Outside In Part 23

"Aren't there instructions?"

"Even if we could access the computer, there aren't any instructions on the network. After the damage to the Trans mission, I searched for them and found nothing. Which makes sense. If something happens to the network, you don't want your operating instructions lost as well."

"Would they be written down somewhere? Or on disks?"

"Ink on a wipe board would fade over time and I couldn't find any disks with the information. Unless they're packed away in one of those storage boxes in the Expanse."

His words triggered another memory. "What would these instructions look like?"

"Diagrams and schematics. Mostly visual step-by-step guides. Why?"

"Like some of the symbols that show up on your computer screen?"

"They would be similar."

The walls of the top level of Inside had been filled with diagrams. "UhaLogana How do you feel about heights?"

Logan didn't have a chance to answer because Lamont's voice squawked in my ear. "Trella, where are you?" A nervous tremble tainted her voice.

"Level four. What's wrong?"

"I have a medical emergency and need your help," she said with a slight quaver.

Warning signals rang in my head. "Who's sick?"

"Emek's appendix is about to burst."

Which would be a medical marvel since we removed his appendix weeks ago. "Is he stable?"

"No. He won't last two hours. I'm stunned by how fast his vitals turned critical. You have to hurry or we'll lose him."

d.a.m.n! "I'll be right there."

Logan raised his eyebrows, inviting me to explain. How do I tell him two people had forced my mother to call me so they could ambush me when I returned to the infirmary? He would insist on coming along and I couldn't risk him.

"I need to go help Lamont," I said instead. "Will you be okay here or do you want to return to your room?"

He considered and I almost screamed at him to think faster.

"I might as well go back. No sense tipping them off about me. It's just a straight shot over to my room, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yes. Head east, you're the very last vent." I scrambled up the ladder, but paused as a horrible thought struck me. What if my "rescue" ended badly? No one would know about the Expanse's ceiling.

"Logan, just listen." I explained about level eighteen at the top of the Expanse, describing the symbols on the walls and the Bubble Monsters. "If I disappear, get Anne-Jade and climb up to the near-invisible hatch. I left the safety line tied to the ladder and I doubt anyone's noticed."

"Wow, Trella. How long have you known about this?"

"A few weeks. I've been busy fetching your junk."

He smiled. "And you didn't inform the Committee?"

"Probably a bad decision at the time, but now I'm thrilled I kept it quiet."

"Me, too. How long should I wait?"

"Ten hours. That'll give me enough time to help Lamont and sleep. But if the Outsiders enter, don't wait. I'm a.s.suming you can contact your sister?"

"Of course. I have this sweet little devicea""

"Tell me later." I entered the air shaft. As I hurried over and down to the infirmary, I replayed Lamont's exact words in my mind. She managed to give me quite a bit of information. Two ambushers, armed with stun guns and they waited in the exam room.

I slowed as I reached the ducts over the infirmary. Looping over the patient area, surgery and exam room, I noted how the two men had positioned themselves on either side of the door to our suite. Lamont had been strapped down on the exam table. White medical tape covered her mouth, but she had the best view of the air vent.

Potential rescue scenarios raced through my mind. I could find Anne-Jade and a bunch of ISF officers. Except they were unarmed and these two not only had stunners, but the one on the right side carried a kill-zapper. Who else could I trust? Logan might have some gadgeta Zippy!

Sliding over to the vent above my room, I lowered myself down and grabbed Zippy from my bed. I hefted him up and into the shaft without too much noise. Hopefully, they'd think the few thuds meant I had returned.

I tucked Zippy under my arm so he wouldn't rub against the metal shaft. Back at the exam room, I removed the cover with care. Lamont's eyes widened and she gestured at the men with her head. I nodded and put a finger to my lips before lowering Zippy just enough so he cleared the shaft. Flipping the switch, I hoped he would do his silent electronic pulse thing.

Once I pulled Zippy back, I swung through the vent and dropped to the floor. I had the element of surprise and a stun gun. In the second it took for them to react, I shot them both. The sizzle slaps rang, but they didn't fall down.

The man on the left pointed to his belt buckle. "Anti stunners." He aimed his weapon at my chest.

I flinched but nothing happened. Good job, Zippy. Then I realized it was me against the two of them. I bolted toward the patient area. And I would have escaped, too.

Except one of them yelled, "Stop or we'll hurt Doctor Lamont."

d.a.m.n. I turned. The right side goon held a scalpel to Lamont's throat. Her angry eyes aimed a clear signal at me to keep running. They were probably bluffing, but I couldn't take that chance. Not with her life.

"Drop your weapon," Right Goon ordered.

An odd request considering I couldn't hurt them with it. I placed it on the floor and Left Goon picked it up. Before I could even say a word, Left Goon stunned me with my own gun. The sizzle slap hit me in the middle of my chest, knocking me back.

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'd never felt so helpless and uncaring at the same time.

Encased in something white, I sensed movement. I concentrated on the sounds around me. After a while, I heard the washers slosh and spin. 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 gla.s.s kilns. The light changed to bluelights and all sounds were cut off.

The white material disappeared. The two goons talked and my view changed to a lower point. They fussed with things around me, then left.

Time pa.s.sed until pain p.r.i.c.ked my feet, then sizzled up my calves. Sensation returned with agonizing slowness. When the effects of the stun gun finally wore off, I felt 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 guessed 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 had 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 and my two goons and Jacy slipped inside the room, closed and then 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 boila"that was gross. I st.i.tched a patient's hand, I disinfected every surface ofa""

"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 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. Wea""

"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 had 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 balancing himself. A sudden surge of fear flooded my body as I met his gaze. A hideous thought surfaced. Would Jacy's men resort toa Unable to even consider it, I s.h.i.+ed 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 pa.s.s the time and distract myself from my dry throat and empty stomach, I considered Jacy's argument. The meeting with the Captain and with the bomber had been pretty d.a.m.ning. 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 bombawellasort 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 was 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 pa.s.sed 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 Sloana"now my week was complete.

He approached me warily, which, considering the circ.u.m stances would have made me laugh, but I glared at him.

"Did you think it through?" he asked.

"Yep."

"And?"