by Kate Tailor
Minutes later, wrapped in large robes with their hair in blue- and white-striped towels, Raleigh and Agatha headed to the pedicure room. They dipped their feet into the warm wax as a helpful woman laid out nail polish choices before leaving them to soak.
Agatha stretched her toes. “You aren’t relaxed. Is there anything you want to talk about?”
Thus far, there’d been no discussion of Receps, Lucidin, or going into the field. Raleigh preferred to keep it that way. “Will there be dancing tonight?”
“Probably.”
“Do you think it would be okay if I asked one of the Receps to dance?” Raleigh forced a blush to creep up her cheeks. She had to make it visible because Agatha couldn’t sense.
A conspiratorial smile crossed Agatha’s face. “Which Recep? Surely not Gabe.”
“Yuck. Not Gabe. That would be like dating my brother.”
“I’m glad you feel so close to him.”
“Training will do that.”
“Which one?”
“Darius.” Raleigh casted her eyes down. “I know we aren’t allowed to fraternize, but he was so nice last night. He’s caring... but I don’t know. Maybe he’s not for me.”
“I don’t see why you can’t have a bit of fun. After all the training, you should dance with him. If you can’t let your hair down every now and then, what’s the point? But remember, just dancing. Not dating.” Agatha smiled.
The text sat heavy on Raleigh as she grinned back. This woman was someone she respected, and Raleigh’d jeopardized everything.
“You’re living in a man’s world. I’m sorry for that. We employ equal numbers of men and women in our labs, and, of course, the healers are female, but the field is male-dominated.”
“I’ve had Dale and Adam to hang with.”
“Yes, but it’s not the same as hanging out with other women, is it?”
No. It really wasn’t. Back home Raleigh had both male and female friends. She missed the gossipy conversations she and her friend Emily used to share. Last time they’d spoken, Emily had received her college class assignments and stressed endlessly about her new roommate.
“When you started at Grant and Able, it was mostly men, right?” asked Raleigh.
“All men. Except the surrogates for the babies, and they were often in horrible moods. I was used to being around men though. My father took me with him from job to job. My mother and I were never that close. After they divorced, I saw less and less of her.”
“I see too much of my mother.”
“She seems very invested in your health. You’re lucky. Mine wasn’t as attentive. I pushed to have the Designed be female. Did you know that?”
“Really?” She attempted to picture Rho’s deep-set eyes on a more feminine face. “Why aren’t they girls?”
“I was the only one who voted for it. I think each scientist who worked on them mixed a bit of their own hopes and dreams in. They wanted to make men to mirror their own ambitions. I added my own stamp to Sigma, the worst of them. I gave him the coloring of my best friend growing up. He was an Egyptian boy who liked to play in the labs. The first words we had in common were lab supplies. He was fun and happy. I guess I wanted to give Sigma that joy any way I could.”
“Did his other two triplets end up as bad? They didn’t seem to... going by the files.”
“I had hopes for Rho. All three of those triplets were leaders. In the end, he and I argued. He didn’t approve of people receiving Lucidin. He thought it was hurting the Receps.”
Raleigh shifted in her seat, the wax sliding higher to her ankles. “He is right. They are addicted. We need to find something better than the synthetic for them. Even with natural Lucidin, I think they’re addicted.”
Agatha leaned back in her chair. “Natural Lucidin shouldn’t be addictive. Once we capture more Designed, we won’t need as many Receps, and we’ll use less synthetic.”
If the G and A clinics took off in New York and Chicago, the medical demand for Lucidin would increase. Even with Raleigh, all the Designed, and the Modified, they would never have enough. The lab brains might be a solution, but they weren’t near ready.
Two pedicurists entered rolling nail polish in their hands. They removed Raleigh and Agatha’s feet from the wax, effectively ending any small talk. At least, Raleigh had said her piece about the Lucidin addiction. Hopefully, Agatha would take it to heart, coming from her.
After their toenails and fingernails had been painted, it was time to do their hair and get dressed. Soon they would be confronting the evening.
27
AGATHA HUMMED A light tune as the mansion came into view. The Recep drove slowly, the windows down. Crickets chirped, and the smell of freshly cut grass lingered in the air. It reminded her of sitting on the back deck with her parents, playing cards and making jokes. She wished she could go home and avoid tonight, but it was time to do what she’d gone undercover for.
Agatha wore a sweeping floor-length emerald gown, and Raleigh donned a light-pink cocktail dress. She’d come a long way from the girl who dressed up at Uncle Patrick’s birthday party.
Agatha stopped her as they walked up to the house, pulling her into a brief hug. “I think the two of us are going to be quite the team someday.”
Raleigh liked Agatha. She was the type of woman Raleigh herself wanted to be—strong, empowered, and in charge of her future. Raleigh’s voice caught in her throat as Agatha pulled away. “Thanks for everything.”
Agatha squeezed Raleigh’s arm, and together they approached the house. One of the Receps abandoned his post to open the door. Raleigh could’ve sworn that the chip in her shoulder tingled as they walked in. She’d never been more aware of it.
With only an hour until the party, caterers circled the table making last minute adjustments, and florists positioned large arrangements near the door. The workers moved with a choreographed grace. Raleigh tried her best to stay out of the way.
“All the chaos.” Agatha reached out to touch the petal of a rose between her fingers. “I better find Oliver and make sure everything’s in order before people start to arrive. See you at dinner.”
“Wow! You look great!” Dale arrived as Agatha departed. He wore a slightly dowdy suit that was a bit tight at the waist. “I look like an old man.”
“You look fine.”
“It was all they could find at the last minute. You look amazing though. I was worried about you. You didn’t eat with us last night. Gabe said we shouldn’t worry about you—which made me think we should.”
“Mu and Tau are in the basement,” Raleigh whispered.
Dale stiffened. “I know. They told me. But there’s nothing to worry about. The other Designed have no way of knowing that we’re here. And even if they did, Gabe says we’re ready for them. I’m sticking by you all night. You’re strong enough to fight those monsters.”
Raleigh diverted her eyes down, noticing how the light reflected off her heels. “I’m not so sure that I’m not a monster too. I hurt Tau last night, getting information.”
“It was justified. I don’t know what you did, but any harm that befalls them is karma.”
“Let’s hope karma has a short memory.”
“Oh, don’t worry about them. Are you ready to go out there and wow the benefactors?”
“Sure, what about you?”
“Let’s not pretend that they care about anything other than my Lucidin.”
“I do, though, and they should. You’re a very good friend.”
“Don’t get all dopey on me. We still have a few nights before you go into the field.”
Raleigh gave him a hug anyway. Over his shoulder she caught Gabe speaking to a Recep. His formal suit was Recep black, he never let his guard down. Security would be on point.
The guests filed in one by one, and they offered compliments and long handshakes. Agatha introduced her to so many people that she hadn’t a hope of remembering any of their names. At dinner she positioned herself between Oliver and a
n older man who asked her the same questions again and again. Across the table Dr. Arthur, the head healer, was answering many of the same questions.
At any moment Raleigh expected the Designed to burst in. She rarely let the smile fall from her lips or her eyes from the door. By nine o’clock she began to consider the possibility that they weren’t coming. Trevor hadn’t answered either of her texts. There was no evidence that he’d seen them. For a month she’d been quiet. They may’ve abandoned her. She’d been so caught up worrying about the violence that might occur when the Designed showed up that she hadn’t considered what would happen if they didn’t.
Should she forget about getting Mu and Tau out? No. She couldn’t back down now. No one deserved to be caged like that. Gabe had forced her to torture Tau once. There was no guarantee that she wouldn’t have to do it again. She had to take her chances tonight, help or no help.
After dinner the guests began wandering out to the veranda in back. Alcohol contributed to more than one of the partiers engaging in impromptu dances.
Agatha found Raleigh as she stepped out onto the back porch. “If you want to ask Darius to dance, now’s the time. I convinced Gabe to spare him for the last hour. Go grab one of the other Receps to take his post. They’re on the third floor.”
“Thanks.” Raleigh had so much she wanted to say. She wanted to explain that Rho had been worried about her safety the morning they met, that there was a goodness in him that Agatha didn’t have enough receptors to sense. She wanted to explain that the Receps were being torn apart by the Lucidin addiction and that Dale and Quinn were prisoners of Grant and Able. Instead the words sat heavy in Raleigh’s throat.
Agatha shooed her into the house. “You better hurry. An hour won’t feel long once you start dancing.”
By the time she reached the stairwell, the hubbub of the party was reduced to a mere din. Raleigh ascended the two floors to the camera room. She rapped once on the door and waited.
“Raleigh, how can we help you?” asked one of the Receps with the door cracked open.
“Agatha said I’m supposed to get one of you to relieve Darius... so I can get a dance.”
“We need to be less concerned about dancing and more concerned about security.”
“There are three of you, right?”
“Four.”
With four Receps here and two in the basement, that accounted for six. All the others must be patrolling.
Raleigh steadied the door open with her hand. “Agatha said he could take the last hour off. Can you check with Gabe?”
“He’s busy.”
“When is he due to check in here?”
“When he has time. Get Dale to dance with you.”
Raleigh glanced both ways down the hall and then froze all four men. There was no point in taking out the two in the basement if the ones up here were watching and could sound the alarm. She slipped into the room. The one she’d spoken to stood inside the door, mouth half-open in mid-conversation. Another stared in her direction. The other two hunched over their monitors. She willed the one nearest the door to step back, so she could shut it. She may’ve been fooled into thinking that she froze time as effectively as their muscles if it weren’t for the screens showing the party from various angles—and the prisoners in the basement. She would have to go downstairs, but her influencing couldn’t hold up that far. They’d have to be incapacitated before she left.
The narrow closet with folding doors would have to do. She began yanking cords from the computers. Then she bound their hands. It was difficult due to the copper wire making the cords firmer than rope—not that she was used to tying people up with rope. Sliding her hands into the Receps’ pockets, she removed their cell phones. Then she marched them into the closet one by one, closed the doors, and tied a cord around the handles using a knot she knew wouldn’t hold. With all her might she dragged the heavy desk toward the closet. It required her full attention, which was hard to give since she needed to focus on influencing. Four sets of ears on four frozen bodies listened as she struggled to shift the desk into place. She tallied up how long she had before they escaped their bonds and opened the door. Then she slammed the monitors to the floor and watched them shatter, but she knew it wouldn’t buy her that much time. The table had a glass of water on it, in which she gave the phones a damaging bath. They’d have to get help the old-fashioned way.
She’d have to be quick in rescuing Mu and Tau. The knot and closet wouldn’t hold them long. She calculated how long she had, and it would be tight. Leaving, she tugged the door shut and whirled around to go down the hall, bumping straight into the broad chest of a Recep. The shock made her slip in holding the frozen Receps for a fraction of a second. Reestablishing the connection, she stepped in front of the guard, making it so he couldn’t enter.
“Can I help you?” the Recep asked.
“They just sent me to find Gabe. He’s needed on the lawn. It sounds important. They want him out back right away. I’m worried it’ll take me too long to find him.” She resisted the urge to glance back at the door. Would he sense their frozen bodies?
“I saw him out front.”
“Would you let him know to go around back?”
“Why don’t they just call him?”
“His phone isn’t working.” Raleigh attempted to keep the lines of her face smooth. Lying didn’t come easy to her.
The Recep huffed, tossing out his arm turning the way he came. “And on a day like this! I’ll get him. I’ll be faster than you.”
“Thanks.”
She watched him dash off before she slid out of her heels. Her nylon-covered feet skidded on the steps that she took two at a time. By the time she was one floor down, she lost her influence over the four guards. Hastily, she tucked her feet back into the shoes before entering the kitchen and did her best to calm her large breaths. With her hair falling out of place and sweat forming on her brow, she hoped no one saw her. One guest passed, but he didn’t observe her closely enough to suspect anything was wrong.
Raleigh finally reached the door to the basement. She opened it, the smell of earthy cellar wafting up. She took off her shoes as she rushed down the steps, the cold of the gritty ground icing her toes. The difference between the atmosphere at the party above and here below couldn’t have been more pronounced.
Winding through the wine she wondered what would happen if she failed. Would she end up in a cage beside them? Would her parents come looking for her? The fear of being imprisoned worsened when she arrived at the cages. Darius, the other guard, Mu, and Tau turned to see her.
Darius rose up from his seat. “Raleigh, you’re upset. Are you all right?”
“Darius, do you have the keys?”
Confusion crossed his face. Obediently he removed the heavy keys from a clip on his side, holding them out to her. With the keys dangling within reach, she froze him and the other guard. She untangled the keys from his fingers venturing a glance over her shoulder at the camera above. With any luck, the feed didn’t go anywhere other than the control room on the third floor.
She approached Mu’s cage holding up the keys. “Which one?”
He got over his shock quickly moving forward to help her single out the key. “This one.”
Raleigh jammed the key into the heavy lock. Her awareness of the guards, simmering with anger, made her hand shake as she turned the key. The clasp snapped open and Mu stepped out, taking the keys from her so he could release Tau.
With them both free Raleigh peered through the darkness at the wine racks. “That’s the only way out.”
“Tau, help me put them in. She won’t be able to hold them forever,” Mu said. He yanked the first of the two into his cell closing the cage. Tau dragged the second into his former prison. As he fitted the lock onto the door, a fine mist showered down from above and a siren cut the air.
Raleigh’s hand shot up to cover her ears, the mist filling her mouth with a bitter taste. She coughed, her mind wondering if it weren’t
a poison. Before she could ask what it was, her abilities dulled then ended. The inhibitor. Darius and the other guard sprang to life, grabbing the bars and shouting. Raleigh could only barricade now.
“We have to hurry.” She ran toward the stairs behind Mu. “They must know I broke you out. I’m not sure how far we’ll get.”
Tau grabbed her arm and slammed her against one of the shelves of wine. A bottle crashed to the floor and glass sprang up and cut her leg. The blood ran down the back of her ankle and mingled with the Chianti pooling on the floor. She didn’t register the pain as her attention was on her throat—which he clutched in his hands. He lifted her up and she gasped for air.
Mu halted on the first step. “Tau, let her go! We don’t have time.”
“Just until she loses consciousness.”
“She saved us!”
“We don’t know who she is.”
“Rho,” she squeaked.
Mu yanked his brother’s arm. “Put her down!”
Tau loosened his grip, and Raleigh inhaled. The air came in rough, and she moved her fingers to her throat. “I know Rho! I’m a mole. I’m here to get you out. We have to leave on foot, and we need to make it quick.”
“Don’t lie!” Tau’s fingers cut into her arm.
“Let her go!” a familiar voice demanded. Kappa barreled down the stairs yelling into a walkie-talkie. “They’re in the basement! I have them! Stop the search!”
Kappa pushed Tau away from her and swept her into a tight embrace. “You didn’t wait for us.”
“I wasn’t sure you were coming!”
“What’s the plan?” Mu stared up the stairwell.
“Front door.”
“They have an inhibitor.” Raleigh’s bare feet struggled to keep up. “We can’t influence.”
Kappa looped an arm under her shoulder, helping her the last few steps to the kitchen. “That inhibitor mist is all through the house. We have guns.”
Those would work. The four ran through the kitchen and into the living room where a clear path lay to the front door and freedom. Mu and Tau left with Kappa. Gamma and Xi came down from upstairs. Raleigh didn’t see Rho. She frantically searched. Finally, she spotted him in the dining room, his face as handsome as she remembered, and a great deal more worried. On soft feet she hid behind the arched doorway to the room.