by Jamie Grey
“And what about us?”
He shrugged, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. “I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen. I don’t know why Danvers’ virus didn’t affect us, and I don’t know what will happen when I throw this switch. If we’re frozen in here like the commandos, we have to hope one of the scientists will be able to stop the bomb in time.”
I shook my head. “Not good enough. They don’t even know it’s here. We have to stop the bomb first. Dying in a thermal explosion is seriously going to mess up my college plans.”
Asher frowned. “Fine, but I need you to get downstairs and stop Danvers while I work on this. Maybe Max and Zella will be able to help you.”
“Let’s hope so.” Because I was running out of ideas, and the woman had a gun. I wiped my palms on my jeans and ignored the pricking of my skin. Asher looked as scared as I felt, his eyes wide and skin pale. “It’s been fun,” I said with a half-smile.
He grabbed my shoulders and shook me slightly. His fingers dug into my skin, but I welcomed the pain. “Stop that,” he said. “We’re going to be fine. Besides, you owe me dinner. I’m not letting you get out of that now.”
I wanted nothing more than to believe him. “Promise?”
He leaned closer until his lips almost brushed mine. “Promise.”
I curled my fingers into his shirt and jerked him to me, crushing myself against him. His arms clutched me hard to his chest, and I poured myself into the kiss. It wasn’t soft or romantic. This was a kiss before war, and we both made the most of it, clinging to each other, knowing it could very well be our last. As much as a goodbye as a promise.
And when we pulled away from each other, I saw the realization in his eyes as well.
We might not make it out of this.
Asher’s hand wasn’t quite steady as he rubbed the back of his neck and turned to stare at the monitors on the wall. “I don’t see any of Danvers’ commandos on the security screens, but I’m not sure where they are. Be careful on your way down.”
I nodded, took one last look at the blinking red numbers.
Thirteen minutes.
And slipped out of the relative safety of the security office.
I felt exposed in the great, empty marble room, like there were eyes watching me from every shadow. But I wasn’t going to stop Danvers by quaking in my boots, no matter how cute they were. It was time to move.
Seven levels doesn’t seem like it would take long, but as I ran down the stairs, I had plenty of time to try to figure out what exactly I was going to do to stop Danvers. Unfortunately, it was also plenty of time to realize I had no freaking idea. I was just going to have to hope Asher got the bomb stopped and the stasis field working before I got there.
I finally stopped in front of the blue number seven painted on the stairwell door and tried to catch my breath. They’d moved the machine to a new lab on this level. That’s where Max and Zella would be. And Danvers, too, along with all of her guards. The sheen of sweat I’d developed from running down seven flights of stairs started to dry in the cool air, and I shivered. How was I ever going to stop them?
I knew one thing — I certainly wasn’t going to do it just standing there.
I eased open the heavy fire door. The hall was empty. I scanned the corridor for another thirty seconds, waiting for any commandos to show up. When it stayed clear, I sprinted toward the back entrance of the lab.
The door was made of the same heavy titanium alloy that all the labs on this level used. Max had said it would keep most explosions contained, but no door would be able to stop QT’s destruction if the security system exploded. I pressed my finger to the scanner and let out a sigh of relief when it turned green.
I slipped inside, ducking behind a stack of boxes that had once held robot skeletons. Now they stood sentinel against the wall. Danvers had decided to use them for the next test instead of humans.
My breathing was loud and ragged in my ears, and I tried to hold it in, get it under control. Inching forward, I risked a glance out into the warehouse and then darted back behind the box.
One look had told me all I needed to know. Max and Zella stood off to one side, holding hands. Two commandos were busy disassembling the ultraviolet catastrophe machine, and Danvers supervised the whole scene.
With her gun.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I crouched behind the boxes and rested my head in my hands.
Danvers was here.
She was taking away the machine.
She had Max and Zella.
None of those things were good. I pulled out my phone. Even worse, in exactly eight minutes this whole place was going to explode, and I had no idea how to stop her.
Think, Kepler, think. All I had to do was buy Asher enough time to switch off the bomb and turn on the stasis field. Hopefully that would take care of Danvers.
I eyed the robots along the wall. They were almost built. If I could just get one working, I could use it as a distraction to get Zella and Max away. I inched toward them, staying behind the boxes. The first one had no legs. There wasn’t time to assemble them. The second had legs but no head. I eyed the bolts in its legs. If I could wire them just so, it would still be able to move. And that’s all I needed.
My fingers fumbled with the unfamiliar wires as I tried to connect them silently.
One of the commandos working on the machine spoke. “That’s all of it, ma’am. Do you want us to take the pieces up to the helicopter?”
“Yes, but leave the photon generator with me,” Danvers said.
I peered around the edge of a box to see her hold her hand out. The commando put a small black box in the palm of her hand. “Probably a good idea. Grant wants it ASAP. What about the Kepler girl?”
Danvers frowned. “Leave her.”
The commando shook his head. “My orders from Grant were that she was to be retrieved at all costs. I’ll go back and knock her out. Get her to the copter.”
Danvers glared. “I’m the commanding officer on this mission, and I say leave her. Get moving, soldier. We’re running out of time.”
He saluted, though he frowned at her. “What do you want us to do with these kids?” He nodded at Max and Zella standing stiff and silent against the wall.
“I’ll take care of them.”
The man saluted again before leading the three other scientists through the far door, carrying the machine and its parts between them.
“You can’t do this,” Zella yelled, lunging at Danvers. Max grabbed her arm to hold her back.
“And who’s going to stop me?” Danvers took a step forward, waving her gun at the pair. “You? I don’t think so.”
I twisted the last set of wires together, then flipped the back panel closed. There was a whirr and a click, and the robot’s legs jerked into motion. I turned it in Danvers direction and patted it on its metal ass.
“Good luck, buddy.”
The robot trotted forward, knocking against a stack of boxes that crashed to the floor.
Danvers whirled to see what was happening, firing off a shot at the robot. The machinery screamed in protest, and before I could think about what I was doing, I jumped at her, grabbing her gun arm. My hands slipped and slid on the fabric of her suit, searching for something to hold on to. I clutched at her wrist, the bones fragile as a bird’s but surprisingly strong. She bucked and struggled against me, using her free hand to beat at my face and push me off her.
I heard Max and Zella screaming, but I was too focused on the gun gleaming in her hand. I felt her tense beneath me, and then I was on my back, my head smacking into the cement floor. Stars danced across my vision.
Sirens shrieked in my ears. And in my head. With a physical thump inside my body, I felt the security system come online. I’d been right. Somehow our DNA had altered the vaccine enough that Max, Zella, Asher, and I were unaffected by it.
I blinked up into the muzzle of a gun, and beyond that, Danvers’ shocked face. Her eyes darted around the spac
e before coming to rest on me. Her voice sounded like ground glass. “Where is Asher?”
But despite the danger we were still in, relief flooded through me, making my limbs go weak. He’d stopped the commandos and turned off the bomb.
Danvers snatched up the photon core from the floor and shoved it in her pocket as she scrambled to her feet, pointing the gun at me again. It trembled, as did her voice.
“Stay where you are, or there’ll be a bullet for each of you. And trust me, I won’t miss.”
I struggled upright, my head still pounding from the security system. The robot twitched and fizzled on the floor beside me. The room swayed, and I locked my knees to stay on my feet.
“It’s over, Dr. Danvers. You might shoot one of us, but if all three of us rush you, we’ll still take you down.” I glanced at Max and Zella, and they both nodded.
The coldness in her eyes made me shiver. “I have too much at stake to let you stop me now.”
She took a step toward the door, aimed her gun at Max.
Pulled the trigger.
Zella screamed and pushed him out of the way. Her body jerked as the bullet hit her leg in a puff of blood, and she dropped to the floor.
“No!” Max’s roar shook my eardrums, but Danvers was already out the door. Instead of chasing after her, I rushed to Zella. Max had already cradled her head in his lap, his hands shaking as he brushed her hair back from her face. “Your sweater, Lexie! We need to stop the bleeding.”
I ripped it off and threw it at him. “I need to go after Danvers.”
Max shook his head. “Just let her go.”
“But Max!” I took three steps toward the door.
“Lexie. Trust me.” He yanked his phone from his pocket and handed it over, still using his other hand to press my sweater to Zella’s leg.
She moaned, but I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
“The remote detonator is installed on the photon core.”
My knees went weak. “But it will kill her.”
“And you have a problem with this? She shot Zella.” Max glared at me and then, like a switch was flipped, smiled down at Zella reassuringly. He caressed her cheek again. “Hang on. We’re going to get help.”
Zella’s eyes were glazed with pain, but she still managed a nod.
“What happened? What did I miss?” Asher asked, sprinting into the room.
I let out a sigh of relief and threw myself into his arms. “You did it?”
He nodded. “I stopped the bomb and freed the scientists. Our security guards are rounding up the immobilized commandos. But the fix didn’t stop Danvers.”
I glanced down at Max and Zella. At the detonator in my hand.
“Go,” Max said. “I’ll get Z upstairs to the medical wing.” He stooped and picked her up in his arms as gently as he would a baby. Zella moaned, her head lolling against his shoulder.
I squeezed his shoulder. “Thanks, Max.”
“Kick her ass for me.”
I gave him a wicked grin. “She doesn’t stand a chance.”
Asher grabbed my hand, and we raced toward the elevator bank. There wasn’t time for stairs. We just had to make it to the main floor before Danvers escaped. With the scientists free, there had to be someone around to stop her. Except they didn’t know she’d betrayed them all. My pulse sounded like hammers in my skull, and I tapped my foot as we rose through the facility.
Division Six.
Five.
Four.
Finally, we reached the lobby and stopped short. Hundreds of scientists milled around the frozen statues of commandos. They touched the Branston soldiers, shook their heads, looking confused. My dad pushed through the crowds in his wheelchair trying to reassure them, and Dr. Rosen did the same across the room.
QT security guards were everywhere, and I shoved past the scientists to reach one standing near the door.
“Have you seen Danvers?” I demanded.
He shook his head. “We’re searching the building right now. She won’t get out with the lockdown protocols in place.”
I craned to see past the guard out to the parking lot where two of the Branston helicopters had already disappeared. The third sat at the far end of the lot, the blades slowly spinning up. My breath froze in my lungs as I spotted a dark shadow sprinting toward it.
“Damn it. You’re too late!” I pushed past him and tried to shove open the door. It didn’t budge. I rattled the handle and pounded against the glass. “Let me out. We have to stop her!”
The security guard shook his head, peering out into the darkness beside me. “I can’t. We’re still locked down.”
Asher pulled Max’s phone from my grip. He stared at me, the question I didn’t want to answer burning in his eyes.
I turned away. “No.” The word was only a whisper, a breath of air against the window, but I couldn’t let him kill her. No matter what she’d done, what she was planning to do, there had to be another way.
He pulled me to him, speaking against my hair so no one else would hear. “Lexie, we have to. If she escapes, they’ll figure out the plans in Branston’s system are wrong. She’ll come after us and our families. We don’t have a choice.”
I couldn’t put my family at risk again. Or Asher and my friends. I nodded.
But before Asher could even turn the phone on, the night exploded.
The roar shook the building and shattered the safety glass on one of the windows. It cracked into a web of a million pieces, glowing orange and refracting the light from the flaming helicopter into a dancing kaleidoscope. The scent of burning metal and gas filled the air, the heat from the flames reaching us even through the doors.
A scientist screamed, and everybody pushed forward to see what was happening.
Asher shook his head, eyes wide as he stared out into the parking lot. “It wasn’t me.”
A bright light appeared in the sky, flooding the space in front of the door with lights. Another helicopter touched down, this one with the QT logo painted on the side. Smoke wafted from one of the missile launchers attached to the bottom of the machine.
As its headlights swept the area, I spotted a burning corpse near the wreckage of Branston’s chopper. I caught sight of a red high heel before the light moved away, and I gasped, turning to hide my face in Asher’s shoulder, fighting back the nausea burning my throat.
He rubbed my back, but the image of Danvers’ twisted body was burned into my mind.
Behind me, scientists whispered and gossiped in shock. They grew silent as my dad approached us, Mom pushing his wheelchair.
He tapped a code into the security box at the door, and the airlocks hissed as they reversed. “Let the regents inside, please.”
A guard pushed the door open, and the scent of burning metal and cold, fall air eddied through the lobby.
Dad looked tired, but he smiled at me and squeezed my hand. “You okay, Lexie?”
“I am now. You?”
He nodded. “Which one of you called them? Asher?”
Beside me, Asher shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “Since they wouldn’t listen to me in your room the other day, I hacked into Dad’s account and told them everything. I figured they needed to know what we’d found.”
“And god knows we need them now. Thank you.” Dad shook Asher’s hand. “I just wish you had talked to me. I could have done something to stop Danvers.”
“Not after she almost killed you, Dad.” I pulled Asher out of the way as the trio of regents entered the building. They were all dressed in suits, but the woman in front was the obvious leader. She gave off an aura of efficiency and intelligence, and I recognized her from the Einstein-Rosen bridge announcement last month.
“First of all, Dr. Kepler, was anyone killed?” She waited for his report, arms crossed.
Dad shook his head. “Thanks to Lexie and Asher, everyone is safe. Except for Danvers herself.” He gestured to the parking lot.
A muscle jumped in the woman’s jaw be
fore she pressed the skin below her ear, turning on her communicator. “Body retrieval. Parking lot. Now.”
She turned back to us. “Alexa Kepler?”
I nodded, fighting to stand upright and look calm despite the exhaustion and trauma that were making my knees tremble.
“I’m Dr. Eleanor Franklin. I’m very pleased to meet you. Your contributions to QT this semester are astonishing. You stopped something that could have led to the destruction of the city. We’re very lucky to have you.”
“Um…thank you. But I couldn’t have done it without Asher and Max and Zella.”
“Ah, yes.” She turned her cool smile to Asher. “I wish we’d listened to you sooner, young man. We owe you all a great debt. You can be sure this will not be forgotten.”
Dad cleared his throat. “I think we need to debrief and send the rest of the staff home. It’s been a long night, and we have a huge mess to clean up.”
She nodded. “You’re right, Dr. Kepler. And the first order of business is to appoint a new director. You.”
His eyebrows rose to his hairline. “What?”
“We can discuss it further if we must, but the other regents and I feel you’re the best person for the job. Please say you’ll accept.”
“Very well.” He looked calm, but I knew my dad. He had to be bursting with excitement. Mom squeezed his shoulder before he turned back to Dr. Franklin. “Let’s get the rest of this mess sorted out. I have a feeling it’s going to take all night.”
Asher slipped his arm around me as we watched him roll off toward his office with Mom and the regents. “I saw my dad head toward the med wing. Let’s go check on Zella.”
We found Max pacing the waiting room when we entered. His eyes were huge and shadowed, and he looked like he’d been the one who’d been shot.
“What’s going on, Max? How’s Zella?” I asked.
“Dr. Rosen is with her now. The bullet went through her leg cleanly, so they’re stitching her up.”
Asher nodded. “Dad’s good with a needle, but Zella’ll probably have a scar.”
“I don’t care as long as she’s all right.” He sighed. “I just need to see her.”
“Soon. I’m sure Dr. Rosen will let us know the moment she’s done. Come sit down, and we’ll tell you what happened with Danvers.”