“Is that…?” D.C. whispered, her eyes wide.
As if he heard her, the man abruptly turned to face the hidden surveillance camera. D.C. let out a strangled sounding noise and even Alex sucked in a breath, recognising his profile. His blond hair was about six years overdue for a cut and his scraggly beard made him look like a caveman, but his bright blue eyes combined with his bone structure and athletic body shape made his resemblance to Jordan unquestionable.
“I don’t believe it,” Bear said in a quiet, incredulous voice. “Aven… Jordan’s parents… They were all telling the truth. Luka’s alive.”
Alex was able to pull herself together first. If what Jordan had said really was him speaking freely—and outside of Aven’s influence—then the footage he’d seen had to have been believable enough to ask Aven to Claim him. Though, Alex wasn’t sure whether to believe that actually happened or if Aven really did take Jordan against his will.
To her unending frustration, Alex knew nothing was certain.
“Johnny,” she called, “are you able to confirm if this footage is legit?”
After some more incomprehensible gibberish, Alex ascertained that Johnny had managed to open a network through Bear’s Device to download the footage directly—which was something he hadn’t been able to do remotely without having someone on the inside to input the codes manually.
“I’m running it through my scanners as we speak,” he said, ending his Techno-babble spiel by answering her question. “I just need a minute.”
He took two, but when he came back to them it was with a shuttered, disappointed expression. “It’s fake, guys. I’m sorry.”
“What?” D.C. exhaled sharply. “But—But he looks just like Jordan!”
“It’s an enhanced digital likeness, likely rendered from an image of Jordan himself and aged a decade into the future.”
Jordan had been deceived all along, and Alex felt the crushing devastation of what that meant. If they ever found a way to free their friend from Aven, he’d have to come to terms with Luka’s death all over again.
“I’m sorry, guys,” Johnny filled the hanging silence. “I know that’s not the news you were after.”
At least we now know the truth, Alex thought, sad as it was.
“If you hurry, I can still get you out before—” Johnny broke off and his face paled when something on his other Device caught his attention. He leaned in closer to it and his eyes widened as he released a string of curse words. “Guys, it looks like you left muddy footprints in the corridor and that guard in the other tower has just flagged them and raised the alarm. She’s on her way to you, along with every other guard in the facility. You need to move. Now.”
Three
An indefinite amount of time later, Alex restlessly paced back and forth in a holding cell that was much cleaner than her current state of hygiene. The white walls surrounding her were immaculate, made more so by the slight glow of energy zinging along them: a seemingly innocuous halo of light that was augmented by a hair-raising electrical hum of warning. Despite the powerful barrier, Alex was tempted to reach out and smear dried mud across the pristine surface just to annoy some underling who clearly had OCD tendencies when it came to bleach—or whatever the Medoran cleaning equivalent was.
Suffice it to say, she and her friends hadn’t made it out of the ChemTech facility without being caught. They’d barely had time to cut the feed to the surveillance footage and disconnect their ComTCD link with Johnny before the door to the server room had flown open. Hoping that Bear’s brother was busy using his hacking skills to hide his digital footprint and the illegal download of the footage to his offsite Device, Alex and her friends had been left throwing their hands up in surrender when the guards stormed the room.
They’d quickly discovered that the ChemTech security team didn’t play around and were the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ variety of guards. Alex, Bear and D.C. had, therefore, experienced their first taste of what it felt like to be intimately acquainted with a blast from a Stabiliser.
For the record, it hurt like hell.
The weapon had caused a searing burn to spread throughout Alex’s body, stinging along her nerve endings fast enough to force her into unconsciousness within a fraction of a second. When she awoke ten minutes later, Alex found herself lying on the unnaturally clean floor of her cell and suffering from a splitting headache; one which was still thumping through her skull after what felt like hours of incarceration.
“What’s taking them so long?” D.C. grumbled, sitting on the floor with her head in her hands. “We’ve been in here for ages without anyone coming by. Why can’t they hurry up and tell us how much trouble we’re in?”
The only upside to their predicament was that Alex, Bear and D.C. had all been locked up together in the same cell. But since they were each dealing with Stabiliser-induced headaches, none of them had the capacity to offer good company or stimulating conversation.
“Standard practice for interrogations. They’re letting us sweat,” Bear said, standing with one hand massaging his temple and the other arm cradled protectively against his stomach. He’d been the unfortunate test dummy who had reached out first to touch the glowing walls, discovering that they were, in fact, charged with something akin to live electricity. His hand was covered in blistering welts from contact with the walls, which only added to his discomfort from the earlier insect bites.
Alex was just about to open her mouth and suggest they try to come up with an escape plan when the glowing energy around them deactivated and one of the white walls slid open. D.C. scrambled to her feet and Bear dropped his hands and moved forward until the three of them stood in a line, presenting a united front.
Four people entered the cell. Three of them wore the gunmetal-grey uniforms of the security guards, but the person leading the group wore the familiar black attire of a Warden. His fiery red hair was cropped close to his skull, but it was still thick enough to stand out vividly against his dark clothing and pale skin.
Alex felt D.C. stiffen and relax again just as quickly, apparently not recognising the Warden. This was good, since the last thing any of them needed was for word to get back to D.C.’s parents about their little… expedition.
“I’m Warden Renko,” the man in black said as he came to a halt a few steps away. The three security guards stopped beside him, their Stabilisers trained on Alex, Bear and D.C as a silent warning. “You three were caught trespassing on a secure ChemTech facility without authorised clearance. You’ve since been detained and transported here for questioning. Hands behind your backs, please.”
Alex blinked in surprise, not sure what to process first—the fact that they had been transported to an unknown location while unconscious, or the brusque manner of the Warden’s efficient command.
When the guards moved forward threateningly, she hastily complied and they roughly bound her arms together. She winced in sympathy at the thought of the pain D.C.’s sprained wrist and Bear’s burnt hand must be causing them.
“Follow me,” the Warden directed once they were all secured.
“Just a second,” Bear said, and Alex raised her eyebrows in question—and alarm. She wasn’t keen on repeating her experience with the business end of a Stabiliser if Renko decided not to indulge Bear’s interruption.