by R. A. Rock
It was unprecedented, this sort of repentance. And she was so cheerful, she was nearly giddy. It was strange in a good way. Still, I couldn’t help but be wary of such a radical change in such a short time.
I knew that she meant it. I could feel the sincerity coming off of her like the fresh salty tang of the sea.
But would the change stick? Or would she be back to her old ways in a day or two? I didn’t know. But whatever dreams she had had when she had been unconscious seemed to have altered her in a good way. Whether the improvements would turn out to be permanent? Well, I guess we would find out over time.
There had been a lull in our mission over Christmas but they had definitely stepped up security on us today. We weren’t allowed out of our wing and though we were supposedly still guests. I had a feeling that on Natasha’s list we had gone from being guests back to being prisoners.
There was a tension in the air that I couldn’t ignore and it felt as though the situation was poised to tip one way or the other. We needed to get out of here before the balance shifted against us.
For some reason, they had let Audrey out, which made me suspicious for no good reason. It just didn’t seem right that after all the fuss they had made about being worried about her infecting their entire population that they would just turn right around and let her go free — with no explanation whatsoever. It didn’t make sense.
But whatever. I was glad we were all together again, even if Audrey was still angry and avoiding us all. Her ankle was better but her attitude seemed to have got worse during her quarantine. I supposed I might be like that too, if I was her and I tried to be understanding.
“I win again,” Shiv said, slapping an ace down on the table and sweeping up all the cards. I sighed. Playing games with Shiv was always an exercise in humility for me. I shuffled the cards as he changed the subject. “So, now that Yumi’s back, Christmas is over, and you two have finally woken up I need you guys to go to the basement immediately. Grace got me the tools from Dr. Berners-Lee’s lab but I need that adamantium. Tonight. I think Natasha is only getting more suspicious.”
I agreed, particularly about Natasha’s mistrust of us.
“We’ll get it,” I said, my voice determined. “Tonight.”
***
Yumi
After all the upheaval of having that A Christmas Carol dream, and trying to make amends with everyone, I was emotionally drained. I needed a simple task that only required physical skills. I needed a break from trying to be better. Because, to be honest, it was exhausting.
Chad seemed unable to comprehend the change in me, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I had changed and I needed to show it through my actions.
I was enjoying this little mission. Although sneaking out hadn’t been as fun as I expected. They didn’t have any sort of serious security and once I put Jeff to sleep and picked the lock that was keeping us in our wing, there wasn’t any challenge at all.
Chad met me at the stairwell and we began walking down. He picked up the speed and I matched it. Soon we were running full out down the stairs, first me in front and then him.
Damn it, we were too evenly matched.
I managed to beat him to the bottom by a couple steps, though, and I gave him a smug smile, which I quickly wiped off, remembering that I was trying to be a better person. He shrugged and we walked into the basement.
Grace could have teleported us but we wanted to avoid any more suspicion, so were trying not to use our powers if we didn’t need to.
We had flashlights and a backpack that Chad was wearing to carry the adamantium in. Shiv just needed a tiny bit so we only had to snag a small piece from the storeroom.
“Did you get the info from her mind?” Chad said, regret about his powers saturating the soul bond, like the reek of an Embly swamp permeating… well just about anything that comes into contact with it. Man, those swamps stink.
Chad was unhappy because usually it would be him doing that sort of mental task. It was so easy for him.
“Yes,” I said, sending him the pertinent part of the memories I had snagged from Natasha’s mind. I had got a big chunk, when I had searched her memories for what we needed but there was no reason to send it all to Chad. I gave him the info about the brick, so he would have it in his head, too. It was a lot easier and faster than explaining everything. He didn’t need the rest.
And underneath, I think I didn’t want him getting to know her any better. I rather thought he knew her better than he needed to as it was.
“Got it,” he said and headed towards the store room where the adamantium was located.
“Grace.”
His sister was standing by when he contacted her and she unlocked the old fashioned door for us with a click, and turned off the alarm system kinetically, as well. The old fashioned tech was extremely simple for a 24th century kinetic. These small tasks would not raise alarm the way teleporting a whole person would, so we had decided it was safe.
Chad opened the door quietly and entered. I followed him. We began searching through the bins for the one we both had in our minds from Natasha’s memories of the inventory she and her team had conducted only last year.
There was an entire room full of adamantium on another level, but we had thought that taking the small piece that was in this fairly accessible room made more sense.
“Yumi…” Chad started to speak, but I shushed him, putting my finger to my lips. He froze, listening.
There was the sound of voices and footfalls getting closer. I looked at the door which was still slightly ajar but Chad shook his head, crouching down behind one of the shelves. The head shake meaning, we didn’t have time to close it. He beckoned to me and I went over, dropping into a squat next to him.
“What the…?” a man’s voice said. “This shouldn’t be open.”
“We have to check it out.” The other voice was a woman. “You know what Natasha said about keeping an eye out for unusual situations since the stuff went missing from Tim’s lab.”
There was the click of a gun being cocked and I readied myself for a fight.
Adamantium
Yumi
The two security guards came into the storage room and we stayed perfectly still, trying not to attract their attention. But they were thorough in their search and soon they were headed to our corner.
I watched carefully, tensing my muscles to be ready. A few seconds later, I saw a gun come into view past the shelf.
“Careful,” the man whispered from further away, so I knew it was the woman’s weapon.
Before the security guard could turn and point it into our corner, as she was no doubt intending to do, I jumped to my feet, grabbing her wrist and the barrel of the gun at the same time. I pulled her wrist towards me and pushed the gun away, putting pressure on the weakest point in her grip, which was between her thumb and pointer finger.
I broke her grasp and twisted the gun from her hand, disarming her and in one smooth movement, passed the gun to Chad.
“Shit,” she said loudly and a shot went off as her partner either was startled and pulled the trigger or he had shot on purpose and had terrible aim.
I kept ahold of her wrist, yanking her towards me until her face made contact with the fist of my other hand. She made a small hurt sound and I felt bad. But I didn’t hesitate to punch her with a swift left hook so that her head twisted hard to the right. She crumpled to the floor and I stooped to check her pulse. It was there and steady.
I stood up and looked around to see what Chad had done with the other one. He was holding the man at gunpoint, while the guard kept his hands in the air, his back to the wall, looking terrified.
In his defence, Chad did appear quite menacing with his beard, his intense eyes, grim face, and that old fashioned pistol which somehow seemed more hostile than a stun or laser gun. Plus, I was pretty sure that these two had never had to deal with any actual trouble in their entire lives. Probably neither of them had even been in a real
fight, thus giving us a significant advantage. I sort of pitied the guard.
“What do we do with him?” I said.
And Chad tilted his head back and forth, considering.
“Tie him up?”
“He could yell. What if someone finds him before we’re done?”
“Knock him out?”
“I guess,” I said.
“Please don’t hurt me,” the man pleaded.
I glanced at Chad.
“Sleep him.” I sent telepathically.
He nodded and closed his eyes. A moment later, the guy slid gently down the wall to a sitting position, snoring gently. Chad handed me some wire he had found in one of the bins and went to tie the man up. I tied the woman. Then we went back to searching the bins.
“Got it,” Chad said, holding up what looked like the most innocuous of metals. It was hard to believe it was the most indestructible alloy in the universe — and also our salvation, our ticket out of this time.
“There’s nothing to gag them with,” I said.
He shrugged.
“I don’t like it,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s sloppy.”
“We’ll have to take the chance.”
“Fine,” I said. “It’s not like it matters anyway.”
Chad frowned.
“This is a dangerous place and we probably shouldn’t underestimate them, Yumi.”
But I shrugged off the warning, sure that he was wrong. This place wasn’t dangerous. With its old tech and relaxed security, I had never been in a place less threatening than New Winnipeg.
“Grace,” he sent. “Can you actually teleport this adamantium out of here. Then Shiv can get working on the bracelets. And if we’re caught, we can claim we were just exploring.”
The adamantium disappeared.
“I’ve got it,” Grace sent. “Be careful, you two.”
“We will. Go to sleep, Grace. We’ll be fine now,” Chad sent to his sister.
I peeked out the door and then stepped into the hallway once I saw it was clear. Chad was right beside me as we moved noiselessly down the corridor. The stuffy odour of the storeroom was still thick in my nose as I drew a deep breath and headed directly for the trap door that lead to the sub basement below this floor.
Careful?
I thought about Gracie’s warning with an eye roll. All we had to do was find a brick and look at it to confirm or deny our suspicions about the city’s origins in order to tell Matt and Nessa.
I wasn’t worried.
The next bit was the easy part of the mission.
***
Yumi
I followed as Chad neared the corner that held the hatch that led into the sub basement. He opened it and swung himself down the ladder. It must be nearly three or four in the morning, by now. We needed to find the brick and then get out of here before the morning workers were up and about. They weren’t usually down here. But it would be just our luck if today would be the day they would do some annual cleaning or something like that.
“Come on,” he said, from below in the darkness. Suddenly a light appeared and I climbed down the ladder after him as he continued talking. “It looks like they built these flashlights and most of the tech and electronics they have from materials that they stored before the solar flare.”
I remembered what had happened on Manticor when Forsythe had tried to trap us when we were out of body.
“Using Faraday cages, probably, right?” I said, thinking about the boxes that could protect against electromagnetic radiation. “Those store rooms might even be huge ones.”
“Right,” he said. “I bet that’s what they did to recreate all the technology they have here. They stored up what they would need to remake everything that would be destroyed and protected it all in Faraday cages.”
“That would be smart,” I conceded, dropping to the floor of the sub basement. Then I gasped as a thought hit me. “And they made sure they had the brilliant minds to be able to recreate the technology, as well.”
I thought of Steve Jobs and Timothy Berners-Lee. No doubt they had regular tech people as well as engineers, artists, and everything they would need to recreate civilization once they had weathered the solar flare. I had to admire their foresight, that was for sure.
I glanced around, unsure why it was called a sub basement. Maybe because the ceiling was a little lower? It was still high enough for us to both walk normally, though. And as for that, wasn’t every level of this city technically a basement?
We both moved immediately to the area where the brick was, as if we had been there before. Because I had basically borrowed her memories for our use. So now it was like they were my memories of this place.
There was a narrow space between two walls that led past the brick with the date on it. I knew from Natasha’s complete memories — the ones that I hadn’t sent to Chad — that if you followed this passageway, you could get to another trap door that went back up to the basement.
It was sort of a convoluted path, like a maze, but I knew the way as well as if I had walked it many times before, myself. Of course, the info was useless to us. Still, I couldn’t help thinking about it as I gazed into the cramped corridor because it was part of my memories now, too.
I hoped the information on that brick would prove to be useful for Matt and Nessa, because frankly, I would much rather be back in my own bed than traipsing around this dirty basement. Sorry sub basement.
Chad began walking into the narrow passage, which I judged was wide enough for two people if they turned sideways. Well, two skinny people maybe.
As I followed him into the tiny space, I suddenly picked up on some thoughts nearby.
“Looks like they used the trap door to get into the sub basement,” someone thought.
“Let’s go after them. It’s probably the strangers. We can’t have them knocking out our citizens and leaving them for dead. Have your gun ready. Natasha gave the order to use lethal force if necessary.”
Shit. There were people after us, they had guns, and they intended to use them.
But I had bigger problems as I experienced a familiar suffocating feeling overcoming me. I felt my heart speed up way too fast. Sometimes I got claustrophobia or panic attacks — I wasn’t really sure what to call them — I knew it was from the time when I had been a slave and I had once been locked in a closet for days. I felt the terror rising and I couldn’t control it or stop it.
God, I hated being underground like this — trapped like a rat in an old fashioned sewer.
“I think I hear something,” one of the people thought.
God damn it.
They had found us.
Sub Basement
Yumi
“Chad, there’s someone coming after us. They’re already almost here. They have permission to use lethal force,” I said, feeling panicked, unable to think, and needing to act. “Let me past, I know a way to another trap door.”
“Just send me the info,” he said, obviously afraid too but being his usual unflustered self.
“No,” I said, feeling frantic. “They have guns. They’re almost here. They’re allowed to use lethal force,” I said, knowing I was repeating myself. “I know the way to the other trap door. Let me past.”
“Yumi…”
But I interrupted him, trying to sound calm.
“We don’t have a choice, Red. I’m going past.”
“I don’t think…” he said, but I was already moving.
As I squeezed past him I got stuck.
“Suck in your gut, man,” I said, pulling in my stomach to try and squeak through.
“I already am,” he said, sounding a little breathless.
“Fine, you go first,” I said, moving to go back behind him.
But I couldn’t. We were stuck facing each other in this tiny space. Chest to chest. Hip to hip. The stifling feeling ratcheted up, increasing the intense fear that filled every cell of my body. I realized that now, not only was I in a small space with
hostile people coming towards us, but I also was trapped and couldn’t run.
“Seriously Chad, suck in,” I said, completely beside myself with panic by this time, and attempting to wrench myself back.
“I can’t suck in my bones,” he said, scowling at me. Then he looked at me more closely and seemed to realize how freaked out I was.
“Hey,” he said, putting his hand on my arm. “It’s okay. We’ll figure something out.”
I had the strongest urge to scream.
“Don’t scream,” he sent, looking really alarmed at the thought.
“They’re going to find us,” I said, straining to keep my voice as quiet as I could but the whisper still came out as a frightened squawk. He took a deep breath which I felt through my whole body.
“We need to use our powers to make an opaque shield,” he said, keeping his head. “We know how to do that.”
“But they’ll still know we’re here,” I said, frantic. “Or what if they come down the passageway?”
“They won’t know we’re here if we’re quiet. And they won’t come down here. There’ll be no reason to. Join minds with me,” he said and I struggled to find the peace I needed to focus enough to link minds.
“I can’t, I can’t,” I said, beside myself with fear.
“Give me your hands. Look at me, Yumi. You can do this.”
We held hands and I felt calm flowing into me. Enough to allow us to link minds and create an opaque shield that covered only our bodies. In the dim light, the guards would see nothing but an empty passageway and what seemed like some dust floating in the air.
I trembled as the two guards approached. Chad didn’t let go of my hands.
“I need to get out of here, Chad. I’m losing it,” I sent, feeling more confined and hysterical than I could ever remember. The mind link began to slip as my concentration wavered.
“Tanaka, calm down. If we lose the link, they will see us,” he hissed at me.