The Girl Who Dared to Think 7: The Girl Who Dared to Fight

She started coughing suddenly, the coughs wet and hard, racking the poor woman’s form. I struggled to hold her still, worried she would rip open the bio-foam, and then pulled a small packet of water from the first-aid kit, ripping the corner open and trickling some in between her lips. She nodded when her mouth was full, and I pulled it away and quickly took a swig myself, my tongue still dry.

I offered the bag to Dylan and concentrated on what Lacey was telling me. If Sage needed Tony for whatever he was planning, then we needed to get him before Sage could use the transceiver. But that likely meant heading to Cogstown, which was down, not up. It meant heading away from the Citadel, and away from my friends, who were currently being hunted by Sage’s death squad. Power was off everywhere except for the Core, which meant the elevators weren’t working, and neither were the doors. If I went down to Cogstown, I could get trapped below the Grounds, unable to get back up.

But if I didn’t, I would be giving Sage everything he needed to achieve his plan.

“Liana,” Dylan said, snapping me out of my dismal thoughts.

I blinked and glanced at the woman, only to find her pointing at something just over my shoulder. Shifting my angle, I looked up, past the raging fire of the Council Room, and saw something that gleamed silver and crimson climbing up the wall like an insect, a figure in white clinging to its back. A little lower down was a second something—only the person riding this one’s back was dressed in a dark gray.

“Sadie and Sage,” I growled, rising to my feet. “They’re climbing…”

“They have to.” Lacey coughed. “Don’t you see? They have to get to the Core to plug the sentinels and Tony in. It will take them hours. Which means we have time to get Tony before they do.”

“But not a lot of it,” I murmured, recognizing the wisdom in what Lacey was saying, but also seeing the speed with which the sentinels could move. “Three or four hours at most.”

“Five,” Dylan said, and I looked at her for an explanation. She offered a half-shrug and a rueful smile. “Sorry, I thought we were taking bets, and I was shooting for optimism.”

I stared at her for a long second, wondering how she could be making jokes at a time like this, but then Lacey chuckled and said, “Well, then call me the pessimist in our little trio, ‘cause I’m giving us no more than two. Thank Scipio that Cogstown is just under here.” She patted the floor next to her and offered her own weak smile.

I very much wanted to join in, but my stomach was twisting with worry, and I looked up, my eyes heading for the familiar dark arches of the Citadel, lit now only by the blue glow of the Core, my heart heavy and torn. “The others have no idea what’s going on,” I murmured. “If I don’t get to them…”

“Get to who?” Dylan asked. “You are both speaking in riddles, and I have sat here quietly, trying to piece it together, but this isn’t helpful.”

“Sage released the legacies in the Citadel,” I said, turning back to her and kneeling down. I picked up the scanner again and resumed looking for the break, finding it moments later, halfway down her calf. Both bones were broken clean in half. “He ordered them after Grey and the others but told them to kill any Knights that got in their way.”

Dylan sucked in a deep breath as I retrieved a specialized cutter from the kit and began cutting her pants leg off. “But who is Tony?” she asked, wincing as I used the small laser to cut through the microfiber. I could tell she was nervous about me cutting her, but I kept the beam short, and worked quickly.

“An AI,” Lacey said. “Part of one. It’s complicated, but at one point, he and four others like him were put inside of Scipio to give him the best probability of survival. Sage—who is freaking Ezekial Pine, by the way—has been cutting them out one by one to try to kill Scipio.”

Dylan’s eyes widened, her jaw dropping practically to her chest. It was the one part of the story that I had kept from her, because I still hadn’t been fully certain I could trust her with that knowledge. I had already given her a peek into how corrupted the system had become by exposing her to the truth of the legacies, but this information would change everything she knew to be true about the Tower. It would destroy her belief that Scipio was infallible. Dylan was definitely unique as a Tower citizen, but that didn’t mean she could handle it.

And she had just seen how broken the system really was. Not only thanks to Lacey’s words, but because of what had transpired in the Council Room.

I pulled out a sheet of bone regeneration packs and wrapped the gelatinous material around Dylan’s leg, sealing the sheet under her and trying to decide what I should do, and knowing there was only one answer.

The effect of the pack was immediate. Dylan sucked in a deep breath, her head lolling back in relief as the pain was alleviated. The medicine in the gel was already working on setting her bone, and she’d be able to walk within a matter of minutes. The bone would still be broken and the area tender, but it would be fully healed in twenty-four hours.

I quickly repacked the bag, placed the strap over my shoulder, and stood up, looking down at both of them. “Lacey’s right. We need to go after Tony first,” I said, the words thick in my mouth. I wasn’t even sure when I had made the decision—sometime while Lacey was talking, I supposed—but I knew I had to do it. It might not stop Sage, but it would certainly slow him down.

Besides, my friends could take care of themselves.

At least, I hoped they could.

“Cool,” Dylan said, flashing me a thumbs-up. “Also, your purple-eyed sentinel is here.”

I turned to see a sentinel standing a few feet away, its hands awkwardly clasped together in front of it. Seeing her purple, glowing eyes was almost overwhelming, bringing memories of my mother’s death to my mind, but I pushed that down. Rose was better now, her code fixed by Leo and Jasper, so I doubted she would revert again to Jang-Mi—her human counterpart who had been obsessed with the loss of her daughter. My reaction was just a visceral response to seeing her in that form again. Not a rational one.

“Excellent,” I said. “You okay, Rose?”

“Perfectly fine,” she said with a nod. “And I have been listening for the past two minutes. I am glad that you decided to go after Tony. CEO Green, can I help you?”

Lacey stared at the sentinel for several seconds and then nodded slowly, fear making her dark eyes almost black. “Yeah. Sure.”

Rose looked at me, and I rolled my eyes. “Pick her up. Dylan, you good to walk?”

“All good,” she said, and I turned to see her giving another thumbs-up before slowly climbing to her feet. Rose moved around me to come to Lacey’s aid, and I held my breath, trying not to look nervous as the sentinel carefully scooped the woman up into her arms.

She handled her delicately, much to my relief, but it was still odd to see a creature built for death being so gentle.

“Right,” I said, once Rose was standing again. “Best way to get down, Lacey?”

“That way,” she said weakly, pointing to the southwest corner of the Tower. “Access shaft that leads to the shell, a few bulkheads away from a Cogstown entrance. This level should have some emergency power left, enough to open the shaft. After that, we’re on our own.”

I nodded and took the gun back from Dylan when she handed it to me. “Then let’s get going,” I replied.





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