by Matt Ryan
Samantha breathed out, not realizing she had been holding her breath.
The screen went black.
“Zach just put it in the public’s hands,” Derek said. “The president will have a hell of a time trying to convince everyone now.”
Samantha had seen the papers, the schedules for the trucks. The trucks would be rolling out within the hour and the whole world would be watching to make sure they got there. Zach was a genius. She didn’t know how he’d hacked into the TV stream, but she couldn’t figure out half the things he accomplished.
In the next few days, the world would have the cure they were waiting for and the recovery could start. They could finally tell their story to the world and the president would have to pardon Zach and anyone involved with ZRB. How could they arrest them for saving the world? What jury would convict them?
The glass door pushed opened. Lisa stepped in and found herself staring at the end of Derek’s gun. She didn’t flinch and gave Derek a glare. “Really?” Lisa said and put her hand on her hip. Derek lowered his gun and took a step back. “Thank you.” She walked toward Samantha.
“What is it, Lisa?”
“They’re kind of going crazy out there. Many want to leave, but the doors are locked. I think you have the only access to open them.” Lisa let the unasked question hang in the air.
“We are just about to send out shipments across the whole world and they want to leave?” Samantha felt anger building. She wanted to go out and slap some sense into the people out there. There was no way she was letting them leave.
“They’re scared. I mean, the president just told them to leave.”
“No. No one is leaving until we make sure all shipments have made it to their respective destinations. I want those webcams working and everything else to go without a hitch.” Samantha tried to leave no room for argument in her voice.
Lisa cocked her head and smiled. “I guess this means no more floor party? I’ll have to call the pizza guy off.”
“You don’t mind staying?” Samantha asked.
“Please, you’d have to drag me out of here.”
“Good, now get out there and tell everyone to get back to work,” Samantha demanded.
Lisa’s eyes narrowed and Samantha thought she saw a hint of anger before she smoothed it out. “As you say, Miss Samantha.”
The power to the whole building shut off. A few people on the floor let out screams.
Samantha sighed and looked at the ceiling. She wondered if the power was manually shut off or they had truly lost power.
“We should move,” Derek said. “If it is the start of an attack, this office will be the first place they come.”
An attack? Samantha walked around her desk and wished she looked half as calm as Lisa. Protocol should have secured the building, but how secure? She didn’t want to find out. “Where should we go?”
“There’s a safe room on. . . .” he glanced at Lisa, “I’ll just take you there.”
Lisa rolled her eyes. “I’m supposed to stay with Samantha. Zach texted me not long ago.” She held out her phone.
“Miss Samantha...” Derek muttered.
Samantha took her phone and inspected the text. It was from Zach. “Fine.” She handed Lisa back the phone.
“Thank you,” Lisa said.
“It’s on the first floor, hope you ladies are wearing your walking heels today.”
Samantha followed Derek, with Lisa taking up the rear. People congregated near the receptionist’s desk and silence fell as they saw her nearing. All eyes were on her.
If she told them she was going to open the doors, the whole group would come with her. If an attack happened, it would be disastrous to have a meatball of people in one spot. “We have suspicions the power may have been shut off. We are going down to check the perimeter and once we establish an all clear, we’ll let you know.” Derek had formed the cover story and Samantha was grateful.
“You can’t just leave us here!”
“Yeah, it’s against the law or something to lock us in like this.”
Samantha held up her hands and called for silence. “Listen, we are only trying to keep everyone safe. No one will be held here. But I need to follow all safety protocols before we can open the doors. Don’t you all remember the assault on the front lawn?”
They murmured in agreement. Good. With shoulders back, she marched toward the staircase, keeping her eyes forward. She pushed the fire emergency exit door open and stood on the landing of the staircase. Derek followed right behind her while Lisa hugged his heels. The number sixteen door closed and Samantha glanced at the two people standing with her. “Where to?”
Derek nodded his head and brought out his gun. Samantha followed him down the stairs. Fifteen, fourteen, but on the next landing, there was no door. She paused and Derek must have noticed the clicking of her heels had stopped. He turned around and raised an eyebrow.
“There should be a door here.”
“Floor thirteen.” Derek shrugged.
“Yeah, I know it isn’t on the elevator, but I believed it was a superstitious thing. I never thought there was actually a hidden floor in the building.”
Lisa’s eyes narrowed and she stared at the wall where a door should have been. She brushed her hand over the wall and right when Samantha was about to ask her what she was doing, a screen lit up from behind the wall.
With wide eyes, Samantha moved closer to the screen. “It’s a keypad.” The numbers ran like a ten key on the screen.
“Do you know the code?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t think we should be messing with this stuff,” Derek said.
“There is some freaking secret floor I didn’t know about.” She hated admitting she didn’t know about it. “Don’t you think this would be the most secure floor to be in?”
Derek holstered his gun and sighed. “You’re probably right.”
Samantha turned back to the screen and typed in her access code to get into the computer files. The panel went dark and she stepped back, wondering if she put in the wrong code. Maybe it took a while to reset. She could use her employee number, or...
Samantha gasped as the entire wall slid open like a bank vault. Derek brought out his gun. She felt his nervous energy. Turning to Lisa, she saw her tilting her head, trying to see into the room as the door slowly opened. She didn’t seem nervous at all; she seemed excited about it.
The door clicked when fully open and the room beyond didn’t look much different than the computer tech room she’d seen on the lower floors. A person with a hoodie pulled over their head ran to the back of the long room and out through a door.
“Hey,” Derek called out, but the person never looked back.
Samantha stepped into the room with Lisa and Derek on either side of her. The unmanned computer stations displayed surveillance feeds. The first few showed multiple views of headquarters. Many more showed locations she wasn’t familiar with. They looked like parking lots or the insides of empty warehouses. Some were shrouded in the darkness of night. But it wasn’t night anywhere in America . . . the night shots must have been on another continent.
Her brow furrowed. Zach should have told her about this mass surveillance. She understood they needed to protect their assets, but as the Vice President of the company, she should know these kinds of things. It sent a pain in her gut and she wondered what else he hadn’t told her. How many secret floors did he hide from her?
She froze in front of a set of monitors. She knew this place. Zach’s house. The outside, front door, and kitchen were displayed on three screens, but she didn’t care about any of those. Shocked, she stared at the fourth and felt the color leaving her face. She took notice of the crumpled bed sheets, the exact way she left them this morning. Had someone watched them? Was there a recording? She had trouble standing and leaned against the desk.
“You know that house?” Derek glanced at the screen before returning to his manic scan of the floor.
“No.�
� She moved away from the screen. Later, if she could get alone, she’d destroy those computers and whatever content they held.
Lisa scurried around the place, typing into a computer here or there before moving onto the next, never looking up at them.
“What are you doing?” Samantha asked, thinking she’d opened a door that maybe Lisa shouldn’t have seen. If the VP wasn’t told about this floor, should the VP’s assistant know?
“How much do you guys really know about Zach?” Lisa asked.
Anger quickly filled Samantha, she was sick of the question and she scowled.
Lisa rolled her eyes at the look and went to the next computer. “If you think you know who Zach is, I think you should look at this, Miss Samantha.” Lisa’s voice changed to one full of contempt and arrogance.
Samantha walked toward this different Lisa, stopping short to glance at the ceiling. A hissing sound, like air escaping from a tire, came from above. A cloud of white mist shot out of pipes across the whole ceiling. The mist flowed around her and she felt a stiff hand grabbing her arm.
Derek pulled her toward the door, but she knew it was too late. She felt the mist entering with each breath. His grip lessened as he fell to his knees.
“I’m sorry,” he said before he collapsed.
There had to be an error. This couldn’t be happening to her. Not in her own house. Samantha lost control of her muscles and collapsed to the floor.
POLY FIDGETED WITH THE THROWING knife at her hip. They were finally at the stone in Watchers Woods and she was filled with trepidation. Looking to Lucas, who knelt next to the stone with a stoic expression, she saw he felt the same way. She trusted him to get them to the right destination, but she couldn’t shake the feeling they would end up somewhere horrible every time they used a stone.
Just get on with it, Poly wanted to say, but kept back and stopped her pacing. If by chance they were sent to Ryjack or some other horrible world, she’d be ready. Joey took her hand and held it. She liked the contact, even though it might slow her reaction time down by a split second. She wanted more contact from him.
Ever since they’d found out who Samantha was involved with, he felt distant. She saw the strain on his face growing with each discovery of how deep into it she was. Poly loved Samantha and she was sure he loved her as well, as a friend. She tamped down her insecurities. Joey loved her the way a man loves a woman. They were more than friends. They shared a connection she didn’t plan on sharing with another person for the rest of her life.
A twitch resonated from his hand. She firmed up her grip and gave him a smile. He’d saved them all with the sacrifice of his own body. She hated when he did it—he could have died—but she loved how he’d risked everything to save his friends, to save her. He was the true definition of a hero. However, she made him promise to never do it again. She preferred to have her hero by her side, not six feet under.
“Here we go.” Lucas typed in the code.
The humming started and she sucked in a breath, grasping a throwing knife with her free hand. Harris’s house flipped into existence. The succulent forest air changed to crisp, recycled air. Guns pointed in their direction until the guards saw who they were.
Jack ran up to them. “Hey, Julie, guys, so glad to see you.”
“Hey, Jack. Is Harris here?” Julie asked.
Jack frowned. “He’s not with you? He left with Hank a couple days ago. Trip’s still recovering in the medical wing.”
“What happened to Trip?” Lucas rushed to Jack.
“He was shot and in pretty bad shape. Hank brought him here for medical attention. Good thing he did too, because the doctors said they had a tough time saving his life. You all aren’t as genetically strong as—”
“Jack,” Joey interrupted. “What were Harris and Hank doing? Where are they?”
“They went to stop Marcus.”
Poly breathed deep and squeezed Joey’s hand. She hadn’t wanted to leave Hank behind when he was sick. She’d wanted to take him with them. They should have found a van or something; they could have found a bed for him to recover in.
“On Earth?” Julie asked, shaking her head. “No, that’s not possible, I would have known. His Pana would have shown up.” She wiggled her Panavice in the air.
“He left all that stuff behind, said Marcus could track him if he brought it. You know Marcus can track yours, right?”
“I’d like to see him try. I rewrote the whole tracker code on mine and I doubt he’d be able to see me.”
“Really? I’d love to see what code you—”
“Guys,” Lucas butted in, “sorry to interrupt the nerd convention here, but we came for a reason.”
Julie cleared her throat and glanced at Lucas with a hint of annoyance. “Marcus or Zach or ZRB, whoever they are, created a new cure for the Cough.” She held the vial with a yellow tint to it. “The one we collected from you guys is this one.” She held up a vial of clear liquid.
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry, we don’t have the analysis equipment here to verify the contents.”
Julie sighed. “Who does?”
Jack rubbed his chin. “The only person who’d have access to that type of machinery would be President Denail.”
“Travis?”
“Yes.”
“Thanks, Jack. Lucas can you get us to Travis’s stone?”
“Yep, I don’t know why we don’t just start going straight to Travis.”
“Before you guys go,” Jack held up a hand, “I wanted to let you know how much Vanar appreciates your involvement in our revolution and recovery. We are a long way from a fully functioning society, but we’d be nothing without you guys.”
Poly had heard a variation of this same speech from many citizens of Vanar over the past few months. The Six were looked upon as the heroes who’d brought them back from the brink of disaster. She wasn’t sure she agreed with their assessment, but always nodded and smiled, saying thank you. She felt like a liar. “Thanks, Jack.”
After a round of goodbyes, Lucas knelt next to the stone and Poly braced for another jump. “Here we go.”
The room flipped and they were in Travis’s underground dome. They made their way down the hallway to the elevator, when a green light lit up and the doors slid open.
Travis appeared, with a big smile and arms spread out. Rushing over to them, he zeroed in on Poly first and wrapped her in a big, lingering hug. Then he shook hands with the boys and side-hugged Julie. His bright smile was infectious and Poly already felt brighter being around him. “So good to see you guys. You are like the light at the end of a dark tunnel.”
“Good to be back,” Poly said.
“Travis, we have something we were hoping you could look at.” Julie held the two vials up.
Travis frowned and plucked the vials from Julie’s hand. “The cures are different, aren’t they?”
“Yes,” Julie confirmed.
“Come on, we can take them to the lab and see what he’s doing.” Travis took Julie by the arm and led her toward the elevator.
Lucas adjusted his bow and followed. Poly stuck back with Joey and they filled the elevator.
Heading past the receptionist desk, Poly felt excited to see Gladius again; but when they arrived, a young man in a red suit looked up at them. She recognized the man instantly, it was Douglas.
“Douglas, can you make sure to cancel all my meetings for the day?” Travis asked.
“All of them?” he whined and rolled his eyes. “Fine, but if they get bitchy with me, I’m hanging up on them. I don’t care if they’re the mayor of whatever town.”
“Thanks, Douglas.”
Travis turned to the elevator, but Poly stepped toward Douglas. “Where’s Gladius?”
“She’s out on vacation or something,” Douglas said.
She had come to know Gladius fairly well and while her initial impression of her was a shallow, selfish, rich girl, she’d changed her mind over time and found her to be a workaholic, and dedi
cated to her father like no one else. There was no way she’d be taking a vacation.
Douglas typed into his Panavice, not looking up.
Poly turned her attention to Travis. “She wouldn’t take a vacation, where is she? Is she okay?”
Travis sighed and some of the early glow he held left his face. “Come on, we can talk more in the elevator.” They crowded into the regular elevator and Travis typed into the panel. He leaned against the mirrored wall.
“Well?” Poly prompted.
“She thought she owed it to you guys to help in any way she could—we all feel that way—but she wanted to help in a more direct way.”
“What does that mean?”
“She went to Earth and as far as I know, she’s infiltrated ZRB’s headquarters and is working to dismantle them from the inside.”
Julie gasped.
Lucas smiled. “Hell yeah, that’s awesome.”
“No it’s not,” Poly said. “She could be killed, or who knows what.”
Travis flinched at her words. “She knew the risks, and as much as I wanted her to stay here with me, I couldn’t deny her sense of duty.”
“No, tell her to come back, tell her to leave. Call her right now.”
“I can’t. I have no way to contact her.”
Poly fumed and paced in the available space of the cramped elevator.
“We’ll do everything we can to make sure she is safe when we get back to Earth,” Joey said.
“Thank you.”
The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Poly looked around the room for any threats, a habit she had developed after being surprised one too many times. Joey did the same and covered the area where she wasn’t looking. It made her smile when they instinctively worked so well together. The deep connection felt powerful, like they could overcome anything.
“Gary,” Travis held out the two vials, “I want you to run a full analysis on these.”
Gary wore a white coat with two beakers embroidered on his front pocket. He looked at the vials. “No problem, when do you need this done?”
“Now.”
“But we are running a few tests on the air quality around Capital.”
“Shut them down, this is more important.”