Renegade (33 page)

Two more Enforcers aim and fire at me, and I spin just in time to avoid getting a bullet to the head. I fire again, this time not taking a chance. Apparently it’s me and Gavin or them. So I continue to shoot until there’s no one in the room except Gavin and me, several piles of ash, and one or two who died when I shot Veronica with the Reising.

Emotionally exhausted, I stare at what’s left of the group, but Gavin has more worries on his mind than how we’ve destroyed girls who had no choice.

“Evie, are you hurt?”

I shake my head.

“There’s blood all over you.”

“It’s not mine. It’s Veronica’s.”

I stumble over to the control panel and try to figure out how it works. We’re interrupted when Mother’s voice comes through the speakers in the ceiling.

“For the last time, Evelyn, I won’t allow you to leave. It’s only a matter of time before your own Conditioning takes over. You can’t fight it forever.” Her voice wavers and there’s a ferocity to it now. Obviously us prevailing over her Enforcers wasn’t part of her all-knowing plan.

“We’re at the submersibles dock, Mother. There’s nothing you can do,” I say.

There’s a long silence, and I wonder what she’s doing. Then the speakers hiss again. “That’s what you think,” she says softly. “You know? Killing those girls was not very smart. How do you expect you’ll find the power room now? Though I doubt they would have helped you anyway.” She laughs, and it isn’t just me that hears the madness behind it.

Gavin looks at me and narrows his eyes. “We’re getting to her,” he finally says.

“It’s such a shame, really,” Mother says, either not hearing Gavin or ignoring him. “Because you were right about his eyes. And his genetics. The child you would have made together would have been perfect for my plans. An indestructible Enforcer.”

“Indestructible? What are you talking about, Mother?” It comes out as a sigh. I’m over all this nonsense. I just want it to end.

“Didn’t Veronica tell you?” She clicks her tongue. “Your genetics are superior to anyone in this city. You were the perfect Enforcer. Your body was quite literally designed for it. A wunderkind, so to speak. I should know; I made sure of it. You did everything perfectly your first time out. Sadly, your brain is constantly rejecting the Conditioning, but that’s easily fixed. In your children. A few modifications and we would have had the perfect Enforcers.”

Rage tears through me. “Is that why you kept me alive, Mother? When it would have been easier to kill me?”

“Yes. But once we were quite sure the children were what we wanted, you would have been destroyed. Just like anything defective.”

“Sorry to upset your plans, but that’s not going to happen,” Gavin says.

“Oh, it will,” Mother says. “Her Conditioning will take over, then she’ll kill you and return to me and we’ll put all this nasty stuff behind us.” She pauses. “Oh, and Evelyn, do be safe, will you? I’d rather you not get killed by those defectives running around Sector Three.”

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-SEVEN

The War has corrupted the Surface Dwellers. They have been consumed with hate and violence, and should be considered extremely dangerous. Any Surface Dweller who attempts to break into Elysium should be shot on sight.

—
E
NFORCER
S
TATUTE 104A.1

The speaker crackles, then cuts off. I glare at it before moving my gaze to the console.

Gavin rubs a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Evie. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I don’t say anything because I’m still staring at the console. There’s not a single light on it. Just like in the corridors. Apparently the emergency power doesn’t extend to these.

“Damn it!” I pound my fist against the glass.

“What’s wrong?” Gavin demands.

“There’s no power,” I reply with a sigh.

The news doesn’t surprise him. He only shrugs. “Well, that’s easy to fix, right? I mean, we’re in the Engineering Sector. Didn’t you say that the power control room is in this Sector?”

“Yes, but I don’t know where it is.” I look at the ground. I’m having trouble looking at him again. Partly from embarrassment, partly because just looking at him makes me want to snap his neck.

Unaware how hard I’m fighting, but obviously sensing something is wrong, he rubs a hand up and down my bare arm. Unable to control myself, I grab his hand and toss it aside.

“Don’t touch me,” I growl. “Don’t you realize what I want to do to you?”

“For God’s sake, Evie! You’re hurting. I can see it. Do you expect me to just do nothing?”

“Yes. Yes I do. Because I want to kill you. I want to take my hands and wrap them around your neck and watch as you die.” Gavin blinks and takes a step away from me. “Now will you please stop touching me!”

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly.

Seeing the fear in his eyes, I curse and pull at my hair. “No.
I’m
sorry. It’s just getting harder and harder for me to be around you.”

“Do you want to split up? Will it help you not kill me?” He grins, but I only shake my head.

“No. I can— I
will
control this, and we shouldn’t split up. Not with those …
things
walking around. All in all, you’re still probably safer with me.” This time I force a smile. “We’re in this together, right?”

“For better or worse,” he says. “Besides, I suppose if anyone was going to kill me, I’d rather it be you.” He kisses the side of my cheek, just to the left of my lips, and watches me as he pulls away, as if to see what my reaction will be.

Surprisingly, the kiss and his words make the haze of hate fade. Just a tiny bit.

“We need to find out how to get to the power room. Any ideas?” he asks.

I slowly shake my head. For the life of me, I can’t remember anything about this Sector. It seems the harder I fight the Conditioning to kill Gavin, the less I remember.

Gavin purses his lips and for just a moment he reminds me so much of Mother, my hand is at my plasma pistol before I realize it. It takes every ounce of self-control I have to pull my arm back.

I want to kill him.
He’s a dirty, filthy Surface Dweller. He means nothing to me. He’s not my friend. Why am I helping him escape?

The voice in my head doesn’t sound like mine. It sounds like Mother. I wonder if she has a direct path into my mind.

I shake it off. Because he’s your only hope, I tell myself. If you stay, you will die like everyone else. The Surface is worth the risk, if it means you’ll live.

I force my hand away from the pistol.

Gavin continues to watch me for a moment, before asking, “Are you okay?”

My life is just about perfect,
I want to say, but another surge of anger overtakes me as I fight the programmed response. After just a few seconds I say, “Yes. Fine.”

He breathes a sigh of relief, then searches the remaining bodies for something we can use. Suddenly, his face brightens. He reaches into a pile of gore and pulls out a thin piece of glass.

I frown. I have no clue what it is.

He hands it to me. “Macie had something like this. She tried to find the route you’d take when you snuck off to the Palace, but it didn’t show the maintenance level.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know what it is.”

His brows bunch together. “You don’t?”

I lift my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

He studies it for a few minutes, then says, “Can I see your hand?”

Grudgingly, I hold it out. He presses the cool glass against my palm. A green light shoots out of the glass, then it beeps. A whole slew of words pop up onto the glass.

“I thought so,” he mutters. “Recognize it now?” He holds it out to me.

I don’t. I shake my head again.

He groans. “I really, really hate your mother.”

I don’t know what to say to that. He continues to study it and then starts pressing different things on the glass.

“Aha!” he says after a few minutes, and then a picture is projected from the glass. It’s a 3-D rendering of the facility.

“A map?” I ask.

“Yep, and I think this here is where we are.” He points to a blinking red dot. “I don’t really know how to work it. Do you?”

I know this. I know I do. I hold out my hand and he hands it to me. The contact with the device gives my memory a little boost and I’m able to locate the find feature. Then I pause. I can’t remember where we were going.

I look up at Gavin, who says, “Power control room.”

Right. I type it in, using the holographic keyboard, and it brings the map up again. This time there’s a red dot: us. And a flashing orange dot: power control room. Small pink dots lead from the red dot to the orange dot.

It appears to be several levels below us and on the opposite side of the Sector. I hand the map back to Gavin. “Probably safer for you to have it,” I say.

He takes it without question, reloads his plasma pistol, then hikes the backpack onto his shoulder. I do the same, and we cautiously slip out the door and start down the path.

It’s quickly evident that following behind him isn’t a good idea. The urge to shoot him in the back is too great. I’m still in control—so far—but I decide to take the lead. He’ll just have to direct me.

It doesn’t take long to make it to the elevator that will take us down, but I hesitate when Gavin opens the gate to the car. He stops, realizing I haven’t followed him.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, adjusting his pack.

“There’s no power to run it.”

He half laughs, half groans. “Right. I forgot about that.” He looks back down at the map. “It looks like there’s a set of stairs over there.” He points a few feet away to a door.

Being as quiet and careful as possible, I open the door. My Enforcer senses are running on double time as I creep through the door and gesture for Gavin to follow.

Despite how quiet we are, the slap of our feet echoes around the small area and I’m surprised we aren’t met by any more of Mother’s experiments. It bothers me that we haven’t run into anyone. There should be hundreds of people in this Sector, but we’ve only encountered a few dozen.

We finally get to the bottom level and slip into an even darker corridor. It’s so dark I can’t see my hand in front of my face. But I don’t need to see to know why we haven’t met anyone. I can smell it. Something fleshy. And blood. Lots of it.

“Evie,” Gavin whispers.

“I’m fine,” I say, and flick on the flashlight attached to my dress.

“Oh my God,” Gavin says, and starts gagging.

Even I can’t blame him. The hallway is covered with dead bodies. The floor is sticky with partially dried pools of blood. The walls and even the ceiling are covered in sprays of red. And it drips from the ceiling like sprinkles of rain.

Laughter from farther down the hall sends chills running up and down my spine. But the light doesn’t reach that far. I can’t see anything.

Taking a deep breath, I move forward, trying hard not to step on anyone. My feet make sucking noises as they lift from the puddles. There are so many bodies it takes nearly ten minutes for me to cross.

Gavin uses the light from the holographic map to guide his way. I’m dizzy and sweating by the time we’re across, but I can’t let on that anything’s wrong.
Weakness is unacceptable. Shameful. A flaw that must be eradicated.

The laughter echoes through the halls again, but this time I can make out other sounds, too. The scraping of feet against concrete. Talking. More than one person? And I think I hear singing.

I keep the light pointing straight ahead and my eyes and ears open. Whoever is down here isn’t sane. And if the people behind us are any indication, I’m sure they aren’t friendly, either.

With Gavin tapping me on the shoulder each time we need to turn, we finally find another room. The door is partially ajar. Lucky, I think, until I see what is holding it open.

The body of a girl in Enforcer garb is lying in the doorway. Blood puddles around her body. She’s young, younger than she should be. Is Mother getting so desperate she’s bringing them in earlier? Which begs the question, is she skipping parts of their training? Or just training them faster?

Trying not to gag, I step over her. Gavin does the same, but I notice he doesn’t even flinch when he sees her.

For some reason, that makes me livid. She looks barely old enough to be an Enforcer, and she’s already dead. He should be as shocked as I am.

I bite back the urge to yell all this at him. It’s just the Conditioning making me feel this way, I remind myself. He’s not saying anything because it won’t help us. It will only make things worse. And he probably doesn’t want to set me off again. But I can’t help but glance down at the girl one more time before I straighten my shoulders and follow Gavin to the power console.

There’s a series of levers, dials, and switches and I don’t know which does what. I stare blankly at it. Gavin seems to understand how it works, however, and quickly starts turning knobs and dials, and flipping switches. Then he goes to a big metal box secured to the wall and lifts a lever on the side.

I narrow my eyes. How does he know how to do that?

I’m distracted when light floods into the compartment, blinding me. There’s a
whoosh-thud-squish
sound and I realize with horror that it’s the door. It’s opening and closing on the girl. Every time it closes, it tries to latch, but can’t. Because of her head.

I rush over and try to pull her out of the way. But I can’t, because an experiment has decided now that he can see, he’s got himself a feast.

He makes a high-pitched scream when I yank her away and swipes out with a knife. The first swing catches my bad shoulder, tearing the skin. I scream and he lashes out again, just barely missing my stomach. Again I try pulling her out of the way, but another experiment rushes through the open door and plows into me. We both slam into the ground and he knocks the breath out of me.