“Nanotech? What are you talking—”
“Let’s pray yours aren’t functional yet,” she said, rushing to glance out the window. “Since it took them a few days to find out who helped me escape, chances are they aren’t. They are here. On the street.”
She dashed out of the room. Once again Thomas tried to get up. The woman wasn’t making sense. Maybe this was her way of getting rid of him. He couldn’t blame her. Wait. She’d tased his chip! The electrical current would fry it, wouldn’t it?
She returned, a sack in hand. “Can you walk?”
Thomas could barely hear her now over the sirens. He nodded, and taking her free arm, he leaned on her as she rushed through the house and out the back door. Butch remained on the couch, gun in his lap, barely acknowledging them as they passed.
Out into the stagnant, humid air, Tori led him back through the fence, across the neighbor’s yard and then through several more fences and yards. Pain coursed through him with every move, but by the time they stopped in the back of an old Publix Market, it was dissipating.
Rats crisscrossed the pavement beneath a dumpster from which the foul stench of rotten food made Thomas wish he didn’t have to breathe so hard.
“Smart move, Tori,” he said between heavy breaths.
She smiled and shoved strands of hair from her face. “Sorry about that. I couldn’t think of anything else.”
“Well, it must have worked. I don’t hear the sirens anymore.”
“Unless they’ve gone silent,” she said. “But I’m pretty sure it worked. We’ve used it before on others.”
“We?”
“The saints.” A look of disgust crossed her eyes, if only for a moment.
But he knew why. How many of those “saints” had he condemned to execution?
“Come on.” Turning she headed into the night. “We need to find some place to hole up, get some sleep.”
???
“We lost him, sir.” Holding the phone to his ear, Kyle ground his fist, longing to punch the wall of Vice Regent Benton’s office, where he and his trackers had been combing through every scrap of Thomas's belongings, searching for any hint of where he would go.
“How the hell did you manage that, sergeant?”
Kyle held the phone away from his ear at Regent Laundry’s booming voice.
“His signal was there one minute and then it completely disappeared. I assume they found a way to disable the chip.”
“You think?” Landry growled. “I just can’t believe it. Not of Thomas.”
“The facts are irrefutable, sir. He helped her escape.”
“Yes, I know. I know. But why?”
Kyle didn’t know if he was supposed to answer or not, so he simply waited for Landry to continue.
“Unless…” The regent tapped his chin, the silence unnerving.
“Unless what, sir?”
He narrowed his eyes on Kyle. “Unless this is all just a ploy to find the big fish.”
“Fish, sir?”
“Are you stupid, Cruz?” he exploded. “Where most of these Deviants hide, especially the leaders of the North American Region.”
Kyle ground his teeth at the insult but kept his tone steady. “Ah, you mean Nyla Cruz and Calan Walker.”
