“We’ll know once we’ve crossed under the walls of the compound because the pipe opens onto a river,” I say, struggling to sound casual. As if the guy across from me didn’t just reject me. “I’m guessing we’re under the woods just south of the residences.”
“Can we get out and walk?” he says, his even tone betraying no awareness of what he just did. Jerk.
I want to say yes. Oh Fates, do I want to. I wouldn’t mind if I never touched a mud puddle again, and the sooner I get out of this tube—and away from Tanner—the better. But both my and his safety are at stake. And sometime during my week of visits to Callie, he stopped being my enemy. The guy might not be attracted to me, but he’s become an ally of sorts. I certainly don’t want him lynched by a mob. “Better not risk leaving the tube.”
Before he can respond, I hear a hum, low and sustained. A few decibels louder than a vibration. For a moment, I think it’s only my imagination, but then I look at Tanner. Under the layer of mud, he’s gone pale. He hears it, too.
“That’s the sound of a whisper-quiet machine,” he says. “An invisible car, a perimeter force field, a blade to chop someone’s head off.”
Ah. Of course. “It’s a stealth copter. Mikey acquired one for the compound when we moved back to civilization. We must be under the landing pad near the south wall. Which means we’re close to the river. Really close.”
This is our cue to leave. We need to dive back into the sludge and crawl our way to river water and safety.
Yet I don’t move. Curiosity thrums through me—and a small part of me is grateful for the distraction. Mikey insisted on purchasing a stealth copter with the Underground’s credits, but to my knowledge, it’s never been used. He’d never get away with such a big loan these days, not with the financial system becoming tighter and tighter. At the height of future memory, getting a loan was as easy as assembly pie, if you had the right memory. Now that memories are fading—and therefore unreliable—it’s almost unheard of to receive a loan that’s more than a few months’ credits.
So what stealth mission has this copter just run?
The moonlight becomes dimmer and dimmer, and then the copter lands with a thud, right above us. The crawl space goes black. I don’t dare switch on my flashlight, but I reach out blindly and wrap my hands around the rungs of the ladder that leads up to the grate.
“I’m going to take a look,” I whisper in Tanner’s direction. “Stay here.”
Without waiting for an answer, I clamber up the ladder. I reach the top and push aside the grate. Quietly, I hoist myself out of the hole and slither onto my stomach, my forearms scraping against the gravel and my head just brushing the underside of the copter.
Seconds later, Tanner’s on the ground next to me.
What are you doing? I mouth at him, but it’s too late to argue.
The hum shuts off, and the hatch door squeaks open. First one pair and then a second pair of heavy black boots land on the ground. The boots walk a few feet away from the copter, and I can just make out the shadowy figures of their owners.
By Eden City’s standards, the first guy is tall, wide, and muscular. But the second man is arch-your-neck-to-the-sky huge. Two of me could fit across his shoulders. He must be pushing six and a half feet, and he carries a lumpy canvas sack over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing.
There’s only one person I know who fits that description. Zed. One of Harmony’s original occupants and a friend of Callie’s. A big guy who saw a vision of his future self beating a girl—and ran into the wilderness in an attempt to avoid that particular future.
“How’s she doing in there?” The first guy turns, and in the light of the moon, I recognize his red hair and freckles. Brayden. The guy I had a crush on when I first joined Harmony. He’s much older than me, but he could read minds. I used to fantasize about growing up and marrying him so I would never have to say another word.
“Hasn’t moved since we gave her the draught,” Zed says. “Good thing, too. The screams were shredding my nerves.”
That’s when it sinks in what they’re saying. Her? No way. Zed is a kind man, despite his size. He’s quiet and steady, a person who gains the love and respect of everyone he meets. There’s no chance he’s a kidnapper.
But the evidence is right there before my eyes. I look at Tanner, my eyebrows trying to climb off my forehead. There’s a person in there, I mouth. Or at least, I intend to mouth. It comes out more like a harsh breath, and I slap a hand over my lips.
Luckily, the two men are either too far away to hear or too preoccupied to notice.
Brayden runs a hand through his hair, spiking it up. “I really didn’t like restraining her. I think we hurt her. You can’t fake that kind of crying.”
“Desperate times.” Zed’s voice is edged with fatigue, as though he hasn’t slept in a week. “I don’t like this, either, but we all have to make sacrifices. Callie gave her life for the cause. This is the least we can do.”
He adjusts the bundle across his shoulder, and they walk into the trees, presumably to the Underground cabin tucked near the landing pad. The cabin’s used by Underground officials for board meetings, strategy sessions—and, apparently, middle-of-the-night kidnappings.
“Who do they have?” I ask Tanner as soon as they’re swallowed by the night. “What are they going to do to her?”
“Someone like me,” he says, his voice grim. “Another scientist. This is why Mikey wanted us gone. They have to punish somebody. They didn’t find a victim at Mikey’s, so they went and got her.”
My stomach flips. “You mean they kidnapped her because of us?”
“Obviously, I don’t know. But it seems that way.”
A gust of wind blows under the copter, and I can suddenly feel each and every pebble pressing into my skin. This…this changes things. Oh, I wouldn’t abandon her. No way. If I let Zed and Brayden take a prisoner, I would be no different than the scientists who tortured me. But this need for a scapegoat, any scapegoat, means I won’t be able to circle back to get Mikey’s help. There’s no time.
I roll onto my side, so that I’m facing Tanner. “Listen. Just follow the tube and—”
“I know what you’re going to say, so you can save your breath.” He moves forward so that our noses are nearly touching. “I’m not crawling down that tube without you.”
“I’m not leaving her.”
“I understand that. What you don’t understand is that I’m not leaving you.”
I look into his eyes. Dark, discerning. So arrogant, so sure. Once he makes a decision, he never second-guesses himself. I used to hate that about him—but now I’m beginning to see value in his confidence. Value in having someone like Tanner on my side. Even if I’m not his type.
“Okay, fine,” I say. “Stick around if you want. Just don’t get yourself killed.”
22
The first moment I crawl from underneath the copter is the scariest. The moment when I’m out in the open, vulnerable. When I might be attacked by a person frenzy-whipped by the mob. When I’d make perfect target practice for anyone with a handful of electro-darts.
But nobody pops out of the bushes, and nobody shoots at me. I take a step, and then another, my pulse blending into one long beat.
The distance from the landing pad to the trees is approximately two hundred feet. It feels more like two miles. By the time we hit the woods, I’m panting like I just hoverboarded around the perimeter of the city.
“Where’s the cabin?” Tanner squints at the dense woods ahead of us. “I don’t see anything.”