Forbidden Fire (Forbidden #2) (14 page)

The scientist shook with fear. "I cannot go out there with you. There are snipers trained to shoot any threat to the security of this facility—especially during an evacuation. We cannot allow scientists to leave with sensitive research. They will kill us faster than your people will, sadly."

Luke looked into the nearest camera. "Can you get us out, Luce? And still get yourself out?"

"Easy as pie."

Lucy reviewed all the possible exits and gave them instructions about which one presented the fewest obstacles. Once they were at the door, Lucy instructed them to wait.

"Guard patrol. Give it a sec. Now, go!"

They ran.

Someone knocked on the door of Lucy's office.
To answer or hide. Always the question in moments like these. Today, I'm in the mood to answer. No time to hide and wait.

She unlocked the door, swung it open, and before the guard knew what hit him, she hit him. Hard. And a lot. There was some kicking involved too. Like a ninja, Lucy rendered the guard unconscious and dragged him into the room before anyone noticed a thing.

At least that's how she imagined it happening. In reality, the guard got in a few lucky hits before she was able to knock him out. Still, same results.

She limped back over to the computer and found her brother and Dr. Koslov running from cover to cover on the path she'd given them.

The scientist kept looking behind him in panic. "They are going to catch us. We will never make it. You do not know. You cannot imagine what they are planning. It goes so far beyond what they have done with you kids. So much bigger than that. The virus—"

The scientist tripped and fell. A beam of light panned over them and stopped. The loud crack of a rifle sounded and the scientist slumped over, a pool of blood spreading in the snow around his head.

Luke launched himself past the gate and behind a wall. "Lucy, you need to get out of there. I'm looping myself into the cameras with my computer. I'll find my own way out and meet you at the helicopter. Hurry! And be careful."

"You too, Bro. And just for the record, this assignment sucks sweaty feet."

Lucy packed up her equipment, secured her pack on her back, and retraced the hallways to where she'd first come in.
Dammit! I didn't send Sam the information she needed. Good thing I planned a backup.
Her heart pounded with fear and adrenaline.
Must make it out alive
became her mantra.

As she passed the caged human mutants, one slammed his hand against the glass wall and sent her flying through her skin.

"I sorry to scare you. I do not mean to frighten. I can see into you. You are not like the others, with tests and experiments. Your soul is pure and you have power, like me. We are kin, you and I. Will you free me?"

"Um, yeah, I think I'll pass on that. Aren't you likely to kill me?" Dr. Koslov had said the mutants were dangerous.

"There are secrets I can get you, secrets only I can find, in the room with the bad lights. It will help you. I will help you. Please."

"Bad lights? You mean the radiation room?" Lucy pointed down the hall. "That room?"

"Yes. Bad room. But powerful toy they keep in there."

"Will you harm me in any way?"

He stared deep into her eyes. "No. I not harm you ever."

Lucy knew he spoke the truth, and she couldn't deny her own curiosity. This "toy" could be the key to what the Rent-A-Kid was up to, or it could help the Freedom Fighters in their quest. Either way, she had to know. She pulled out her computer and tapped into the security system, then located his cell and unlocked it remotely.

She stood back, on the defensive, as the man-beast stepped out of his cage for the first time in who knows how long. He placed each foot in front of the other tentatively, as if testing to see if the floor would hold him.

"I thank you, Girl, for freeing me."

She nodded and let him take the lead so she could keep an eye on him. He hadn't lied to her, but that didn't mean she would let her guard down. Still, something about his eyes, his soul, pulled at her. He was more than he seemed, and her heart broke at the life he'd been forced to live.

They reached the radiation room, and he stood before the door. "Stand back. I open it."

She stood on the other side of the room. Just as she opened her mouth to protest that the door was too big for him to open alone—it must have weighed a ton, made of solid metal—he pushed the door in and closed it behind him
.

Within minutes, he returned with a small metal sphere in his hand. "I know not how it works, but much power in it. You take it to help you."

She reached for it, but pulled back. "Is it safe? If it was in a room with radiation, will it hurt me?"

"It safe. It protected."

He spoke the truth. She paused, uncertain, and looked into his eyes. "Lie to me," she commanded.

"I do not understand?" His bushy eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"Tell me something that isn't true, that, you know, is a lie."

"I could not lie to you." Again, he held out the sphere.

Her body burned to take it, to study it and know its secrets, but she had to be sure her powers were working. She had to be sure she could trust him.

"I just need to test something. Please?"

"Okay, if it make you feel better. A lie: I have been free my whole life, and happy."

The lie washed into her mind like a poison and her head buzzed with it. Her powers worked, and she could trust him.

She reached out and accepted the sphere from him. "Thank you." The cool metal tickled her skin and sent goosebumps running up her arm. She examined the sphere, but found no opening or button of any kind. Nothing about its appearance indicated its use, but it pulsed with an energy that warmed her.

"What's your name?"

"Name?"

"Yes, what do they call you?"

"I have no name. They give me number."

Lucy slipped the device into her jacket pocket. "Well, I have to call you something. How about Adam? Do you like that name?"

He smiled. "Yes. Adam. I Adam. I like."

 He grabbed a discarded lab coat to hide himself, and they headed through the long, vacant hall towards the nearest exit.

"Luke, you around?"

"I made it through and am waiting for you. Did you seriously free a mutant?"

"You have to meet him. It's not what you think. Talk later, getting close to exit."

Lucy pulled Adam behind a vending machine. "Crap. A guard at the exit door. If I fight him, it could alert others to where we are."

"You not need to fight. You have power to compel. Truth and lies... all slip easily from tongues when you around. Talk to him. Tell him to lie. Tell him hard in your mind and with your lips."

"What are you talking about?"

"You see lies, yes? You can also make lies. Shadow power exists in everyone. Use it now."

Luke shouted in her ear. "Don't do it, Luce! You don't even know this guy. He could get you killed."

"Yes, but so could fighting the guard, or not leaving the building, or leaving the building. Honestly, my staying alive options are pretty slim. What else can I do?"

Lucy left the relative safety of the vending machine and walked the last steps of the hall to the guard, nerves rattling around in her stomach like grenades about to go off.

He saw her and raised his gun.

Everything inside her screamed
Run!
But she forced her legs forward.

Adam moved to fill the space next to her, a calming presence despite the potential danger.

The sphere in her pocket hummed, and warm energy filled her.

She held up her hand. "Excuse me, but you need to tell your buddies out there to let me and my friend through. Tell them we are staff who got stuck in a locked office and are just now finding our way out."

He cocked his gun. "What the hell, lady? I'm radioing you in."

He pulled out his radio. "Delta Leader, do you read me? I have...."

Lucy held his eyes and with force of will repeated her instructions.

His eyes glazed over. "...two staff who didn't make it out in the first sweep. Hold all fire. Repeat, hold all fire."

Lucy and the mutant walked through the door, just inches from the guard. Lucy's skin crawled but she kept moving.

Outside, the cold and darkness blanketed the landscape. She shivered, but didn't have time to let her eyes adjust. Instead, she relied on the surveillance lights to guide her way over the large field, towards the outside gate guard and past the snipers.

They were almost there. Just a few more feet.

She couldn't believe it had actually worked. She'd always wanted a more active power, and now she had one.

 Luke's shout turned her excitement to fear. "Lucy, get down!"

Guns exploded around them. She and Adam dove into the nearest bushes, and placed as many trees between them and the bullets as they could.

Luke's voice crackled in her ear, "I just heard over the radio, one of the snipers got a look at the mutant. Tell me where you are. I'll get you out of there."

Lucy gave Luke their position and listened as he explained the path they should take.

The cold Russian night bit into her skin as they scurried from tree to tree.

They were ten feet from the gate. So close. A helicopter waited for them just past the hill.

They ran as hard and fast as their legs could pump.

But no one could outrun a bullet.

Lucy prepared for the impact even as she ran. She fought the paralysis of fear. Unseen harbingers of death chased her, intent on cutting into her body and tearing her apart.

Nothing happened.

The air around her thickened and quieted into an eerie silence. She paused long enough to turn around. A bullet hovered mere centimeters from her left eye.

Luke stood beyond the gate, his forehead wrinkled in concentration. "Get out. I'll protect you."

Guards swarmed from the outlying buildings like hungry flies. A spray of bullets screamed towards them, the sound muted by the force field Luke had created. He blocked them all. It was as if the bullets were stuck in a thick plaster.

"Luce, I can't hold on much longer. Too hard to keep them all away. Please, hurry."

Lucy grabbed her friend's hand and tried to run with him through the gate.

He stopped her. "Thank you, Girl, for freeing me. For those moments, I had air in lungs that was mine alone. Remember me as I will you."

He leaned down to kiss her cheek, his floppy skin surprisingly soft, then ran towards the guards with a thunderous growl.

The guards focused all their firepower on the mutant. Bullets hit him, but he did not fall.

Lucy screamed and started chasing him, but Luke ran through the gate and dragged her away.

She yelled at Luke and pushed him. "No, he needs us. We have to help him."

"We can't, Luce. We'll all die if we go back."

Adam's voice shook the field. "Go, Girl. Must go."

A guard charged Adam and he tossed him aside like a ragdoll. They emptied their guns into him, to no avail. He ripped through their defensive lines, knocked them unconscious, twisted their guns like a clown with a balloon animal.

His roar filled the dark night—part human, part beast.

Lucy couldn't pull her eyes from the amazing creature.

Finally, Luke's arm tugged at her, and she allowed him lead her to the landing pad outside the facility. She barely noticed the bullets still whizzing past their heads.

The helicopter rested on an empty field over a hill.

Luke buckled them both in. As the chopper lifted off, Lucy sobbed until she hiccupped, unable to stop.

A few minutes later, the pilot handed Lucy a phone. She took a few deep breaths before answering. "Hello."

"Did you get it?" Mr. Black growled.

"Yes. But Dr. Koslov was killed. The data is useless."

"You little bitch. You have no idea how royally you've messed up. I'll deal with you and your brother when you get back."

Lucy handed the phone back to the pilot and slumped against Luke, who put his arm around her. "It's going to be all right, Sis. We'll figure it out."

She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket and rubbed the smooth contours of the strange sphere. Another wave of tingling heat coursed through her.

My thoughts had finally calmed and my eyes had just closed, when Brad called to me from the living room. "Sam, check this out!"

I sighed, pulled myself out of bed and went to him. "What's up?"

He looked up at me from his computer at the dining room table. "Sorry, were you sleeping?"

"Almost."

He pointed to his computer screen. "I thought you'd want to see this right away."