by Leigh Walker
Kyan’s gaze flicked over both of the bodies. “They don’t look good. We need to get back to the drop zone and get them on the plane. They need medical attention.”
“Can you hear them?” My question came out shrill, and I struggled to get my emotions under control.
He shook his head. “No. They’re both silent.”
Kyan hopped up and grabbed Finn. “You look tired,” he told Josh. “But get your blaster out and shoot anyone who comes at you. I mean it, dude. Don’t hesitate. We need to get out of here, and I don’t think we have a lot of time.”
We hauled them back to the field where we’d landed. Sweat poured off me as I dragged an inert Emma across the grass. Her head lolled on her neck, making me queasy every time I looked. “Dying’s not on the agenda today,” I reminded her.
I couldn’t even bear to look at Finn.
“It’ll be all right,” Kyan assured me. “We got all those vials. One of them’s got to be a counteragent.”
“We don’t even know what we’re countering!”
“We’ll figure it out.” For an asshat, Kyan was being pretty awesome at keeping me off what felt like a fast-approaching ledge.
“Where do you think the others are?” Josh scanned the area, a deep scowl on his face, his blaster at the ready.
“Nicole and Rachel were right behind us,” Kyan said. “But I don’t know about Micah and the twins. I never saw them.”
From a distance, I could hear the plane. “They’re coming for us already?”
“They must have seen us.” Josh looked around again, worry etched on his handsome face. It made him look older, as if he’d aged years instead of hours since we’d arrived. “What do we do?”
“We get these guys in the cargo area and get one of the pilots to help us. Then we fly back when the others show up.”
The plane came into view, descending toward the field. I reached for Finn’s hand. Come on, Finn. Stay with me.
As soon as we were safely on board, the plane took off again immediately. As per protocol, one of the two pilots was a certified paramedic. Ours was tall with a blond crewcut, and he got right to work. After introducing himself as Travis, he put Finn and Emma on stretchers and started monitoring both of them. He started IVs while asking us questions. “You don’t know what the substance was?”
“No.” Josh dug up the vials. “I have it in here somewhere, but I don’t know which one it is. They went down as soon as they inhaled the gas.”
The plane hit a rough patch, and Travis scowled at the vials. “Don’t drop those.”
Josh smiled tightly. “I wouldn’t think of it.”
Travis started reading the labels. The plane flew in a large circle, far enough out that it wouldn’t be immediately detectable, but close enough that the pilot could go back for the others in an instant.
I held on to Finn’s hand tightly, remembering his words back at the base. Of all the things I couldn’t bear to lose, you are tops, Hanover.
Right back at you, big guy. So please, die another day.
I squeezed his hand, but he didn’t squeeze back. I tried to concentrate on something other than the sick feeling in my stomach, Finn’s limp hand, and the fact that Travis was swearing at each vial he inspected.
“Hey.” I nudged Kyan. Keeping my voice low, I continued, “I hate to admit it, but you getting all take-charge and Rambo back there was pretty cool. I thought Josh might implode.”
“It was nothing.” Kyan shrugged, but he did it in a way that was sure to showcase how big his shoulders were.
“Take the compliment. I’m sure there won’t be more where this one came from,” I snapped.
Kyan laughed. “We’ll see about that. I like having you as my new partner, partner.”
I grunted, but still, I was happy for the brief distraction.
Travis swore under his breath and checked another vial.
“Any idea what happened to them?” I asked him.
He peered back at Finn and Emma, frowning. “They inhaled something that attacked their nervous system and completely shut them down.” When he saw the horrified look on my face, his shoulder slumped. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.”
“It-it’s okay.”
Travis looked at me sympathetically. “But it isn’t. I’m so sorry, but I don’t think your friends are coming back from this.”
12
Never Surrender
“Whoa,” Kyan said. “Don’t say shit like that to her, dude! That’s her boyfriend and her best friend.”
Travis looked crushed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” He sighed then raked a hand over his face. “Those vials—all the coding on them indicates different portions of the central nervous system. But I don’t see anything that looks like a blocker or something that could counteract the effects of what they inhaled.”
Still in shock, I managed to clear my throat. “It’s okay. We need to know what’s happening so that we can try to help them. Can you tell us anything else about their condition?”
He nodded. “The central nervous system controls the interactions between your mind and the world around you. It manages your five senses and your body’s movement, balance, and coordination. It also governs your ability to think and reason.”
“So it’s basically the god of your body, and they’re screwed.” I grabbed a tissue and roughly wiped my eyes.
“Let’s not think like that.” Travis shook his head. “I’m going to do everything I can for them, but I need to know if what they inhaled was arsenic or lead-based.”
“How can you tell?” Kyan asked.
“I’m going to go back through the vials, one by one, and see if there’s anything marked.” He spread them out carefully over a makeshift table he’d made from a cooler. “Watch your friends while I work.”
Kyan and I went back to staring at Emma and Finn. Josh stared out the window.
“Are you okay, Josh?” I asked.
He didn’t turn around. “Sure.”
The plane took a sudden, sharp right, and Travis cursed, holding onto the vials. “We must be going back for the rest of them.”
“That’s good.” I hoped Nicole could somehow help us. My heart beat erratically in my chest, and my hands started to go numb. I could feel the panic setting in.
My mother and Finn’s baby sister were both on ventilators, about to die, and now Finn and Emma were catatonic. I struggled to catch my breath. My windpipe started to close.
Oh no, you don’t. I couldn’t pass out—who would that help? I began yoga breathing, just like Cranston had shown me. In through my nose, out through my mouth.
Kyan arched an eyebrow at me. “What the hell are you doing? Having a stroke?”
“Yoga breathing.” I struggled to get the words out.
Kyan reached for my free hand. “Hey, do not lose your shit. Not yet.” He jerked his chin in the direction of Finn and Emma. “These guys need you.”
I exhaled raggedly and shook my head. “You’re right.”
I willed myself to pull it together as the plane taxied in for another landing.
We’d no sooner landed and opened the door to the plane when Micah, Rachel, and Morgan hurled themselves on board. All three of them were breathing hard. “We’ve got more coming,” Morgan said, chest heaving. “But be ready to go!”
Josh and Rachel hugged as Micah and Morgan struggled to catch their breath.
“Where’re Nicole and Maya?” I asked.
“They’re right—”
Maya jumped into the hold. “Get out of the way!” she bellowed to the rest of us.
The others cleared a space, while Travis cursed, holding on to the vials that threatened to roll from all the commotion.
I stayed close to Finn, guarding him. “What’s going on?”
The answer to my question came right then. Nicole climbed into the cargo area, dragging and lifting something—someone.
She finally pulled a struggling, kicking Althea Remington onto
the plane then secured her in a headlock.
Kyan’s jaw dropped. “Shut the hell up.”
Nicole struggled as Althea thrashed. “No—you shut the hell up. And grab her feet!”
Kyan launched himself toward Althea. She landed a boot square in his face before he could wrestle her legs down. Blood spurted from his nose, but he ignored it. Red dots spattered all over Althea’s deep-purple skirts. Kyan grinned at her through the mess on his face. “Got ya.”
“Not for long.” Althea struggled against both him and Nicole, but they pinned her to the ground.
“How did you get to her?” I asked.
“I used my brainwaves.” Nicole looked like she was about to cry.
“So…what is it? What’s wrong?”
Nicole’s gaze, bright with unshed tears, flicked to me. “I killed them all. Everyone. Hundreds of them, just to get her. But then I stopped…”
I nodded. “Nora wanted her alive. You did the right thing.”
I hoped she’d done the right thing.
While Nicole took a deep breath, I inspected our prisoner. Even in a headlock, Althea was stunning. Her dark, smooth skin glimmered, and her makeup was flawless, as always. Her hair hung in tangled waves past her shoulders, and she wore a gold headpiece with a rose-colored jewel in the center. It sparkled against her dark skin, making her look as if she possessed some kind of secret magic. Completing her look were long deep-purple robes and knee-high combat boots that Emma, had she been conscious, would have gone nuts over.
For someone with such questionable moral judgment, Althea clearly had excellent taste in clothes.
I tore my eyes away from her and looked up at Nicole, who had managed to calm down. “You did it.” Awe etched my voice.
She grimaced, holding on tight. “We needed her—now we have the leverage we’ve been lacking. We’re going to end this.”
She peered past me to Emma and Finn, and her face crumpled again. “What happened?”
“They inhaled something, some sort of gas. They went down as soon as they came in contact with it.” I motioned to Travis, who was still behind me checking the vials. “This is Travis. He’s the pilot-paramedic. He’s going through the vials to see if the toxin was arsenic or lead-based.”
“Lead,” Althea said immediately, causing us all to jump. “You need the A-31 if you’re going to revive them.”
Travis looked back through the tubes, shuffling them wildly. “These aren’t labeled that way. Which one is A-31?”
Althea smiled, even though Nicole’s muscular arms were wrapped around her head, ready to twist. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
13
Nobody Pray For Me
Nicole tightened her grip. “I’m not playing here. Tell us which vial to use.”
Althea looked up at her. “Now why would I do that?”
Nicole scowled. “Because I have you in a headlock. And I’m a powerlifter. You calculate your odds of survival.”
“If you kill me, your friends die no matter what.” Althea sounded matter-of-fact. “So it’s in your best interests to keep me alive, for their sake as well as yours.”
Nicole leaned over her. “Explain.”
“I’d be happy to, but you’re choking me a bit.”
Nicole didn’t loosen her grip.
“I want to know something first,” Althea said. “The last time we met, back at the prison, one of my guards was killed. Cardin. Tall, strapping, strong. He was one of my best men. I want to know which one of you did it.”
“It was me.” I didn’t even hesitate or weigh the consequences. “He was about to kill me, so I killed him first.”
“You’re the little telekinetic, right?” Althea’s eyes glittered, but she didn’t sound mad. “I recognize you from Sonora and the prison. You stole that Dr. Zelig, too.”
“But I left you with his racist nurse,” I offered.
“She doesn’t count.” Althea snorted then laughed. “She’s no longer in my service, if you catch my meaning. I’ve no time for snivelers. But I’m still thinking you owe me. You owe me two.”
I don’t owe you anything. “I don’t know how I can do that.”
She glanced at Emma and Finn. “Don’t worry. I’ll think of something.”
I checked their waxen faces, and my chest tightened. “Can you please tell us which vial will help my friends?” I leaned forward. “We’re taking you back to our base. We might be able to help you if you help us.”
Althea arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “You’re predicating that proposition on an erroneous assumption.”
I tried to follow all her big words. “What assumption is that?”
Althea smiled, but it was not a nice smile. “That I need your help.”
“Don’t you? We’re bringing you…” I let my voice trail off. I shouldn’t be giving away so many secrets. Nicole’s pinched expression told me as much.
“I know where you’re bringing me, dear.”
I didn’t say a word, but the fact that she sounded so calm about it made my heart thud in my chest.
Althea looked at Travis. “Let me see those vials.”
Nicole nodded toward Maya. “Hold her arms, please.”
Maya obeyed, holding down Althea’s arms as Travis brought each vial close enough for her to read.
“No, no, no.” Althea pursed her lips. “Keep them coming and make it fast. Those two don’t have much time.”
Nicole kept her arms tight around Althea. “Why are you helping us? What do you want?”
“I’m not ready to die—not just yet.” Althea scrunched her face up as she read the next vials. “I want to live. And when the time comes and I need another favor, I want you to hear me out.”
Nicole shrugged, her face expressionless, giving away nothing. “If you save them, I’ll do what I can for you.”
I wondered if Nicole had managed to get the AI chips, but I didn’t dare ask as Althea continued to inspect the vials.
“That’s the one,” she finally said. “But don’t administer it to them intravenously. That’ll end badly. You need to heat it so they can inhale it. That’s the fastest way.”
“If you’re lying, I’m going to push you out of this plane,” I said before I could stop myself.
“I’m not lying, but I’ll keep that in mind.”
Travis looked at the vial in his hand then at Emma and Finn. “I don’t know if she’s telling the truth,” he said finally.
“Is there any chance they’ll wake up without some sort of intervention?” Nicole asked.
“No,” Althea and Travis said at the same time.
Nicole stared at Finn and Emma. “If it was a lead-based inhalant, the only thing that can reverse the effects is chelation therapy. That’s when agents bind with the existing lead and are excreted through the body’s natural elimination process,” she explained, making me feel as if I’d been airdropped smack dab in the middle of a biotech conference that was way, way over my head.
Nicole bit her lip and looked at Travis. “But you can’t reverse the damage already done to the system.”
Travis sighed. “I know.”
“But the agent that impacted them is different from a typical case of long-term-exposure lead poisoning,” Althea said. “So the A-31—which does contain chelation agents, by the way—can work to reverse the damage if administered properly. It’s one of the many things I’ve been working on.”
Travis looked over Althea’s head to Nicole. “What do you want me to do?”
Nicole’s gaze flicked to Emma and Finn, who were both deathly pale and breathing shallowly. “Do it.”
I slapped a hand over my heart. “But—”
Nicole shook her head, cutting me off. “If this kills them, it’s a mercy anyway. Otherwise their systems will shut down one organ at a time. It’ll be a slower, more painful process.”
My eyes pricked with tears.
Travis poured the contents of the vial directly into a beaker. Then he dug through
another supply box and took out a small blowtorch.
Althea watched him as he fired it up and pointed the flame toward the beaker.
“Cardin was my favorite, you know,” she said. “He was very brave. And young, too. Handsome. It’s a pity that he’s dead.”
I whipped my head toward her. “It’s a pity that you’ve wiped out most of our civilization!”
“You know I don’t feel that way. I believe in a higher plan. I believe we’re being weeded out.” She pursed her lips as she continued to watch Travis. The contents of the beaker started to bubble, then smoke wafted out of it.
“It’s not ‘weeding’ when you use weapons of mass destruction,” Nicole reminded her.
Althea looked up at her. “I think animals that willingly destroy their own environment aren’t worthy of much afterthought. They’re all weeds, choking the earth.” Her gaze flicked to me as the smoke wafted closer to Emma and Finn. “A little telekinesis would really move this along. It would be helpful if that gas were transferred directly into the patients’ nostrils.”
I gaped at Althea, but Nicole shrugged as if to say, she already knows.
I concentrated on the smoke, agitating the molecules around it. I made sure it traveled to Finn’s nostrils and went up inside when he inhaled. I did the same with Emma.
The whole time, I prayed I wasn’t administering a lethal dose of poison to the two people I loved most.
But as soon as the smoke disappeared inside my boyfriend and my best friend, spasms rocked their bodies.
14
What The
“Oh my God!” I shrieked as both Finn and Emma thrashed, having what looked like simultaneous seizures.
Nicole squeezed down on Althea’s throat. “What did you do?”
“Wait for it,” Althea wheezed.
The thrashing slowed to tremors. It looked as though both Finn and Emma were shivering all over. Then it slowed down. Then it stopped.
Emma’s eyes opened. She sat up a little, looking as pale as a ghost and dazed.