by RaeLynn Fry
The air around me is too stuffy to breathe. I can’t stand to be in his presence anymore. I go to leave again, determined not to turn back around.
He calls out to me as I pick up my pace.
“By the way, Karis, how’s your faulty Mark? Fixing that’s also included in my offer. You look a little tired around the eyes, but then again, I’m not as familiar with you as some.” His laughter follows me as I choke back the tears. “I’ll be waiting for you.
Come see me at my apartment when you find your senses.”
Twenty-two
I walk back to Ella’s in silence through the wakening city and go immediately to my room, shutting myself inside. I’m sitting on the floor, staring at my reflection in the full-length mirror, absently poking at my hollow features. The bags under my eyes are deeper and my skin more pallid. I thought my collarbones were bad, but they’re nothing compared to my shoulder blades and ribs. I hardly have energy to do anything; I haven’t really eaten since my first day here. I’ve already made up my mind about Akin’s offer. He’s left me with no other choice.
It’s only a matter of days, I think darkly, before I look like Kavin. Only a pile of hours before my mind goes. I close my eyes and push back the tears. I try to pull up the memory of my last moment with Ajna, but all I find are swirls of color and sound and a feeling of what should be there. My throat tightens. The Corporation has the cure. And all I have to do is sell my soul to get it. Is there really a choice?
There's a light series of taps on my door. “Come in,” I snap.
Ethan peeks around the door. “Good to see you up, but you sound a little grumpy. And you look…Do you need more sleep?” He raises an eyebrow.
I sigh and use entirely too much effort when I stand. “No, sorry.” I sweep my thinning hair into a ponytail and hold it there with a tie. “Not getting much sleep lately.” Which is true.
Ethan’s eyes flit to my unruffled bed. He gives me a worried, almost knowing look before he walks forward. I pinch my cheeks when he’s not looking to try and give them a bit of color.
“I need your help.” He leans against the wall, his arms folded over his chest, a faint grin on his face, but I still see the worry in his eyes as he takes in my almost skeletal frame.
I give him a speculative look. He's excited about whatever this plan of his is, and I’m instantly wary. I already know the kinds of things Ethan finds fun, but I’m up for the distraction since I already know I’ll be going to Akin’s house tonight to take his deal. He peels himself from the wall and takes a couple of steps to stand across from me.
“You need my help with…?” I ask, trying to make my voice sound lighter than I feel.
“You asked me once how I knew the information in my newsletter was true.”
“Yeah…?” I raise my brow, curious and cautious about where this is going.
“I want to show you.”
“Show me?”
“Show you.”
“I don’t know, Ethan. It seems like I’ve been having too much fun while my family’s in misery and my brother is dying.”
“You’ve been doing what you’ve had to in order to save Ajna.” He says my brother’s name with delicacy.
“I don’t know, I just—”
“I’d really like you to go with me.” He gives me such a look of sincerity, my resolve melts immediately.
“Where are we going?”
“Corporation Tower.” His eyes light in excitement.
I clear my throat. “I just want to clarify,” I say. “You're asking me to break into the Corporation and steal information that’s probably deadly for us to have?”
“That’s correct.”
I nod once.
“I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it.”
“Ethan, what if we’re caught? I’ve worked too hard to get here and find a cure for my brother to be found out by the Corporation now.”
“I won’t lie; it’s dangerous, but I promise, nothing will happen to you.”
“You can’t make a promise like that, it’s too easy to break,” I say. “I don’t know if we should…”
Akin’s promise is fresh on my mind. A guaranteed cure, at the cost of my servitude. I don’t know if I can justify risking Ajna’s life for this. I don’t know how forgiving Akin would be if we’re found out and if he’d pull his deal off the table. But then again, What if we can get what we need, and I don’t have to rely on Akin? I prefer that option.
“The information we get gives the truth to everyone in Neech; it helps them live better lives. Maybe one day it will make them strong enough to tell the Corporation no.”
No.
The one word I wish we would’ve told the Corporation back when it would’ve made a difference. “All right. I’ll go with you.” This may not be helping me anymore, but it could help everyone else in Neech.
“You’re sure?”
I nod my head again. “Positive.”
A smile creeps across Ethan’s face. “That’s my girl.” He gives me an unexpected hug. By the time I remember to hug him back, he’s already pulling away.
“When are we doing this?”
“Tonight.”
“Tonight?” I choke on the word. I was hoping for at least a day of preparation.
“It's called living in the moment, Karis. Try it.”
“I've tried it more with you than I'd care to admit,” I say.
“Then you weren't really living until the day we met.”
That much is true.
७
It’s well past Curfew, and the streets are deserted and dark. I stick close to Ethan as best I can, trying to follow him in the gloom of the night. Military Guards patrol the streets diligently, and we’ve had to dodge a couple that were too close for comfort. Ethan’s already made a comment about how their increased numbers and extra patrols are unusual.
We run along buildings’ perimeters, not making a sound. I try my best to be as silent as he is, but I get the feeling he's had years to perfect his stealth. I can only hope we’re far enough from a Military Guard that they don't notice my labored breathing and clunky feet.
“Sorry,” I whisper through heavy breaths when we stop. We are pressed up against a brick wall between two buildings, deep in the belly of shadows.
“It’s fine,” he says, but his shoulders are tense and his body ridged, like he's about to pounce at the slightest provocation. The moon gives me enough light to see his wide eyes darting around, constantly assessing our surroundings. “All this Military presence is making me uneasy.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
He nods ever so slightly, his gaze locked on something across the street. I squint and pull apart the darkness to find a solid form. I adjust to the dimness and see what he's looking at—two guards, leaning up against railed fencing; one holds something between his fingers that glows orange at the end.
Laughter floats to us on the sharp smoke of the guard's cigarette.
“They're taking a break,” Ethan says. “They're not supposed to do that.”
“Who's going to stop them?” I ask. “You?”
“Maybe,” he says, but the jocular tone normally behind his words is absent.
“What now?” I ask. The Guard’s choice of a break location is in the middle of the clear shot we need to get to Corporation Tower. There's nothing we can do but wait until they decide to move on and hope it's soon.
Ethan starts to fidget after about five minutes. “This is ridiculous. I'm going to have to do something to get them to leave; otherwise we'll never have enough time to get in and out.”
My heartbeat quickens. It’s too dangerous. “What are you thinking?”
“Sneak up and knock them out.”
“There's not enough cover for you to get over there unseen. You'll be noticed before you can get close enough, and they'll probably shoot you.”
“Shoot me?”
“They're carrying guns.”
I'm close
enough to see Ethan's jaw clench. “I have to do something, Karis. We’re too close to turn back.”
“What do you think you're doing?”
My heart jumps into my throat. A third figure has entered the group, and he sounds gruff and angry.
The two Military Guards drop their cigarettes, stamping them out, blowing smoke out the sides of their mouths when the older man approaches.
“Sitting down on the job?” he says.
“No sir,” the first Guard says. “Only taking a break.”
The older man steps closer to the one who spoke, his finger poking him in the chest with each word. “There are no breaks. Who d'ya think you are? Akin bloody Hughes?” He steps
back and turns to the other one. “Back to work!” They scramble away into the night.
The older man stands still for a moment, listening to something. He stoops over and retrieves a cigarette that’s escaped unscathed. His chuckle carries through the darkness as he relights the end, walking back the way he came.
As soon as he’s out of sight, Ethan and I both let out a deep breath. “Ready?” he asks me. I nod, and he takes off at a quick sprint across the open street to the next darkest clump of shadows. I follow, staring a hundred yards ahead of us at the towering building that climbs into the night.
It's at least seventy-five stores tall, wider near the bottom and narrower at the tip, and visible from the furthest edges of Neech. In the daylight, the Corporation’s a reflective spire made entirely of black glass, shimmering in the sun. It's an ominous structure, looking like it stands guard over the cities, scrutinizing and watching every movement and action. If it weren’t such a horrid building, it'd be beautiful, though.
The front’s guarded by milling figures that can only be more Guards. Tonight the reflected moon casts an aura of subdued light around it's perimeter that's going to be hard to get around.
As I'm trying to figure out how Ethan plans to get us into the Tower, he's already taking off again, moving farther down the road. In the opposite direction of our target.
“Ethan,” I hiss. “Where are you going?”
“Getting us inside. Come on.” He waves me after him, and I follow, glancing over my shoulder at the increasing distance between us and the Corporation.
“The entrance is that way,” I say when I’m back at his side.
“That's great, Karis. But we're not going through the front door.” The smile and glint in his eyes has returned, and I know I'm in for an experience I won't soon forget. He kneels to the pavement.
I copy him. “How are we getting in, then?”
“Remember that back door I told you and Ella about?”
“You’ve been sneaking into the Tower? Ethan, that's insane!”
“No, that was called preparation.”
He has a point. Then I remember something. “Your clothes smelled like filth. Like a sewer.”
His grin widens.
“We're going through the sewer?”
Ethan lifts something from the ground. His face strains, and I hear a small groan as he moves a metal disc from the asphalt. He sets it on the road with a dull thud. Twisting his head from side to side, making sure the coast is clear, he says, “What are you waiting for? Get moving.”
“Ethan, I can't go wading through a sewer.”
“You’d better make a decision fast; those Guards are coming back this way.” I look over my shoulder and hear their faint conversation as it creeps closer. “Tick tock,” he says.
I give Ethan a good glare before putting my hands on the edge of the opening, lowering myself through the hole. I gag at the smell. It's hot and humid and stifling in the cavity, and my body feels like it wants to convulse. I close my nose and breathe out my mouth, but it doesn’t make much of a difference; the noxious gas still burns my throat and eyes.
“There's a ladder against the wall,” Ethan whispers down to me.
I reach my feet out, swinging in the darkness until my toes catch a metal rung. When I get good footing, I move my hands to the latter and start to descend, my grip hot and sweaty. Ethan clamors in after me, and the small circle of moonlight that we had wanes to nothing as he moves the cover back into place. There's a dull, metallic thunk as Ethan seals us in.
Twenty-three
The black space around me is filled with stuffy silence. I try to breathe out my nose but choke instantly against the overpowering stench of refuse and trash. It seeps into every pore of my body, and I have a sinking feeling that no matter how much I scrub; I’ll never fully get it out. A steady drip echoes off the stone tunnel we're standing in, but other than that, it's completely silent.
Ethan’s hand brushes against mine, and I start, letting go of a squeak. “A little jumpy?” he says, amused.
“I don't like the dark,” I say defensively. “And we're kind of on a dangerous mission.”
“Nonsense. Just because we’re breaking into a building that’s extremely off-limits and we’ll face unspeakable punishments if caught, doesn't label this as a dangerous mission.” I can hear the smile in his words, and my tension eases a little.
“So where are we going?”
Ethan clicks something and a shaft of light shifts across our path. The sewer is narrow and only a few of feet taller than he is. There's a wide river of sludge flowing thick and slow down the center with cement walkways on each side. I try to hug the concave wall as we make our journey forward and not think think about what’s in the flow.
“This sewer runs the entire length of Dahn,” Ethan says. “I haven't had time to see how far it stretches—if it goes into Neech or not—but I know for a fact it runs directly underneath the basement of the Tower.”
“Won't the entrance be guarded?” The humid temperature is making me sweat, and I blouse the front of my shirt in and out to create some sort of air current to keep me from melting.
“All that's in the basement are old files and papers, furniture that doesn't fit in with their decor any longer. Junk like that.”
“Wait, you've been there before?”
“Sure, lots of times,” he says with a shrug.
“Okay, so what's your plan for after we get into the basement?”
“You'll see. That’s a good one too.”
“Why not just tell me now?”
“Because that’d ruin all the fun. Don’t steal my thunder, Karis.”
“Fun, right,” I mutter.
We were a few blocks away from Corporation Tower when we entered the sewers, so we have to walk a bit. We turn let then right, then right again. As we make more turns and venture deeper into the tunnels, the stench in the air starts to lighten. I can see the flow in the canals starts to flow freer and notice that at some point we’ve stopped following a river of sludge and started to follow a flow of water. The ceilings are a lot higher here, too, and the tunnels wider. I don’t remember that happening.
After a little longer Ethan says, “Here we are.” He shines the flashlight beam directly overhead where a cover identical to the one we slipped through sits. He puts the butt of the flashlight in his mouth, bends his knees, and laces his fingers together, palms up.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
He rolls his eyes, straightens, and takes the flashlight out of his mouth. “Giving you a leg up. When I lift you high enough, push the cover off—it's not as heavy as the other one. Once you’re safe up above, I'll come right after. Promise,” he adds when he sees my worry. He replaces the flashlight and bends down into his previous stance.
I step into his hands, adjusting the ball of my foot until I feel comfortable, and grip his shoulders, hunching over. He straightens his legs and lifts me higher into the air. My fingertips dig into the muscles between his neck and his shoulders.
“Ow,” he says around the flashlight.
He’s lifted me up so my feet are level with his chest. I’m still hunched down, gripping onto his shoulders, not much taller than he is.
“Strate oop!”
“What?
” I hiss. My balance is uneven, and I’m positive that if I talk too loudly, I'll tip over.
“Strate oop!” He tries to lift me higher in the air. “Lego. No droop oo.”
I finally understand what he wants me to do. Stand up, and he won’t drop me. I take a deep breath and slowly, on a shaking leg, raise myself higher. I reach my fingers up but am still six inches away from brushing the metal surface. “I'm not tall enough,” I hiss down to him.
There's a bit of movement, and I gasp as Ethan shifts my weight, lifting me higher until my feet are on his shoulders, his hands gripping my calves.
“How's that?” he says. The flashlight must be out of his mouth.
“Good, but hold still.” I press my palms against the cold, rough surface and push up. With a grate and a rumble, the cover lifts about an inch or so, but that's all I need. I slip it over
to the right. “What now?”
“Grab the edge and pull yourself up.”
“Right.” I crack my knuckles and rub my sweaty palms on my pants, reaching up to grab the ledge. I’m gripping so tightly, my knuckles glow white in the darkness. I pull, but don’t go anywhere. I'm not strong enough.
“What are you doing?” Ethan asks. He’s shifting his body under my feet to keep his balance. “Pull yourself up.”
“I’m trying,” I snap. “It’s a lot harder than it looks.”
Ethan sighs and moves his hands to the bottom of my feet, lifting me the rest of the way. It happens so quickly that I topple over once I'm through the hole.
“Thanks,” I mutter, wiping at small scratches on the heels of my hands. I crawl over to the edge of the hole and look down into the darkness. “Ethan?”
The flashlight flies up though the air, head over tail. I catch it with fumbling hands just as Ethan grips the edge. In one effortless movement, he pulls himself up through the hole and sits on the floor opposite me. He isn't even breathing hard. I stare at him, jaw slack.