Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(84)
“Well, they don’t have me,” I declared. The gun slipped perfectly into the waistband of my jeans. It was small enough not to cause much discomfort against my skin. I made sure my shirt came low enough to cover it.
“Where will you and Addison go?” I asked Jack.
“Our job is to find the other trackers—the ones not implanted. And to stay out of sight. We can’t risk Addison being caught again.”
Or you. Please be careful.
Jack nodded.
“We have one last thing to talk about,” I said. “What will happen if they begin evacuating?”
Addison’s head snapped in Jonas’s direction. Jonas rubbed his face. “I haven’t seen any signs of packing up, but this place is like a circus.”
I cocked my head. “What does that mean?”
“If you’d ever seen a circus come to town, you’d know. They arrive in slow motion—one truckload at a time over several days. When the circus is over, they’re gone before the last juggling clown unicycles out of the main tent. Not a trace of this place will be left within an hour of being told to evacuate.”
“How will we know?”
“Oh, you’ll know.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
The announcement, along with a piercing alarm and an intermittent strobe light, came over an intercom speaker less than an hour after I left Jack and Addison. “LAB WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN ONE HOUR.”
A sharp pain had erupted in my chest when I’d first left Jack back in Sandra’s apartment. We should be doing this together, but risking the two of us being caught together wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. Not to mention, we had little time to find both the trackers and the server controlling them—as the computerized female voice made clear.
Jack and Addison were by now roaming the facility in search of additional trackers; we all agreed the trackers wouldn’t be stored in the same lab as the server. And Jonas had left to check on Briana.
According to the map Jonas gave me, I was in the hallway near the main lab. People rushed about. Most didn’t even glance my way as they passed, which was strange. Either this entire place was built on the arrogant assumption that I would decide I wanted to be a part of this, or they already knew for a fact the one thing I refused to accept—that I was trapped inside The Farm with no way out. Every once in a while I’d get a strange look or a double-take. Probably because I looked scarily like the barracuda heading up this strange underground laboratory.
Similar to the lab I saw the first time I came here, the room I’d been looking for was behind a wall of glass windows. Inside, men and women in white lab coats typed away on computers, lifted equipment onto rolling carts, and boxed up supplies.
The IIA was moving their operations.
But why?
Maybe they knew that the FBI and police were getting close to something like Marci’s murderer. Maybe the university discovered the illegal experiments that were occurring inside this secret laboratory.
I stood in front of the glass, scanning the sea of doctors and scientists. Behind rows of microscopes, medical equipment, and computers was a door tucked away in the back right-hand corner of the room. If Jonas was right, that was the room I was looking for.
I ran my fingers along the ledge of the interior window as I walked toward the entrance to the lab. The double set of sliding doors only required an ID badge.
A woman in a lab coat and scrubs exited the lab in a hurry. She was alone. The doors closed behind her too fast for me to slip through, though.
I followed her around the corner and watched her enter the women’s restroom.
Looking both ways down the hallway, I snuck in after her.
The bathroom was quiet. It was only the two of us.
I waited for her to finish inside the stall. My hands shook at my side as I waited in the neighboring stall, the door open. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. That wasn’t what I was about.
The toilet flushed, and I knew what I had to do. I spun my ring halfway around so the pearl was on the palm side of my hand. I twisted the pearl, and the small needle appeared. I would have simply mindspoken to get her badge and clothing items, but this way, she would be unable to run after me and get help.
She walked slowly past, oblivious to my presence as she adjusted the lanyard around her neck.
I stepped out, made three quick steps, and caught her by surprise with a bear hug with one arm. My other hand went straight to her neck and made contact, but not before I took an elbow to the stomach.
I grunted loud, the breath knocked out of me. She made an “oww” sound. I had definitely grazed her with the tiny needle. But was it enough?
I held my breath as she started to turn, but her body went limp. Thankfully, she was a small woman. I caught her as she slid to the ground and softened the landing of her head on the concrete floor.
I righted the ring so as not to paralyze myself. Leaning down, I whispered, “I’m sorry.” I then took her lab coat, her ID, and her glasses. Maybe the glasses would help disguise me a little.
A minute later, I was at the door of the lab. No one noticed me; everyone was completely focused on packing up the lab.
Jonas, I’m inside the lab.
How did you manage that? he asked.
Don’t worry about it. Point is, I’m here, and I’m making my way over to the control room. Everyone is too busy packing up to even notice me. Where are you?