Yeah, she sounds just like Ian.
Merrick and Max break off to take out the cameras while we find the stairs Milla told him about. The lower we go in the building, the worse the smell gets, a mix between sweat and blood and a strange chemical—something like ammonia? We’re heading into the bowels of the asteroid now, and the clean-looking building gives way to jagged rock walls and dark hallways.
There are no cameras on these levels that I can see, and I don’t know if it’s because the prisoners don’t matter or because they think no one would come down here. Or worse—because they don’t want what happens down here to be filmed. Either way, I want out. Now. My body is still begging me to go back up, to return to the heptosphere, with a compulsion that has me on the verge of panic.
I ignore the feeling, swallowing my fear as I concentrate on following Ian. The darker it gets, the harder it is to see him—I have to follow the beam of his light as it slices a slim, eerie white line through the shadows. Add in the occasional pain-filled moans, and I’m about to jump out of my skin.
We finally get to the fourth level, and Ian stops at the bottom. Then he heads off, striding purposefully into the darkness that scares the shit out of me.
I tell myself that it’s okay, that everything is going to plan. But it doesn’t make it any easier to be down here.
The moans are louder, as are the screams of agony, and I want nothing more than to rescue all of them. The fact that this has been going on with my mother’s permission—right under my nose—shames me like nothing else ever has.
One way or another, I’m going to end it. No matter what.
Ian stops in front of a heavy wooden door with bolts at the top and bottom. He’s still for a minute. I think there must be something wrong—or maybe he’s just scared of what he might find behind that door.
But finally, he moves, crouching and wrenching the lower bolt open before straightening and opening the second one as well. Then he pulls the door toward us and flashes the beam of light inside.
A moment later, someone hurls themselves at him. I raise my pistol, but there’s no way I can shoot without hitting Ian.
But judging by his shout of relief, I don’t think any shooting will be needed. The light crashes to the ground as Ian wraps his arms around the woman and swings her through the air. She’s laughing. I pick up the light and wait for them to finish.
“Whew, you smell,” Ian says as they come to a standstill. He puts her gently down, and their foreheads touch as they do the silent-talking thing again.
They both turn to me then, and I get my first good look at Milla. The similarity to Ian is astounding, even more so than with Max. She’s tall, maybe five centimeters or so taller than me, and with dark brown skin and eyes that look just like Ian’s. Her black hair must have been shaved at some point and is just now growing out.
She also has Ian’s sharp cheekbones and passionate mouth—and I’m guessing from the tilt of her chin, she also has Ian’s attitude.
Great.
Two assholes to deal with.
But I’m grinning so hard, they can probably see it back on the Starlight.
She’s wearing a gray jumpsuit, similar to the one Beckett was wearing when we first met, though it’s in tatters on her emaciated body. Dark bruises and scars mar her bare arms.
“Who’s this?” she asks aloud, giving me a cool look. Even her voice is familiar.
“This is Kali. She’s helping out.”
Her eyes narrow. “Since when?”
“Since…” He shrugs. “We’ll tell you everything later. Right now, we need to move.”
“Good idea.” She pauses. “How much room do you have for others?”
I step forward. “We should rescue as many as we possibly can. By any chance, do you know a young man named Jarved?”
Milla grins. “Do I ever. And even better—I can lead you to him.”
Finally, something has gone our way. For Beckett, we’ll get him out.
Milla touches Ian’s face. “Thank you. I thought I was going to die in this shithole.”
“So did I. And don’t thank me yet—a lot has to fall in place before we’re out of here.” He turns to me. “Kali, lead the way.”
So, I do, as fast as I possibly can. Just a little while longer and we can be away from this horrible place.
But there’s a lump in my stomach and a horrible feeling that so far, it’s been way too easy.
Nothing is going to go wrong, I tell myself. We planned for everything.
Too bad I don’t believe it.
Chapter 96
Ian
We meet up with Max and Merrick on our way down the hallway to the door. Already, I can hear guards’ footsteps behind us, and I know it’s only a matter of time before they catch up to us.
Milla steps out in front of the group. “Follow me, and we can free the others,” she says, and she’s speeding ahead, running so fast that I can’t keep up, no matter how hard I try.
This is definitely the right next step, but I’m also afraid if we do it, they’ll just get slaughtered. That army out there is not fooling around.
I say as much to Milla as we run, but she shakes her head. “Don’t count them out yet.”
“They’re not even armed,” I tell her.
“No, but they aren’t completely human anymore, either.”
“What does that—”
She flashes Max and me a mental picture of her legs—or what I think are her legs. I recognize the tattoo on the front of her upper thigh—a three-leaf clover—but the back of her leg…the back of her leg is completely mechanical. No skin, no muscles, just mechanical pieces.
It’s horrifying. “What did they do to you?”
“You’re a cyborg?” Max chimes in. “A freaking cyborg?”
“Experiments to, I quote, improve humanity.”
I struggle against a new wave of rage. This is what they’ve been doing out here? This is what those experiments on the Caelestis were leading to? Finding people with alien DNA for Doc V’s pet heptosphere, and if that didn’t work—and they didn’t die—she’d send them out here? Make augmented humans, testing tech for the Empire and Corporation to help her torture and kill more innocent people?
I should have killed Dr. Wicked when I had the fucking chance. It’s not a mistake I’ll make a second time if I ever see that monster again.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“I’m fast,” she answers. Which isn’t the same thing as okay. At all.
But all those scars on Beckett are starting to make a lot more sense.
Still, now’s not the time to get into it, not when I can hear people racing along the corridor behind us. No use getting bogged down in rage when it’ll just slow me down. Better to get out of here and figure out how to make them all pay for what they’re doing.
We race along the staircase, and Milla stops in front of the first barred cell door. Then she grabs the second pistol out of my belt and shoots out the lock and opens the gates. “Everyone out,” she yells. “We’re under attack! You can go fight or you can hide until it’s over.” No one moves. “Out,” she shouts.
They start filing forward, and we move on to the next cell. Max, Kali, and I join her in shooting locks open, firing again and again until we hit the last one in the corridor. In it is a young man huddled up in the corner. At first, all I can see is his curly dark hair and dirty gray jumpsuit. But when he lifts his head and sees us, the look of defiance in his yellow eyes is one I immediately recognize. I saw that same look snarking at me from the pilot’s chair every day since we found the Starlight.