“It went well, though, right? People are certainly reacting down here. I wanted to watch it on one of the big screens.” The phone shows a slightly wobbly image of a crowd of people gathered together. There’s clear tension in the air as the jostle and there’s background noise of panicked murmuring.
“Hey, Anna, where are you?” Ro asks as Silver’s face pales and she peers at the screen.
“People are shitting themselves,” the techno mage crows. “It’s—”
Her voice cuts off with a strangled yelp and the screen fills with the image of a skinhead with a long scar down his neck.
“Tsk tsk, I should have known you would have something to do with this, pet. I thought you were supposed to be behaving. Nevermind.” His mouth morphs into a sharp-toothed smile. “Now tell me, have you lost something of yours? Or should I say someone?” Simpson’s voice makes my skin crawl as he lets out a chuckle. “Scratch that, how about someones?”
And then there’s the sound of Anna’s scream, right as the screen goes black.
31
Silver
Icy dread goes through me like a cold shower as Simpson’s words sink in. I flash a glance around the room, trying to work out who we’re missing.
“Is Luna next door with the twins?” I ask, already heading for the door.
No one seems to know. I guess they’ve been too busy helping me to escape from a cell. But there’s a terrible foreboding hanging over my head and making my neck prickle.
I need to gather everyone together, count all my ducklings and make sure everyone is together. Safe.
As soon as the door to the neighboring apartment opens, Hanna flings herself at me, attaching herself to my neck like a barnacle. I hug her back hard and then pull away to do the same thing to Luna and finally to Rook who almost crushes the air out of my lungs with his massive arms.
“I can’t believe you’re out. If they didn’t manage it, I was going to set the place on fire. Figured they’d have to evacuate you all then,” Hanna says.
Someone snorts behind me, but I brush it off. “They probably wouldn’t have bothered. Good job you didn’t, or I’d be crispy by now.”
“Huh, I probably should have created my fire illusion,” Ro says. “I never even thought.”
That causes me to chuckle distractedly as I head inside and spot the twins, safe and sound.
“You went straight for the jailbreak option?” I ask. Ro shrugs sheepishly, sharing a glance with Dante.
“Uh, kinda.”
I’m not complaining. It got me out of that place, and the Archarcans deserve to have a mess to clean up.
I’m less keen on there being hundreds of escaped convicts on the loose, but when the city’s elites are just as cut-throat, I guess it won’t make too much difference.
Same toxic river, just different fish swimming through it.
“Is Seb downstairs?” Fabian rasps from behind me.
