12
calix
I DO NOT have security clearance for the computers to get the information about the identities of Lotus and the others.
I spend about an hour trying to find some way to manipulate the system to allow me in, but I can’t do it.
By this time, it’s late. The facility is staffed all night, since there are full-time residents here, so it’s not that weird for me to be here working or anything. People are always here working, and I actually have to do two overnight shifts per month, anyway, so I’m not raising any red flags or anything.
But I’m exhausted.
It’s been quite a day.
I decide to leave, but before I do, I call a friend. He’s a beta, but he helped me out a lot when I got out of the compounds and came into life in the secular world. He grew up among the Polloi, but he got out like my sister Maggie did. Like I said, it’s always easier for betas to get out.
Not that many of them do, actually. A lot of them stay put, because no matter what life is like there, it’s hard to leave everything you’ve ever known your entire life. It’s especially hard to leave your entire family.
My mother will never speak to me again, not unless I would come home, do penance, go through a yearlong shunning process wherein I have to be entirely silent for a whole year and also no one else will speak to me. It’s brutal, so I will never do that.
Anyway, I left.
This guy left, too.
When I first got out, he was the one who helped me get work right off, told me I needed to buy a cell phone, stuff like that. Anyway, he’s smart about that kind of stuff, about computer stuff. I’m not.
Growing up cut off from technology really fucks you up in that way. I’ve learned fast, I think. I work really hard to hide it, to be honest. I don’t want anyone to know what I was or where I come from, so I do my best not to make it obvious. And that means that I actually know my way around computers better than a lot of other people.
“Dude,” greets my friend, whose name is Levi, “I told you that people don’t call people on phones. They text.”
“Thanks for picking up, Levi,” I mutter, rolling my eyes.
“I’m hanging up, and you’re going to text me like a normal person—”
“This is important,” I say. “It’s okay to call people if it’s important.”
“Right, right,” he says, agreeing with me. “What’s going on?”
“I need you to help me figure something out,” I say. “It’s about network stuff. There are certain files on the network, and I can see them, but I can’t open them, because they require a higher clearance than I have.”
“Huh,” he says. “This is at your job, I’m assuming?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“You’re basically wanting to get fired from this job?”
“It’s important,” I say.
He’s quiet.
“Uh…” I let out a groan. “Look, Levi, I have a scent match.”
“What the fuck, you do not .”
“I know, I didn’t think they were real either.”
“Scent match,” he says. “And also, you’re going to find out that you’re a secret prince and that you have a magical fairy making you new clothes. Hey, by the way, you hear about ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ yet? It’s like, obviously, the same thing as the ‘Bella and the Six Hunters’ story of ours.”
“Yeah, dude, yeah,” I say, laughing. “I got that. But, no, I’m not a prince, and—”
“Why do you think we have similar folklore stories like that?” he says.
“No fucking clue,” I say. “Is this what we should be talking about? Look, this place, they have omegas and alphas who are, like, brain damaged from the amnesia drugs they give them—”
“No shit!” He’s excited now. “I knew that couldn’t be a good thing. I kept saying there’s no way anyone wants to go into heat and forget the whole thing!”
I sigh. “I’m scent matched to one of them.”
“Wait, you’re scent matched to a brain-damaged omega?”
“Yeah?”
“What the fuck, dude? What are you doing to do about that? You fuck her yet?”
“ No .”
“Oh, well… that’s good.”
I roll my eyes.
“You can’t fuck someone with brain damage, dude, I don’t care if they do happen to be an omega or whatever.”
“I’m not a jackass, Levi.”
“You’re an alpha,” he says. “Same difference.”
“Take that back,” I sigh.
He just smirks audibly.
“Look, I need to get into these protected files about her, okay?”
“Do you think I’m a hacker or something?”
“Or something,” I say. “If you can’t do it, just tell me, and—”
“You know what, I can do it,” he interrupts, and now he sounds a little annoyed, as if he’s upset that I insulted his prowess or skills or whatever.
“You can?”
Now, it’s his turn to sigh. “I’m going to need some information from you,” he says. “And then it’ll probably take me a while. Like, hours.”
“That’s fine,” I say.
“You’re going to owe me, alpha jackass.”
I laugh softly. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you need, Levi.”
striker
THE PHONE IN the hotel rings loudly, waking all of us up.
It’s still dark outside, and we all stir and glare at the thing. I pick up the receiver, more because I know that’ll shut it up than because I want to answer it, but then I’m holding the phone, and so I put it to my ear.
“Hello?” I say in a sleep-ravaged voice.
“Front desk,” says the woman on the other end. “Look, I don’t know who you are or what the fuck is going on, but I just want you to know that there are some people here flashing pictures of you guys all over. I told them I’d never seen you before, since they didn’t seem to be cops. But if the cops were to show up, we’re not going to lie for your asses.”
“Right,” I say, rubbing my forehead. “Um, thanks.”
“You’re paid up for a night,” says the woman. “You want to extend your stay, though, then I think it’s not a great idea. You probably should be moving on from here.”
“Probably,” I say. “That’s probably intelligent. Thanks again. And thanks for calling us to let us know.”
“Yeah, just get out of here as quick as you can, hmm?” she says. She hangs up.
I place the phone back in its cradle.
“What’s going on?” says Knight. When I went to sleep, he was still knotted inside Lotus, but now they’re extricated from each other.
I explain.
“The facility?” says Lotus. “But how do they know we’re here?”
“The stolen car,” says Arrow. “I should have realized. They’d already tied that to us. They knew we were in this area. Then, they just started canvassing the area, flashing our pictures around. I bet they recognized me at the Dollar General or maybe the pizza place. We shouldn’t have stayed so close to where the car was recovered. Stupid mistake on my part.”
“Our parts,” I say to him. “We all should have thought of that.”
He nods, and I get that some part of him thinks that he especially should have been noticing details like that. It’s got something to do with his identity. He seems to be closer to his than I am to mine. I don’t remember anything at all about my old life. Nothing.
“Do we need to go?” says Lotus.
“Well, probably,” I say, “but I don’t know if it’s a good idea to leave the room right now. What if they’re out there?”
“Wait until morning?” says Arrow.
I eye him. “What do you think?”
He considers. “If they got a recognition at the pizza place, they’re going to think we’re close. There aren’t other hotels in the vicinity. They’re going to be watching the place. But it might take them time to figure that out. They just got a denial from the front desk here. They may be looking for another hotel. We should go now.”
“Okay,” I say.
“We’re listening to him, then?” says Knight.
“Can you fault his logic?” I say.
“Guess not,” says Knight, who’s getting out of bed and getting dressed.
“But we have no idea where to go,” I say. “We need to think longterm. We need a plan .”
“To have a plan, we need your identity back,” says Knight.
“Look, we need a short term plan,” says Arrow. “I say we get our asses into New York City proper. We can take the ferry.”
“It’s the middle of the night,” I say.
“Yeah, it runs all night,” says Knight. “And it’s free. A ferry leaves every half hour or so.”
“Once we’re in the city,” says Arrow, “it’s going to be easier to disappear. As long as we don’t draw too much attention to ourselves, they’re not going to be able to find us.”
“Sounds good to me,” says Lotus, who’s getting dressed, too.
knight
WE HAVE A fight about who’s going to go out the door first, and Lotus shuts the three of us up and says she’s going first.
None of us like it, but we don’t fight with her either because there was something in her voice that brooked no argument.
She eases open the door and looks out in the hallway. She tells us the coast is clear and we all go out together. We walk down, staring at the carpet, which is jade green and stained here and there, until we get to the elevator.
Lotus pushes the button for down.
We all wait for the elevator to arrive.
When it does, it isn’t empty.
It’s a security guard from Cedar Falls, but he’s alone. He scrabbles for his gun and Lotus hurls herself at him, letting out a little growl.
I’m panicked. What the fuck is she doing? I dive under her, trying to find a way to get my body between her and the gun.
Striker and Arrow seem to be on the same page because they’re diving too, one on either side of me and Lotus.
The guard has the gun, but Lotus has his arm. She yanks on his wrist, baring her teeth. She bites him.
He drops the gun, howling.
And then we’re on him, all three of us.
I grab him by the neck and Arrow punches him in the nose. Striker brings down his elbow on the man’s eyeball.
I squeeze.
He’s dead in minutes. We take his gun. He has a stun gun, too, like the ones that Acker used to use on us. I take that, too.
We leave him on the floor in the middle of the hotel.
We take the elevator down.
The lobby’s empty, but I leave a couple hundred dollar bills on the front desk, telling the woman there it’s for “the mess.”
Then, we leave.