them. I loved it when that happened.
“Have you had time to examine the machine?” I asked Darby as he closed the lid.
“A bit,” he said. “It looks to be in good working condition. We were lucky that Bender aimed that hydro-bomb out into the hallway, rather than into this room. There was minimal damage.” I glanced over at the blown-out wall. There hadn’t been much of a body left.
“Don’t worry, nobody’s coming in that way,” Claire said. “We’ve secured the housing building next door and this one under the quarantine laws.” She grinned. “Those who’ve gone missing are now thought to be under quarantine for a deadly plague making its way around the city. That should keep down the gossip for a while and give us a few days to figure out all the bureau players.” Plagues were fairly common, and so was mandatory quarantine. It hadn’t happened in a few years, but people understood what to expect and generally stayed in their homes. The housing building was now full of loyalists, who were sorting out the identities of the individuals with the bureau, so we’d have names and faces.
I glanced at Mary, who appeared peaceful for the first time in a while. “Is there a Cure Seeker button?” I asked, hoping this was going to be easy.
“No,” Darby said. “But there is a Diagnose button. We’ll start with that.” He hit the dial, and the thing roared to life, much like the one we’d used to heal Bender and Lockland.
I raised an eyebrow. “Does this thing run on liquid hydrogen, too?” I made a move to look behind it.
He shook his head. “No, something even bigger.”
“What’s bigger than liquid fuel?”
“A fusion reactor.”
My eyes widened. “Are you sure?” Fusion had been a revolutionary invention for our ancestors. A super-efficient energy source, it had required a tremendous amount of energy to start, but once the chain reaction began, it generated an unbelievable amount of energy. The fusion technology hadn’t survived the aftermath of the meteor, because even though it had worked well, it was fragile. I’d never uncovered a working fusion reactor in all my years of salvaging.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Darby said. “In order to operate all the precision lasers and magnetic responders, and do the kind of work that needs to be done inside a body at that level, nothing less than a fusion reaction would work. I was skeptical that this would have it, but it does. All the other machines had their energy source stripped by the time we got to them, so I had no idea what they used.” He walked to the other side while the pod continued to whir and opened a metal screen on the bottom. “It doesn’t look that old either. They must’ve had some incredibly talented people on the team designing these and putting them together, taking remnants that survived and converting them into a working unit.”
I glanced inside the reactor, which contained a smooth cylindrical glass enclosure clouded by the energy it was making. Darby shut the screen. “They achieved something amazing, and it cost them thei
r lives,” I said.
“Now that she’s in there,” Claire said as we came around the front, “I’m going to head to the housing building next door. Let me know when Lockland and Bender arrive. There’s a lot of work to be done. The loyalists are upbeat. They’re happy with how this turned out. Nobody was ready for battle.”
I nodded. “We’re going to need your smartest and brightest involved. Darby already got through one encryption, but they had to have left behind more information. And once Case brings Reed back, we can interrogate him together.”
“I look forward to that,” Claire said. “We need to figure out who these assholes are and stop them, once and for all.”
When Claire swore, you knew things were about to go down. “Agreed. Getting more information is vitally important.”
“I’ll continue to work on it from my end,” she said. “People gossip. People talk. Haven was a regular government worker who’d been with us for at least ten years. They’d recruited her recently.”
“As well as Grif?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, if I had to guess, Grif Manalow had ties to the organization for a long time. He wasn’t a loyalist, but there’d been enough talk about him over the years to know he didn’t support the government as it stood. The two of them hooked up less than a year ago. They were lovers.”
“I figured as much,” I said. “The entire thing is sad. Why they would forfeit their lives like that makes no sense.”
Claire gave me a brief hug and nodded at Ned and Darby, heading toward the exposed hole in the wall. “People like that defy intelligence.”
I took out my timepiece for the second time since I’d been back, trying not to worry. It was going on an hour. In front of us, the medi-pod began to slow. “Already?” I stuck the clock back in my pocket. “That was quick.”
Ned, who’d been standing off to the side, came forward. “What does it say? Is she going to be okay?” Each word was stressed.
Darby examined the digital display. “It went fast, because this medi-pod was especially designed for seekers. All it had to do was confirm her DNA had been altered in a way consistent with Plush damage to know what’s wrong with her.” He pointed at the screen. “See? It says, ‘seeker profile identified.’”
“Okay, what now?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Ned chimed in. “What happens next?”
“It says to hit the Cure button,” he said. “How quickly her DNA can be restored will depend on her health profile, integrity of her organs, resiliency, and a few other factors.”
“Can you give us a time frame?” I asked.
“Not really. It states here”—Darby’s head was bent over the screen—“that it could take anywhere from one day to a full week. After that, it says…” His voice trailed off.
“What?” I knew that tone. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He brought his head up. “After a week, it says the seeker can no longer be saved. That either their body will not survive the treatment, or the damage is too severe for even this medi-pod to fix.”
Damn. That wasn’t what we wanted to hear. So, for the most part, seekers who’d been infected for years would have a lesser chance of surviving.
I settled a hand on his arm. “Darb, we have to focus on the positive,” I told him. “The fact that this pod is here, in working condition, and can help people is completely amazing. A significant amount of souls will be cured, I know it.”
“But…but…” Darby stammered. “Those who can’t be healed. We’ll have to—”
“Darby.” I steered him away from the machine, placing my hands on his shoulders. “We don’t have to make any decisions right now. Let’s focus on Mary. One thing at a time. I promise you it’s going to be okay. There will be happiness, and there will be sorrow. That sums up our lives in this era. We’re lucky enough to be a part of reshaping this world and helping people. We have to concentrate on that.”
“I know,” he said. “It’s just hard.” He snuck a glance over his shoulder. “This medi-pod was expertly designed and has so much power. I wanted it to work for everyone.”
“I did, too,” I agreed.
A noise sounded from above as the former electromagnetic-protected door opened. Reflexively, I drew my Gem, aiming it upward.
Lockland came through first, followed by Bender.
“Somebody’s going to have to clean that shit up in there.” Bender gestured with a thumb over his shoulder. “We can’t live in a place with body parts sprayed all over the walls.”
“Claire’s on it,” I said, holstering my weapon. “She’s going to bring some people in with Bang. It should be cleaned up by tonight.” Bang was our universal cleaner. It disintegrated any organic substance it came in contact with. Getting it on your skin was a no-no.
Lockland gestured toward the medi-pod as he came down the stairs. “I’m assuming she’s inside?”
“She is,” I said. “Darby was just about to hit Cure.” I nudged Darby back toward the pod, and he reached out, depressing the button. The thing began to whirl. “She was diagnosed with a seeker profile already, and we’re going from there. It could take a day or a week, depending on her health and the amount of damage.” I’d fill them in on the rest of it later. “Are the supplies upstairs?”
“Yes,” Lockland said. “We got everything we needed. Case back yet?”
“No,” I said. “I’m giving him five more minutes. If they don’t come through that door by then, I’m going after them. Luce is parked about six blocks from here. We set an hour, because it was a realistic time frame for us to achieve our goals. If they were tied up, Case would’ve used the tech phone. Nothing’s come through.”
Lockland pulled off his helmet, running a hand through his short hair. “You’re right. You should check on them.”
“I’m assuming they’re not in any serious trouble, but Case might be having issues with Reed. Maybe the guy woke up and hassled Daze. I don’t know, but something’s going on. Whatever it is, the kid might be freaked out.” I took my timepiece out again. It’d been three minutes, not five, but I made up my mind. “I’m going after them.” I turned to Darby. “I’m rooting for Mary. I’m sure she’ll come out of this just fine. She hasn’t been infected that long.”
“I’m sure she will, too,” he replied. “Be careful.” He took my HydroSol out of his waistband and handed it to me. “You might need this.”
I nodded, taking it and heading for the stairs, passing Bender.
“If you’re not back in an hour,” he said, “we’ll come to you.”
“I know.”
Luce was in the air five minutes later.
* * *
“Daze! Case!” I yelled as I ran through the blown-out entry to the barracks. I’d parked Luce in Seven’s spot, figuring they must’ve already taken off before I arrived, when I noticed the entire front door was missing. The door that had been a solid meter thick and made of some of the heaviest steel I’d ever seen.
Trying not to be completely panicked, my heart racing, I entered the main barracks area with my Gem in one hand and the HydroSol in the other.
It was pitch black inside.
My visor was down, and with the light streaming in from the blown door, I was able to see enough.
The place was trashed.
Crates had been upended. The cooling unit was on its side, contents tumbling out. “Daze,” I called, my voice filled with anxiety. “Are you here?”
Please, please, be here.
“Holly?” The door to the battery room creaked opened. Daze’s voice broke when he saw me. “Holly!”
“Yes, it’s me.” I holstered my weapons as he came speeding toward me, flying into my arms. He buried his face in my neck, sobbing, his thin body quaking. I gave him a minute to recover before I peeled him back, stationing him in front of me as I knelt. “Daze, I know this is hard, but you have to tell me everything that happened, and I need you to do it fast.”
“They came… They took them�
�” he managed between choking sounds.
Calmly, I asked, “Who came? Who took whom?”
“I didn’t see them. I only saw their crafts when they left!” he cried. “I’m so sorry! I couldn’t help. Case stuffed me in the battery room. He made me lock the door. He told me to crawl onto the roof and stay there until I heard another craft. He knew you’d come back. He made me go! If he hadn’t had to help me, he could’ve fought them off. But by the time he put me in there, they were here.” He dove for me again, clutching me around the neck, quiet sobs racking his body.
I held him tightly, one hand cradling his head. “It’s okay. Shh. It’s going to be okay. When you’re ready, you need to tell me everything.” Case had possibly forfeited his life for Daze’s, and for that I would be eternally grateful. But the outskirt couldn’t be gone. I wasn’t ready to accept that.
“Are they going to kill him?” Daze’s mouth was muffled, tangled in my hair.
I gently tugged the kid back, unhooking his hands from behind my neck. “No, they’re not. We’re going to get him back,” I said with surety.
We were fucking getting him back.
“He’s the only bargaining chip they have,” I said. “So they’ll keep him alive.” At least for a while. “They needed something to lure us down there, and they found that with Case, but them knowing about this place never entered my mind.”
“I heard some stuff.” Daze sniffled, running his forearm under his leaky nose. “Case wanted me to go right through the hatch, but I couldn’t. I tried to listen. I wanted to help. They said Reed had a tracker in him and he was too stupid to know better. One guy said they lost his location close by, because the barracks is underground, but then Case flew back and they saw his craft. He came back for me! If he had just stayed away, he would’ve been safe!”
Danger's Cure: (Holly Danger Book 4) Page 20