“Mother was afraid for you to know the whole story because it might lead you into more danger. But I don’t know how much more danger there could be,” Cleon said.
Selah kept an eye on Bodhi’s location so she’d know when it was safe to talk. She didn’t need him hearing of her recklessness. “I need to know it all. We’re leaving Varro and Jaenen in this Mountain. I want to leave this pain here too. Tell me!” She stood straight, noticing that most of the pain in her hip joint had dissipated.
“She’s just coming to grips with it herself, but she told me what she found out about Varro’s past.” Cleon ran his hand through his hair and looked at Selah with a pained expression. “He’s been planning to sell you since your birth. He knew Glade was your real father this whole time. Somehow they gave Mother leads on Glade’s direction that would bring her across Varro’s path after Glade was captured in the Mountain.”
Selah tipped her head. “Who is they?”
Cleon dropped his eyes. “Father, Simeon Kingston, and a bunch of their friends are a renegade faction of the First Protocol, and they’re trying to use this power you have for themselves.”
Selah stood frozen to the spot. Her whole life. He had lied her whole life. Tears puddled in her eyes. She pushed them back defiantly.
A whiff of Bodhi’s fragrant soap drifted to her. His arms wrapped around her waist from behind. She leaned back into his broad chest and crossed her arms, sliding her hands over his.
“I’m so sorry,” Bodhi whispered in her ear. “I didn’t have any idea this could date back that far.”
Selah squeezed her eyes shut. He’d heard. She hoped he would understand that she had to see this through and not be off in a corner, protected. She turned, burying her head in Bodhi’s chest.
“Okay, folks,” Mojica said, “I just got a communication that our kidnappers are all down for the night, and lights are out. I think we’ll give them a sleepytime reality that they’ll wish was a dream.” She tapped the appliance in her right ear.
Mari and Treva walked over displaying Mountain hardware.
Selah lifted her head. “Are we going to raid them?”
“We are not doing anything. You are staying here. Safe,” Bodhi said.
Selah looked around. “Who’s going to stay here to make sure I stay here?”
Mojica patted Bodhi on the back. “She’s got you there. Listen, I’ve been hearing the chatter all day. These four have been giving Bethany and Green Court fits. You should congratulate each of them. They’ve earned the right to be part of this operation.” The other three crowded around, explaining to Bodhi all at the same time.
“How have you been communicating?” Selah asked Mojica. “We thought all communications were cut off in Green Court.”
Mojica turned her back to Bodhi and spoke low to Selah. “I have a special frequency for just my team that the Politicos can’t control.”
“But we couldn’t contact you,” Selah said.
Mojica looked embarrassed. “Listen, I’m sorry I cut Treva’s communications, but my spies told me you were acting up and taking down Bethany’s crew and the militants. I didn’t want Bodhi to demand your presence until you were able to save your friend.”
Selah smiled softly. “Thank you.”
Mojica cleared her throat and turned to address the group. “Let’s get this game under way. There are six of us, and Bethany Everling moved her underlings to the other end of the Mountain. So Varro’s only got Jaenen and the four men operating his shops. He gathered them together after he got back from Selah and Treva teaching him how to clean the floors.”
Finally things were turning in their favor. Cleon and Mari whooped it up while Treva and Selah smiled broadly and clasped arms. Bodhi remained quiet, but Selah was sure he was working hard at trying not to smile.
Mojica tapped her appliance and turned her head away from the group. She talked for a minute and then turned back to the excited group.
“We have a problem.”
27
Day 3
10 Hours to Egress
“Your family was here,” Mojica said to Selah. “But Varro moved them closer to the center of his shrinking operation. I hear Bethany is pushing her team to reduce his rental space until she squeezes him out of the Mountain like a pus bubble.”
Selah gagged. She closed her eyes for a second.
“Are you having flashes or dizziness?” Mojica stared into her eyes.
“No. It was just the visual of what that would look like.” Selah grimaced.
“I was a little graphic. Sorry.” Mojica handed out ear appliances and a ComTex to each of them. “Keep these on your arm, and keep those in your ear and turned on. They will give us instant communications in case there’s trouble.”
“How do we find my mother and brother now?” Selah put on her equipment, checked it, and walked to the floor plan laid out on a table in the center of the room.
“This is where Bethany is squeezing the rental space. See for yourself.” Mojica pointed to the holo-map.
Selah looked down at Varro’s diminishing area. Each area that had been closed off to him recently turned from black to red on the map.
“This last section is where they are now. It means we’ll have to go in the same door as you instead of using the side entrance to the other space,” Mojica said. “Bodhi and Cleon will come with me for search and seizure. I’m putting you three ladies in as the extraction team. I’ve observed all three of you and your abilities, so I won’t tell you or your team how to fight. But if I give an order, please follow it. I want all of us to get out of here.” She turned to the group. “Ladies and gentlemen, it is twelve thirty in the morning. We have nine and a half hours before we reach critical mass and have to be on our way out of here or risk being sealed in the Mountain forever. So let’s make sure we are nowhere nearby when it happens.”
Selah felt odd carrying a pulse disruptor. Like Mari and Treva, she was better with her hands than a weapon, but Bodhi wouldn’t hear of them being unarmed. Not a sound other than their footfalls, and every so often they synced into one sound before slowly falling out of rhythm again. They crossed the road single file and continued to the end of the section. They took a quick right, and fifty yards in, the first building to the left led to a number of passages, offices, laboratories, and living units that spiderwebbed along and up the inside wall of the Mountain.
Everything they were doing happened at ground level, so toward the back of the building where the floors started their climb up the Mountain, Mojica buzzed them in through a delivery area with her credentials. Her logic—in a few hours she’d be gone forever and it didn’t matter who knew she’d been part of this.
They cleared each room they passed, working their way down the hall. Selah stuck her head in an office and pulled back. She keyed her appliance. “Somebody needs a bedtime story.”
“Be right there,” Mojica answered. A few seconds later she came striding down the hall, pulled the pin on a black ball, and rolled it into the room.
Selah closed the door and they walked away as a poof sounded.
“Will those really keep people asleep for ten to twelve hours?” Selah asked. The balls were smaller than a person’s palm and the sound was barely audible. How much damage could they really do?
“Yes, they will. I know what you’re thinking. These people don’t have a chance to get out of the Mountain before it closes. Personally, the only ones I hope get to stay here forever are your stepfather and Jaenen Malik. If it will make you feel better, most of the people in this section never ask for passes to go outside anyway,” Mojica said. She passed off another bag of the sleepytime balls to Mari.
Laser dart fire sounded at the end of the hall. Mojica and Selah ran in that direction. Bodhi and Cleon had two men pinned down in a temporary security office only utilized when the section was full. Mojica checked their proximity IDs.
“They’re Mountain security from the Politico Board. They’re the only ones allowed to off-zone at a seco
nd job. Don’t hurt them. I’ll take care of this.” Mojica pulled out a ball, yanked the pin, and used a hook shot to bank the ball in their door. Considering the extra time it took to bounce off the walls on its way in, the security men had no time to toss it back before it poofed. The room went silent.
Mojica headed back and they moved swiftly down the hall, over a few corridors, and into Varro’s section. The girls moved quickly through their set of rooms. The sound of weapons fire erupted from behind them. Mari looked back.
“No, we have to keep going. My mother and brother are in here somewhere,” Selah said.
Mari followed Treva as she opened a door expecting an empty room, and a short man jumped her like a monkey. Selah cracked him in the head with the butt of her weapon. He dropped to the floor, limbs splayed out in all directions. They backed out of the room and Mari tossed in a black ball.
“Where’d he come from?” Treva asked as she straightened the appliance in her ear. “And why didn’t you just pulse him instead of slapping him with the weapon?”
“You were too close. I thought I might hit you with the pulse. I wasn’t sure whether to beat him with hand moves or beat him with the weapon, and it looked like he might get the best of you, so I just swung.”
A door ahead of them opened, and a laser dart aimed out and fired several bursts. They dove to the floor. Selah rolled to the side and fired her pulse disruptor. It blew the door open, which in turn hit the guy so hard it knocked him unconscious.
Mari looked in her bag. “At this rate I’m going to run out of sleepytime balls before we run out of customers.” She rolled one in with the guy and closed the door. Poof!
Selah tapped her appliance to call Mojica. Nothing happened. “I’ve got no signal. Mari, try calling Mojica.”
Mari tapped her appliance. She shook her head.
Treva tried her ComTex. “Okay, we’re back to no communications.”
Selah wondered if it was Mojica again giving them latitude. But that didn’t seem to make any sense in this situation.
“Treva, go back and get another ball bag from Mojica, and find out why we have no communications,” Selah said.
“Are you sure? We’re not supposed to separate,” Treva said.
“We need to know why we don’t have contact, and you know these corridors better than we do. We’re doing fine. Just get back fast.” Selah moved down the hall with Mari, and when she looked back Treva was gone. Good. She was afraid Treva was going to disagree.
Mari yelped. Selah charged into the office without thinking. The guy behind the desk had them in his sights with a pulse disruptor. Selah pulled up short. She knew that pain. She let her weapon slide to the floor and raised her hands, kicking herself for sending Treva back to the front.
“What are you doing in the building? Is this a government takeover?” His hands trembled. He seemed to have a hard time keeping the weapon trained on them.
Selah took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She worried he’d accidently shoot them—he didn’t look like he had the willpower to shoot them purposely. “How about you put the weapon down and we talk about it.” She slowly moved toward him.
“Stay back, lady, or I’ll shoot you.” The man thrust his weapon at her. Selah flinched.
“Selah, listen to him. Come back,” Mari pleaded with her. “Stop. He’ll shoot.”
Selah focused her eyes on his and continued slowly toward him. “He doesn’t want to shoot me.” She was now close enough to see the whole area around him.
“Stop or I’ll really do it,” the man yelled.
Selah made contact and wrestled with him for a few seconds. The ordinary office guy didn’t seem a fair match so she didn’t hurt him, just put him to sleep with a handhold.
Mari rushed over and slapped her in the arm. “Why did you do something so crazy? He could have shot you.”
“No he couldn’t,” Selah said. She held up his pulse disruptor. “I don’t know where he got this but it wasn’t his, and he couldn’t fire it because he wasn’t wearing any Mountain technology and there was none anywhere around him. I figured if he was asking if we were government, the odds were that he wasn’t.”
Mari shook her head. “You think fast. That’s very observant.”
“Sometimes. Toss a ball in there.”
They continued on to the end of the corridor, but the additional rooms were empty. Selah stopped and turned back. Her observation skills picked up something else. Why were these random men in rooms and offices that weren’t actually occupied? And why was it so easy to subdue them? It seemed as though they were being manipulated—or was it her imagination?
She turned to another corridor. The door off to the right should be Mother and Dane. Her hopes soared. She motioned to Mari to watch the hall.
Selah opened the door.
Mother and Dane sat behind a plascine wall on the left, and on the right . . . Bethany Everling stood facing her with a pulse disruptor aimed at her chest.
Selah flinched to a stop, a lightning flash charged her body, and her weapon dropped to the floor. All in the space of two seconds.
“It’s about time you two got here.” Bethany smiled.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I’m alone,” Selah said.
Mari’s voice became clearer as she approached the door. “I was checking back there. I’m positive that was a corridor and now it’s a—” Her eyes grew wide. “Wall.”
Selah dropped her chin to her chest in resignation.
“Yes, you’re right. That was a corridor as you came this way,” Bethany said as she waved her hand above the panel in front of her. “And this controls which areas are open corridors and which ones turn into walls.”
“Don’t you think we’ve had enough of each other?” Selah raised her chin and angled her body away from the woman. She glanced over at her family. Mother looked drained and Dane clung to her. Selah turned back to Bethany. “Let’s get it over with. What exactly do you want from me this time?”
Bethany waved a hand over the right side of her panel. The door slid closed behind Mari, causing her to jump closer to Selah. The plascine wall lifted between Selah and her family. Selah started toward them.
“Not so fast. Get back.” Bethany came from behind the panel, staying about ten feet from Selah.
Selah stopped. “I asked what you wanted.”
“I’ve got it—you and Mari.” Bethany laughed. “I’ll bet Glade will just be beside himself when he finds out I have both his daughters.”
Selah’s head jerked back at the same time Mari looked up at Bethany.
“Daughters? Who, us? You’re mistaken,” Selah said.
Bethany pointed at Mari. “Mari Kief, daughter of Flander Kief.” She turned toward Selah. “Kief left his colony and changed his name to Glade Rishon—father of Selah Rishon.”
Mari turned slowly from Bethany to Selah, her voice almost a whisper. “We have the same father.”
“Glade is your father too?” Selah’s heart beat faster.
Mari nodded, and one side of her mouth lifted in a little smile.
“Oh, this is exceptional! You two didn’t even know you were sisters. Great, I’ll give you years to get acquainted. It’s time for us to get going, though. I have to get you back to my lab.” Bethany motioned the two stunned girls forward.
“But my mother and brother—are you going to let them out now?” Selah wasn’t sure what to think at the moment, but getting Mother and Dane out of here was paramount.
“Oh, them. No, sorry. Too easy for wagging tongues to bring other Protocols looking for my science. I never had any intention of leaving witnesses to this.” Bethany reached down and dialed the pulse disruptor, then raised it and turned toward Mother and Dane.
A guttural scream burst from Selah as her palms thrust out with more force than she knew possible. Bethany flew through the air, slammed to the back wall, and dropped to the floor.
Relief filled Selah as Mother ran to her. She turned to hug D
ane, but he stood in the cell area staring at her with wide eyes. “Come here, Dane. It’s all right.”
Dane shook his head vigorously. Selah looked to Mother. “Can you explain that it’s okay?”
Mother hurried to Dane, bent down in front of him, and talked for a few moments. He slowly moved toward Selah. She put out her hands and he ran into her arms. She let out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
“Let’s get out of here,” Mari said as she slid around behind the panel. “We’ve got to open all the corridors.”
Selah quickly joined her. It was easy to spot the closed corridors marked with red lights. They waved them open, and Selah gave the panel a burst from her pulse disruptor to end its service.
“How do you know we have the right ones open?” Mari looked at the fried panel.
Selah gnawed the corner of her lip. She hadn’t thought there was a possibility the green lights could be wrong. It was too late now. “I guess we’ll find out.”
They cleared the room, and Mari chucked a sleepytime ball in with Bethany and shut the door. Poof!
Mari took the lead and Selah brought up the rear, sandwiching Mother and Dane between them.
Traveling back to the front turned out to be easier than Selah thought. She remembered the turns and they were all open. Halfway there she saw Treva turning a corridor in their direction.
“Thank goodness I found you!” Treva said. “I was losing my mind. Corridors that had turns in them suddenly became dead ends, and I couldn’t find a way in.” She looked at Mother and Dane. “You got them! We’re leaving here.”
Selah turned Treva toward the exit. “Bethany Everling was back there. We barely made it out.”
“Bodhi, Mojica, and Cleon almost didn’t make it either. They were pinned down when I got to them. This was all Bethany Everling’s trap. Varro and Jaenen weren’t there, but six of Bethany’s security were,” Treva said, rushing along beside Selah.
Selah tensed. “Are they all right?”
“Yes. We took all the guards to sleepytime after a little disagreement.” Treva motioned that she didn’t want to talk in front of Dane. Selah nodded.
Lightning Page 25