Thornhill (Hemlock) (23 page)

Jason and I quickly slumped to the ground as two of the guards broke away from the back of the room and began walking the edge of the crowd.

Aside from Dex, only one girl was unaffected. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her. Mystified and frightened, she didn’t have the sense to play dead.

There were confused murmurs from most of the guards as they realized neither the girl nor Dex had gone down, but the two men sweeping the room didn’t seem surprised at all. I listened, helpless to intervene, as they tased the girl, then dumped her with the guards outside.

The woman with the glasses crossed the stage to speak to Sinclair. “This is completely unnecessary. A total overreaction.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve started to feel sorry for them.” I watched from under my lashes as a look of disgust crossed Sinclair’s face. “I’ve seen how much you enjoy your work.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” The woman pulled off her glasses and wiped them on the corner of her sweater. “They’re just too valuable to play with—especially in this manner. If my superiors knew . . .”

Sinclair shook her head and slammed a door on the discussion. “I don’t answer to your superiors, and I am not playing games.” She stared levelly at the woman until she retreated to the side of the stage.

A few feet away, a boy turned his head slightly, trying to track the woman’s movement. Jason and I weren’t the only ones faking.

The warden slid her thumb off the trigger of the HFD.

Gradually, the other wolves came to. I sat up and watched Kyle shake his head and raise himself back to his knees. He wrapped the slack of the chain around his hand again. This time, there seemed to be more of it. I squinted at the dais as he leaned to the side in what looked like an innocent stretch. The bolt holding the chain to the stage seemed to lift slightly. He was breaking free in small increments that would go unnoticed until it was too late.

Frightened whispers filled the air, growing in intensity and pitch as the wolves realized one of their own—the girl—had just gone missing.

Sinclair held up the remote. “Until someone comes forward with information, this HFD will go off every five minutes.”

It was complete overkill. I could understand why she had sent men after Jason and me, but she had no reason to think Eve had made it out of the camp; she had no reason to think Eve was in any kind of position to hurt her.

“Thornhill is a
choice
.” A tired, frustrated note crept into the warden’s voice. “If any of you would prefer to be elsewhere, I will
happily
put you on a truck to Van Horne and you can find out firsthand just how horrible a camp can be.”

Find out.

It suddenly clicked. Eve hadn’t been caught with us, but that didn’t guarantee that she hadn’t seen or heard something about Serena or the detention block.

Thornhill worked because the things that didn’t make sense or were too frightening to think about stayed under the surface. People whispered about the disappearances, but no one talked about them openly. If the inmates started questioning too much, cracks would form.

Sinclair would do anything to stop that from happening. She would do anything to protect her work. And right now,
anything
meant finding Eve before she could spill any of the camp’s secrets—even if that entailed punishing an entire auditorium full of teens.

The brightness in the warden’s eyes wasn’t exhaustion: it was fanaticism. She was absolutely convinced that what she was doing at Thornhill was noble and right and worthy of protection.

Hank believed they were just looking for a way to make wolves easier to manage and control, that none of what was happening here was about finding a true cure. Looking at the way Sinclair’s blue eyes gleamed, I wasn’t so sure he was right. My gaze fell on the garnet ring she wore and I thought of the sister she had told me about. Everything Sinclair had done was horrible and twisted, but what if it hadn’t started out that way?

I swallowed and leaned into Jason. “How long until Hank hits the gates?”

Surreptitiously, he pulled back the cuff of his sleeve and checked his watch. “Twenty minutes. At most.”

Twenty minutes.

Even if Sinclair hadn’t taken the wolves as hostages, she’d be a fool not to use them once she realized the camp was under attack. We had to come up with a plan before that happened.

My eyes locked on Kyle. “We’ll find a way to get you out,” I whispered. “I promise.”

Just as the last syllable left my lips, an explosion ripped through the camp.

T
HE WINDOWS RATTLED AND THE WALLS SHOOK. PEOPLE
surged to their feet and bodies churned around us like water. Jason and I were ripped apart and pulled to opposite sides of the room. I fought against the sea of wolves and craned my neck, desperate to get a glimpse of the platform.

Sinclair was shouting at the guards, but her voice was lost under the roar of the crowd. Behind her, Kyle strained against his restraints. The muscles in his shoulders and arms writhed under the skin. I shouted his name, terrified he would lose control and give the guards a reason to shoot him.

He gave a final tug and the chain snapped. The end of it whipped through the air and forced Sinclair to jump back. In her haste not to get hit, she lost her grip on her HFD. The small device went flying and landed harmlessly among the wolves.

Kyle scanned the mob—checking to make sure Jason and I were all right—before crouching next to Dex and working to free him.

Langley turned toward them, HFD in hand. A chunk of the wall next to her exploded and she dropped the device.

My eyes found Jason.

He stood in the middle of the crowd, gun drawn, eyes darting between the two program coordinators and the woman with the glasses in case any of them went for their HFDs. A few people around him dove down and covered their heads, but most of the wolves were so panicked that they didn’t realize where the shots had come from.

“Trackers.” The word tore through the auditorium and grew in strength until it drowned out everything else. It made no sense—why would Trackers attack a camp?—but the wolves had lived under the threat of raids and attacks so long that it was the first conclusion they rushed to when things started exploding.

Faint gunshots could be heard outside, lending credence to the cries.

“It’s the Eumon pack! It’s not the Trackers! It’s a rescue!” I couldn’t make myself heard over the chaos.

The guards at the back of the hall didn’t know what to do. One chained the doors shut while a few tried to make their way to the dais where Kyle and Dex had cornered Sinclair and the other four staff members.

One guard panicked and fired into the throng as wolves began losing control and shifting.

On the platform, Dex lunged for Sinclair. He pulled her arms behind her back with one hand as he thrust her in front of him. He put his other hand near her neck. “Stop!” he roared as the guards pressed forward. “Anyone else shoots at the wolves and you get the warden back in pieces.” The bones in his hands snapped and lengthened, adding weight to the threat.

Looking at the barely controlled rage on Dex’s face—an expression so far removed from the boy I’d gotten to know over the past week—I had a feeling he wasn’t bluffing.

Kyle was on the same wavelength. He shot Dex a nervous glance as he confiscated HFDs from the woman with the glasses and the two program coordinators.

Dex’s threat worked—at least temporarily. No more shots were fired on the crowd.

Unfortunately, the crowd was too far gone to notice.

Around me, more wolves lost control. We had to do something to stop the mass panic. Quickly. Otherwise—threat to Sinclair or not—the guards would open fire en masse.

A body crashed into me, hitting me so hard that I flew back and landed on the auditorium floor. I had to move or risk being trampled, but I spent a handful of seconds staring up at the latticework of pipes crisscrossing the ceiling as an idea took shape.

I had to get to Jason.

I pushed myself to my feet, but before I could take a single step, another hit sent me crashing back to the ground. A foot connected with my stomach as a wolf tripped over me. The wolf went sprawling, and I pulled my knees up to my chest and retched.

Suddenly, someone’s arms were around me, lifting me and shielding me.

“Kyle!” I threw my arms around him and buried my face against his neck, for a second not caring that we were in the middle of a stampeding mob.

He eased back to check me for injuries. “What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “How’s that working out?”

“This part wasn’t in the plan,” I admitted. I took a deep breath. “I need to get to Jason. I have an idea.”

To Kyle’s credit, he didn’t argue or question. “Okay. C’mon.” He grabbed my hand and fought his way to the center of the room, keeping me close and safe until we reached Jason’s side.

“How many bullets do you have?” I asked, pressing my mouth close to Jason’s ear.

The small, tight grin that flashed across his face was completely mirthless. “Three times as many as I intend to use,” he said, quoting one of his father’s many gun tips.

I glanced up at the fire sprinkler above our heads. It was hard to tell from the ground, but I was reasonably sure it was the kind with a bulb inside. Break the bulb, and the sprinkler would go off—not an easy shot, but Jason’s father had been dragging him to target practice since he was a toddler. “I need you to take out some of the sprinkler heads.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “Do you really think this is the time for a wet T-shirt contest?”

A few feet away, a girl lost control and doubled over.

“Please, Jason!” Without waiting for a response, I turned and raced for the dais, trusting Kyle would follow.

There was a chorus of yelps behind me as the first sprinkler went off, but I didn’t look back. I knew Jason would hit more of them and I had to get to the front of the room before the surprise wore off.

Sinclair’s eyes widened slightly as I jogged up the three stairs to the platform.

“Decided to come back and visit?” asked Dex. His voice was steady, but his arms were shaking and his skin was covered in sweat.

“Something like that,” I said, hoping he wasn’t as close to losing control as he looked. I shot a quick glance at the staff members standing off to the side. None of them took their eyes off Dex. As long as he held Sinclair hostage, he held sway over them. Even, it seemed, over someone as brutal as Langley.

“You’re making a huge mistake.” Somehow, despite the fact that she was being held hostage by a werewolf she had probably tortured, Sinclair still managed to sound authoritative. “You’re only chance is—”

Dex flexed his hand against her throat and she immediately stopped talking.

I turned to face the auditorium. The shock of the water seemed to have kept more wolves from shifting, but they were focused on Jason, not the front of the room. Low rumblings started as a few people recognized him from his short stint as a counselor.

I glanced at Kyle. “I need to get their attention.”

Kyle cracked his neck and let loose a howl that no human throat was capable of.

Almost like a single unit, the wolves turned to the front of the room. Even the guards—who had regrouped near the doors—stared expectantly at the stage.

I glanced at Kyle. “Neat,” I murmured. He blushed and then shrugged.

Focusing back on the crowd, I raised my voice until I was practically shouting. “The explosion was the gates being blown. The Eumon pack is breaking us out.”

Some people looked excited and others relieved, but a lot of the faces in the crowd looked skeptical. “We have to get to the gates,” I continued. “Once we get past them, the pack has escape routes and transportation set up.”

Wolves shot questions at me—so many and so fast that they all blurred together—but I addressed the guards. “The blond gentleman in the olive uniform and the nice werewolf on my left are going to collect your Tasers and guns.”

Kyle hopped off the stage. Jason raised an eyebrow as he stowed his own weapon, but then turned and headed through the crowd. The wolves parted for them as they made their way to the men at the back of the room. Most of the guards looked angry, but a few looked frightened.

“Once you hand over your weapons, the wolves and I will be leaving the hall. We’d appreciate it if you’d let us go peacefully.” My voice was level and steady, full of confidence I didn’t feel. It was almost as though I was channeling someone else.
Eve
, I realized. I sounded like Eve.

“And why would we do that?” asked a burly guard who was definitely more angry than frightened. The sleeves of his uniform had been rolled up to his elbows, revealing forearms that were covered in intricate patterns of ink.

“First: we outnumber you by, like, thirty to one. You might tase or shoot a few of us, but you won’t get all of us. Second”—and here I glanced at Sinclair—“we have the warden and we won’t let her go until we reach the gates. And third: the pack is tearing apart Thornhill as we speak. If you let us go peacefully, they won’t have a reason to come inside. Keep us in here, and they’ll eventually break down the door.”

“Don’t listen to her.” Sinclair’s voice rang out across the hall. “You know the policy: no negotiations with inmates—even in hostage situations.”

I raised my voice over hers as she spouted a section from the employee manual. “And if you need a more personal reason: the warden has purposefully been putting every Thornhill staff member at risk. Including each of you.”

“She’s lying.” I could feel the force of Sinclair’s glare between my shoulder blades; it was like a dagger buried to the hilt.

“That female wolf who was removed from the hall and the guy who’s currently holding your warden hostage? They aren’t the only ones the HFDs don’t work on. Wolves build up a tolerance. The more they’re exposed, the less they’re affected—it’s why the counselors have HFDs and you don’t. Sinclair is trying to limit how often they get hit. Sooner or later, every wolf in this camp could be immune.”

Hundreds of wolves stared at me in shock.

“Lies,” repeated Sinclair, but the guards weren’t listening to her.

“Did you know?” The guard with the tattoos turned to the uniform on his right. The wolves in the hall had fallen so quiet that, even with the noise coming from outside, it was easy to hear the exchange. “You didn’t seem surprised when that girl stayed on her feet.”

The other guard hesitated, then nodded. “Everyone assigned to duty in the detention block knows. We weren’t supposed to tell anyone.”

The tattooed guard scowled at the words, then handed Kyle his gun and Jason his Taser. The rest of the guards quickly followed suit.

The boys returned to the dais, arms full, as Sinclair glared at the guards. If anything was left of Thornhill in the morning, I had a feeling each one of them would be getting a pink slip.

“Do we hand them out?” asked Dex as Kyle and Jason climbed onto the stage.

“No.” I expected Jason to speak, but the answer came from Kyle. “If you give them weapons, it’ll be too big a temptation. Someone will use one. It will just give the guards outside one more reason to shoot.” He headed for the far corner of the dais and left the guns hidden in the shadows.

Jason did the same with the Tasers.

“This is ridiculous.” Sinclair twisted in Dex’s grip. Her voice rose sharply and it was unclear whether she was addressing the guards or the wolves. “This is completely insane. Everything this girl has told you is a lie.”

Both groups ignored her.

The guard with the tats strode forward. “How many wolves are out there?”

“Enough,” I bluffed. The gunshots outside had almost stopped; I had no idea if that was a good sign or a bad one.

“If we let you leave, will you call off the attack on the other guards?”

I nodded. “Yes. You have my word.”

“And the warden?”

“We’ll let her go once we’re through the gates. Just like I said.”

“Conditional on the guards holding their fire,” added Kyle, “and provided all of the wolves—including the ones in the detention block—are allowed to leave.”

“You can’t!” The woman with the glasses pushed forward. One of the program coordinators pulled her back, hissing at her to keep quiet.

The guard stared at us for a long moment, then nodded and pulled a radio from his belt. He tried to raise the guards outside, but all he got was silence.

Hank. His team had succeeded in taking out the communications system.
Please let them also have gotten to the detention block
, I prayed, thinking of Serena. To the guard, I said, “We cut your radios.”

He shrugged. “Then you’ll have to let me out. I can’t make a deal if I can’t talk to the men outside.”

I hesitated. He had a point, but . . .

“I’ll go with him.” Jason hopped off the stage. “One of us has to, otherwise someone from the pack will attack him before he gets two words out.”

I knew he was right, but I hated splitting up. Still, there wasn’t much choice. “Be careful.”

He nodded before following the guard to the doors.

“Do you have any idea how valuable the wolves in the detention block are?” Sinclair pulled my attention away from Jason as he exited the auditorium. “Do you have the faintest clue what you’ll be jeopardizing if you take them out of here? The work you’ll destroy? The lives that could be saved? You think you’re helping them, but all you’ll do is prolong their suffering.”

“
Prolong their suffering?
” Dex’s hand curled around Sinclair’s neck. He didn’t scratch her or squeeze the breath from her throat, but the muscles in his arm writhed under the surface. “What about Corry? She wasn’t suffering before she got here. Did she suffer after you took her? What about the others? They’re people, not your personal lab rats.”

“They’re not,” said Sinclair, a note of misery in her voice that took me aback.

“Lab rats?” I asked, confused.

“People.” She rushed on. “As long as they can shift, they’re a threat that needs to be contained. But they can be disarmed. We’re so close.”

It was too much for Dex. “That’s what you did to Corry? You ‘disarmed’ her?” His hand tightened around the warden’s neck and she struggled for air.

“Dex. . . .” Kyle stepped forward. “Let me take her.”

Dex shook his head, the simple movement almost violent. “Did you hear what she said? We’re nothing but things to be opened up and tinkered with. That’s what she did to Corry. She opened her up and crossed her wires and when she didn’t like the result she threw her away.”