The Unpaired (The Pairings Book 3)

by Ramona Finn

  “Sir, you need to come with us,” one of his bodyguards said.

  My head swam, but I didn’t let Sledge out of my sight. I was only a few feet away from him, and I couldn’t let him escape. Flexing my arms out to the sides, I stretched the straps enough to pull my arms free. Reaching up, I yanked on the one holding my torso in place, snapping it in two. Reaching down, I released my legs and stepped free of the table.

  This was my chance.

  My heart pounded as I surveyed the stadium. Soldiers continued to topple. Turning to look for Sledge, I saw he was already at the back of the stage. He shouted orders at his bodyguards. None of them saw me as I sprinted over to them. I nearly tripped over my own feet as the world readjusted itself around me. It was as if the world moved slower than normal.

  Within moments, I was behind the group and grabbing onto the back of one of the bodyguards. Fisting his jacket in my hands, I whipped him to the side, sending him tumbling into the scaffolding at the back of the stage. One of the other bodyguards rushed me and my fist shot out, connecting with his jaw. Blood spurted from his mouth as he crumpled to the ground. I flexed my hand, ready for the next one.

  Of the two remaining guards, one pushed Sledge ahead of him so the guard could cover his back and the other turned toward me, lifting his rifle to shoot me. I grabbed the barrel, pushing the rifle up and slamming it into the guard’s face. His legs crumpled under him and I wrenched the gun away as he fell. Lifting the rifle, I shot the bodyguard blocking Sledge, my aim true as he collapsed where he stood with a bullet wound to the chest. In slow motion, I caught the other guard reaching for his sidearm out of the corner of my eye and turned, shooting him in the head. The body guards had distracted me enough that Sledge was now backstage.

  A woman screamed, and I looked up to face the woman who had reported to Sledge earlier. He held her in front of him like a shield, taking rapid steps backwards as he dragged her along with him. With a hard shove, he sent her toward me with her arms flailing for balance, before he turned and ran away.

  Coward.

  She screamed again, and I pushed her aside and chased Sledge. My steps were quick and true, leading me toward him. I easily covered the distance exiting the backstage area to see him racing down a corridor, zig-zagging as he ran.

  I slowed and lifted my rifle. There wasn’t anyone else around for him to use as a shield, and my shot was clear the moment I put the sight against my eye. His movements were erratic, but I wouldn’t miss.

  I pulled the trigger, and Sledge went down with a bullet to his torso. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t getting far now.

  I walked over to him. The screams and shouts from the people in the stadium faded into the distance behind me as memories of my life moved through my mind as if they were a film.

  The weight of the rifle in my hand reminded me of Dad and all he had taught me about how to use guns and about his life living in the woods. Sledge and his mission had forced Dad to leave his home and live in the city. BioPure had forced him to become someone he hadn’t wanted to be and into a marriage that had led to so much heartache.

  Sledge groaned and flopped over onto his back. Once he saw me, he shrieked, rolled over again, and started to crawl.

  This man had orchestrated the pain of so many families. Mom had wanted to find happiness while helping others. BioPure had pushed her out of New Manhattan, making her leave her family behind as she fled with John. While BioPure had brought us all together while on the run, it had broken our family and prevented me from being with my biological father.

  And John’s lifelong fight for the greater good had been demolished by this man in a heartbeat.

  “Don’t kill me!” Sledge said.

  I stepped on his back, pressing him into the ground. I could snap his neck if I wanted to, but I wanted him to suffer the way I had. The way my family had.

  I had tried to be the perfect Level Three citizen, but I’d always known there was something more sinister lying under the surface of the city where I’d lived.

  Sledge tried to shift under my foot and I released him, watching as he rolled to his back and then sat up. Pressing against the wall, he shimmied up it until he was standing, his arm pressed to his side as his shirt soaked with blood.

  “You’re not walking away from here,” I said to him.

  “You’re not a killer, Lora,” he said, coughing.

  “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “I don’t know how you didn’t die on that stage, but if you let me go, I promise you will have immunity. We could use someone as resilient as you. I was wrong about you. Your brain is special. There are mods to make you even better than you are. They can enhance your life. I can do that for you.”

  “No thanks,” I said, raising the rifle. “Your reign of terror is over.”

  He reached out to swat at the rifle barrel, but I stepped back out of the way and he stumbled forward, almost falling.

  His terror had lived in every citizen of New Manhattan, including a younger version of myself. If I hadn’t met Syeth and Jarid, and fallen in love, I would never have known the truth. My childhood was tainted by BioPure, and it was over now.

  So many lives had been twisted, broken, and destroyed by this one man. I breathed out to steady myself, like Dad taught me, and pulled the trigger twice. Sledge slid to the floor once more, and his body twisted as the life drained from it. Then he slumped over fully as blood spread across the floor.

  I stared down at him, the rifle still at the ready, just as cautious as I had been with Mia. Both of them had been pumped up with biomods—as I was now—and I had to be sure this man was dead. Without Sledge around, there was a chance of a better life for all of us.

  I counted to one hundred before I dropped the rifle to the ground. The burst of strength I’d had deserted me, but my new senses overwhelmed me, and I slumped against the wall. I closed my eyes, but that only made my hearing even sharper. I plugged my ears with my hands as I focused on my breathing. The slow echo in my mind forced the movement of oxygen into my body a little steadier.

  Sledge was dead. I had killed him. It was over. BioPure wouldn’t be able to survive without their devious and destructive CEO.

  “Lora!”

  Syeth’s voice rang out even through my blocked ears.

  He appeared from down the hall where I had come with a whole group of rebels behind him. His rifle bounced against his back.

  I pushed away from the wall as both Syeth and Jarid raced toward me. The other rebels behind the brothers charged forward, spotting Sledge.

  “He’s dead,” I said, wavering on my feet.

  I still wasn’t used to my strength, and I pitched forward. The strain from the running and fighting with the bodyguards overwhelmed me. Exhaustion battered my muscles until I could barely stand upright. The corridor swam around me, and my vision blurred. Syeth or Jarid reached for me, wrapping his arms around me and holding me up. I breathed with relief and choked out a sob before my muscles finally gave out.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Do you want a hand?” Syeth asked.

  Another shooting pain shot up my leg, over my hip, and wrapped around my waist. “Do I look like I need one?” I leaned heavily against the wall, trying not to wince. This would pass. It always did, until it happened again.

  Syeth smirked. “Kind of.”

  “I got it,” I said. “The doctor said that the more I move, the more the biomod will work its way through my system. I don’t know how Mia was able to function like this.”

  “She continued to inject, which prevented her from having these hangover-type symptoms.”

  Along with the internal and external bruising, and the limited use of my right hand, which was wrapped tightly with gauze, it appeared as if I would survive. Though, I hoped the soreness would subside soon. As it was, I felt as if I had been at the gym for hours and days at a time.

  Syeth slowed his pace to keep with mine. We both wore black pants—signaling the end
of the level system in the city—and Syeth’s white shirt was unbuttoned at the top. The look of him reminded me of when we’d first met.

  “They better have comfortable chairs,” I teased.

  “We’ll leave if they don’t.” He took my good hand gently as we stopped in front of a door.

  I hesitated before opening the door. The stinging pain of Jarid’s betrayal at the rally rivaled the ache in my muscles. When they had found me, Jarid had tried to convince Syeth and me that he’d had to do what he’d done, but I wasn’t so sure. I had almost died at Sledge’s hand, and if it hadn’t been for our rebels, I might have. Which was how Syeth had obtained an invitation to the debriefing with the commanders. It hadn’t taken much convincing since I’d taken down the main target.

  “You don’t have to like him after this, but you should hear him out,” Syeth said.

  “I know.” I pushed open the door.

  A dozen people were already inside the main room of the penthouse apartment in New Manhattan. Syeth had suggested me using a wheelchair to get there faster, but I’d wanted to walk it myself. I was no longer a weak link to the rebellion and wasn’t afraid of showing my scars.

  I had no idea who lived here. The room was elegantly decorated, even more so than Syeth and Jarid’s penthouse had been when I’d first met them. Cream-colored furniture—sofas and leather chairs—filled the space.

  Jarid came over to us and looked me over, concern etched across his face. I hadn’t seen him since he’d caught me when I’d nearly passed out after killing Sledge. He and Syeth looked as opposite as they had when I’d first met them. He was clean-shaven and had buttoned up his shirt all the way.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “As good as I look.”

  “Come sit over here,” Jarid said before he led me over to a thick, oversized chair by the stone fireplace.

  I nodded but avoided looking him in the eyes. I wanted to walk myself, and I wasn’t entirely sure that what Jarid was about to say would convince me of his innocence.

  “We can get started now,” Isra said. She and two of her commanders sat on the largest couch while two others stood behind it, clasping their hands behind their backs.

  The nine remaining BioPure managers had spread themselves around the room, some sitting and others standing. Syeth stood behind my chair and Jarid stepped toward Isra while Sarah and her people stood off to the side nearest the door.

  One of Isra’s commanders stepped forward—a serious-looking woman. She was about my height and build, and her sure stride met Jarid in the center of the room. “The purpose for this debriefing is to go over what occurred at the rally. This information will be recorded and retained in the new government records.” She pulled a device from her pocket and placed it on the side table closest to my chair. She recorded the date and time, her name—Rickards—and asked Jarid to state his name, as well.

  “Thank you,” Rickards said. “Now, in your own words, tell us what happened at the stadium on the day of the rally.”

  Jarid took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he began to speak. “Two days ago, the managers and I split up in various locations throughout the stadium to meet our assigned strike teams. My team included Lora and Syeth.” He gestured to us. “We met on the second level of the stadium and I handed them each a BioPure rifle and ammo designed to pierce the shield Sledge had erected around the stage which he would be standing on for the rally. As we were preparing to go take our positions, I got word that one of the rebel teams had been captured and interrogated. Through them, BioPure had learned that rebels were going to make an attempt on Sledge’s life and that Lora was in the stadium. We decided to abandon the plan and escape.”

  Jarid took a breath, and my heart started to race. Ever since the biomod had been injected, my heart rate was erratic, almost as if it wanted another dose. But while part of my reaction was from the mod, I mostly wanted to know what had gone on in Jarid’s head when he had decided to throw me to the wolves.

  “Immediately, the BioPure security force began searching the stadium for any rebels, with orders to capture and detain Lora. Before we could reach an exit, we were surrounded, and I had to make a decision.”

  I leaned forward, even though my back ached with the effort.

  “We still had plans to release the list of those civilians who had been experimented on without their knowledge, and it needed to happen before Sledge found out and managed to put a stop to it. I had an idea, but it required giving up Lora’s location in order for me to remain free.”

  Jarid’s words stung, and I fought back tears at hearing him say them aloud.

  “I had to get away without them suspecting my involvement with the mission,” Jarid said. “There wasn’t time to explain, so to keep my cover, I was the one to blow hers. Watching them take Lora and my brother, it was—” his voice cut off before he cleared his throat. “It ended up in our favor, though. Once Lora’s team had been captured, Sledge thought the threat had passed and carried on with the rally, which meant we could still move forward.”

  Jarid stopped and swallowed. “I—uh—I thought we were in the clear and everything would work out until even more messages came through the system. Worse messages than I’d expected. We…we received word that Sledge planned to execute Lora on the stage.” Jarid’s voice was thick with emotion, and I ground my teeth together to hold back my own.

  “Since I had put her in that situation, I saw it as a blessing in disguise. Two of the managers who hadn’t been rounded up, along with me, made our way backstage, past security. We were there as loyal supporters to Sledge, so no one blinked an eye at us. We had obtained the super-soldier biomod prior to the event, with the intention of using it to juice up one of our teams while we were inside the stadium, but instead, we switched it out with the lethal injection planned for Lora.”

  I shivered at the prospect of coming so close to death, and Syeth squeezed my shoulder, reminding me that he was by my side and I was safe now.

  “The timing couldn’t have been better. Since we’d prearranged to have the experimental biomod records released to everyone at a specific time, and because there’d been a delay in the start of the rally, everything went down at once. Lora was injected with the biomod as the records were released. Those rebels that had eluded capture and were still in the stadium began taking out BioPure soldiers, just as planned. There was chaos as civilians began to flee the stadium. The soldiers who had been guarding Syeth left their post to help control the stampede of people attempting to leave, so I released him and together we found Lora, after she had taken down Sledge.”

  When he finished speaking, I stood up and hobbled over to Jarid.

  “Lora,” he said before I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him against me. “I’m so sorry. I would never try to hurt you on purpose. I just—”

  “I know,” I said, patting him on the back.

  “We have work to do here,” Isra said.

  I leaned away from a teary-eyed Jarid and took his hand, leading him back to the chair with his brother. They embraced, as well, and I swiped at my tears that were threatening to fall. We should be celebrating, not crying. Sledge was dead, and his elite soldiers were captured and currently being weaned off all biomods, which, judging from how I felt, was going to be a painful process.

  Jarid and his team of managers had temporary control of BioPure, and aside from the debriefing, we were there to figure out next steps.

  Isra rose and stepped to the center of the room. “I’ve been given authority to speak on behalf of all of the rebels. Moving forward, we want to motion that BioPure be disbanded, and that a new republic is instituted. No unaccountable corporation should have this much control over people’s lives from now on.”

  “Agreed,” Jarid said, speaking for what remained of BioPure.

  “Also, the Pairing system will be abolished forever,” Sarah announced from where she stood.

  Jarid lightly squeezed my shoulder
. “Agreed.”

  “The cures for New Zero and old Zero will be distributed to everyone who needs them, free of charge. Civil liberties of all citizens will be reinstated and enshrined in a new constitution,” Isra announced as all of the rebels nodded in agreement.

  Marcus stepped forward. One of his eyes was closed shut with a thick bluish-purple bruise. “This is too much change. Too quickly.”

  “Everyone deserves basic rights,” Isra argued.

  Marcus cleared his throat, wincing. I wondered how much damage was unseen. “Who’ll keep control in the meantime? Who’ll keep people from rioting? Handle the policing? Who’ll keep order?”

  Isra faced him, taking several steps in his direction. “While you have been hiding in your penthouses with full access to anything you could possibly need or want, there were people out there losing their minds.”

  “We had no control over what Sledge did; we were trying to survive here, too.” Marcus’ voice had risen until it was high and hoarse.

  Arguing ensued from there, with both sides throwing out accusations as well as excuses. All the noise was making my head ache, and I was done with people taking sides. It was time for all of us to be on the same side.

  Taking an unsteady step away from Syeth and Jarid, I walked toward Isra and held up my hand for silence. It was strange to command their attention so easily, but so much had changed since I had killed Sledge. I was a new person physically and mentally, and it would take a while to get used to it.

  “Order,” I said firmly, “isn’t worth protecting when it’s unjust. Disband BioPure. Found the republic. Make it work.”

  Isra smiled at me and nodded her head with respect. Something I’d never thought I’d see. I met the eyes of each of the managers and commanders. One by one, they nodded their agreement.