The Labs (The GEOs Book 2)

by Ramona Finn

  Skylar tied his own bandana over the lower part of his face, leaving only those stark blue eyes peering at me from under thick eyebrows. His shock of dark, spiky hair disappeared under the beanie he pulled over his head. A tingle danced through my body, disrupting the seriousness of this moment.

  The effect Skylar had had on me in the last fortnight left me breathless all the time. I hadn’t had a moment to think about what it was we were doing here today. Skylar had let me in on all of his council meetings, but I’d pretty much just sat and listened, afraid to interrupt. I was still getting glares from the other Rejs. They weren’t sure I could be trusted, even though Skylar had been doing his absolute best to persuade them otherwise. He’d taken every opportunity, when we were out together in front of his people, to speak to them, sometimes individually, almost forcing them to get to know me. These encounters were uncomfortable, to say the least.

  But I was the girl who’d almost become a Farrow. I had to have had some inclination toward the family. Surely, a girl like that couldn’t simply turn her back on the people who’d given her such an opportunity—only in order to slum it with the Rejs, who had nothing.

  Skylar adjusted my beanie for me, tucking one last strand of hair into the dull blue knitted hat. As his fingers brushed my neck, my mind flashed to recent memories that were completely inappropriate for a moment like this. I blushed involuntarily, which made Skylar chuckle.

  “Oh gross, you two.” Donalt pretended to gag. “I really don’t want to be a part of this. It’s bad enough that I have to sleep in the compartment next to you two.”

  I gasped. In the caves, we didn’t have rooms with walls, but Skylar’s ‘quarters’ were farthest away from the people.

  “Don’t listen to her,” Skylar said to me, giving Donalt a playful smack. “She’s just jealous.”

  Donalt made an exaggerated show of gagging even more. She and Skylar nudged each other playfully, and I couldn’t help wondering if I’d come in between something that might have happened there. And if Donalt might really be hurt by the fact that Skylar had chosen me.

  When Skylar and I first met, during the Acceptance—the survival trials that had gotten all this mess started—we’d felt a pull toward each other almost right away. I’d never been so powerfully attracted to anyone in my life…not even to Ben, who was sweet and caring to me. Skylar blew my mind, which was a stupid expression that my best friend in the Geos, Viv, had used when she’d talked about boys she liked. But with Skylar, the phrase fit so perfectly. When I was with him, I couldn’t think straight, could barely put a coherent sentence together. I became a weak girl with wobbly knees whenever he looked at me, and worse when he touched me. It was ridiculous, but I couldn’t get enough of him.

  But, right now, I had to get my act together. We were heading into the Geos—my home, where my parents lived. At least, I hoped they still lived. If R.L. Farrow truly believed I’d been kidnapped, then my parents should still be under his care. They’d been moved to the medical wing of the Geos. R.L. was supposed to have moved them up to the Greens after I’d won the Acceptance, but the Cough, an infectious illness that affected many in the dank, dark underground world of the Geos, had taken on a more dangerous mutation. My mother had had the Cough for years, and she was getting worse. I’d hacked my way into the Acceptance to get her out of the Geos, so she could get the proper treatment. But as long as the new Cough was spreading, my parents couldn’t be moved out of the Geos. So said R.L. Farrow.

  And now I was grateful he hadn’t moved them up to the Greens. But that didn’t mean R.L. didn’t have the power to reach down and hurt them, if he believed that I’d betrayed Ben. I had to know that they were safe. If I had to admit it to myself, this was the primary reason I’d come on this mission.

  The Rej spies had informed Skylar that the Elites were sending down three transports to the Geos to pick up supplies. The Elites grew most of their crops in the Sky Lab called the Greens—where the Farrows lived, and where I’d been for a while. But the Geos’ farms gave them the seedlings of all their crops, and the farmers in the Geos improved on the crops each year. The Geos also provided the Greens with luxury items like truffles and mushrooms.

  Skylar wanted to disrupt this flow of supplies by sabotaging the transports that came to collect them. This would cause more than a slight panic in the Greens, for sure. Once their current crops were used up, they would need the seedlings to replant for the next harvest. The loss of luxury items would be an inconvenience, but losing access to the seedlings would be a matter of life or death.

  The transports were the perfect target. And since the Rejs had sabotaged transports before, these would make an easy mark.

  This was the argument Skylar had used to persuade the neighboring Rej bands to join us.

  “So, are you clear on your roles?” Skylar interrupted my thoughts.

  “I got it,” Donalt said. “Same as before. Put holes in their extra fuel supplies and cut the fuel lines.”

  I turned to her, eyes wide. “So, that was you—when the transport I was in crashed? I almost died.”

  Donalt tilted her head and grinned. “That would’ve been a pity. Not.”

  “Knock it off, Donnie,” Skylar scolded her. He gave me an uncomfortable frown. “That was a miscalculation, that one time.”

  “Hey, we didn’t do enough damage to take out the entire transport,” Donalt insisted. “It was just enough to send them a scary warning.”

  “Well, it worked,” I huffed, recalling that terrifying free-fall in my first ever transport ride.

  Skylar touched my elbow. Electricity shot through my body. Stop it, Tylia!

  “And you? You got your mission?” The way Skylar asked told me he knew exactly the effect he was having on me.

  “I’m sneaking inside,” I said, forcing myself to focus on the danger of the mission. I couldn’t get caught by anyone—not Geos people or the EFs, R.L.’s soldiers. There’d be a whole lot of trouble if I was even seen by the surveillance cameras that were everywhere. I repeated the orders I’d been given at the last council meeting. “Get to a terminal. Disrupt the water flow to the farms. Get out.”

  Skylar exhaled. “Don’t get caught.”

  “I know that,” I said. “I can handle my small part in all of this. Don’t worry.” What I didn’t tell him was that I had a mission of my own. I needed to find out if my parents and my friends were all right. I had to make sure Mom was getting her meds, and that R.L. hadn’t taken any measures to make them suffer. Skylar didn’t need to know any of this. He had enough on his plate.

  Done confirming things with us, Skylar checked with the Rejs behind us and then walked into the middle of the forest path. He raised his hands and gestured the signals we’d all memorized. He was saying to move ahead in silence, split into our assigned groups, and carry out the individual tasks we’d practiced in the caves.

  Then he came back to my side and wrapped me in his arms. “Don’t get caught,” he repeated. Pressed up against his body, I could feel how fast his heart was beating.

  I pulled away and forced him to meet my gaze. “I can take care of myself. I don’t want you worrying about me while you do your part. It’s too dangerous for you.”

  “I know,” he said.

  “Say it.”

  “You can take care of yourself.”

  “That’s right, I can,” I said. “Now, remember, only disrupt, not destroy those transports. We’re out to warn the Farrows, not to completely cut off supplies.”

  Skylar’s eyes narrowed. “No, Ty. I want them to suffer. For what they did to my father.”

  The intensity of emotion in his voice frightened me, and I gripped his arm. “If you cut off the supplies, you also cut off what the Geos get from the Greens. That may just be leftovers and surplus food, but it’s important to the people below.”

  Skylar’s nostrils flared. We’d had this conversation too many times in the last three days. Skylar didn’t consider the potential suffering of the G
eos in his planning. He only focused on making the Elites’ lives hell. “People who are in the way always suffer, but their sacrifice is for the greater good,” he said. “It’s called collateral damage.”

  “My friends and parents aren’t collateral damage!” I snapped. “You wouldn’t allow that to happen to the Rejs if the situation were the other way around.”

  Skylar scowled. He knew I was right, but the most I could get out of him was a reluctant nod.

  I sighed. There wasn’t any more time to argue about this. I just had to hope that some of what I’d said to him would sink in. My people lived in the Geos. I couldn’t deliberately sabotage their meager supplies in order to get back at the Farrows. But then, I still had my parents. Who knew how I’d react if R.L. took my parents’ lives and broadcast the murders on TV for all to see?

  Skylar had been through that. I couldn’t blame him for hating the Farrows. I bit my tongue, this time, and wished him good luck and safety. With a quick peck on the lips, we parted. I watched him move to the head of the group. In a matter of minutes, we’d be leaving the safety of the trees. We’d be running across the wide-open space beyond them, toward the transport landing site. The early afternoon sun would be glaring, and if we weren’t careful, the mission would be over before it began. But we had no choice. The transports would only be here for as long as it took to load each one, and that rarely happened under the cover of night. The Elites weren’t that stupid.

  I watched as Skylar signaled to the first group of Rejs. They moved away from their hideout and took off toward their assigned transport. They would take out whatever EF guards were there and proceed to sabotage the vehicles. Skylar signaled again. Another group ran. Then Donalt patted me on the back, gave me an overly optimistic wink, and took off with the third group. I waited until all of the Rejs were moving toward their targets. Then, I dashed for the entrance to my old home.

  Get your copy of The Elite

  Available October 14th 2020

  www.RamonaFinn.com

  BLURB

  On the brink of extinction, being human means more than just surviving.

  In Lib’s world, it’s dangerous to deviate from the norm. In fact, for someone who doesn’t live up to the Artificial Intelligence’s standards, it’s practically a death sentence. Lib learns this the hard way when she wakes up in a barren wasteland, with her memories erased, and only one thought lodged in her mind:

  “It’s all my fault.”

  Lib is a Glitch—an imperfect human component of the utopian world called the Norm. Now she’s thrown out, Lib will be forced to team up with another Glitch, Raj, and the mysterious Rogue Wolf and his clan to survive. Wolf only cares about the survival of his group, but Raj thinks they can hack the A.I. and change the Norm for the better.

  Now, Lib will have to decide which path to choose—whether to go with striking loner Raj or stay with Wolf and his tight-knit group. Her heart is drawn to both, but she’s carrying a deadly secret that could jeopardize them all. Will she be able to save her newfound family and stop the A.I. before it’s too late?

  Grab your copy of The Glitch (The Glitches Book One) at

  www.RamonaFinn.com

  EXCERPT

  Chapter One

  A screech tears through the air and wakes me. The sound echoes and feels almost an echo of the noise in my head. Someone is screaming.

  Scrambling to my feet sets my head spinning. I stagger on shaky legs. My stomach gives a heave, and I almost fall to the cracked ground. I want to laugh—I’m as cracked as the ground. I stagger and then walk. Then I run. I don’t know where I’m going except toward that scream—toward the other voice. The world around me seems wrong—it’s all bright and brown. To one side of me, a wall towers into the sky, impossibly tall, dull and gray, leaving me wanting to beat on it with my fists. The screaming is getting louder. I’m close.

  The need to get there fast beats in me, pumping blood and burning in my lungs. Rocks trip my bare feet, cutting sharp and hot, leaving me limping, skipping. Ignore it—the words come easy to mind, but I’m stumbling like I haven’t used my legs in a long, long time. But something else pops up as well—it’s all my fault.

  I don’t know why those thoughts come to me. But I do know I’ve reached the sound of whoever else is in trouble. In front of me is a building—but what is that really? It is round—a semi-circle, with one end open and a railing and what looks like a wide-viewing screen. The flashing green of the lights seems out of place in this dry world.

  Just like me.

  The thought leaves my head aching, but I have no time for that. The building has a metal platform. A girl is slumped there. Her screams have gone to whimpers now. She looks younger than me, small and fragile. She has one hand on the railing in front of her. The lights glow and sparks jump out, so white they dazzle. The air stinks as if something is burning. I fear the something is the girl’s skin on the hand that seems stuck to the metal railing.

  Moving forward, I put my hands next to the girl’s on the railing. I’m moving on instinct, not thought. I don’t know why, but words leap into my head without my asking—motherboard… electronic connection…access to mainframe AI. My stomach gives another sickening lurch. I’m shaking all over. I know what to do—and I don’t know why I know this.

  I plant one hand on the railing next to the girl’s.

  Connection: Secure.

  Tiny pinpricks jab my palm. A dozen of them. Connections spark within me—I can feel the power slip over my skin and into my mind. With a blink, everything in the dry, brown world around me is no longer anything I can see. Instead, I’m not standing inside a room, dark and blue that is soothing in a way the other dry, dusty place was not. Next to me, the girl stands, her image wavering—and I know we are here in this other place, but we are not really here.

  This is the artificial world—it is a construct I see with my mind. But the question comes up—how do I know this? A certainty swells in my chest. I do know this place—it is where I am from. But…that makes no sense to me. How can I be from an artificial world—a computer construct?

  Glancing around me, I search for answers—and for a way to save this girl.

  A round, black machine sits on her back. Its black arms and legs make it look like it is meant to simulate a small person. But it has no face. No skin. Firewall. The word pops into my head.

  Reaching out, I ghost a touch over the plate on the firewall’s chest. Power tingles on my fingertips, but I don’t know if that is coming from me or the firewall. I do know it is attacking the girl—it is a security measure and the girl triggered it. But I don’t like that it’s hurting her.

  I find a button and press it—something clicks and code appears, scrolling over the black surface of the firewall’s body. A thousand tiny messages appear in binary—ones and zeros. It’s clumsy code. Why do I know that? Unease shivers through me, but in the other world—the dry and dusty one—I can still hear the girl’s whimpers. Turning to the firewall, I pick out the lines of code that will end this. With a touch, the lines are wiped out.

  We can go now, so I put a hand on the girl’s wrists and think those words to her.

  The world snaps and breaks. For an instant, everything seems to be blackness. The soothing room of blue and cool vanishes—but then I stand again on the metal platform. I no longer hold the railing, but the girl is with me. She is no longer screaming. She glances at me, parts her lips as if to say something, but then slumps down to sprawl on the platform.

  Nonfunctional.

  Unconscious.

  The two words leave me frowning—which is it? I changed the code to make the firewall nonfunctional. Did that in turn leave the girl unconscious—nonfunctional?

  It’s all my fault.

  Is it my fault this girl is hurt? I don’t know.

  Frowning, I rub at the ache deep in the center of my chest. That’s new. I don’t know if it’s good or not. I also don’t know how I got out here in this dry and brown world. Glancing a
round, it seems to me that even the sky is a pale color—almost blue but not quite. It is so different from the cool, blue room—the artificial place—that it frightens me. I want to go back, but if I do will the firewalls attack me?

  Reaching up, I put cold fingers to my cheeks. They are wet and I don’t know why, but the wetness is leaking from my eyes. My throat now seems too tight, too dry. What happened to me that I am in the big, open, frightening place?

  Maybe the girl will know.

  Squatting down next to her, I touch her arm and shake her shoulder. She moves but only when I push her.

  “Why can’t I remember?” The words come out rough and my voice sounds as if I have not used it in a long time. The girl doesn’t answer.

  Sitting down next to her, I decide she is longer than I am. Taller—that’s the word. But her face is darker than mine. My skin shows pale white and angry red as if it has been burned. Her skin is not as smooth as mine. Tiny golden hairs cover her arms. Those hairs match the bright ones on her head, but that hair is pulled up and back and I don’t know why. I lean closer. Do I know her? Her face seems angled and sharp. Her eyes are closed but the lashes look feathery soft. I sit back and tug my hair around so I can see it.