Deviation (Clone Chronicles #2)(75)

“Can we play doctor later? I’d like a change of scenery,” Daniel says. “If it’s not too much to ask.”

Linc glares at Daniel but he lets it go and gestures for Daniel to lead the way. “After you.”

Linc’s hand holds mine in an iron grip and he propels me down the hall. We pass Alton and then Taylor. She’s still unconscious. I can’t bring myself to ask if she’s all right. Not after her betrayal. I don’t see any blood, though, and assume she must be alive.

We keep moving. I can see the door to the stairwell now.

“Shit,” Linc says.

“What is it?” Daniel asks.

“Emile’s gone,” Linc says.

“How many others?” Daniel asks.

“Just him. And he’s wounded. Shot himself when Ven knocked him sideways.” He glances at me with something like approval. “He could be anywhere, though. I hate to take Ven back through the house.”

“We don’t have to. Follow me,” Daniel says.

I half-expect Linc to argue but he doesn’t and we fall into step behind Daniel again. Every shadow cast makes my knees weak. Emile is out there somewhere, waiting. I feel danger in every molecule. I am desperate to reach Obadiah. To end this night.

“In here,” Daniel says.

The light is off inside the supply closet across from Dr. Josephine’s office. Daniel flips the switch, but nothing happens. Linc shines his phone into the darkened space. I huddle behind the two of them, exposed and edgy.

Daniel hesitates another moment, then takes Linc’s phone to light his way and shuffles forward. Linc mutters something but doesn’t argue it. His anxiety must be just as high as mine if he’s letting Daniel get away with so much.

I forget to catch the door behind me. It shuts with a bang that seems louder in the tense silence.

“Sshh!” both boys hiss.

I muffle a sob. This is worse than fighting an enemy you can see.

Daniel picks his way across the room, around filing cabinets and boxes of medical supplies. The room is bigger than I remember. Linc drops my hand so that he can move obstacles aside for me. He’s a bulky shadow in the darkness. More than once, I feel the chasm of space that separates us while I wait for him to touch me again. Each time his hand returns to mine, I feel the relief like a sweet sting.

Up ahead, the phone light goes out. When it comes back on, Linc’s holding it aloft. He aims it at the stack of boxes in front of Daniel who is already working to shove them aside. Instead of a concrete wall, his efforts reveal a squared access panel about four feet high.

It’s sealed with no handle but Daniel isn’t finished. He shoves aside more boxes and Linc moves the phone, better aiming the tiny path of light. A small keypad is mounted next to the panel. Daniel’s fingers work the keypad so fast I don’t have time to follow the code he enters. There is a click behind the doorway and it swings open from the inside.

A gaping hole, darker than the blackest corner of this room gapes back at us. It’s barely tall enough to pass through even with shoulders hunched and knees bent.

“After you,” Daniel says, stepping aside with a flourish.

“You were happy to lead all this time and now you want me to go first?” Linc whispers. “No thanks. You first, fearless leader.”

“You think I’d walk us into a trap after all this? Where would that get me?” Daniel hisses back.

“Can we just get out of here before Emile shows up?” I whisper.

“Give me your phone,” Daniel says. Linc hands it over and Daniel presses the button, once again illuminating the screen. Then he steps into the opening.

Linc gestures for me to follow Daniel. I crouch low and step inside. The air inside the tunnel is close and thick as if it’s been hanging there forever, just waiting to be spliced through by a visitor.

“Is there a way to close this thing?” Linc asks.

“Don’t bother,” Daniel calls back. “If he were chasing us, he’d be here already.”

“I wasn’t thinking about Emile,” Linc says.

“Neither was I. Come on.”

Linc leaves the door hanging wide and catches up without a word.

The tunnel stretches on, no turns, no change. Our path is straight and narrow and we haven’t gone far before my back aches. The floor is cold and smooth underneath my bare feet. Metal, I think. “How do you know about this?” I ask Daniel, mostly to distract myself from the ache in my neck.

“Titus had it installed a few years ago. When I first came to work at the City. When he first brought a product home.” The answer isn’t one I expected. It takes me a moment to get my bearings.

“Who—What sort of Imitation was it?” I ask.

“A man, mid-twenties. Titus put him on his security detail. Kept the guy mostly in the tower but the guy started acting funny. Talking back, that sort of thing. I think it made Titus nervous but he insisted the tunnel was for a fast way to hide the evidence of his science project if anyone came sniffing around. It made sense. He didn’t have the entire government in his pocket then.”

Linc nodded. “I remember that. He went from nobody to a household name pretty fast not long after that.”

“So what made it happen?” Daniel asks, abruptly changing the subject.

“Made what happen?” I jump when Linc’s hand brushes my back. The ache in my neck turns to shooting pain.