Override

Chapter 23

I MESSAGED XONA AND GINNI to meet me later in the equipment room. They were the only two I trusted completely. Part of me longed to message Adrien, but I couldn’t be sure where he stood in all this. If he’d seen something about the General in the future, he wouldn’t tell us. And maybe it was petty, but I still couldn’t forget what had happened the other night. I needed to be able to focus right now, and I couldn’t do that with him around. Besides, the fewer in on this, the better chance we had of pulling it off.

“What’s up?” Xona asked when she walked in. “Why not just talk in our room?”

“Because someone might overhear or come in. I didn’t want to take any risks.”

“What risks?” Xona asked. She put a hand to her waist, touching her weapon holster. Her eyes darted around anxiously. “Is it those ex-Reg bastards? Are they spying on us?”

“No, nothing like that.” I took a deep breath. “I want to break into Taylor’s office, and I need your help.”

“What?” Ginni’s eyes flew open wide. “We can’t do that!”

But Xona looked as if I’d finally said something worth her time. “What are we looking for?”

“I overheard Jilia and Henk talking about an operation called Kill Switch. He’s building her some kind of device.” I looked at Ginni. “Have you heard anything about it?”

She shook her head.

I paced in the small space. “Look, Taylor’s the leader of the Rez. But what if she’s making the wrong decisions? I just learned today she and Jilia have been doing experiments on glitchers to take away their powers.”

“What?” Ginni sounded shocked. “They wouldn’t!”

Xona didn’t seem as outraged. “It could be pretty handy against the Chancellor and her minions,” she pointed out.

I nodded. “Exactly. That’s how they justified it. And I don’t know,” I threw my hands in the air, “maybe it’s the right thing to do. But they’ve done it all in secret. We’re supposed to be on the same side, but she had the weaponized gas installed here at the Foundation to use against us.

“Taylor talked to me about sacrifice once, about being willing to give up the people you loved most for the greater good. Which might be a nice ideal, except I’m not sure she’s going to give us a choice in the matter.” I stopped pacing and looked at them. “We need to know what she’s up to.”

“What does Adrien say?” Ginni bit her lip nervously. “He’d know if she were planning something bad. He’d have a vision of it, right?”

“I think maybe he already has.” I looked down. “But he won’t tell me, and I’m not sure he’d help us with this. We need to get into that office. I’d do it by myself, but if I just rip off the door to get past the locks, it would set off alarms.”

“Which is why you need me,” Xona smiled and cracked her knuckles. “I may not be a computer whiz like Adrien or that other security kid, but I’ve been sneaking into places my whole life. I just have to steal the daily encryption key for the compound’s locks.”

“You won’t be doing anything of the kind,” said a deep voice from the doorway.

We all froze.

Tyryn walked into the light, striding quickly to where we were gathered in the corner. He held up a sonic listening device. He’d obviously heard our entire conversation.

Ginni stared at him open-mouthed.

“You gonna rat us out, Ty?” Xona narrowed her eyes.

Tyryn held up a hand. “Xona, I know better than to try to keep you out of trouble. I didn’t come here to stop you. Something big is going on, but they won’t tell us anything. And the way Taylor takes risks lately…” He shook his head. “I’m here to help.”

“Can you get us the encryption key?” Xona asked.

Tyryn smiled and held up a small drive. “What, you mean this?”

Ginni pinpointed the General’s location, confirming she was away at another Rez site. Tyryn agreed to go down to the military level and keep a lookout. If we triggered any alarms, the soldiers there would be the first to know. Ginni stayed behind too, but promised to watch with her power and com us if anyone was approaching.

We waited until everyone was asleep, then Xona and I crept over to Taylor’s office. Xona waved the newly encrypted key card in front of the reader at the door. The metallic sound of the sliding door opening echoed down the empty hallway. I cringed, but Xona was calm. She made a sharp forward motion with her hand. I followed her inside.

I was nervous. We couldn’t afford to make a mistake here. At least Xona was completely cool, a total professional at this. She closed the door behind us.

The lights clicked on, and I gasped.

“It’s just the motion sensor,” Xona whispered, then allowed a smile. “Don’t be so tight, girl.”

She went around Taylor’s desk and began rifling through the papers tacked to the board all around the imaging panel.

“Bet if she knew we were in here she’d rethink her paper obsession,” she said.

I nodded. “Ginni says it’s because Taylor thinks paper is safest. There’s no way it can be hacked digitally, and the Foundation is their most secure location. Secure to outsiders at least.”

Xona pulled on one of the drawers in the desk.

“Locked.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “When there’s a lock, you know the good stuff’s hidden inside.”

I went over to the closet on the left side of the wall. It had an old manual slide door, and I opened it easily. “Well then I guess this is a very good thing.”

Xona popped her head up from behind the desk and let out a low whistle. “A safe!” She hurried over to me. “The General sure likes her Old World stuff, huh?”

I crouched down to get a better look at the wide three-by-three-foot box that took up the entire floor of the small closet. I closed my eyes and raised my telek. It took a little longer than normal for the buzzing to sound in my ears because I was so anxious, but it finally came. I cast around the box.

“How do we open it?” I asked.

Xona pointed at a circle turnstile on the front and frowned. “It’s an antique. No one bothers learning how to open these things anymore. We should have brought Rand. He could have melted through it.”

“Yeah, along with whatever’s inside,” I said sarcastically. I finished my sweep of the surface with my telek. “If it’s an antique, what is this wire on the back for?”

I could feel that it lead from inside the box straight into the wall.

Xona swore. She stood and felt quickly up and down the door frame of the closet. Her hand stopped about midway in the frame. “I should have known.”

“What? Should have known what?”

“That opening the closet door would trip an alarm.”

I pulled back as if stung.

Xona was still crouched down, whispering furiously. “Of course. She mixes in the Old World stuff to trip you up so you don’t expect the tech.”

The buzzing in my head eclipsed Xona’s voice. Taylor was going to know someone had broken into her office. We couldn’t change that. But we could still make sure it was worth it.

I projected my telek inside the box and felt the outline of a stack of thin sheets. More paper. And then I saw a vial of liquid perched above the papers and sensed vibration like a ticking noise.

Then the ticking stopped. It must have been counting down. I felt the first crack in the vial before I could react.

“No!” I clapped both hands to the sides of the safe to anchor myself inside. I surrounded the shattering vial with my telek just as the first drop of liquid beaded through.

At first I was afraid it would be like the fire and I wouldn’t be able to hold on to it. But the liquid had enough surface area that I was able to catch it all with my invisible lasso, holding it in the shape of the splintered vial.

“Get back,” I said through gritted teeth. Obviously we weren’t getting out of here without Taylor knowing, so there was no reason to try to be smooth anymore. Xona moved out of the way. I let the buzzing build in my ears and then ripped the door off the safe. I was still careful not to let go of the liquid or let a drop spill. Now that the door was off, I could see what it was. Acid. If I’d been touching the liquid with anything other than my mind, I’d have been badly burned.

“Take the papers out,” I instructed Xona, my heart thumping in my chest now.

She reached in carefully and retrieved them.

I raised the door gently off the floor where it had landed. Xona’s eyes were wide as it floated past her and fitted it back onto the hinge as best I could. I forgot how much my glitcher power unnerved her sometimes.

Xona handed the papers to me. “Let’s go.”

I flipped through the top few pages. There were charts and schematics, none of which I immediately recognized. Xona headed for the door when I noticed my blinking arm panel. “Wait,” I said. “Ginni’s messaging—”

But Xona had already opened the door. Three ex-Regs stood in our path, tranq guns pointed toward us.