Page 36 of Ramshackle
Kellan storms over to Reid and grabs his shoulder. “Get us over there!”
Reid rolls his shoulder away from his grasp, but Kell’s grip doesn’t allow him to free himself. “We’re not close enough yet,” Reid rumbles. “I have to see the beach before I can bring us there.”
“Quiet!” I snap at them when Jackson’s victim answers him.
“—not usually allowed out at this time. Wait! Wait! The clearing about half a mile from the back of the building. If Gordon has her out early, then that’s where she’ll be.”
“She’s not outside. Try again,” Jackson coolly replies.
The man whimpers and sniffs. “The—the training room, then. Or the basement. I don’t know!”
“Where?”
“Training rooms are on the twelfth floor. You have to take the stairs to get to the basement. Please—please don’t kill me, too.”
“What’s in the basement?”
“Ahh! Fuck,nngh!” he cries. “It’s programming! The programming rooms!”
Programming.
Dane’s wide eyes meet mine.
The motor dies on the boat and Reid turns. “I see the beach. We can go from here.”
Kellan throws the anchor overboard and then clasps his hand on Reid’s arm. Dane leaps forward to grab his forearm, and I take the opposite shoulder.
We’re gone in an instant.
The world shifts on its axis, and then my feet are planted on the sand with my face aiming toward them. I step my foot forward to catch myself, giving my body the seconds it needs to re-discover balance. Dane and Kellan both topple to the ground.
“If she’s in programming, we need to hurry,” Reid says before the rest of us have recovered from the jump through space.
“What the fuck is programming?” Kellan snarls while pushing himself to his feet.
Reid’s jaw ticks. It’s the first sign of real emotion I’ve seen out of him thus far. “Each room has a different method for brainwashing. I’ve seen people completely changed after one session in their programming rooms.”
The man with Jackson screams through the earpiece, but it’s cut short. And then it’s quiet.
“I’ve already cleared the way inside. Meet me there,” Jack murmurs with dangerous calm.
Dane’s arms shake with tension from his fists. “Rae…”
“Let’s go,” I snap and break into a run, trusting Jackson that the outside is clear of GE workers and we’ll make it without a problem. The others stay close behind.
Reid snaps a badge off one of the many exposed, dead security guards near the door. He pushes between us to unlock it, and then we rush inside.
The room is dark, save for safety lighting along the walls. It’s enough for us to see that it’s empty. Hopefully, it’s a sign that the rest of the building is still fast asleep. But we don’t have much longer to count on that.
Moving further inside, Kellan smacks my arm and points to a sign on the opposite wall for elevators and stairs to the right. I nod, and we all move together to the stairwell door. None of us care about making a sound once we’re inside, our feet pounding on the hard steps that echo through the many stories above us.
Kell crashes through the door first, bursting into a lit hallway that extends on either side of us. All the doors are solid without windows. The painted cement walls fill the space in between them, so there’s no way for us to know which rooms are occupied.
“Split up. Kellan, you take the left with Reid. Dane and I will take the right.” I don’t wait for the others to move before I sprintto the first door. I grasp the door handle, feeling for the metal mechanism inside. The lock is triggered by the badges or a pin code, but that means nothing to my gift. I change the shape of the tumblers, making it smaller and shifting the metal elsewhere until the door opens without anything to hold it shut.
A single chair sits in the middle of the room. There are weapons and metal instruments hanging on the far wall and laid upon the counter against it. But no one’s inside.
The next room has a pod in the middle of the room with nothing else.
