"Now is not the time to speak of this." Luca straightens. "We have larger problems."
I look around him, taking stock of the unconscious Tech. "That scientist probably won't be very receptive to a bribe."
"It is unlikely."
"Right." I exhale, determined to regain control of my wits. Hopping off the bed, I push aside my worries about Luca and my sanity, replacing them with a new scheme. "We're changing tactics."
"What are you thinking?"
"That we need to get her out of here." I step gingerly around him and move to crouch beside the unconscious Tech. "If she tells anyone we were here, we're toast."
"Toast?"
"Finished." I consider the woman's appearance then begin slipping the white coat free of her shoulders. Luca joins me a second later.
"How long do you think she'll sleep for?" I ask as I shrug on the jacket.
"An hour. Two, perhaps."
"Then we'll have to be quick. Help me hide her away in the meantime." I bite my lip as I survey the destroyed room. "The rest of this mess is going to be trickier to conceal."
"I'll report the damage as a result of an altercation with a prisoner." Luca says, unclipping the official-looking identification badge from the woman's shirt and handing it over to me.
"That won't look suspicious?"
"Why should it? It's the truth." Luca's joke eases some of the tension.
"Yes, but I mean, it draws attention to you." I fiddle with attaching the identification card to my coat pocket. "I don't like it."
"It's nothing you wouldn't do if you were in my place." Luca's head tilts. "Your card is crooked."
I grunt in frustration, ripping the square loose and re-attaching it more carefully. "I don't care for your casual attitude when it comes to subterfuge."
"One guess where I learned it from." Luca fires back. "Are you ready?"
"Yes." I lie. "What about her?"
Luca glances about the room, indicating a locker pressed up against the wall. I pull open the doors and push aside a few scattered items, making room in the tight space before helping Luca lift the Tech inside.
"An hour, you say?" I make sure to leave a small gap to allow air into the locker.
"Perhaps we make it less."
I nod, attempting to hide my own nervousness behind a small grin. Taking a deep breath, I smooth back my hair and push down the door handle, stepping out into the corridor.
The lights are unforgivingly bright outside the mirrored room but I do my best to appear unbothered, each step purposeful as I stride down the hallway with Luca following a few paces behind. My eyes slide back and forth, though I'm not entirely sure what it is I'm searching for. Each door appears exactly the same as the one before, the rooms seemingly identical. I think of the terrified glances shared between the Babelonians during our long descent into the Tower and once again the heavy hand of guilt settles upon me. For the barest of instances I linger but Luca's arrival a heartbeat later sets my feet moving again.
Not yet.
Save him, first.
I nearly falter when the hallway turns and abruptly ends, the hum of many serious conversations and the sudden harshness of chemicals rushing up to meet me. A vast, echoing chamber unfolds before us, filled with countless Techs and a variety of strange-looking equipment.
As we make our way through the lab I swipe a discarded ledger from a nearby table and pretend to study it, at the same time discretely glancing about. The Techs travel in groups of twos and threes, sometimes dragging equipment behind them, sometimes speaking in clipped tones to their colleagues. Everyone seems focused on their own business but I keep my guard raised, ever-conscious that any misstep could put the Enforcer behind me in grave danger.
"Incoming." Someone shouts over the sound of wheels rattling against hard floor. I step to the side instinctively, my back pressing up against the wall as a Tech pushing a silver table rushes past. I catch a brief glimpse of a sleeping form covered by a white sheet before the table and its driver disappear from view, swallowed up by the lift at the end of the lab. My eyes flick up to the light above the lift door, watching it dart twice to the right.
Two floors down.
Pushing myself off the wall, I aim for the lift before veering off to the side. For all I know, the lift doors could reopen in the centre of a lion's den. I'd be better off finding a more discrete way down. Sensing Luca at my back, I trace the far wall until I find a partially-open hatch door labeled with the letter F, similar to the first entry I found when I arrived with the other Babelonians. As I hoped, a narrow stairwell is visible through the gap, which tells me the letters must be the Tech's way of labelling the lab's many levels. I slip through the door, pushing it just wide enough to allow Luca to pass. We keep our footsteps light as we descend towards level H, shortly arriving at an identical hatch, this time shut tight.
I glance over my shoulder at Luca as we pause before the entry, wondering if his heart is hammering as violently as my own. He gives me a tight nod, fingers closing around the club at his waist in preparation. Drawing a steadying breath, I turn the wheel at the hatch's center and push it open, doing my best not to cringe at the squeak erupting from its hinges.
No lions or Scorchers immediately leap out at us and so I relax slightly. As we ease our way forward my eyes remain trained on the stolen ledger, darting up only when I absolutely dare. The first few glances uncover a room seemingly identical to the one two floors overhead. Though it is tiled with the same blinding whiteness and features the same arbitrary medical equipment, this room is smaller and far less busy than the one above. I spy only a handful of Techs clustered near one of the empty silver tables and another small group bent over an object at the far end of the room.
"Excuse me?"
I jump at the sound of someone's voice in my ear. Scrambling to keep my expression blank, I turn to the speaker. A pasty man stands before me, sparse brows raised questioningly.
"Can I help you?" I draw out my words-ever-so-slightly, not wanting to appear rushed.
"I was about to ask you the same thing." The man crosses his arms and taps his foot. "Do you have jurisdiction to be down here?"
"Of course." I flash him the identification card stolen from the Tech upstairs.
"Hrrmph." The man grunts. "Then what's with the guard?"
My heart races, my mind a sudden blank for how to explain Luca's presence in a room full of scientists.
Patience. Will's instructions work their way free of the panicky haze. Buy yourself some time.
"Who, him?" I spare Luca a passing glance. "Not a terribly big fella, is he? Guess the Madam isn't too invested in our safety."
A hint of humour crosses the Tech's expression. Feeling bolder, the pieces finally fall into place and I soldier on. "New protocol states that we should receive an escort when carrying highly confidential information." I shrug, gesturing subtly with the ledger clenched in my hand. "Can't say I'm a fan of the company, but rules are rules."
"That they are." The Tech eyes Luca again, then the ledger. I take it as a point in my favour that he's obviously brimming with curiosity about what covert material I could possibly be in possession of.
"If you'll excuse me," I draw myself up a little straighter, feigning importance. "I have something I must attend to."
"Of course." The Tech reluctantly steps aside, still watching the ledger. "Sorry to have delayed you."
"Not at all." I stride past him. "I'll let you get back to work."
With each step the scene around me comes into sharper focus. Kay Knight slips away, her fears and anxieties forgotten and at once replaced with the moment and the immediacy of our predicament. This is my element. If I believe that I am a competent Tech scientist, then that is what I am. The lessons Will drilled into me long ago flare brightly, filling me with a confidence I thought I'd lost.
Fake it 'til you make it.
He's close.
I can feel it.
My pace increases. I give a cursory nod to the Techs working near the back of the room and step through to the next chamber, waiting for Luca and then closing the hatch door behind us. The room is dim but more lights flicker on when we step forward. Blinking, I register the motionless forms and figures emerging from their shadows.
Beds? No, tables. Lined up in perfect rows, their occupants lying feet-to-feet.
Dead? No.
The gear on the chest of the man directly next to me clicks and turns to the side and I feel Luca start, his hand flying to the weapon on his belt. We wait but the Brute doesn't move, remaining stone-still with his eyes shut tight.
I take a tentative step forward, then another. The occasional click echoes around me, the only sign of life in this too-still room. We move carefully between the two rows, both of us gaping openly at what lies before us.
Brutes.
Or nearly.
They appear to be in various stages of transformation, some sporting freakishly numerous metallic embellishments, some with barely any. Each man and woman is naked save for a strip of cloth draped over their chests and hips and a heavy bandage wrapped around their left forearm. I trace the path of a black tube running upwards from the bandage on the woman beside me, moving closer to inspect the container it ends in. The lines and ascending numbers stand out starkly from the container's pitch-black contents and my brows knit together as I consider it. Something drops onto the floor and I lift my foot, grimacing at the tendrils of sticky black tar snapping between my boot and floor.
Gods.
I look higher, for the first time noticing the pipes running overhead, feeding the tar-filled containers and ending in the arms of the Brutes. It takes barely an instant for the truth of the pipes' purpose to hammer home.
A far cry from their cousins in the Irrigation tunnels belowground, these pipes have never known a drop of rain.
They carry poison.
Bile rises in my throat. I exchange a glance with Luca. The pallor of his face tells me that he's reached the same realization. Swallowing, I ignore the warning hum filling my ears and continue down the row, mentally cataloguing everything that crosses my field of vision.
Scraps of metal. Lines of tools. Men. Women. Tables. Pipes. Casks of oil and syringe after syringe.
Their lifeless faces blend together and I shake my head to focus.
Not him.
Not him.
The line of unconscious strangers appears endless. Frustration bubbles just beneath my surface as I fail to recognize one person after another, though there is some measure of comfort in not knowing them, in not being responsible for their fate. The plight of the Babelonians is not what I concern myself with.
Just find him.
Find him, kill her and get out.
The growing sense of dread overwhelms me as I reach the end of the row. He's here, he has to be. The alternative is too excruciating to consider.
Hope flickers, then dies as I find a woman's petite figure adorning the final table. I grip the cold slab and fight to keep my knees from buckling.
He isn't here.
"We must go." Luca's voice carries softly.
Unfurling my white-knuckled hands from the table, I catch another glimpse of its occupant. At once, the colour red is unleashed.
Mia.
The peculiar, determined Babelonian girl we saved from a lion in the Wastelands is stretched out before me, chest cut open cruelly and held apart by vicious metallic pincers.
Luca realizes what's happening before I do. His hand falls heavy on mine, jerking me to the present. "Kay. Look at me."
I do as he says, ears buzzing and red hammering.
"We can't help her. We must go."
You have to save her. You have to save them all.
Do something.
No, don't listen to the whispers. Listen to him. Trust him.
"I have to go." I gasp, choking on the red. I force myself to focus on the sensation of his hand holding mine, pulling me back.
"Do not give in to it." He says fiercely. "Stay with me."
Rip out the poison. Wake them up.
"Luca." The tube of black tar flooding into Mia sings to me. I shut my eyes tight, willing it and the whispers away, panic and power intermingling as Luca's grip fades. "Get me out of here. Help me."
A mighty tug and I am suddenly yanked forward, back down the aisle past the rows upon rows of prone figures. Hand in hand we flee the oil-filled pipes and red clouds, putting the danger to our backs just as we have countless times before.
The lights flicker and dim when we reach the hatch door. I can hear Luca's voice amongst the barrage of insistent whispering.
"Look at me. Kay. Kay."
Mia's lifeless form calls out from behind me and it is with a superhuman effort that I am able to replace her face with Luca's. His eyes lock onto mine, forbidding me from looking away.
"Breathe."
I do, exhaling heavily. The red recedes further, Mia's cries for help fade but refuse to disappear entirely.
"Good. Now," Luca lifts his chin towards the next room, his eyes still on mine. "Follow me. Say nothing, I will handle this."
I nod dumbly.
He pushes the door open, releasing my hand at the last possible instant. I stare at his back, concentrating on placing one foot in front of the other. My hands are hidden within my stolen coat, the oversized pockets effectively hiding my clenched fists. If anyone looks up as we pass by I fail to notice, all of my energy spent on keeping Luca in my sights.
Go back, Kay.
Help them.
You did this to them.
I stumble and Luca disappears from view.
It's all your fault.
He has hold of my elbow within an instant. Luca pulls me to my feet, at the same time waving off the help of a nearby Tech.
You know what you have to do to make it right.
Kill them.
I shake my head, keeping my gaze averted from the Tech, both terrified and thrilled at what would happen if I were to catch a glimpse of him.
I am pulled forward again and soon find myself in the stairwell and spiralling upwards at a near-breakneck pace. Finally, Luca slows and I am slow to realize that the door in front of us is marked with a faded red A. We're at the surface level.
"Wait." My thoughts clear. "The woman downstairs, the Tech," I glance down at my stolen documentation. "Dr. Rose. We need to go back. If she wakes up or they find her..."
"I am going back." Luca says. "You are going out there." He indicates the door.
My heart sinks. "I can't let you do that alone."
"You have to leave." His tone leaves no room for argument. "You do not have a choice."
Choose, Runner or I kill them both.
Swallowing, I ignore the Madam's ghostly whispers and slip past Luca, easing my stiff fingers around the doorframe.
"Turn right." Luca instructs. "The corridor will lead you to a back gate. You will be able to find your way to the tunnels from there."
I want to tell him to be safe. I want to tell him that I'm sorry. I want to promise him that I will never allow my hallucinations to put him in danger again. I want to confess how scared I am.
Instead, I say, "I'll see you soon."
"Yes, you will."
A single, monumental step and a door seals shut between us. I turn to the right and blindly trace a path towards the exit. My jacket and identification badge are removed and balled up into a tight bundle as I make my way through Babel's wide streets. Soon, I find myself back in the dank hollowness of the Irrigation tunnels with no memory of entering one of Babel's drainage grates. Sitting slumped over my knees in a silent alcove, I finally allow myself to absorb the crushing weight of the truth.
Mia, all-but-dead and used as a cruel experiment, all because of me. I forced her to take us back inside Babel and as a result, sent her to her doom. I think of the rows of similarly condemned people trapped within the Tower's wall as well as the terrified numbers outside it. Every day that I prolong my confrontation with the Madam results in a new group of Babelonians being converted to Brutes. I think of the countless innocents I have slayed in the desert and the smoking funeral pyre fed by my army.
I think of Luca, sent back into the dark, alone all because of me. My vendetta and fractured mind continue to threaten his life and yet I feel incapable of releasing him. What is wrong with me? When did I become to selfish?
My failures fall down around me, piling up at my feet. So much loss and nothing to show for it. The Madam still breathes and Will is still out of reach.
Will.
I begin to shake as certainty takes hold. Seeing Mia and those strangers lying on tables has confirmed what I already suspected.
Will isn't below the Tower, which can only mean one thing.
He's out there.
And he's one of them.