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

We made our way through them, enjoying the path Rose carved out of the crowd for us, and heading directly toward the central air processing unit. It was still operational, and the roar of the machines began to drown out all ambient noise. The rumbling in the floor plating grew more intense as we moved closer, until I was convinced that the air around us was practically vibrating. And if I thought it was loud now, I knew it would be even more intense below.

Lynch approached a break in the railing that surrounded the unit, right under a flight of stairs, then reached into a bucket, pulled out several sets of earmuffs, and held them out to us. I grabbed a pair and fitted them over my ears, cutting off the vicious assault to my eardrums. He pointed at himself and then held up one finger, then at Dylan, producing two, three with me, and four for Rose, and then waved for us to follow. As he started to go down, I realized he’d been giving us a marching order, and reluctantly stood aside to let Dylan go before me. There might be a reason he wanted the larger girl to go second, but a part of me resented not being right next to him, in clear control of the situation.

Still, I knew the most about what was going on, which meant that my knowledge had to be protected at all costs. I might have done my best to fill Dylan in, but the entire conspiracy was just too large and too complex to fully explain in one sitting, and I needed to do everything to preserve that information, if only so I could keep filling people in so they could form a defense. Not everyone would believe me, but if everything else failed—if I couldn’t stop Sage before he replaced Scipio with Kurt—then I had to be responsible for recruiting people to work against him after the fact. But that was only if he won today, which I had no intention of letting happen.

Besides, Leo and Grey would kill me if they found out I had been breaking the rule about not going in first.

So I stood back as Dylan went after him, and then followed her down the narrow steps that dead-ended at a pressure door. I paused as Lynch turned the hand wheel, his teeth bared in a tight grimace as he fought against the mechanisms inside, and then exhaled in relief when it finally moved.

He pulled the door open, and a wall of heat and sonic pressure hit us, simultaneously making me sweat and pushing at my exposed skin, telling me that the noise being emitted from inside was beyond deafening. Lynch continued to pull, revealing the red-hot glow of the forges that seemed to serve as the only lighting in the staircase.

Great, I found myself thinking as he stepped through the door, heading in. As if I weren’t dehydrated enough.

Dylan waited a few seconds before following him, and I followed suit, giving myself a moment to swipe some of the sweat from my forehead. I really hope we don’t have to spend too long in here.

I descended the stairs, stepped through the door, and found myself in a stairway shaped like a square, with steps running along the wall, separated from a central shaft by a thin metal railing. The glow of the forges came through square holes cut into the walls of the shaft. The staircase only went down from where we had just entered, and we followed it, hugging the walls. Periodically, landings in the corner of the stairway held doorways, but Lynch ignored them at first, continuing his fast-paced descent.

We passed two doors before the heat grew so intense that my sweat started evaporating from my skin the moment it appeared. It was at door four that my eyes started to feel parched, the lack of moisture in them making it difficult to blink without some discomfort.

By door seven, I was beginning to feel lightheaded. I tried to shake it off, placing one hand against the cage-like wall, but the heel of my boot caught the edge of the step in a funny way and I stumbled, almost falling forward. I managed to catch myself a few steps down—with my knee—and sucked in a deep breath, trying to ignore how dry and parched my mouth was, before I slowly got to my feet again and looked around.

Dylan had paused on the stairs and was giving me a concerned look, but Lynch hadn’t seemed to notice my distress, and was already making his way to the next landing, and door eight, unless I was mistaken. I waved her off as I pushed myself to my feet, and then almost sagged back down in relief when Lynch stopped in front of the door and began spinning the hand wheel. Instead, I used the promise of a nice, cool hall in the next room to put one foot in front of the next, and lumbered down after Dylan.

When I reached the door, I almost moaned in pleasure at the frosty air that was blowing through, cooling flesh that felt like it was about to be baked right off. I stepped in and made room for Rose. Once she was inside, Lynch signaled for her to close the door. Moments later, the heat and sonic vibrations that I had been feeling in the shaft suddenly died down, and Lynch started taking off his earmuffs, indicating that we should as well.

I quickly pulled them off, and was stunned by how quiet the hall seemed. It had felt as if everything outside of us had been falling apart in some terrific volcanic eruption, but somehow, here, in the heart of it all, we’d found a deep stillness. Disconcerted by how different it was, I took a few steps down the hallway, and found that it grew colder the farther I went. My breath came out in a vapor cloud, and a sudden chill erupted along my skin.

“Where are we?” I whispered, compelled to do so out of an instinct that told me not to give my position away.

“The server farms,” Lynch said in response, his voice also pitched low. “We hide them over the forges. Not that it matters. One of the legacy spies we arrested was one of our internal IT workers. Sadie and Sage knew where they were the whole time, and had probably been working to undermine our system. We were in the process of analyzing what damage was done when everything started. I left a crew down here when I received word that Lacey was back. They’re working in the main room, but door controls are farther down. C’mon, I’ll show you.”

He moved past me down the hall, heading for the only turn there was—an abrupt right—and I followed a step or two behind him, looking down to check my watch. This journey hadn’t been quick, and I saw with shock that we only had fifteen minutes left to get to Tony and prevent Sage from downloading him.

How were we going to get him out in time? Where were we going to put him?

I was so engrossed with wondering that I ran into Dylan’s outstretched arm, and grunted softly in surprise. She pushed me back a few feet, and I let her, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end in warning at the intensity on her face. I shifted my gaze past her toward Lynch, who was perched at the corner, looking down the next hall. He glanced back at us and then motioned for me to change places with him. I slid by Dylan, worried that the sentinels had somehow gotten here first, and took a quick peek around the corner.

Two gray-clad Eyes stood guard outside a door about thirty feet down. Their hands were crossed in front of them, and I could see that both had their pulse-shields at the ready. I drew back as the one closest to me started to turn down the hall, and quickly began signaling to my companions in Callivax.

Two Eyes are standing guard in front of the main server room, I explained. There are probably more inside.

Dylan’s eyes widened, and the hand that she had placed on her baton began pulling it out, her other hand signing, What do you want to do? You lash in while I draw their fire? Or should we send Rose in and see what they do?