Thirty-Two
I lurched backward, my thoughts pounding a frantic beat through my head. No time for a scuffle with Three. Maybe I could reason with her.
“Please—I have to save my mom.”
I whirled to face her while my pulse thundered. Running. Out. Of. Time.
She tilted her head to the left in that puppylike way of hers. “You don’t have a mom.”
Something pained must have flashed across my face, because a small frown creased her brow. “It’s not that I’m unsympathetic—they programmed me for that. But I’m required to obey orders.”
“Orders? Don’t you want to do more than that? Be more than an android?” As I said the words, I gave a surprise jerk of my arm. Nothing doing. She wouldn’t let go.
How much time was left now? Two minutes? One?
“That’s the difference between us. I’m content with what I am, and you’re . . . not. It’s a shame. There’s nothing wrong with being an android.”
I tightened my hand on the device, a desperate, insane plan beginning to form. “Unless at one time you thought you were human.” As she mulled that over, I relaxed my arm. “You want the simulator? Then here, catch.” In the next instant, I chucked the round device straight up over our heads, as high as I could.
I caught the brief widening of Three’s eyes—shock that I’d do such an illogical thing—before she looked up. She didn’t see my fist coming for her face until it was too late.
I put everything I had into that punch. My knuckles cracked across her familiar nose, and then she was flying back, airbound, toward the far wall.
The explosive!
I dived low and caught it, mere inches from the ground. And then I was on my feet and running. I knew I’d have only a short lead on Three, but it’d have to be enough.
At the end of the tunnel, I saw a circle of light, and beyond that, the glorious sight of a red stripe—the finish line.
“One minute remaining.”
Three’s footsteps pounded somewhere behind me, but I was almost there. I was going to win, and then they’d free Mom and—
Wait a minute. Why was this stretch of obstacle course completely clear?
The thought hit a millisecond too late. My foot struck the ground, and the resulting explosion blasted my ears. At the same time, a perfect circle dropped out from under me and I was falling. I hit the ground with a thud, just in time to hear:
“Land mine triggered. Minus ten points.”
At least I hadn’t dropped the simulator. I braced my hands and feet on opposite sides of the narrow hole and climbed my way out. From behind, Three was barreling down on me. I glanced the other way, toward the finish. Only one chance to do this right. If I fell again . . .
Tucking the device to my chest like a football, I sprinted forward, propelling my legs as fast as possible. I had to build up speed, as quickly as possible, so that—
Another explosion cracked: the ground rumbled. Desperately, I ran harder, felt my left foot try to push off a dirt floor that was no longer there. But my right foot landed on solid ground, so I kept on going. I ran straight for the horseshoe of light that marked the tunnel’s end.
“Land mine triggered. Minus ten points.”
A few feet from the opening, I hit one last land mine. The simulator slipped in my hand. For a terrifying moment, I juggled the simulator while I lurched forward.
Don’t let go.
My fingers reached, curling around the slick surface before it fell. I craned my head over my shoulder, saw Three saving time by leaping the exposed holes I’d left behind. Cheater. But she wouldn’t catch me. I was going to win.
“Ten seconds remaining.”
Keep running. Just a few more steps.
I burst through the tunnel and into the light.
“Six seconds.”
And then I looked to the left, and my remaining hope fell into a bottomless chasm. Somehow, the obstacle course had horseshoed and brought us out on the far side of the glass room. And there was Mom. A hungry trail of fire, taller than me, was now only a foot away, inching toward her and slowly picking up speed.
No! I looked at the finish line, some thirty yards ahead.
“Three seconds.”
I wasn’t going to make it.
I wanted to break down, right then and there. This entire test for nothing.
Mom.
With a howl I barely recognized as my own, I veered left, then dived. As my outstretched hands smacked the glass, the wall shuddered, then shattered, the sharp fragments scraping at my skin and yanking at my clothes. I hit the floor, rolled, and lunged to my feet, all in one fluid motion.
The flames were only inches away from Mom’s feet when I reached her. With two vicious yanks, I freed her from the tape.
“Mila, no!” Mom coughed, half deliriously, while the fire’s heat seared us from behind.
I picked Mom up, backed away from the flames, throwing a desperate glance over my shoulder. Was there a door back there? I could tolerate the broken glass, but Mom . . .
She moaned again, and to my surprise, tears slipped from under her eyelids.
“It’s okay, Mom. I’ve got you.”
Her eyes opened, but their blue irises looked glazed. “You always were so brave, Sarah. So brave,” she murmured.
Sarah?
“Look,” she said, pointing behind me—just before she passed out.
I felt the heat dissipate before I ever turned. The flames were gone. Vanished completely, without a trace, though the faint smell of smoke lingered. Just behind where the fire had raged, six soldiers waited—Haynes, the blond, two from the hallway earlier, and one I’d never seen, along with Lucas. Holland wasn’t with them, and for that I was thankful.
Trusting Lucas’s softly spoken promise that they would take Mom to the infirmary, I handed her over to the soldiers. I didn’t know why she’d passed out, but if it was smoke inhalation, it could be bad.
My muscles tensed, readied. At this point, I had nothing to lose.
“Dr. Laurent will be fine. I promise you,” Lucas said.
Maybe she’d be fine from this, but for how long? My last chance, my last test . . . and once again, I’d failed.
If Mom died—if I died—it was all my fault.
The urge to run after Mom, to tear apart anyone who stood in my way, was almost irresistible.
Maybe I shouldn’t resist.
“If you fight, it will go badly for her. For both of you. The second you attack, the men with Dr. Laurent will be alerted. They have orders to eliminate her if you resist.” The harshness in Lucas’s voice left me no doubt that he was serious.
Hot fury erupted inside me. Eliminate? How could he so callously dismiss Mom’s life? In that instant, every bit of past kindness he’d shown me was swept away. I wanted to lash out, hurt him. But I couldn’t move. I was too terrified that if I took even a step in the wrong direction, Mom would die.
The inescapable logic in my head materialized. She might die anyway.
Overhead, the lights glared down on us, casting everything in a harsh glow. The unnatural brightness gave Lucas’s skin an unhealthy pallor. “Look, come with me. Before General Holland comes back to fetch you personally.”
The remaining soldiers held their ground. Their guns remained poised for action.
I lifted my arms, palms up. “You’d better be telling the truth about Mom being okay.”
When the soldiers stepped forward, Lucas surprised me by shaking his head. “No, I don’t need her restrained. You two are dismissed.”
The two men exchanged a glance. The shorter one shrugged. They turned and preceded us into the street, the door swinging shut behind them.
Lucas motioned me to follow him. As I watched his back, one word kept slithering through my head.
Eliminate. Eliminate.
Eliminate.
