Rebel (22 page)

“Suzanna . . .” Officer Mayer sounded stressed as he got up from his chair.

“What?” she snapped.

“Let’s . . .” He turned his back to me and lowered his voice.

I heard him anyway. “Let’s kill her. Let’s kill them all.”

It sent a chill down my body and I swallowed down a wave of panic.

Suzanna glared at him. “Killing every Reboot who steps out of line is shortsighted. With the right drug combination, we’ll be able to wipe out the defiant part of their brains.” She gestured to me. “We can put our best Reboots back in the field, even if they were once determined to rebel. Get this one back to her old obedient self.”

I clenched my fingers into fists, pushing down the urge to thrash against the cuffs. I didn’t want to be their mindless slave again. I didn’t want to return to taking orders and killing people when they told me to.

“If you—” Officer Mayer started.

“When I want your opinion on my Reboots, I will ask for it, Albert,” Suzanna snapped.

She pulled the computer over and positioned it next to me. She squinted at the screen. “Let’s get started.”

I grunted as the guard dumped me onto the hard concrete floor. He didn’t bother to take the cuffs off my hands and feet before he slammed the door, and I had to wriggle around to get into a sitting position.

I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes against the spinning. I’d been on that table for hours, and the spinning had been constant since about the second shot.

I think I would have preferred death to sitting in here like a lab rat. I would have even preferred death to being “fixed” with their drugs and put back in a facility.

I tucked my face against my knees as Callum’s face popped into my head. When I pictured him, it was always that day at HARC when I made him punch me, and we were standing in front of his room, his arms wrapped around me, so close I almost kissed him. The look he had that night was my favorite expression of his—amusement mixed with attraction and
a healthy dose of annoyance. I would probably never see that look again. Or any look from him.

I wondered if Addie made it back and found him. If the situation had been reversed, I would have marched straight into the first HARC facility I could find and started searching for him. I suspected Callum’s reaction would be the same.

A smile crossed my lips.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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“NEW DALLAS,” I REPEATED, LOOKING FROM TONY TO DESMOND.
“You’re sure?”

“Yes,” Tony said. “I just got word back from one of the officers there. They’ve got her locked away from the other Reboots, in the old human cells.”

“I thought Rosa was more likely,” Riley said, stepping up next to me.

Tony leaned back in his chair. We were in his kitchen, surrounded by about twenty humans. A group of them sat with us at the table, the rest milled around the living room and spilled out onto the porch.

“They’re setting up a command center in Rosa,” Tony said.
“Sending all HARC personnel from Austin there. It’s basically the human base of operations now, and they didn’t want One-seventy-eight anywhere near it, especially given how familiar she is with the Rosa facility. And New Dallas is better equipped for prisoners. They did a lot of experiments on adult Reboots there.”

Addie looked at me excitedly. “Then we can go tonight, right?”

“Yes. Definitely.” I turned to Tony, swallowing hard. “Did they know anything about . . . her condition?”

“All he knew was she was there. I’m sorry. I got nothing else.”

“That’s all right.” I sighed with relief. If she was there, she was probably alive. She had to be alive. It had only taken Tony about twenty-four hours to find out where she was, and I had to hope that was fast enough.

“I’ll start getting the Reboots ready and prep the shuttles,” Riley said. “We’ll need to leave some people here to guard the city.” He nodded at Tony. “How do you want to split your men up? How many will come with us?”

A long silence followed Riley’s words, and my heart dropped at the uncomfortable expression on Tony’s face.

“No humans are going to New Dallas,” he said quietly.

“Why not?” Addie asked. “If we’re going in, we’re going to try to free all the Reboots there, too, right?” She looked at me for confirmation.

“That’s what I was hoping.” I turned to Riley and he nodded in agreement.

“You can ask around, but I’ve talked to a lot of people,” Tony said, folding his hands on top of the table. “We’re not doing another rushed raid into a HARC facility. We don’t feel like it’s the best use of our resources right now.”

I stared at him for a moment. “You mean rescuing Reboots isn’t the best use of your resources. Rescuing Wren.”

He dropped his eyes. “It’s not.”

I cast an angry look between him and Desmond. “None of this would have even happened without Wren! The HARC facility here would still be running and you’d all still be screwed if it wasn’t for her!”

“We were part of that raid, too,” Desmond said, though a guilty look crossed his face. “She didn’t do it alone.”

“And neither did you,” I said.

“Do we at least have some human support in New Dallas?” Riley asked. “A way into the facility?”

“I can tell you where the Reboot rooms are and where the control room is,” Tony said. “I have a guy inside who agreed to leave the door on the roof open, so you can get in that way. You’ll probably be able to make it past the fence in a shuttle no problem. Apparently there are HARC shuttles coming in and out of all the cities right now.” He sighed. “But that’s it. It’s too risky for any of the humans to help you.”

Addie made an annoyed sound and threw her hands in the air.

“Oh, come on,” Desmond said. “You don’t need us. Or any
human help. You’ve got a hundred Reboots here. When you break the others out of New Dallas, you’ll have double that.”

“Eighty-three,” Riley corrected. “A bunch took off.”

“Get the doors unlocked, like you did last time,” Tony said to Addie, “and everything will be fine.”

“Everything will be fine” seemed optimistic to me. I hadn’t considered it before, but Wren and Addie had taken a terrible chance by going into the Austin facility. They could have been trapped inside. HARC didn’t just build locks, they built locks with steel doors with pass codes and cameras, in a facility safely behind two different fences.

Getting us inside another one was incredibly risky, even with eighty-three Reboots.

“What about the other facilities?” Addie asked. “Are you going to help us with those?”

A pained expression crossed Tony’s face, so Desmond answered for him. “No. We’ve talked to the humans in the area, and everyone agrees we should focus on rebuilding here. We’re going to make this a HARC-free zone, and work on bringing in humans from other cities.”

I ran my hands down my face with a heavy sigh. They expected us to invade the facilities and rescue the Reboots. Maybe it wasn’t even that crazy of an expectation. They’d always made it clear they wanted us to leave after we deprived HARC of Reboots. Why was I even surprised?

I glanced over at Riley and Addie. We were the only three
Reboots in the house, and it was as if the humans had drawn an invisible circle around us. They all danced around it, keeping their distance like we couldn’t be trusted not to lash out and attack them at any moment. Some of them had witnessed me do exactly that, and maybe they would never see anything but a Reboot who murdered a human.

Wren had been right. I’d given the humans too much credit because I’d still seen them through my old human eyes. I’d remembered how they treated me when I was alive, when I was one of them. I’d ignored how they treated me since I Rebooted—they screamed, they attacked, they feared.

Why had I wanted to save them? Why had I been horrified that Wren didn’t? Of course she didn’t. She’d been dealing with this for five years. She knew they would never trust us.

“Okay,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “We’re going to take all the Reboots willing to help to New Dallas tonight. Only as many that will fit in one shuttle, though, because we’ll need the other one for the new Reboots.”

Riley frowned. “Do you think we can get two shuttles safely in and out of the city?”

“I have no idea.” I turned to Addie. “We need to explain to everyone how dangerous it’s going to be. They need to understand there’s a possibility we’ll be shot down or trapped in HARC or killed. No one has to go if they don’t want to.”

“Got it,” Addie said. “I think plenty will still want to go. Wren helped save the Austin Reboots, after all.”

“Reservation Reboots might be less inclined,” Riley said. “But I bet there’s some.”

“Tell them I will be eternally grateful.” I turned back to Tony and the other humans. “And we’re done.”

Tony raised his eyebrows.

“After I get Wren back, we’ll empty out the rest of the facilities. Or as many as we can. Then we’re leaving. Good luck with HARC. Good luck if Micah comes back. You’re on your own.”

I paced up and down the grass in front of the big shuttle that afternoon as the sun began to set. I’d already prepared the Reboots, and Riley had raided HARC for more gas. Of the eighty-three Reboots we had left, almost all agreed to go with us. The humans would have to protect Austin by themselves.

Now I just had to wait, and it was killing me.

“Callum.” Addie grabbed my arm, making me stop, and held out a plate. “You should eat.”

I looked down at the sandwich. I didn’t feel hungry, but I suddenly couldn’t remember the last time I ate. It must have been at the reservation. If Wren were here, she would tell me I needed my strength.

I took the sandwich off the plate and held out half of it to David, who sat next to Addie on the grass. He hesitated, then gave me a small smile as he took it.

“Thank Gabe,” Addie said, tilting her head toward him.
“He’s the one who thought to clean out HARC’s food before it went bad.”

“They cut the power to the facility a few hours ago,” Gabe said. “But we’ve got some people working on getting it back up.”

“Thanks,” I said in between bites.

Gabe plopped down on the grass next to Riley and Addie. He squinted at David. “You made a bunch of them at Tony’s feel bad.”

David gave him a confused look as he took a big bite of his sandwich. “What’d I do?”

“Some of them have Reboot kids. Seeing you so relaxed about a Reboot family member made them feel guilty.”

“They should feel guilty,” I muttered. “But our parents did nothing but scream when they saw me last time, so they’re not alone.”

“They want to see you now,” David said, straightening and giving me a hopeful look. “They mentioned it again this morning.”

“Then they can come see me. I’ll be at the HARC facility down the street.”

David nodded, his face falling a little. I doubted my parents wanted to step foot inside a HARC facility, especially one taken over by Reboots. But I certainly wasn’t going to go out of my way to find them again.

“Personally, I’m glad I never knew my family,” Riley said. “All this parent stuff seems really stressful.”

I almost laughed but it died in my throat, pushed down by the rock of pain sitting in my chest.

“It’s going to be fine,” Addie said softly. “She’s going to be fine.”

I nodded as I resumed my pacing. “She is. She probably already burned New Dallas to the ground and doesn’t even need us to come get her.”

They all laughed and agreed and I tried to force a smile onto my face like I wasn’t worried.

“I’m going to feel guilty forever if she’s not okay,” Riley said quietly, after a long pause. He picked at the grass. “I knew Micah used to drop bad Reboots. I should have warned you guys.”

“Guilt isn’t going to help anyone,” Addie said. She looked pointedly at me. “Is it?”

I didn’t know if she was talking about my guilt for making Wren stay at the reservation, or my guilt about killing the human. It had all formed into one giant lump of awful in my chest.

“No,” I admitted. “Doesn’t mean it’s not still there.”

“But that’s good, right?” David looked up at me. “Before you came back, I thought Reboots didn’t feel guilt. It seems like good news that you still do.”

“True,” I said with a small smile. It was only a few days ago I’d wished away my guilt about killing that man, but David had a point. It would be worse without it.

“I like to harness guilt into kicking people’s asses,” Addie said.

David turned a worried look from me to Addie and scooted a little farther away from her. I bit back a laugh as Addie arched her eyebrow in amusement.

I glanced back at the shuttles, armed and prepared for takeoff. “I think that sounds like an excellent plan.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

MEAT
.

My arms wouldn’t move. My legs wouldn’t move. I was on a hard table and I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t get to the meat.

I squinted in the bright light at the figures around me, snapped my teeth and thrashed against the metal holding my wrists.

Mumbled voices floated in the air, and a man came into sight. He was juicy meat, plushy meat, fatty meat.

I growled, lifting my head as far as it would go. Meat moved away.

The voices around me were louder, and the meat was holding
my arms and legs. I flailed until the table began to wobble and the voices grew louder. Panic. I liked the panic. The panic made the meat smell better.

I wrenched one arm free and grabbed at the closest meat.

Everything went black.

I blinked, squinting at the blurry walls of my cell. My head was heavy and cold. My cheek was pressed to the freezing concrete.

I slapped my hands against the floor and started to push myself up, gasping as a wave of dizziness crashed over me. I was going to vomit.

No, I wasn’t. There was nothing in my stomach. I couldn’t.