Thirty-Six
With our plan to sneak out in shambles, the three of us bolted down the hall, heading right toward the newly alerted guards.
Mom and I kept our pace even with Lucas’s. He was surprisingly swift, but I could tell the speed was uncomfortable, based on his heightened limp. Still, he didn’t complain, and I stayed one step behind him, knowing I needed to make this look real, because I was sure our entire run was being recorded. I didn’t say anything. I just shoved the Taser into the small of his back and urged him forward.
We burst into the wide corridor that led to the car bay with Lucas just a step ahead of me, the guards’ station directly on our right. Two guards gestured wildly with raised guns.
“Behind me,” I hissed to Mom. Pushing to my tiptoes, I flung my right arm around Lucas’s throat. The Taser now indented the skin just over his jugular.
“BACK OFF!” I shouted at the guards. Both had dropped into a shooting stance, trying to aim at me. “Back off or I fry him!”
The taller guard’s gaze flicked to his partner. “We’re under orders.” His voice wavered, but he didn’t lower the gun.
A burst of completely inappropriate laughter rushed up my throat, one that turned into a small, choked cry. Orders. Of course. Holland didn’t care what kind of casualties he incurred, so long as it prevented Mom and me from escaping. So much for his heartfelt speech about saving lives.
I felt Lucas tense under my arm, felt his pulse race. “Please,” Lucas said. “She’ll do it, I know she will.”
I flinched. After that second test, I didn’t know if he was acting or if he actually believed I’d shock him.
The guards shifted uneasily but held their ground.
Any minute more soldiers would appear. Even now, I heard a set of booted feet pounding concrete in the distance. Time was running out.
Mom’s voice rang out behind me. “So you’re going to shoot a hostage in cold blood?” she said, jabbing me in the back. Taking her hint, I urged Lucas forward. The footsteps grew louder.
“You realize bullets won’t stop her, right?” Mom continued. “If you shoot, she’ll take both of you down. Didn’t you hear what she did to Holland?”
I think the serene Three-like smile I summoned to my lips was what did it—that smile made them believe. They lowered their guns.
Good thing they couldn’t feel the tremor in my Taser hand, or know how wrong it felt to hold it to Lucas’s neck. They had no idea that I’d never, ever let anyone force me to kill. Or torture someone again, just to test my reactions. I wouldn’t become a monster.
I wouldn’t become a Holland.
I pushed Lucas forward again. One step, two steps. That’s as far as we made it before the shorter guard uncovered the weakness in our plan. The moment he had a clear shot, he raised his gun and aimed at Mom. “Let him go or I shoot Dr. Laurent.”
Lucas and I froze in unison. The guard’s cheeks were pale, and a sweat droplet trickled down his cheek. Yet his gun hand was all too steady.
He would do it. He would pull the trigger and shoot, and everything up to this point would be for nothing.
“My other side, now!”
It all happened at once. Mom slid to my left and the gun exploded. Lucas jerked backward into my chest.
I looked down, stunned at the blood just starting to stream from his left thigh.
His good leg.
Guilt cracked me like a lightning bolt.
“Just go,” Lucas rasped through gritted teeth.
But we couldn’t. As the tall guard screamed at his partner, the pounding behind us closed in. I turned my head, and what I saw made my remaining confidence crumble. Three raced toward us—less than twenty feet away, and gaining rapidly.
“Two, stop Two!” From way off in the distance, Holland’s order barreled down the hallway.
Ahead of me the steel door gleamed, marking our path to freedom; so close but not close enough. We weren’t going to make it in time.
“Get him to the door—hurry,” I snapped as I transferred Lucas’s weight to Mom. I cut her off when she opened her mouth to argue. “Do it!”
While Lucas draped his arm around Mom’s neck and they stumbled forward, I focused on the locking mechanism, linked with the computer, and overrode the code. The door beeped and was starting to slide open when I whirled and ran straight at Three.
The original two guards reached me first. I dropped to the floor, barely dodging the bullet that whizzed over my head. Faster than they could aim again, I rolled, pulled back the Taser, and wham! smashed the device against the shorter guard’s knee.
He crashed sideways into the taller guard, his scream drowning out the clatter of his gun striking the ground. Before the second guard could steady himself, I jumped to my feet, reared back with my right hand, and punched him hard in the gut.
When he doubled over, my knee was there to meet his nose.
I turned in time to watch Three sprint past without even glancing at me, her eyes trained on someone else.
Mom.
No, oh no. I sprang after her, the chill of desperation pumping through my limbs. Ahead, Lucas and Mom were just now hobbling through the open doorway, but Three was gaining. My plan had been to Taser Three before diving through the door and locking it behind us, but fighting the guards had wasted valuable time.
Even though I knew I’d never cover the distance in time, I linked to the computer and commanded the door to close. It was the only way to keep Mom safe.
As I raced after Three, I had a horror-stricken moment when I thought she’d fly through the door before it closed, leaving me stranded on the wrong side, with no way to help.
Close, please close.
I caught a glimpse of Mom’s face, her expression frozen and her gaze glued to Three like she was staring down the barrel of a gun. Three flung her hand toward the narrow opening, her fingertips reaching, reaching, and oh god, if she got them inside, she might pry it open and then—
Three’s hand hit metal as the doors clicked shut.
With her back still to me, I raced the remaining distance between us and lifted the Taser. She whirled, a blur of motion and whipping brown hair. Her fist knocked my hand and the Taser went flying. The next instant, so did I—against the steel wall.
My head cracked hard. Her fist flew at me and I feinted right. When her knuckles slammed metal, I grabbed her outstretched arm with both hands, yanked it down onto my knee. The crunch reverberated up both of my hands.
“You . . . you damaged my elbow joint!” Her green eyes widened and then narrowed. Was Three actually angry?
No time to wonder, because her booted foot lashed out and hit me square in the chest with devastating force. I flew back until I crashed against the far wall.
Impact: 1200 lbs. per square inch.
At least some of my functions were returning.
The thudding from Holland and the soldiers drew closer now. From my position on the floor they looked bigger, more menacing. And they’d be on us in a manner of seconds. Last chance.
My gaze caught on the Taser, several feet away. Three saw it at exactly the same time. We both dived, hands outstretched, only I was quicker. I grabbed it and fumbled for the button. Her fingers closed around the edge right as the prongs shot out.
I shuddered when her entire body spasmed. And then she collapsed to the floor, and I vaulted over her while simultaneously ordering the door to open.
I slipped past and turned to face the oncoming soldiers. “Stay down!” I hissed at Mom and Lucas. They were too far back to follow, but I didn’t trust Holland not to take back his order to hold fire. Not now—not when his prize experiment was escaping once again.
“Mila, the other door,” Mom said. Without turning my head, I ordered the computer to open the door leading to the car bay. At that same time, the lights began to flicker.
A smooth computerized voice followed. “Emergency override activated. All locks will be disengaged in thirty seconds.”
Which meant no matter what I did, soldiers would be pouring through these doors way too soon. We were safe for the moment, though. But as the door leading into the compound slid shut, I saw something that made terror clutch me with an unyielding grip. Through the narrowing gap, I saw Three move her legs before slowly rising.
I turned away, shaking. How was Three’s quick recovery possible? Was that another of her so-called improvements—resistance to electrical shock? Not that the how or why mattered. No, the only thing I needed to know was—she was coming.
We burst into the car bay. I ran for the black Suburban nearest the door and shoved at the trunk.
It wouldn’t budge. Had I overestimated my android strength? The shouts inside the door drew closer.
Come on. If ever I needed an android ability to step up to the plate, now was the time.
I shoved harder. Like a miracle, the car groaned; the trunk began to swing around. Just as the guards started to open the door, I gave a final push, and the side of the car smacked right up against it.
Locked in, for the moment. Until they exited a different door.
I ran back to Mom to help. “Where’s your car?” I yelled to Lucas, for the camera’s benefit. Softly, I whispered, “Are you okay?” But of course he wasn’t okay. His stride grew weaker with every step, and more of his weight sagged against me, until I was sure that I was the only thing holding him upright.
“F-fine,” he whispered back, but the hitch in his voice tore at me. I should stop and get him help. This wasn’t right. “Don’t . . . you dare stop now,” he continued, as if reading my mind. He grappled through his pocket and pulled out the keys.
“The Camaro,” he said, pointing past a fleet of Suburbans to a classic car to our left, toward the exit ramp.
Mom raced around to his other side, and with her assistance, I hauled Lucas toward the car.
“We have to bind his leg,” I said. Mom paused with her hand on the door, looking at my flannel shirt.
Without a word, I ripped it off and tossed it to her. “Here,” I said with barely a ripple of regret. Lucas needed it far more than I did.
I lifted him and placed him on the hood of the Ford truck parked next to the Camaro. When I stepped aside to let Mom bind his leg, I saw the blood streaming from it, darkening his gray slacks like he’d waded in a pool.
“Don’t bother,” he whispered. “They’ll fix me in a second anyway.”
I shook my head in response, my throat too tight to speak—while Mom finished tying the shirt around the wound. “That should stanch the bleeding for a few minutes, until help gets here.”
Mom wrenched open the driver’s side door while I stared at Lucas’s face, his cheeks pinched in pain. I couldn’t leave him like that.
“Mila, come on!” Mom yelled.
“Wait,” Lucas panted. Then he swallowed hard and said, “For the record, I think you make an excellent human.”
And then his eyes glazed over in a haze of pain.
My throat clogged. Even now, he was thinking of me. I wished there was time to do more. To thank him for everything. The “Sorry” I mouthed wasn’t close to adequate. Then my hand snaked out, and I jabbed him right in the sensitive spot in the neck. I caught him under the armpits when he went limp and pushed his unconscious body onto the hood.
At least I could spare him the pain until help arrived.
“Mila, hurry!”
With one last wince at Lucas’s motionless form, I jumped into the driver’s seat and reversed us out of our spot.
I slammed my foot on the gas, and the rev of the engine competed with the siren’s continuous screech. I searched the rearview mirror one last time for Lucas. Instead, I saw the Suburban I’d used as a barrier shudder before slowly moving away from the door.
The top of Three’s head emerged just as we rounded the first turn.
