Deviation (28 page)

I look up and find Alton watching me expectantly, a needle dangling from his hand. His smile falters. From the bite wound I’ve given him, a red trail of blood leaks down his shoulder and stains his crisp white shirt. His eyes are glassy as he watches me with malicious certainty that is turning quickly to disappointment. “What the hell?” he mutters.

There’s no time to understand.

I barrel forward and bring my head down, smashing into his gut with all my weight. He rocks back and, for a moment, I think he’ll recover, push me aside. But then he teeters back and gravity takes over. We tumble to the floor. I land on top of him and feel the breath whoosh from his lungs.

His hands reach for me but he can’t quite grab hold. He’s too busy gasping for air. I rise up and smash my elbow into his nose, a move Lonnie helped me perfect. I am rewarded with a soft crack and then a steady streaming of blood from both nostrils. Alton chokes and blinks. He tries to buck me off but I hold fistfuls of his shirt in my hands. I have to make this count.

I know from my self-defense lessons he will recover in a moment. And no amount of pain I’ve inflicted will make up for the fact that he weighs more than twice what I do.

Gritting my teeth against my own revulsion, I jam my fingers into his eye and shove. I feel the soft give of flesh and push again. Alton cries out, his yell turning to a curdling scream. He bucks wildly and I go tumbling sideways.

I scramble to my feet. His hand over one eye, Alton does the same. His good eye glares at me with a force of hatred I can feel. “I don’t care what he said. You’re dead.” White liquid oozes from beneath his covered eye. He makes it two steps when a shot rings out.

Alton lurches sideways, his feet taking a second too long to catch up to his body. He stumbles and then slumps to the floor in a crooked heap. His arm lies awkwardly beside him and his eyes are fastened open, unblinking. A trail of blood leaks from the one I injured.

I look up and find Linc holding Taylor’s gun, his expression so deadly my feet don’t immediately move toward him. Taylor lies motionless at his feet. Her blond hair is splayed out around her pretty head like a silky fan.

“Ven?” Linc drops his arm and tucks the gun into the back of his pants. “Are you all right?”

As soon as the gun vanishes, I blink free of my hesitation. With a cry, I rush to Linc and let him scoop me up in his arms. “I thought you were gone,” I say against his shoulder.

“Not a chance. I told you I’d come back for you.” He buries his face in my hair for a split second before releasing me and pulling me toward Daniel’s cell. He reaches into his pocket and produces a key card, swiping it over the card reader on the wall. The green light flashes. Linc shoves open the door.

Daniel’s already dressed and waiting. “What the hell took you so long?” he says, sliding out the door and into the hall.

Linc growls. “Let’s get out of here,” he says. He grabs my hand and stops when he catches sight of my arm. “You’re bleeding again.”

I glance down and am momentarily startled by the amount of blood smeared over my arm and wrist. I wipe some of it away and then wish I hadn’t. It covers my hand. Hastily, I wipe it on my dress. “I’m fine. It looks worse than it is. See?” I hold it out for him to inspect the small hole that’s producing such a mess. “It doesn’t even hurt.”

I still don’t understand Alton’s intention with the needle but I feel fine other than the ache in my arm where it penetrated and the sting from the wound where my GPS was.

“Can we play doctor later? I’d like a change of scenery,” Daniel says. “If it’s not too much to ask.”

Linc glares at Daniel but he lets it go and gestures for Daniel to lead the way. “After you.”

Linc’s hand holds mine in an iron grip and he propels me down the hall. We pass Alton and then Taylor. She’s still unconscious. I can’t bring myself to ask if she’s all right. Not after her betrayal. I don’t see any blood, though, and assume she must be alive.

We keep moving. I can see the door to the stairwell now.

“Shit,” Linc says.

“What is it?” Daniel asks.

“Emile’s gone,” Linc says.

“How many others?” Daniel asks.

“Just him. And he’s wounded. Shot himself when Ven knocked him sideways.” He glances at me with something like approval. “He could be anywhere, though. I hate to take Ven back through the house.”

“We don’t have to. Follow me,” Daniel says.

I half-expect Linc to argue but he doesn’t and we fall into step behind Daniel again. Every shadow cast makes my knees weak. Emile is out there somewhere, waiting. I feel danger in every molecule. I am desperate to reach Obadiah. To end this night.

“In here,” Daniel says.

The light is off inside the supply closet across from Dr. Josephine’s office. Daniel flips the switch, but nothing happens. Linc shines his phone into the darkened space. I huddle behind the two of them, exposed and edgy.

Daniel hesitates another moment, then takes Linc’s phone to light his way and shuffles forward. Linc mutters something but doesn’t argue it. His anxiety must be just as high as mine if he’s letting Daniel get away with so much.

I forget to catch the door behind me. It shuts with a bang that seems louder in the tense silence.

“Sshh!” both boys hiss.

I muffle a sob. This is worse than fighting an enemy you can see.

Daniel picks his way across the room, around filing cabinets and boxes of medical supplies. The room is bigger than I remember. Linc drops my hand so that he can move obstacles aside for me. He’s a bulky shadow in the darkness. More than once, I feel the chasm of space that separates us while I wait for him to touch me again. Each time his hand returns to mine, I feel the relief like a sweet sting.

Up ahead, the phone light goes out. When it comes back on, Linc’s holding it aloft. He aims it at the stack of boxes in front of Daniel who is already working to shove them aside. Instead of a concrete wall, his efforts reveal a squared access panel about four feet high.

It’s sealed with no handle but Daniel isn’t finished. He shoves aside more boxes and Linc moves the phone, better aiming the tiny path of light. A small keypad is mounted next to the panel. Daniel’s fingers work the keypad so fast I don’t have time to follow the code he enters. There is a click behind the doorway and it swings open from the inside.

A gaping hole, darker than the blackest corner of this room gapes back at us. It’s barely tall enough to pass through even with shoulders hunched and knees bent.

“After you,” Daniel says, stepping aside with a flourish.

“You were happy to lead all this time and now you want me to go first?” Linc whispers. “No thanks. You first, fearless leader.”

“You think I’d walk us into a trap after all this? Where would that get me?” Daniel hisses back.

“Can we just get out of here before Emile shows up?” I whisper.

“Give me your phone,” Daniel says. Linc hands it over and Daniel presses the button, once again illuminating the screen. Then he steps into the opening.

Linc gestures for me to follow Daniel. I crouch low and step inside. The air inside the tunnel is close and thick as if it’s been hanging there forever, just waiting to be spliced through by a visitor.

“Is there a way to close this thing?” Linc asks.

“Don’t bother,” Daniel calls back. “If he were chasing us, he’d be here already.”

“I wasn’t thinking about Emile,” Linc says.

“Neither was I. Come on.”

Linc leaves the door hanging wide and catches up without a word.

The tunnel stretches on, no turns, no change. Our path is straight and narrow and we haven’t gone far before my back aches. The floor is cold and smooth underneath my bare feet. Metal, I think. “How do you know about this?” I ask Daniel, mostly to distract myself from the ache in my neck.

“Titus had it installed a few years ago. When I first came to work at the City. When he first brought a product home.” The answer isn’t one I expected. It takes me a moment to get my bearings.

“Who—What sort of Imitation was it?” I ask.

“A man, mid-twenties. Titus put him on his security detail. Kept the guy mostly in the tower but the guy started acting funny. Talking back, that sort of thing. I think it made Titus nervous but he insisted the tunnel was for a fast way to hide the evidence of his science project if anyone came sniffing around. It made sense. He didn’t have the entire government in his pocket then.”

Linc nodded. “I remember that. He went from nobody to a household name pretty fast not long after that.”

“So what made it happen?” Daniel asks, abruptly changing the subject.

“Made what happen?” I jump when Linc’s hand brushes my back. The ache in my neck turns to shooting pain.

“My jailbreak. Something must’ve happened.”

“Titus called a press conference tonight,” I explained. “He’s going to start tattooing everyone with an ID number to make identity theft more difficult. The tattoos will look exactly like the Imitations’—my—design.”

Daniel whistles. “Bastard doesn’t waste time. He must be scared.”

“You knew about the tattoo being the same as Ven’s?” Linc asks.

Daniel’s foot catches and he stumbles. He swears loudly and then backtracks to the spot he tripped over. “Look, let’s just get out of here. I can tell you what you want to know when we’re safe.” He hands me the phone and uses both hand to grab onto something on the floor.

I shine the light downward as Daniel pries a small covering away to reveal another access panel. He presses the single button there and the ceiling slides open. Cool air hits my face.

“Almost there,” Daniel says and climbs out.

The hallway we’re standing in looks a lot like the one inside Rogen Tower. For a terrifying moment, I think we’re still inside the penthouse. That Daniel has somehow tricked us. Then, just as quickly the thought disappears. This hallway is too used, too dingy to be any part of the tower. The burgundy carpet at my feet is thinner than anything Titus owns and stained in several places. The walls are scuffed, and the smell of sweat and soap mingle in the stuffy air.

“Where are we?” I ask, wrinkling my nose.

“Housekeeping level. It’s two floors below Rogen Tower. It connects with the hidden basement. Come on.” Daniel leads us down the hall and I follow, matching his stance and staying close to the wall. Not that it would do us a bit of good if someone comes out of any of these doors. We’re completely exposed and there’s no denying that none of us belong here.

We pass a door marked “Laundry” and the hum of machinery buzzes from within. A pocket of warm air sneaks out from underneath, warming my toes. Daniel stops beside the door and pulls back on an access panel. The sign next to it says “Laundry chute.”

“No,” Linc says.

“What is it?” I ask.

Daniel ignores me in favor of arguing with Linc. “You have a better idea, samurai security man? We have to get out. We can’t use the front door. This is what I’ve got.”

“I’m not throwing her down a laundry tube. We have no idea what’s waiting at the bottom,” Linc says.

Daniel quirks a brow. “Uh, laundry?”

Linc scowls.

Despite his snappy words, I can see the fatigue lining Daniel’s eyes. His wounded arm hangs more limply at his side than the other. I can imagine the pain he’s in as my own arm pulses to the beat of my heart.

“Linc,” I say, laying a hand on his arm. “He’s right. There’s no other way.”