Sloane

by V. J. Chambers

  Balancing the boxes, I marched my way up to the front door.

  One of the guards actually got the door for me. So, it was working.

  The doors opened onto a small foyer. It looked blank and formal. The walls were white; the floor was gray tile. There was no adornment on the walls, except for a sign on the wall proclaiming this was The Costello Lab Secondary Facility. There was a woman at a desk right in front of the door. She was on the phone. She glanced up at me and then went back to her conversation.

  I decided to act like I had the run of the place, like I was pissed off and in a hurry. I went past her and pushed through a set of swinging doors, my face a mask of annoyance.

  I emerged into a hallway, just as stark as the foyer had been. There were a few doors on each side of the hallway. I kept walking as if I knew exactly where I was going, taking note of the names on each of the doors. They looked to me like offices.

  At the end of the hallway, there was an elevator.

  I made a beeline for it, stepping inside as soon as I got there. The doors swished closed, and I surveyed my options. There were two other floors, both lower than this one. I pressed the button for the lowest one.

  Swipe card, blinked a message above the keypad. Damn it. There was a card swipe above it.

  I punched the button for the other floor, even though the bottom floor was probably the place where the others were being kept. It only made sense, considering that they’d want to keep random people from disturbing their secret research and subjects.

  The elevator started to move.

  It went down one level, and the doors opened. I stepped out into a large lab. It was equipped with all kinds of instruments. There were tables covered in glass beakers, each containing liquids of various colors. Several lab-coated individuals strode to and fro, checking on the liquids, scribbling on notepads.

  But when I stepped out of the elevator, they all looked up at me.

  My heart sped up, but I refused to let it show. Instead, I decided to look annoyed, as if not knowing what was going on was really ruining my day.

  They scrutinized me, suspicion all over their faces.

  “What are you doing down here?” said one.

  LEIGH

  I was strapped down to a table inside a white room. They’d come and taken me out of the room where they kept Griffin and Silas and me. Griffin had tried to stop them, and gotten shot in the head for his trouble. I’d struggled, but they’d been too strong for me. They’d dragged me along with them, taken me here, and tied me down.

  I was still struggling, but I was strapped down tight, and I couldn’t make the straps budge.

  The room I was in resembled a regular doctor’s examination room with a table of instruments next to my head, and an examining stool sitting at my feet. But the room wasn’t nearly as welcoming as the kind of place you’d go if you had the flu. There were no magazines to pass the time, no bright cushions or posters on the wall urging you to quit smoking. The whole place was cold and white and austere.

  The men who’d strapped me in were standing just inside the doorway, both watching me in case I got away, I supposed.

  The door opened. “You can leave,” said a female voice.

  I recognized the sound of her voice before I saw her.

  Jolene French.

  She came into view as the guards ducked through the doorway. She looked impeccably put together, as usual. She smiled at me, and what struck me about her smile was how genuine it seemed, even though I knew she wasn’t nearly as kind as she looked. She was a monster.

  I thrashed at the straps—well, I would have thrashed if I could, but they held me too tight. All I succeeded in doing was straining my muscles.

  She cocked her head to one side. “You’re surprised to see me.”

  “You’re dead,” I said.

  She laughed. “That’s so funny. That’s exactly what Griffin said. I would have thought he’d told you about me.”

  “He said he couldn’t remember anything from when he got taken away.”

  “Hmm…” French pulled a clipboard off a rack on the wall and began scribbling. “Retrograde amnesia,” she murmured to herself.

  “What do you want with us, French?”

  She ignored me. She put the clipboard back in its rack and went over to the table of instruments. She selected a syringe and a small container. Piercing the container with the needle, she began to fill up the syringe.

  “What are you doing to us? Why are we here? Why aren’t you dead?”

  She gave me a sympathetic look. “Oh, Leigh. I suppose I should thank you. After all, you were the one who convinced Griffin to free me. I’d never have made it out if it weren’t for your kindness.”

  I shut my eyes. God, what kind of an idiot was I? It wasn’t for French’s sake that I’d asked Griffin to do that. I knew the world would be a better place without her in it. It was for our own sakes. I hadn’t wanted any more blood on Griffin’s hands or on my own. There was already enough as it was. We weren’t killers. French had tried to make us into killers, but we weren’t. That was why I’d told him to let her go. To prove that to ourselves. But all I’d done was make it possible for her to torment us again.

  French touched my face, and my eyes snapped open.

  She was peering down at me, the syringe in one hand, pointing at the ceiling, a tiny bit of fluid squirting out. “I’m really happy we’re getting the chance to work together now. I’ve always thought you had so much potential.”

  I struggled again. It was useless. “What’s in that? What are you going to inject me with?”

  She tapped her chin with one elegant finger. “You know, now that we’re together, there are so many things I want to say to you. You saved my life, and I wish that I could be grateful enough to forgive everything that you’ve done to me. But I’m sorry, Leigh, you’ve done too much. You’ve destroyed it all. First it was your father. Frank Thorn. I had that man under my thumb. He did whatever I wanted. And then you had to get into that reckless accident, and he had to heal you. Then he helped Griffin escape. And then I wasted valuable resources chasing after all of you. And then you came back to Op Wraith, and you destroyed everything.” She pressed her lips together, her eyes fierce. “Piece by piece, all of it gone. Everything that I built. You have no idea how long it had taken me to get to where I was. And you were the linchpin that made it all fall apart.” She glared down at me. “Of course, if this really does cause retrograde amnesia, you’re not going to remember any of this, are you?”

  “What is it? What are you injecting me with?”

  She set down the syringe and picked up an alcohol swab. Tearing it open, she tugged it out. Then she began to swab my arm. She was humming to herself.

  “Tell me,” I said.

  “You’re not going to remember,” she said. “What does it matter?”

  I gritted my teeth. I hated this woman. I wished like hell I’d been strong enough to make sure she was dead last time.

  She picked the syringe back up. “I was overconfident, really. That was my mistake. I’m a talented, gifted psychologist, but I didn’t take proper precautions. I was so sure I could control all of them. But I overextended myself. Luckily, James Armstrong had been working on just the thing to fix it all. And soon, Leigh, soon, with your help, I’ll be right back on top again.” She plunged the needle into my arm.

  I screamed. Not because it hurt very much, since it was just a pinch, but because I was terrified of what she was doing to me. Knox had been ruined. Griffin seemed okay so far, but what if this first injection was just the beginning? What if she was starting to ruin all of us?

  “Shh,” she soothed. She stroked my hair. “Listen to my voice, Leigh, and remember what I’m about to tell you. You belong to me, and you will do what I say, when I say it. Because you love me. You love me more than anything on earth, and you would lay down your life if I said so.”

  Everything was getting strange and blurry. The only clear thing seemed to be
her voice as it rang through my skull.

  “You love me. You obey me. You are mine.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “Delivery,” I said nonchalantly. I made a show of checking the label on one of the boxes I was carrying. “Is, uh…”

  Damn it. I didn’t know the names of anyone who worked here except French and Armstrong, and I didn’t think that I should say either of their names. French might be going under another name, or she might not be a valid employee. They might know that Armstrong was dead, and that might make them react differently, and I didn’t want to call attention to myself.

  But it was too late.

  I’d hesitated too long, and now they were all staring at me, wondering what the heck was wrong with me. I had about two seconds before they started to get suspicious.

  “Sorry,” I said, my pulse starting to race. “I can’t pronounce this.”

  “Probably Wojewodzic,” said one of the lab workers.

  The others all nodded, going back to their previous tasks.

  “Uh, yeah, I think that’s it,” I said.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter anyway,” he said. “You gotta leave the deliveries upstairs at the main desk.”

  “I need a signature,” I said.

  “Well, she’s probably in her office, which is upstairs. No deliveries on this level.”

  I nodded. “Okay, sorry. Thanks for the help.”

  “Not a problem.” He went back to what he’d been doing before.

  I turned back to the elevator. The doors were closed tight against me. I knew I could get back in, but once inside, I’d only be able to go back upstairs. I needed to get to the bottom floor, and to do that, I was going to need a swipe card. Did any of these guys have one? Could I get it from them without causing a scene?

  I hit the button to open the door and turned back around. “Actually, could, um, one of you show me where I’m headed? I got so lost getting down here.”

  The elevator door opened, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see that someone was inside.

  I turned back around.

  And gasped.

  Leigh was standing there, right next to Jolene French.

  “Why did the elevator stop?” said French. She wasn’t paying any attention to me.

  But Leigh was staring me right in the eyes. She didn’t acknowledge me at all.

  The two of them were alone, so I made a decision—split second, quick. I dropped the boxes and I yanked out my gun. I stepped inside the elevator, hit the button to shut the doors, and put the gun to French’s head. “Give me your swipe card.”

  The elevator doors swished closed.

  French was startled, backing away from the gun. “Sloane? I wondered what had happened to you. I never did see you and Silas away from each other very often.”

  “Swipe card,” I said.

  She laughed. “You think I’m afraid of that gun?” She reached around me and hit the button on the elevator to go up.

  I elbowed her in the face and pressed the gun up to her temple. “I will blow your head off, bitch.”

  “Leigh,” said French, glancing askance at Leigh, who was still staring blankly forward, not acknowledging anything. “This is your target.”

  Now Leigh moved her head. She narrowed her eyes, focusing on me.

  “Kill for me, will you?” French smiled.

  Leigh gave one sharp nod.

  “What?” I said. “Leigh, what’s going on?”

  Leigh leaped onto me, knocking the gun out of my hand.

  French tittered in the background.

  Leigh pressed me up against the elevator doors. She wrapped her hands around my neck.

  I choked. What the hell was wrong with Leigh?

  The elevator dinged as we hit the top floor, and the doors opened. We tumbled backwards into the hallway where I’d been before.

  Leigh lost her grip on my neck, but she fell on top of me. She punched me in the face, hard.

  “Leigh, snap out of it!” I shrieked. This was my best friend. Why was she hurting me?

  Leigh didn’t even flinch. It was as if she hadn’t heard me. She punched me again, driving her knuckles into my nose.

  It hurt. I felt blood begin to gush. I had to stop her. I brought my knee up into her midsection, not hard enough to cause a lot of damage, but hard enough to knock her off of me.

  She released me enough that I was able to crawl backward and get to my feet.

  French came out of the elevator, holding my gun out to Leigh. “Finish it. Terminate the target.”

  Leigh took the gun and aimed at me.

  “Leigh,” I said. “What are you doing? It’s me. It’s Sloane. Are you even in there?”

  Leigh cocked the gun.

  I dove for the ground just as it went off.

  The bullet skimmed through the air, barely missing me. Fuck.

  “Leigh!” I screamed.

  She didn’t even acknowledge my voice.

  Okay, so something really bad was going on, and I didn’t know what. But at this point, I was unarmed, and I had no backup or help from anywhere. I couldn’t hurt Leigh—she was my friend—but I didn’t know what had happened to her either, and she seemed intent on killing me.

  There was only one option at this point.

  I had to run.

  I took off down the hallway as fast as I could.

  Leigh fired on me as I ran. The first two shots missed, but the third lodged in my back.

  It was a cold knife in me, cutting through me, cutting off my breath. The pain was excruciating.

  I halted for half a second, and then I kept moving as quickly as I could.

  Blood poured out of the wound, and it sent arcing pain through me with every step I took.

  I dove back through the swinging doors, into the lobby.

  French was yelling in the background, telling Leigh to get after me, not to lose me.

  I dashed across the floor to the front door. I rushed through it, tackling the first of the guards that I came to.

  The other guy was startled, but I moved as quick as I could, pulling the downed man’s gun free and shooting his partner. Even moving fast, I was dead accurate. I put the bullet right between his eyes, and the man went down.

  I rolled to my feet, turning to face the other guy.

  Augh. My chest was killing me. I coughed, and blood sprayed out of my mouth.

  Fuck.

  I shot the other guard and stumbled backwards.

  The front doors flew open and Leigh stalked out after me. She raised her gun.

  “Leigh,” I said. “Don’t.”

  She wasn’t listening to me.

  I raised the gun I’d stolen. I was fading fast, I realized. The shot she’d got on me was going to make me go dark. I wasn’t going to make it very much longer. I needed to get away, so that I could heal. I didn’t want to shoot Leigh, but she had the serum too. She’d heal.

  So, cringing as I did it, I put a bullet in the skull of my best friend.

  Her eyes widened when it hit her, and then she crumpled to the ground.

  I winced.

  And then I ran.

  I hurled myself into the woods, losing myself in the foliage as quickly as I could.

  LEIGH

  “Leigh.” Griffin was hovering over me.

  I struggled to open my eyes.

  “Talk to me,” he said. “Talk to me, doll.”

  “Griffin?” I said. What had happened? How had I gotten back here? The last thing that I remembered was Jolene French walking into the room— French! I sat straight up. “It’s French. She’s the one who’s got us.”

  “French?” said Griffin.

  Silas was peering at me. “You sure?”

  I nodded. “Positive. I saw her. She talked to me… I think. But I can’t remember anything she said or anything after that.”

  Griffin got up and began to pace. “This is bad.”

  I hugged myself. I knew it was.

  “We’ve got to try so
mething,” said Griffin. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “I’m working on the tunnel,” Silas said, looking stubborn.

  Like the tunnel was going to amount to anything.

  But Griffin only shook his head. “Something quicker. Something more decisive. What you said before? About rushing them when they come in the next time?”

  “You said it wouldn’t work,” said Silas. “You said they’d just shoot us.”

  “We have to do it smart,” said Griffin.

  We huddled together as Griffin began to talk. To scheme. To plan.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I got as far as the main road before I couldn’t go any farther. The pain in my chest was too sharp, too intense. I could hardly breathe, and my clothes were covered in blood. I stumbled to the ground. I managed to crawl into some underbrush before I felt it take hold. I was going dark.

  It washed over me, blank and empty.

  And then I woke up again.

  Gasping, I sat up. I was healed, and I was still in the woods, but it was dark outside. I guessed the damages had been pretty bad. It had taken me a while to heal.

  The only good thing about that situation was that I hadn’t frozen up, not like in the hotel room. I’d kept moving, kept going, even when Leigh tried to—

  Shit, I couldn’t think about that. It was too awful.

  I got to my feet and began to pick my way through the woods, following the road and going as quietly and carefully as I possibly could. I was away from the secret lab, but that didn’t mean that French didn’t have guards combing the woods for me. I was pretty sure that she didn’t want me to get away.

  I couldn’t go back for the car I’d brought, which was parked right in front of the building. They’d see me for sure. And I couldn’t call a cab or anything, because I’d left my phone in the car. Of course, I had a backup phone with the rest of my luggage, but that was at Axel’s place, so it wasn’t much good to me now.

  I was going to have to walk out of here. It was only maybe five miles or so until I’d hit a bus station or something, but it sure as hell wasn’t going to be any fun.