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Chapter 40

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I raced down the stairs. Where would Malevich have stashed President Callahan and her brother? The hallways were all empty, everyone having vacated the building. The only place that made sense was the floor where I’d found Zeph and Tyler when I’d been there the week before. It seemed impossible that so much had happened in the span of days, but the reality set in when I rounded the corner to face one of the huge robotic Guardians.

“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” I ducked back around the corner for cover and held my breath. With no time to waste, I wouldn’t turn tail and run. I drew my knife, and as the beast came around the corner, its stunner set to kill, I dove under its arms and legs, rolled onto my back and jammed the blade into the control box Will had shown me when he once disabled one of the monsters. It was a crude trick, but it worked. Sparks cascaded down around me and the thing died.

I worked my way through all the mechanical legs and shuddered as I escaped the creepy crawler. Tucking the knife back in my pocket, I continued down the corridor, making lefts and rights from memory until I found the hallway with the rooms where the EVO kids and prisoners were held. Frustrated at finding the rooms empty, I continued on. Dr. Bartholomew’s office door lay open, his medical degrees lining the wall. In that moment, I couldn’t revel in his death. I realized that some part of me had come to understand why he’d done what he had and forgiven him. The hatred I’d carried for so long was now a thin scar on my soul and nothing more.

A new understanding seeped into my heart. Nothing was black and white, and people were sometimes forced to make choices that went against their principles—even at the cost of human life. I forged on in pursuit of Will. I wouldn’t give up on him...just as I knew he wouldn’t give up on me.

The next hallway led to the rooms meant for the prisoners who were kept for sale to the slavers. I heard someone cry out. My heart pumped into overdrive. Kathleen Callahan was beating on the door, her voice weak and hoarse. A glass window separated us and the blatant relief on her face quickly changed to one of panic.

“Get us out of here!” Her voice came muffled through the thick door. Behind her, slumped on the bed, lay Will’s father, unconscious. Judging from the sight of his bloodied knuckles and freshly blackened eye, he’d tried to fight off the guards. I searched up and down the hallway for something to open the door. Only a key card or authorized thumbprint would work. Think, think, think...

My locket! It had an EMP button that would knock out anything electronic nearby. Tugging the chain from my pocket, I activated the electromagnetic pulse button just as Will came around the corner.

“Lily! No...” He had his hands raised, but it was too late. The lights in the hallway flickered and the hum of electricity wound down like a dull siren fading to silence. The lock clicked and the door latch popped.

“Will...what’s wrong?” Kathleen and I asked simultaneously as the door slid open. Dim, solar-powered lights lit the hall in a red glow and Will’s expression was one of panic and frustration.

“Good news? I found the bomb. Bad news? I tried disarming it until I realized Malevich has the whole water system rigged to detonate in successive blasts. I have no idea how many or how far spread they are, but I found a fail-safe mechanism that will trigger a chain reaction once one blows. If I made a mistake in disarming them or they’re exposed to any kind of power surge, the series will detonate.” He brushed past his aunt and ran to his father, who was regaining consciousness and trying to sit up. “We have to hurry!” Will tried to lift his father, but I was already at his side, assessing the worst of the injuries.

“Let me heal him first.” I couldn’t think about how my attempt to rescue Will’s family may have just cost us all our lives.

“We don’t have time...”

Power emanated from my hands as they glowed over the cuts and bruises on Brian’s face. I ran my hands down to the torn ligaments in his knee, sensing the fibrous tissues binding together, but would need more time to heal him completely. I only hoped I’d done a good enough job to allow him to walk. “Can you stand?” I asked.

“Yes. I think so.” Will helped his father rise and the man wrapped an arm around his son’s shoulder, flashing a weak smile from Will to me. “You two make a good team.”

Before either of us had a chance to respond, a deafening explosion came from below and the floor shook beneath us. Will struggled to hold his father upright and yelled. “C’mon, we have to go!”

Kathleen came to her brother’s other side and the three fell in behind me, moving slowly with Brian between them.

“This way,” I said. The elevator would be useless with the power down and the nearest stairwell was back in the direction from which the explosion had come. We’d have to take a chance that the far stairwell would still be clear. The hallways twisted and turned and the floors shook with a second and then a third blast. Pieces of the ceiling tiles, debris, and dust tumbled down around us, choking me and making my ears ring. The sound of rushing water seemed to come from all directions. We were closing in on the stairwell leading up and out of the underground fortress, when another explosion took out the floor in front of us. I stumbled backward to escape falling into the cavernous hole that appeared.

Inside the gaping chasm, separating us from our escape route, water rushed by in a torrent. The explosions had disrupted the pipes and destroyed the massive storage containers feeding the building’s water supply. The expanse between us and the door to the stairwell was at least fifteen feet across and a ten-foot drop into a rushing river below.

We were about to turn back and search for another exit when the stairwell door burst open. Zeph and Sam appeared, the wolves having led them to us. Sam, his eyes wide as he assessed our predicament, ran back into the stairwell. I heard the smashing of glass and then he returned, a long fire hose in tow.

“Make a harness, Lily. Tie it around your hips and waist and swing down. We’ll pull each of you up one at a time.”

The plan sounded risky at best, and who knew how much time we had before another blast would take out more of the building around us, but it was our only hope. Sam tossed the weighted end of the hose across and Will caught it. We struggled to knot two loops with the thick material but, together, managed a crude harness.

“You should go first,” I said to the President. She was about to resist, but Will and Brian teamed with me. She continued to argue as I helped her step into the loops.

Once she was secure, she glanced back at me, Will, and her brother one last time, sucked in a breath, and jumped. She arced a wide path through the air, disappeared from view, and then swung back again into sight. Sam and Zeph worked together to pull her up, and within seconds, she was on the other side. Sam flung the hose back across.

“You go next,” Will said, his jaw set in determination.

“I’m going to have to go with your dad. He’s not strong enough to hold on.” Brian tried to argue, but clearly, he was still weak from shock. There was no way he would be swinging across on his own. “I’m light enough for the harness to hold us both, but you’ll need to be on the other side to help pull us up,” I reasoned with Will.

“No way! I’m not leaving either of you here.”

“This is the best idea we’ve got, and you’re wasting time arguing,” I insisted.

Frustrated, Will looked to his father for support. Brian leaned heavily on the wall beside him, his breathing labored. One glance into the abyss and he shook his head. “I think she’s right, son. I don’t have the strength to hold on.” He held his arm tight against his ribs.

Further argument was drowned out when another explosion shook the foundation around us. Will stopped resisting. But instead of climbing into the harness, he grabbed the hose, stuck a foot in the harness and leapt into thin air, swinging like a monkey through a tree in the jungle. A moment later, he climbed to safety. I caught the hose when he threw it back.

“Hurry, Lily!” Zeph called out, his voice filled with panic. “We don’t have much time.” Acutely aware of the time between explosions, we both knew another was due any second.

I widened the loops of the harness and helped Will’s dad into it. Then I climbed in, facing him, and wrapped my legs around his waist. He winced, but held on as best he could, the two of us as secure as was possible under the circumstances.

“Ready?” I tried to smile, but with my heart in my throat, and the prospect of swinging out over the turbulent waters below, the best I had was a tight grimace. He nodded and the two of us stepped off the edge and dropped into nothingness, the sound of rushing water below us drowned out by a massive explosion.