The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)(103)

At the moment, there was nobody living standing there. Tim holstered his weapon and moved over to the console, studying it, while Mags nudged a woman lying on her back on the floor. I turned and waved on the stragglers from our group. April brought up the rear, her gun firing more and more rapidly as more targets came circling around the vat. I fired over her head at a target. “April, move!” I shouted.

Something growled overhead, and I looked up in time to see a woman leap off the wall twenty feet up, heading for April. I swung my gun up, compressing the trigger and trying to hit her, but it clicked dry. I hurriedly ejected the magazine and loaded the next one, but it was too late—she landed next to the Liberator woman, grabbing her by the arms and tossing her into the pool like a ragdoll, before she had a chance to scream. She turned toward us, and I didn’t hesitate to see if April was okay. I finished slapping in the magazine and began to push the door closed. Mags and Alejandro quickly moved in to help me—this door was heavier and had a hand wheel, just like the ones at the facility.

I managed to thrust it closed and stepped back to begin spinning the wheel. Before I could even begin, the door slammed open again, pinning Mags between the wall and the door, as the same warden who’d attacked April stepped through, her face menacing.

I pulled up my gun, but she smacked me across the face, sending me flying. My back hit the floor as the entire side of my face erupted in pain, and I blinked to clear the spots from my eyes. I dragged in a shuddering breath, afraid I had forgotten how to breathe, and then sat up.

Alejandro was swinging at the enhanced woman, Mags’ name on his lips as he fought. Harry stood just behind Alejandro, shouting for him to get out of the way so he could shoot, but Alejandro wasn’t listening.

I saw her catch his hand with her own, smaller one, and squeeze. Alejandro screamed and fell to his knees as the woman’s grip did not let up, and I could hear the sound of the bones in his hand breaking. Harry shot her, but even as she slumped over, she maintained her grip on Alejandro’s hand, dragging him with her a few feet.

I could barely rip my eyes from the sight, and I hated having to ignore Alejandro, but the door still stood wide open. I shot at the next woman moving through, and the one right after her. Someone began firing into the room, and I dove to one side as a spray of bullets cut across the space. Scrambling on my hands and feet, I made it over to the door and slammed it shut, this time managing to twist the wheel tight to seal it.

“I need something to jam the wheel,” I yelled as I held the wheel fast, knowing it wasn’t secured yet. I heard some shuffling behind me, and then Harry leaned over and slid a long-handled wrench through the wheel spokes, bracing it against the long locking mechanism on the back of the door.

I let go of the wheel and turned to Mags, kneeling down next to her and checking her pulse. I heard something slam into the door I had just closed, but I ignored it as I searched for any sign of life.

“How is she?” Alejandro croaked from the floor.

“Alive,” I said after a moment. “For now, anyway.”

“Just like us,” Alejandro whispered, his voice wobbly, clearly in agony. I looked at where he was cradling his hand against his chest and felt the pit of my stomach drop out, leaving me with a slightly nauseated feeling as I saw the… unnatural way his fingers sat.

I looked around the room, considering what he’d said, assessing the situation, looking for options. Tim, thank God, was still at the control board, his fingers flying as he began entering the long series of complex codes and instructions. It was going to take several minutes for Tim to input that code, which meant we had to hold this position for that time. With the enemy on both sides of the room, and no way of knowing how many more were out there, things weren’t looking so great. And that wasn’t even factoring in an escape plan. I was beginning to wonder if there would be anything left of us to need one.

“Exactly like us,” I agreed as I checked Mags’ pupils.

Outside, the thudding against the door began in earnest.





36





Violet





The yard the collection pools sat in was quiet and still. I could hear the faded pops of gunfire behind me, but here, nothing seemed to move. A break in the clouds let in some of the light from the moon, but a haze of smoke seemed to cling to everything—especially over the surface of the ponds, giving the impression that they were steaming. It was eerie for everything to be this still in the middle of a battle. My heartbeat sounded too loud in my own ears.

I tapped my fingers together. “Thomas?” I whispered into the command channel, surprised at how quiet it was. The groups must have all been on their team channels as they moved deeper into the plant… I pushed away all the horrible ideas of other reasons for their absence, focusing on the task at hand. “Do we have a visual of where Desmond went at the water treatment plant?”

It was a moment before Thomas responded. “Violet, all of our cameras have been down for a while. We did have reports from Drew’s team of a vehicle coming up after the initial assault but before you got there, though not the same one that she took from us. The likelihood that this was Desmond—”

I cut him off. “I’m near the UV treatment ponds. Could she be there?”

I pictured Thomas’ thinking face before he responded, “There is a ninety-three percent likelihood that if Desmond hasn’t been reported elsewhere, she will be there. But Violet, that area is the most likely spot for heloships with reinforcements to land—”