wrists where the skin was broken.
Clete was staring at her, and now we met eyes. I shrugged a tiny bit, like, what am I gonna do?
He gave a small nod, then explained to Calypso that he would help lift her into the vent, where friends of ours were waiting.
“Friends with dope,” Calypso said, smacking her lips hungrily.
“Yeah, okay,” Clete said, sounding as miserable as I felt.
Up in the duct, Nudge was looking down, her face both worried and I guess understanding? She knew my back was against the wall here, and she also knew that having our rescuees out of their minds was a… complication. So I didn’t even want to mention that they were all chipped. That would come later.
“Moke?” I said, standing in front of him. “Time to go, bud.” I pointed to the vent that Calypso was being lifted into.
Moke swallowed and looked around as if I hadn’t spoken. His large fists were clenching. “I need…” he began.
He needed to get his ass up in that vent now, I thought.
Again he looked right through me. “I need—”
Clete touched his shoulder. “Come on, man. We gotta go. Soldiers comin’.”
Moke said nothing, so Clete and I pushed and pulled him over to the wall, on totally high alert because a punch from Moke would really hurt.
I left Clete to deal with Moke and went back to Calypso’s bed, where Rain was curled up. I watched for a second—she wasn’t breathing. Goddamnit. We were too late. I was torn. No way did I want to leave her body behind to be experimented on, but could we carry her as well as wrangle Moke and Calypso?
Gently I touched her back. It stiffened. It stiffened? She was alive!
“Rain?” I whispered. “Rain, sweetie? Time to go.”
Slowly, stiffly Rain turned her face in my direction. “Need dope,” she mumbled.
I started to offer her the imaginary dope in the air vent, but my breath was snatched from my lungs. Rain… I stared at her, wanting to throw up. They’d already started their experiments on her: her eyes were gone. They’d taken her beautiful hazel eyes. Her eyelids were shut, the lids collapsed into empty sockets. Holy mother.
“Need dope,” Rain said again, reaching a hand out to me. I took it.
“Okay,” I said, hearing my voice quaver. “I need you to come with me, okay?”
Docilely Rain uncurled, her lithe body now weak from lack of food. She tried to stand up, banged her head on Calypso’s bed. She hadn’t known she was under it.
“Come on,” I said again, guiding her out from beneath the bed. Suddenly my ears pricked—was I hearing boot steps? Feeling their vibrations? “Come on!”
She let me take her hand, though she obviously had no idea who I was. I led her over to the wall and helped her climb up on the table. Nudge looked out and reached down, pausing when she saw Rain’s empty eye sockets. Between the two of us we got her up into the duct, then I jumped up.
The boot steps were definitely louder now, and too late I realized that we had left a huge, broken hole where the vent had been—it would take even the dumbest guard about a second to see how their prisoners had escaped.
“Go, go!” Nudge whispered, pushing me after Rain.
I told Rain to crawl and she did, sometimes tentatively feeling the duct with her hands. Behind me I heard the door open, heard guards shout, then there was a small pop! and a fizzing sound.
Nudge began crawling rapidly after me, saying, “Go! Hurry!”
I barely heard the two guards drop to the floor as I raced with Rain and Nudge down the maze of air vents that would take us back to safety.
Safety. My ass.
CHAPTER 55
Max
Pretending to drop the doctor and hearing him squeal like a scared little pig had been fun, the first half dozen times. Now I was bored. What we had here was a classic standoff: They yelled, Come down and don’t drop the doctor! And I yelled, Screw you! We’d gone back and forth like this for a good half hour. Every once in a while they tried to shoot me, and I let the doctor scream at them for that; each bullet that came near me barely missed him as well.
As to the busy beavers who’d climbed up the outside of the cage, well. I’m just faster than them. AND I CAN GODDAMN FLY, YOU MORONS!!!!! When one got too close, I let go of the bars (making