She shook her head, fear showing in her eyes.
“So why don’t you tell me about your car?”
“It’s a… uh, an A4. White.”
“That’s better,” I said, pocketing the keys again.
“I know I don’t need to tell you this,” Kaz said, “but take us by whatever route passes the fewest people.”
Dr. Grace nodded, and after I checked to make sure the hall was empty, she led us through a part of the building I hadn’t yet seen. We took an elevator down two floors to a subbasement, the cinder-block walls and concrete floors lit by fluorescent lights, and after another brief walk, we took a freight elevator back up and paused in front of a set of double doors.
“This leads to the garage,” Dr. Grace said. “Go ahead.”
I turned Dr. Grace’s key in the lock and was getting ready to push when Kaz stopped me.
“No. Wait. How do we know it’s really the garage? She could have brought us anywhere.”
I stared at the doors, the freshly painted surfaces, the gleaming hardware and realized that Kaz had a point.
I rolled Bryce’s bed backward, away from the door, but while Kaz hesitated, Dr. Grace threw herself at the doors and they crashed open, revealing a windowless room where three men worked at desks. In a fraction of a second, they bolted from their chairs and reached for their weapons. One hit the floor and rolled, and another fired at the doorframe, sending splinters flying.
“Get them!” Dr. Grace yelled, but we were already on the move. Kaz shoved her from behind, propelling her into the room, and I threw the doors shut. I heard a scream on the other side and realized that Dr. Grace had been hit.
Kaz yanked the bed linens off Bryce, revealing his wasted body in a hospital gown, and muttered “Sorry” before lifting Bryce over his shoulder. I flinched when Bryce cried out from the pain.
“Come on!” Kaz yelled, and we dashed back down the hall, the laptop heavy under my arm. We rounded a corner and saw that the freight elevator was still waiting with open doors, and we threw ourselves into it and I jabbed at the Close button. In seconds we were descending again.
I was half expecting the doors to open on someone pointing a gun in our faces, but the corridor was still eerily quiet. Bryce moaned as Kaz shifted his weight on his shoulders.
“This way,” I said, guessing. A door marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY was propped open. I felt for a switch, found a bank of lights and shoved them all on.
Kaz followed me into the room and I kicked the doorstop out of the way. The door slammed and we were alone-and safe, for the moment.
We were in the industrial heart of the building, a cavernous room housing massive heating and cooling units with dozens of huge white pipes curving into the ceiling. Ladders and fire extinguishers were mounted on the wall. The equipment hummed, echoing off the concrete floors.
“I’m setting you down,” Kaz said, easing Bryce to the floor and then standing painfully, massaging the strain from his shoulders. Bryce flopped like a rag doll and lay still.
“We can’t take him out of the building now,” I said. I knew they must be sounding the alarm throughout the building, trying to find us. “You have to do it here.”
“But he’s out,” Kaz said.
I knelt down next to him. “I’ll just heal him a little more,” I said. “Then I have to go.”
“Go where?”
“To get Rattler and Prairie. I’ve been thinking about what you said.”
“You can’t go out there now,” Kaz protested. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I have to. We need them to help us get Chub out.”
“But there’s-”
“And you have to stay here with Bryce and make him help you destroy it all.”
Our eyes locked for a moment, Kaz’s fear for me battling his determination, and then he nodded. There was no other way.
37
THERE WAS A DIAGRAM on the wall that showed the heating and cooling infrastructure throughout the building. “See if you can figure out a route to the garage,” I suggested.
And then I took Bryce’s hand.
I was pretending bravado I didn’t feel, but as I bent over Bryce, I forgot my fears and focused on making him just a little bit better. I had to be careful; I would be no good to anyone if I let the healing sap too much of my strength. I needed only to keep Bryce conscious and alert.
For the first time ever, I was aware of holding back. I had said the words often enough that they came automatically to my lips, and I envisioned a barrier in my mind, a black velvet curtain lowering and sealing off most of my energy, releasing only enough of my gift to settle and calm Bryce’s overtaxed heart, to restore enough health to his lungs and throat that he could breathe and talk.
And then I pulled back. I sensed the gift returning to me, and swallowed the healing words.
But it had helped. Bryce’s skin looked better, and a downy fuzz of hair had appeared on his skull. His eyes were bright and alert, and he licked his lips and raised his hand to scratch at his neck. He no longer seemed to be drowning in pain.
“Mr. Safian,” I said carefully, worried that he would turn back into a ruthless maniac now that he was feeling better, “you must help Kaz now. You need to tell him the commands to wipe out your remote backups. Can you do that?”
For a moment he said nothing and I wondered what we would do if he refused. Now that I had brought him some relief from his suffering, I doubted he would be as cooperative. Not only might he have decided he no longer wanted to die-but he might be eager to protect his life’s work.
“I will do that,” he said, his voice sounding rusty from lack of use.
“It’s really important,” I said. “You have to make sure that-”
“No more,” Bryce rasped. “No more healing, no more zombies.” He pointed to himself. “I was wrong. I deserved to die. The things I have seen them do, since they brought me here-evil things. I never understood… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
His hand lifted weakly off the floor and he pressed his fingers to my face. They were barely warm, but I didn’t pull away.
“How can I believe you?” I asked.
“Before, I wanted… money… power. Since I came here, I have wanted only to die. I never sleep, the pain keeps me awake, and I think of those young men… every one of them. They never leave me.”
I didn’t know what to say. His regret seemed genuine, the tears sparkling in his eyes real. I wanted to believe. But after everything he had done…
“Hailey, you have to go now,” Kaz said. “We’ll be fine here. Come take a look at this.”
He led me to the diagram and showed me that the garage was located directly above us, one floor below ground level.
“Look here,” Kaz said, pointing to a box with an X in the far corner of the square labeled “HVAC.” “This vent goes straight into the garage.”
He pointed to the corner of the room, where a large square grate had been installed in the ceiling.
“You want me to crawl up there?” I asked skeptically. “That’s got to be fifteen feet off the ground.”
Kaz pointed to the ladders.
At first the task seemed hopeless, even with the ladder we dragged over. My fingertips barely touched the grate. I could reach one of the clips holding the grate in place, but even if we moved the ladder so I could loosen each of them, I’d still have no way to get up there.
“I need your help,” I said. “A boost…”
I climbed down to the floor, and Kaz hoisted me onto his shoulders. I blushed when he grabbed my ankles to keep me steady, but he didn’t seem to mind. He climbed the ladder slowly, my hands wrapped tightly under his chin, until he was standing on the top step.
Now that I could reach all the clips, I worked at them frantically. Looking down was scary, and several times Kaz wavered and I almost lost my balance.
But Healers aren’t like ordinary people. We’re stronger, faster, hardier, and more coordinated, and when the last of the clips clattered to the floor, I reached up for one of the braces holding the ceiling in place. I gripped it tightly and swung myself up, sliding my feet into the opening and scooting into the tight space. I blinked away cobwebs and saw that beyond the opening was a large hollow vent.