The Cage: The Hunt Part 26

The coast was clear.

She tiptoed through the quiet rooms and scaled the stairs silently to find Mali's cell. She started to reach for the lightlock, but a hand snaked out and grabbed her.

Mali's face loomed in the glowing light.

Cora pressed a finger to her lips. Mali nodded. Cora closed her eyes and focused on unlocking the door. It swung open, and they both tiptoed back down to the lower level. Mali started for Lucky's door, but Cora held out a hand.

"Wait."

Something didn't feel right. It went back to her argument with Lucky about what would happen after the Gauntlet. He'd said that he wouldn't leave the animals, Gauntlet or not. If she woke him up now, would he still refuse to go?

She chewed on her lip, knowing they were running out of time. She motioned for Mali to follow her into the medical room, where she quietly told Mali everything that had happened. "So now we run," she added, "and hope we can bribe our way off this station, which isn't going to be easy without any money."

Mali's eyes widened for a moment. "Wait here." She scampered off before Cora could stop her, and returned with one of the filthy safari sacks.

"Mali, that reeks."

"Yes." Mali untied the bag as though she was immune to the stench. "Keeps the others away so they do not find this."

Tokens. Hundreds of them.

"They belonged to Dane," Mali explained. "When we swapped Ros.h.i.+an's collection of tails into his cookie tin, we had to empty these out. I told Lucky I would hide them." She closed the bag again. "Will they be enough?"

Cora paused-it was the first time she'd heard Mali state a question like a question. She smiled. "I hope so."

Cora turned around and started rooting through the medical room cabinets. Mali slung the bag over her shoulder and frowned. "What are you looking for?"

"I heard Pika say something once about reverse revival pods. To put agitated animals to sleep. It's for Lucky. There's a chance he'll insist on staying behind. And now isn't the time for him to be n.o.ble."

Mali hesitated but then reached into the cabinet and took out a greasy package. "It is this one."

Back in the cell room, they knelt by Lucky's cell. He was asleep with one arm through the bars, the fox curled against his palm. For a second, a part of Cora hated what she was doing. But she pushed past that feeling and set the pod near his face. In a moment the tense set to his expression eased, as he slipped into a deeper sleep.

Cora opened his door, and they dragged him over the dirty floor.

"He will be mad when he wakes," Mali warned.

"Yeah," Cora muttered as she heaved his sleeping form down the tunnel. "But he'll also be alive."

CORA'S ARMS ACHED BY the time they'd crawled halfway through the tunnel, but she didn't dare stop. Lucky's body was too heavy to lift over the cleaner trap triggers, so they'd had to double back and take different tunnels until her vision blurred from the thin air.

She paused to catch her breath. From the nearest grate came the sounds of heavy boots and flat Kindred language.

"Do you understand what they're saying?" Cora asked.

Mali wobbled her head. "A little. They are looking for us."

Cora's heart started thumping harder. She prayed the tokens would be enough to convince Bonebreak to let them on that s.h.i.+p. She dragged Lucky down turn after turn, following Leon's chalked marks on the walls.

"Move to the side!" Mali yelled. "Now."

Cora tossed a look at a package that was floating behind them. Not fast, but faster than they were crawling with an unconscious body. Mali pressed herself into one of the tunnel alcoves, clutching the sack of tokens tight against her chest. Cora glanced at Lucky, then at the nearest alcove. Not enough room for the both of them. She shoved him as far back into the alcove as she could and, just as the package nipped at her heels, dived into the empty one across from him.

Every moment felt like eternity as Cora waited for the package to float past. There was a crack in the alcove and she pressed her ear against it, listening for the sounds of more Kindred guards hunting for them.

There were Kindred voices, but quieter. She almost thought she heard a few words of English, and pressed her eye against the crack.

Beyond was a cell.

Six feet by six feet. It could have been the exact one they'd put her in after her failed escape attempt. The same toilet. The same sink. But there was an examination table in the center. A figure s.h.i.+fted on it, and she gasped.

Ca.s.sian.

She pressed a hand against the wall. He was unconscious, strapped to the table. Tubes snaked through his skin and ears and nose, pulsing. On a small screen next to him, a three-dimensional projection showed flashes of images. Fian and Tessela. Sera.s.si and her equipment. Cora. The dice and cards they'd used to train with. The machines were dissecting his thoughts. First was a projection of him playing go fish with Mali on a beach. And then one of him trying to draw a dog in the privacy of his quarters.

And then, the kiss they'd shared just hours before.

Suddenly Ca.s.sian hissed, and she realized he wasn't unconscious. They were doing something to him, probing his mind, and it was tearing him apart, just as it was tearing her apart to watch.

One of the doctors must have heard her gasp; he looked around. She jerked away from the wall crack, breathing hard.

Across from her, one more package drifted by.

"It is clear," Mali whispered.

Cora's heart was pounding so hard she wasn't sure she could talk. "Go. I'll catch up." Mali gave her an uncertain look, but she shook her head. "I'll be right behind you."

Mali gave her a long, steady look but left. Cora spun and pressed her eye back against the crack. There was equipment on the wall she hadn't noticed before. It was all the length of her arm, and it ended in sharp needles and blades. She didn't have to know what the instruments were for to know that Ca.s.sian would likely never walk out of that room unchanged.

When he had confessed to her crimes, he must have known that this would be his fate.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered quietly.

Below, the medical officers inserted another snaking tube into his vein, and he let out a scream.

She choked back a sob and pressed her hands to her face to hold in tears. She couldn't do this-stay here and watch him be tortured. Mali and Lucky and the others were waiting for her. Even now, Kindred guards were scouring the station for them.

And yet she couldn't tear herself away.

She had always accused them of being the monsters, but she was the reason he was suffering now. She traced her eyes along his lips, blue now with lack of blood flow. His eyes, mostly cloudy with half-uncloaked thoughts, rolled back and forth. She had thought he was an angel once. There were no such things as angels-she knew that now. But he wasn't a demon either.

"Cora." It was Mali, at the far end of the tunnel. "There are more guards in the hallways. We must go now."

She wiped the tears away and stumbled back from the wall. Her heart pounded even harder, each beat an accusation. "I'm coming."

Tears were coming faster, but Mali didn't ask the reason, just picked up Lucky's legs and dragged him too, until he started to mumble incoherently as he slowly woke.

"Lucky." Cora slapped him lightly on the cheek. "Lucky, can you hear me? Can you walk?"

But he didn't answer.

They reached a higher tunnel where, stooped over, they could move faster. They each wrapped one of Lucky's arms around their shoulders and dragged him, still half asleep, mumbling words that made no sense. Cora tried to put the scene of Ca.s.sian's torture out of her head, but it was impossible. At last, they reached a gate that was marked with Leon's signature sign for the Mosca camp: a broken bone.

Cora pounded on the door until it swung open into a dank, chalky room with poor lighting, and she drew in deep lungfuls of air. There was just light enough to make out Leon arguing with a Mosca underling. Against the far wall, Nok was handing a bottle of water to Anya, who took it gratefully, speaking a few words Cora couldn't hear.

"Anya is awake!" Mali slipped out from under Lucky's arm. Without Mali's help supporting him, Cora buckled under Lucky's weight until Leon jumped up to help lay him flat on the ground.

"Great. We just get that crazy girl awake and how he's out cold?" Leon asked. "What happened, a guard knock him out?"

"It's a little more complicated than that." She knelt beside him, shaking him gently. "Lucky, can you hear me?"

He mumbled groggily but didn't wake.

"Listen, I'll explain everything," she said, though she wasn't sure if he could even hear her. "Right now we just need to-"

"Well, well."

Cora froze. It was a voice she had never heard before, and yet she instantly knew who it belonged to. Those stunted words. That wheezing, like someone breathing through a mask. She turned to find the most hideous creature she had ever seen.

Bonebreak folded his hands, drumming his fingers together. "More little childrens." He turned to Leon. "I hope your friends are rich, boy. Because there are Kindred guards just outside the door. They know you are here. And protection from them will be very expensive."

She dragged over the sack of tokens. She tore at the knot until it opened, and then upended the bag so they spilled onto the floor. "Is this rich enough for you?"

39.

Cora THE ROOM WENT SILENT.

The only sound was Lucky mumbling in his sleep, Bonebreak's delighted cackling as he appraised the mountain of tokens, and the pounding of Kindred guards at the door. Was the Council there too, beyond the gate? She looked around frantically, wondering where Bonebreak's s.h.i.+p was. The echo of Ca.s.sian's scream was still in her ears. They had to get off this station now.

"You didn't tell me what good friends you have!" Bonebreak said to Leon, and then turned back to Cora. "I will be happy to take your money, girl."

"This isn't just to keep those guards out." Cora knelt next to Lucky, brus.h.i.+ng the hair off his forehead. "I want a ride off this station. If you can't take us to Earth, take us as far away from here as possible."

Bonebreak went still.

"Uh, Cora," Leon started, "I wasn't supposed to tell you about that-"

She couldn't see behind Bonebreak's mask, but a growing shrill wheeze came from behind it, until he erupted and spun on Leon.

"I will break your bones!" Bonebreak roared. "I will dance on them until they pop!"

Leon backed toward the door.

"Wait!" Cora threw herself between Leon and Bonebreak. "Listen, let's focus on the money here. That's a lot of tokens. Think of everything you could do with that amount. All the, um, vodka you could buy."

Leon clamped his hands over his head as if he knew how screwed they were. Stacked beside him were odd-shaped boards that, she realized, exactly matched the shapes of the bruises all over his body.

Maybe Ca.s.sian had been right all along, when he had said that the Mosca couldn't be trusted.

"A deal?" Bonebreak almost sounded amused. "You are offering me a deal? How cute. However, the Kindred on the other side of that door are offering a deal too. All of you, for a lifetime of trade pa.s.ses. That sounds like a much better deal to me. Plus they will let me do whatever I want to that one."

He jerked his finger toward Leon, who went pale.

Bonebreak raised his arms. "Get them!"

Other Mosca came skittering in from other rooms. They grabbed Nok and Rolf. One stood guard over Lucky, prodding his unconscious body with the point of his toe. Cora recoiled as one that smelled like sulfur grabbed her.

Leon was cursing everyone in sight, but the two Mosca holding him were strong for their size, and he couldn't break free.

Bonebreak started for the door that held back the Kindred guards. It had a blue sensor, like the others, and a manual lock too-Mosca technology-so that the Kindred couldn't unlock it with their minds alone. Bonebreak placed a hand on the lock and chuckled as he started to slide it open.

"Wait!" Cora tore away from the underlings and threw herself against the door. "We can offer you a better deal than they can. I promise."

Bonebreak snorted. Up close, he smelled ga.s.sy and rotten. The skin where his mask was sewn to his face was scarred and black around the edges, and it turned her stomach.

"You are human," he said. "They are Kindred. They will always have more to offer than you." He shoved her aside, but she shoved right back.

"That isn't true! They're bound by a moral code that we aren't. We can do all kinds of things for you-lie, steal, kill, cheat. Give us a chance to prove how valuable we can be."

Beyond the door, the Kindred guards had stopped shouting, but there was an ominous thunking sound instead, as though they were using heavy machinery to break inside. Bonebreak's head c.o.c.ked.

"Hmm . . . ," he mumbled.

Cora's heart beat faster. She curled her fingers around the lock, squeezing it impatiently.

"Nah," Bonebreak said.

He reached for the lock again. Cora's vision started to fracture. Her fingers, slick with sweat, glided off the lock. On the other side of the door, the Kindred had started talking again, in a way that was slow and confident. Whatever tools they were using to break down the door kept thunking.

"That's it," Leon announced. "Time for negotiations is over."

He gave a bellow. It shook the room as he seemed to draw into himself and then thrust out his arms like he was ripping s.p.a.ce itself. The two Mosca underlings holding him were thrown backward to the floor. They scrambled, but with their flat back armor and spindly legs, they only skittered around like overturned beetles.

Mali launched herself at the nearest Mosca. She moved so fast Cora couldn't follow the arc of her arms and legs, and in seconds the Mosca's neck was twisted, its masked head flopping unnaturally.

In the s.p.a.ce of one breath, it was a battle.

Mali tore Bonebreak away from the door. She was half his size but quick. Anya still looked slightly dazed, though she managed to twist out of the Mosca underling's grasp.

"Cora!" Nok called. "Get the door!"