Thunder (29 page)

He spun her around to face him and lifted the light, trying to train the glow on her face. “Let's see who you are.”

Fear scurried up her spine like runaway spiders. She pulled back and threw up her hands, hyperventilating. Her head spun from lack of oxygen. She couldn't last long.

He took two steps forward and she steeled herself for more pain.

S
elah watched the guard's sneer evaporate into a blank stare. He crashed facedown on the floor. The light skidded off to the side and illuminated the doorway.

A tall silhouette replaced the fallen guard in the doorway as a person walked forward into the light. Bodhi!

“Are you hurt?” He reached out a hand.

Selah dissolved into tears as she rushed into his arms. “No, just my dignity for being so stupid to run into a dead-end room. I couldn't find you.”

His trembling hand pulled her head into his chest. The strength of his arms made her feel safe.

Don't scare me like that again. I
don't know what I'd do if I lost
you.

Startled by his thought, she looked into his eyes.

Weapons fired. She disengaged, grabbed up her hood, and slid it back on. She needed to think about what he'd just said. But not now.

“If you stayed where the watcher left you, there would have been no danger.” He ushered her out of the room and forced the door shut as they exited.

Selah turned. “I'm sorry. I panicked. Are Cleon and Treva safe?”

“Your brother's been injured—”

Selah scrambled from the room. Her watcher stood guard at the door. He led her into the entrance hall with Bodhi following. Weapon fire rang out again. The fighting had moved down a corridor out of sight.

She spun, surveying the wounded. At first glance they all looked the same in head-to-toe black. Bodhi pointed out Cleon. The slight female figure beside him had to be Treva. She stood with hands to her mask, sobbing.

Selah darted to their position. “How did this happen? Where is your watcher
?
”

Cleon shook his head and pointed to tube-shaped bags in a short pile against the wall. “He didn't make it. He took a shot for me, but the laser bounced off him and got me in the shoulder. It's just a flesh wound. I'll be fine.”

Selah could tell his attempt at bravado was fake—his eyes spoke differently. He was just trying to impress Treva. A bandage was evident through the hole in his combat suit.

Selah turned to Bodhi. “Fix him!”

Bodhi tipped his head. “I don't understand.”

She grabbed his arm. “Fix him like you fixed Amaryllis after the snake attack.”

Cleon raised his good arm. “I'm not sure what mumbo jumbo you're talking about, but I'm fine. I don't need help from a Lander.”

Selah noticed a hurt and fearful look come over Treva at his words. She'd have to explore that later. Right now she wanted Cleon healed.

Bodhi shook his head. “My abilities don't work for treating actual wounds. I can only do cellular reorganization—”

“I said I don't want anything from him.” Cleon struggled to get up. Treva hurried to help him.

The medic nearby packed up his kit. “I've used Cell-Gel on him. He'll be good as new in an hour or so.”

Selah looked from Bodhi to Cleon, shrugged, and turned to the medic. “I know this probably isn't the time to ask, but what's Cell-Gel? Won't he bleed out if he moves around?”

“The product is an artificial version of extracellular matrix. It creates connective tissue as it dries and heals the wound.” The medic slung his pack, clipping it back to his waist.

Selah's watcher put his hand on her shoulder. “We have to move forward. Commander Mojica is ready to infiltrate the Prison Unit. We'll need Bodhi to reassure them.”

“Are we going to get shot at again?” Cleon asked. He grimaced as he tested his shoulder. “I'd really like a weapon to defend myself, especially since I lost a watcher.”

“We've had more casualties than we expected. There are exponentially more guards here than we knew were in service. Everyone has been pulled forward to battle,” the watcher said.

“So what does that mean?” Selah asked. She had failed with her father, but she didn't want to fail the rest of his people. “Are we going to be able to free the Landers?”

The watcher nodded. “The team trained for this kind of mission. There's obviously more going on here than people know about, but they can handle it.”

Treva leaned forward. “Common Mountain people don't know there is such a thing as a Lander. Only security, the Science Consortium, and the executives know of their existence. But I agree. Nothing we thought was going on here would warrant this level of active security presence.”

Selah's heart sank. “What are we missing?”

Treva wrapped her arms across her chest and shook her head.

The watcher's ComTex chirped. He looked down at it. “We're being summoned to the infiltration force in the Prison Unit. They need Bodhi.” Glancing around, he pointed at a laser dart under a desk. He motioned to Cleon. “Pick that up. I'll pretend I didn't see you with it.”

Cleon scooted under the desk to retrieve the weapon.

Selah grimaced as she watched Cleon swell with pride. He used other weapons at home, so his handling it didn't worry her. It was just that now it made her brother more of a target.

Bethany stormed into the large triangular Prison Control Center. “What do you mean there's been a breakout in the Lander section? Who's in charge down there?”

From the doorway, the room fanned out and was staggered with work stations as it sloped downward to the large data screens covering the front wall. She pushed the guard away from the first console and began flipping switches on the right-hand wall section, which was divided into prison pod areas.

As a teenager, she'd spent a lot of time at consoles like these when she followed her father around, and he'd given her mock assignments to prepare her for the future she never
wound up following. She could still run this operation with her eyes closed.

“I don't know, sir—uh, ma'am,” the rattled guard sputtered. “No report from the section station. The incursion came out of nowhere. There has to be at least two dozen of them from the images we got before communications went down.”

Bethany banged at the terminal. If those Landers got free, the rest of the Mountain might find out what was actually going on right under their noses. The guards had been issued her extermination order—maybe it had been completed before this started.

No ComTex. No visual feeds, just white static. She raged at the console. “Why can't I see anything?”

“They're jamming communications.”

“Work around it!” she yelled. “If they get out of this Mountain, I'll have your heads.”

The control room went silent. Eight men stared at one another before scrambling to meet the demands of their new boss.

Bethany pulled up a schematic of the area and pointed at the map. “Get me a squadron of guards at the northern section of the prison wing to block their exit.”

Bodhi fell into step beside Selah. He wouldn't be leaving her side again until they were safely out of this place. They hurried to catch up with the security team, who'd forced the guards into retreating to the northern section of the wing.

They wove their way through the overturned furniture,
around several dead guards, and over piles of digital file storage containers from an overturned data bin. The sounds of fighting grew closer.

Selah's watcher moved out in front with Cleon beside him. He looked back at Bodhi. “Can you tell which side of the section they're on? Without facial navigation to find hot bodies, we're working blind here.”

Bodhi stopped. He opened his mind, traveling on the air currents that carried the luminescence and clouds of smoke, winding through the halls at the speed of sound to the minds of his own people. Hovering over them like a feather in a breeze, he lowered himself to tap the first one. He made contact. This one was closing himself off . . . hiding . . . trying to get away from the confusion. But he couldn't. He was locked in a cell. Fearful.

“I found them,” Bodhi said. He pointed to the next section of hallways off to the left. “They're in there. Both sides of the room. It's two long rows of cells.”

The watcher spoke into his ComTex, then turned back to the group. “Commander Mojica wants you four to stay back until they've pushed the guards past the next section.”

Bodhi winced and grabbed his head. “Fear. Several are trying to talk to me at once. I think they're trying to say a guard is killing Landers.” All the voices talking at once overwhelmed him, like crabs climbing over one another in a barrel.

“We can't let that happen. Not now when we're so close.” Selah stormed into the hall with Cleon and Treva right beside her.

Bodhi motioned for the watcher to follow. The man was speaking into his ComTex again.

Bodhi fumed. Selah needed protection. The watcher had
neglected to stick with her before and she'd almost died. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was falling for her and he wasn't going to take a chance on losing her now.

He dashed into the prison section. The mechanical scream of laser shots rang out. Inside the door, facedown, lay the black uniform–clad body of one of their team. He couldn't tell whether it was a man or woman as he bent to feel for a pulse. Whoever it was, the person was dead. He darted into a wide corridor and screeched to a halt.

Twenty feet down the hall on the left, Selah, Treva, and Cleon hid behind a partition jutting from the main wall. Another twenty feet or so beyond stood a Lander. The shaggy, dark-haired man in white tunic and pants was being held hostage by a guard, who had him tightly around the neck with a laser dart at his head. Bodhi cringed. He could see the man's mark. The first sight of another in this land and he was about to be extinguished.

“Throw down your weapon and you won't be hurt!” Cleon yelled. He took aim.

“I'll kill him if you come any closer,” the guard said, his eyes darting wildly.

Selah started to move into the open.

Bodhi wanted to run to her position to shield her, but he feared moving closer and scaring the guard into firing. Cleon pushed her back without taking his eyes from the guard. Bodhi breathed relief.

“There's no way out. If you kill him, you won't have a shield and I'll shoot you,” Cleon said.

Bodhi stared at him. Could Cleon really kill someone after what had just happened to his brother?

The watcher snuck into the doorway beside Bodhi.

“I've called for help. There'll be reinforcements overrunning this place in short order,” the guard said. He tried to back away with the struggling Lander.

Bodhi stared at the captive Lander, trying to make contact. The man finally turned his eyes to stare at Bodhi.

“No, you didn't call for help. We jammed communications before we entered this section,” the watcher said. “Now let the prisoner go!”

At that moment a cell door across the way flew open and another Lander dove at the guard. The guard fired three shots at him. The Lander dropped, crimson invading the front of his tunic.

Bodhi passed a thought to the captive Lander.
Pretend you're passing out and drop
to the floor. Now!