“Where will you be?”
“Someone inside Immari has to be working with Reed. I’m going to find out who it is.”
CHAPTER 57
Kate screamed as the security guards ripped the children from her hands and wrestled her to the ground. She scratched their faces and kicked. She couldn’t lose them again. She had to fight.
“No, to the train,” one of the guards said. The boys tried to wiggle free.
Kate reached out for them, but a man pinned her arms. Another man rushed to her and she saw the butt of a rifle coming at her face.
The room was dark and crowded. Kate was being crushed by people from every side. She elbowed people left and right but no one responded — they were dead on their feet. They would have fallen over if they weren’t squeezed in so tight.
Above her, Kate heard a loud boom. A huge metal device was descending from the ceiling. There were lights, flashing from the top now, with synchronized booms. She could feel the booms in her chest and in the bodies of the zombies crowded around her.
Were the children here? She scanned the room. She couldn’t see anyone, just blank faces, half-awake. Then — Naomi. The confident woman who had rescued her looked terrified.
The boom-boom-boom above grew deafening, the light blinding. Kate felt the flesh around her heat up. She raised a hand to brush the sweat from her face, but the hand was already so wet, covered in something thick, almost sticky, gritty — blood.
CHAPTER 58
The concrete doors to the reactor hall slammed shut with a loud boom. The sound was barely audible over the rumble of the massive reactors. David walked deeper into the room, surveying the site of his last stand. Maybe Kate got out.
He slid the clip out of his gun. Two rounds. Should he save the last round? The drugs they used on Kate were serious. Who knew what they could do. He knew valuable intel. That was the selfless reason, but there were others. He pushed the thought from his mind. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
He walked around the room — the hall between two reactors. It resembled a high school gym with a high ceiling dominated by metal scaffolding. It was, ironically, shaped like an hourglass — the room was almost rectangular save for two round indentions near the center — the thick concrete walls of two reactors. There were two entrances — concrete slide up-and-down doors — at the front and the rear of the room. The tall smooth walls surrounding the doors were dotted with metal conduits and tubes that were mostly silver, but some were blue and red, giving the impression of varicose veins peeking out of a gray forehead over the mouth of the door.
“Hello, Andrew,” a voice boomed over the loud speaker, no doubt used for evacuation warnings. The voice. Obviously someone pre-Clocktower. David couldn’t place it.
David needed to buy time. It was the only thing that could help Kate. “That’s not my name anymore.” He heard the reactors on each side roar to life. He wondered if the “voice” could hear him over the din.
How long had it been — the bombs should go off soon. Cutting the power would seal his fate but could help Kate.
“We have the girl. And we found your bombs. Not terribly creative. I would have expected more from you.”
David looked around. Was the voice lying? Why tell him? What could he do? Shoot the reactors? Bonehead idea… Massive concrete walls. Shoot one of the conduits, hope to get lucky? Unlikely. The ceiling? Useless.
The man wanted something from him, why else would he question him? Maybe the man was lying. Kate could be waiting on him at the train. Maybe he didn’t have her. “What do you want?” David yelled.
“Who sent you here?” the voice boomed.
“Let her go, and I’ll tell you.”
The voice laughed. “Sure, it’s a deal.”
“Sounds good, come on down here, and I’ll make a formal statement. Even draw you a picture. I’ve got his email address too.”
“If I have to come in there, I’m going to beat it out of you. I’m on a tight schedule. No time for drugs.”
The reactors roared louder. Should it sound like that?