Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (68 page)

“
You’re in a deprivation
chamber, this goo is just a numbing gel,” he assured her, his tone
once again soft and soothing. “You aren’t paralyzed. Once I get you
out of here and wash it off, you’ll be able to feel your arms and
legs again.” He offered her a weak smile. “I know it’s scary. The
first time I woke up in one…well, let’s just say my reaction was
embarrassing. I’ve heard people joke about being so frightened they
mess themselves, but I didn’t really believe it could
happen.”

Despite her predicament, Cressa started to
relax. She had a feeling Kev’s tale was an exaggeration meant to
calm her anxiety, possibly even make her laugh so that she wouldn’t
scream again.

Just to be safe, she glanced down at the
pool of gel surrounding her in the clear, glass tub. It was a pure,
crystalline blue, with no hint of discoloration to suggest that
she’d lost control of her bodily functions.

“
I’m going to remove my
hand. Promise not to yell again? If they hear you, we’re as good as
dead—or worse.”

Cressa nodded, her head wobbling on her neck
like a newborn.

Kev slowly drew his hand back, visibly
relaxing when Cressa didn’t immediately start screaming.

She had to open and close her lips several
times before her mouth was able to form a single word. “Where?”
Cressa finally asked.

“
Med bay, back wing. It’s
where they perform the shady stuff.”

“
Why?”

Kev looked confused. “Why? Because the Dame
is nuts, I guess. It doesn’t matter right now, okay? Right now, we
need to go, before someone comes to check on us.”

Cressa shook her head, the movement so
spastic it probably looked like she was having an epileptic
episode. She tried to speak, but the words in her head were still
having trouble making it to her mouth.

Frustrated, she licked her lips, a nervous
habit, and tried again.

“
No.” She gulped audibly.
“No. Wh-why are w-we here? Y-y-you and m-me.”

“
Oh, right.” Kev sighed.
“If I had to guess, it’s because they realized you’re a latent.
They already know I am.” Tapping the side of the tub, he added
bitterly, “I’ve spent a lot of time in these chambers.”

Latent. There was that word again. What did
it mean?

Her head was so foggy, like her brain was
covered in that gross fuzzy mold that grew on old fruit.

“
L-latent?” she managed to
ask.

“
I’ll explain later, I
promise.” Kev’s gaze flitted towards the doorway. “Seriously,
Cressa, we need to move. I had no idea they’d bring us back here to
the tanks; I thought they’d just sedate us until they were done
with the allegiance ceremonies. I don’t know how much time has
passed, or how long we have. We need to go, okay?”

“
N-now,” Cressa
demanded.

Closing his eyes and pursing his lips, Kev
seemed to be praying for patience, or maybe for time to standstill.
Either way, when his gaze met hers, Kev launched into a hurried,
somewhat frantic explanation.

“
A latent is someone born
with the genetic mutation that causes talents. Unlike other
Talented, who possess an active mutation that gives them abilities
from birth, latents don’t exhibit signs until they experience a
trauma that forces their powers to come out. For most, it’s a
life-threatening event. But it doesn’t have to be. Any serious
shock to the system can make a dormant gene become active. You have
the latent mutation. I don’t know how they figured it out, but they
put you in the deprivation chamber to force it to become active.”
Kev cupped Cressa’s cheeks in his palms and leaned in so that his
face was all she could see. “I know this is a lot to take in. I
know you have a ton more questions. I know you are scared. I
promise, I will tell you everything else I know once we are free.
But please, just trust me when I say we have to go.”

Trust him? Kev had left her no other option
but to trust that he was on her side. Whatever he’d done to her to
cause such intense pain that she’d blacked out, Kev had done it
without her permission. And now he was rambling about dormant
mutations and all sorts of other nonsense that Cressa’s muddled
brain couldn’t begin to digest.

It was too much. Part of her wanted to sink
beneath the gel and let the detached feeling from earlier take over
again.

The only way through is forward.

The mantra popped into her head, only this
time Cressa wasn’t thinking about becoming Privileged. This time,
it was escape. Kev clearly had a plan, and he’d already put it in
motion. If she didn’t follow him to the end of this treacherous
road, she would end up in the frog pond. Or worse. How far would
the Dame go to force Cressa’s dormant powers out of her? If she
truly had this latent mutation Kev kept insisting she did, she knew
the answer already: the Dame would go as far as necessary. Probably
until Cressa was dead.

“
I’m sorry about
upstairs,” Kev began, trying to interpret her prolonged silence. He
was still holding her face between his hands, and Kev’s proximity
was making it even harder for Cressa to focus. “I know I put you in
this position, and I didn’t give you a choice. But I know you don’t
believe that the Dame is a good person. I know you don’t want to be
one of her minions.”

Kev searched her eyes intently, imploring
her with the depths of his gaze.

“
If I’m wrong about that,
stay here. Like I said before, you don’t know how valuable you
truly are. The Dame needs numbers on her side right now, so she
won’t dismiss someone like you easily. Believe me, she knows that
Daphne, you, and I were in the tunnels, too. Hartley and the others
wouldn’t have been able to keep that a secret, not under psychic
interrogation. She didn’t come after us because we are worth more
to her as Privileged drones than we would be as caged rats. That
public shaming spectacle she put on yesterday was solely for our
benefit, to scare us into obedience.” Kev paused for air. “I am
giving you the choice now, but you have to make it quickly. Do you
want to come with me, to see your parents again? Or do you want to
stay at the Institute, blindly following a madwoman intent on
enslaving the norms?”

“
Well when you put it like
that, there’s not much of a choice,” Cressa said dryly, surprised
the remark rolled so easily from her tongue.

“
Sarcasm is a very good
sign.” Kev beamed at her. But when he spoke again, his tone was
eerily serious. “I can’t promise to keep you safe, but I will do
everything in my power to make sure you make it out of here alive.
Are you ready?”

The decision was surprisingly easy. Truly,
she’d known it was the one she’d make all along. Cressa wanted to
see her parents again, wanted to see Julie again. She wanted her
life back. Being Privileged had seemed so exciting before the
Institute. But after everything she’d experienced there, Cressa
wished she’d never heard of the Dame or her program to turn normal
children into Talented leaders in her dream world. She only hoped
her parents weren’t too disappointed in her decision. Maybe the
news that Cressa was a latent would soften the blow.

Or maybe you’re condemning
your family to pauperism,
a voice in the
back of her mind suggested.

What would happen to the Karmines if the
Dame succeeded?

Cressa immediately dismissed the thought.
She couldn’t worry about that just then. Once she pled her case to
her father, he would know how best to proceed. He loved her, and
surely wouldn’t be upset with her for fleeing the Institute. Not
after Cressa told him how the Dame was really running the
school.

“
I’m ready,” Cressa told
Kev.

Without further prompting, Kev slid one arm
under her knees and the other around her back. He lifted her out of
the tub as though she was as weightless as she felt. The situation
was so surreal; it took Cressa longer than it should have to notice
that she was practically naked, wearing only her underclothes. As
was Kev, she realized, when her slimy, wet skin proved difficult
for him to hold against his bare chest.

“
I’ve got you. Just try to
stay still,” he grunted, readjusting her for a better grip. She
still couldn’t feel her body, and her head lolled against the
straining muscles of his arm.

At the odd angle, the room appeared tilted
and off-kilter. Still, Cressa noticed a second deprivation chamber
not far from one she’d just left.

“
How did you get out of
that on your own?” Cressa asked as Kev deposited her on the
floor.

He gently leaned her against the wall,
carefully propping her up. The ground beneath Cressa was wet,
though she couldn’t feel the water against her skin. A small drain
had been installed in the flooring, and hanging from the ceiling
above was a large showerhead, with a metal chain dangling beside
it.

“
Like I said, I’ve spent a
lot of time in one of those.” Kev gestured towards the glass tubs.
“It’s sort of like with any drug; you build up an immunity after a
while. Same with the sedative they gave us. It wasn’t easy, but
once I woke up, I had just enough feeling in my arms and legs to
pull myself out of the chamber. Then, I sort of slithered over
here.”

That was when Cressa noticed the trail of
blue sludge leading from one tub to the corner where she sat.

“
Once I got the gel off, I
was fine. You will be, too.”

With that, Kev stepped back and pulled the
chain beside the showerhead. Water poured down on Cressa from
above, filling her mouth and eyes before she had the wherewithal to
close them.

The gel was thick and sticky, and
obstinately clung to Cressa’s skin. After a minute, Kev bent under
the warm spray and drew Cressa to her feet. With one arm around her
waist, he used the other to scrub her arms and legs. Finally, the
gel began to slough off of her like a snake shedding its skin.

Tingling started in her toes, traveling up
her legs and across her stomach. Another minute later, Cressa was
able to stand on her own. Her coordination was still a little iffy,
but she managed to help with removing the rest of the numbing
gel.

Once she was clean, Kev turned off the
shower and rushed over to a supply cabinet. He rummaged through the
contents, and then returned with towels, two sets of black scrubs,
and two pairs of the booties she’d seen med techs wearing.

Kev wrapped one towel around her shoulders.
“Dry off as fast as you can. Then put on these.” He handed her one
set of the scrubs and a pair of booties.

Modesty hadn’t gone completely out of the
window, so Cressa carefully knotted the towel around her chest
before stripping off her wet undergarments. Finding that the scrubs
were several sizes too large for her, she rolled the waistband and
cuffs. Then, still moving as quickly as her baby-deer body would
allow, Cressa slid the booties onto her feet and twisted her wet
hair into a knot on the top of her head.

By the time she was finished, so was
Kev.

“
You do have an escape
plan, right?” she asked, pleased to find it was no longer difficult
to speak. “We aren’t just winging this?”

“
Yes and no. No and yes.”
Kev smiled sheepishly. “I have a plan, but it’s not as solid as I’d
like. I figured I would have more time to explore the tunnels
before my big exit. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I know
there’s an entranceway to the tunnels here in med bay, which leads
directly to a passage that I’m fairly confident is a straight shot
to an exit. From there? Well, that’s where we’ll start to wing it.
I have no idea where we actually are, or what’s nearby.”

Great,
Cressa thought, not liking their odds at all.

Nonetheless, she followed Kev to the door,
waiting while he inched it open to peer into the hallway. The room
they were in was evidently soundproof, because Cressa heard a
conversation taking place on the other side as soon as the door
opened.

Kev held one finger to his lips, and then
pointed to his ear. Huddled beside Kev, Cressa listened to the
voices.

“
Dr. Wythe gave both
Karmine and Leonard a mild sedative,” a woman was saying. Cressa
recognized the voice as belonging to Dr. Masterson. “I imagine it
will wear off in another twenty minutes or so.”

“
And he is sure about the
girl? Karmine? She’s a latent Talent, too?” The second voice was
that of Sir Tate. Though Cressa had only heard him speak a handful
of times, his quiet tone and stilted cadence were
undeniable.

“
Dr. Wythe is positive,”
Dr. Masterson declared. “And her blood sample confirms
it.”

“
Why is this the first
we’re learning of it, then?” Sir Tate asked, sounding more
inquisitive than accusatory.

“
There were no indicators
prior to her second injection. I began to suspect that she might be
a latent when I noticed her power retention levels, which are quite
remarkable. The incident in the observation catacombs with the
Beaumont girl should have caused Karmine’s dormant abilities to
become active. Unfortunately, the Leonard boy’s intervention
prevented that. Her fight-or-flight instinct was not triggered, or
at least not to the degree necessary to activate her
talents.”

“
And what are her natural
talents? Do we know yet?” Sir Tate questioned.

“
No. The results of her
gene sequencing should be in shortly,” Dr. Masterson
replied.

“
Very well. What about the
episode upstairs? What caused her to lose consciousness?” Sir Tate
wanted to know.