Hardwired

by Trisha Leaver

  “Fine,” I yelled out, physically shaking off that last dream. “I’ll do it.”

  “Be sure about this,” Chris grumbled next to me. I hadn’t known he was awake, but I couldn’t say I was surprised. He was as prone to night terrors as me lately.

  “I’m sure,” I said, understanding his words for what they were. If I was signing onto Joe’s plan to infiltrate the facility, then he was coming with me.

  I sat up, searching the darkened area for Joe. I found him a few feet away, leaning against a tree, his rifle propped on his shoulder, keeping watch. “I’ll do it. I’ll help you get your information to Ms. Tremblay. But it won’t work the way you were planning. Both vans are gone, including the guards’ uniforms and the IGT-issued clothing.”

  “I’m listening.” Joe straightened up and inched closer. “What are you thinking?”

  “There’s no way you can slip into that place unnoticed. Forget the two row of fences and the armed guards in the towers; every corridor in there is monitored, and there’s a camera in every room. Power may be down, but the staff is still there, still armed, still watching. So you can’t get in. But the two of us can.”

  “And we need Carly,” Chris said. “She’s our ticket inside.”

  It was true. The guards at that facility were mean, I’d give you that, but I doubted they were cruel enough leave a poor, innocent girl stranded outside the front gate with us as her sole company.

  “We can play her off as some random girl we picked up along the way. Tell them we hit her car and miraculously, the three of us walked away,” Chris suggested.

  “Exactly,” I said. Chris’s plan was perfect and completely in line with mine. We didn’t need to sneak ourselves in; we belonged in there. And Carly … well, she was the pity card we’d play with Ms. Tremblay.

  “No way,” Joe argued. “There’s no way I’m letting you take Carly in there unarmed and without me to keep her safe. Without me to keep you all safe.”

  If he gave a shit about her safety, then he wouldn’t have dragged her up here at all, I thought to myself.

  “I’m with Joe on this one,” Nick added. “I’m all for leaving the other guys behind, but there’s no way I’m letting you walk back into that place without me at your back. You know better than anyone what that place is capable of. I was there the day you buried Tyler, the day the Dentons buried Olivia. You honestly think I’ll let you drag Carly in there without me?”

  “You’re only two years older than me, Nick. Two. And I hate to tell you this, but Chris and I are the only ones who know how that place works. I’ll go along with this stupid idea of Joe’s—I’ll even try and get Cam out and hand-deliver the research to Ms. Tremblay—but I’m taking Carly in there with us. Only her.”

  I hadn’t exactly come to this conclusion without considering everything that could go wrong. The Bake Shop was full of teenage boys, all being subjected to tests deliberately designed to break their control. And the half-dozen, trigger-happy guards who lived there worked on six-week cycles, so the only woman they’d seen this month was the rather unimpressive Ms. Tremblay; adding Carly to that mix of amped-up testosterone was a risk I wasn’t looking forward to taking. But if this was going to work, then yes, that’s exactly what I expected Nick and Joe to let me do.

  “Only her,” I said, restating my position.

  “She’s the only daughter the Dentons have left, Lucas,” Nick argued.

  “We won’t let anything happen to her,” I said, fully aware of how hollow that promise was. Chris and I would be lucky to get ourselves out alive, never mind protect Carly.

  I searched out the darkness surrounding me for Carly, knowing for a fact I could sway her to my side. She’d do just about anything to get to her brother, including leaving Joe and his collection of weapons behind. “You want my help getting your brother out, then this is the only way you’re going to get it. You in?”

  “Absolutely,” she responded.

  “It’s just going to be you, me, and Chris. Nobody else. We’re not bringing any weapons with us, not so much as a rock. I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to get Cam out, but—”

  “I know,” Carly interrupted. “But he’s all I have left. After what happened to Olivia, I can’t lose him too. I need to at least try.”

  “Good. Because if what you’re saying about Cam is true—if they broke him the way they broke Tyler—then I’m not sure he’ll listen to anybody but you.”

  sixteen

  The sun was barely making its appearance the following morning as we set out for the Bake Shop, each of us lost in our own thoughts. There was no point in sleeping. No amount of rest, no amount of plotting, could prepare us for what we were about to do. And lying on the cold, wet ground, with nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company, was the last thing I needed.

  There was a good chance I’d just signed Carly’s death certificate in exchange for the chance to save a guy I didn’t even know. A guy I wasn’t even sure deserved a second chance. And my sister’s future—along with the fate of every person who tested positive from this day forward—rested on the flash drive full of proof I’d tucked in my sock and the moral decency of a counselor I’d come to hate.

  I twisted my ankle, trying to dislodge the flash drive from between my toes. Joe had handed it to me earlier that morning, instructing me to give it to nobody but Ms. Tremblay. Inside my sock had seemed like the safest place to keep it, but now, more than three miles into the hike, it was quickly becoming one of the most irritatingly painful decisions I’d ever made.

  “You have any idea what’s on that thing?” Chris asked when I stopped and sat down in the middle of the road, yanking my shoe off. The flash drive was digging into my big toe, and squirming wasn’t doing any good.

  “Files. Two years’ worth of evidence. Names of families that have been torn apart by the testing program. My life history. Yours.”

  I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what was on the drive; I hadn’t exactly had the opportunity to check it out for myself. Joe had rattled of the contents, telling me which files to direct Ms. Tremblay’s attention to, which ones he deemed most incriminating. I trusted he was telling the truth—not because I wanted to, but because second-guessing him would make me more paranoid than I already was.

  I tucked the drive back into the heel of my sock and stood up, testing to make sure it wouldn’t crack under my weight before I laced my sneaker. “Seems like a colossal waste of time if you ask me,” I continued. “No clue how he expects Ms. Tremblay to download the information without any power.”

  “Agreed,” Chris replied. “You’ve seen the way she watches us, like she can’t decide whether to fear or pity us.”

  My guess was both, but I didn’t bother to say that. No point in confirming the obvious.

  I got up and started walking again despite my body’s protest. We’d stopped twice already, and each time I’d felt my temperature dropping. My blood was slowly freezing in my veins. We needed to keep moving.

  Carly was a few steps behind us—close enough that she could hear what we were saying but too far away to be part of the conversation. It was intentional, or so I thought. Like she still hadn’t fully committed to trusting us. I’d turn around and check on her every few minutes to make sure she wasn’t falling behind, but she was always there, always keeping pace with me.

  “You know the only reason I agreed to this whole save-Cam-and-trust-Ms.-Tremblay plan is because of you, right?” Chris asked.

  “I know,” I replied. “And thanks.”

  “I’d do anything for you,” Chris continued, his eyes flashing toward the woods. The driving wind that had kept us huddled in our sleeping bags during the night had completely died down, the snow no longer swirling around. We had a clear view of everything around us, the unmarked snow and pristine sky a stark contrast to the chaos I feared lay ahead of us.

  “Anythin
g,” Chris repeated, the conviction in his voice momentarily stilling my fear. “But that Nick friend of yours is starting to piss me off, so much so that I may have to tackle him to the ground and pummel some sense into him. He’s gonna screw this whole plan to shit if he doesn’t get lost.”

  I caught a glimpse of Nick in the trees and knew the rest of the guys were only steps behind him. Nick had insisted they follow us to the facility, something about wanting to be close by in case anything went wrong. I laughed but didn’t argue; if sitting out in the freezing cold would give him a sense of control, then so be it.

  They’d promised they’d stay out of sight the entire way, on the off-chance that the facility had sent out a search party for the vans. I’d given Nick back his jacket before we set off, afraid that showing up wearing anything other than the clothes we’d left in would make the guards suspicious. Damn jacket was bright red and did little to keep him hidden; it glinted off the snow like a homing beacon, drawing my attention away from the snowdrifts we were snaking our way around and straight to him.

  “And what’s up with her?” Chris continued, motioning to Carly. “You’d think she could at least walk with us, given what we’re risking to save her brother. A ‘thank you’ would be nice too.”

  I shrugged. “She’s nervous, that’s all.” Carly wasn’t nervous; she was scared as hell. She’d read Tyler’s journal, knew exactly what she was walking into. And it wasn’t good.

  “Nah, it’s more than that.” Chris put his hand on my arm, drawing me to a stop. “She doesn’t like me. Here I am, risking my ass to save her brother, and she can’t even look me in the eye and say thank you. If you ask me, that’s the reason Nick is following us. Carly doesn’t trust me, and neither does he. You’d think she would at least have questions about to what to expect.”

  Chris wasn’t exactly wrong, but telling him that, and adding more tension to an already explosive situation, wasn’t gonna help. Carly had pulled me aside that morning when Chris was off in the woods peeing and taking care of whatever else he needed to do. She wanted to leave Chris behind, tweak the story so it was her and Nick in the car that hit ours, with me as the only survivor in the van. I was surprised to hear Joe back her up, even offer to watch over Chris himself until we came back out.

  I got Carly’s fear. She was walking straight into the devil’s lair; I’d worry more if she weren’t afraid. But what I couldn’t understand was her inability to trust me.

  “Sometimes it’s better to go in blind,” I said, hoping Chris would drop the issue and move on. “You know, hold on to the illusion that there’s hope for as long as possible. Maybe that’s what she’s doing.”

  “That’s the worst advice I’ve ever heard,” Chris said as he clapped me on the back. The sound, combined with my grunt of annoyance, drew Nick’s attention. He stepped out onto the road and motioned for us to shut up.

  “Give me a minute,” I said as I waved Chris forward and waited for Carly to catch up.

  “What?” she asked as I fell into step behind her.

  “Of all the people volunteering to go back in with me, I chose Chris to have my back. Not Nick, not Joe. Only Chris. There’s a reason for that.” I didn’t bother to explain what was behind the strength of our bond. “I trust him with my life, and if you’re smart, you will too.”

  “He’s convinced that my brother—the same brother who taught me how to bait a fishing hook and drive a car—is so messed up that he isn’t even worth saving. And you want me to trust him? Believe that he’ll actually try and save Cam?”

  She’d pretty much summed it up, and to be honest, my line of thinking wasn’t all that different from Chris’s when it came to Cam. “Yep, that’s exactly what I expect.”

  We walked in silence for the next half hour, noting the occasional hawk that kept us company. Every tree, every snowdrift, every rock looked the same. For all I knew, we’d been walking in circles, never getting more than a few hundred yards from where we’d spent the night. Waste of energy. Waste of time.

  The road narrowed to one lane, the snowdrifts so high that I wondered if the road was even passable. I squinted against the blinding sunlight to the gate up ahead. There was a No Trespassing sign affixed to the front. It was swinging, the noise of the thin metal colliding with the rail echoing through the dead space around us.

  I remembered those metal bars, distinctly recalled the guard in our van having to get out and manually pull the gate open when we left because the power was down. The fence here wasn’t electrified, but it wouldn’t matter if it were. This three-foot-high gate was meant as a warning, not a deterrent. The real barricade was a quarter-mile ahead: twelve feet tall and juiced up with enough electricity to kill you instantly.

  “Are we here?” Carly asked.

  I nodded. “It’s up over that rise. You’re positive you want to do this?” If she had any hesitation, she needed to back out right then, because once we stepped foot on the facility’s grounds, I needed her complete and absolute trust. “You’re good leaving Nick behind and going in with just me and Chris?”

  She wavered, her eyes darting toward the woods where Nick, Joe, and the guys would stay safely hidden in the trees, waiting for us to return.

  “Carly?” Her hesitation bothered me, and I half considered calling the whole thing off.

  “I trust you,” she finally said.

  “Good.” I hadn’t missed the singularity of her last statement, and I wanted to make damn sure she knew it. “Because going forward it’s you, me, and Chris you need to trust.”

  seventeen

  The Bake Shop was enormous—tall and imposing. My eyes wandered, noticing for the first time that there were no trees, no nature of any kind in the enclosed space. It was a steel and cinderblock building constructed on twenty-five acres of concrete, like everything alive had been stripped away in favor of forged metal and stone. Funny how I hadn’t focused on that when they’d first brought me here.

  With the exception of our footprints, the snow leading up to the fence was unmarred. In my mind, that meant only one thing—they hadn’t even bothered to send anybody out looking for us.

  “You think it’s odd that no cars have come and gone from this place?” I asked Chris.

  “Nope. With the main power down, they probably can’t spare the manpower. I mean, there’s no way they can keep all their security measures up and running on generators alone. My guess is they cut power to the electronic looks in our bunk room and the fence. With no electronic locks to keep us safely tucked in our rooms, there’s a higher risk of people going nuts in there. They need all the guards inside, watching over the crazy kids, not out here looking for us.”

  Made sense, but it bothered me all the same.

  I held out my hand to Chris, curling my fingers for the rock we’d been tossing between us our entire hike here. It had kept us amused and prevented our hands from completely freezing, but now it had an even more important purpose, one that would keep us from potentially getting fried.

  He handed me the rock and I tossed it at the fence, watching it bounce off the metal links and land on the opposite side, just out of our reach. I didn’t see any sparks or hear the zap of power, which was what I was hoping for. Carly, who was hovering near us, looked surprised.

  “What the hell did you do that for?” Chris asked, shoving his arm through the fence in an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve his only toy.

  “Electric fence,” I said.

  “No power,” he replied. “No way those things are lit up. Any idiot would’ve known that.”

  He wiggled his arm, trying to squeeze more of it through the fence, not even coming close to reaching the rock. “Well, that’s just fantastic, Lucas. I was planning on chucking that at the door to get their attention.”

  The only door I could see from our position was sealed shut. No window. No knob. No way in.

  “How are we s
upposed to get in now?” Chris asked.

  Having been most concerned with what was going to happen once we were inside, I hadn’t considered the fact that there’d be no one out here to announce our arrival to. I’d assumed there’d still be guards posted in the towers, and we’d simply walk up to the front gate and wave at one of them. I didn’t think of the possibility that the guards in the towers would’ve been moved inside, or the fact that there were no windows to even flag somebody down through.

  “We need to get their attention,” I said as I walked over to the two surveillance cameras mounted on the fence. They were pointed down, the flashing red lights off.

  “They probably turned off the outside cameras to save generator power,” Chris said, confirming what I’d already figured out.

  “Yep. So how do we get in?” I walked the perimeter of the fence, searching for a window, a hole in the fence’s links, a random security guard out on patrol, but found nothing. Not a squirrel, not even a downed limb. I considered yelling, but I knew for a fact those walls were completely soundproof. I mean, if Cam could strangle his screaming roommate across the hall from us without either me or Chris hearing, then I’d say those walls were pretty damn solid.

  Chris settled on the ground by the main gate, Carly taking a seat a few feet away from him. I walked over and slid down next to them. With the Bake Shop locked up tight, we had no other option but to wait.

  I slipped my sneaker off and rubbed at my frozen foot until it started aching again. It wasn’t black—yet—and at least I could still feel it. “Son of a bitch,” I ground out as the circulation rushed back into my toes, the pain intensifying to an excruciating level. “It’s cold out here.”