of monsters rang before my eyes. The spray of blood I saw in the future sickened me.
“They’ll be unstoppable,” I whispered. “They have this formula… It makes this super soldier stuff.”
Shade swept his thumbs over my cheekbones. His eyes searched mine. “But if they don’t have you, can’t you make your side unstoppable, too?”
“But what does the wrath of two unstoppable forces make?”
Even in the shadows of the ventilation shaft, I saw the grimness that came over his features. “I guess we’ll find out.” He turned again. “And I think I just joined the fight.”
“Be there, Quin,” Bridgebane ordered. “Or I come back here, and one of them goes to Hourglass Mile.”
“I’ll be there,” I growled loudly. After I delivered the enhancer to the rebel leaders. My uncle had just forced my decision. I couldn’t destroy the rebellion’s chance of making super soldiers while handing over that same weapon to the Overseer.
“And Ganavan! I’m transferring her price to your head. Don’t get too attached, Quin. He won’t be around for long. And the bounty hunter had better keep his hands to himself!”
I snorted. As if that man had the right to… What? Parent me?
Bridgebane shot at the door. The bullets didn’t come through, of course, or even ricochet off. They stuck, because we had really cool walls.
Chapter 28
“Not that way!” I cried when Shade took my three-second breather as incentive to strike out first again. He pitched forward and started sliding down a near-vertical shaft.
I grabbed his ankle with both hands and tried to gain traction with my bare feet. His weight dragged us both down. He slipped fully over the edge, and so did my head. A huge fan spun below.
“The sides!” I yelled frantically. “Spread out your arms. There are indents.”
Shade spread his arms wide and his fingers found the hollows. They were barely there and hardly visible, but there was enough contour to sink his palms into and stop his fall. I pulled on his leg, and he climbed with his arms, indent after indent. His shoulder muscles bunched, and his triceps bulged under his shirt, standing out from the effort.
Once his hips cleared the edge, he wiggled back, and we flopped down together in the mostly level tunnel, both of us breathing hard.
“Who the fuck builds a shaft like that?” Seeming incensed, Shade adjusted a still-sleeping Bonk. “There are kids in this place.”
The depressions along the sides of the steep shaft were a half-assed safety feature for whoever was in a harness every year or so doing maintenance on the fan. The slippery drop over the edge was designed to fool intruders. It didn’t seem so steep or different at first, and then, bam! You were falling.
“It’s a booby trap,” I explained, my heart still racing to a panicked beat.
“A booby trap?” Shade echoed, scowling.
“Starway 8 is equipped for war, prepared for just about anything. Except for during those few hours every now and then when the security cameras are undergoing maintenance—like right now,” I said a little sourly.
“I wondered why no one questioned me on the docks.” Shade snorted softly. “Great timing.”
I shrugged. I knew Mareeka well enough to guess at her reasoning. “I only let them know we were arriving five minutes before we got here. They didn’t know when we’d come, or even if we’d come, and they didn’t realize I could be bringing this much trouble with me. Honestly, if it’s necessary to take security off-line, what better time to do it than when the news has spread about an awful virus?”
Shade nodded. “It got me to you, so I’m not complaining.”
I frowned. “How did you find me? This place is huge.”
“Bridgebane used to like me. In his way, at least. He sent me his personal com signal the second he located you on Starway 8, hoping for backup.” Something rather devilish crept into his expression, despite the strain of worry and injury. “All I had to do was follow it around a few corners before I came up behind you.”
“He didn’t even look surprised to see you so fast.”
“He knows I’m good.”
I huffed. “And insanely arrogant.”
“Hardly, sugar.” He winced, straightening out his wounded leg. “Just telling the truth. Now tell me more about this ‘equipped for war’ while I bandage my thigh.”
“With what?” I asked.
Shade ripped an entire sleeve off his shirt, sat up as best he could in the tunnel, and started to wrap his leg. I moved to help him, and our fingers tangled, reminding me of other times