Outside In

by Maria V. Snyder

  “You can tell him Jacy didn’t trust you and wanted you out of the way. Try to get…close to him. Convince him you’re on his side.” Riley’s queasy expression said more than his words.

  I stepped closer to him and lowered my voice. “If you could change one thing, what would it be?”

  He pulled the sheep pendant from his pocket. A question filled his eyes. I held out my hand. Riley placed it in my palm and I curled my fingers around the necklace, pressing the metal into my skin.

  The trip to the maintenance closet with Sloan was part of the ruse. After giving Riley time to return to his wires, Sloan grabbed my elbow and pulled me along a few corridors in level one. We passed a bunch of people who ignored us. I was supposed to look scared—not hard to do considering I was with Sloan.

  He shoved me into the closet. Only two meters wide by two meters long, the closet’s shelves had been filled with mechanical parts. Sloan closed the door and turned on the light. No vents.

  Sloan pulled out a roll of tape. “Turn around.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Spinning me around, he yanked my wrists behind my back and taped them together, rolling the tape a few centimeters up my arms. He pushed me down to the floor, and did the same to my ankles.

  “It’s gotta look real,” he said, but a perverse little smile played on his lips.

  Being small may be beneficial when climbing through the ducts, but it sucked big time against Jacy’s oversized goons. I needed to get my stun gun back.

  “Did Jacy tell you to do this?”

  “No. I really don’t like you. Figured this is a little payback for not trusting us scrubs enough that you had to place a microphone over our barracks.”

  He ripped off another section of tape and slapped it over my mouth. My head jerked back and a stinging pain radiated over my jaw. I didn’t know how or when, but I silently vowed that I would retaliate in some way.

  “I hope it takes your boyfriend a long time to find you.” He clicked off the light and locked me in the dark.

  16

  AFTER I CONCOCTED A LIST OF CREATIVE WAYS TO pay Sloan back, I squirmed into a more comfortable position. Sloan had my arms pinned too tight for me to bring my hands forward.

  Should I try to escape? From my brief glance of the parts and supplies on the shelves, I figured I could find something sharp enough to cut through the tape. If this were indeed a real abduction, then I would try my best to get free.

  Getting up on my feet was harder to do than I expected. Once stable, I hopped over to the light switch. Or rather to where I thought the switch was located. I bumped into the door, then rubbed my cheek on the cold metal wall to find the light. It was too high for my hands to reach, but I managed to flick the tab up with my shoulder.

  I inspected the shelves, and discovered one positive aspect of my imprisonment. Sloan had taped my wrists so that my palms touched. If I found a sharp object, I could grab it with my fingers and saw through. If he had turned my wrists the opposite way, I wouldn’t be able to manipulate an item as well.

  I also searched for sharp edges jutting from the shelves that I could rub the tape against. The metal bins on the left side contained nuts, bolts, rivets and washers. Tubes, electrical connectors and rolls of wire filled the bins along the back wall. Finally on the right wall, I found a pile of nails. Long pointy nails.

  Turning around, I tried to pick up a couple, but the bin was just high enough that even up on my unsteady tiptoes, I could touch it, but not get to the nails. Instead, I grabbed the bin and yanked.

  I fell forward, landing on my knees. Nails rained down on my legs and bare feet. Sloan would regret his little payback, I promised. At least I had plenty of nails to use. And after a few awkward tries, I succeeded in keeping the nail in my hands long enough to poke it into the tape. When I added in being light-headed from lack of food and water, I realized a quick escape wouldn’t be in my future.

  Time ceased to have any meaning and by the time the doorknob twisted and the keypad beeped, I’d only ripped a little bit of the tape. I sagged to the floor in exhaustion.

  The door flew open and Bubba Boom was next to me in a heartbeat. “Are you all right?”

  I nodded. He pulled out his penknife, and cut through the tape on my wrists and ankles. I winced as he peeled it away from my skin.

  He touched the one on my mouth. “Do you want to do it or should I?”

  I pointed to him.

  “On three?”

  Again I nodded.

  “One. Two.” He ripped it off.

  I yelped. My lips burned and tears stung my eyes. “No three?”

  “Sorry. I thought that would be better.”

  A sticky residue from the tape coated my cheeks, wrists and ankles. “That’s okay.” I touched his arm. “Thanks.”

  He gave me a shy smile. “You certainly keep a guy hopping.” Bubba Boom freed a few strands of my hair that had stuck to my cheek, and tucked them behind my ear. “Doctor Lamont’s on the way.”

  “I’m fine. Just starving.”

  He took my right hand in his. Turning my wrist, he traced the tiny scar on my forearm. “We would have found you sooner if you hadn’t taken the tracer out.”

  “We?”

  “Hank and the others. And Doctor Lamont. We’ve all been searching for you.”

  “Did she rat me out about the tracer?”

  “No, but we figured it out pretty quick.” He grew serious. “Who locked you in here?”

  “Sloan.”

  He nodded as if expecting that answer. “Who were the two guys who took you from the infirmary?”

  “Jacy’s goons. I don’t know their names.”

  “Do you know why they grabbed you?”

  “I think Jacy found out about my tracer. He wanted to know what I had been doing and I wouldn’t tell him. It’s obvious he’s up to something and he thought I’d figure it out and cause trouble.”

  “So he made a preemptive strike,” Bubba Boom said.

  “Sounds like—”

  “Trella!” Lamont rushed into the room. She dropped her medical bag and wrapped me in a tight hug. Her muscles trembled.

  Stunned, I didn’t move.

  “I’ve been so worried!” She pulled away to look at me. “Are you all right? If they’ve hurt you, I’ll dismember them without antiseptic and feed them to Chopper one tiny bit at a time.”

  Impressive. All I wished to do was slap Sloan a few times.

  “Can you walk? I want to do a full scan right away.” Lamont checked my pulse.

  “I’m fine. Just really thirsty and hungry.” I appealed to Bubba Boom. “Can you come with me to the cafeteria?”

  But Lamont wouldn’t take the hint. “I’ll come along. You haven’t eaten in at least twenty-six hours. You’ll need to be careful about what you put into your stomach.”

  “Twenty-six hours? Are you sure?” That seemed too long. I wondered if Logan had been successful and what was going on with the Outsiders.

  “Oh yes. I felt every one of them.” Lamont thumped her chest. “You were stunned and, since you’re small, it probably knocked you out for ten to twelve hours.”

  Funny, I didn’t remember being unconscious. I’d been stunned before and hadn’t blacked out.

  Bubba Boom helped me stand. The room spun for a moment and my knees considered buckling. He put his arm around my shoulders, steadying me before we headed to the cafeteria.

  Our ragtag group caused quite the stir in the dining room. At this point, I didn’t care. Lamont fetched me a tray of food. Then everything blurred together as if a part of me had already fallen asleep. Gulping water, eating, returning to the infirmary and being tucked into bed by Bubba Boom combined into one long dream.

  Before leaving, he kissed my forehead. I slid my hand into my pocket and clutched my pendant as I slipped into a deeper sleep.

  When I woke, I took a long, scalding hot shower. Lamont descended on me as soon as I finished, ordering me to eat a large bowl of her s
pecial soup. I needed to visit Logan, but she wouldn’t let me leave until I agreed to a full physical.

  I stifled the desire to argue and remind her of her promise not to mother me. Her medical request bordered on overprotectiveness. However, it had been nice to know people had been upset by my abduction and had been looking for me. Before I had gotten involved in the search for Gateway, I could have died in the pipes and only Cog would have cared.

  “Aside from some bruising, a couple strained muscles and slight dehydration, you’re in good health,” Lamont said.

  I jumped down from the examination table glad to be done.

  “Do you really need to leave so soon?” she asked. “You should rest and rehydrate.”

  “There’s too much going on right now. I’ll rest later,” I said.

  I debated if I should climb into the shafts or not. Almost everyone in Inside knew about the tracer. Deciding not to risk being seen in the wrong place by the wrong people, I returned to my room.

  Lamont trailed after me. “Trella, wait.”

  I turned. She hovered in the doorway, uncertain and vulnerable. Not Doctor Lamont, but Kiana Garrard. Interesting how she morphed from one to the other. At least I had some warning that this wasn’t medical.

  “You understood my clues, right? You knew there were two armed men waiting to ambush you.”

  “Yes. That’s why I dropped in from the ceiling and tried to stun them.” I still needed to get my gun back from Jacy.

  “Why did you come? You could have saved yourself twenty-six hours of suffering. You had to know they wouldn’t hurt me, and yet you came anyway and ended up turning yourself over to them.”

  Ah. A good question. Did I have a good answer? Was it because she was my mother? Or because she was an excellent doctor? Or because I was the reason she had been targeted in the first place? How about all of the above?

  Riley’s comment from the maintenance closet replayed in my mind. “It’s what I do. I guess you could say it’s my role or job. Rushing to the rescue, and doing what I can so others don’t suffer.” I spread my hands, trying to find the right words. “I don’t really think about it, I just react and hope for the best.” I shrugged. “Worked so far.”

  “You shouldn’t have risked yourself for me, Trella.”

  “A moment of weakness.” I smiled. “A mistake even. Everyone is entitled to make a few mistakes.”

  Logan slept on the couch. His arm covered his eyes and one foot dangled off the edge. I dropped down. The light thud woke him. Before I could say a word, he hopped up and embraced me.

  “Trella! You’re here,” he said with glee.

  “Even though I’m not as smart as you, I do know where I am.”

  “I feared the worst. No one could find you. Anne-Jade had all her ISF officers searching.”

  “I wasn’t in any real danger. And I’m sorry to have kept you in suspense, but no one had time to stop by here.” I explained about Jacy and Riley’s plans to build a separate network. “Riley’s stringing wires as we speak.”

  “Ooh. I like! Why didn’t I think of that?” He bounced on his toes as his gaze turned inward.

  “Because it’s been me, you and Anne-Jade, while Jacy has recruited a bunch of people.”

  “True.”

  “What about your idea?”

  He stopped bouncing. “When you said I should climb the Expanse, you didn’t explain there wasn’t a ladder.”

  “The ladder starts about seventy-five meters up, but there are lots of things to hold onto.”

  “That’s assuming I have the strength to hang on and pull myself up the Wall. I don’t know how you did it, but I didn’t make it past twenty meters before my legs and arms turned to mush.”

  “What about Anne-Jade?”

  “She was too busy, and I thought it would be less suspicious for one person to be up there. Besides, I doubt she would have climbed much farther.” He plopped back onto the couch. “Is there another way up there?”

  I considered. “I could rig a pulley to the end of the ladder and hoist you up.”

  Logan bent over and pulled a wipe board out from under the couch. “You’ll need more than one wheel in order to lift my weight.” He wrote a list of supplies on the board and drew a little diagram of how to hook them together. “This should work as long as the pulley is securely attached to the ladder.”

  I studied his diagram. It didn’t appear to be too complicated. Hank could put this together in no time. Except Hank wouldn’t like us exploring in the Expanse. I had a difficult time believing Hank was behind all the sabotage. He was Cog’s right-hand man and good friend. Perhaps he wasn’t involved. And perhaps I was kidding myself.

  Why did I have no trouble accepting Jacy’s involvement with the Outsiders? No answer. My head spun and I sat next to Logan. The trip to his room had taken me twice as long as normal. I had to keep stopping to catch my breath.

  “Are you all right?” Logan asked.

  “Just a little dizzy.”

  “Me, too. I’m not sure if I’m sick, but I keep having these dizzy spells.”

  That seemed odd. Lamont had also commented on feeling light-headed. “Since when?”

  “A few hours after you rushed off to help the doctor. Do you think something’s wrong with the air plant?”

  “Could be. Last I heard, it was working even though not all the air filter bays have been repaired.” A strange thought floated to the surface of my mind. “Logan, do you know what’s going on with the Outsiders?”

  He gestured to the computer. “I managed to get into a few subsystems. It’s frustrating as hell, like putting my toe in the water, but not being able to jump in!”

  “And?”

  “Oh. Their vehicle is still attached, but I think no one has opened Gateway yet. I don’t understand why they haven’t.”

  “Maybe our air isn’t right for them? Maybe the people who want them to come in have to adjust it slowly or risk hurting us?”

  “Pure speculation. Maybe they’re waiting for us to be told about them. Can you imagine if they just showed up? Massive panic.”

  “Then why aren’t their cohorts spreading the word?”

  “Maybe they plan to sneak in? Get a sense of the situation first?”

  Too many unknowns at this point, guessing would be a waste of our limited time. “You’re right. It’s all conjuncture. We need more data.”

  “That’s my girl.” Logan slapped me on the back. “Spoken like a true Tech No!”

  Unfortunately, in order to get more data, I would have to get closer to Bubba Boom. I’d rather be getting reacquainted with Riley. I checked the power plant’s control room on level four, the air plant and maintenance in Sector B2, but couldn’t find Bubba. He might be sleeping. I didn’t even know what barrack he lived in. Actually, I knew very little about him.

  While climbing around level four, I had placed the wipe board with the pulley diagram in Riley’s bedroom, hoping he could make one and pass it to Jacy. Since I’d run out of places to look for Bubba Boom, I returned to the infirmary to help Lamont.

  People filled the patient area. Lamont moved among them, handing out cups of water and white pills. Hair stuck out from her braid and she moved as if walking through a thick stew.

  “What’s going on?” I asked her.

  “Headaches, dizziness and nausea,” she said. “And a few patients have minor bumps and bruises from passing out. Everyone’s blaming the air plant.”

  When I had poked my head into the plant, the air filtering machinery appeared to be working. However, a number of maintenance workers had been repairing one of the air scrubbers. “How can I help?”

  “Can you wrap Jenna’s sprained ankle? She twisted it when she stumbled down the stairs.”

  “Sure.” I grabbed a roll of bandages and crossed to the girl with a bag of ice on her ankle.

  We worked for a few hours as a steady stream of people from level three came in. My energy dropped faster than normal. And a couple times
, I needed to stop and catch my breath. I worried that the Outsiders might just be slowly killing us all, which added to the low-simmering panic in the pit of my stomach. At any moment, it felt as if the terror would erupt into a full boil.

  Bubba Boom arrived. He appeared upset, and I asked him if he was feeling sick.

  He glanced around the full room. “No. I heard you were all over Inside, looking for me.”

  One of the maintenance workers must have spotted me. I rubbed my eyes. It was getting harder to sneak around Inside when everyone recognized me.

  “Did I hear wrong?” he demanded, but somehow I sensed he already knew the answer.

  “No. I wanted to ask you about Jacy and Sloan. And the air plant.”

  “Did you consider the danger? It’s not safe for you to be running around without a couple bodyguards. Do you want Jacy to grab you again?”

  Ah. The reason for his anger. “No. I just—”

  “Let’s go for a walk.”

  We headed west toward the common area in Quad A3. The hallway was empty and the few people in the area sat listlessly on the couches and armchairs. Stranger than the emptiness was the quiet. So used to the constant babble of voices, I felt as if every word I said could be heard by everyone.

  We sat on a couch in the corner. I willed myself not to sit as far away from him as possible, but still left a half meter between us.

  “Jacy’s goons caught me in the infirmary so I’m not—”

  “You are now. Since you returned, we’ve had people in there to protect you.”

  “I didn’t see anyone.”

  His anger deflated a bit. “You’re not supposed to.”

  “Oh.”

  “Can you at least understand why I would be upset?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  “You’re lucky word didn’t get back to Jacy. Must be all these headaches.”

  “Are you getting them, too?” I asked.

  “No. Not yet, anyway.”

  “You’re one of the few who isn’t sick,” I said. “Is the air plant malfunctioning?”