Rise of the Elgen (31 page)

Suddenly a light started blinking on a black box on the top of the cage. A feminine automated voice said, “Code required. Please input code. Arming capacitor. Commencing countdown. Twenty-five, twenty-four, twenty-three . . .”

“What’s that?” I asked.

Her eyes showed her fear. “It’s an alarm, it needs to be shut off when you come in. Do you know the code?”

“No. What will it do?”

A green light turned on in the box above her cell.

“When it reaches zero it will electrocute me.”

“Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen . . .”

“Ian!” I shouted. “We’ve got to get her out of here. Now!”

“I don’t have a key.”

“Find one!”

“I’m looking!” he shouted frantically. “Jack, that guard right there. He’s got a key ring. Get it!”

Jack ran out into the hall and smacked the guard over the head with his baton. Jack grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him into the cell. Ian went after the key.

“Eight, seven . . .”

“Hurry!” I shouted.

“I’m hurrying!” Ian said. He ripped the key ring from the man’s pocket. “It’s gotta be one of these,” he said, fumbling through them. He tried one and it didn’t work.

“Three, two, one. Capacitor armed. Prepare for discharge.”

My mother looked into my eyes. “Michael . . .”

“Get back!” I shouted. I grabbed the bars, pressing my entire body against the cage, and braced myself for the release. There was a bright flash and a powerful snap of electricity, the force of which threw me to the ground. Then all was quiet. The air was full of a powerful smell of ozone.

“Michael?” Ian said.

I slowly opened my eyes. Then I looked in the cage. My mother was standing against the bars staring at me, her eyes wide with panic. “Michael?”

I suddenly started to laugh.

“It fried his mind,” Jack said.

I slowly climbed to my feet. “No. What a rush. Let’s get out of here.”

Ian continued through the rest of the keys until he found the right one. The lock slid, and he opened the door.

My mother stepped out and threw her arms around me. Tears fell down both our faces. “You shouldn’t have come,” she said. “You shouldn’t have come.”

“You can ground me when we get back to Idaho,” I said.

She wiped her eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Lots of love in here,” Ian said, his voice pitched. “But out there, not so much.”

“Sorry,” I said, stepping back. I reached down and picked up the extra uniform. “Put this on,” I said to my mother. We had saved the smallest of the Elgen uniforms for her. She quickly pulled it on. It was way too big on her, but she looked all right if you didn’t look too closely.

The bigger problem was her trouble walking. She’d been kept in a cage for weeks and her legs muscles were weak and cramped. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“I’d carry you if I could,” I said. “But they’d notice.”

“Just give me a minute,” she said, leaning against the wall to stretch her legs.

“Mom,” I said. “This is Jack and Ian. They’re my friends. I couldn’t have made it here without them.”

“Thank you,” she said, straightening up. “I’m ready.”

“It’s clear,” Ian said.

Jack opened the door, and we stepped out of the cell, shutting the door behind us. We walked down the hall, back toward the doors we’d entered through.

Ian stopped abruptly. “Change of plans,” he said. “Lieutenant Cox is back in action and buzzing like a mad hornet. Follow me.”

We ducked down the first hall we came to just as Cox and two guards stormed past us.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Into the hive,” Ian said.

T
he doors to the assembly hall opened automatically at our approach and we walked into a room full of hundreds of guards. Most of the guards were gathered in small clusters. Then I saw him. Hatch was standing in a corner of the room. I froze.

“What is it?” Ian asked.

“Hatch,” I said.

He was surrounded by a group of guards dressed in black and red. Standing near them were three of the electric kids I had seen pictures of in my room at the academy: Quentin, Tara, and Bryan. There was also a kid I’d never seen before..

“Who’s the other kid?” I asked.

“His name is Torstyn,” Ian said. “You don’t want to meet him.”

“He’s electric?”

“Yeah. He’s dangerous. Let’s get out of here.”

I turned back. “Where’s Jack?”

“Oh no,” Ian said.

Jack was already twenty feet from us. He had his hand on his belt and was walking toward Hatch. I pushed through the guards, catching up to him halfway across the floor. “What are you doing?”

His jaw was clenched. “He burned down my house.”

“You won’t make it within twenty feet of him.”

He kept walking. “I’ll take my chances.”

“They’ll capture you.”

“Let them try.”

We were now only fifty feet away from Hatch.

“He’ll capture
us
.”

Only then did he stop.

“This isn’t the time,” I said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

Jack took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. “This isn’t over.”

We turned and walked east through the assembly hall, then, meeting up with Ian and my mom, went out into the yard.

“Where are we going?” my mother asked.

“Back to the others,” I said. “They’re in the power plant.”

“Others?”

“There are a bunch of us.”

We had to walk past the Re-Ed entrance again to get to the power plant, so we waited for a large group of guards to pass by and blended in with them. When we arrived at the plant, we found a guard standing in front of the main entrance. It had been so easy getting out that I hadn’t considered the difficulty of getting back in.

“Can we walk around to the ranchers’ entrance?” Jack asked.

Ian shook his head. “There’s a twelve-foot fence with razor wire.”

“Whatever we’re doing, we better decide fast,” Jack said. “Cox is back and gathering a crowd.”

Lieutenant Cox was talking to a dozen other guards, who were passing around an electronic tablet.

“Ian, what are they looking at?” I asked.

He turned to me with a grim expression. “Us.”

“We need to create a distraction,” Jack said.

As I looked at the guarded door I had an idea. “Maybe the guard can be the distraction. Ian, can you see his ID?”

“It’s lying on the platform,” Ian said. “Cal . . . Calvin Gunnel.”

“Cal’s my new best friend,” I said. “Go along with me.” I turned to my mother. “You better keep a few yards back. I don’t think there are any female guards down here.”

She looked nervous but nodded.

“Ready?” Ian said.

I took a deep breath to get my twitching under control. “Let’s do it.”

We walked up to the guard, a broad-shouldered man with a scar on his cheek partially concealed by a sandy beard. He reminded me of a lumberjack.

“Cal?” I said.

He looked up at me.

“Cal Gunnel?” I walked closer to him, pointing to myself with both thumbs. “It’s me. Michael.”

His brow furrowed. I could tell he was trying to place me.

“I’ve been looking for you for days. I owe you big-time, man. And don’t you think I’ve forgotten. I never forget a favor.”

“Wait,” Ian said. “This is the Cal you were talking about?”

“I told you it was him.” I turned back to the guard. “When’s your next leave?”

The guard was glancing back and forth between us, looking more confused by the moment. “Tuesday. What—”

I didn’t let him finish. “Okay. I’m going to have to trade some shifts, but you and I are going to Lima. I know this club, and let’s just say you’re going to be glad you did me a favor.”

He stared at me for a moment, then said, “I have no idea who you are.”

I faked a laugh. “Yeah, right.” Then I looked into his face. “You’re not kidding, are you?” I pointed to myself. “Cal, it’s me.”

“You sure you got the right guy?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “How many Cal Gunnels are there in Puerto Maldonado?”

He squinted. “Michael, right?”

“Michael. Who else? Whatever you told Anderson made the difference. I can’t thank you enough for helping me.”

“Anderson,” he said, nodding. “It helped, huh?”

“I’ll say. I don’t know what you have on him, but you, my friend, have clout.” I turned to Jack. “You don’t want to get on Cal’s bad side, you know what I mean? This guy is powerful.” I turned back. “Next Tuesday. You can leave your
dinero
at home, this party is on me. I guarantee you will never forget this trip.” I put out my hand. “See you then?”

“All right,” he said. “Next Tuesday.” He took my hand.

I dropped him like a bad habit. As I had anticipated, at least a dozen guards saw him fall.

“Get everything you can from him,” I said to Jack. “But act like you’re helping him.”

Jack knelt down next to him, ripping the magnetic key from around his neck, then going through his pockets.

“Medic!” I shouted. “Medic!”

Guards began to move in toward us.

When there was a circle around us I said, “I think it’s sunstroke.”

“Clear out,” one of the guards in a purple uniform said. “Give me room.”

We stepped away from the crowd and the guard knelt down next to Cal, putting his fingers on the man’s neck. “Heartbeat’s strong. Looks like sunstroke.” He stood, grabbing the phone from the podium. “We need a stretcher at Starxource west. Another sunstroke.”

As the crowd milled around him, I caught my mother’s eye and gestured toward the door. With more than twenty guards standing around us, the four of us opened the locked door and walked into the plant unnoticed.

At least I thought we had.

O
nce we were back inside the cool of the plant I asked Ian, “Where are they?”

“They’re over that way,” Ian said, pointing toward the center of the building. “The trick is getting to them. This place is built like a rat’s maze.”

“Fitting,” I said. “What are they doing?”

“They’re near some breaker-looking things. I think they’re trying to figure out how to shut the grid down.”

“It’s too late for that,” I said. “We’ve got to get out of here before they discover my mother’s gone.”

Almost in answer to my words, the shrill scream of a siren sounded and yellow strobes began flashing in the hallways.

“Too late,” Jack said.

“Run!” Ian said.

With my mother in tow, we ran as fast as we could through
the long, vacant corridors, winding our way toward our friends. The halls were covered with a metallic, slate-colored material and were lined with stainless steel water pipes about a foot in diameter, spaced six feet apart. We caught sight of the rest of our group in a long, dark hallway halfway from the plant’s entrance. Taylor was leading, with McKenna at her side providing light. They stopped when they saw us.

“Tay—” I started to say. Suddenly my head felt like it was caught in a clamp. All four of us dropped to our knees. Then Zeus shot Jack and me with electric bolts. Jack screamed out in pain, but the effect of the electricity on me was opposite. With renewed strength I took a deep breath and stood. Even Taylor’s scrambling was no longer able to affect me.

“It’s us!” I shouted.

“Stop!” Ostin shouted, raising his hands. “It’s Michael!”

“Sorry!” Taylor said, clasping her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know it was you!” She ran to me. “And there are four of you.”

“Taylor?” my mother said, taking off her helmet.

“Mrs. Vey!” Taylor said. “They found you.”

“What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” Taylor said.

“Your parents are going to kill me,” my mother said.

“Hi, Mrs. Vey,” Ostin said.

“You too, Ostin?”

“And a good thing too,” I said. “He’s saved us more than once.”

Ostin grinned. “Just doing my job.”

Zeus walked over to Jack and put out his hand. “Dude, I’m so sorry.”

“Really?” Jack said. “Again?”

“We thought you were guards,” he said anxiously.

Jack looked at him, then started to laugh. He took his hand. “I would have done the same thing.”

Abigail walked up to Jack and hugged him. “I’m so glad you made it.”