The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)

Desmond expelled a little breath, the gun in her hand shaking. My eyes dragged over to her, as hard as I tried to stop them. I knew I couldn’t see her look guilty. I wouldn’t forgive her for it. She had no right to that feeling anymore—it was her fault all of this was even going on! I knew that if she looked guilty, nothing would stop me from strangling the life out of her right then and there, no matter who tried to stop me, no matter how many times they shot me. But my eyes went to her face anyway.

Guilty wasn’t even the word for it. The look on Desmond’s face was the truest emotion I’d ever seen on her countenance, and it was twisted into a grotesque mask of raw horror. The gun in her hand was trembling so violently that her grip would give out soon. Jay gave a strangled breath, and it seemed to break the spell she was under. “Jay?” she gasped, moving toward him.

Jay saw her coming and recoiled, painfully dragging himself across the ground away from her, blood spilling from the wound in his stomach.

“Jay, we have the heloship! Let me take you to Matrus! The hospitals there are intact, I—”

“NO!” rasped Jay as he whipped himself around to glare at her. He held himself up by his arms, and I could tell by the way they quivered that even he was running short on strength. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Desmond turned to where the wardens were standing. They had stopped firing, uncertain. I looked around for a sign of Morgan—or her body—but saw neither. Too many things raced through my mind, and I couldn’t stop staring at Jay—Jay—I needed to help him—

“You. Get him on the ship,” Desmond said to the wardens, and in spite of the panic radiating from her, her voice held the weight of command.

“Ma’am—”

“DO IT,” Desmond bellowed, and the warden blinked, and then moved toward Jay, her jaw clenched tightly.

Jay watched her come, his expression thunderous through the pain in his face, and then directed his gaze back to his mother, shaking his head. “You don’t get it!” he stated bitterly. “I’d rather be dead than go with you.”

He stared at her for a heartbeat longer, and then, with the wardens approaching, pulled himself over the short distance to the pool, throwing himself into the water with a splash.

The fugue of fear and anger that had rooted me to the spot where Desmond had left me was suddenly broken as he disappeared into the water, and I leapt forward, searching it for him. My eyes didn’t find him in the ripples of dark water—but there was Cody, splashing several feet deep inside, his limbs swinging awkwardly.

“Jay!” Desmond screamed, rushing over to the water’s edge, and I changed tact—I would push her into the pool if it was the last thing I did—when one of the wardens gave a shout cut short by a bullet. I looked over to see Morgan charging for us from just past where Desmond stood, her body springing forward across the grass.

The remaining warden fired on her, and Morgan weaved and dipped, her progress slowing as she was forced to find a less direct route. I felt the gun jab into my ribs again and bit back a curse, turning to see Desmond back at my side—the moment I’d been distracted by Morgan had been a moment too long. Desmond pushed me forward, and I resisted weakly, torn between all the things that needed my attention right now.

“I’m not going anywhere without Jay!” I shouted. “He needs our help! How can you just leave him!”

“It’s his choice,” she grated out through a tight larynx, her voice cold and deadly. “Now move, or I shoot Cody next. Believe me, I can hit him.”

I ground my teeth together and began to move, tears springing up in my eyes, blurring my vision. Desmond jabbed the gun harder into my ribs, and a stabbing pain radiated from the spot, making me cough, but I kept my feet heavy as the heloship drew nearer. My mind was barely on Desmond anymore—how could I save Cody and Jay? Everything in me was screaming that I needed to go to them right now.

I could see Morgan, still weaving her way through the hail of bullets, coming closer in spite of the heavy fire. How had I never known she could move like that?

“Morgan!” I shouted over my shoulder as Desmond continued to shove me forward. “Get Cody and Jay! You have to save them!”

Morgan didn’t respond, but suddenly her trajectory changed, and without warning she dove into the water, the line of her body as sleek as an arrow. She began to swim in long strokes to where Cody thrashed in the water, trying to keep his head above the surface. She was halfway to him when there was a deep, metallic clanking sound, and the water began to churn.

The treatment system! They had managed to initiate the purge. But that meant…

I stopped short as the water began to churn, and then I started to struggle. “Jay! Cody!” I shouted as Desmond grunted. I swung my cast, trying to hit her face, knowing that she wasn’t allowed to kill me, but she jerked back out of my reach and did something clever with her hand, somehow rolling me over her and down on the ground.

As I scrambled to get to my feet, my ribs and head aching, I could already hear a warden’s pounding footsteps as Desmond shouted, “Grab her and let’s go!”





37





Violet





A strong grip grabbed me under the arm before I could make my mad dash to freedom, hoisting me up. I lashed out with my legs, trying to buy time and keep us on the ground, but the woman who held me had already managed to get an arm around my throat and twist my left arm tight behind my back, locking it into place. “I’ll break it,” she warned in a low voice as she walked me up the ramp—a threat that resonated almost worse than the threat of being shot at this point. I twisted around to try to look back at the pool, but she pushed me through the door, releasing me at just the right moment to upend my sense of balance and have me stumbling across the metal floor in the bay of the cabin.

I whipped around and gasped for air, the tears that the motion squeezed from my eyes making the world swim around me. I watched as the warden helped Desmond on board and slammed the button to close the bay door. Desmond hobbled over to me, her cast thumping against the ground. I could see the pain in her eyes, the agony and hopelessness, but she didn’t stop moving. I supposed her sense of duty ran too deep. “Don’t make me rethink the decision not to shoot you,” she muttered halfheartedly as she drew near.

With my watering eyes, I realized she had something in her hand a second too late, and I winced as the cold metal handcuffs snapped closed around my left wrist—my good one. She turned and beckoned over the warden who had manhandled me onto the heloship. The woman obediently moved forward, and held out her arm. Within moments, we were handcuffed together.

“Search her,” Desmond ordered gruffly as she hobbled forward. “Pilot, get us airborne now. We need to fire on the plant.”

“Ma’am?” came the surprised voice of the other warden—the pilot—from the front, and I shifted my stance slightly as the woman next to me began to pat me down. “Our orders were to retrieve you and—”