The Forbidden Trilogy (37 page)

The cameras showed Luke hiding in an empty office, waiting
for Lucy to give him his next set of instructions.

"Luke, a guard is passing the office you're in. Don't
come out."

"This could be my chance to steal a uniform."

"No. It's too dangerous."
Screw Mr. Black and
his orders.

Lucy pulled up the emergency systems control panel and found
the fire alarm. She clicked a button, and a screech sounded in all the rooms.
Personnel throughout the building cleared out of the hallways, including those
around the room housing the supercomputer.

Luke wasted no time. He walked through the walls and entered
the secure room, then attached a portable wireless server to the computer.
"You should be up and running now."

Lucy's laptop filled with encrypted data. She transferred
all the information to a disk, and then created a second disk that she intended
to keep for herself.

Mr. Black buzzed back in. "Did you get it?"

"Yes, but it's heavily encrypted. I can't even make
sense of this mess."

"Shit. Okay, I have to clear out of here with everyone
else. That mistake will cost you. Get Luke and kidnap Dr. Koslov. He'll tell us
what we need to know. Make your way to the second extraction point past the
hill."

"Are you kidding me? We are so not kidnapping someone
for you. You've got to be out of your mind."

"Listen to me, you little freak. You'll do this or you
and your brother will suffer pain you can't even imagine. Those mutations you
saw? That'll be you, only worse. Now get the damn scientist and get to the
helicopter."

The signal cut out before Lucy could retort. "Luke, did
you catch all that?"

"Yeah."

"What do we do?"

"I'm not letting him hurt you. We find the
scientist."

Lucy felt her stomach heave for the second time that day.
When had doing what must be done to save everyone become such a murky line of
evil?

"Dr. Koslov is still in the building. He's by the
northwest exit."

Luke ran through the halls until he reached the group
standing in line to evacuate. A guard had to inspect each person before they
could leave.

"Luke, I'm going to make a way for you. Get your night
vision goggles on."

Lucy killed the lights and lost all visual of her brother,
but she could still hear him as he grabbed the scientist and pulled him into an
empty room.

"We have to leave here together. Don't try to fight me,
because if they don't think they can use you, they
will
kill you."

Lucy turned the lights back on, so everyone could evacuate
safely. Luke popped his head through the wall to check the hall.

Dr. Koslov gasped. "You're one of them. From the
Organization."

"Yeah, I'm one of them, and if you have any sense at
all you'll do what I say. I wasn't kidding when I said they'd kill you. They'd
kill us both. Now you and me are going to get out of here fast, got it?"

The scientist shook with fear. "I cannot go out there
with you. There are snipers trained to shoot any threat to the security of this
facility—especially during an evacuation. We cannot allow scientists to leave
with sensitive research. They will kill us faster than your people will,
sadly."

Luke looked into the nearest camera. "Can you get us
out, Luce? And still get yourself out?"

"Easy as pie."

Lucy reviewed all the possible exits and gave them
instructions about which one presented the fewest obstacles. Once they were at
the door, Lucy instructed them to wait.

"Guard patrol. Give it a sec. Now, go!"

They ran.

Someone knocked on the door of Lucy's office.
To answer
or hide. Always the question in moments like these. Today, I'm in the mood to
answer. No time to hide and wait.

She unlocked the door, swung it open, and before the guard
knew what hit him, she hit him. Hard. And a lot. There was some kicking
involved too. Like a ninja, Lucy rendered the guard unconscious and dragged him
into the room before anyone noticed a thing.

At least that's how she imagined it happening. In reality,
the guard got in a few lucky hits before she was able to knock him out. Still,
same results.

She limped back over to the computer and found her brother
and Dr. Koslov running from cover to cover on the path she'd given them.

The scientist kept looking behind him in panic. "They
are going to catch us. We will never make it. You do not know. You cannot
imagine what they are planning. It goes so far beyond what they have done with
you kids. So much bigger than that. The virus—"

The scientist tripped and fell. A beam of light panned over them
and stopped. The loud crack of a rifle sounded and the scientist slumped over,
a pool of blood spreading in the snow around his head.

Luke launched himself past the gate and behind a wall.
"Lucy, you need to get out of there. I'm looping myself into the cameras
with my computer. I'll find my own way out and meet you at the helicopter.
Hurry! And be careful."

"You too, Bro. And just for the record, this assignment
sucks sweaty feet."

Lucy packed up her equipment, secured her pack on her back,
and retraced the hallways to where she'd first come in.
Dammit! I didn't
send Sam the information she needed. Good thing I planned a backup.
Her
heart pounded with fear and adrenaline.
Must make it out alive
became
her mantra.

As she passed the caged human mutants, one slammed his hand
against the glass wall and sent her flying through her skin.

"I sorry to scare you. I do not mean to frighten. I can
see into you. You are not like the others, with tests and experiments. Your
soul is pure and you have power, like me. We are kin, you and I. Will you free
me?"

"Um, yeah, I think I'll pass on that. Aren't you likely
to kill me?" Dr. Koslov had said the mutants were dangerous.

"There are secrets I can get you, secrets only I can
find, in the room with the bad lights. It will help you. I will help you.
Please."

"Bad lights? You mean the radiation room?" Lucy
pointed down the hall. "That room?"

"Yes. Bad room. But powerful toy they keep in
there."

"Will you harm me in any way?"

He stared deep into her eyes. "No. I not harm you
ever."

Lucy knew he spoke the truth, and she couldn't deny her own
curiosity. This "toy" could be the key to what the Rent-A-Kid was up
to, or it could help the Freedom Fighters in their quest. Either way, she had
to know. She pulled out her computer and tapped into the security system, then
located his cell and unlocked it remotely.

She stood back, on the defensive, as the man-beast stepped
out of his cage for the first time in who knows how long. He placed each foot
in front of the other tentatively, as if testing to see if the floor would hold
him.

"I thank you, Girl, for freeing me."

She nodded and let him take the lead so she could keep an
eye on him. He hadn't lied to her, but that didn't mean she would let her guard
down. Still, something about his eyes, his soul, pulled at her. He was more
than he seemed, and her heart broke at the life he'd been forced to live.

They reached the radiation room, and he stood before the
door. "Stand back. I open it."

She stood on the other side of the room. Just as she opened
her mouth to protest that the door was too big for him to open alone—it must
have weighed a ton, made of solid metal—he pushed the door in and closed it
behind him
.

Within minutes, he returned with a small metal sphere in his
hand. "I know not how it works, but much power in it. You take it to help
you."

She reached for it, but pulled back. "Is it safe? If it
was in a room with radiation, will it hurt me?"

"It safe. It protected."

He spoke the truth. She paused, uncertain, and looked into
his eyes. "Lie to me," she commanded.

"I do not understand?" His bushy eyebrows
scrunched in confusion.

"Tell me something that isn't true, that, you know, is
a lie."

"I could not lie to you." Again, he held out the
sphere.

Her body burned to take it, to study it and know its
secrets, but she had to be sure her powers were working. She had to be sure she
could trust him.

"I just need to test something. Please?"

"Okay, if it make you feel better. A lie: I have been
free my whole life, and happy."

The lie washed into her mind like a poison and her head
buzzed with it. Her powers worked, and she could trust him.

She reached out and accepted the sphere from him.
"Thank you." The cool metal tickled her skin and sent goosebumps
running up her arm. She examined the sphere, but found no opening or button of
any kind. Nothing about its appearance indicated its use, but it pulsed with an
energy that warmed her.

"What's your name?"

"Name?"

"Yes, what do they call you?"

"I have no name. They give me number."

Lucy slipped the device into her jacket pocket. "Well,
I have to call you something. How about Adam? Do you like that name?"

He smiled. "Yes. Adam. I Adam. I like."

 He grabbed a discarded lab coat to hide himself, and they
headed through the long, vacant hall toward the nearest exit.

"Luke, you around?"

"I made it through and am waiting for you. Did you
seriously free a mutant?"

"You have to meet him. It's not what you think. Talk
later, getting close to exit."

Lucy pulled Adam behind a vending machine. "Crap. A
guard at the exit door. If I fight him, it could alert others to where we
are."

"You not need to fight. You have power to compel. Truth
and lies... all slip easily from tongues when you around. Talk to him. Tell him
to lie. Tell him hard in your mind and with your lips."

"What are you talking about?"

"You see lies, yes? You can also make lies. Shadow
power exists in everyone. Use it now."

Luke shouted in her ear. "Don't do it, Luce! You don't
even know this guy. He could get you killed."

"Yes, but so could fighting the guard, or not leaving
the building, or leaving the building. Honestly, my staying alive options are
pretty slim. What else can I do?"

Lucy left the relative safety of the vending machine and
walked the last steps of the hall to the guard, nerves rattling around in her
stomach like grenades about to go off.

He saw her and raised his gun.

Everything inside her screamed
Run!
But she forced
her legs forward.

Adam moved to fill the space next to her, a calming presence
despite the potential danger.

The sphere in her pocket hummed, and warm energy filled her.

She held up her hand. "Excuse me, but you need to tell
your buddies out there to let me and my friend through. Tell them we are staff
who got stuck in a locked office and are just now finding our way out."

He cocked his gun. "What the hell, lady? I'm radioing
you in."

He pulled out his radio. "Delta Leader, do you read me?
I have...."

Lucy held his eyes and with force of will repeated her
instructions.

His eyes glazed over. "...two staff who didn't make it
out in the first sweep. Hold all fire. Repeat, hold all fire."

Lucy and the mutant walked through the door, just inches
from the guard. Lucy's skin crawled but she kept moving.

Outside, the cold and darkness blanketed the landscape. She
shivered, but didn't have time to let her eyes adjust. Instead, she relied on
the surveillance lights to guide her way over the large field, toward the
outside gate guard and past the snipers.

They were almost there. Just a few more feet.

She couldn't believe it had actually worked. She'd always
wanted a more active power, and now she had one.

 Luke's shout turned her excitement to fear. "Lucy, get
down!"

Guns exploded around them. She and Adam dove into the
nearest bushes, and placed as many trees between them and the bullets as they
could.

Luke's voice crackled in her ear, "I just heard over
the radio, one of the snipers got a look at the mutant. Tell me where you are.
I'll get you out of there."

Lucy gave Luke their position and listened as he explained
the path they should take.

The cold Russian night bit into her skin as they scurried
from tree to tree.

They were ten feet from the gate. So close. A helicopter
waited for them just past the hill.

They ran as hard and fast as their legs could pump.

But no one could outrun a bullet.

Lucy prepared for the impact even as she ran. She fought the
paralysis of fear. Unseen harbingers of death chased her, intent on cutting
into her body and tearing her apart.

Nothing happened.

The air around her thickened and quieted into an eerie
silence. She paused long enough to turn around. A bullet hovered mere
centimeters from her left eye.

Luke stood beyond the gate, his forehead wrinkled in
concentration. "Get out. I'll protect you."

Guards swarmed from the outlying buildings like hungry
flies. A spray of bullets screamed toward them, the sound muted by the force
field Luke had created. He blocked them all. It was as if the bullets were
stuck in a thick plaster.

"Luce, I can't hold on much longer. Too hard to keep
them all away. Please, hurry."

Lucy grabbed her friend's hand and tried to run with him
through the gate.

He stopped her. "Thank you, Girl, for freeing me. For
those moments, I had air in lungs that was mine alone. Remember me as I will
you."

He leaned down to kiss her cheek, his floppy skin
surprisingly soft, then ran toward the guards with a thunderous growl.

The guards focused all their firepower on the mutant.
Bullets hit him, but he did not fall.

Lucy screamed and started chasing him, but Luke ran through
the gate and dragged her away.