‘They’ve taken the entryways and shut down all comms,’ Liam passed on as he paced. ‘It looks good.’
I nodded, half listening as Quentin asked Liam a few questions. Right then I was starting to slip away. I was becoming disconnected from my surroundings in that way that I had mastered. In those moments when lives were on the line and objectives meant everything, it was what I had to do. It was what made me perform at my best.
My breathing steadied. In contrast to my meltdown in the dark, I now felt centred and encouraged my mind to slide into battle-mode.
‘Gus, they want to know about the other group. Did they manage to call a pod? Are they in?’ Liam suddenly asked, simultaneously talking with us and into his radio.
Gus started tapping his laptop, his face illuminated by the screen, his eyes scanning whatever information it was feeding him. After a few moments, he nodded. ‘They’re en route. I’m just shutting down all the other pods now so we don’t have any surprises. They’ll have to notify us if they want to activate another one after this.’
Liam nodded, relaying this over the radio while I stared at Gus, wide-eyed. ‘You can shut down all the pods?’
He nodded, barely looking up.
My hands fisted and I spoke through gritted teeth as I took a menacing step towards him. ‘Then why the hell was I always running for my damn life down here every time one of those things came along? Not to mention the broken bones from all the falls I had when trying to hitch a fricking ride!’
Quentin blinked. ‘You broke bones hitching them?’
I rolled my eyes. I may have let Quentin believe that I’d never had a problem jumping on and off the high-speed pods when I first taught him how to hitch a ride. ‘Get over it. You worked out how to do it just so you could prove a point. If you’d known I’d face-planted in the ground for the first half-dozen attempts, it would’ve just given you an excuse to fail.’
Gus smiled. ‘Ah, Maggie. I’ve missed you.’
I glared. ‘Explain. Now.’
Gus simply shrugged. ‘It was more fun that way.’
Quentin barely got his arms around me before I launched myself at Gus. I swear to God, in that moment, I was well and truly prepared to strangle him.
Gus sucked in a breath and leaned back into the wall behind him, even as he laughed. ‘There might’ve also been the little matter of having to hack into the system personally to make it work – which means by tomorrow M-Corp will be able to find the footprints I’m currently leaving behind,’ he explained, hands raised in surrender.
I eased back, but not all the way.
Gus sighed. ‘You would’ve blown your cover after one visit if I’d done it that way.’
I let Quentin pull me back a few steps. ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Sorry about … that.’ I motioned to the space between us that I had just been filling.
Gus shook his shoulders out. ‘No problem. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that every broken bone brought a special kind of delight into my life.’
‘Gus,’ Quentin warned.
‘At the time,’ Gus clarified. ‘When you were blackmailing my ass from here to kingdom come.’
‘Things were simpler then,’ I grumbled.
‘Yes. I’ll always look back on that time fondly,’ he replied sarcastically.
A few minutes later an empty pod pulled up and the doors slid open.
‘Taxi, anyone?’ Gus asked, looking way too smug.
I leaped aboard, grateful that I wasn’t going to have to attempt to teach anyone else how to hitch a ride on a pod. To start, there were too many of us. And, frankly, I wasn’t even sure Gus knew how to run.
‘It will only take about fifteen minutes,’ I explained once we were all inside the sleek white pod and the doors had closed.
Liam raised his eyebrows questioningly, but once we got going his look of doubt quickly faded. The pods were wicked fast.
While we moved, Liam pulled his earpiece out, saying something about the radios not working in the pods.
‘Jesus Christ.’ Gus whistled, looking around the pod and taking in the junctions we were zooming past. ‘It’s like a video game down here.’
‘Yeah, except the bullets are real,’ Quentin offered.
‘And you only get one life,’ Liam threw in.
Twenty-nine
When the pod pulled to a sudden stop and the doors opened, we were ready.
Liam leaped from the pod, gun raised, and didn’t hesitate to fire directly at the four M-Corp guards that we’d spotted on approach. Quentin and I followed him out of the pod to the muted sounds of his weapon firing with a silencer. By the time my feet hit the ground it was already over. The four guards were down and motionless. And a second later the mortality zips on their M-Bands triggered high-pitched alarms.
Liam was ready and pulled another small weapon from his vest, aiming and then shooting fast at the four M-Bands.
‘Electro-shots?’ I asked.
He nodded. ‘Kills an M-Band’s external activity immediately. Won’t stop the alert getting to its destination, but it will stop the GPS from sending them straight to us.’
‘Damn,’ Quentin murmured. ‘Was that absolutely necessary?’
Liam had done the right thing. Exactly what our orders were. If they were M-Corp, don’t question, just shoot. Letting a guard get to a gun would be bad enough – we all knew first-hand they didn’t hesitate to take lives – but risking one calling for aid on their radio would spell disaster. And yet, I understood Quentin’s reaction.
Liam kept his big-ass gun pointed ahead as he cleared the way forwards. I covered the space to our right, Quentin moved instinctively to the left and Gus – helpfully – remained in the pod until he was given the go-ahead.
My heart thumped so hard I was sure the others would be able to hear it as I scanned for M-Corp soldiers. I had a weapon in each hand. Gun in my left. Tranq gun in my right. I knew it was wishful thinking, but part of me still hoped I’d be able to avoid killing anyone directly.
Straight ahead were the doors to the core lab. To our left were four tunnels, with another four to our right, all of them curving off like the legs of a giant spider, and here we were in the belly of the beast.
‘Clear!’ Liam whispered to the rest of us, and Gus immediately got to work on his computer again. After a few moments, two massive doors descended, one each to block off the four tunnels on either side, leaving just the tunnel we’d travelled in on as our access in or out.
This had always been part of the plan. I knew that as these two doors descended, similar steel doors were lowering between all of the hubs, closing off each community of negs and their captors, thereby controlling the number of forces our troops would have to face and effectively redistributing the numbers in our favour.
‘Just like the hull of a ship,’ Gus murmured, looking anywhere but towards the four bodies that lay heaped on the ground.
Liam wasted no time, hooking his earpiece in and requesting a status update. But as he started to listen in, the expression on his face had us all moving closer.
‘Repeat!’ he ordered.
Something had gone wrong.
I held my breath, looking beyond Liam to the doors that led to the core lab. We were almost there. I couldn’t turn back now.
‘New York was secured and they took down the corporate offices in Washington, but someone must’ve gotten word out. Eliza’s pod was ambushed as soon as they arrived.’
Instantly Liam, Quentin and I had our guns raised and our backs to one another.
Gus, meanwhile, turned sheet-white. ‘They know we’re coming.’
‘Not necessarily!’ I snapped, wanting to curb his panic before he went into free-fall. ‘If they knew about us, there would’ve been more than just four guards waiting for us when we arrived. And the guards weren’t ready for us at all. Liam, what’s happening out there?’
Liam was listening to his earpiece frantically. ‘They’re under attack. They’ve linked me to the feed. I can hear
them!’
And then we heard it too. In the distance the unmistakeable sound of gunfire echoed through the tunnels. Quentin flinched. I turned to face him. His eyes were wide and he looked ill.
‘Oh, shit!’ Liam kept repeating as he listened in. ‘They have them,’ he said, his face crumpling. And after another tense minute: ‘Eliza kept her radio on as long as possible. The last thing I heard …’ He swallowed.
‘What?’ Quentin demanded.
‘I’m fairly certain it was your father’s voice.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He said that all this time he’d thought it was Sebastian who was the weak link, and then I heard her cry out.’
‘Then what?’ Quentin snapped.
‘The line went dead.’
We all stood. Frozen for a moment. What the hell did this mean? Where did we go from here? The team leader and primary group were down, possibly dead.
But then I looked at Quentin again and I saw everything I needed to see right there in his eyes. The fear, yes, but also the love for his mother that he might try to deny but would never be able to completely hide. And suddenly, I knew.
‘Are we the closest to them?’ I asked, embracing the familiar calm settling over me.
Liam nodded. ‘Teams are trying to get to them, but they were positioned in other areas for the next strike. And with the doors down …’
‘Tell all but one team to hold their original positions.’ I dug into my backpack and pulled out one of the empty vials I’d brought along. ‘Quin, I need you to fill this with your blood. I’m sorry, I don’t have a syringe, so you’re just going to have to make a cut.’ I held out my pocket knife.
‘Why?’ Quentin asked, staring at the vial, still lost in his thoughts.
‘Because I’m going to need it to get into the core lab while you and Liam go get your mom and help her finish what she started.’
Quentin stiffened, his eyes darting about as he ran through all the possibilities. After a moment, he shook his head. ‘I’m not leaving you.’
I ignored him and turned to Liam. ‘If you run, how fast can you get there?’
‘Five minutes,’ he replied, confirming that we were much closer than the other teams.
‘Do you have enough firepower?’
‘I’ve got enough ammo to take out a village.’
I nodded. ‘Then shoot first, Liam.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘You really think I need to be told that?’
‘No, but I’m saying it anyway. Get Eliza out of there and secure Garrett Mercer if you can.’
Liam looked uncomfortable. I could see he wanted to do exactly what I was suggesting, but it went against orders. ‘What about you?’
‘We’ll wait here for fifteen minutes. Hopefully you can get back to us by then, but either way, I’m going in and we tell all the other teams to proceed on schedule as well.’
Finally Liam nodded. He had no choice – we needed Eliza if the plan was going to work. I turned back to Quentin, who was still shaking his head. I placed a hand on his cheek, stilling him.
‘It’s okay, Quin. You’re allowed to want to go to her. She’s your mom and you’ll never forgive yourself if you don’t try. Liam needs you. I’d bet my life if Garrett is there, he’s taken them into the panic chambers. Liam needs backup and he needs your DNA.’
‘What about your backup?’
The sound of a gun being cocked behind me made me turn to see Gus, holding his weapon like a pro.
‘She has backup,’ Gus said.
We all stared at him, but he didn’t bat an eye.
‘What?’ he said. ‘Just because my weapon of choice is a computer, doesn’t mean I won’t do my part. I’ve been down to the firing range just as much as the two of you and I’m willing to bet my average is higher. Just go, Quin. Maggie’s covered.’
I was still staring at Gus when Quentin heaved a sigh. He grabbed my hands in his and squeezed. ‘I’ll be back. I’ll get her out of there and I’m coming back for you.’
I nodded, forcing a smile. ‘You know where I’ll be. Now open a vein for me, baby,’ I said, holding out the vial.
Quentin grabbed the pocket knife and sliced across the back of his forearm, letting the blood drip into the vial until it was full.
As soon as it was, Liam was moving out at a run. Quentin grabbed me and kissed me quickly, whispering a promise of paradise before taking off after him.
Once they were out of sight, I turned back to Gus. ‘You’ve never been to the firing range, have you?’
‘Nope.’
‘And you have no idea how to shoot a gun, do you?’
He smiled. ‘None whatsoever. I can’t believe that cocking-it thing actually worked,’ he marvelled.
‘You did good, Gus.’
‘Of course I did good. I’m the glue that holds this plan together.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘That might be going a little far.’
‘I don’t think so,’ he said, replacing his gun with his computer and getting back to work.
‘What are you doing now?’ I asked, leaning back against the wall as I counted the seconds go by.
‘Trying to hack into the radio frequency. It’s not easy, given that Alex wanted to ensure M-Corp wouldn’t be able to do it, but without Liam, we’re out of the loop here.’
‘How long do you think it will take?’
He stared at the screen, glancing up briefly with a look of unhappiness. ‘Longer than I’d like.’
I sighed. We were disconnected and that was that.
After another period of time, noises suddenly started to come from Gus’s computer. Voices. Orders being shouted.
We can’t locate units 7, 12 or 15, sir.
Unit 7 is our priority. Send any available forces to the main lab.
Copy that.
‘Gus?’
He shook his head, still tapping away. ‘I … I couldn’t find our frequency. This must be M-Corp’s.’ He glanced between the dead guards and me.
‘What do you think the chances are they’re Unit 7?’ I asked, already knowing the answer.
‘Pretty darn good.’
I nodded, pulling out the vial of Quentin’s blood.
‘Do you think he’ll be in there, Mags?’
‘Yes,’ I said, trying to ignore the shiver that shook my body. ‘Especially if he knows something is going down. He’ll want to get his files and protect what’s his. Plus,’ I added, pausing in front of the massive doors, ‘he’ll think he’s safe in there.’
‘Except if he knows you are coming for him.’
‘My father’s not afraid of me, Gus.’ I wished I had better news for him. I stared back down the dark tunnel, knowing that troops would get here soon. ‘How long since they left?’ I asked.
‘Ten minutes,’ Gus replied.
I sighed and set about opening the doors to the core lab using Quentin’s blood and the codes we’d been given from Pre-Evo. ‘Let’s go.’
Gus looked ill. ‘But it hasn’t been fifteen minutes yet!’
‘They’re with Eliza. They’re fighting. What happens from this point won’t affect what I’m here to do, Gus.’
The outer doors slid open soundlessly and I entered the decontamination chamber, Gus following hesitantly. Once the doors closed behind us, I set about using the same codes and blood sample to activate the timed inner door before turning to Gus.
I placed the leftover blood in Gus’s hand and used the three-minute delay on the door to give him instructions.
‘Can you wire this so no one can get in – not even with the right codes and DNA?’
Gus nodded quickly.
‘Do it. Stay in the chamber for as long as you can. Troops are most likely coming from the tunnels, but you’ll be safe in here.’
I pulled his gun from its holster, checked it was loaded properly and cocked it again before holding it out in front of him. ‘Point at the baddies. Shoot. If they move again, shoot again. Got it?’
He stared at me. ‘I … I can’t shoot someone, Maggie. You’re … you’re all strong like that and I get it – bad people and all. I do. I don’t even care that much being around it and somehow part of it. But I couldn’t live with myself if I was the one who …’
I swallowed the lump in my throat, understanding all too well what he was saying. I wanted to tell him it was okay, but that wasn’t what he needed to hear. So instead I gritted my teeth and shoved him in the chest. ‘You shoot them, Gus. Or they will shoot you dead without another thought. Regret it all you want later – at least you’ll be alive to hate yourself. You get me?’
He blinked quickly as if he was trying to hold himself together. I took that for understanding. ‘If the inner door opens and it isn’t me, you shoot. In the meantime, keep working to get onto the Pre-Evo frequency and send out a message to let them know we’re going to need backup in the tunnels.’
He looked as if he was about to faint, so I slapped him. Hard. He reared back, grabbing his cheek. ‘Jesus Christ, Maggie. You are such a bitch sometimes!’
I half smiled. ‘You’ll never have to see me again after tonight if you don’t want to, but for one last time, Gus, please just do as I tell you.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Or what? You’re going to hurt me?’
I shook my head. ‘No. But they are going to kill you.’
He nodded sharply. ‘You make valid points.’
The decontamination chamber beeped.
I pushed Gus back against the wall, out of sight. ‘Stay!’ I whispered.
His brow furrowed and I knew all of a sudden he’d stopped worrying for himself and it was now solely for me. I rolled my eyes at him and turned back to the inner door, which slid opened silently. I waited a beat. This was it. I pulled out my gun and my tranq gun and stepped into the lab.
The doors closed silently behind me.
Thirty
The gun was jammed against the back of my head the instant I took my second step into the room.
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