Craved

by Elin Wyn

  Pale light spilled into the tunnel from the maintenance corridor door above. There was just enough space to squeeze through.

  I started to climb then froze as his hands lifted me, lifting me until my head cleared the smooth flooring.

  Holding my breath, I craned my neck to look down the corridor as far as I could in each direction in the half-light. Nothing. No one. It was far past time for any of the maintenance crews to be out working. Everything at that level should be deserted, only the emergency lights still shining from the panels.

  “It's clear,” I whispered as he boosted me the rest of the way. With one powerful leap, he joined me, crouching on the floor, his hand on the hilt of the knife at his side, eyes sweeping for any enemies.

  I stood up, stretched and got my bearings. “Like I said, it's empty. I think we should go this way.”

  Without speaking we passed through the maze of maintenance tubes, relying on my bare memories of the few times I'd been allowed this close to the heart of the compound. The hiss and clatter of mechanicals sounded all around us and I relaxed.

  Here, helping Tianna with her rounds, was the one place I'd felt comfortable in the compound.

  We turned another corner and as if summoned by my thoughts, there she stood.

  Geir stepped in front of me, orange lights glinting from the drawn knife blade.

  I put my hand on his arm, squeezing lightly to get his attention. “She's a friend. Maybe the only one I have here.”

  He looked down, a snarl of distrust still twisting his face. But he stepped aside.

  “I had sensors set up when I found the damage,” Tianna said. “Didn't know what would come up from beneath.” She looked almost sad and I wondered what had happened in the compound while I was gone.

  “I didn't expect to see you.” Then her hand raised, and I saw the needle gun she held.

  “But now that you’re back, you’re coming with me.”

  “What do you mean?” I sputtered.

  She fired the gun, the needle shattering on the tile at my feet. “I’m serious, Val. Less talking, more moving.”

  She hadn’t counted on Geir.

  With a growl, he leaped over me, knocked the needle gun from Tianna’s hand before she could react, and loomed over her, his knife at her throat.

  “Stop!” I shouted. “Something is going on. She’d never attack me without a reason. You say you're here for information? Then listen.”

  The tip of his blade pressed into the notch of her collarbone.

  “I’m listening,” he grunted. “For now.”

  Tianna’s eyes bounced between us as if noticing Geir for the first time. “Who is he?” she whispered. “What is he doing here?”

  “That’s a really long story.” And one that I didn’t quite have all the answers to myself. But she didn’t need to know that. “If you're threatening me with the gun, I assume something's gone terribly wrong, and we don’t have a lot of time. What happened?”

  She slumped to the side, her arms drooping, letting the weapon fall to the floor with a clatter. Tianna looked as exhausted and terrified as I felt most of the time.

  “It’s Abril,” she finally admitted.

  A lump formed in my belly. “What's wrong? Is she sick?”

  Tianna laughed bitterly. “No, illness would be something I could do something about.” She swallowed. “Stanton. He's punishing me. He’s taken her to the cage.”

  “Oh, no.” I shook and this time I knew it had nothing to do with the pills. “He can't do that. You haven’t done anything.”

  Tianna scrubbed at her face. “He can. He will. He's written you off, I think. Wherever you were hiding, he couldn't find you. Must have figured I'd given you a way to escape.”

  “Don't be stupid,” I argued. “I'd never put anyone in that position.”

  “I know that. But Stanton doesn’t. He hasn’t said anything outright, but it's clear he wants to make sure that I don't get too close to…" The sentence trailed off, and she glanced up, her face white.

  I nodded. No one ever spoke to me about it. Time one more rule to be broken. “He wants to make sure you don't befriend the next clone. Make sure she’s even more isolated.”

  She nodded. “I played with one of your older sisters, years ago, when I was learning Mechanicals. I think you’ve always liked it down here.”

  Tianna sagged a bit more, and Geir lowered the knife so she didn’t cut herself. It was clear she wasn’t a threat, not anymore.

  “It doesn’t matter what the truth is. By taking Abril, he knows I won’t do anything.”

  “Wait a minute,” Geir broke in. “You're not the enemy, fine. But if one of you doesn't tell me what's going on, you will be.”

  I stepped back, shocked. Maybe I should have explained things to him before, but I thought Geir knew at least the basics. Otherwise, why was he here?

  “The General runs the Compound, at least, in name. In reality, he’s got a cadre of loyal followers to oversee things. In turn, Stanton oversees them.” I remembered his mocking eyes. “He’s not a nice man.”

  “General Melchior, that’s who you’re talking about?”

  I nodded, but Geir didn’t look any less perplexed.

  “How is he even still alive?”

  Tianna snorted. “I thought we were skipping the long stories.”

  “You're right, for now.” I couldn’t miss the meaning in his look. “Enough backstory. What’s the immediate problem?” he demanded.

  “Tianna has been my friend here. Her daughter is my friend, too. Abril is young, hasn't made a contribution to the compound yet.” I hated the words, but he needed to understand how things worked here. “Stanton can't punish Tianna, directly, she’s got too many skills the Compound needs. He’ll use Abril to keep her in line.”

  “By doing what?”

  “The Devourers,” I whispered.

  Tianna nodded, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “That's always the way. She was arrested for ‘subversive activities.’ Like that girl’s even old enough to have a subversive thought in her head. She’s in the cage now, with the young man who fought the guards when they came to take her.”

  The horror sunk in. Abril, with her bright laugh, and funny smile, gone.

  “That’s stupid,” Geir insisted.

  “Shut up!” I hissed at him, cheeks hot. “You've never had to watch people thrown to the Devourers, listen to their screams, keep your expression neutral, pretend you didn’t care.”

  “No, that part’s terrible.” He turned his back to Tianna, wrapped his arms around me. “That’s not what I meant. But Stanton’s strategy is stupid. If he’s trying to control Tianna, why would he kill her daughter? That means you have nothing left to lose.”

  "Only if Abril were her only daughter," I answered, and comprehension filled his expression.

  Tianna nodded. “I will have to stand and watch and not react as the bottom opens from the cage. And never do anything that threatens the plan. Or I know what they will do to Mara.”

  She sank to the floor of the corridor, face buried in her hands. “I'd always ignored the whispers of the people who didn't think we should be here anymore. That whatever our grandparents had decided, that shouldn't have dedicated us to this life. I was loyal.”

  "I know." I sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. She looked up in surprise at my touch. "I've learned a few things while I was gone."

  And I held my oldest friend while she cried.

  After a while, she pushed away. "Wherever you've been, you need to go back. There's nothing for you here.”

  A thought struck me. “When you said I could help you, what did you mean?”

  She looked ashamed. “I saw you come into the monitors, and I had a crazy idea. I thought if I handed you back to Stanton he'd give me Abril back. A trade.”

  I shook my head. “You know it would never work. He doesn't need me, doesn't care. But he needs you.”

  I thought of the times I'd stood at the e
xecution grounds watching families stand tall as their loved ones were sent as a sacrifice, a warning, a punishment. Victims were left in the cage for three days, without food or water, until their terror permeated the entire Compound.

  That's how I'd known so well where we were when we'd found the small opening in the rocks that looked out over the sea.

  I'd fixed my eyes just at that curve of the dome so many times. The opening must be right below where the cage swung out to drop its victims into the water.

  “We were right there,” I whispered.

  “What?” Tianna asked.

  I turned to Geir. “We can save them.” I bit my lip knowing what I was asking him to do. “You can save them.”

  He nodded, trusting me. And I hated myself for it.

  I turned back to Tianna. "What would you do to get Abril back? To make this stop? To keep Mara safe? Whatever your parents believed, is this the life you want for your children?"

  Tianna looked bewildered. “There's nothing to be done. Nothing escapes the Devourers.”

  “Really.” I looked at Geir and motioned with my hand for him to turn.

  The long razor thin scars were clearly embedded on the skin of his back. Clear to imagine what had done that damage.

  "We can do this. I have a plan. But we'll need a few things. And afterward, you have to help us. We're going to make it all stop."

  Geir

  “I don't trust her,” I spat.

  “I don't blame you.” Valrea leaned against the smooth wall of the corridor. “It wasn’t the best introduction.”

  I’d wanted to withdraw to the tunnels below, away from Val’s trigger-happy friend and her cameras while we conferred.

  But Valrea had rolled her eyes. “What we can do? We don't have a lot of choices right now.”

  Not having any choices sucked. I growled, then reined it in. At this point, I was getting to be worse than Xander.

  I didn’t like this section of the compound. The noise and smells were too much like that warren of passages the drug lords and traffickers had taken over on Orem. It made me edgy, and I needed to pay attention.

  Fine. Find something else to focus on. The low emergency lighting highlighted the reddish shades in Val’s hair, made me want to run my hands through it.

  Never mind. Edgy was at least ready for a fight. And from the stricken look on Val’s face, one was coming.

  “Tianna has information you need, that we both need. She can give us access to the entire compound, the labs, the dome. We need her on our side.”

  She was right. I didn't like it, but that didn't make her any less right.

  With the plans for the compound and the controls for the security dome, when the Pack attacked we'd be unstoppable. Without them...

  I forced my thoughts away from that track. We couldn't have any more casualties. I couldn’t stand it.

  “So, what’s the plan? You don’t look happy about it.”

  “I’m not.” She squeezed my hand. “But I don’t think there’s another way. If we rescue Abril and her boyfriend before the execution, the Compound will be on lockdown. Tianna would be under immediate suspicion, her access revoked, and we’d never get out.”

  I nodded. “We have to make them think the execution went to plan.”

  Valrea didn’t say anything else, just waited for me to realize.

  Void take it.

  “I guess I’m going back for another swim.”

  Tianna waited at the end of the hall. I’d kept an eye on her while we were talking, and she hadn't moved other than to watch, her eyes flat and hopeless.

  “All right,” Valrea said. “We can do this. Here's what we need to pull it off.”

  Tianna’s eyebrows rose a fraction at each item on Val’s list, but she didn’t argue.

  “And a shirt,” I tossed in. “A shirt would be nice.”

  Valrea laughed. “Actually, if you could sneak a couple meal packs and blankets that would be fantastic. I’m getting sick of fish.”

  “Fish?” Tianna asked. “Where have you been? Never mind. Don’t tell me.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Can you really get all of that down here away from the cameras?”

  Tianna scoffed. “Who do you think controls the cameras? Mechanicals. And that would be me.”

  Tianna had been as good as her word. The next night found Valrea and me back in the tunnel that dead-ended, looking over the sea.

  “Sure you can handle the cutter? You’ve only had one practice run.”

  I heaved it back into my hands. “Looks like a blaster, and I've handled plenty of those.”

  “Less blasting, more careful slicing,” she recommended then turned back to her own project.

  First, three separate trios of reinforced legs were bolted down into the rock and then within each frame she mounted a drill body. Hard to believe drills were going to help us pull this off.

  I shook my head and focused on my own work, carving out slice after slice of rock, widening the opening.

  Valrea had told me the plan and I believed she could make it work. But watching her modify a set of high-powered drills into heavy-duty winches was something else altogether.

  I trusted she could do her job. I brought the cutter down lower. If this was going to work, I needed to make sure there were no jagged edges here, just a curved lip as smooth as glass.

  “Dammit,” Valrea muttered.

  “What's wrong?” I turned, the ache in my shoulders reminding me hours had passed.

  “Having trouble with the third winch. It keeps stalling. But I'll get it.”

  I ran my hand over the shelf I'd cut leading out of the tunnel, open to the air.

  Almost as smooth as the hull of The Queen. I'd bet. I thought about Mack and the others. They'd be waiting for news.

  Once we got this job done and retrieved the codes from Tianna, I'd be back on Orem with them. We’d have the information we needed to make our plan of attack.

  I glanced at Val. She’d finished her adjustments on the third makeshift winch and was testing the line and harnesses for the fourth time.

  And Valrea would be with me. She just hadn't agreed yet.

  “Come on,” I said stretching my back. “We've done everything we can. At this point, we risk messing something up.”

  And it was true. I'd already sharpened my knife, we’d tested and neatly coiled the line, I’d shoved against the drill frames to see how well they were anchored to the rock. We’d gone back and gotten an extra surprise from the river.

  At this point, the plan would work, or not.

  “Let's go get some rest. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

  She reached for my hand and pulled herself up. I followed Valrea through the tunnels, wondering.

  Over the last day, she’d been withdrawn. Maybe she was just worried about the plan. Maybe she was thinking about her friend.

  But I couldn't tell, and it bothered me.

  Behind a shallow twist in the path, she disappeared into the wall.

  I'd wanted us to stay at the camp by the river. She'd argued we’d waste too much time, time that we didn't have, traveling back and forth. Her plan had been to sleep where we worked, go straight through.

  After enough battles, I knew that was a bad idea. This might not be exactly the same as going into a fight, but we’d need mental and physical space from the work, a break before our rescue attempt.

  Our compromise was the alcove that I’d practiced using the modified stone cutter on.

  I’d managed to expand it into a small room, if not a perfectly straight one. I tapped on the small lantern that hung on one of my more jagged attempts at carving a corner, unstrapped my knife and turned to see Valrea sliding her coat off and pulling out two of the ration packs from our impromptu pantry.

  The pre-made meals were somewhat tastier, but pulling the tab and listening to it heat automatically was certainly less interesting or exciting than having to catch our own dinner.

  I finished the las
t bite and glanced over at Val. She'd barely touched hers.

  “Admit it, what you really want is more fish,” I joked.

  She rolled her eyes and the shadow of a smile touched her lips. “Not even.”

  She pushed her tray my way. “I'm just not hungry tonight. Besides, you'll need the calories tomorrow.”

  I put half of it on my plate and then pushed it back to her. “Only way it's happening.”

  After we finished I collected our trays and let out a groan. I was in good shape. I knew it. But damn if two days straight of using that rock cutter hadn't done something to my shoulders.

  “Are you okay?” Valrea asked.

  “Sure.” I circled one shoulder backward, then the other, trying to get them to loosen.

  “Come here.” She led me to the bed we’d set up in the corner, a pile of springy branches with a blanket tucked over it. We've been so tired yesterday we could've collapsed on the stone floor and not noticed.

  But tonight, I was glad for a little padding.

  “Lay down on your stomach.”

  “Why?”

  She pushed me towards the bed, mischief lighting her eyes. “Why? Why do you have to argue with me about everything?”

  “I'm not arguing. I never argue with you.”

  “That. That's arguing. Just cooperate, okay?”

  I stretched out, squirming a bit to get a particularly knotted end of a branch out from my gut. I felt her crawl onto the bed beside me.

  “Put your arms up above your head.” Curious, I complied and then froze as I felt her straddle my waist.

  I'd never expected that her tiny hands could work the tight muscles of my shoulders so hard.

  “A little lower, and-”

  “Shhh,” she shushed me.” I think I can figure it out.”

  As she worked over my back I felt the knots loosen, only to be replaced by a tension of another kind. Hotter. Lower.

  Since that morning by the river, I'd kept my hands to myself. But in our tiny chamber, her bewitching scent was overpowering, intoxicating.

  “Sit up for a minute,” I whispered.

  As soon as she was clear I rolled under her then pulled her down into my lap.