Enemy Inside (Defectors Trilogy) (37 page)

I heard another gunshot. Then there was nothing.

Far off in the distance, I could discern a faint beeping sound. I was in line at the grocery store, and the cashier was scanning my items one by one.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Why was I at the grocery store? I didn’t feel well at all. I had no business grocery shopping. I was burning up, my head was pounding, and my mouth was so dry I couldn’t even speak.

Was I sick?
I didn’t remember getting sick.

Peeling my eyelids apart, all I could see was the ugly square upholstered pattern on a white curtain in front of me. It was wrapped all around my bed, and the overhead fluorescent lights were much too bright. I turned my head and felt my range of motion obstructed by something on my face — tubes.
 

I lifted my hand to my face, but there was a tube coming out of it, as well. There was also a plastic clothespin stuck on my finger. At least it looked like a clothespin.
 

All over my body, I could feel weird pieces of tape and tubes holding me back. A strange yellow liquid had dried on my arm, and I stifled a gag. Fighting the bleariness, I concentrated on putting the pieces together. I was in a hospital bed, but I couldn’t remember why.

The curtain rustled, and a fat woman in white scrubs poked her head around. She was carrying a tablet and looking irritated.

“You’re awake,” she said, as though I had inconvenienced her by staying unconscious for so long. I noticed that her thinning eyebrows were disappearing into her straight, honey-colored bangs, and she looked tired around the mouth.

“What happened to me?”

The woman ignored me, her fingers gliding over the glowing tablet in her hand and punching the screen to record my vitals.

“Why am I here?” I asked.

She didn’t look at me, but her puckered mouth tightened a little more, as if she was purposefully avoiding eye contact.

“Why am I here?” I yelled.

“Take some deep breaths, Haven.”

The woman was absorbed in swiping her finger across the screen, checking boxes, punching in numbers, and dismissing notifications. It was infuriating to watch.

“Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing is wrong with you. You’re just recuperating. As soon as you calm down —”

“I don’t
want
to calm down. I want you to tell me why I’m here.” My voice was shaky, and I longed to knock that stupid tablet right out of her hand.

“All right,” she said in a stern voice. She turned around, set the tablet on the counter, and fiddled in the cabinet. She withdrew a syringe filled with clear liquid.

“What is that?” I snapped. “I don’t want any more medicine. I feel weird as it is.”

She ignored me and tested the syringe.

“No!” I yelled, louder than I’d intended to. I wanted to be firm, not make her think I needed to be sedated.

“Just try to relax, Haven,” she said. I could tell that the voice she was using was an attempt at a kind, reassuring tone, but I could hear the irritation and impatience thrumming at the edges of her syllables.

“I can’t relax. Please . . . please don’t drug me. I just want to know what’s going on. I don’t remember —”

But it was too late. She’d already jammed the needle into my arm. Watching her tight, frowning face, I thought I saw a satisfied smirk ghost across her pinched lips.

“What happened to me?” I asked. Now I sounded pitiful and weak. “Please. Just tell me.”

“Just lie back and take deep breaths. The doctor will explain everything shortly.”

Incensed, I lay back against the cheap, flat pillow and tried not to think about the plastic tubes sticking out everywhere, tethering me to the bed. I tried not to think about the sedative coursing through my veins or my growing suspicions that I was still in the Infinity Building, locked away in the private lab Mariah had talked about.

Mariah.
A flicker of recollection ignited in the back of my mind.
Mariah had betrayed us. Jared was dead. Logan and Roman had escaped. I was Aryus’s prisoner now.

Before the drug could work its way through my system, I lifted the hand that was free of needles and felt the sticky piece of tape that was pulling on the hairs near the nape of my neck. Some of the gauze had peeled back during my fit, and I could feel the raised bump of a tender square scar at the base of my skull.

Then everything went dark.

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