My heart flipped over. She had Bonk.
“We don’t have time to come around,” Sanaa said. “How much bad shooting do you think he can do? Gabe, try again. Daraja, figure it out!”
I hit a wall and stopped spiraling.Oof.Blindness was terrifying. No idea where up or down was. Too much noise. I tried to concentrate. “Merrick, is there anything strange on the main console?”
“Other than it blaring about the big hole in your portside storage closet?”
Oh no! There went my tools. Frank better have something. If we got stuck on Nickleback, we’d be spider food!
I shoved that thought out of my head. “It has to be something right at the air lock. The vacuum seal should just pop out and latch on to us when Gabe pushes the button. Bump us again—hard.”
I didn’t bother telling people to brace themselves. No one could see. We were all floating around like particles. The shock came about thirty seconds later, and I pinpointed the noise. It was on my left, which meant the door was over there somewhere. My foot was on something—or maybe someone—and I pushed off, flying in the right direction. For a second, I must have forgotten I had a bullet in my ass. Pain shot down my leg, and I winced, pressing a hand to my throbbing cheek. My pants were sticky with blood. Adrenaline wasn’t enough to keep me warm anymore. I shivered, cold.
“It’s extending!” Gabe shouted.
I hit a wall and clung to the smooth surface, my heart pounding like I’d just run a race.
“We have a lock,” Merrick said.
I whooped. I couldn’t help it. But how would we get out of the cargo hold? Without any power, it would take a saw to break us out. I didn’t have a saw capable of cutting through metal. Did Frank? Would the systems come back on? Oxygen renewal? Gravity? The door panel?
“The seal’s airtight,” Merrick announced. “Ready to go.”
“He’s shooting!” Fiona yelled at the same time.
We rattled hard along with theEndeavor, an extension of her now and not just alongside her. Merrick shut down the new alarm almost before it started. Super-soldier reflexes. More people started crying.
“Just let us go!” someone pleaded from the darkness. “At least they weren’t trying to kill us!”
I turned my head toward the voice, a slow swivel on shocked hinges. No one answered. No one fucking answered. What the hell?
“Well,” I ground out, “I invite you to report back to a Dark Watch security hub to be drained of blood and used indefinitely by a homicidal monsterafterI rescue the people who have something better to live for!”
I could practically feel the collective blink in the cargo unit, everyone so taken aback they went silent.
I couldn’t feel guilty for my outburst. Icouldn’t. There were sides to choose, and you had to either own yours or get the hell out of the way of the people who had the balls to know where they stood.
“The GIN Project is coming for each and every one of us. We need to stop him, or no one will ever be safe. You think he owns the galaxy now? Imagine when he can find any of you with just the click of a button. No one should have that power. He wants you for a reason.Youspecifically.Yourblood. He needs you in order to create super soldiers to solidify his control, to enable more terror and destruction. An unbeatable military. Can you imagine? We have to act before it’s too late.
“Fight! I don’t care who you were before. I don’t care how old you are. Fight, before there’s nothing left to fight for. Die right here, if you have to. At least you’ll deprive the Overseer of something he needs for his dark doings. This is the battle of every man, woman, and child. This is the battle of our lifetime. Resist! Stand up and sayNobefore your voice is lost—and all others are crushed also.”
The silence was absolute, even from theEndeavor.
Then someone started clapping. “I’m with you, Captain!” a man shouted. More people joined in until it was deafening.
I didn’t want cheering. I wantedcommitment.
“DW 12cleared a path for us. Made it look like an attack that barely missed us. Guy’s a genius,” Merrick said.
“Can we be friends now, darling?” Sanaa asked. “Maybe friends with benefits?”
Merrick grunted. “Jumping in ten…nine…eight…”
“Jumping in eight seconds!” I called out. I had no idea what it would feel like to jump with zero gravity. The thought began to terrify me just as the lights came back on, the systems whirred to life, and a hundred people crashed down, screaming.
I managed to twist in the air and landed mostly on my front, smacking down like a pancake. Pain rang through my body, a hot-cold hammering in my bones. I couldn’t move a muscle and groaned out the bit of air I had left in me. Breathing in again was a struggle. My lungs didn’t want to expand. My ass was killing me.
“Seven…six…five…”
