Page 58 of He is… Creed: Part Three

“We’re ready to go,” Dr. Chin announces.

The walkie-talkie sounds off. “Phone records coming to your email now.”

Chapter Fifty-Two

Creed

I pace the computer room inside Neonopolis as Jensen works the keyboard, Caleb leaning over his shoulder. “I never should have let her do this,” I voice. “What the hell was I thinking letting her go to the base alone?” I halt and eye Jensen impatiently. “Anything?” I demand. The wire signal disappeared fifteen minutes before, and that’s too long. “Either you find her exact location, or I’m going inside the base after her without it.”

“I’ve triangulated her cell phone ping.” He leans back in his chair. “It’s still in her office. She must have taken the wire off, afraid she’d be discovered. She knows you can get a basic read on her from your bond.”

“No,” I say. “She wouldn’t leave her phone and the wire.”

Caleb straightens. “She’s still in the building. If she’s with her father, she’s safe.”

“She called me,” I say. “I picked up on enough to know she’s been arrested. That’s not any version of safe.”

“Fucking with her head is not killing her,” Caleb reminds me. “He’s into mind games. You know that.”

“I’m going after her.” I head for the door, and by the time I’m on the roof, Caleb is by my side. I don’t wait for a discussion to take place. I fade and reappear on the outskirts of the base.

My cellphone rings, and I snatch it from my belt, the unknown caller ID alerting me to trouble. I hit answer on speaker without saying a word. In exchange, I hear, “Hello, Creed.”

I go deadly still at the sound of the general’s voice. He could only locate my number by way of Addie or her phone. “Addie is here with me,” he says. “You and I need to have a conversation. Alone. In person. You should know that not only do I have the ability to use Red Dart, but Red Dart has the ability to create excruciating pain in the infected GTECH. Anyone who comes with you will find out firsthand.”

Jensen appears next to Caleb, and I turn away from them both. “Put Addie on the phone.”

A second passes, and I hear, “Stay away, Creed! Do not—”

Fuck.

Lawrence is back on the line. “I have a little extra incentive,” he informs me. “Every fifteen minutes that you are not here, Addie will receive an electric jolt.” He speaks to someone else and orders, “Shock her.”

Addie’s scream of pain tears through me, and while I should feel it, I barely do. It’s nothing more than a ripple down my spine, but it must be torture for her.

Fuck, again. I’m gutted. What if the conversion isn’t complete? What if he kills her with the jolts? I pray it’s the extra chromosome. Maybe we don’t share pain or death.

“Damn you, Lawrence,” I bite out, anger tensing every muscle in my body.

The general is back on the line. “You have fourteen minutes until the next jolt.” He recites an address that I know well. It’s my mother’s house.

The line goes dead.

I rotate to face the other two men. “I’m going alone. At best, he wants me. At worst, this is a trap to use Red Dart on all of us. We can’t risk that happening.”

“You’re not going alone,” Caleb orders, no give in his voice.

“I don’t have a choice.”

Caleb tries to bring reason to the equation. “Let’s think about this.”

I glance at my watch. “I have about twelve minutes until he shocks her again. I’m leaving. You stay here and lead the Renegades. Just make sure that if Addie and I don’t make it through this, you make it worthwhile.” Vehemently, I add, “Make General Lawrence and Julian pay, Caleb.”

My attention snaps to Jensen. “Caleb needs someone to do the dirty work if I’m gone. To cover his back. You be that someone if I’m gone.”

I fade into the wind.

Chapter Fifty-Three

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