Before I can reach the door, another guardsman enters through it. He sees me running toward him and draws his gun.
“Stop her!” one of the guards behind me yells.
The new guardsman pulls the trigger. I collapse, shuddering uncontrollably as an electric pulse races through my body.
The guard who stunned me loops his arms under my shoulders and starts to drag my convulsing, immobile body across the floor.
“Adam…” I mutter feebly, the words slipping off my tongue unintentionally. My brain feels like it’s vibrating against my skull. “Adam, help.”
I can barely keep my eyes open. My brain and body, ravaged by the stun gun, are in total disarray. All I feel is the hard floor beneath my legs as I’m hauled backwards, until I’m suddenly dropped and my head smacks against the tile.
A crash sounds.
Somebody curses.
The smell of burning.
A chorus of shouting.
I try to focus my eyes but the room is a watery blur. Fuzzy shapes race back and forth in front of me.
A siren goes off and suddenly there is a shadow crouching over me.
“Hey!” the shadow says harshly, barely audible over the commotion. “What did you say?”
I stare blankly at the ceiling with unfocused eyes. I feel a sharp sting across my face as the shadow slaps my cheek. It echoes into the spot where Wolfe punched me and the pain makes me slightly more aware. Just slightly.
“Ow,” I say.
“What did you say before?” The shadow has a woman’s voice. She wears a white coat. “Why did you say ‘Adam’?”
“Because Adam’s going to save me,” I slur. “We were meant to save each other.”
“Is he here? Is Adam here?”
“Of course he is,” I say, my words garbled. My tongue feels like it weighs twenty pounds. “Where else would he be?”
“Get up,” she says.
I try to sit up. My head flops to the side.
“Oh, for crying out loud.”
There is an explosion, then more shouting.
With half-open eyes, I see the desks around me start to move. No, wait. They’re not moving. I am. My vision starts to clear as my body slides across the floor, the rest of the room consumed in chaos.
“Luke! Come on, we’ve got to go!”
I am weightless. I float through the air as my shadowy interrogator and I head for the door where we are joined by another white coat: a man with dark hair. They move stealthily through the halls and into a stairwell. I glide along behind them as they descend, as if toted by an invisible rope.
“What are we doing, Charlie?” the man asks.
“You heard her. She said his name. She said he’s here.” Charlie pulls at the bun on the back of her head and a cascade of burgundy hair falls down her back.
“That’s impossible. We don’t even know who she is. This could be a trap!”
“I know what I heard, Luke. You saw what happened in there. This girl knows something, otherwise they wouldn’t have been prepping her for outprocessing. There’d be no reason to make her forget.”
“Well, she’s not exactly in a state to tell us anything right now, is she?”
“We can’t go back now, anyway,” Charlie says.
“And whose fault is that?”
We stop moving. Charlie opens a door in front of us and we enter what looks like a storage room. Charlie’s FX breaks its hold on me, and my body hits the floor beside a pile of crates. With the modicum of bodily control I’ve regained, I hoist myself up into a seated position and lean against the boxes.
I look up to find Luke barring the door with a large crate. A floor above us, the alarm is still going off.
“We should be okay for now,” he says. “I don’t think anyone noticed us in the chaos of the fire. But it’s only a matter of time before they come looking. We need to get Tom and get out.”
“Not before we hear what she has to say,” Charlie says.
I blink. My vision restored, I am finally able to get a good look at my rescuers.
Luke towers over me, looking down with turquoise eyes, framed by thick, dark eyebrows. Streaks of gray run from his temples back through his dark hair, though he doesn’t otherwise look much older than Adam. He watches me with concern.
Charlie, on the other hand, assesses me with an entirely different expression. Her violet eyes are narrowed and her jaw is stiff as she sheds her lab coat, revealing a form-fitting metallic jumpsuit. Svelte and leggy, her deep red hair looks a little listless and there are dark circles under her eyes, but she is otherwise stunning.
“Come on, out with it. What was that about back there?” she says abruptly. When I don’t respond, she kicks the side of my foot with her shoe. “Hello, we don’t have all day.”
I stare at her in disbelief.
“Take it easy,” says Luke. “She’s clearly been through a lot.”
Charlie crosses her arms, but steps back to allow Luke to approach me.
“What’s your name?” he asks kindly.
I bite my lip. “Terra.”
“Oh, sure, now she can talk,” Charlie says.
“I… I…” I stammer, still regaining control of my verbal faculties, though there’s
a lot
I’d like to say to her.
Charlie sighs melodramatically, and my tongue finally unlocks.
“Just give me a minute,” I say demandingly.
“We don’t
have
a minute,” she says.
Luke shoots her a scolding look.
“I don’t know if you noticed,” I spit, “but I wasn’t exactly in any shape to chat back there.”
“And I don’t know if you noticed, but we saved your scrawny ass back there.”
What is her problem?
“What is your deal?” I ask, aggravated.
“My deal? What’s yours? How the hell do you know about Adam?”
“Charlie,” Luke cautions.
“You’re the rest of his team,” I say. It’s not a question.
“How do you know that?” Charlie asks angrily.
Luke ignores her outburst. “Most of it,” he says. “I’m Luke. This is Charlie. You obviously already know Adam. And there’s a fourth, Thomas.”
“Hey, quit it!” Charlie slaps him on the shoulder. “She’s not the one who needs answers.”
Luke sighs resignedly.
“How do you know about us?” she repeats.
“He told me,” I say flatly.
Charlie’s nostrils flare with annoyance. “Look, either you’re going to start providing some real answers or—”
“Shh!” Luke holds his hand up, immediately silencing her. I listen intently for whatever sound is causing him alarm, but hear nothing.
“I don’t hear anything,” I whisper.
Charlie shoots me a death-glare.
Seconds later, a shadow passes over a crack of light at the bottom of the door, still visible despite the barricade. Charlie raises her hands defensively while Luke quietly opens a small box and pulls out a gun. He checks the side to make sure the stunner safety is on.
I hold my breath.
The crate barring the door scrapes on the floor as the intruder pushes against it. Charlie’s brow is creased in concentration, using her FX to keep the door shut, but whoever is trying to get in from the other side is just barely stronger than she is. The door creaks open an inch at a time.
Luke raises his gun and gestures for me to get behind him. With no small effort, I will my shaky legs to stand and comply.
Charlie lets out the tiniest groan as her focus falters.
The door swings open.
Charlie sucks in a deep breath.
Luke drops his gun arm.
“Well, this looks like quite the party.” Adam’s voice, warm and familiar, sounds from the doorway. “Mind if I crash it?”
Chapter 25
Dead silence falls over the small storage room. The grin on Adam’s face falters as Charlie, Luke, and I stare at him in bewilderment. Finally, Luke clears his throat and the impasse of silence breaks. My emotions churn up inside of me like a geyser, propelling my feet into motion before I can stop myself.
I don’t think. I don’t care. I just run straight into Adam’s arms.
“It’s okay,” he says gently, stroking my back. “You’re okay.”
I lift my head from his chest and am unsurprised to see wet marks on his shirt. “You were right,” I say bitterly. “They weren’t just going to let me go. At least not like this.”
Adam’s embrace tightens. “What did they do to you?”
“Nothing. They didn’t get a chance to, thanks to them.” I look over at Luke, who is watching us in awe, and Charlie, who just looks irritated. “I’m sorry I wouldn’t listen to you.”
“No, I’m the one who should be apologizing,” he says. “I never meant to hurt you. You know Whitlock was lying, right? I…
we
don’t intend to hurt anyone at all.”
“I know,” I say, looking earnestly into his eyes.
“As adorable as this little reunion is, don’t you think there’s a slightly more pressing matter at hand here?” Charlie rolls her eyes as she repositions the barricade in front of the door.
“Nice to see you too, Chuck.” Adam guides me over to a box of supplies and helps me sit down. “You’re sure you’re okay?” he asks. I nod and he turns around to face Luke.
There’s a moment of hesitation, as if neither of them knows what to say. Another second passes and suddenly they explode into a clash of grins, back slaps, and hugs.
“We thought you were dead,” Luke says, clamping his hands around Adam’s shoulders.
“I should be,” Adam says, laughing. “I fell a pretty long way.”
“How did you even survive?” Charlie asks.
“My FX might not be quite at Charlie-like levels, but I guess it’s a bit stronger than I thought.” She slaps him playfully on the back, and he continues. “I managed to slow down just enough to save myself from shattering every bone in my body. Still hurt like a mother, though. Cracked a couple ribs, I think.” He looks guiltily in my direction. “And someone else got hurt because of it.”
A few silent seconds pass before Luke speaks again. “Where have you been this whole time?”
Adam looks at me.
Luke follows his gaze and nods. “Ah.”
“I swear, Luke, I had no idea what was happening to you. The fall knocked me out pretty good, and by the time I came to, there was no sign of you guys. Not even landing marks. My datapad was damaged when I fell—it still works, but the communicator function is all jammed up. I figured you thought I died and had just… moved on.”
“Give us a little credit. As if we would’ve left you behind.”
“Maybe
you
wouldn’t have.”
“C’mon, Adam.” Luke shakes his head. “You know better than that. Tom was the one who insisted we land and look for you. We just never really got around to the second part.”
“The Tribunal.”
“Yep. With the ship malfunctioning, it was a rough landing, though nothing we couldn’t handle. But that ice queen Whitlock nabbed us before we even had a chance of finding you. Took us by complete surprise—I don’t even know how they got there so fast. They grabbed us, the ship, everything. Then got rid of the evidence. Aside from you, I guess.”
“How are you here? How did you find us?” Charlie asks.
“I’ll give you the abridged version,” Adam says, glancing at me. “I got picked up from the groundworld and was shipped up here. The next thing I know, I’m waking up in a holding room with Terra chained up next to me and I’m finding out you guys have been captive this whole time.” He looks from Charlie to Luke and back again, his expression pained. “I am so, so sorry.”
“You didn’t know.” Charlie’s tone is softer now.
“After they released Terra, a couple of guards came in to get me. I gave them the slip and went looking for you. Eventually I overheard a few people talking about some commotion in the lab, and figured that’d be a good place to start. I caught sight of you all just as you were sneaking out, and followed you down.”
“And to think, all those hours you spent whining about how you can’t track worth a damn,” Charlie says with a grin.
“Look, I don’t want to offend anyone or anything,” I say suddenly, “but I’m having a hard time understanding why you guys are still, uh, here. If it’s really like Prime Whitlock said, and the Tribunal fears some kind of alien invasion, then why wouldn’t they just kill you? And me, for that matter.”
“I don’t really have an answer with regard to you,” Luke replies. “Maybe it would raise too many questions, be too difficult to cover up. Or, I don’t know, maybe the Tribunal really does have some kind of a conscience.”
Charlie snorts.
“At least when it comes to the potential murder of an innocent civilian,” he continues. “But as for us, well, they need us.”
“What do you mean?” asks Adam.
“They have us working around the clock, and we’re under lock and key the rest of the time,” Luke says.
“Don’t forget the guns constantly aimed at our backs,” Charlie adds bitterly.
Luke continues. “They have Charlie updating the schematics of their oxygen generator; Tom’s been practically living in the engine room. They monitor our conversation pretty closely, but from what we’ve been able to glean from each other we think they’re—”
“Shh!” Charlie interjects, gesturing at me.
“She’s fine.” Adam takes my hand. “She’s with me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Figures you’d end up picking up a pet.”
“Shut it, Charlotte.”
“Do. Not. Call. Me. That.” Charlie’s right hand curls into a fist.
Adam rolls his eyes at her. “So, Luke,” he says, “you think they’re what?”
Luke hesitates. “We think… we think they’re trying to convert the city.”
“Convert it into what?” I ask. They ignore me.
“But that would mean—,” Adam starts.
“Exactly,” Charlie says.
“And their plan is to launch?”
“Yes. I’ve seen the specs. They’ve got a ways to go, but still.”
“Do they know…?”
“Not that we can tell.”
“Would full conversion be possible?”
“It’s pretty clear they’ve been working on it for a long time. Having us here has just… expedited things,” she says bitterly.
“And the people below?”
“We have our theories,” Luke says, “but they all end with pretty much the same outcome.”
Adam looks at me, panic in his eyes.
“What is it?” I stand up. “What are you talking about? What conversion? What theories?”
“There isn’t time to dumb it down for her. We need to get out of here. Now.” Charlie charges over to the entrance with her arm outstretched, moving the barricade aside. She cracks open the door and peeks outside. I’m not sure when the alarm upstairs stopped sounding, but I am suddenly very aware of how quiet it is.