Chapter Forty-One

Caleb

I nodded to a guard as I passed him, making my way down the hallway with as much nonchalance as I could manage. He inclined his head toward me respectfully before continuing on his way. I waited until he had entered the ceremony hall before quickening my pace and hurrying to the stairwell where Christopher and I had planned to meet. After casting a quick glance at my empty surroundings, I ducked into the small space, where my brother was waiting.

"God, Caleb, took you long enough," he muttered as soon as he caught sight of me.

"Sorry," I replied as we mounted the stairs. "I got trapped by Miracle." Christopher's eyes widened, and I assured that it was nothing, not wanting to get into the details. Thankfully, my brother didn't ask any more questions as we descended down five flights to the unused subbasement that connected to the Pro-Inferiors' entry tunnels. We were only one floor below Leary's laboratory, but I was trying not to think about that.

"Any idea where we're going?" Christopher asked out of the corner of his mouth.

I jumped off the last step and looked around warily before nodding affirmatively. We moved quickly down the simple corridors, hardly making a sound. I followed Nessa's direction in my head, all the while remembering my conversation with Ms. Shea a couple of days before. I was distracted, to be sure, but as we sped around a corner, my worries were penetrated by the sudden feeling that there was someone behind us.

I froze in my tracks and turned to my brother. "Do you hear that?"

He frowned, glancing over his shoulder into the dim corridor behind us. "What am I supposed to be hearing?"

"Never mind," I murmured, shaking my head. "My ears must be playing tricks on me." I waved him along, still plagued with the feeling that we were being followed.

"Maybe you should wait in there," I told Chris, gesturing to a dusty supply closet as we neared the rendezvous point. "They don't know that you're here, and I don't want to give them any unexpected surprises."

Christopher gave me a thumbs up, obligingly ducking into the closet and easing the door shut behind him. A suspicious feeling tingled at the back of my neck, but I brushed it off and strode toward the trap door that Nessa had told me would be built into the ground. It could only be unlocked from the outside, and Nessa and Perfecta hadn't wanted to risk coming down to open it earlier.

I crouched next to the ancient trapdoor, grabbing the chain that bolted the door to the ground and pulling it apart with surprising ease. After tossing it aside, I grabbed the handle and tipped back the metal slab, propping it against the wall.

At first, the only thing I could see in the gaping hole was darkness. But after a moment, a bright light powered on, illuminating a woman's face. She blinked up at me through pale gray eyes—then her hand moved, and suddenly I found myself staring into the barrel of a gun.

"It's a Superior," she hissed, as if I wasn't there. "Do I shoot it?"

Struck by anger, I reached forward and grabbed her gun, crushing its barrel in my fist as if it was a piece of paper. The woman behind it backed up and let go, leaving the damaged gun in my hand. I tossed it aside, then stuck my head into the tunnel entry.

"I am not an it," I snarled. "I am a human being. I'm also your ticket into the Capitol, so I'd suggest you treat me as such."

The woman shrank back into the shadows, so that all I could see were her big eyes, which were staring at me in shock. From behind her came another figure, this one male, who smiled at me as he came into sight.

"I apologize for my colleague's unprofessional attitude," he said smoothly. "She's a little bit nervous, as you can tell."

I eyed the man warily as he pushed himself out of the tunnels and stood up beside me. He reached out a hand, still smiling.

"I'm Jeremy Fairleigh," he informed me as we shook hands. "And you're Caleb, correct?"

"Yeah," I muttered, taking in the man's sandy hair, blue eyes, and obvious confidence. He had to be someone prominent to be so bold.

"I'm the leader of the Pro-Inferiors," he said just then, confirming my suspicions. "Nessa has told me quite a bit about you. I want to thank you for agreeing to help us."

"Sure, no problem." I shrug, watching out of the corner of my eye as twelve more people haul themselves out of the tunnels, including the woman who had threatened to shoot me moments before. She kept her eyes carefully positioned on the wall above my head.

Jeremy Fairleigh turned to the gap left by the trapdoor, saying, "You all know where to go. Set up and meet outside." At least a twenty faces nodded at him through the darkness, then dashed away and disappeared into the tunnels. Fairleigh closed the door behind them. I turned around in confusion, about to ask why he'd taken so few people, but he'd turned to the other twelve before I could speak.

"Where do you want us to lay them down?" one man asked, hefting a flat backpack higher onto his shoulders.

"I want three under each wing, and six spread beneath the main building," Fairleigh ordered briskly. "You're going to have to go up to the first basement level, but there shouldn't be any problems. Nearly everyone is watching the ceremony, and the few guards on patrol are on the first and ground floors."

"Do we go now?" asked the gray-eyed woman. The twelve Pro-Inferiors were evidently trying to look tough and confident, but I couldn't help but notice that they all seemed slightly unsure. I wondered who these people were, what they had left in their lives to come here, to risk everything.

"Yes," Fairleigh confirmed. "When you're finished, get the heck out of Dodge and meet back outside."

The team nodded and filed nervously into the corridor. All of them had pistols in their pockets and those flat bags strapped to their backs.

"What are they doing?" I asked Fairleigh once they'd gone. "What are those things on their backs?"

He glanced at me sharply, as if surprised that I was still there. "Oh, those?" he said calmly, almost absently. "Those are bombs."

Eyes narrowed, I examined Farrows' face for any hint of emotion, any sign that he was joking, but there was none. His expression was completely blank.

"What exactly are you going to do with them?" I asked carefully, trying to keep my voice level. The man slung an arm around my shoulder and looked at me with a fatherly expression, despite the fact that he couldn't have been more than five years older than me.

"Well, what do you think we're going to do?" he asked, a small smile playing on his lips. "We're going to blow this place to bits!"

Delaney

"Let's begin, shall we?" Leary crossed the room briskly, before any of us could react. He circled behind our chairs, examining something on their backs before returning into our lines of sight.

"Are you ready?" he asked mockingly, before turning to his table. Abby made a rude gesture at his back, prompting her cuffs to tighten even more. I could see beads of blood trickling from beneath the biting metal.

Leary walked back to us, smiling savagely. In his hand was a small, rectangular remote control that was covered with dozens of buttons. For a moment, before speaking, he twirled it between his fingers, appraising us in a way that made me apprehensive.

"Ms. Escott," he acknowledged, turning to me. "We'll start with you."

I pressed back against my seat as he approached, feeling the blood drain from my face. Leary's smile grew as he caught wind of my fear, and I began to squirm. Abby cast me a horrified glance out of the corner of her eye. Trai, though, wouldn't look at me. He stared into his lap restlessly until Leary was standing directly in front of me.

"Start with me," he shouted then, lifting off his seat and leaning toward Leary. His expression was a mixture of anxiety and determination, his jaw set and his eyes narrowed. Dr. Leary's darting eyes focused briefly on Trai's face; then he began to laugh.

"How sweet," he leered. "You are a true martyr, Mr. Kaiser. A true martyr. But sadly, the order stays. Your friend Delaney will be my first...test."

The ugly smirk that followed his words did nothing for my confidence. My breaths became shallow pants as his finger lingered over the remote, searching for the right button. I tried to channel whatever mystical force had helped me survive that far, but it had seemingly escaped me. In the face of Leary's insanity, I found that there was nothing inside of me except breathtaking terror. By the time he finally pressed a button, I was ready to pass out.

"Here we go," Leary said, staring at something above my head as I fought the panic clawing at my throat. Dimly, I heard Abby gasped. A moment later, I did too.

Descending into my line of sight was a big metal ring. A clear dome scooped over one side of it, with an adjustable bar jutting from the dome's center. The contraption was spinning slowly, like a bicycle wheel, and I was transfixed by the sight. My eyes followed the path of a dozen syringes protruding from the ring like the beams of the sun.

"Oh my god, what the hell is that thing?" Trai demanded. I held my breath as it moved closer to me.

"I call it 'the needle wheel,'" Leary proclaimed proudly. "I modeled it after those bonnet dryers that used to be in hair salons. It makes multiple injections ten times more efficient."

"And ten times more terrifying," I managed to squeak.

Leary chuckled. The gadget was suspended just above my head, but when the doctor pushed another button, it lowered to settle on top of my hair, so that several of the needles were right in front of my face. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Get that thing away from her!" Abby shrieked.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," came the doctor's response. "I must inject the immunity serum first."

My eyes flew open as a soft whirring came from slightly above my ear. I looked just in time to see a needle to the left of my nose discharge from the ring. It was attached to a slim bar, which twisted through the air until the point of the needle hovered just above my left forearm.

Leary explained the process with frustrating equanimity. "The serum will be injected into your radial artery, where it will be carried back to the heart and pumped into your bloodstream. You might feel a mild discomfort as the serum makes its passage, but it's nothing—ah—permanent."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Trai interjected suddenly. "Radial artery? Aren't injections usually given around the deltoid muscle area?"

"That's not the way I do things around here," Leary snapped. "Sorry to disappoint."

With that, he pressed another button on his remote control. Before I knew what was happening, the syringe was moving downward, its sharp metal tip piercing my flesh. I screamed as the needle buried itself in my arm, sending a jolt of pain blasting through my fingers. Through hazy eyes, I saw Leary push yet another button, and the plunger came down, sending a full vial of clear liquid into my bloodstream. It was extremely painful, but when the process was done and the needle retracted from my skin, I sighed in relief, thinking the worst was over.

Until Dr. Leary said, "I'm afraid I'll have to put a bit more restraints on you. It's just a precautionary action."

Two metal bands came whizzing out of the backrest of my chair, clicking together in front of my stomach. A couple more appeared over my forearms, and one secured my thighs.

"That should do it," Leary mused.

"What the he—" I didn't get to finish, because I moment later, I was shrieking in pain. My entire body was on fire, engulfed in flames that burned me from the inside out. The inferno raged through my bloodstream, igniting every part of my body. My heart felt like it had swelled three sizes and was trying to burst through my ribcage. With my eyes squeezed shut, I twisted and sobbed, but every movement I made was restrained by biting metal. I felt, rather than saw, my skin being shredded by the sharp edges.

At one point, I thought I heard someone calling my name, screaming it, but my head was pounding and I couldn't be sure. I was being swallowed by a strange, rushing silence that was both soundless and excruciatingly discordant. I imagined that I could feel every vein, each of them victims to the horrible blaze.

After what seemed like a million eternities of agony, a beeping sound penetrated the thick silence, bringing my sight back to reality while the rest of my body continued to burn. I could feel myself losing my grip on consciousness more and more with every passing second, and had to struggle to stay awake.

Leary's gangly frame swam into my vision, his eyes narrowed and a mobile phone pressed against his ear. "A breach?" he demanded, his voice coming to me through a wall. "Where?" A pause. Then, "Those damn inferiors. Yes, I realize. I'm on my way."

He turned to Trai and Abby, shouting something that I couldn't hear. The room blurred and my head thrummed, begging me to slip into unconsciousness. I fought it for as long as I could, but the need was unbearable. The last thing I saw was Leary stalking out of the room before my body melted into an ashy darkness.