Mission 615

Chapter 16

The following two weeks in the city are surprisingly dull but it's actually a nice change of pace. I mostly help Willa in the infirmary but occasionally Sadie will drag me around the city on her medicine runs. After the first day of her nonstop chatter, I basically beg Willa to take me with her to the infirmary.

My eyes flutter open and I snuggle further into the warm sheets. A soft buzzing fills my ears and I glance over to see that the bed on the opposite side of the room is empty.

I shoot up in bed and search for my tablet that was supposed to wake me up to meet Willa.

"No, no, no, no," I stammer as I drag it out from underneath my pillow.

I wipe my eyes and groan.

"Good morning," a voice chirps from the bathroom. I slam my face back into the pillow, ignoring Sadie's overly cheerful introduction.

"Come on," Sadie prods. "We're gonna be late. Peoples lives are at stake," she says dramatically. I don't move.

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you," Sadie coos. Her cold hands close around my wrists and she yanks me off the bed. I pull my knees up at the last second and land in a crouch.

"Really?" I growl.

"Come on, we need to be at the lab in ten minutes."

As much as I hate running these errands with Sadie, I'm not cruel enough to make her late.

Most of the morning goes as usual and I manage to block most of her chatter out. We wander around the city. Their sun is up in the sky today and it feels absolutely amazing on my skin. It'd taken me about a week to come to the conclusion that the real reason the women wear lab coats is because all the buildings are freezing. Basically, I've been living in my hoodie 24/7.

I push my sleeves up, letting my pasty skin enjoy the warmth. Thankfully most of Sadie's deliveries are near the outside of the city where the buildings aren't connected by hallways.

After awhile my stomach starts growling and I glance at the next clock we pass by.

"Hey Sadie, it's lunch time. Can we take a break?"

Sadie pats her bag. "Almost. We just have one more stop."

We walk back into the Tower and slide into an elevator. Instead of clicking one of the numbers on the main panel, Sadie slides her key card over the lock and a few more numbers appear on the screen. Sadie quickly taps one and we begin to descend.

"There's a basement?" I ask.

Sadie rocks back and forth on her feet.

"Well.." She begins.

I don't know if she doesn't reply or if I'm too awestruck to listen.

A gigantic chamber opens up around me. The ceilings go up at least three stories and continues deeper into the planet under the platform. Different walkways span the length of the space dividing the room into three main sections. The first two seem to be filled with small projects but the last one casts a shadow over the rest of the room. Before I know it, I'm sprinting down the metal catwalk in the direction of the massive structure.

"Jemma!" Sadie calls but I ignore her. I run up to the railing and my mouth falls open.

No way. Sitting in front of me is probably the most dangerous, amazing, technologically brilliant thing anyone could come up with. The soft hum of machinery fills my ears as I stand in complete awe. Let this go down in history as the first time I am totally speechless.