"Why tonight? The other day you said we weren't ready yet."
Lozen carefully puts Dr. Rodriguez's tablet back in the drawer and turns back to me. "We're ready because your Molly came through for us."
"Her name's Addie."
Lozen reaches into her pocket and pulls out Dr. Rodriguez's key card, which has several short strands of black hair stuck to it with tape. "Addie snatched this when he was leaving today. He didn't notice thanks to the black eye you gave him. Mikao managed to get me a sample of Dr. Rodriguez's hair as well for the DNA match. One of the other spies from your rebellion also sneaked Addie some of that gel that will block the signals from the chips in our heads."
"What's the plan?"
"We're going to split up. You get Addie, Ciara and Mikao from the pod while I get the others from the cells. We'll meet back here and exit as a group."
My heart starts to pound as my mind struggles to catch up with the reality of what we're about to do. "Did you have a vision of this going without a hitch?"
Lozen hesitates long enough to make me suspicious. "My visions are like yours. I see fragments of time, not the whole picture. There are several ways things could go wrong today. I've accounted for most of them."
"Most of them? Lozen, we're not ready. Let's take the time to plan this properly."
Lozen shakes her head. "You don't get it. Throwbacks have died down here, Joan. I've had visions of more deaths coming. I'll never forgive myself if we wait and then someone else pays the price."
I want to argue, but I see enough of myself in her to know that she won't change her mind. "Okay. I'm in. What do I need to know?"
Lozen hands me the key card. "Get to Mikao first. He'll help you get Ciara and Addie. As for me, I've got another way to get everyone out of their cells."
I tuck the ID into my pocket and take a breath. "Anything else?"
"You're also going to need this," Lozen says, handing me the shiv she made out of Lexi's pen. "You're going to have to fight. I didn't have a vision of exactly what happens, but I saw you all make it to this lab eventually. Stay alert, move fast, and trust your gut. The rest we'll have to figure out in the moment."
Lozen peeks out into the hallway. "It's clear, and the cameras are still down. I've got to go. Good luck."
Lozen slips into the hallway, and I press the button on Dr. Rodriguez's desk that opens the panel separating this corner of the room from the rest of the lab. I make a point not to look at the bed I was strapped to as I move to the door that leads back into the pod.
I pass Dr. Rodriguez's ID across a scanner embedded in the wall, and then press his hair against the DNA reader. I breathe a sigh of relief when the door opens silently. It's dim inside the pod, since everyone is supposed to be sleeping.
A light catches my eye—it's coming from the bathroom area across from where I'm standing. I instantly recognize the silhouette standing in front of it.
As I hurry down the glass hallways toward Mikao, I slam into the walls twice. This place is an invisible maze without the lights in the ground to guide me. When I reach him, Mikao points to the wall that marks the outer edge of his section of the pod, and I see a sensor below a series of buttons. I swipe the sensor, and the buttons light up in green.
I look up at Mikao, not sure what's next, and he whispers a series of numbers. I follow his instructions, and the panels slide into a new configuration that allows Mikao to join me.
I let out a breath of relief that the first part of the plan has gone without a hitch. Mikao seems to know where he's going, so I follow him to another part of the pod, where Ciara is sleeping.
Mikao uses the key card and pin pad to reconfigure the walls again, so we can enter her sleeping area.
I gently touch her shoulder and whisper, "Please don't scream."
Ciara gasps and sits straight up, but thankfully doesn't scream. "What's happening?"
"We're getting out of here. But we've got to move fast."
Ciara doesn't ask questions. As she slides her shoes on, I turn to Mikao.
"Where does Addie sleep?"
Mikao's expression is unreadable in the darkness. "After her last encounter with Dr. Rodriguez, she was taken from the pods. She must be in the cells with the others."
My breathing stops. Lozen isn't expecting to have to rescue Addie from the cells—she thinks she's in the pods with Mikao and Ciara.
"We're meeting in the laboratory. Mikao, can you get us there?"
Mikao nods and swipes Dr. Rodriguez's badge for the third time, pressing a series of numbers that reconfigures the panels so that we have a path that leads back to the door to the lab.
When we make it back inside, the room is empty. Lozen hasn't made it back yet with the others. All I can think about is Addie. I pace the room for all of two minutes before I can't stand it any longer.
"I'm going to help Lozen get everyone else out. She might not know Addie's down there, too," I explain to Mikao and Ciara.
But they aren't paying any attention to me. Their eyes are fixed on the corner of the room, where Dr. Avery is standing by his desk. His eyes meet mine, and terror flashes across his face.
I lunge for him before he can press the button underneath the desk that will seal him off from the rest of the room. I make it in as the glass panels slide closed and seal us off from Mikao and Ciara.
Knowing that my only hope is the element of surprise, I kick Dr. Avery in the kneecap with all my strength. He stumbles and drops the laser pen he was holding. I try to kick him in the head and knock him unconscious, but he dodges and lands a glancing blow across my cheekbone. I don't even feel it.
Someone is screaming from the other side of the glass panel, but I refuse to look away from Dr. Avery while he's still a threat to me. He has me on the defensive now, and I dodge as he tries to grab me around the waist.
He yanks my arm so hard it comes out of its socket, but the move works against him because when I'm close enough, I knee him in the balls. While he's hunched over, I kick him again in the knee, and he crumples to the ground.
I debate stabbing him with the shiv, but I'd rather not kill again unless I have to. Instead, I kick him in the head three times until he stops moving.
I look up and see that the laboratory is full of people who are watching me with wide eyes and open mouths. Lozen has made it back with the others, a mix of people with clone types I don't recognize. Addie isn't among them.
I grab Dr. Avery's laser pen and then press the button under the desk to open up this corner of the room to the rest of the lab.
Lozen is staring at me, her usual grin absent. "I didn't see him in any of my visions. We're in uncharted territory."
"And we're missing Addie. I'm not leaving without her."
Lozen's eyelids flutter, and for a second I think she's having a stroke. But then her eyes connect with mine, and I realize that she just had a vision.
"We have to get out now. There's too much risk if we stay."
"Then get everyone else out," I reply, handing her Dr. Avery's laser pen. "You can take Dr. Avery's ID and hair, and I'll keep Dr. Rodriguez's."
Lozen's eyes flutter again. "No, Joan. The path you're choosing...I see blood. A lot of it."
"What else? Anything useful? Because leaving without Addie is not happening."
Lozen slowly shakes her head. "I see that you find her. She's cleaning Lexi's office, guarded by two Deans. After that, everything is a mess of images depending on what choices you make."
I have to accept that this is the most Lozen can give me. "Get everyone out of here. Find Harriet—she'll make sure you're all safe at the Chrysalis. I'll make it out of here with Addie, or not at all."
I don't wait for Lozen to reply. Every second is another one that will make it harder to save Addie. I leave the laboratory and make my way down the hallways, remembering the route that takes me to the studio.
With Dr. Rodriguez's ID and DNA, I get out of my prison and make my way toward the set where Lexi and I filmed with Tressa. Thanks to the time Harriet had me spend memorizing Strand's blueprints, I know how to get to Lexi's office from here without using the elevator.
Instead, I make my way up twelve flights of stairs to Lexi's office. Thankfully, Dr. Rodriguez's badge works, letting me exit the stairwell at the top floor and entering into enormous space.
I move as quietly as possible, though catching the Deans by surprise will be much more difficult than disabling one scientist with no combat training that I'm aware of.
A grunt comes from the next room, with Lexi's desk and couches. I peer around the corner to assess the situation and almost drop my shiv in surprise.
One Dean is kneeling on the floor with his hands behind his head. As for the other—Addie has a laser pen pressed to his temple.