Override (Glitch) (16 page)

When I put it down the last time and opened my eyes, I felt Rand’s and Taylor’s stares.

“Whoa,” Rand said.

Relief and anxiety both reared up in my chest. I’d passed the test and I felt ready, but at the same time, I’d never been truly tested in a mission before. Taylor led us back toward the elevator. I hurried after her, but when we got to the elevator, Adrien stepped out.

“Adrien,” I said in surprise. “What are you doing here?” We’d both been so busy with our separate training schedules that I’d barely seen him the past couple weeks.

He smiled. “I hoped I’d catch you. I thought since you were in your suit already maybe I could show you something.”

He looked at the General standing beside me and the edges of his smile drooped a little. “General,” he said with a slight nod.

She stiffened, but nodded back before stepping into the elevator.

I stared a moment, watching the General frown as the doors closed behind her. “Sometimes I don’t think the General likes glitchers.”

“She might not like us,” Adrien said, “but she knows she needs us.”

He looked down at the clock on his arm panel. “Come on, we’ve gotta go or we’re going to miss it.”

The grin was back on his face as he tugged on my arm and led me toward the bright Surface opening. As we got closer, the sunlight almost hurt my eyes, it was so intense. A small wave of anxiety swept over me. I knew I could trust my suit to protect me, but the Surface still filled me with an instinctual fear.

The light cut a sharp line at the end of the tunnel, like a dividing edge between underground and the Surface. I paused at the shadow’s edge.

Adrien had walked straight into the light. He held out a hand to me, and finally I reached for it. We stood there, arms stretched out between us for a long moment, one in sunlight, the other shadow, until he tugged me forward.

“Good,” he murmured, looking out. “We got here right at sunset.”

My eyes widened when I realized we were at the edge of a cliffside. Brush and tree branches extended overhead and around us to the side, but there was still a clear view of the valley and mountains in the distance.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Adrien whispered. “I thought you might like to remember what beauty looks like. That, out there, that’s freedom. Beauty. Life. Everything we’re fighting for.”

Mountain ranges spilled over each other, cascading down as if they’d been planted there just for the purpose of looking pretty. Peaks one after another, each giving dramatic backdrop to the last. And then there was the sky, full of colors like I’d never seen before. Purples, blues, pinks, and other hues everywhere in between.

I’d never thought of the Surface as beautiful. It was always a scary place, but the scene in front of me made my breath catch in my chest.

“It’s incredible,” I admitted with surprise. I turned to look at Adrien. The setting sun lit up his blue-green eyes, making them brilliantly translucent against the black of his pupils. He seemed so much lighter than he had been the last time we’d been alone together. Less weighed down. Even the shadows under his eyes didn’t seem as deep.

“There was a place like this where Mom and I lived for six months, in a cave up in the mountains. Every morning I’d walk down to this little stream that was half a mile from the cave. Everything was so green. Mom was always tense and on the lookout for flyovers. But I just looked.”

His eyes were bright as he talked. “I’d sit for hours underneath one of the thick trees near the cave. All kinds of animals would come up to me after awhile, if I sat still long enough. Squirrels would run right over my legs like I was just part of the tree roots, and I’d get this amazing sense of connection to everything around me. Life calling to life.”

He looked down, his smile dimming slightly. “I forgot about it for a while when I was training so hard to become a Rez operative. But you brought it back to me. It’s how I felt when I met you too, you know.”

“Like what?”

“First when I had visions of you, and then after I met you in person, I felt it even stronger: I thought—here is a soul that calls out to my soul.”

I felt a deep, singing happiness at his words. He slipped behind me and tucked his hands around my waist, pulling my back into his chest. His chin nuzzled my neck as we looked out together. The colors shifted as each minute passed and, right when I’d think it couldn’t get any more beautiful, another shaft of light would break through and light up the earth with a new color. I was so swept up in the color and sharing it with Adrien that the moment felt magical. Unearthly. Incredibly fiery purple-gold rays shone from the edge of the horizon right as the sun finally dipped down behind the mountains.

“What changed?” I turned to look up at Adrien. I bit my lip hesitantly. I didn’t want to ruin the moment, but I couldn’t help asking. “You seem different now. Did you have a new vision? Something good?”

“I have had some visions,” he said slowly. “They don’t always make sense. Some visions seem to contradict others.” He stared out at the dimming light. “Then there are things I’ve seen that
have
to happen if there’s any hope for us at all, even if they’re bad. I used to worry about it constantly, trying to follow the threads that connect the whole chain of events together. I spent countless sleepless nights trying to understand which visions I might be able to change and which ones I shouldn’t and which ones I would make happen by trying to stop them. It was making me sick.” He was quiet a moment. “But I had some long talks with the Professor and he’s helped remind me of some things I’d lost sight of.”

I swallowed. “Like what?”

“Like that the world is far bigger than just me.” His face was barely visible in the twilight, his strong cheekbones cutting a sharp shadow. “And I think I’m finally getting it in my head that having visions doesn’t make me personally responsible for everything that happens. I’ll still try to change what I can, and make happen the visions that need to come true. But I can see that I was spending so much time worrying about the future, I was losing out on the moments I have now.”

He looked at me, his voice soft. “Time is more precious than ever. And I want to spend every moment I have with the people I love. I want to spend it with you.” He pulled me close, wrapping his arms tightly around me and burying his face at the nape of my neck. “All I want is you,” he whispered. His body was so warm against mine, like he’d soaked up the sun and was reflecting it back to me. “All I want is you.” He repeated, his voice a low rasp.

Darkness fell around us, and it suddenly wasn’t enough to feel the pressure of his arms around me. I wanted to be able to touch him.

As if reading my mind, he pulled away and laced his fingers through mine. He tugged me back through the transport bay to the elevator. We didn’t say anything during the ride down. His words—
All I want is you
—kept pinging around my head. A flush crept up my neck. When I glanced up at him, he was watching me with a heart-thumping intensity. Something in the air had shifted. We were still just holding hands, but even through my glove, the touch felt electric.

The elevator pinged as we arrived back at the Foundation level. Adrien stepped out and gestured to the wash-down rooms. “You go first.” His voice was a little higher pitched than normal.

After moving quickly through the wash-down chambers, I hurried into the changing rooms and pulled on a fresh tunic set. I toweled off my hair and let it hang long and damp down my back.

Adrien emerged from the shower right as I came out of the changing room. He’d wrapped a towel around his waist. His chest was sturdy and wide, with the lightest tufting of hair.

He paused, watching me watch him.

The temperature of the room seemed to burn ten degrees hotter. He crossed the space between us and dipped his lips roughly to mine. He cupped my jaw and pulled me in closer.

I became aware of how little cloth was between us. I kissed him deeper and felt the buzzing explode in my ears, but I managed to keep the power inside me. I felt another burst of heat as I realized what that meant. With my newfound control, my power wasn’t a barrier between us anymore. We could finally get as close as we wanted to, with nothing to stop us.

I pulled my tunic over my head, leaving only a thin camisole beneath. Adrien paused, eyes widening for a moment before he pulled me back in tight. I kissed him harder, wanting to draw him as close to me as possible now that I could.

Sensation pulsed through my stomach like a sound wave. The intensity of it grew the longer I kissed him. His hands slid down my back, moving slowly from my shoulder blades down to my waist. I pressed my chest to his, letting out a low moan as he kissed from my neck down to my collar bone. I grabbed his head and forced his lips back to mine.

The pulsing heat sizzled inside me, building up and up—

But then suddenly both of our arm coms buzzed loudly at the same time. Adrien pulled away, breathing heavily, and I looked down at my wrist.

I swallowed hard as I read the words on the small readout screen, the moment shattered.

Ginni confirms that Chancellor Bright has left the site. Mission commences in one hour.

Chapter 15

SEVERAL HOURS LATER,
our team was poised at the back docking station of the Chancellor’s glitcher compound. We’d taken two air transports and then switched into a supply vehicle that the Rez had hijacked. After so much waiting, it was surreal how fast everything was suddenly happening.

Taylor ordered us all to be silent and focus on our role in the mission. I shifted uncomfortably on the bench in the back of the truck. The air transport had been smooth, but this older vehicle still used wheels and it jostled constantly. The whir of oxygen circulating in my face mask seemed unduly loud in the silence.

The vehicle stopped suddenly and I was thrown into City’s shoulder. She didn’t even give me a glare. She looked as tense as I felt. No one said a word or looked at me, but I could feel the pressure mounting.

We all jumped down from the back of the vehicle onto the docking station. Adrien hurried over to the door and attached a small box. A small console screen projected from the door panel and he started clicking through complicated code.

“Zoel,” the General said, touching her earpiece. “Ginni says there are five Regs on the other side of that wall, and five more throughout the compound. Can you sense them?”

I breathed in and out like I’d trained and let the telek buzzing rise in time with my heartbeat. I felt myself expand outward, beyond the wall. Yes, there were the Regulators stationed at intervals in the hallways. Two of them began moving toward us. They must have been alerted to the supply van’s arrival.

Anxiety rose up and panicked thoughts tumbled over one another. What if I couldn’t do this when it counted? I thought about their metal reinforced hands crushing Milton’s head like an overripe fruit.

I needed to empty my mind, not let these frantic thoughts clog my head. I breathed in and out, focusing on the sound of my breath. The telek expanded outward again. The Regs were moving closer, but I didn’t allow myself to worry about what would happen if I failed. I just closed my eyes and let the energy surround each of the ten Regs throughout the compound. I squeezed my eyes tighter as I yanked the vertebrae apart, snapping their spines right at the C2.

The Regs all collapsed where they stood.

I nodded at Adrien. He’d been flicking through pages of code and hacking further and further into the security feed. At my nod, he tapped a few last times. The door slid open sideways with a hiss.

The General motioned forward with one arm. We crossed the threshold and then we were inside. The lights were bright after the heavy cloak of darkness. We all squinted as we piled into the narrow loading dock room while Adrien went to work on the next door.

City paced in a circle by huge crates stacked to the ceiling. She dug her fingers into her palms. She had boasted so often about going on missions before, but I got the feeling those missions had been nothing compared to what we were attempting now, directly attacking a Comm Corp building.

I looked around at everyone else. Half a dozen Rez fighters had joined us when we’d switched transports. They stood still beside the four ex-Regs. Rand rubbed his hands together. A slight tendril of smoke came out from between his fingers.

“Hold it in until you get to the glitcher cells,” Taylor snapped.

“Sorry,” Rand said, and put his hands at his sides.

“Got it.” Adrien motioned forward as the door slid open, revealing a hallway that led in both directions. The hallways were sleek, with smooth, cream-colored walls and black tile on the ground. Halfway down the right fork, I could see two Regs laying on the ground where I’d dropped them.

“Just like we discussed during the debrief,” Taylor said. “Detachment A, you head left to release the glitchers. Detachment B, follow me.”

Adrien and I headed after Taylor, half the Rez fighters and three ex-Regs following right behind. I looked back once and watched the other team head the opposite direction. Anxiety bubbled up in my chest.

This was it. I’d already accomplished half my job. I tried to feel confident, but my heart still thumped wildly.

We stepped over the two immobile Regs, and I couldn’t resist a quick glance down. Their eyes were moving rapidly, but the rest of their bodies were completely still. For a moment I imagined what it must be like for them, their minds still receiving commands in bodies that would no longer respond. I shuddered a little, but then raised my eyes ahead and kept walking. At least they were alive.

The hallway ended at an elevator tube. As we came to it, Adrien swung his bag around and pulled out a slim card. He swiped it in front of the reader and the tube door slid open.

“Half of you stay to keep watch,” Taylor gestured to the Rez fighters, “And Tavid.” She indicated the tallest ex-Reg. “The rest come with me.”

We stepped into the elevator pod, everyone pressing closely together to fit. I looked around and wondered again what exactly we were retrieving.