Chapter 23
Speechless, I stared at my mother. Doctor Lamont’s expression fluctuated between fear and hope as she scanned the faces in the room with a frantic intensity.
She clutched something in both hands. When she met my gaze, guilty pain flared for a moment.
I marveled at my own stupidity. Even when we knew she had betrayed the last group of rebels, she had conned us again.
Karla swaggered into the control room with a smug smirk. Vinco followed with ten Pop Cops behind him. One of them pushed Doctor Lamont into the room. The door hissed shut with a thump that crushed the remains of my heart.
“Report, Lieutenant Commander,” the admiral said.
“The lower levels are secured, sir.”
“Excellent work. How did you manage it so quick?”
Karla glanced at Doctor Lamont. “We had a few hours’ notice.”
“Well done. Braydon, send instructions to our men below and have them separate the leaders.”
“Yes, sir,” an upper called and typed at his computer.
Takia remained at her post. Her fingers resting on her keyboard, and I hoped she countered the admiral’s order.
The admiral pulled his kill-zapper from his belt and advanced on me. “I’m going to enjoy weeding out the first troublemaker.”
I shrank against my captors, but they held me tight. My heart trembled when he pressed the nozzle to my chest. Hell of a way to find out if Zippy worked and neutralized the kill-zapper.
“Stop,” Doctor Lamont shouted.
The admiral paused. He frowned, turning toward the doctor. “Why?”
“She’s the leader of this entire thing. She knows everyone involved. If you recycle her before you question her, you might miss a few troublemakers.”
“Trella’s proven resistant to torture,” Karla said. “If you keep her alive, the scrubs will have someone to rally around.” She scowled at Vinco. “Or she might escape into the pipes again.”
He hunched his shoulders and ducked his head.
“She might become a martyr and you’ll have more scrubs revolting,” the doctor said.
“I don’t care,” the admiral said. His focus returned to me. “Clear.” The men holding me let go. He pulled the trigger and I screamed. Nothing else happened. I swayed with relief.
My relief was short-lived. The admiral scowled, threw his weapon down and gestured for Karla’s kill-zapper. She hadn’t been here when Zippy knocked the other weapons out. Her’s would work.
Before he could press it against me, I smiled. “Go ahead. That one won’t work either.”
“She’s bluffing,” Vinco said. “If she’s so confident, why did she scream before?”
I shrugged. “I was having a little fun.” My voice remained steady despite my muscles turning to mush.
Vinco flashed his knife. “This will work.” He grinned in delight.
Breathing became difficult, I sucked in air through my tight throat, trying not to gasp.
The admiral considered then returned Karla’s kill-zapper. “It’s too messy. Take her to the brig, Commander. Find out what she knows, but if you don’t learn anything new, feed her to Chomper.”
“Yes, sir!” Vinco snapped into action, striding toward me.
“Wait,” Doctor Lamont said.
“Now what?” Annoyance creased the admiral’s face.
She turned to Karla. “What about our bargain? You said she would be here.”
“And she is.” A nasty glee sparked in Karla’s eyes.
She pointed at me. “Meet your daughter, Kiana. Trella, or should I call you by your birth name, Sadie?” She rubbed her chin as if deep in thought.
“I liked the name Trella. Guess I’m partial to TR’s and A’s.
” She shrugged. “Anyway, Trella, meet your mother.”
Horror gripped Doctor Lamont’s face, but she shook her head. “You’re lying Karla. It’s too big of a coincidence.” She uncurled her fingers. My pearl-handle comb lay across her palms. “I fell for it, too.” The faint words just audible.
“Troublemakers tend to breed more troublemakers,” Karla said.
“Although, I must admit I was a bit surprised when I went digging into Trella’s records.
I knew keeping your child alive would come in handy sometime—she’s your weakness.
I suspect Domotor also did a little digging into the computer files and recruited her to his cause. ”
“No. I don’t believe it. She looks nothing like me or Nolan,” the doctor said.
“Really?” Karla cocked her hip, studying me. “With her new blue eyes wide with fear, she looks exactly like Nolan did right before we fed him to Chomper.”
A murmur ran through the control room as the others either agreed or disagreed.
“Touching as all this is, there is much work to be done.” The admiral issued orders for the Pop Cops to carry the stunned officers to the infirmary. “Doctor, please make sure they are comfortable. Lieutenant Commander, take this scrub from my sight.”
As Vinco’s hand wrapped around my upper arm, I said, “This is just the beginning.” It was a delay tactic, but the truth of the words knitted my heart together.
Even though our rebellion failed, and we had been betrayed, I stood in the control room.
A future effort might bring the scrubs even further.
I laughed. “You can try and weed out the troublemakers, Admiral, but you’ll miss one or two and they’ll multiply. Think about it. How do you think we managed to get this far? If I can take advantage of Karla’s incompetence, then it’s only a matter of time for others to do the same.”
The lieutenant commander yanked her kill-zapper and shoved it into my ribs. “Let’s see if my weapon works.”
Vinco released his grip.
“Hold on, Karla,” the admiral said. “What do you mean by incompetence, scrub?”
“Look at what we accomplished. Domotor disappeared. We opened Gateway. I escaped the brig and have been living in the upper levels for a week. We infiltrated the computer system. And I’m in your control room and your captain is stunned.
It was ridiculously easy to break into her office.
The list of her incompetence is endless. ” I tsked.
She dropped the kill-zapper—the upside of my taunt. And wrapped her hands around my neck—the downside.
“I’m going to feed you to Chomper myself,” she said, and then squeezed.
She cut off my air and I feared she would crush my windpipe.
Groping for her belt, I found her stunner and pulled the trigger.
A jolt ringed my neck, but her fingers kept the pressure on my throat.
I dropped the stunner and pried them from my numb skin, I shoved her back into the admiral and they fell to the floor together.
Now I would go to Chomper happy.
I almost jumped a meter when Logan’s chuckle vibrated in my ear. “That must have felt good,” he said. “Wish I could have been there.”
Jacy added, “We have regained control of level one and two.”
“Trell, stay with us,” Riley said. “Once Takia can open the control room door, we’ll send a rescue party.”
Distracted by their voices, I had lost track of events in the control room. After a quick scan, my mind raced to plan a way to delay the inevitable. The admiral’s red face failed to encourage me. Vinco helped him to his feet.
“Messy or not, silence the scrub,” the admiral ordered.
Vinco advanced on me with his knife in hand.
“Overconfidence, Commander. Will be your downfall,” I said. Weak, but all I could come up with.
“And a sharp blade through your heart will be yours,” Vinco replied.
Why didn’t I hold onto Karla’s stunner? I thought fast. “Actually time is against me right now.”
“Time?”
The admiral answered. “Her time is running out. Finish the job.”
Vinco raised the blade to slice my throat. Movement across the room caught my attention for a second.
“The admiral’s wrong,” I said. “What I meant by time was I didn’t think I had enough time to distract you. But I did. So I guess I was wrong, too.”
Confusion lasted mere moments. By the time they realized armed scrubs streamed into the room, half the uppers had been stunned and the room erupted in chaos.
Vinco managed to dodge the initial blasts. With his knife still aimed at my throat, he was determined to finish the job. I kicked him in the chest. Instead of cutting deep into the skin, his slash skimmed my neck.
Single-minded, he stepped closer. My back hit a wall, trapping me. He grinned with satisfaction as he pressed his blade under my chin. The steel bit into my jaw. Then strong arms pulled him away from me and spun him around.
Riley gave him a mocking salute.
Vinco was amused. “Okay, boy. You first, then the scrub.” He lunged.
Riley twisted his hips to avoid the knife thrust and knocked aside Vinco’s arm with his hand. Vinco tried again and this time Riley grabbed Vinco’s wrist, pulled him off-balance and pressed a palm to his elbow, forcing him to the ground.
“Thanks for all those lessons, Commander,” Riley said. “They’ve really paid off.”
After the take-over of the control room, events blurred together.
Lack of sleep and the stress of the previous eighty hours caught up to me.
With my body aching from Vinco’s attack, I blindly followed Riley back to the infirmary to have the cuts on my neck stitched.
At this rate, I would use up all the thread.
The male doctor who had helped with Doreen was pressed into service while the others decided what to do with Doctor Lamont.
I woke hours later in the infirmary’s extra bedroom. Searching, I found the doctor bustling about the infirmary, tending the others wounded in the fight.
“Go back to bed, Ella,” he ordered.
I didn’t bother to correct him. Trella, Ella or Sadie—at this point I didn’t care. Instead I said, “Every bed is full. You’ll need my help.”
He scanned the room. “Nothing serious, thank air. And only a few Pop Cops were recycled. You need your rest. Once things settle down, it’s going to be…interesting around here.”
I shuffled back to my room, thinking my task was complete and I’d leave the others to figure out the rest.
The second time I woke, Riley sat on the edge of my bed. He beamed as if he knew something I didn’t.
“What?” I asked.
“You look much better.” He smoothed a strand of hair from my face.