Cipher (12 page)

How in the hell were we going to get out of here?

I kept it together by concentrating on smooth breaths, even if my heart was racing.

“We have to go,” Emma whispered. It was hard not to react to the sound of her voice. A little low with a hint of rasp, like she was a smoker, but I knew she wasn’t. She smelled like coconut, not cigarettes.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got you.” I continued to watch the team as they moved through the club.

Oliver caught my eye. He pointed to himself and Dex and then nodded.

They were saying they were with me, but that wasn’t an option. “No way,” I mouthed. They couldn’t blow their cover for this.

Oliver moved a little closer. “You need someone to watch her back. You can’t get her out of here without getting caught unless you have our help. We’re out anyway. Everyone knows the three of us are like brothers. If you leave now, we’re screwed by association.”

Three Raven covers blown in one night. This wasn’t going to go over well. There weren’t that many of us within the helix ranks. The Lady put in years of work to secure every covert operative and build cover stories.

She was going to be so pissed.

The tracker deactivation device was the size of a pinky nail, and each of us had one on hand just for this kind of nightmare. I set the micro-needle against my helix and pressed the button, killing the code that linked me to the Seligo satellites.

Dex and Oliver did the same. Had we been outside the blackout zone, the Citadel’s computers would’ve known within a matter of seconds and someone would’ve instantly scrambled to find out why three helixes just went missing.

With the blackout, we could fall under the radar for a little bit. Long enough to get us out, at least. Once the system was back online and we showed up as missing from the system, our covers would be officially blown. I should probably regret it more than I did, but I wouldn’t hate leaving the lies behind—especially not with Emma at my side.

Now it was time to run like hell. The farther, the faster, the better.

The other Black Helixes were separating everyone in the club into manageable groups. They’d separated the girls from a few guys. The guys started yelling and shoving—one took a swing and in five seconds, that whole side of the room was brawling. The attack team scrambled to control the crowd that was now fighting back.

Time to go.

I dropped to the floor and crawled under the break in the bar. Sandra opened the hatch in the floor. For whatever reason she was helping, I’d take it. She opened her mouth to talk, and I put my finger against her lips. I moved to whisper in her ear. “Thank you.”

She was shaking, but there wasn’t anything I could do. I had to get Emma out. Now. Taking Sandra with us wasn’t an option.

I went down the dark stairs first, grabbing Emma’s hand as I moved past her. I put her hand in my back belt loop so she could hold on while I kept both hands free. It also kept her within arm’s reach. After years of searching, I’d finally found her. I wasn’t about to let her get away again.

Emma pulled Mona along behind her. Dex and Oliver followed, closing the hatch behind us. There was barely enough light to see by. Rows of metal shelving along the walls were stacked high with cases of alcohol. Kegs were piled in groups of three and four, but even in the well-organized room, we wasted nearly three minutes looking for the way out.

“It’s an empty room,” I said. “We’re trapped.”

“No,” Emma said. “There’s an abandoned tunnel system here. Drug runners built them. Sandra was telling me about them last night. We’re just not looking hard enough.”

I checked my watch. The blackout probably wasn’t that bad, and with Parson in the area, the attack teams would move fast.

“Tap the walls. One of them has to be fake,” I said.

The guys and Mona each took a wall, but I kept Emma with me.

Metal screeched against concrete. A second later there was another crash.

“We’re trying to do this as
quietly
as possible.”

“Shut up. I found it. Down here,” Dex said. “There’s a corridor. It’s narrow and made for little people, but this has to be it.”

Dex had moved a bunch of kegs off to the side, and punched a hole in the drywall. “Good work.” I hunched down and took the lead.

The tunnels were dim. Only small, motion-activated lanterns broke the darkness, but navigating was a basic skill that every Black Helix had to master. Drop us in the middle of nowhere with a blindfold on, and we’d have to find our way home. This required memorizing maps of the major Voids, and I didn’t remember seeing any tunnels in this area. That meant the Seligo didn’t know about them.

I focused on counting turns and the angles of the tunnels. Getting lost could get us all killed. I tried to keep us headed northwest toward the market district, but the tunnels wound and broke off—some were completely blocked. The crude ceilings and walls made just being down here unsafe. Bits of dirt rained down as cars rolled overhead. How had these paths even held up?

As we moved through, frustration gnawed at me. We couldn’t turn back now, but this could easily go south. There didn’t look to be a way out and time was limited.

Sweat dripped down my back as we reached a fork.

Voices sounded in the distance.

I motioned for Dex and Oliver to take cover. Not that there was much. Shielding Emma and Mona behind me, I pulled my weapon from my ankle holster.

Three Black Helixes ran through the tunnel in our direction.

“Stop,” a voice echoed toward us.

I didn’t think about who they were or that maybe I’d fought beside them. I couldn’t. Not and still pull the trigger.

Dex, Oliver, and I shot at the same time, downing two of them. The third pulled his gun, but I put a bullet between his eyes before he could fire.

“There’ll be more on the way.” I didn’t dare meet Emma’s eyes—killing in front of her didn’t make me feel good, but better them than us. Instead, I turned back to the fork in the tunnel. No time to debate. From the way we were going and what I remembered of the area, if we went left we’d end up in some apartment buildings. Right veered toward a shopping district. Shopping was better. More chaos. More people to hide among.

I couldn’t believe I was out here without my gear. “Dex. Any chance you got one of those bots?”

“You know I never leave home without them. Why?”

“Send it behind us. If there are more coming, I want to know.”

“Sure thing.” He pulled a tiny device out of his pocket. It unfolded and expanded, looking like a mini helicopter. He clicked a button and sent it down the tunnel.

Its features were limited to going in one direction and exploding on contact. In other words, nearly useless. But we were desperate.

After another hundred yards a ladder was mounted to the wall, leading up to what I hoped was a manhole cover. “Wait here,” I said. Emma nodded and I started climbing.

I lifted the cover just enough to scan the area. The power was still out, and it gave people the perfect excuse to act up. It was chaos out there. People running, shoving each other, and fighting. Looting. Random spurts of gunfire.

Damn it. I should’ve gone the apartment route. I’d wanted chaos, but this…

Emma stood eight feet below me, huddled with her friend. She got to me. I knew she would to some extent, but not like this. The way she looked. The curve of her hip. And that awful blue hair. I was so screwed, and I couldn’t blame it on the pairing. The girl kicked my ass at games. Hacking. Everything about her was a turn-on.

It would’ve been idiotic to think that Lady Eva could match me with someone who wasn’t a fit for me. This girl was going to have me wrapped around her little finger if I wasn’t careful. I was probably lying to myself by thinking she didn’t already.

But keeping her safe was my priority. That hadn’t changed. It was just a little bit trickier.

An explosion echoed down the tunnels. Given the speed the bot traveled, we had maybe five minutes before backup was on our ass.

“We got incoming,” Dex shouted.

I dropped down the ladder quickly. “Riots and looting in the streets. We watch the girls, get them to safety. We move fast.”

“Where’re we headed? Safe house?” Dex asked.

“Not sure yet. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible. The grid is out, but with Parson here—that’s not going to last for long.”

“We just need wheels,” Emma said. “I can hotwire any car. Once we’re on the road, it’s easy to disappear.”

“Not as easy as you’d think with today’s—” Wait. She could what? I couldn’t hold back the laugh. Emma was out of control. I don’t know what I’d expected, but it wasn’t this. Not even close. “You can hotwire a car?”

She shrugged. “Sure. Can’t everyone?” She pushed me toward the ladder. “But does it matter? Shouldn’t we be getting the hell out of here?”

“You might be in over your head,” Dex said with a laugh.

“Shut it,” I said. “We’re going up. I’ll lead. You two cover. No one gets Emma.”

“Who’s Emma?” Mona asked.

I touched a strand of her blue hair. “
She
is Emma.” Did her friend not know who she was? A buzz of electricity shot past me, exploding the closest lantern. I ducked as shards flew past me. “Something bothering you, Em?”

Another lantern broke and I put a hand on her.

She shrugged it off. “Don’t. It feels like you’re sucking everything out of me when you touch me. It’s unnerving. And no using my real name. No one’s called me Emma since I was eight. It doesn’t even feel like my name anymore. And no one calls me
Em
.”

“I used to call you Em.”

She laughed and it wasn’t a good sound. “There’s only one person who called me Em and he was
not
you. I’ve never met you before.”

“You sure about that?” She looked at my helix tattoo and then back at my face, but I didn’t give her time to process. “Let’s move.”

I climbed up the ladder and pushed the manhole cover all the way to the side. I took a quick look before pulling myself up, and then reached down a hand. “Let’s go, Em.
Fast
,” I said when she didn’t move right away. Her little hand was totally swallowed up by mine when I pulled her out. I tucked her hand back in my belt loop. “Don’t let go.” I’d run too many missions to count, and I’d never felt so afraid before—the stakes were too high with Emma in the middle of the danger.

“Any chance you’ve got more of those bots, Dex?”

“No.”

Not good, but understandable. “Oliver?”

“Nothing. I wasn’t going in for a fight tonight.”

Neither was I. The only reason I was armed was because I never went anywhere without at least one weapon.

Mona was next. I kept searching for trouble as I pulled her out of the manhole. “There’s a parking lot at three o’clock.”

Some asshole rushed past us—not a threat until he tried to grab Emma. “Hey!” She screamed as she wrestled his grasp. I spun, punching my fist through his nose. Blood splattered as he fell to the ground.

People were bumping into us as Dex and Oliver climbed up. Someone tried to pick my pocket, but I grabbed the guy’s wrist. “Nice try. Pick someone else’s.”

As soon as Dex and Oliver were out of the tunnel, I kicked the cover back in place. The guys had been working with me for so long that we didn’t need to speak. We moved as one, covering each other as we worked through the mass of people. Looters ran by—carrying as many electronics as they could hold. Kids in filthy rags ran from minimarts with food spilling from their pockets and cradled in their shirts. A fight broke out in front of us—two guys trying to assault a girl—and I moved around it. On my way past I kicked the closest guy’s knee and heard the crunch as it broke. Oliver took care of the other guy. It went against the grain for me not to stop, but giving the girl the chance to run was the best we could do.

The parking garage was a five-story structure with stairwells running up the corners of the building. A couple people were partying on the stairs. Trash was kicked against the walls and it reeked of piss and body odor.

“Let’s go,” I said as we entered the ground floor. A few gangs of kids were already busy breaking into cars.

An explosion went off on one of the floors above.

The touch of Emma’s fingers against the small of my back weighed on me. The pressure to get her to safety… My hands were sweating as I gripped my gun. “I’ll stop at the best vehicle that can fit us all.”

We got a few aisles in, and Emma tugged on my pants. “This one.”

I checked the car over. It was a late model sedan painted an unassuming gray. No bells and whistles. “No. We need something faster. Or more sturdy.”

“No. This one. No one will look at it twice.”

Before I could stop her, Emma slipped away from me. She pushed a few buttons and the door popped open.

She was already in the car. How did she get in the car? “How’d you break the lock so quickly?”

She rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows this model has a hack.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the snark in her voice.

“The keypad was defective. Most were recalled, but I took a chance on this one. It’s a shitpit. Thus, probably stolen.” She swept a bunch of trash off the floorboard, sending it scattering down to the garage floor. “Next time you see a beat-up S580, press star-four-zero-eight-zero-six-star-star. Usually works. They’re an eyesore, but the horsepower is pretty solid.” She twisted so her head was under the steering column and ripped off the panel.

I put my gun away. “I can get the car started. I don’t want you to get electrocuted.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I realized how dumb they were. I was making a hell of an impression on her.

She laughed. “Are you sure you know me? Because, seriously, if you actually knew anything about me, then you know how incredibly stupid that was.”

“Habit. Didn’t want you getting hurt.”

Her gaze met mine for a second, and I felt it all the way to my bones. “That’s sweet, but not necessary.” She stripped the wire with her teeth. “I’m pretty good at taking care of myself.” She flicked the wires together, the engine turned, and she twisted them to hold the connection.