I pried the security passes from his clenched fist and grabbed Quentin’s hand. ‘He’s dead. We need to move.’
We ran through the smoke, heading back to Liam, who’d waited by the building.
‘The smoke won’t stop them for long,’ he said. ‘I’m surprised they aren’t already through it.’ He led the way between two of the smaller buildings, staying close to the walls to keep us hidden.
But he was right.
They should’ve been on us by now.
They should’ve been shooting us dead.
I looked at the timer on my M-Band.
All of this had happened in just over three minutes.
I pulled up, frozen, as I stared back at the main building.
A red beacon had started to flash on the roof of the building. And then, something that caused us all to gasp: the white opaque walls of the building faded to clear until we had full view of everyone inside. But as if that weren’t enough, on the rooftop a magnified hologram flickered to life, showing roaming close-ups of each and every prisoner below.
‘There! Look!’ Quentin said, pointing to the centre of the building. It was filling up with white smoke.
‘It’s only in the corridors,’ Liam said, sounding defeated. ‘Oh, shit.’
I watched the images on the rooftop, scanning through the faces until the hologram paused on one image and I slapped a hand over my mouth.
‘Oh my God!’ I cried, grabbing hold of Quentin’s arm to keep me up.
‘What?’ he asked. ‘Maggie, Jesus, what?’
She was looking around nervously. Her clothes were torn and I dreaded to think what had happened to make them that way. She looked much younger than any other time I’d seen her, but it was definitely her.
‘Oh my God, oh my God.’
‘What? Maggie, answer me!’ Quentin yelled. But I couldn’t. I just stared.
My band beeped. The five minutes were up.
Before I knew it I was running, but I barely made it two steps before Quentin and Liam were there, dragging me back into the shadows where they held me down as I watched the doors we had programmed to release the negs to their freedom slide open and let the smoke into their rooms.
One by one, we watched the bodies drop to the ground. And the hologram above zoomed in, showing her face as the vapour hit her lungs and she screamed out before falling. She’d made it no more than two steps from her room.
I watched on, restrained by the arms holding me back as my mind spiralled into a terrifying hell. This couldn’t be happening.
Gunfire started up again in the distance. I knew I should be moving, but I couldn’t muster the ability to care.
We’d killed them all.
I’d killed them all.
‘Margaret,’ a voice calmly boomed from the sky. A whimper escaped my lips at the sound of my father’s voice. ‘Margaret, will you never learn that your actions have consequences?’ Even far away, talking to me through a speaker system, I could hear the taunt in his voice. A cruel tone I would never have believed the man who raised me was capable of. ‘Once again, you appear to be carrying precious cargo that certain people would like returned. Guards are coming in to apprehend you. Stay on your knees. Do not struggle. I have given permission to use full force. On all of you if needed.’
I pulled myself away from Quentin’s arms while staying on my knees.
‘What are you doing?’ Quentin asked, frantically looking around. ‘Maggie, what the hell are you doing?’ he repeated as I shuffled on my knees away from him.
I glanced at Liam. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said.
He shrugged, as if a person could actually do something so everyday in a moment like that. ‘I knew the risks. It’s not on you.’
He was lying, but I nodded and looked at Quentin. ‘I love you, Quin. I’m sorry I made you a part of this. I was crazy to think we could ever win against them.’
Quentin shook his head, looking around. The gunfire was getting closer, voices calling out, nearer by the second. ‘We need to run!’ he yelled at me.
I held his gaze, my eyes saying all the things I couldn’t say aloud. There was nowhere to run. No way out. The most I could hope for was that by not fighting them, Quentin would have a chance. I had to believe his family would spare him, that his father was capable of mercy.
Quentin was shaking his head and then he launched himself at me, pulling me into his arms as if he could shield me from the world.
Smoke bombs detonated to our left and right while something inside me died. There was yelling in the distance. More gunfire. The arms around me suddenly went slack, Quentin murmuring my name in my ear one last time.
I looked over my shoulder. Liam was lying motionless behind us. I patted Quentin down and found the dart in his side. I looked up in time to see the shooter aim his weapon at me.
Right then, it felt as if God was revelling in his vengeance. And he would get no argument from me.
I looked into the shooter’s fierce eyes, knowing he would see nothing reflected in mine. For all my plans, all my hopes, I was no better than those I had vainly tried to fight against.
‘You stupid bitch,’ he said, right before he cracked the butt of his gun hard against my head.
Alex was right, I thought, as the darkness came to collect me.
I was a stupid, stupid bitch.
Twenty-one
A sharp pain shot up my spine and lodged behind my eyes.
I grabbed at my head, flinching when I felt the clump of sticky, matted hair over a huge bump.
It was surreal to wake up. In those final seconds before I’d closed my eyes, I’d somehow come to terms with never opening them again. Now, it felt somehow wrong. And entirely undeserved. And hard. Because as I forced my eyes to open and take in my surroundings, I instantly knew that I was going to have to survive when so many had died because of me.
Tears silently streamed from my eyes as my insides tore apart, slashing me with the certain knowledge that I had failed those negs, those human beings, in the worst possible way. I wrapped my arms around my waist and drowned in silent screams.
I was in a truck. It was big, probably a semi-trailer. I could see feet all around me. All in military-issue boots. Flashes of the faces of those who’d just been killed in the neg hub kept bouncing through my mind. I squeezed my eyes tight, trying to stop them, knowing they never would.
‘That was some kind of shit-fight in there,’ someone said. I thought he was talking to me and was about to look up when I heard someone else reply.
‘Never seen anything like it.’
‘Can you believe it was her own father ordering that takedown? That’s some cold-ass piece of work.’
‘We completely underestimated how far he would go. With a Mercer there and all. That guy was crazy enough to take them both down.’
‘Shut up, both of you!’ came a familiar voice.
‘Sorry, man. I know this has gotta be tough on you. We all loved her, but you gotta admit, it isn’t all their fault. None of us knew she’d be in that hub and we all agreed on running this thing out to see where their loyalties lay. We knew they’d be walking into a trap. None of us could’ve known how crazy things would get.’
I heard a scuffle and then pushed myself up onto my knees in time to see Alex head-butt the guys who’d just been talking.
‘What did you mean?’ I asked croakily, causing them all to freeze and look at me. ‘When you said you knew we were walking into a trap?’
At least a dozen sets of eyes homed in on me.
Alex dropped his hold on the guy’s shirt and turned to face me. ‘Did you know she was in there?’ he spat.
‘No. Did you?’ I bit back, not needing to clarify who he was talking about. I could still see Kelsey’s face as she took her last fatal breath. It was so clear I could almost reach out and touch her.
He sniffed, defensively. ‘We … We had a good idea she’d been taken, but we were still looking for her in the processing camps. We didn’t th
ink she’d be taken underground so fast.’
I staggered to my feet, ignoring the movement of the trailer that was clearly travelling at high speed and stared at the men and women around me until they moved back and gave me some room.
‘You knew we were going down there.’ Statement. He didn’t argue it. ‘How?’
‘We have people everywhere. We knew everything. At least, we did until you moved locations.’
As the trailer took a corner, I swayed awkwardly and stumbled to the side, putting a hand against the wall of the truck to steady myself. My entire body was screaming out in pain, and yet … it was nothing. ‘You knew we were at Burn.’
He nodded. ‘We expected something to go down at the school. We had a tracker planted in your bag that morning and bugged the apartment above Burn the first chance we got once we found out you were there. We thought we had you and your plan covered, but then you went AWOL after you met me.’
‘After you left me to run for my life with M-Corp on my tail, you mean,’ I sneered.
Alex shrugged. ‘As far as we knew, you were bringing them to us. I was simply following protocol.’
‘Then what?’ I asked, wary of where all this was leading.
‘It wasn’t until this afternoon we got the rest of the intel, and by then we were just scampering to keep up,’ he explained, shaking his head.
‘Who?’ I asked, already knowing there had to have been someone on the inside.
‘Me,’ said a voice from the back. Men moved aside until Liam came into view. ‘It was me.’
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop the tears. I wouldn’t cry anymore.
‘I knew,’ I mumbled. ‘I knew there was something.’
He nodded. ‘And I’m more sorry than you could know. But you have to believe we didn’t know … We thought this was a standard loyalty check.’
I blinked. ‘A standard loyalty check? What the … What is that?!’
Liam flinched. ‘You came to us. You wanted in. But it was impossible for us to believe that you hadn’t been turned while you were their prisoner. M-Corp never let people go unless they’re working for them. And you were holding hands with a Mercer for chrissake. What did you expect us to believe?’
‘We ran through all the scenarios,’ Alex explained, his voice dead, the pain of losing his sister overlapping with both guilt and blame. ‘Even if you were clean, Quentin had to be playing you. There was no way you were both legit. So we decided to monitor you. When we caught wind of your plan, we figured it was the fastest way to flush out any moles. We expected to see one of you show your hand. We expected to catch you out before it ever happened, but then you all disappeared.’
‘Until Travis called in his team,’ I finished. I wanted to scream. To be sick. All those people … they had just dropped dead in front of us. Because of me. And here they were, laying out how and why they hadn’t helped stop it.
Alex nodded. ‘Liam was bugged, but we’d adapted his M-Band so he had no link to us in case your tech guy scanned him, which he did. His directive was simple: stay with the group. By the time we figured out exactly who Hex was and that he’d be leading a tornado-style shitstorm your way, there was nothing we could do to warn Liam, so we stuck to the plan and mobilised our teams.’
‘So you had ways in and out of the tunnels?’
Alex pulled the black beanie off his head and threw it at the wall. ‘We always have, but tonight we blew up part of the aqueduct and all of the side tunnel we’d built to connect to it.’
I brushed the hair off my face, trying to put it all together. ‘So you knew we were going in?’
‘Yes.’
‘You knew Hex was a mole?’ More sickening evidence of how wrong I’d been to think I was ever in control.
‘Yes.’
I even felt distant from myself as I heard my hardened tone. ‘You knew M-Corp would be waiting for us and there was a chance they would try to kill us all?’
‘Yes,’ Alex said.
I was moving before I had a chance to think it through. I launched myself at him and actually made it, throwing punches left, right and centre. When I failed to make enough impact, I resorted to straight-out scratching with my nails.
‘They died!’ I screamed, ignoring the hands pulling me off him. ‘They all … Your sister!’
‘You think I don’t know that?’ Alex boomed. ‘You think I don’t know what happened down there?’
‘You could’ve stopped it. You could’ve helped us when we asked!’ I yelled, my legs kicking uselessly at him as I struggled against the guards holding me back.
Alex glared at me, wiping the blood dripping from the scratch marks I’d left on his face. ‘It wasn’t my call,’ he growled.
I stopped struggling; I needed to concentrate on breathing to stop myself gagging on the facts. ‘You’re the head of Preference Evolution. If it isn’t your call, then whose damn call was it?’
‘I was never the head of Preference Evolution.’ He spat a mouthful of blood on the floor. ‘I’m just the front.’
I blinked, intuitively dreading where this was going. ‘Who?’ It came out as more of a whisper than a demand.
Alex shook his head. ‘Right now, that’s none of your business,’ he said, looking over my shoulder. ‘Take her down the back.’
Before I could speak again, the two guards restraining me dragged me to the back of the truck and dropped me in the corner.
‘If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay put and give him some time,’ said one of the guards. And for the first time I noticed it was a girl.
She was dressed head-to-toe in combat gear and she would’ve been in her mid-twenties. She crouched by my side.
‘I’m Grace,’ she said, her voice softening. ‘Try to understand that this is a really hard time for Alex. Right before he went into that hub to pull you guys out, he saw what happened to Kelsey. He’s looking for someone to blame and you’re the closest. Soon enough he’ll turn his attention back in the right direction.’ I listened to her talk, watching as she glanced thoughtfully between Alex and me. She cared for him.
‘Am I a prisoner?’ I asked, prodding at my throbbing head.
‘Yes,’ said the other guard just as Grace said, ‘Of course not.’
Grace shot the guy a stern look before turning back to me. ‘We’re heading to the Pre-Evo base of operations.’
‘I thought you guys were some kind of peaceful group,’ I said.
At my obvious sarcasm, she sighed. ‘We’re a little more established than people realise.’
‘Where have you taken the others?’ I asked, no longer able to avoid the question.
‘Quentin is getting treatment for his gunshot wound. He’ll be fine. We picked up Gus as well. They’re coming in on separate transport.’
At the mention of Gus’s name I flinched. ‘Does he …?’
‘I imagine someone has told him about Kelsey,’ Grace answered.
I stared at the floor.
‘I’m afraid Travis and Ned are gone,’ Grace continued. ‘We were unable to retrieve the bodies.’
I swallowed bile. Travis had died following my orders and I was certain he had thrown himself in the line of bullets in order to protect Quin. Now his body was just abandoned down there.
‘And Hex, well, he was never on your team to start with,’ Grace said softly.
‘M-Corp,’ I said.
She nodded. ‘He’s been in your father’s pocket for a while. He first came onto our radar when he sold out your location at Roosevelt Island.’
And the hits just kept on coming. ‘That was my father?’ I’d always thought that attack was against Travis, not me.
She shrugged. ‘In a way. He started a series of events that sent the feds to Travis. But, yeah, it was him.’
‘And who are you?’ I asked.
‘I’m just one of many who want to see the world stop going in this direction. And by being here, I have the chance to maybe one day change that direction for the be
tter.’
I nodded, swallowing painfully. She was a do-gooder and unfortunately that didn’t inspire any hope.
‘So I can just get up and leave?’ I asked.
‘No,’ the guy said.
I looked at Grace, who nodded. ‘I’m afraid he’s right.’
‘Then I am your prisoner.’
Grace shook her head. ‘We’re under orders not to release you. But that doesn’t make you a prisoner. That makes you lucky. If we put you back out there now, after what you did down there … They’re coming for you, Maggie. And this time they won’t be playing games.’
I looked away. Her words were no surprise. After what we’d attempted to do … I’d always known they’d be coming for us. I’d just expected to have a lot more arsenal to be fighting back with.
And a lot less blood on my hands.
Twenty-two
Arriving at a run-down theatre site was not something I’d predicted. The truck pulled into an underground garage and the troops – because make no mistake, these people were part of a highly trained army – started jumping out and moving through an internal door.
With Grace beside me, we followed the troops until I had to stop and stare. It was like a scene from a spy movie. Apart from the stage, the theatre had been cleared completely. What was once tiered audience seating was now an area full of workstations, weaponry and labs divided by glass partition walls. A false ceiling covered the original ornate ceiling, except in the centre, where they’d cut a hole to accommodate a massive chandelier.
‘Pretty impressive, right?’ Grace said with a small smile.
I stared at her, trying to let the awful numbness prevail over my need to lash out. I had just watched my father commit mass execution and she wanted me to be impressed with their building? Sure, I had walked past this place on my way to school every day and had no idea that behind the old theatre façade was the most battle-ready, high-tech and intimidating place I’d ever seen, with the exception of M-Corp’s core. But right then, I couldn’t care less.
‘There are living quarters upstairs. I’ll show you to where you will be staying for now,’ Grace explained, but I’d already turned from her and was walking towards the table in the centre of the room.