The Undergrounders shift nervously. Sven stares Mason down. I can tell by the deep flush slowly seeping down his neck that he has no intention of letting us leave without him.
It’s my fault for leading him along. I acted on instinct—telling him he could come—knowing there was no way to circumvent the sensor and bring him out without endangering all of our lives. Maybe it was a selfish desire on my part to keep him with me. It’s up to me now to resolve this before we all end up dead.
Eyes planted on Sven, I somehow manage to wiggle the safety selector on my gun to the fire position. I’ll shoot him if I have to. But it won’t change the fact that someone will have to stay behind. And if Sven dies, that person will be me. I can’t ask Mason to make that kind of sacrifice now that he’s tasted freedom.
I steal a glance in Jakob's direction. His gun is slung casually over his shoulder, but his finger is locked tight around the trigger. Guilt grips me when I realize he’d sear his conscience to save me. I don’t see a good way out of this for anyone.
“De … Derry.”
I spin around at Owen's quivering voice. His upper body shudders as he tries to raise himself on his elbows. Tucker hovers anxiously at his side.
I drop to my knees. “Don’t get up!”
His eyes roll around in his head before he locks onto my face. I’m shocked by the sunken craters beneath his heavy-lidded eyes—now glistening with an unhealthy sheen. He grabs the collar of my jacket and pulls me to him. When he opens his mouth, he makes that unnerving gurgling sound again. The unmistakable stench of urine fills my nostrils.
Panic floods my brain at the realization that his body is shutting down. I put my hand on his forehead and gasp. He’s burning up. I suppress a moan and cradle his head to my chest. He opens his mouth, but then flops unnaturally sideways. His body shudders once more, and then his eyelids flutter closed.
For a long, tortured moment, I think he’s gone. Then he twitches in my arms. “Quick!” I gasp. “We have to get him out of here, now!” I plead silently with the faces cinched around me.
“What’s it gonna be, Sven?” Mason demands.
Sven’s eyes dart around the group, and then, ever so slowly, he reaches his right hand into the cargo pocket of his fatigue pants and pulls out a gleaming Schutzmesser. My heart lurches in my chest. He must have taken it from Rummy.
One by one, the Council members train their guns on him.
Sven studies the knife, turning it over several times and testing the tip on his thumb. He steals a glance around, as if contemplating who to take out before someone puts a bullet in him. He slowly curls his left fist into a crunch.
I tense and line up my sight to take a shot. My hand shakes when he raises the steel blade to his right temple. An eerie hush falls over us. Trancelike, he presses the honed tip into his skin in a suicidal salute.
“Nooooooo!” I yell. Tucker springs to his feet, barking in solidarity. I grab him by the collar and hold him back. One slash from a Schutzmesser would silence him forever.
Sven draws a heavy breath, his thick fingers wrapped around the handle of the knife. “Lyong deactivated my authorization code—maybe the retinal sensor is down too.”
My jaw goes slack. He can’t be serious. I’m trying to remember what Ramesh told me about retinal sensors—something about a neurotoxin being released into the brain if the sensor is tampered with.
“You don’t have to do this!” Mason takes a half step toward Sven, gun held high above his head in a good faith gesture. “You can tell Lyong we forced you to help us. You’re the best programmer the Craniopolis has. He can’t afford to terminate you.”
“I want to be free of this place,” Sven says, looking straight at me. “With the tracker out, I won’t be a liability anymore.” He gives Mason a rueful grin. “Then we can draw straws to see who stays.”
Mason lunges at him, but before he lands a tackle, Sven lets out a savage roar and twists the blade into his temple. I stare in horror at the dark blood spurting out the side of his head. His eyes flash briefly and then close. The knife slips from his hand and clatters onto the floor.
I wait for what seems like an eternity for him to keel over and erode like a crumbling statue. His massive chest rises and falls a couple of times, but then he sighs and reaches his fingers into the wound in his head. With a deep groan, he pulls something out and drops it into the palm of his left hand.
No one moves. My heart thunders in my chest.
After a few minutes, Sven opens his eyes and slowly stretches out his upturned hand. Jakob and the other Council members exchange uncertain glances, before closing in to take a look. When I catch his eye, Sven breaks away and walks over to me. I stare incredulously at the bloody capsule cradled in his enormous hand.
“You were right,” I say, my voice shaking. “The tracker must have been immobilized when they deactivated your code.”
Sven presses the sleeve of his shirt against his bleeding temple. “Either that, or the neurotoxin was just a ploy to keep us compliant.”
“So now what?” Jakob asks.
Sven levels his eyes at Mason. A satisfied smile flicks across his lips. “Now we find out who stays.”
Owen grabs at my arm, his breath rattling in his throat. He strains to lift himself up, and this time I help him into a sitting position, hoping it will ease his breathing.
“Leave me.” He blinks at me sharply.
“What are you—”
“I’m bleeding out.” He cuts me off with a dismissive wave. “Not … gonna make it. I can launch the ship if you … go … now.” He falls back against my chest, his lungs wheezing like deflating balloons.
“No!” I shake my head firmly, the tang of tears in my nose. “I won’t leave you!”
“Let me … do this.” His eyelids hover somewhere between open and closed. “I won’t … die in vain.”
“One of the clones should stay, this is their world.”
“They’ve earned their freedom.”
“Then we’ll leave Rummy.”
Owen makes an incoherent sound. “He won’t … launch you.”
“Then I’ll stay.”
Owen's feverish eyes latch onto mine. He grips my face in his hand and squeezes my cheeks in his sweaty fingers. “The Council needs you. Promise me … you’ll leave and find a way to shut this hell down.”
I forward Jakob a helpless look. He hunkers down beside me and places an arm protectively on mine. “How far is the Council’s camp?” I ask, desperation creeping into my voice.
He rubs a hand across his brow. “Once we land the Hovermedes on the other side of the river, it’s a day’s hike into the mountains.”
Owen convulses a couple of times, and I know in my heart the end is near for him. I look up at the circle of eyes looking down at me. My heart screams at me not to give up—to cling to the irrational hope that Owen's going to be all right—that I can still find some way out of this nightmare. I lay his head gently against my pack and drag myself to my feet, the terrifying weight of my decision bearing down on me. My legs tremble beneath me, but I focus on Owen's words: the Council needs you.
One by one, the frightened Council members drop their gaze. Somebody has to stay behind, and somebody has to make the decision who that’s going to be. Owen grasps the tips of my fingers and gives a feeble squeeze. I flinch, my brain screaming at me to do what my heart won’t let me.
“You heard him,” I hear myself say through the din inside my skull.
Mason approaches me, his footsteps thudding like a funeral march I set in motion. His eyes bore into mine. “Are you sure about this?”
I glance around again at the scared, young faces of the Council members. I’m sure if I don’t do this, everyone here will die in the docking station along with Owen. I look back at my brother, my heart heavy as lead.
Owen's eyes pop open and rest on me. He says nothing, but I can feel him pleading with me through his pain.
I nod grimly at Mason. “Bring him ac
ross to the computer station.”
Silently, Sven picks the bloody Schutzmesser up off the floor and wipes it on his pants, avoiding eye contact with me.
My brain feels like a freezing fog has moved in and taken over every neural cranny. We finally have a way out of the Craniopolis, but it’s not the victory I envisioned. I feel gutted. Like an organ donor’s next-of-kin, except Owen isn’t even dead, yet.
“Which Hovermedes are we taking?” I ask Sven, brusquely. I wanted him to come, but not in Owen’s place. There's nothing about this that feels right.
“Alpha dock. It’s flight ready.” He motions to the ship nearest us.
I turn to Jakob. “Can you have the Council load up the packs?” I gesture with my thumb at Rummy. “And him.”
Jakob nods and then closes a fist around Owen's fingers and squeezes good-bye. Mason scoops Owen up and I hear a faint animal-in-distress howl that cuts off abruptly. The nauseous feeling in my stomach returns. I turn away and busy myself with Owen's pack.
When I’ve tightened the straps to breaking point, I hand the grimy orange pack off to one of the Council members and watch her disappear inside the Hovermedes with the only piece of my brother I’ll take from this place. A sob catches in my throat. When he’s gone—I'll be all that’s left of the Connollys.
I take a few deep breaths, and then make my way over to the computer terminal.
Owen is slumped in front of the screen, his head awkwardly supported by a rolled up shirt. I watch as Mason ties him loosely to the chair so he doesn’t slip to the floor. His eyelids flicker when he hears me approach. I falter, then swallow hard. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”
He lies motionless, hunched to one side. His skin resembles a purplish moonscape—a sure sign of internal bleeding. I know he can’t possibly survive much longer.
I ram my knuckles against my forehead. This isn’t right. I can’t leave my brother here to die alone. I should just overrule his decision to stay—he’s not in his right mind after all. I pace back and forth behind his chair. “He doesn’t even have the strength to press the button,” I say, turning to Mason.
He frowns. “The man says he can do it—he can do it.”
“Owen?” I lean over him. “Can you hear me?”
There’s a muffled, high-pitched sound of air being forced between his parted lips. “Tell Nikki …”
I lean in closer so he doesn’t have to strain his voice. “What?”
“Tell … Nikki … to love her is to live forever.” He presses her crumpled photo into the palm of my hand.
I blink, too late to stop a tear tracking down my cheek.
Owen's frame contorts like he’s being pulled by invisible strings.
A sob lodges in my throat. I slip the photo into my pocket and grab his free hand. “Owen, I can’t do this. I won’t leave you here—”
Suddenly, his chair begins to vibrate and his clammy hand jiggles in mine. At first, I think he’s going into cardiac arrest, but then a pneumatic drilling sound fills the room.
Chapter 38
I look across at Mason. They’re coming, he mouths.
My scalp electrifies. Owen's eyes zigzag past me as he scrapes together another breath. “Go!”
A giant shove from behind sends me flying forward. Panic hits. My legs pump like pistons beneath me, oddly disconnected from my body. Every cell inside me charges, but my brain’s not in the loop—I’ve no idea where I’m going.
Half-blinded by stabbing tears, I slow my pace to get my bearings, and trip over someone’s pack. Before I can regain my footing, burly hands lift me off the ground and toss me through an opening in the side of a Hovermedes. I lay blinking in the dim light like a discombobulated sack of cargo while Tucker licks my salty face. A moment later, the metal door of the Hovermedes slides shut with a sickening whoosh.
Somewhere in the midst of my confusion, my instincts trigger.
Owen!
I scramble to my feet and lurch across the ship. With a scream that comes from somewhere deep inside, I fling myself at the sealed door and claw at the solid steel. Jakob tugs repeatedly on my shoulders, but I batter the door undaunted. Faces press in around me, their jaws moving up and down, but I can’t make sense of what’s being said. Only the pain in my hands feels real. I lift my head and catch the fleeting look of regret in Mason’s eyes as his fist swings toward me and everything explodes.
A soft buzzing, like a distant swarm of insects. I swat mindlessly until my brain clears. The murmur of voices washes over me. I turn my head toward the sound and flinch. The entire left side of my skull feels like a cracked leather punching bag. I crinkle my eyes and try to remember what happened, and where I am.
Jakob comes into view and contemplates me for a moment. He edges tentatively closer. “Are you okay?” He tweaks a smile, but his lips sag.
I hesitate before responding. I can tell by the heavy tone of his voice that something terrible has happened, but I can’t remember what. I massage my brow gingerly. “My head aches.”
A stricken look flits across Jakob's face before he masks it.
“What is it?” I ask, clutching Tucker’s fur. A vague feeling of paralyzing anxiety awakens inside me.
“Don’t you remember?”
I frown, but before I have a chance to pick through my muddled brain, Tucker jumps up and growls, peering intently at something down the aisle. Mason slams a cartridge into his gun and vaults out of his seat. I pull myself up to get a better look, and realize I’m in a Hovermedes. But we’re not moving. I don’t understand.
Tucker takes off to the back of the ship, and then pulls up short, barking madly at a section of the undercarriage. Mason drops to a knee beside him and trains his gun on the spot.
There’s a scraping sound, then banging.
Without warning, a panel in the floor flips open. Two thin, brown arms rise through the opening like antennae. Sven grabs both wrists in one hand and yanks out a small-framed man in a lab coat. My eyes bulge.
Mason jabs the barrel of his gun in the man’s chest. “Who are you?”
The man gives a deep bow, and then pokes his wire-rimmed glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “I am Dr. Won, Chief of Cybernetics. Please, I don’t intend to harm. I hide into access compartment.”
My head throbs as fragmented bits of information fly through my brain and reassemble themselves.
We escaped the Craniopolis.
The stabbing realization hits my brain like an icepick. I turn and grab hold of Jakob. “Owen?” I whisper, as it all comes rushing back. The sound of drilling, someone shoving me forward, the door of the Hovermedes closing.
Jakob clutches me tighter, as if he expects me to bolt for the door.
Instead, I fold into his arms, empty and spent, and stare blankly at the stowaway.
Mason grabs Won by the throat. “I knew I saw a shadow in the docking station. Trying to sabotage our departure I bet.”
“No! No! I help! I launch you.”
Mason lets out a snort. “We already launched, moron. We’ve just landed on the other side of the river.”
Won’s words swim in my brain for a moment. I narrow my eyes at him. “You mean you launched us?”
He nods passionately, his miniature spectacles sliding back down his nose. “Yes! Yes! I launch you.”
I unwind myself from Jakob and make a beeline across the aisle until I’m standing directly in front of him. “You’re lying! My brother launched this ship.”
Won shakes his head. “No! He no launch you.”
I take a step back, my heartbeat careening out of control. “What are you talking about?”
Won gives an apologetic shrug. “He fall off chair.”
My blood chills. I steal a glance at Mason.
He clears his throat. “It’s true. I thought we were done for when he toppled over, but then the Hovermedes took off so I figured he’d managed to hit the authorization button before he … died.”
My heart races. I stare at
Won suspiciously. “How could you have launched us if you were stowed away on the ship?”
Won pats his lab coat pocket. “Remote launch device.” Beaming, he reaches into his bulging pocket and pulls out a sleek, black controller.
Sven’s eyes grow wide. He snatches it from Won’s hands and examines it. “I didn’t know this existed.”
Won flashes a row of yellow, uneven teeth at him. “Lyong not know either. Private project. Remote device overrides onsite authorization requirement.” He beams at us, his eyes wide with expectation. The smile fades from his face when no one speaks.
I use what strength I have left to grab him. My hands tighten like a vice around his scrawny neck. “You stupid idiot! My brother would be here with us now if you’d shown your stinking face in the docking station.”
“Let him go, Derry,” Mason says. “He’s no good to us dead.”
I sink down in a nearby seat and bury my head in my hands, reeling from the shocking revelation. I left Owen to die alone for nothing.
Jakob places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes gently. “It’s time to go.”
I look up and knit my brows together in confusion. “Where to?”
“The Council’s camp. We have to hike from here.”
Reluctantly, I straighten up, an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. I don’t want to go any farther. I thought I wanted to be a player in the Council, but now I’m not so sure. I’m shaken by the cost of freedom.
Sven strides up into the cockpit and presses a couple of buttons. The side of the Hovermedes eases open, exposing a familiar pine-studded backdrop.
The Council members jump out and set to work unloading the packs. I stick my head out through the door and snatch a breath of the freshest air I’ve smelled in days. Tucker bounds out past me and rolls around excitedly in a drift of half-mulched pine cones. Despite the throbbing pain in my head, and the hole in my heart, I smile sadly as I climb out after him. I have to keep going. If I give up now, Owen's death will have served no purpose, and the Sweepers will have won.
We waste no time camouflaging the Hovermedes under a tangle of brush and branches. When we’re done, we cover our tracks and load up our gear. It’s almost light out. Shafts of yellow ooze through the rocky crags of the horizon, a risky time to hike, but, under the circumstances, we’re left with no choice.
Immurement: The Undergrounders Series Book One (A Young Adult Science Fiction Dystopian Novel) Page 22