by Brinda Berry
He sat in the chair and noticed a display on one wall. Tiania’s face appeared on-screen, a pixel portrait of perfection. “Your meal choices are displayed to the right. Please state your order and I’ll see that it’s delivered.”
He studied her blue eyes and the detail again disturbed him. Had the chameleon change occurred for a reason? He glanced at the choices.
“Steak with a side salad. Mashed potatoes. Rolls. Pecan pie,” he said. They’d placed his favorite dishes on the menu selection. Again, disturbing.
“And a drink?” She locked eyes with him.
Could she see him or was it coincidence? He silently stood and walked across the room. Her eyes followed him. It was a dual display.
“Water is fine.”
“Your meal will be delivered in five minutes.”
“Thank you.”
The image disappeared. The question was whether they still watched him. And that wasn’t really a question.
Five minutes later, an older man stood at the door. Dressed in white, he looked different from the men who’d escorted him to Tiania. The difference wasn’t in appearance but in the very essence of the man. Pete quickly realized why.
He felt tension from this man, emanating and twisting in a rush of texture. An interwoven blend of emotion and sweat. “May I come in?”
“Yes.” Pete nodded. The man pushed a cart into the room. Domed serving dishes sat on the top of the cart and the man wheeled it next to the chair. It would serve as a table.
Pete meant to thank him, but the man walked out before he could say the words.
He sat in the chair and moved the cart in front of it. Five minutes but it didn’t look like fast food. He cut into the steak. Perfect. Although he hadn’t bothered to say he’d prefer medium well since he was so hungry he could eat it rare, it was perfect.
A tiny white triangle peeked out from the bottom of his steak. Paper. Maybe not so perfect.
Taking his knife, he lifted the steak to see a folded piece of white paper. He set the steak back onto his plate and lifted his eyes to the wall in front of him.
Had they seen him look under the meat?
He began cutting lightly into the beef, not bearing down with the knife. He placed the roll on his plate with the meat and potatoes. A larger roll would’ve been nice to cover his actions, but he only had the one. He forked a large scoop of potatoes and a bite of steak into his mouth.
If they looked too closely, a fine film of perspiration on his forehead would give him away.
He took a deep, calming breath.
A different attendant retrieved the cart. Pete waited a half hour and lay down on the bed. The lights dimmed automatically and he pulled the blanket to his face. The watch he’d worn through the dimensional portal had several handy functions. Upon pressing down, a low light shone onto the slip of paper he pulled from his mouth. Good. The paper had held together. He unfolded it several times and read.
Mia with Rebels. OZ made deal w/Rebels. Go to Magnum Opus to meet Mia. Leave at sunrise. I will kill surveillance. Got your back. Tiny
He relaxed for the first time since his arrival. Tiny had come through for him. The minute they’d left Arizona’s dorm room that day, he’d known something incredible had happened. Tiny’s eyes had glittered with excitement. Interest. Anticipation. The challenge of hacking into a whole new world had been too much to refuse.
And when Pete told Tiny that he was going after Mia, Tiny agreed to join the United States special ops force. Operation Zodiac needed a pro breaking into the impenetrable IIA’s otherworld network. And while sitting underestimated and seemingly harmless at Arizona’s computer, Tiny had stolen everything he had needed.
21
A Plan
“Does he have a pair?” asked Cassie.
“Who?” We followed her quick pace through the maze.
“Austin,” Cassie answered.
Em walked beside me in the narrow space and shot me an amused glance, one corner of her mouth twitching. “Pair of what?”
“No. No pair. He’s a single,” I answered, avoiding making eye contact with Em so I wouldn’t laugh out loud. “Not dating anyone,” I added for Em’s benefit.
Em snorted and I had to smile. I don’t know how she always made me feel better.
Cassie looked back sharply. “Is something wrong with him?”
“No, no. Nothing like that. We’re both just being stupid.”
She stopped for a moment. “You are very bright, not stupid.” Cassie was back to frowning. Fabulous. She continued power-walking.
“Austin is great.” Em tried to salvage the camaraderie we’d had with Cassie.
We watched her back and waited for a response. I wondered how she and Arizona had been a ‘pair.’ They appeared to be polar opposites.
Cassie turned another corner, then stopped. “I can change the rooming partners if you like. Our citizens have private rooms, and there are no extras. We only have the three rooms you occupy at this time.”
“Oh.” I had not expected that. “That’s OK…unless you want to switch.” I looked at Em, waiting for confirmation.
“No. I’m fine.” Em yawned. “Now that Austin isn’t trying to break out like he’s in Alcatraz, maybe I can get some sleep.”
“Get some rest. I’ll make sure they clean up before they return.” Cassie waved to the hallway, not accompanying us the rest of the way. “We’ve turned off the locks.”
At our hesitation, she added, “Go on. The outer doors are still very much locked. You can’t leave.”
“Thanks.” I felt like an idiot for thanking our jailer.
When I entered my room, I noticed a bedroll and cushion had been added to the floor. I also saw a box of food and fresh water in the corner.
We’d obviously graduated to semi-guest status.
Taking a bag of an unidentifiable seed from the box, I munched on them until I was satisfied. I was clean, fed, and exhausted. The thought of crawling onto the bed and sleeping for several hours equated to winning the lottery.
“Need a nap?” Regulus asked.
I hadn’t noticed he’d come into the room. “Yes.” I stared at the bed. “For a hundred years.”
“That would be a long one.” He gave a warm, low laugh. “Go ahead. Rest. We have a meeting with the others this afternoon on strategy.”
He waited for me to move. He gently gave me a nudge. I didn’t argue. Regulus sat on the bedroll that had been placed on the floor. I lay down and let my heavy eyelids close, and a dream washed over me.
The sounds of distant water. The smells I associated with Regulus. The touch of a hand on my face. The slow and sure, musical beat of a heart.
I walked in a dark tunnel. Strings of whispering willow branches hung across the roof to swing in the breeze. Sunlight shone at the opposite end and a silhouetted figure waved me forward.
Dust motes drifted lazily in the beam of light.
The closer I came to the middle of the tunnel, the more I dreaded each step. Light flashed to illuminate the face of the person at my destination. The face of my dad. Darkness concealed his face. Light glittered and the face was Dr. Eli Bleeker. Darkness hid the face again. My feet stopped moving, not of my accord but by necessity.
Steel traps bit into my flesh as I pivoted to run back. Every movement cut the serrated teeth into my ankles deeper until the blood squirted out in unhindered arcs and my flesh burned.
“Come back,” yelled Regulus. He stood behind me, tethered to a chain around his right ankle. I whimpered and pulled despite the excruciating pain, but I couldn’t escape.
My stomach churned with an intensity that threatened to explode. I wanted to be violently ill. I needed to get out to help Regulus no matter the cost to my body. I feared I’d be too late.
A dark shadow crept across the entrance where Regulus begged me. His words confused me. “Run away,” he said over and over, in a hoarse and broken voice.
I wouldn’t leave him.
The traps
enclosing my ankles sprang open and I ran to him.
“No,” he yelled. “Don’t.”
A large mouth dripping vile black blood opened over the entrance of the tunnel. The poison dripped onto Regulus’s hair the second before the gaping monster covered the entrance.
I crawled to the chain to find it empty.
Regulus was gone.
A hand grabbed my shoulder and I screamed.
“Mia. Mia. It’s all right.”
I opened my eyes and grabbed him close to me. “You’re OK.” My shaky breathing was muffled with my face buried in his chest.
“Shh,” he murmured, smoothing my hair. “You were dreaming. I’m here.”
“And you won’t go doing anything stupid on your own. Not again.”
“I never do anything stupid.” He pulled back and looked me in the eyes. “Are you worried you won’t get home? I told you that I’ll make sure you do.”
“We,” I corrected. “We’ll get home. All of us.” My words came out with the unsteady quiver. He wasn’t fooling me.
“That is the plan.” He tilted my chin up gently. He looked down to see I’d grabbed his other hand in mine.
I loosened my death grip.
He smelled like heaven to me. A little earth, a little pine, a little cedar.
A little dangerous and infinitely good.
“Sorry about that. Got a little freaked. No big deal.” I cleared my throat and blinked several times. “No need get all hero complex on me. This underground spook hotel gave me a nightmare.” I scooted as far away as possible on the twin bed.
He narrowed his eyes at me and turned to stare at the door. “You don’t have to be afraid of me.”
“I’m not afraid of—” I didn’t see him pivot or turn or close the inches between us. He was there when my mouth began to form the last word. His lips didn’t touch mine immediately, he lingered at the edge of my mouth, giving me the chance to reject.
My eyes met his and I held my breath. He placed his forehead against mine and I closed my eyes against that moment I’d been wanting and dreading. The moment I’d give in and not fight his closeness. The moment that wasn’t made of memories but of the present. The moment I admitted that I wasn’t over him.
My lips pressed firmly to his—not in a shy, experimental touch—but in a challenge. His tongue teased my bottom lip and he pushed me down on the bed.
My heart raced and a fluttering in my stomach threatened to make me push the kiss deeper.
“Sorry to interrupt. We’re meeting now.” Cassie actually did sound sorry. She stood leaning in the doorway with a knowing grin on her face. I wondered how long she’d been standing there.
My breathing hitched as I attempted to slide my emotional mask into place. He shouldn’t know how much a little kiss affected me. If he knew, he’d break down that door to all my feelings and I’d be devastated. Again.
Taking in a mammoth lungful of air, I gave myself a mental shake. “Ready.” I hopped from the bed as if nothing had happened and sprinted to the door.
I knew Regulus hadn’t moved from the bed because Cassie waited, staring at him. I stood in the hallway, out of view and away from the glass door, doing a mental recitation of the reasons why I had to keep my distance.
Cassie sauntered ahead, glancing back curiously at our silent trek together behind her. I hadn’t noticed her height until this moment. She acted so fierce and indomitable that I’d thought her my height or taller. In reality, she stood at maybe five feet three. She was also extremely slim through the waist and her biceps were cut like an athlete.
She waved us to the seats and took her place standing beside Corona. The guards were also present and a couple others who’d been there when we’d first found our way inside their underground complex.
Corona called the group to order. “We must plan carefully. We have an advantage we’ve never had before today. We have the chance to free someone who would be kept by the Makers—a woman living more as an experiment than as a human. We have the chance to show the Makers that we will be free of their manipulations and tyranny.”
I looked at Regulus. He sat perfectly still, his face emotionless. Corona’s speech had been impassioned and intended to incite, but he didn’t react at all.
People in the group nodded their heads in agreement, muttering excitedly with a buzz only seen in mobs enraged by hate or energized by love.
“Why should we trust them?” One of the guards asked the question and eyes turned to us.
“The three—Arizona, Regulus, and Carina—are fugitives wanted for political crimes,” answered Corona. “Mia Carina can locate the portal within Magnum Opus.”
Political crimes? I hadn’t realized that being here without authorization was that serious. My head swam with the fear that washed over me.
Regulus grabbed my hand and squeezed. Then he took my hand with his to the tabletop. He moved his to face palm up and I knew he expected the same from me.
I stopped breathing with all eyes on me as I slid both hands palm up on the table before me.
Arizona did the same and made eye contact with Em. She followed with her hands.
Austin sat with his arms free of shackles but crossed over his chest. After Em elbowed him, he rolled his eyes and joined the rest of us.
I looked at Austin sitting across from me and burning my skin with his dark glare. A tattoo cuff of barbed wire circled his right wrist. Dried blood reached from his tattoo to his fingertips. What had he done?
My intake of breath told him that I’d seen the blood on his hands. He winked to assure me that he wasn’t hurt.
God bless Austin’s rebel heart.
I shook my head a fraction, scared that he’d get himself killed before we could get out alive. The guy had DAREDEVIL written across him in screaming letters.
Our group began to chatter wildly and Corona quieted us. “Let us agree on a plan for Regulus to get into Magnum Opus.”
“He can’t go in. They’ll know the minute his locator registers. We could cut the locator out of his wrist,” said a beefy guard.
“We don’t have the surgical requisites for that,” Cassie said.
“No,” I shook my head. “You guys are crazy if you think—”
“They are of no use to us,” a woman I recognized from the first day underground called out.
Our voices rose again. Corona had lost control. Upturned palms had been removed from the tabletop and Regulus placed his hand on my knee and squeezed once before returning it to his lap.
“I’ll go,” Austin’s voice was loud enough to be heard over the others.
“No,” Em and I said in unison.
Austin ignored us. “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it. No problem.” He slung hair out from his eyes and winked at me.
“I appreciate Austin’s honorable offer. But I will be the one going in. Not him,” Regulus said.
I’d never wanted to slap someone so much in my entire life. I wanted to scream and knock both their stubborn heads together. Sure, I wanted Bleeker and I did want to leave this place. I wanted everything back to normal in my life, but I wouldn’t risk Regulus. I wouldn’t. I brought one finger to my mouth and chewed on the cuticle.
“I can go with Austin and Cassie. I don’t want Regulus and Arizona with us.”
“No.” Regulus stood so quickly that he bumped my chair and several people came forward to restrain him.
The tiny hairs on my body stood on end when I realized how many weapons were pointed at Regulus. The room seemed to shrink and crowd in on me.
Sounds amplified and a wave of nausea swept over me so strongly that I swayed. The people in the room were tense and their fear, anger, and excitement thrummed in the air—pushing my senses to the brink. I put one hand against the table and the other on Regulus’s arm.
“You can’t leave here. You or Arizona. Your locator chips will give us away,” I said in a low voice, pleading with him to listen.
Regulus’s brow creased in tiny lin
es and he tried to refute what I said. I could practically see the internal battle as he tried to think of another way. He shook his head. “I won’t let you risk your life.”
He backed up quickly to extradite himself from my grip. His movement pressed the fallen chair against his legs and it screeched against the concrete floor. In my peripheral vision, I saw Cassie move toward him with her stunner.
“No,” I said to her in the split second when I realized what she intended.
Regulus slumped forward, falling onto the table with a thump.
* * *
“You are insane!” I felt a little jealous of Cassie’s confidence. Her impish grin floored me as she outlined the most outrageous plan for entering Magnum Opus. We’d spent three hours studying maps of the place and I still struggled to follow her descriptions. The corridors had names consisting of unfamiliar symbols and each room had a name that correlated with a star system.
“Toriga Core,” I repeated. “Got it. And you are sure this is the right place?”
“She’s sure.” Austin hadn’t stopped staring at her with a wicked grin since we began planning. I had to admit that it was refreshing. Rarely did I see Austin so smitten over a girl.
“What happens when we wave this thing over the scanner?” I asked.
“That’s when we run to the portal with Vega. Are you sure you can find it?” Cassie squinted at me like she wanted to be reassured of my confidence.
“Yeah. No worries on that.” I hoped that I sounded as convincing as she did.
“They will let the bots loose on us as soon as they realize that we’ve infiltrated the building.” Cassie studied the wall with the maps displayed. “I’ll make sure to get Vega to a checkpoint and I’ll return here. But you won’t have to help with that. I’ve done this dozens of times.”
I raised my eyebrows at this revelation.
“What? You know that people enter your world for refuge. I think you call them Slips. It’s what we do. We help fugitives escape to a safe place.”