Chapter 9

 

FREI SIGHED AS she stared at the door. She needed more tools. Tools which had been confiscated. Where they were, she wasn’t sure. She’d ask the guard but he was sleeping on his desk.

She had no real idea how long Jessie had been without a dose. Her watch had also been confiscated.

Which meant she needed to get through the door.

Hmm.

There was no way she could get through without the guard’s help. He had a card hung around his neck.

Time to get reacquainted.

She strolled back over to the office door and unlocked it. The guard looked up through heavy lidded eyes.

An overpowering stench hit her.

She held her breath. Her eyes watered.

She shut the door.

Her eyes flickered.

Slight complication.

Heaviness crawled over her. It wasn’t the cigarette. Her eyes streamed. She coughed.

The office was the root of it.

The guy slumped from the desk to the floor.

She couldn’t just leave him in there. She stared up at the ceiling. What was it with her conscience? Renee freaking Black and her noble, irritating, “We can’t leave him,” mantra rolled through her head.

Wonderful.

She picked up the chair she’d been strapped to, slammed open the door, and hurled the chair at the window.

Crash.

She held her breath, hurried to him, and dragged him back out. She shut the door and collapsed against it.

Her eyes flickered again. Streamed. Her chest contracting, her throat burning.

Good thing she was immune to most things they filled traps with. Huber had made sure of that. It hadn’t been pleasant.

Strange that she was thinking of it at all. She never dwelled on the past. What was with the memories?

“Someone doesn’t like you very much,” she muttered to the guard, taking his key card from him. He was limp. His breaths shallow. 

She studied him, unsure how she could help. He didn’t have marks in his ears but was older than her. That meant he wasn’t a slave.

Hired help? Who hired people when they had slaves?

Her eyes flickered again.

A voice, a face floated from her mind’s eye. Someone who had managed to defy the term slave in spite of her circumstances. She missed Suz.

 

There was something about the way Suz strode with purpose. She’d been like it since they were kids. A year or so older maybe, Frei wasn’t sure but she was . . . mature. Yeah, the way she caught people’s gaze and had them with a flick of her eyebrow. She didn’t really work as a slave. Everyone knew she must be Huber’s. No slave walked like her. No slave turned around and told Megan where to stick it.

Most kids wanted to get her attention. Most kids wanted to earn her respect more than the skill captains. It felt good that she was so close. It felt good that Huber let the three of them come home a lot. So she had to steal things for him and it meant dodging Megan but it got them out of Caprock once in a while. It helped them avoid when the buyers were lurking. Suz could deal with Megan anyway. Megan couldn’t touch her.

Frei didn’t have that strut, that arrogance, that . . . freedom. She kept her head down. She had her sister to take care of. She needed to work hard and do as Huber said and he would take care of them. Suz was a different kind of person, one she drew inspiration from. Suz was nice to watch, great to know but she didn’t have anyone to take care of. 

 

The guard slumped back to the floor, his eyes rolled and Frei checked his pulse.

Nothing.

Potent stuff.

She rubbed her hand across her brow, stumbled to the door. She swiped his keycard.

Nothing.

No way out. The only window was in the room full of gas.

Another delightful challenge.

Her eyes flickered again; Suz’s face swam before her, again.

She sighed.

The gas was still seeping in . . . from somewhere. Where?

She pulled off the guard’s shirt and jacket, and stuffed them under the door.

Her heart skipped. Her eyes flickered.

She was immune to short term exposure but not continuous. She pulled her watch out of his pocket. Her vision zooming in and out until she could make out the watch face. Jessie had been without her inhaler for a good while.

Her eyes flickered again. She needed to move. She needed to get to Jessie. She glanced back at the door. Her sister appeared there. A pounding ache rumbled through her temples. Tired. Really tired.

No.

She shook it free, staggering to the door. She couldn’t stay there. She had Jessie to take care of now.