Listen (Muted Trilogy Book 2) (13 page)

By the time she sat down across from him, Jack was processing everything.

“We need to get out of here,” she sent after a few bites, barely registering that the other four had joined them in the cafeteria, “and we need to do it in the next few days while there are fewer guards. But there’s so much to do, and I don’t even know where to start. There are still guards, even if there are fewer of them, and there are cameras and there are the scientists and other employees and we don’t know all the schedules or all the layout and—”

“Hey.” Jack’s hand twitched on the table, and he picked up his sandwich. Jemma focused on swallowing a bite of her own, trying to keep her face expressionless. They’d expect her to be low on energy today, anyway, so a neutral look would probably be the least suspicious. “One thing at a time, right? So they’re lower on guards. When do they seem to have the fewest guards on hand?”

Jemma thought about it. They all had testing in the mornings and afternoons, and if she, who seemed to be their star pupil, had a guard at her lab door, they probably all did.

“It sounds like they sleep somewhere in the facility, so they aren’t necessarily working overnight, but they’re probably here,” she sent. “During lunch, though, they don’t seem to be working, and I would guess at least some of them go out to eat.”

“It does seem like our best time. We can use night as a backup if we find out they don’t sleep here, but then we’re locked pretty firmly in our rooms.” He tapped on the table. “I’m not sure just running out of the cafeteria is a great idea. They’ve got their communicators, and they could alert the rest of the building before we got anywhere. Our best shot is if we can get as far as possible before anyone realizes we’re gone. Plus, there are four of them, which is better than the six or more we might be dealing with otherwise, but not great, either.”

“Maybe Heidi could help us out?”

“She might help in small ways, and in information,” Jack sent, glancing at the guards, “but she didn’t say anything explicit, not directly to you, right? I think she’s got some reason she wants to stay here. She’s willing to risk something to help us, but not everything.” He tapped the table again. “I’m not sure.”

“I’ll see if I can get anything else on the way back to my room,” sent Jemma. Jack sent an affirmative. “If leaving straight from the cafeteria doesn’t work, what about ending lunch early? They’d send us back to our rooms, right? If we wait long enough that the guards are already at lunch…”

“…then there should only be a few working.” Jack finished. “Perfect! But then how do we get out of our rooms?”

“We need to make sure they don’t lock, I think. Slip something between the door and where it latches into the wall, like where people slip credit cards in the movies.”

“Everything is pretty well bolted down in my room, and I don’t think my phone will fit,” sent Jack. “Oh!” Jemma felt him force himself to calm down and take another bite of his sandwich. “The back of my cell phone, the bit that covers the battery. I think that’s thin enough to fit but sturdy enough to keep the door from latching.”

“You’ll have to hide it when they take it for lunch,” Jemma reminded him.

“I can do that.” She looked up at him for a moment to see him watching her. His eyes were bright, his expression reflecting the affection he sent her so often, reminding her she’d been in his arms the day before. “You really scared them, you know. They’re worried to ask much of me. Heidi’s right, it won’t last long, but a few days? For a few days, I can get away with a little more than I have been. My doctor types already ignore me half the time, anyway, and if they’re doing even less? Slipping a piece off the phone before I leave for lunch will be nothing.”

“The back of your cell phone, then.” Jemma looked down again, swallowing, before she could do anything stupid. “Okay, so what about the cameras?”

He sent a wave of uncertainty. “You’ve seen what they can record. How wide of an angle do they have on the camera? Are there any places in the room they might not catch? Can they really see the door?”

Jemma stopped to think about what she had seen the various times Josh had decided to flaunt his power, what she’d seen in that first photo of Jack. “They can’t see the door when it’s closed, at least. If they’re not watching closely and we stay as close as we can to the wall, they might not notice it open. I don’t think they can see the two corners closest to the door. They can see the rest of the room, I think, and they can tell if someone’s crouched down in front of the door. I got buzzed at my first day, but I know they were actively watching, and I think parts of me were pretty far from the door.”

Jack sent acknowledgment. “Let’s try to spend some time in those corners and in the bathrooms today and tomorrow. They’ll blame it on pouting, on wanting privacy.”

“Where do we go once we get out of our rooms? What do we do if we run into any guards?”

“We have to try to get a layout,” he sent. “I’m assuming we’re going to try to bring the others in on this?”

Jemma looked around the cafeteria at Marcia and Ken, at Katherine and Sam. “Marcia and Ken, for sure. We have to,” she sent. “Katherine, though, has made it very clear she disapproves of any attempt at breaking the rules.”

“Hmm.” Jack sent a troubled feeling. “It doesn’t seem right, not trying.”

“She told me she’d tell Dr. Harris if I kept trying to break the rules. It’s not that I don’t want to help, but…” Jemma looked back down at her sandwich, trying to find the desire to take another bite. “I don’t want to lose what might be our only shot by trying to involve somebody who doesn’t want to be involved.”

“All right,” sent Jack finally. “I trust your judgment. How do we tell Ken or Marcia? And how do we get the layout of this place so we can get out of here?”

“I think Heidi will help more,” sent Jemma. “She wouldn’t have given me as much as she has and then left us without knowing how to get out of the building. It just doesn’t make sense. We’ll have to hope she gives me that information tonight so that we have tomorrow to finish planning, and we can get out of here the next day.” A thrill went through Jemma, anticipation and fear warring for primary emotion. Were they really going to be out of this place in a couple days? She’d lost track of how long they’d been here; though it was easy enough to check the date on the morning paper, it had gotten depressing to do so. “As for telling the others, we just need a few seconds of contact for a head’s up today, then a few more tomorrow to finalize things.”

“They watch the pairs more closely than the rest of us,” sent Jack. “I think while I’m leaving, you stand, too, but walk away from me, toward that trash can. Wait until I’m in between Ken and the camera on this side, then brush against her, carefully.”

Jemma looked over at Heidi, who gave her a friendly smile, then back at Jack, surreptitiously checking the camera location while she was at it. “I think that’ll work, as long as nobody’s looking too closely.”

“We’re hoping everybody’s a little overworked and stressed for a couple days, though, aren’t we?” As if summoned, Jack’s guard came to indicate it was time for him to leave. Jemma stood and moved slowly toward the trash can, trying to look tired, but not drained enough to need assistance, using the table only lightly for support. As she neared Ken, she accidentally-on-purpose brushed against her.

“Escape attempt, day after tomorrow, during lunch, find something thin to keep your door from locking,” Jemma sent. It was all she could manage in the time she had, and she hoped it would be enough, at least for now. They should be able to find a way to give them more information tomorrow, to orchestrate another couple brushes of exchange if needed. She threw away her wrapper and made her way around the table, then sat to wait for her turn to leave. Her connection with Jack was still present when she sat, and it lasted for a few minutes, significantly longer than usual.

Jemma wondered whether whatever was limiting telepathy—and therefore, apparently, protecting the non-test-subject inhabitants—had lessened, or whether somehow her overload and subsequent collapse had increased her abilities. Would that lead to an even faster decline if they couldn’t manage this escape? What would it mean for her even if they could? If people on the outside were only having headaches, not collapsing, they didn’t seem to have it as bad as Jemma did, but presumably, most of the people with enhanced abilities had been captured.

Jemma’s thoughts were interrupted by a friendly hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Heidi grinning at her. The guard nodded at the door, and Jemma stood and walked out of the cafeteria.

“We need to stop by my room so I can get you a charger,” typed Heidi. Jemma nodded. She did her best to count the turns; since the hallway was just one long corridor, she couldn’t really get lost, but the doors off to the smaller sections weren’t marked. When they reached Heidi’s room, though, Jemma could tell they were in a living area. There was a common area with furniture and a television, and some of the rooms, of which there looked to be about twenty in total, must house families judging by the colorful decor on multiple doors. There was an exit on the other side of the common area, just past what looked like another cafeteria, this one with windows and open doors.

This wasn’t the way they wanted to leave.

Heidi opened an unmarked door and grabbed a charger from just inside, not even entering fully before rejoining Jemma in the hall and leading them back out of the living area. When they’d gotten back into the more clinical sections of the facility, she handed Jemma her still-uncharged phone and the charger for it. “You might want to use the outlet in the bathroom. I think that one works best.”

Jemma nodded, both frustrated by and grateful for her inability to ask questions in return. She wanted to ask why the woman was willing to risk her job and possibly her life to give them the information they needed to escape, but she wasn’t willing to just get them out of there herself. Wouldn’t it have been easier for Heidi to just walk the six of them out of the cafeteria?

They reached her room, and Heidi gave Jemma a wave before shutting her door. Jemma closed her eyes to listen; the heavy sound of the door against the frame nearly drowned out the sound of the small click as the door latched shut. The metal clicking against whatever was put there to block it should sound about the same, so as long as there was no reason for the guard to be actively listening for it, they should be safe.

The guard. Jemma wasn’t sure what would happen if she came across Heidi on an escape attempt, but she and Jack hadn’t discussed what would happen if they ran into other guards during their escape. They’d have to figure that out tomorrow.

She looked down at the phone she held, then took it into the bathroom, frowning as she realized there were no outlets in the room.

Her forehead smoothed as she remembered there were also no cameras.

She looked at the charger, which appeared completely normal, then turned her attention back to her phone. It was still dead. She pulled the back cover off, then watched a paper flutter to the ground.

She bent to pick it up. It was a thin paper that reminded her of the kind they used in bibles and encyclopedias, and on it was a map.

There wasn’t much detail, but there was a red circle around one of the doors, handwritten scribble identifying it:
Exit
.

FOURTEEN

Cooperation

Jemma studied the map, orienting herself based on the small asterisk marking the room that she was fairly certain belonged to her. The circled exit was not very far past the cafeteria. She frowned. They’d been so close, every day, to a way out. It did made her feel better, at least, knowing she’d never passed the door without realizing it.

She ran her finger along faint lines that didn’t quite fit the rest of the architecture, then flipped the paper over to see an order scribbled on the back, underlined twice:
Flush Me
.

She turned the paper over again, looking for any other clues, studying the distance from the cafeteria to the exit, counting the doors in case the exit was unmarked and unidentifiable. She worked on memorizing the map until she thought those watching might start getting suspicious, then allowed herself another few minutes; they wanted to start pushing their limits, anyway. She shoved the phone and charger into separate pockets, and then, after one last glance at the map, she flushed the paper, watching it as it spun out of sight.

Jemma walked back into her room, avoiding looking at the camera as she lay on the bed. She forced herself to stay put for several minutes, reminding herself she was putting on a show, pretending to have just enough energy to pout. While waiting, she thought through their situation again. She might only have to be here through one more full lunch break, another morning after that, and then they’d get out.

And then what?

If they assumed all the other information Heidi had slipped them or arranged for her to overhear was intentional, the information about requesting help from the police had to be intentional, too, didn’t it? That meant they probably couldn’t just go to the police and explain they’d been kidnapped.

They couldn’t overthrow this place on their own, either, couldn’t stop the experimentation or, conversely, force the scientists to accept help in finding a cure.