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Marcus appeared on the screen, his knife in hand and a hard look of challenge in his eyes as he faced off with Will. Instinctively, Will pushed Neri, Annie and Benjamin back into Vanessa and Robert Slate’s keeping. Baxter fought off more guards and was busy with a huge Guardian who had arrived on the scene, armed with neutrino blasters in each claw. Bax blasted the monster before it had a chance to fire on the group. I wondered how long it would be before the boy was drained. Little Annie pulled away from her parents and joined the fight, using her telekinetic ability to toss the giant Guardian into another two men who had come around the corner.
Marcus ignored the battle and attacked from the back side, slicing his blade across Will’s chest.
Will tucked and stepped back, but not fast enough. Blood bloomed in a straight line across the front of his clean white T-shirt. I sucked in a breath, experiencing his pain as if it were my own. Marcus came at him again and everyone moved back except for Will. He managed to evade the blade a second time and with lightning speed, he blocked and countered, the two grappling for the knife. Marcus had an extra ten or fifteen pounds of healthy eating on Will and it was clear that Will was still weak from his previous injuries. Marcus folded over on a shot to the ribs but recovered and slammed into Will, taking the two of them down together. They crashed into a heap on the floor, first one and then the other taking control of the knife in Marcus’s hand.
Will repeatedly smashed the knife-wielding arm to the floor until, finally, the blade broke free of Marcus’s grasp and clattered several feet away. Marcus retaliated with a hook to the side of Will’s jaw. Blood splattered the wall as Will’s head swung and he landed flat on his back. Marcus took advantage and jumped on Will, repeatedly punching him, each blow a jolt to my stomach. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, preparing for what I would see when I opened them again.
When I did, my heart froze in my chest and the world slowed to a crawl. Helpless tears welled in my eyes and I struggled against the guards, rewarded only by a bone-crushing grip on each arm. Why wasn’t anyone helping him? My eyes darted to the other screens. Robert Slate fought off another guard, using his walking stick as a staff, while Vanessa pounded on the back of a guard to get him off her husband. Benjamin cowered in the corner behind his sister, who stood with arms outstretched and her blond hair sticking straight out with the static electricity that charged the air around her and Baxter. They were both weakening.
My gaze flew back to the screen with Will and Marcus. The larger boy straddled Will and pummeled him with blows. Will’s arms were tucked into his body, his fists clenched in front of his face to block the assault, but Marcus continued, relentless. Graves and Malevich looked on with satisfaction.
Until, in the next second, Neri appeared. She’d recovered the knife and now stood behind Marcus, clutching the blade. Both arms raised, she came down with force, and plunged the knife deep into Marcus’s back—directly between his shoulder blades.
Marcus arched in reflex and his hands immediately reached for the knife, but he couldn’t get to it. His face went white and he crumbled to the side, freeing Will, who slowly dragged himself out from under the other boy’s legs. Will climbed to his feet and limped over to Neri. Horror mixed with relief covered her face as Marcus slid down onto the floor, his arms unable to reach and remove the buck knife that had punctured his lung and pierced his heart. He writhed in pain a moment more and I watched in shock as the light in his eyes faded. Whatever words he was saying were cut off with his last breath.
Neri, her hands covered in blood, turned a stark expression on Will as tears rolled down her cheeks. A moment later, she fell apart in his arms. A confused mix of emotions gathered inside me. Hers and mine. She had gone against every instinct inside her to do what she had done. Taken a life to save a life. I wanted to believe I would have been capable of doing the same thing, but my doubt crept in and I fought back tears of...what? Sadness, anger, jealousy, resentment? My head spun as Will held her tight for a few seconds longer and then his eyes came up to the camera to meet mine, as if he knew I was still watching. But the eye contact was short-lived when an explosion from somewhere outside rocked the building and the cameras died.
Malevich signaled to Graves. “Take her!”
Graves took up a position at my side, replacing the guard’s iron-like grip with one of his own. He dragged me out the door behind Malevich and his dogs. We took the stairs up one flight, turned down a long hallway and then there we were, facing off with Baxter, Annie, her parents and Will, who, even battered, stood tall in front of Neri. I sensed her already sending healing energy into him, his cuts and bruises fading as he met my gaze from the other end of the hall.
A tight forearm wrapped around my throat and Graves held a stunner to my head while Malevich assessed the battleground in the hallway. Unconscious bodies lay piled on top of each other and the Guardian hung limp, having been smashed into a wall with force by Annie Slate. The girl’s face was pale, and her hair hung like a curtain over her eyes, but she stood shaking, hands out, ready to defend me.
“Stop! Or Agent Graves will gladly fry poor Lily’s brains. I’m certain she would not recover from such a malady.”
Baxter and Annie exchanged a look and lowered their hands.
“That’s better. Now if you don’t mind, turn around and march down that hallway and back into the holding rooms.” Another blast from somewhere not far off, vibrated through the building and the lights flickered. Malevich scowled at the offending lights and nodded brusquely down the hall. “It seems your Network friends have arrived early.”
Graves kept a stranglehold around my throat, forcing everyone to move back down the hallway toward the holding rooms. Malevich, against Graves’s recommendation, had us all herded into the same room. Malevich gave me one last piercing gaze. “You might want to use this time to say your good-byes.”
Graves shoved me inside after everyone else was in, and the door slid shut, leaving us all wondering whether Sam and the Network had a plan to rescue us, or if we would be lost to the cause—casualties of war—sacrificed for the greater good.
