“Why are you in here?” I asked.
A masculine voice drifted through the dark. “It’s something about our blood. They won’t tell us what. We were part of the early GIN Project. It started almost three weeks ago—before the announcement. They’ve been taking samples from us ever since. Sometimes a lot.”
Almost three weeks ago? Just after I stole the Overseer’s lab?
My lungs suddenly felt shallow and tight. Was this my fault? All these people, caged up?
“From talking to each other, we think they covered several big cities across the Sectors,” he continued. “Said it was for research. Said they’d pay us. I saw people walking out just fine, but when my turn came, they wouldn’t let me back out.”
More voices confirmed his story, and my heart sank, rose, jumped all over the place. Had I found the Mornavail? Were they like me? Did they know more than I did?
“Did they inject you with anything?” I asked. “A GIN? Is it already in you?” There was no hiding anywhere in the galaxy if the Dark Watch had already tagged them with that shit.
“N-No. That’s why they’re holding us—we think. The tech isn’t ready yet. But they drew a lot more blood from us, even the kids.”
A1 blood. I was sure of it. The Overseer would have super soldiers. But so would the rebellion. Loralie Harris was probably lining them up by the dozen. I’d given her thousands of ready-to-go injections, but the Overseer still had to gather A1 blood and engineer the serum again. We were a step ahead of him for once. Could we strike first?
We hadn’t really been at war before. Just…doing what we could. That was all about to change, wasn’t it? The clash of our generation was upon us. The surety of that detonated inside me like a bomb blasting out destruction along with tiny unbreakable kernels of hope.
Fear and something close to excitement ignited in my chest as another hit rattled the hold. People screamed. I lost my position against the wall and free floated.
“Calm down!” I said loud enough to be heard. “They want you alive, which means they won’t blow us up.” And Uncle Nate had his excuse to use less-than-lethal force—assuming he was even supposed to know about this. He must have just found out. Why else would he have demanded my blood on Reaginine?
“But we were escaping.” A sob-heavy female voice rose above the rest. Others followed her straight into her pit of doom. Crying erupted in the cargo hold.Great Powers, don’t these people know anything about morale?
“Areescaping,” I said firmly. I was scared, too. I just wouldn’t show it.
“They’ll blow your people up and take us back.” That teary, half-broken voice sounded like a child’s. Too young not to believe in happy endings.
“They won’t. I have an ace in the hole,” I promised. “You’ll see.”
A softer thud jostled us. It felt like a hip bump from a friend, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“All lined up,” Merrick said.
Thank the Sky Mother.
“Gabe! The vacuum seal!” Merrick barked.
“I’m trying. The accordion won’t extend.” Anxiety carried Gabe’s voice across the com like a poison-coated bullet. “I used the password you gave me. What do I do, Tess?”
Won’t extend?I never had trouble with my air locks. “Try again.”
“It’s not working!” Gabe said.
“Something must have damaged the mechanism, or is blocking the passageway from coming out.” It was an awful feeling, free floating in the dark when I wanted to pace or grind my hands into something. I clenched my fists. “Merrick, try backing off a bit and bumping us again. Maybe it’ll jostle the walkway out.”
“On it,” Merrick said.
A hard thump resonated through the box.
“Gabe?” I asked.
“Shit! No luck.”
What the hell is wrong with my air lock?“Swing around and line us up with the starboard door,” I said.
An explosion shook the cargo hold. We ground against theEndeavor. People freaked out around me, grunting, cursing, crying. I spiraled into someone and shoved off with a gut-reaction push that sent me somersaulting over backward. An alarm shrieked in my com. Fiona made a sound of distress. Purring rolled in my ear like thunder.
