Page 7 of Hollow Code
"I supposed I don’t." He adjusted his glasses. "We need you in the war room. I want to give an update on Kane, and I only want to do it once." Leave it to Darwin to be efficient. She appreciated that about him.
She reached for her tablet because it was like an appendage. It was no different from Scout being a human compass and Wynn knowing the exact placement of everything in her bathroom medicine cabinet and getting twitchy when someone moved it.
A game Zadie enjoyed on the days they weren’t going anywhere. Wynn didn’t find it nearly as enjoyable. Childish game, but they were stuck in a bunker when they weren’t fighting bad guys, and Zadie couldn’t play her video games, so this was what she’d resorted to.
Zadie held her tablet in one hand, her soda in the other, and followed Darwin around the corner and into the war room.
Everyone was already there when she walked in. Her team leader, Neve Monroe, and Captain Coulter Barrett were near the window, looking like they were trying not to be cozy, and failing miserably. They were a cute couple.
Zadie blew them a kiss.
Neve just narrowed her stare and shook her head, but her lips drew upward. Coulter didn’t hide his smile. It was obvious, even under the circumstances, that they were happy to be back together.
Scout Lennox sat on the table because Scout was always on the table—something that had started when they’d moved into the bunker. Zadie wasn’t sure if it was because while the bunker was massive, the furniture was sparse and not always the most comfortable. Or Scout just liked the position it gave her in the room. It didn’t matter. Scout was the kind of person who could adapt to her surroundings. Before they came to the bunker, she’d been the one who could sleep anywhere and live on peanuts and water if necessary. She’d usually been the easiest going of the group.
Usually was the operative word.
Wynn Whitmore, their medic, stood near the front of the room—waiting for Dawin. She wanted to be near him, and the sexual tension between those two was about as subtle as a foghorn—only Zadie didn't know if they’d acted on it, and it was the best kept secret in the bunker, or if they were both just oblivious.
Jeremiah Shepherd, the man who kept the bunker running, was currently unavailable. Zadie had it on good authority that he’d bugged out early to go meet with General Augustus "Gus" Esposito, the man who owned the bunker.
Darwin sat at the head of the table, Wynn taking a seat next to him, and Zadie set her soda on the table next to Wynn, directly across from Scout.
Zadie made sure all systems were running on her tablet before setting it down. No one ever expected her to unplug completely. Not even in these meetings.
Neve looked at her over the rim of her coffee mug. "What time did you go to bed?"
"Does it matter?" Zadie asked.
"You’re wearing the same clothes as you were yesterday." Scout lowered her chin.
Zadie didn’t want to have this conversation for the fourth time in five days. When they weren’t out of the bunker dodging bullets and trying to take down Finch, she had a job to do. And that job never ended. Not that the others didn’t have stuff to do. Wynn with her medical stuff and dealing with Kane Archer, their teammate who nearly died two months ago. Or Coulter, when he’d first arrived. Or Neve, keeping everything together. And Scout was always tracking something. Zadie couldn’t do what she did without all of them.
But if they were going to achieve their goal and take down Finch for what he’d done, then she needed to find a way into Hyperion's main server. She needed to see everything they were missing so that they could prove what Finch had done.
"You need more sleep," Wynn said.
"Define sleep." Zadie knew everyone meant well. But it wasn’t helping.
"The thing humans do at night that keeps their organs functioning." Scout inched off the top of the table and moved to a chair. " Lately, you don’t do it enough. And when you do close your eyes, it’s at your desk, or on the sofa and only for an hour here, or an hour there. You’re going to burn out."
"Was I called to the war room to discuss the fact I sleep in my clothes and tend to crash while watching TV?" Zadie asked. "Or was it to discuss Kane?"
"We’re just worried about you," Neve said softly.
"Point taken." Zadie shifted her gaze to the front of the table.
Darwin unfolded his hands, as if he’d been waiting for class to start. "Kane had a physical today. I also got back some lab results from the institute." Everyone in the room came to attention when Darwin spoke. He wasn’t commanding, like Neve and Coulter could be. But he had the kind of voice and authority that made people want to listen. "Prewit and I are both quite pleased. The AXS-1 protocol is functioning as it was designed. The spinal repair is progressing on schedule. According to the blood markers, the treatment hasn’t elicited a negative reaction."
"Does Prewit want to keep him on the AXS-1? Or will he take him off the drug?" Neve asked.
Dr. Prewit Howell was an old military buddy of Darwin's, and Prewit was the director of Elysium Neuro & Spinal Institute where they'd taken Kane. Prewit had saved his life. According to Prewit it was the least he could do considering all that Darwin had done for Elis, Prewit's son. Regardless of all that, everyone on the team, Zadie included, were a bit unnerved by the use of the drug AXS-1. It was the mother drug of what had been used to create the enhanced soldiers, and that made everyone understandably anxious.
"Eventually, he’ll be slowly titrated off. But we're not there yet," Darwin said. "Right now, we're focused on putting him on a strict physical therapy regimen, and he’s had some opinions about that."
"What kind of opinions?" Coulter asked.
"Apparently, he believes our methods might not be suitable and suggested something a little less..." Darwin cracked a smile. "Painful."
