The Vault (A Farm Novel) (16 page)

CARTER

As I followed Marek down the halls, my mind raced to come up with a plan. I’m not entirely sure why I bothered. Plans never worked out for me. I knew that. Still it seemed like a good idea to have some strategy that was more specific than lie, cheat, and steal to get what I want.

The underground tunnels were labyrinthine enough that I couldn’t tell where exactly he was taking me, even with the signs. I knew he was leading me away from Building C, but had no idea where we’d started. He led me through a lobby that looked slightly different from either of the previous two. I tried to map the campus out in my mind, but the buildings and furnishings were too generic, so I settled for remembering Building C. That was the one I’d need to get back to. Unfortunately, Marek and his twin weren’t the only guards standing around.

Sabrina wanted me to believe she’d had trouble holding on to her kine, and it was true that the campus seemed underpopulated because I still hadn’t seen that many normal people. Obviously her rent-a-soldiers were well compensated, because she had plenty of them around. She probably didn’t dine on them, though. She needed them strong. Unfortunately.

While we waited for the elevator, I said, “Sabrina told you to put me in the room next to Dawn and Darren’s.”

Marek stood facing the elevator doors, his hands linked behind his back. He didn’t even glance at me as he answered. “Yes, sir.”

“That’s unacceptable.” I tried to mimic my father’s get-your-shit-together voice. “I want to be in the same room with them at least tonight. I need to see them and make sure they’re okay.”

“I’ll ask.”

“Ask now.” I put a little push into the words. Might as well see if Marek was susceptible.

He glanced at me and pulled his phone out of his pocket and fell back a step. The elevator doors opened while Marek was still talking to whoever was on the other end of the phone, Sabrina most likely. Marek’s twin, unsure of what to do, looked back toward Marek who gave a
wait-here
hand signal. So we waited.

Marek’s conversation took longer than I expected, like they were discussing more than just room assignments. Had I made a mistake by giving Marek a push? Had he sensed it? Was that what he and Sabrina were discussing?

But then Marek hung up and crossed back to us. He nodded us into the elevator and then followed us in. “Your request is reasonable. For tonight, you will be billeted with your people.”

Okay. So that gave me the rest of today and tonight to figure something out, because I sure as hell wasn’t leaving them behind. And frankly, Sabrina was so damn crazy she scared the crap out of me. We needed to get out of here.

*  *

Dawn practically threw herself into my arms the second Marek closed the door behind me. Which surprised the hell out of me because I didn’t know her that well and I wasn’t really the huggy type.

“We thought for sure she’d killed you,” she said as she let me go. Darren put his arm around her and she leaned into him, looking genuinely scared for the first time.

I felt another jab of guilt. I should not have let them come. Not that I’d had a choice, but still.

It was obvious that the encounter with Sabrina had freaked them both out. Yeah, me, too.

“Nah,” I said lightly, not wanting to spook them any more. “I’m too valuable for that.”

They both frowned and I realized my mistake. Neither of them knew I was an
abductura
. I was pretty sure neither of them had any idea what one was anyway. Well, wouldn’t that be a fun conversation: Yeah, I have the ability to control your emotions and I brought you along on a dangerous mission and we might all die. Instead, I took the obvious way out.

“All of us are too valuable. Did you notice how few people are around?”

“Lots of guards,” Darren said, sounding more serious than he usually did.

“Yes. Hired guards. And she needs them strong and fit, so she’s probably not feeding off them. But not a lot of normal people.”

I let the implication hang there. Not a lot of people she could feed from.

Dawn nodded and then asked, “Did you find the—” Then she broke off awkwardly. “You know . . .”

Yeah. I did know. Way to be subtle.

If Sabrina’s goons were watching—and I was sure they were—then there was no way they hadn’t caught that.

“The cure?” I asked. We weren’t going to fool them anyway. And Sabrina already knew I wanted the cure. Might as well pretend I had nothing to hide and no idea I might need to hide it if I did. “No. But she admitted she has it.”

“Does it work?” Darren asked.

I told them everything that had happened. I glossed over the bits about Paul Workman and Sabrina needing me to fill his shoes. I figured she would understand why I hadn’t told them more. Hell, she probably expected it. Otherwise, I was honest and open. Nothing to see here.

If I was really lucky, whoever was watching the surveillance feed would get bored.

I glanced around the room while I talked, trying not to look like I was searching for the surveillance camera. For the record, it’s damn near impossible to look for a camera without making it obvious to whoever is watching you that you’ve found it. There’s always this one instant when you’re looking straight at the camera. So instead, I didn’t look for the camera. I looked for places it might be.

The room was a much less fancy version of the conference room we’d been shown to when we first arrived. There was a smaller table. No big basket of fruit, but a bowl with some snack bars and some cans of soda. The furniture was sturdy and drab. There was a sofa and a couple of chairs like you might see in a doctor’s office. A cheap-looking media cabinet with a TV and Blu-ray player flanked by bookshelves. No cable—not that there still was cable. No computer. There was a phone, which I assumed either had no signal or—more likely—connected only to other phones here on campus. Things looked a little worn around the edges, which told me this room had been set up in the Before. Obviously, Sabrina had planned ahead. Not that I didn’t know that already.

There was an open doorway through which I glimpsed a made bed. The walls of both rooms were white, which meant the cameras were hidden out of sight somewhere, most likely somewhere along the top of the media center or the bookshelves. That’s where I would put them.

There would be part of the room along the wall on either side of the bookshelves that surveillance wouldn’t see. Of course, there was no natural way for us all to go stand in the corner and chat.

Besides, when Sabrina told Marek to come get me when she and I were in the lab, she hadn’t raised her voice, which meant the audio surveillance equipment was very sensitive. Probably too sensitive to be the standard stuff included with the camera. If it was me, I’d want a separate feed for the audio. And I’d put at least one microphone in the corner the camera couldn’t see.

Darren sat down on one of the chairs, looking defeated. “So what are we supposed to do?”

“We wait,” I said simply, leaning against the edge of the table. “And we rest a bit. We’ve all been going nonstop for a long time.” I nodded toward the food. “And we eat. It’s not fancy, but—”

“Hell no, I’m not eating their food.” Darren crossed his arms over his chest.

“Dude, don’t act all tough,” Dawn said. “You already ate a banana.”

“Well, that was before you said it might be drugged.”

“I’m not going to make you eat,” I told them both.

“Good.”

“But you really should eat while you can. Yes, there’s a chance it’s drugged, but not a very big one. If we’re her meal later, she needs to be able to drink from us without worrying about what’s in our blood.”

“Do they think about things like that?”

“Sebastian always did. If there’s tranquilizer in a person’s blood, that kind of thing metabolizes very slowly. She wants us comfortable. Relaxed.”

“Because they don’t want us to fight back?” Darren asked.

I almost let him believe that. But I’d gotten him into this; didn’t I owe him honesty? “No. Because your blood will taste better. All the hormones associated with fight or flight, adrenaline, that kind of thing, those taste bitter. Serotonin. Dopamine. Oxytocin. Those hormones taste delicious.” Darren and Dawn had both gone pale with shock, so I added, “Or so I’m told.”

Darren blew out a breath, like he was trying to stay calm. Dawn just looked grimly nervous. Like she was trying to be braver than she felt. Shit. I should not have brought them with me. They both thought they were prepared to die for this, but were they really?

And what right did I have to ask them to?

“Look,” I said—brutal-honesty time here. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

Dawn bumped up her chin. “I’m not.”

“Well, you should be. I know this isn’t what you signed up for.” They both looked like they wanted to protest, but I held up a hand to stop them. I didn’t want them saying too much for the cameras and microphones. I didn’t want to say too much, either. I just wanted them to know they had options. “Look, I know this isn’t exactly what you thought you were getting into, but it’s not bad here. Sabrina’s population is down, that means she needs people here. Maybe lots of people. And her rent-a-goons will keep the Ticks out, you can count on that. It’s not a bad place to wait things out.”

I pushed away from the table. “Look, I’m going to see about getting a shower. Just hang out here for a while. Maybe watch a movie or something.”

I only hoped they got the message. Just watch a movie. Do not sit around and talk about how strangely I’m acting. Do not speak clearly for the camera and say anything stupid like “Do you think he found the cure? Why is he worried about a shower at a time like this? Shouldn’t we be trying to find a way out?”

I pretty much ignored Dawn and Darren as I checked out the bedroom. It was just what I’d predicted: living room, single king-sized bed. There was a bathroom just beyond, thank God, because I wasn’t joking about the shower. It had been too long since I’d had a real shower. Base Camp had outdoor showers set up, but you have to really want a shower before you’re willing to shower outside in the winter, in water that hasn’t been heated.

Before hitting the head, I went back and opened the door to the hall. Sure enough Marek and company were standing in the hall on either side of the door. They looked up when I opened it.

I felt a burst of panic. I’d known they’d be there, but I’d needed to double-check.

“We need more towels,” I said to Marek.

He scowled.

“There are three crappy towels in the bathroom.” He shrugged like that wasn’t his problem, so I stepped closer and turned up the arrogance in my voice. “Look, you’ve been safe and secure behind these fences, but we’ve been out there for the past nine months. That means it’s been nine months since I’ve had a hot shower. The least you can do is get me some goddamn towels.”

Marek scowled and his twin actually took a step toward me, anger flickering across his face. I raised my eyebrows in a what-do-you-got expression. Marek put out a hand to stop the other guy. But I could see that it bugged the shit out of Marek, too, this reminder that they’d had it easy here with Sabrina while other people had been out fighting the good fight.

Still, Marek pushed his hand into the other guy’s chest. “Go get them some towels out of one of the other rooms.”

The other guy glared at me, but turned and stormed off.

When he came back, I smiled, and I didn’t even have to try hard to look grateful. If it had been months since I’d had a hot shower, it had been just as long since I’d had clean clothes. Then I saw what was on top of the clothes. The towels I’d requested, a bar of soap, a couple of small bottles of shampoo. Three toothbrushes. New toothbrushes! Hell—I almost would have come here just for the toothbrushes. But the cherry on top was a can of shaving cream and a razor.

Marek must have seen me smile, because he looked more closely at the stack of stuff. He frowned, like he was debating whether to take it away.

“Man, am I glad to see this,” I said with enthusiastic innocence. “My girl is always giving me hell about not shaving often enough.” I scrubbed a hand across the stubble on my jaw.

I looked back at Marek and the other guy. “Thanks,” I said.

Back in the room, I tossed the clothes and most of the toiletries onto the table. “See if any of the clothes fit. I’m going to take a shower.”

Alone in the bathroom, I put the toiletries I’d kept—the shaving cream, the razor, and one of the toothbrushes—on the counter. I shaved first. Partly because Lily really did give me hell when I didn’t. I hadn’t had the time or the razor to shave with in the past week or so. Somehow, doing it now gave me . . . I don’t know, the feeling that I could actually pull this off. It made me feel like I really was going to find her. Soon. And that when I did, she’d be human enough to care whether or not I was clean shaven. And it helped clear my head.

Here’s what I knew.

I had to get out of here. Soon. This place, with its luxuries and exotic fruits and hot showers . . . this place had the potential to lure me in and never let me go. If it wasn’t for Lily out there, fighting for her life—alone—I might be tempted to stay.

But Lily was out there. If Ely had found her and Marcus, and if he was able to stay close enough to keep an eye on them without attracting their attention and if I could get there in time, then I had a chance.

The longer I waited the more likely it was that something bad would happen to them. After all, there were plenty of people out there right now who would be interested in killing a Tick.

No, I didn’t have time to wait around here for Sabrina to get together a team of people to go find Lily and bring her back. If Sabrina needed an
abductura
as badly as she said she did, then she would do everything in her power to keep me here. To string me along indefinitely.

No, I had to get out. Soon.

The only question was whether or not I had to bring Dawn and Darren with me. And whether or not they wanted to come. I thought I knew the answer, but I wanted them to know they had options.

As I rinsed off the razor, I looked around the tiny bathroom. The shower was utilitarian. The cabinetry functional, but not fancy.