Chapter 15
As the pulse from the stun gun traveled through my body, it left behind a stinging pain as if thousands of needles jabbed into me.
The numbness followed, but it seemed slower.
Eventually I couldn’t move, or think clearly, or talk.
Voices reached me, but their words were jumbled.
My vision blurred and I was unable to focus on one person or thing.
I was helpless and uncaring at the same time. Odd.
Encased in something white, I sensed movement. I concentrated on the sounds around me. Water sloshed in the washers and driers whirred. Then the hum of the power plant dominated as the laundry noises faded.
The crunch and clink of the recycling plant grew louder, and I smelled the hot sweet scent of the glass kilns. The light changed to bluelights and all sounds were cut off.
The white material disappeared. The two goons talked to each other as my view changed to a lower point. They fussed with things around me then left.
Time passed until pain pricked my feet, then sizzled up my calves. Sensation returned with agonizing slowness. When the effects of the stun gun finally wore off, I sagged in relief that the fuzziness had lifted from my mind. It was quickly followed by panic.
I sat in a chair, but my wrists were clamped to the armrests with metal cuffs.
A hard ring bit into my ankles, and I guess they were cuffed to the chair’s legs.
My waist was strapped in as well. The chair wouldn’t move when I squirmed.
I considered screaming for help, but the walls had been sprayed with insulating foam, which scared me more than being secured to a chair.
Taking deep breaths, I calmed my terrified thoughts and focused on the positives. I hadn’t been recycled. I wasn’t in the brig with Karla and Vinco. And Logan knew about Inside’s top level. What else?
I glanced around in the dim bluelight. Shelves full of metal parts lined two of the walls and half of the wall with the door.
A storage closet for maintenance was my first impression, but this chair didn’t fit.
And the work table filled with half-completed gadgets meant this could be where the goons had built the anti-stunners.
I looked for air and heating vents but didn’t find any. That would explain why I didn’t know about this room. It also meant the only way out of here was through the door. A gap under it let in daylights and air.
It didn’t take a genius to guess Jacy had ordered my abduction. Although I was unclear on the why. Sloan obviously informed him of my visit to the recycling plant, so Jacy knew I had tricked my tracer. Why would that goad him into doing this?
A couple of hours later I still didn’t have any answers. Or food and water. My stomach grumbled. Finally, the door opened, my two goons and Jacy slipped inside the room. He closed and locked the door.
Clearly unhappy, Jacy studied me for a while.
I stared right back. “What’s going on?” I demanded.
“You tell me. What have you been up to?” he asked.
“I helped lance a boil—that was gross. I stitched a patient’s hand; I disinfected every surface of—”
“Stop playing around, Trella. You know what I mean.”
Like I would tell him. “This isn’t the right way to ask me Jacy.”
His scowl deepened. “I needed to get you away from the infirmary and Bubba Boom.”
“And you couldn’t have asked me to meet you somewhere else?”
“Would you have come?”
“No.” A wave of pure exhaustion swept through me. “What do you want Jacy?”
“I need to know what you and Logan have been doing for the last few weeks.”
He knew about Logan. Not good. “Why would I tell you?”
“Because we’re on the same side.”
I made a show of looking at my restraints. “Is this how you treat all your cohorts or am I just that special?”
“I know Bubba Boom fed you a bunch of lies. I didn’t realize what he was up to until it was too late. And I couldn’t think of another way to make you listen to reason,” Jacy said.
“So you attack me and tie me to a chair, and I’m supposed to believe you’re the voice of reason?”
“Yes.”
I laughed at the pure ridiculousness of the situation. “Save your speech Jacy. I saw you with Sloan and James Trava. I heard you plotting.”
“Did you hear the entire conversation?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Fine. I heard the last ten minutes or so.”
“And Bubba Boom told you about the meeting, right?”
“Yes, but don’t try to twist it back to him. You were with Sloan and Trava.”
“For a good reason. We—”
“Jacy, I’m not going to believe anything you say.
So there’s no sense trying to convince me.
” As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized my mistake.
I messed up any chance to pretend to believe him in order to get out of here.
I could blame my lack of sleep or the side effects of being stunned, but sheer stupidity was the culprit.
“All right, Trella. We’ll do this the hard way. You’re usually pretty smart so I’m going to give you time alone to think about everything that has happened.” Jacy conferred with his goons before leaving.
Right Goon crouched in front of me and rested his hands on my legs as if to keep his balance. A sudden surge of fear flooded my body as I met his gaze. A hideous thought surfaced. Would Jacy’s people resort to… Unable to even consider it, I shied away from that terrible scenario.
“I suggest you tell him what he wants to know,” he said.
“Why?” I was proud my voice didn’t shake.
“Because he’s going to get our world back.” He stood and left with the other man.
I remembered to breathe when they didn’t immediately return. But the muscles in my legs still trembled from the goon’s touch.
In order to pass the time and not think about my dry throat and empty stomach, I considered Jacy’s argument. The meeting with the captain and with the bomber had been pretty damning. What other evidence did I have?
Sloan. He pulled me from the duct, and we started the riot. Why? To empty the waste handling plant of workers so one of his buddies could plant that bomb.
But Bubba Boom disarmed the bomb…well…sort of. It didn’t matter how it had been stopped, just that it did stop. And Sloan knew right where to find me in the air shaft. Or did he? My tool belt had clanged.
Jacy wanted to plant those mics above the control room and Anne-Jade’s office. Which made sense if he worried about what the Committee was up to. Except he was on the Committee so why would he need to bug those areas unless he was more concerned about the Controllers?
And the whole situation with the Transmission hadn’t added up either. Everything I learned about Jacy had come from Bubba Boom. Then again Jacy had cuffed me to a chair in a locked room. And time remained critical. What if the Outsiders came in?
Logic remained on Jacy’s side if he told the truth, but I just couldn’t trust him. As the time passed and I grew hungrier, thirstier, and stiffer, my inclination to believe Jacy diminished with each minute.
When the door finally opened, I wished I could strangle him. He slipped in with Sloan and another goon. A visit with Sloan—now my week was complete.
He approached me warily, which, considering the circumstances would have made me laugh, but I glared at him.
“Did you think it through?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“And?”
“I decided I’ll wrap my hands around your neck and crush your windpipe first.”
“Not helping, Trella.”
“That’s the point.”
He sighed. “I’d hoped my involvement with the Force of Sheep rebellion would have earned me some of your trust.”
My gaze flicked to Sloan. “Why did he pull me from the shaft?”
“At first, I was just playing around,” Sloan said. “I heard you up in the duct. I planned to let you go, but when I found out about those mics…I lost it. It was like the Pop Cops all over again.”
“Captain Trava?” I asked Jacy.
“We need to get the Transmission fixed. He knew the right people, and he knows the Controllers are not… They’re…”
“Outsiders,” I said.
“I should have known you’d already have that figured out. Who told you—Bubba Boom?”
I kept my mouth shut.
“James Trava is helping us. He knows what Inside can do. How fast we can travel, how to maneuver our world. It’s probably too late, but something had to be done!
” He pulled in a few breaths as if to calm down.
“That’s why I need to know what you’ve been up to. You could be compromising our efforts.”
He had explained the two inconsistencies, but still. “I’m not.”
“What about Logan?”
“You should know better than me. He’s in protective custody by order of the Committee.”
Jacy stepped toward me, balling his hands into tight fists. I feared he would strike me.
Instead, he uncurled his hands and tapped his fingers against his thighs. He looked at Sloan. “Last try?”
“Don’t bother. She doesn’t believe you, boss. We don’t need her. She can stay in the Pit until we have the situation under control,” Sloan said.
The Pit? That didn’t sound good.
“I would, except we do need her. Go.” Jacy cleared a spot off the work table and sat down.
“Is he bringing food and water?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“No. But if this doesn’t work, I’ll make sure you’re fed.”
“Nice of you,” I said with a flat tone. “Since we’re having this lovely chat, did someone rescue Doctor Lamont?”
“Yes. Bubba Boom, Hank, and a bunch of the maintenance workers have been searching for you ever since, causing us trouble. That’s why it took so long to get back here.”
“Too bad.” Sarcasm laced my words. And when the silence lengthened, I asked about the Pit.
Before he could reply, the door opened. I braced for their “last try” by clamping my lips tight. But when Riley stood there with Sloan, a little yelp of surprise escaped me.
Riley turned on Jacy. “What’s this?” He gestured toward me. “You said you were going to talk to her. Let her go. Now!”
Not what I had been expecting. Maybe Riley’s anger was part of the ruse.