The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)(107)

“I’m not going anywhere without Jay!” I shouted. “He needs our help! How can you just leave him!”

“It’s his choice,” she grated out through a tight larynx, her voice cold and deadly. “Now move, or I shoot Cody next. Believe me, I can hit him.”

I ground my teeth together and began to move, tears springing up in my eyes, blurring my vision. Desmond jabbed the gun harder into my ribs, and a stabbing pain radiated from the spot, making me cough, but I kept my feet heavy as the heloship drew nearer. My mind was barely on Desmond anymore—how could I save Cody and Jay? Everything in me was screaming that I needed to go to them right now.

I could see Morgan, still weaving her way through the hail of bullets, coming closer in spite of the heavy fire. How had I never known she could move like that?

“Morgan!” I shouted over my shoulder as Desmond continued to shove me forward. “Get Cody and Jay! You have to save them!”

Morgan didn’t respond, but suddenly her trajectory changed, and without warning she dove into the water, the line of her body as sleek as an arrow. She began to swim in long strokes to where Cody thrashed in the water, trying to keep his head above the surface. She was halfway to him when there was a deep, metallic clanking sound, and the water began to churn.

The treatment system! They had managed to initiate the purge. But that meant…

I stopped short as the water began to churn, and then I started to struggle. “Jay! Cody!” I shouted as Desmond grunted. I swung my cast, trying to hit her face, knowing that she wasn’t allowed to kill me, but she jerked back out of my reach and did something clever with her hand, somehow rolling me over her and down on the ground.

As I scrambled to get to my feet, my ribs and head aching, I could already hear a warden’s pounding footsteps as Desmond shouted, “Grab her and let’s go!”





37





Violet





A strong grip grabbed me under the arm before I could make my mad dash to freedom, hoisting me up. I lashed out with my legs, trying to buy time and keep us on the ground, but the woman who held me had already managed to get an arm around my throat and twist my left arm tight behind my back, locking it into place. “I’ll break it,” she warned in a low voice as she walked me up the ramp—a threat that resonated almost worse than the threat of being shot at this point. I twisted around to try to look back at the pool, but she pushed me through the door, releasing me at just the right moment to upend my sense of balance and have me stumbling across the metal floor in the bay of the cabin.

I whipped around and gasped for air, the tears that the motion squeezed from my eyes making the world swim around me. I watched as the warden helped Desmond on board and slammed the button to close the bay door. Desmond hobbled over to me, her cast thumping against the ground. I could see the pain in her eyes, the agony and hopelessness, but she didn’t stop moving. I supposed her sense of duty ran too deep. “Don’t make me rethink the decision not to shoot you,” she muttered halfheartedly as she drew near.

With my watering eyes, I realized she had something in her hand a second too late, and I winced as the cold metal handcuffs snapped closed around my left wrist—my good one. She turned and beckoned over the warden who had manhandled me onto the heloship. The woman obediently moved forward, and held out her arm. Within moments, we were handcuffed together.

“Search her,” Desmond ordered gruffly as she hobbled forward. “Pilot, get us airborne now. We need to fire on the plant.”

“Ma’am?” came the surprised voice of the other warden—the pilot—from the front, and I shifted my stance slightly as the woman next to me began to pat me down. “Our orders were to retrieve you and—”

“I’m modifying the orders,” Desmond snapped as she stepped into the cockpit, blocking my view. “The plant has been taken over by hostiles. We need to take it out before they can—”

“Stop you!” I shouted loudly. “Don’t do it! She’s having your people pour poison into the water! Elena’s trying to kill all these people—”

My words stopped short with a choke as the warden patting me down straightened and, without prelude, struck me square in the throat. I doubled over, my casted right hand pawing at my throat as I struggled to draw in breath.

I was hauled roughly back, my knees knocking against something hard enough that I lost my balance and slammed my back against the beveled edges of the wall. The warden loomed over me, her hazel eyes flat and disinterested, and I realized she’d pushed me into one of the seats. “Tilt your head up,” she ordered, gripping me hard under my chin and forcing me to obey.

My throat immediately relaxed, and I dragged in a shuddering breath as the heloship’s engines began to roar. I was too busy gasping for breath to dodge when the guard leaned over me and stuffed the fingers of her free hand into my ear, pulling out the earbud that was part of my communicator set. She tsked, threw it to the ground, and stepped on it, the fragile bit of electronics crunching beneath her heel. Next, she ripped the tiny microphone from my jacket collar and repeated the procedure, and I groaned involuntarily.

“Better,” she said.

Desmond and the pilot’s voice were masked somewhat, but I could hear them both arguing over firing the missile. Apparently the pilot wanted to make it to the minimum safe distance first, but Desmond just wanted it over and done with. Maybe Jay’s refusal of her had affected her more than I’d thought possible—I’d never seen her this angry before.