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

Rose nodded as a dark shadow began to form above us, her eyes already on it. I stood behind her, ready with the baton when the sentinel came crashing down on us again. The clash of metal was even heavier this time, and the pad rocked back and forth, scraping the walls. My heart nearly stopped, as I was certain that any number of the fragile components inside the pad would break apart and stop working, but when they didn’t, I quickly leaned around Rose and jabbed my baton at Alice’s midsection.

Alice was a step ahead of me, though, and broke Rose’s hold on her, then leapt back before I could get her. She reached up, grabbed a fistful of the wall, and clung to it like a spider. Confusion slammed into me as we began sliding away again, wondering why in the world she would be letting us go—but then I realized what she meant to do.

She was going to fall on us again. She was trying to take out the pad.

“Rose,” I started, about to tell her of Alice’s plan. But she whirled and hugged me to her chest, curling around me protectively. Before I could ask what was wrong, I heard the unmistakable sound of lancer fire, and the world around me exploded into lines of crimson as several whirring blades shot past us and ricocheted off the walls of the elevator.

The best I could figure was that several people had been just outside the elevator when we passed, ready to fire in. Alice must have managed to notify them of our descent—or they had seen it light up with activity and decided to fire on whoever was inside. Either way, the blades continued to rain down on us as we moved past, with Rose curling even more protectively around me and taking the hits.

A few blades got through, though. One zipped by, clanged off of Rose’s chest a few inches away from my head, and severed a few loose strands of my hair. The other barely nicked me on the shoulder, but the pain was indescribable.

Still, I clenched my teeth on it, focusing on my warning to Rose about Alice’s plan. “She’s planning on jumping down on us again!” I shouted. “If she does, the pad could break. We need to check and see where she is!”

“Get ready to get off the elevator pad in twelve seconds!” Rose replied, and a moment later, her arms let go of me and she drew away. I half turned in the low crouch she had forced me into, confused by her directions, and then saw her reaching for a chunk of wall, grabbing for it like Alice had done.

Before I could ask what she was doing, she was gone, her grip on the wall stopping her descent, but not mine. As I watched, she quickly lifted her body up, placing her feet on the other side of the shaft and forming an X over it. She was using her body to block the shaft!

A second later, I realized that the impact of Alice hitting her would kill her. Alice was at least seven or eight stories above Rose at this point. When she hit Rose, and they fell to the pad, they would both be severely damaged, to the point where neither one would survive.

She was sacrificing herself for me.

“Rose!” I cried, unable to accept the gesture for a second time in twice as many minutes. “Please, don’t!”

“Follow Lionel’s orders!” she shouted back. “Don’t stop for—”

Whatever else she was about to say was cut off by a dark form slamming into her with a terrific clang that seemed to shake the very air of the shaft. I flinched back as Rose was ripped from the wall, one arm severed clean off, and plummeting toward me.

My eyes widened as the sentinels twisted in the air overhead, hurtling toward me. To make matters worse, I felt the pad starting to slow its descent, alerting me that it was about to stop on my level.

I had only seconds before the two sentinels crashed into me. Not enough time to get the door to my quarters open. I eyed their trajectory as they bounced against the walls, and then moved, letting nothing but instinct guide me—with a little help from Tony. Making the best of the small space, I raced for the opposite wall and planted a foot on it, then leapt straight up in the air, staying as close to the wall as I could. I felt the breeze of their passing ruffle the hair on my neck. There was a sharp snap and several sparks from below as they crashed into the pad, likely shattering the thin disc, but I didn’t look down. My eyes were up, focused on a fixed point on the wall. I snapped one arm down, forcing a lash bead out of my sleeve, then spun it up as gravity began to pull me back down, and finally cast it, the lone bead glowing brightly against the darkening lights of the shaft. There was a bright blue spark as it hit the wall, and I was jerked to a sudden halt before I had the chance to pick up much downward momentum.

I looked down, my eyes focused on the glowing lights below, but Rose was already gone. I squeezed my eyes shut, my heart sick. I’d lost not only Dylan, but Rose as well, in a matter of minutes, after we’d come so far. For all my grand speeches and lofty goals of getting us through this alive, I’d failed.

Suddenly, I wanted to break down and cry right there in the shaft. It wasn’t right—wasn’t fair. Rose might’ve been an AI, but she was a sentient creature who had the right to live. And as for Dylan… That girl had intimidated the hell out of me at first, but after I’d gotten to know her…

They hadn’t deserved to die like this. Not for me. Not because some bitter old man who couldn’t let go of the past had turned me into public enemy number one. Again.

Anger burned new life into me, taking whatever tears I had and melting them away, and I set my mind on who was truly to blame. Sage. I was going to take him out, just as soon as I got everyone else I cared about to safety.

I quickly turned on the hand light that was still wrapped around my wrist and looked around, trying to figure out what level I was on. My light finally caught the white 67 painted on the side, and I quickly threw a lash down and headed for the area between the 64th and 65th floors, where my quarters were located.

The door was still sealed—a good sign, in my mind, until I remembered there were six elevator shafts with doors that led to the room. Still, if the power was on and Sage hadn’t managed to get control of Cornelius, then the legacies would’ve had to fight their way through a slew of defenses to get to my friends.

At least, I hoped they had to. I would find out soon enough.

I gave the order to open the door using Lionel’s code, not wanting to waste time trying my own, and then swung in as soon as the door opened, landing lightly on my feet.

I took a quick look around and realized I’d entered at the third door in. I quickly followed the curved hall that looped around and paused, instantly on guard when I saw another door to the outside standing wide open. I pulled my gun out from my pocket, aimed it at the elevator shaft, and searched for any sign of movement.

A quick look into the shaft told me it was clear. I wasn’t sure whether that meant the attack had been repelled, or I was too late. All I knew was I needed more information. I hesitated for a second, and then thought, Cornelius? You there?

His reply was almost instantaneous, filling me with some small measure of relief, if only for a moment. I’m here, Champion. But please be aware, the war room is surrounded by your enemies and is about to be breached.





29





Panic slammed into me, urging me to run and get there, but I tamped it back, knowing I needed to be smart. How close to being breached? I demanded, moving down the hall for the main walk in a quiet stalk. Put me on speaker with the others.

Of course, he replied. You may speak now.

Guys? I said. My heart formed a swollen knot in my throat at the thought that I was about to find out whether any of my friends had died, and I did my best to swallow it back.

Liana! Grey/Leo said, his voice filled with relief but still tinged with an edge of panic.

Hearing his voice was such sweet relief that I paused in the hall and put one hand against the wall to keep my knees from giving out. I was so close, finally… but there were still miles to go before I was done.

Thank Scipio. Are you okay? What’s going—