Her mouth tugged into a frown, and she started to protest.
"No," I said, stopping her. "Tell me you understand. I can't help you unless you understand this. If I say run, you run. You don't look back. You don't wait for me."
"What if I get lost?"
"I will find you," I swore to her. "No matter where you end up, no matter how long it takes, I will find you."
Finally she nodded.
I pulled my slate from my pocket and unrolled it. Klo had been able to grant me two hours of undetected access to the Intelligence Command Center systems. Director Raze's top-notch security system. A loop, Klo had called it. His finest work yet. The hack created a circular reference so if anyone tried to follow the breach, it would just lead them around in a dizzying circle.
I hadn't told him what it was for, and he hadn't asked.
I think on some level he knew I wouldn't have answered truthfully anyway.
I would miss Klo. I would miss all of them. Even Xaria. But it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for her.
The security logs listed the scheduled departure of a transport van in three minutes. Most likely it had come to deliver lab supplies to the various sectors in the compound. I couldn't care less what the van was carrying as long as it was leaving.
I checked the clock on my slate-2:13-and glanced out at the main road that led through the compound. I could see the van drifting back toward the gate.
I knew everything would have to be perfectly timed for the rest of this plan to work.
I opened up a new panel on my slate, punched in a code, and hovered my finger over the small green Initiate button.
The van stopped at the gate, and the agent exited the security booth. Per the usual protocol, the van's back door swung open and the agent pointed a sensor inside, searching for anything breathing, or with a Diotech asset chip stored inside.
When the sweep came back clean, the agent returned to the booth.
I jammed my finger down on the Initiate button and a thunderous BOOM! echoed from the nearby Medical Sector, followed by smoke that slipped into the air like a slithering snake.
After countless Freedom Fighters' missions on this compound, I'd learned the secret to getting past Director's Raze's task force.
Distraction.
This one was harmless. Just a vapor bomb I'd set the night before. But it was enough to draw attention.
I watched the guard glance up from his screen and peer inquisitively toward the building, knowing he was not allowed to leave his post.
A few taps on my slate would solve that problem.
I opened another panel and accessed the alert system. I sent the orders to the screens inside the security booth. A moment later, every armed guard in the sector was running toward the Medical Sector.
As soon as the posts were abandoned, I sent the signal to scramble the feeds from the forty DigiCams installed around the gate and the twenty additional HoverCams reported to be in the area.
I rolled up the slate, pocketed it, and looked to Seraphina. "Are you ready?"
"Yes."
And we ran. We managed to squeeze through the back door of the delivery van as it was sliding shut. Seraphina landed gracefully in a crouch; I smashed into a shelving unit and knocked a few boxes of supplies onto the floor in the process.
I pulled my slate back out and transmitted the signal to open the gate.
The van started to move. I crept cautiously toward the front instrument panel, seeing the van's destination flash onto a screen as the driverless vehicle turned left out of the compound and the satellite system guided it toward its next delivery drop.
I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the floor next to Sera. I reached for her hand and held it tightly in mine.
We rode in silence for a good twenty minutes before I had the courage to speak.
"It's okay," I said, more to myself than to her. "It's all over now."
But she wouldn't look at me. She was staring down at the inside of her left wrist, running her fingertip across the small black tattoo. She winced and pulled her hand back sharply, as though it had bitten her.
"What's wrong?" I asked, worry distorting my voice. "What happened?"
"My scar," she said dazedly, still staring at it. "It ... tickled."
"Tickled?" I repeated. I was about to ask her to clarify what she meant when I realized we were no longer moving. The vehicle had glided to an imperceptible halt.
Panicked, I looked to Sera, whose eyes glowed in the dim light of the van. I stood up, leaning forward to get a view of the instrument panel, hoping it might provide me a clue as to why we'd stopped. But the monitors were dark. Shut off. Overridden.
A moment later the door of the van slid open and Director Raze stood there, his steel gray eyes scanning the interior. I watched them land on Seraphina, and his lips coiled into a smile.
"Well, well," he said coldly, "going for a little joy ride, are we?"
I did the first thing that came to mind. I jumped toward him, throwing the full weight of my body into his chest. He grunted and fell back against the hard concrete of the road.
"RUN!" I screamed to Sera, and like a beam of light, she burst out of the truck.
But she didn't get far.
The sizzle of a Mutation Laser made my stomach roll as I watched her body wilt to the ground. A wide-eyed, dark-haired agent caught her just before she hit. He looked veritably surprised by the entire exchange, staring bewilderedly at her for a long moment.
"No!" I screamed, struggling to jump to my feet. I ran toward the agent, but I was intercepted by a wall of muscle. Three large men stepped into my path, blocking me. These were not agents-in-training. These were the real deal.
The dark-haired agent scooped Sera into his arms and turned, walking back to a waiting hovercopter that was parked nearby.
I writhed and kicked and screamed against my guards. "Let go of me!"
I heard a voice behind me. "Get back here, you punk!" It was Director Raze. He had recovered from my attack and was marching toward me. "I swear I will end you. I will take every precious memory from your brain, every useful function. I will leave you nothing more than a glitching vegetable."
Raze was angry. As he should be. I'd been wreaking havoc on his compound for a long time. And I'm sure he was sick to death of me.
Well, the feeling was mutual.
He continued to stalk toward me. The three guards held me in place. I braced myself for the inevitable blow.
But it never came.
"Director Raze!" shouted another voice. I turned to see Dr. Havin Rio approaching from the hovercopter. My eyes narrowed in accusation.
What the glitch was he doing here?
He also looked pissed off. But he seemed to be doing a better job hiding it than Raze. "Stand down, right now," Rio commanded. "That's an order. I will handle the boy."
"Wipe him!" Raze yelled. "Wipe his puny, spastic brain!"
"I said stand down, Director," Rio thundered. "Transport the girl back to the lab. I will take care of Lyzender."
Raze exhaled like a bull. "Protocol?" he asked, his jaw rigid.
"Full restoration," Rio replied. "I don't want her to remember any of this."
"No!" I cried out, whipping my head toward Sera, who was being lowered into the backseat of the hovercopter. Again, I tried in vain to get past the guards. "Don't you touch her!"
I saw her body flinching. Like tiny spasms. She was starting to wake up from the effects of the Mutie Laser.
Her eyes opened and her head lolled to the side. When she saw Dr. Rio, her entire face shifted. Like someone had erased a shadow that had been cast over her exquisite features. "Dad," she said dreamily. "I'm sorry. I..."
Dad?
This was the man she called her father?
This was the person who worked late nights and took her on fake trips to the beach and brainwashed her?
Rio's face softened upon hearing her voice. He turned and went to her, pushing her hair away from her face. Seeing him touch her made me want to throw up.
"It's okay," he told her, his voice more soothing and human than I'd ever heard it. "It's going to be fine. Take her back to the cottage. I'll be there in a moment."
"You son of a bitch!" I shouted at him, thrashing against my captors. "I should have known you were behind this. I should have known. You are diabolical. You deserve to rot in hell!"
Rio walked calmly toward me, his shiny shoes clacking on the pavement. "Lyzender."
I wet my tongue and spat into his face. I wished I had more than just saliva to spew at him. I wished I could spit rocks. Boulders. Fire.
He closed his eyes for a brief moment before wiping it away. "Why don't you come with me? I think we have a lot to talk about."
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" I shot back.
"Well, I guess we'll see about that, won't we?" He jerked his head toward one of the guards detaining me. I felt the cold prick of metal against the base of my skull, stealing away my will to fight.
13: Capabilities.
I woke up strapped to a large chair. My arms and legs were restrained. I struggled, but it was no use. I glanced around at the digital projection of a peaceful ocean sunset. So real, I could almost smell the sea breeze. But, of course, I knew it was fake.
Something beautiful to hide the ugliness.
That's what Diotech is all about.
I recognized this chair. It was the one they secured people in right before they recoded their memories. Panicked, I tried to remember how I got there.
We ran away. We tried to escape. We failed.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. At least they hadn't taken that memory.
Not yet, anyway.
I fought again, quickly realizing it was pointless. The restraints were too strong.
"What do you want?" I screamed into the serene sunset. If I was here, in this chair, that meant there was someone on the other side of this illusion, watching me through the one-sided screen. "Get in here and face me, you glitching cowards!"
In an instant the landscape around me vanished, flickering into the dull black hue of the powered-down screen. A door opened to my left and Dr. Rio sauntered in, pulling a chair behind him. He placed it directly across from me and sat down.
My whole body tensed at the sight of him.
He was the one.
The one behind Sera's project. The one who had been keeping her locked up in that house like an animal. I wanted to leap out of the chair and tear his skin off with my teeth. But I forced myself to remain very still, watching him with distrustful eyes.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions, Lyzender," he said. "I'll do my best to answer them as completely as I can. But you must understand that most of what you'll want to know is light-years beyond your clearance level."
"I don't have a clearance level," I muttered.
"Exactly."
"How did you find us?"
"It's not a scar from when she was a baby," Rio said, referencing the mark on Sera's wrist and the fabricated story she had told me. Obviously he'd seen the memory of that day.
"What is it then?"
"It's a satellite tracking device. It can be scanned from anywhere on the planet."
The realization made my stomach sour. Of course they would build something like that into her. Of course they would never take the chance of letting her escape. I immediately felt foolish for even trying. How could I have thought I could outsmart Diotech?
Just because I'd broken in to a few C3 labs and stolen a handful of genetically modified rabbits?
I was an amateur.
I was nothing.
I'd never be able to save her.
"I have to admit, Lyzender," Rio said, clearly reading my distress, "your plan was admirable. Everyone is impressed."