His model did have her hesitating though. Serenities often went crazy from their abilities.
He seemed very chipper for someone who had been languishing in prison for years. She didn’t have time to speculate on his mood as the guard wouldn’t be distracted for long. Instead she said, “Come with me.”
Dressed in a simple shirt and drawstring pants he had no shoes or a jacket. That might be an issue later as they were heading into the fiains. But she would face that issue later. Surely there were others in the building who would have shoes he could borrow. Her steps faltered as she remembered one place in the building that would have clothes lying around. She didn’t like the idea of stealing but this was an extreme circumstance. Frustrated with herself that she had hadn’t thought of this possibility she changed directions in her head and she started for the gym.
He followed behind her without comment. Clearly his sexist comment from before was due to his imprisonment as he didn’t argue that he should lead.
Sorcha checked the guard was gone and moved out into the empty corridor. A chair sat lonely just outside the door where a guard normally sat. Lured away with a few laxatives in his evening meal, she didn’t expect him to return anytime soon. He would be distracted even if he did return. She preferred not having to put that to the test. He might be a more diligent guard than she expected. It was one of the variables that had kept her awake the night before.
Her computer on her arm told her that her virus was halfway through its routine. They needed to move, otherwise the cameras she was distracting with a virus would notice them and there would be more than a sore bellied guard to deal with.
First, they had to find the prisoner appropriate clothing so the guards wouldn’t stop him at reception. She had other clothing for him in her car as she had assumed that a prisoner would not have access to the gear needed to traverse the fiains. She just didn’t think he would be this badly provided for. If he never went anywhere there wouldn’t have been any need for a coat or shoes.
Sorcha brought the man to the gym, down the way from her own office, and a couple of corridors away from his cell. There was still a few working out in the open gym area but they were absorbed in their own routines. She kept a lookout to see if they would turn and spot them. When they didn’t even lift their heads, she motioned for the man to go past into the locker room area. Once he was out of sight of the others working out, she ducked into the men’s locker room.
The escaped prisoner said, “I didn’t take you as kinky.”
She shot him a burning look. Maybe he was just a jerk and here she was risking everything to get him out. She wasn’t even sure he knew anything or would be able to protect her. That wasn’t her first goal in freeing him. She had planned this as much as she could but there were things, she couldn’t completely account for.
“You need more clothes,” she stated to get her mind back on their escape rather than the unanswered questions swimming in her head.
He looked disappointed and glanced down at his attire. “And here I was hoping we would be removing clothes.” Despite the words he didn’t give any other sign he intended to progress their relationship.
Instead of arguing he moved past her to the lockers and started to rummage for clothes that would fit him. She wondered at his ethics as he didn’t hesitate at the blatant stealing. Clearly, he had either been compromised by his confinement or he had never had them in the first place. The doubt niggled but she didn’t have the luxury of having her own morals as she was about to turn traitor to her own people.
Were rules and laws so important when lives were to be saved? She found him some shoes that looked like they would fit while he slipped on a thick coat that would keep him warm and also disguised his shape.
While he put on his shoes, she found a hat and scarf. He eyed the scarf dubiously before putting it on. Her hackles rose. He was literally dressed in pyjamas and he was being critical of her fashion choices. So she didn’t like the scarf either but it would hide his features.
He said, “This is very far from what I’m used to wearing. At least the coat is made of fine fabric.”
“Stop whining.” He had a wardrobe of pyjamas and tracksuit pants, surely, he shouldn’t be this picky.
His eyes warmed with emotion as he slipped the hat onto his head. “Is that what I was doing? Then I must apologise. The last thing I would want to do is annoy the person setting me free.”
Sorcha snapped, “Then you can stop the sexist comments.”
He looked chastised. “Sorry for that. I’m not usually an ass. I just am very excited. You are the first woman I have seen in a while.”
Worried she was taking out her own misgivings about her slide into rebellion out onto him made her soften towards him. While he finished dressing, Sorcha went to the door to see if the men were still distracted with their workouts. She asked distractedly over her shoulder to the prisoner dressing, “How long is a while?”
She glanced back when he didn’t answer straight away. He wrapped the scarf around his neck as he answered, “Three years.”
She could imagine for a handsome man like him three years seemed like endless without a woman. She calculated the last time she had been with a man and that was no more than a couple of kisses. It had easily been more than three years so she really didn’t have any sympathy for him. Glancing back, she saw that he had finished dressing.
He looked like a mix and match scarecrow but he didn’t look like an inmate of a mental asylum and that was all that mattered. There were other scholars at the foundation who dressed poorly so at least he wouldn’t stand out.
Once they left the gym they walked casually as if they were supposed to be there. She saw one of her colleagues and worried that they would be suspicious of her wandering with a new man. Her father had always told her the best weapon against suspicion was confidence.
She turned to the prisoner and said, “Of course the outer planet is a planet.” Waving her hands energetically as if there were half-way through an argument.
A frown briefly crossed his face before he said, “That isn’t what I was taught at school.”
Glad he picked up on her cue she started on a long rant about the qualifications of the outer planet in their system. They passed by her colleagues and even the guard at the front door still discussing whatever random topic she could think of. The prisoner waved his arms around as he engaged in the conversation. No one bothered to ask her who he was but they did give them strange looks. At least they wouldn’t be able to hear her heart beating heavily against her chest. The cool air conditioning wicked away the sweat on her brow. They moved through the corridors and out to the front doors with no incident.
She waved a goodbye to the guard who sat at reception but continued on with her lecture to the now ex-prisoner. She saw for a moment that the guard wanted to ask about her guest but didn’t want to be rude and interrupt their heated conversation.
Once outside she went quiet and picked up her step. Anxiety putting heat under her heels. In the car park there were few vehicles mainly because the scientists commuted with public transport.
Sorcha had brought in her vehicle this morning with some food for the staff. She did that occasionally and it would explain why she had brought her car when she didn’t usually do that.
Motioning the prisoner into the vehicle she said, “There is some gear in the back for you to change into. Something a bit more to your taste hopefully. We are heading into the fiains so no matter how awesome that scarf is you will need some smart fabric.”
He reached over the back of the seat and pulled out the bag she had brought. He stripped in the front seat out of the clothes they had procured. She pulled out of the compound and headed down the small access road. Undressing he revealed smooth muscles and flawless skin. Paler than most people of Ardin as even with the kupal the radiation was higher than earth.
He disregarded her as he flicked the offending top onto the back seat. She blushed as she kept her
eyes on the road. He had a really fine chest. She had seen a few men naked but none who had treated their bodies as a tool to be shaped. She swallowed a lump in her throat and focused on the road ahead.
The narrow winding road didn’t have any built-in sensors so she had to drive manually. Her hands tightened around the steering wheel as she wasn’t completely confident driving herself.
Mostly she came out here on the rail that ran alongside the road. The occasional drives out with her father and sometimes bringing her own vehicle to work were the extent of her own driving.
A small road led off the access road into the fiains and to a small mine that had closed down years ago. It was an open pit mine and a scar on the landscape but the fiains was already taking the area back. Tree roots curled over the sides of the pit and down the sides of the rock. Moss and lichen grew on the rocks turning them a soft green instead of the sharp yellow brown of the stone. She pulled the vehicle up to where water had started filling in the bottom of the open mine from several smaller waterfalls. Here shrubbery hid the start of the waterfalls so the sound was an echo of dancing water rather than a roar.
The prisoner finished changing and put some gear into his pockets. The clothes were second-hand from a store in the shadier parts of Jing. They weren’t very stylish but they were better suited for the fiains than the gear they had stolen from the gym locker room. Better than that, the material was made from smart fabric and could possibly save his life.
He opened the door and turned to put on the boots which he hadn’t been able to do in the small confines of the vehicle. Turning her head forward she thought nostalgically about her vehicle. Her hand patted the wheel of the car, her father had purchased it for her when she had graduated high school. Saying a silent goodbye, she also got out of the vehicle.
Sorcha started on her buttons of her blouse. She had layers on over the outfit she had intended to wear for the adventure she was about to embark on. It was silly to think of it as an adventure but it was only when she had started her plans that she had realised just how stifled she had been in her old workplace.
She stripped off the parts that made up her office outfit and added warmer clothes and other things she thought she would need in the fiains. The research she had done was sparse. Not because she hadn’t had the time but rather because few wrote about it as it was considered a dangerous place and a place only Warriors should wander. But she had guessed what was needed from the some of the Warrior’s reports that were public access. Some smart fabric from a second-hand Rustic store had been the first thing on her list. Along with survival gear.
She slipped a bag over her shoulders and went around the car to where the prisoner was putting some things back into the bag after he had checked what was there.
She straightened her spine. “I need you to take me to the Serenities.” In particular the one who had been on the television but she assumed he wouldn’t know where she was and that the other Serenities would.
He looked up with narrowed eyes. “That is suspicious, sweetheart. A good-looking girl comes and rescues me and then tells me to take them to the Serenities.”
She flushed. “I’m not the people who kept you there.”
“You are a Scribe,” he countered.
“That doesn’t mean I agree with everything the Scribes do. Do you agree with everything the Serenities do?” She was losing this battle and she knew it. Her voice faltered. If he didn’t take her to the Serenities she would have nowhere to go. Jing City was certainly not safe and the only other areas that had been civilised were the small satellite towns and they were so small that a new person would be obvious. She wondered if that had been done on purpose by the Scribes in order to keep control of the movement of people.
He lowered his head and finished packing his bag. She pursed her lips, not amused that his idea of arguing with her was to ignore her. She tightened her hands around the strap of her bag and said, “I’ve risked everything to free you. My career is over for this but what I have found out is more important than my career.” She didn’t add that she thought they might kill her if they caught her. But she didn’t have definitive evidence that would happen so she wouldn’t be overly dramatic. She hated people who whined.
He slipped the bag over his shoulder and said, “I do thank you, for freeing me. But maybe it is better if you go back.”
Did he had no idea that she had nothing to go back to? She shook her head. “I have news that the Serenities need to know.” She didn’t tell him that what she knew wouldn’t be pertinent for a long time. But his life might have been over by then and she certainly didn’t have the time. Instead, she had broken from her career and her father’s expectations to free a stranger who seemed to her to be slightly ungrateful for what she had done for him.
“If it’s that the humans are on their way, I’m pretty sure they know about it.” He went to walk past her but she caught his shoulder and forced him to stop and pay attention to her.
“More than that. I’m a scientist that monitors the sky. I have news that could change everything. Do you think I would risk my life and give up my career for something a silly Serenity announced on TV?”
He raised a single eyebrow. “Well, tell me and I will pass it on.” Crossing his arms over his chest.
She snorted. “Do you think I am a fool?” He was being so insufferable but not unlike most people treated her. Everyone wrote her off as she had an unimportant job in a field that didn’t affect anyone. The moment she revealed what she knew to him he would pat her figuratively on the head and tell her to go on with her life while others did the important stuff. She wanted to have a life that meant something.
He shrugged nonchalantly. “You did free me.” She narrowed her eyes as he added more seriously. “You are if you think I’m going to betray my people.”
“I’m betraying my people, Marcus.” She added emphasis with a wave of her hands.
“That isn’t my name.” He looked down while he finished clipping on his backpack so it wouldn’t shift as he made his way through the fiains.
She frowned in confusion at the change in the subject so it took her a moment to realise what he had said. “What?”
“Marcus isn’t my name. My name is Kynaston.” He smoothed his hands over the straps running over his chest and shifted them to a more comfortable position.
Her lips went round. “They must have changed your name to hide you.” She knew her people could be duplicitous but it would be difficult to change someone’s identity as it was coded into their DNA. They would have had to have changed every record attached to him. She had seen evidence in it but she hadn’t truly thought they would do such a complete job.
He didn’t seem to care that they had literally wiped out his identity. “Not surprising. If I had been easy to find the others would have come for me already. They have more resources than you might expect.”
That actually relieved her that the work she had taken to release him and avoid detection was indeed a good idea. And became more important because they had tried so hard to hide him. She knew that if she spoke up that she could be putting her life at risk and she didn’t want to do that for no reason. “Well, Kynaston, I need to go with you. The Scribes aren’t very forgiving.”
He must have heard the desperation in her voice as he stopped arguing with her and studied her for a long moment. “If you allow me to read your mind and see if you are telling the truth I’d let you come along.”
She hesitated. It was a very intimate thing he was asking. It was almost like asking a stranger for sex.
Blushing at the metaphor she had created in her mind, she said, “I’m not sure.”
“Well, that is the deal. Let me in or I leave you here.” Any sympathy for her had clearly dissipated as he returned to his preparations to leave.
Her faced darkened with her anger. “You are just trying to coerce me.”
“Yes. But I will give you a deal. You can look in my head if I find you are being honest
.” At least he was being straight up with her. It was a tempting deal and left them on the same plane as he didn’t know her either. If she could see into his mind, maybe she could see why the government had gone through so much to hide him away.
He must have seen her decision on her face as he smiled and asked, “Can I touch you? I mean it will make the access easier.” At least he asked even if there was a bitterness of coercion in the whole situation.
She nodded her head with some reluctance. She had some doubts but not enough for her to stop him. With his touch came nothing but the warm touch of his hand on her wrist. She couldn’t feel him in her mind and she didn’t think of anything except what was happening at that moment. That way he couldn’t see her secrets. She hoped.
He asked, “Ready?”
“Yeah.” Though she was confused, probably because she had no idea what it would be like to have someone inside her thoughts. He had already started, hadn’t he?
Then she was yanked forward except that it wasn’t her body that was pulled. Instead, her mind was pulled into his. Images flashed before her minds’ eye, so fast she almost couldn’t make out what she was seeing. She did get a sense of the tension of hiding for so many years that he was a Serenity. His father never approved of him unless he was the best. His mother’s standoffish nature. He couldn’t understand why his mother refused to hug him or draw him close. His mother telling him because he was male, he would never have to worry about going crazy.
Powers that separated him from friends. He ached along most of his life. Isolated and disconnected even from those that should have been his family. Despite the way Kynaston’s mother treated him, he acknowledged his role to protect the whole family. The steps he had taken to keep them all safe which had only isolated him from his family and anyone who could possibly be a true friend. Sorcha saw him with his sister and his fear that she would reveal to everyone they were Serenities and doom them all and his panicked solutions to hide her and her abilities. Only for it all to come crashing down when she went and got herself pregnant in a clinic that was run by a government secret organisation.
Model: Scribe (Model Humans Book 2) Page 3