Override (Glitch) (2 page)

The screech inside my head became a long howl. The beast wanted release. I ground my teeth further into the blanket and tried to brace myself for each time my body smacked into the ground. Again and again and again. I winced with each hit, aching from the impact on bruises that had never fully healed.

I just had to get through this and then I could rest.

The shaking became wilder, and as it reached an apex my foot banged against the wall, making a loud
tap, tap, tap
noise every time it hit. I focused all my energy on my legs, trying to hold them still, but my body was out of my control. A whimper of fear escaped my lips. If the wrong person heard me, it was over.

I thought I was going to pass out from the pain and panic. I prepared for the worst, knowing I couldn’t hold on much longer. The power built up like expanding gas in an enclosed space, begging for release.

I couldn’t keep it in. It was going to explode. I clamped my mouth shut tighter, but it felt like I was ripping apart from the inside. I clenched my teeth and felt sweat dripping down my face from the effort.

Right when I felt like I was about to burst wide open, the seizing began to quiet down. The shakes slowed to trembles, then to just a shiver, and then I lay still. Sweat dripped down my temple and slid into my eyes with a salty sting. I wanted to wipe it away, but I was so tired, my arm felt leaden. I rolled over onto my side and breathed slowly as I gathered my strength. Then I eased my way to my knees, pausing with each movement, and eventually rose to my feet.

I felt like I’d been running on the treadmill for a day and a half. But at least I’d be able to sleep now. I climbed tiredly up the ladder to my bed. My arms shook again, this time not from excess power but from exhaustion.

But right when my body finally rested on the thin mattress, a scratching sounded from the wall, right at the hidden entrance to my room. I froze. Milton shouldn’t be bringing me food yet. Someone must have heard my foot banging into the wall and was coming to investigate. They could have easily followed the sound back to the wall panel that doubled as the secret entrance to the alcove.

Fat tears squeezed out of my eyes. I wasn’t strong enough to fight. I rolled my tired body over toward the wall. Whoever came in wouldn’t see me right away, but I knew it would only buy me a few moments. I was a muddle of fear and exhaustion. After so much effort, so much sacrifice and patience, I couldn’t lose it all like this, facing my enemies while weak and afraid—

The door opened and immediately I heard a whisper. “Zoe, it’s me.”

It was Adrien’s voice. All the tension flooded out of my body. I half climbed, half fell down the ladder and launched myself into his outstretched arms. He wasn’t supposed to be here until next week. Was he here to take me to the Foundation early? I parted my lips to ask but couldn’t find the strength to care about anything other than his warm arms around me.

My hair had come undone from its braid during the shaking episode, and Adrien curled his fingers into it. I sank against him, breathing him in. Even my exhaustion lightened in his embrace. It was always like that when I was with him. I tipped my head back and he kissed me. His lips were gentle, and for a moment I forgot all the loneliness and fear of the past few months. All I could think about was the soft texture of his lips and the way love for him bloomed inside me like a light cell blinking to life in a pitch-black room.

But all too soon he pulled away. His eyes were cloudy. “There’s not much time. We’ve gotta move. Now.”

He turned and let go of me, and my weakened legs gave out from under me.

“Zoe!” Adrien caught me around the waist, pulling me back up. “What’s going on, are you okay?” He set me down on the closed toilet lid, the only place to sit other than up on my bed.

“I’m fine,” I lied, blinking and trying to get a breath. “I just gotta get some rest. Can we leave in the morning?”

But when I looked back over at Adrien, he was already pulling out the biosuit box and opening it up.

“We gotta leave now Zoe, not tomorrow morning. Fit your feet into the rubber boots first, then we’ll pull the rest of the suit up.”

“Why now?” I asked, blinking and trying to make sense of everything that was happening. I stepped into the boots.

“I had a vision. They’re gonna raid this place soon.”

It took a few more moments for what he’d said to sink in. “Wait, you mean … they know I’m here?”

“Not yet,” Adrien said, managing to sound halfway calm. “Chancellor Bright was just named Underchancellor of Defense. Right off, she ordered inspections on any place with the kind of air-filtration system she knows you need to survive. I thought we’d have more time. I mean, there’s about fifty facilities like this in the Sector, and there’s no way she’d know this is the only one the Resistance has access to.” He shook his head. “But I saw it.”

“When will it happen?”

“I don’t know.” He ran a hand roughly through his hair. “It felt like a short-term vision, like it might happen in the next few days.” He looked back up at me.

I felt a fresh wave of panic. They were coming for me. The horrifying reality of the situation settled in, clearing away some of my remaining cloudiness and exhaustion.

“I was gonna send a com,” Adrien said, “but I was afraid any communications would get intercepted and decrypted. I didn’t wanna accidentally
be
the cause of the inspection.”

Another cold realization swept through me. “But wait. Where are we going?” I asked. “If the Foundation isn’t ready yet, this lab’s the only place we have access to with air I can breathe. What happens when my biosuit runs out of oxygen in twelve hours?”

“We’re going to a beta site nearby. They have a few spare oxy tanks there. It’ll buy us some time to figure out the rest.”

He held out an arm to help me stand and then pulled the heavy padded suit up to my waist. There were three separate layers to it, and it smelled strongly of plastic and stale air.

“It’s dangerous, I know,” he continued. “But we don’t have a choice. If we move fast enough, maybe we can get out of here safely. Maybe we can change the vision.” His jaw tensed for a moment. “Otherwise what’s the point of seeing the future?” I wasn’t sure if he was talking more to me or to himself.

“Have you ever done it? Changed something you’ve seen?”

He didn’t answer me, just lifted up the top half of the suit. “Here, fit your arms in.”

I shrugged my arms into the heavy sleeves of the suit and sat down again to rest while Adrien clipped one of the compressed oxygen packs onto the belt at my hip and hooked it up. He fit the thick helmet with a see-through face mask over my head, adjusting it so the edges were firmly aligned with the body of the suit. The whir of precious air circulating through the mask filled my ears. He reached for the suit’s forearm panel to run a quick diagnostic that would check for tears or leaks, and that’s when I saw it: the red alarm light began flashing silently in the corner.

I gasped and looked over at Adrien. We both knew what it meant.

The Inspector was already here.

Chapter 2

ADRIEN’S FINGERS MET
my fumbling ones as we attached the other tank to my waist.

“How do we get out of here?” he asked.

“If they came down the main elevator, we follow the escape route I’ve practiced.” My voice was low and muted through the mask. There was a microphone option for normal speech, but I wasn’t sure how loud it would be, so I didn’t switch it on. “Head to the west end of the complex and take the stairs.” I’d memorized the lab schematics and drilled the best escape routes. The lab had three exits—two elevators and one set of stairs. The stairs were closest and the best option for getting out unnoticed. “As long as no one sees us, we’ll be fine.”

Adrien nodded. The diagnostic clicked in my ear, and I looked down at the readout panel on my forearm. All systems clear. At least that was one piece of good news. I also felt steadier on my feet. The adrenaline pumping through my body was briefly giving me strength. I took a deep breath and pushed my gloved finger against the button that released the sliding door to the adjacent room in the laboratory.

Voices sounded from another room nearby, but the lab was empty. The room was all clean lines and antiseptic lab tables covered with equipment. The smooth, burnished metal floors glinted. I paused to listen, but, within the echoing space, it was impossible to tell how close the voices were.

I ducked low and crept behind one of the laboratory tables, careful not to knock into any of the test tubes in my bulky suit. Adrien shut the door to the hidden room behind us. It looked like every other chrome-lined panel that formed the wall. But before Adrien could slide a table in front of it to complete the illusion, the click of boot heels and voices from the hall echoed louder. Adrien dropped down beside me.

My heart thumped wildly, and I instinctively put my hand to my heart monitor. I was glad the Rez had disabled it months ago; otherwise it would have been beeping loudly to signal my rapid heartbeat.

The room only had one exit. In my emergency evacuation plans, I’d always taken for granted the flashing alarm in the alcove would go off in time to make it clear of this room. Before I could even try to think what to do next, the voices were in the room with us.

Adrien huddled with me behind the black-topped table, eyes flicking around and mouth pursed tightly. I didn’t know what he was looking for. To get to the stairs, we first had to get out of this room and past the doorway, right where it sounded like the Inspector was standing. Panic bubbled up inside me.

“What is it you say you study here, again?” The Inspector’s clipped tones echoed off the chrome walls of the spotless lab. There was a moment’s silence before Milton’s voice piped up.

“We study viral pathogens, such as Flu 216 and its various permutations. Also,” Milton continued, his voice shaky and high-pitched, “we’re doing some innovative research into the application of nanotechnology to viral pathogens. The Cabinet of Medical Technology is very interested in our progress.”

“I see,” said the Inspector, his boots thudding as he stepped further into the room and closer to the table we hid behind. “And have you noticed anything … anomalous?”

“N-no, sir,” Milton said. I squeezed my eyes shut. Milton was a painfully bad liar. He was younger than most others at the lab, but he was a genius, the top viral tech. Like most researchers, he didn’t have the emotion-numbing V-chip installed. Which was a problem right now.

Usually Veri, our other Rez insider, was the one who handled communicating with officials on behalf of the lab. She was far more skilled in the art of subversion and misdirection. But she must not be here yet, and Milton stumbled over every other word.

Footsteps came closer. Sweat beaded on my forehead and dripped down my face beneath the mask. I looked frantically at Adrien.

“What’s this?” The Inspector paused near the false wall to my hidden room and tapped the paneling. Had Adrien not shut the door completely? I cringed at the hollow ping of the Inspector’s knuckles on the chrome and my heartbeat sped up even more. He was close enough that I could see the tip of his shiny black boot.

I wanted to crawl around the other side of the table, but Adrien sensed my panic and shook his head. His eyes darted in every direction. We both knew the crinkling noise my suit would make. There was no way we could sneak out of the room unnoticed.

A hiss sounded. The Inspector had found the small catch that opened the hidden door. In our haste, Adrien must have forgotten to replace the cover. He leaned in and whispered frantically in my ear. “Knock him out with your telek, like you did with the Chancellor that time.”

“But—”

“Anomalous contraband.” The Inspector’s voice came from inside the small alcove. I heard the sound of papers being ripped off the walls.

I tried to listen, to see if there was any buzzing in my ears, any whisper of power left that I could try to harness. But all I could hear were Milton’s weak excuses. He backed away from the other man, moving closer to us. “I didn’t know that was there,” he said. “I swear I’ve never seen that room before!”

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried again to draw on my power. None of this was going according to plan. No one was ever supposed to find the hidden room. I had to disable the Inspector if any of us were going to make it out of here alive.

I closed my eyes and tried to call on my telek. Moments earlier, my power had nearly consumed me. Now, no matter how much I strained, it wouldn’t come. The beast was gone.

I shook my head frantically at Adrien. He seemed to understand and tugged me forward while the Inspector was busy looking through the things in my alcove. But we weren’t fast enough. As soon as we rounded the corner of the table, the Inspector’s voice rang out. “You there! Stop!”

Adrien bolted for the door, dragging me along with him. My feet were heavy from the weighty suit, but I managed to stay upright. Milton ran after us.

The Inspector’s voice rang out behind as he spoke into his arm com, “Possible fugitive sighting in sublevel lab 810. Subjects are heading west!”

I cursed. Reinforcements would be coming.

“They’ll be covering the west stairs,” Adrien said.

I nodded and when we came to a fork in the hallway, pulled him left instead of right toward the stairs. “Let’s try for the freight elevator in the central lab.”

I tried to shut out all other thoughts and focus on moving one foot in front of the other. Adrien pulled Milton in front of me as we ran down the narrow hallway. “Get your elevator access card ready!”

The floors and walls were made of a dulled gray metal and our pounding footsteps broadcast our every move. Ahead, I saw where the hallway opened into the central lab.

Almost there.

We raced toward the opening, close enough now that I could see the elevator across the expanse of the lab.

But right as we closed the distance and were almost into the room, a shadow darkened the opening, and then another and another. Three Regulators stood in front of us, the metal plating on their faces glinting from the light in the hallway. They were the Community’s soulless soldiers, almost as much machine as they were man. Adrien stopped cold, but Milton wasn’t as quick. He tripped over Adrien, taking both of them down. My breath stopped in my chest and the moment seemed to slow. I looked from Adrien to the Regulators right as they raised their forearms, each with a triple-barreled laser weapon attached.