I stopped. It was Addie. And she was alone.
I rubbed a hand across my forehead and tried to breathe. The air was stuck in my chest, unable to get past the lump in my throat.
Wren had been captured.
“She pushed me over into the river to save me,” Addie said, pulling the blanket one of the Reboots had given her tighter around her shoulders. She sat on the grass in the middle of a circle of Reboots, not far from the fence where she’d come in. I was across from her, trying not to panic. I was not succeeding.
She looked at me and swallowed. “I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” That sounded exactly like Wren, actually. In the midst of fighting for her life, she saw an opportunity to save Addie so she took it. I cleared my throat to push back the sudden urge to cry.
“I tried to get here as fast as I could but I walked the wrong way for miles and had to circle back.”
“Did you recognize the HARC officers?” I asked.
She shook her head miserably.
“But they wouldn’t kill her, right? If they wanted to kill her, they would have done it then,” I said. “They had an opportunity, didn’t they?”
“Definitely.” She nodded. “They were holding us, and the guy told someone he had her.”
Hope bloomed in my chest as I turned to Riley. “Where would they take her?”
“My first guess would have been here. Suzanna Palm uses the Austin capitol as a place to interrogate criminals. But with the way things are now, they’re not going to risk flying a shuttle into the city.”
“So Rosa, then. Right? That would be their next choice.”
“Maybe,” Riley said. “But Tony said they’re taking all the Austin refugees to New Dallas. HARC could be setting up shop there.”
Addie squinted at something behind me and I turned to see Tony and Gabe running for us, excitement on their faces.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Tony said with a sigh when he spotted Addie. “Your dad would have killed me.” He took a glance around. “Where’s Wren?”
“A group of HARC officers captured her.” I got to my feet, running a shaky hand through my hair. I wanted to freak out. I could feel the urge starting to close in, making it hard to think, and I looked around wildly for someone to step forward with an idea.
Riley frowned in thought, but everyone else was staring at me, clearly having already decided I was the one who was supposed to know what to do.
And they were right. If I wanted Wren back, I needed to step up and organize everyone before it was too late.
“We need to find out which facility she’s in,” I said, turning to Tony. “Can you get word to Leb in Rosa? Do you have someone in New Dallas?”
Tony nodded. “We’re already trying to communicate with the other cities about what happened here. I don’t have many people in New Dallas, but I can try.”
“Do you know what they would do with her?” Addie asked. “That could help, right? If we know what they want?”
Tony cleared his throat, dropping his gaze to the ground. “HARC has always wanted to know why some kids take so long to Reboot. Why they’re strong like Wren. I’d say it’s likely they’re going to experiment on her.” He winced and spoke softer. “There may not be a lot of time to find her in, um, one piece.”
My stomach lurched into my throat and I tightened my hand into a fist. The thought of them taking Wren apart and dissecting her made the world swim in front of my eyes.
“And if I were going to guess, they took her to Rosa,” he continued. “We never had much of a rebel presence there, and they might know that.”
I took a deep breath, trying to push my worries about Wren under the surface for a moment. That’s what she would do. She’d launch into action and then get upset about it (maybe) later, in private.
“You think you can maybe find out for sure?”
“I’ll do my best.”
I gave him a grateful look and turned to Riley. “Let’s start getting a group together to go after her. We’ll wait until tomorrow to see if we can get confirmation of where Wren is, but I’m heading out either way. I can’t wait anymore.”
TWENTY-SIX
WREN
I WOKE UP STRAPPED TO A TABLE. I HAD A HARD TIME OPENING MY eyes again, but when I did the lights on the ceiling were too harsh and bright after my dark cell.
I wiggled my ankles. They were chained to the metal table, like my hands, and there was no way out of them, even though my leg had healed. How long had it been? I didn’t even remember someone coming into the cell and giving me something to knock me out, but they must have.
I turned at the sound of voices beside me. It was Suzanna and Officer Mayer, heads bent close as they talked to each other. Suzanna gestured to me and the commanding officer straightened. He still had that smug expression on his face I so desperately wanted to wipe away.
I scanned the room. It looked like a smaller HARC medical lab. I was on a table in the middle of the room, a tray of sharp instruments to my left. A computer hummed in the corner, next to a cabinet of vials filled with liquid. Maybe they were going to make me crazy like Ever.
Suzanna crossed her arms over her chest and squinted at me. Maybe not crazy. Ever had seemed stronger when she was crazy, and I couldn’t see that situation ending well for them. I swallowed as my eyes flicked over the equipment. This seemed bad.
Officer Mayer pulled a chair up next to me and sort of smiled. It wasn’t a real smile. He’d actually given me one before, when I’d completed a mission to his satisfaction. He’d even liked me, in a way. Maybe that was part of the hate I saw in his eyes now. I’d let him down.
I smiled back.
Suzanna shuffled around the room, picking out a few vials. I cursed myself again for not asking Micah more about the experiments he’d been through at HARC. What had he said about them? There was one that made everything look purple?
I’d already encountered the one that made me heal slower. That one was not fun.
Suzanna was at my side suddenly, and something sharp pricked my neck. The liquid she pressed in burned, a little at first, and then so badly I clenched one of my hands into fists. The burn started to scream down my entire body and I swallowed hard, resisting the urge to yell.
Instead I closed my eyes. They’d never specifically trained me to withstand torture, but they might as well have. Perhaps I hadn’t realized it before Callum, but what they did to all Reboots was a form of torture.
When I opened my eyes, Suzanna was above me, her face crinkled in confusion. “Which expression means she’s in pain?”
“That’s the only expression she has.”
“Hmmm . . .” She cocked her head, her gaze skipping down my body. She pointed at my clenched fist. “Oh, that looks like she’s in pain. Good.” She gestured at something. “Hand me the next one.”
“Suzanna . . .” Officer Mayer sounded stressed as he got up from his chair.
“What?” she snapped.
“Let’s . . .” He turned his back to me and lowered his voice.
I heard him anyway. “Let’s kill her. Let’s kill them all.”
It sent a chill down my body and I swallowed down a wave of panic.
Suzanna glared at him. “Killing every Reboot who steps out of line is shortsighted. With the right drug combination, we’ll be able to wipe out the defiant part of their brains.” She gestured to me. “We can put our best Reboots back in the field, even if they were once determined to rebel. Get this one back to her old obedient self.”
I clenched my fingers into fists, pushing down the urge to thrash against the cuffs. I didn’t want to be their mindless slave again. I didn’t want to return to taking orders and killing people when they told me to.
“If you—” Officer Mayer started.
“When I want your opinion on my Reboots, I will ask for it, Albert,” Suzanna snapped.
She pulled the computer over and positioned it next to me. She squinted at
the screen. “Let’s get started.”
I grunted as the guard dumped me onto the hard concrete floor. He didn’t bother to take the cuffs off my hands and feet before he slammed the door, and I had to wriggle around to get into a sitting position.
I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes against the spinning. I’d been on that table for hours, and the spinning had been constant since about the second shot.
I think I would have preferred death to sitting in here like a lab rat. I would have even preferred death to being “fixed” with their drugs and put back in a facility.
I tucked my face against my knees as Callum’s face popped into my head. When I pictured him, it was always that day at HARC when I made him punch me, and we were standing in front of his room, his arms wrapped around me, so close I almost kissed him. The look he had that night was my favorite expression of his—amusement mixed with attraction and a healthy dose of annoyance. I would probably never see that look again. Or any look from him.
I wondered if Addie made it back and found him. If the situation had been reversed, I would have marched straight into the first HARC facility I could find and started searching for him. I suspected Callum’s reaction would be the same.
A smile crossed my lips.
TWENTY-SEVEN
CALLUM
“NEW DALLAS,” I REPEATED, LOOKING FROM TONY TO DESMOND.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes,” Tony said. “I just got word back from one of the officers there. They’ve got her locked away from the other Reboots, in the old human cells.”
“I thought Rosa was more likely,” Riley said, stepping up next to me.
Tony leaned back in his chair. We were in his kitchen, surrounded by about twenty humans. A group of them sat with us at the table; the rest milled around the living room and spilled out onto the porch.
“They’re setting up a command center in Rosa,” Tony said. “Sending all HARC personnel from Austin there. It’s basically the human base of operations now, and they didn’t want One-seventy-eight anywhere near it, especially given how familiar she is with the Rosa facility. And New Dallas is better equipped for prisoners. They did a lot of experiments on adult Reboots there.”
Addie looked at me excitedly. “Then we can go tonight, right?”
“Yes. Definitely.” I turned to Tony, swallowing hard. “Did they know anything about . . . her condition?”
“All he knew was she was there. I’m sorry. I got nothing else.”
“That’s all right.” I sighed with relief. If she was there, she was probably alive. She had to be alive. It had only taken Tony about twenty-four hours to find out where she was, and I had to hope that was fast enough.
“I’ll start getting the Reboots ready and prep the shuttles,” Riley said. “We’ll need to leave some people here to guard the city.” He nodded at Tony. “How do you want to split your men up? How many will come with us?”
A long silence followed Riley’s words, and my heart dropped at the uncomfortable expression on Tony’s face.
“No humans are going to New Dallas,” he said quietly.
“Why not?” Addie asked. “If we’re going in, we’re going to try to free all the Reboots there, too, right?” She looked at me for confirmation.
“That’s what I was hoping.” I turned to Riley and he nodded in agreement.
“You can ask around, but I’ve talked to a lot of people,” Tony said, folding his hands on top of the table. “We’re not doing another rushed raid into a HARC facility. We don’t feel like it’s the best use of our resources right now.”
I stared at him for a moment. “You mean rescuing Reboots isn’t the best use of your resources. Rescuing Wren.”
He dropped his eyes. “It’s not.”
I cast an angry look between him and Desmond. “None of this would have even happened without Wren! The HARC facility here would still be running and you’d all still be screwed if it wasn’t for her!”
“We were part of that raid, too,” Desmond said, though a guilty look crossed his face. “She didn’t do it alone.”
“And neither did you,” I said.
“Do we at least have some human support in New Dallas?” Riley asked. “A way into the facility?”
“I can tell you where the Reboot rooms are and where the control room is,” Tony said. “I have a guy inside who agreed to leave the door on the roof open, so you can get in that way. You’ll probably be able to make it past the fence in a shuttle no problem. Apparently there are HARC shuttles coming in and out of all the cities right now.” He sighed. “But that’s it. It’s too risky for any of the humans to help you.”
Addie made an annoyed sound and threw her hands in the air.
“Oh, come on,” Desmond said. “You don’t need us. Or any human help. You’ve got a hundred Reboots here. When you break the others out of New Dallas, you’ll have double that.”
“Eighty-three,” Riley corrected. “A bunch took off.”
“Get the doors unlocked, like you did last time,” Tony said to Addie, “and everything will be fine.”
“Everything will be fine” seemed optimistic to me. I hadn’t considered it before, but Wren and Addie had taken a terrible chance by going into the Austin facility. They could have been trapped inside. HARC didn’t just build locks; they built locks with steel doors with pass codes and cameras, in a facility safely behind two different fences.
Getting us inside another one was incredibly risky, even with eighty-three Reboots.
“What about the other facilities?” Addie asked. “Are you going to help us with those?”
A pained expression crossed Tony’s face, so Desmond answered for him. “No. We’ve talked to the humans in the area, and everyone agrees we should focus on rebuilding here. We’re going to make this a HARC-free zone, and work on bringing in humans from other cities.”
I ran my hands down my face with a heavy sigh. They expected us to invade the facilities and rescue the Reboots. Maybe it wasn’t even that crazy of an expectation. They’d always made it clear they wanted us to leave after we deprived HARC of Reboots. Why was I even surprised?
I glanced over at Riley and Addie. We were the only three Reboots in the house, and it was as if the humans had drawn an invisible circle around us. They all danced around it, keeping their distance like we couldn’t be trusted not to lash out and attack them at any moment. Some of them had witnessed me do exactly that, and maybe they would never see anything but a Reboot who murdered a human.
Wren had been right. I’d given the humans too much credit because I’d still seen them through my old human eyes. I’d remembered how they treated me when I was alive, when I was one of them. I’d ignored how they treated me since I Rebooted—they screamed, they attacked, they feared.
Why had I wanted to save them? Why had I been horrified that Wren didn’t? Of course she didn’t. She’d been dealing with this for five years. She knew they would never trust us.
“Okay,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “We’re going to take all the Reboots willing to help to New Dallas tonight. Only as many that will fit in one shuttle, though, because we’ll need the other one for the new Reboots.”
Riley frowned. “Do you think we can get two shuttles safely in and out of the city?”
“I have no idea.” I turned to Addie. “We need to explain to everyone how dangerous it’s going to be. They need to understand there’s a possibility we’ll be shot down or trapped in HARC or killed. No one has to go if they don’t want to.”
“Got it,” Addie said. “I think plenty will still want to go. Wren helped save the Austin Reboots, after all.”
“Reservation Reboots might be less inclined,” Riley said. “But I bet there’s some.”
“Tell them I will be eternally grateful.” I turned back to Tony and the other humans. “And we’re done.”
Tony raised his eyebrows.
“After I get Wren back, we’ll empty out the rest of the facilit
ies. Or as many as we can. Then we’re leaving. Good luck with HARC. Good luck if Micah comes back. You’re on your own.”
I paced up and down the grass in front of the big shuttle that afternoon as the sun began to set. I’d already prepared the Reboots, and Riley had raided HARC for more gas. Of the eighty-three Reboots we had left, almost all agreed to go with us. The humans would have to protect Austin by themselves.
Now I just had to wait, and it was killing me.
“Callum.” Addie grabbed my arm, making me stop, and held out a plate. “You should eat.”
I looked down at the sandwich. I didn’t feel hungry, but I suddenly couldn’t remember the last time I ate. It must have been at the reservation. If Wren were here, she would tell me I needed my strength.
I took the sandwich off the plate and held out half of it to David, who sat next to Addie on the grass. He hesitated, then gave me a small smile as he took it.
“Thank Gabe,” Addie said, tilting her head toward him. “He’s the one who thought to clean out HARC’s food before it went bad.”
“They cut the power to the facility a few hours ago,” Gabe said. “But we’ve got some people working on getting it back up.”
“Thanks,” I said in between bites.
Gabe plopped down on the grass next to Riley and Addie. He squinted at David. “You made a bunch of them at Tony’s feel bad.”
David gave him a confused look as he took a big bite of his sandwich. “What’d I do?”
“Some of them have Reboot kids. Seeing you so relaxed about a Reboot family member made them feel guilty.”
“They should feel guilty,” I muttered. “But our parents did nothing but scream when they saw me last time, so they’re not alone.”
“They want to see you now,” David said, straightening and giving me a hopeful look. “They mentioned it again this morning.”
“Then they can come see me. I’ll be at the HARC facility down the street.”
David nodded, his face falling a little. I doubted my parents wanted to step foot inside a HARC facility, especially one taken over by Reboots. But I certainly wasn’t going to go out of my way to find them again.