| |
––––––––
Rayen reached the second floor, hunting the room number that Hannah had given her before all of them separated. Hannah had agreed to hide Gabby as a favor for Tony, who’d poured on the charm for her help.
But that had been prior to Tony being accused of theft and locked up in detention.
Hannah was a perfect student, all about the rules, and worked part time with the office staff. If she’d heard about Tony’s detention, she might have given up Gabby.
That nauseating thought jammed Rayen in place. Where would Gabby be if Hannah had turned her over to the staff?
Rayen, hurry up and get back here, Gabby called in her mind again. Louder this time.
Rayen’s pulse jacked up. She searched the numbers on the doors and found the one for Hannah. She’d tapped twice on the door and it whipped open.
“There you are!” Gabby launched herself at Rayen, hugging her.
They’d never hugged before. Rayen’s throat tightened with emotion. She’d found one of the two real friends she had in this world.
Gabby pushed away and backed into the room. She wore her yellow and purple hair in multiple ponytails that jutted out all over her head in a signature Gabby style. On the last trip to the Sphere, she’d started having issues like dancing hair and her feet leaving the ground involuntarily.
Still wearing the heavy backpack Tony had given her, Gabby ushered Rayen into the room. “I’m so freakin’ glad to see you. Where’d you go?”
“Takoda took me to a place out in the desert, one of the reservations, and I just now got back.” Rayen looked around. “Where’s Hannah?”
“I told her I couldn’t explain, but that I needed to get to Tony. It’s two-thirty already. We’re running out of time.”
“You still haven’t told me where Hannah is.”
Gabby lifted her shoulders. “She took Tony’s hoodie and went to see him.”
“We have less than an hour to open that portal.” Of course, that would do Callan little good if they didn’t have a computer to hand over to the TecKnati. “What about computer parts?”
“I don’t know what parts Tony needs.”
Rayen clutched her head where a stabbing pain had camped out. “Do you have a way to reach Hannah?”
“She gave me her phone number, but she said she might not answer if she didn’t feel it buzzing when she put it on silent. She didn’t want to risk having the ringer on while she was sneaking into detention.”
“Let’s go find computer parts then we’ll break Tony out of there and get back to the Sphere.”
“I have doubts about breaking him out,” Gabby admitted.
Rayen was herding her out the door and toward the computer lab. “Why?”
“They put an ankle cuff on him.”
“Like the one I had?” Rayen was so glad hers was gone.
“Yes, but yours was programmed to stop you if you tried to step off the property.”
“Yes, I remember.” Hard to forget after she’d gotten a nasty load of electricity when she tried to walk out the front gate. “What’s the deal with Tony’s ankle cuff?” she asked in a whisper, closing the door.
“His is programmed to set off alarms if he steps out of his detention room.”
How were they going to get him out of there?
