Page 80 of The Program

Not for the first time I wondered why. Why Reece? What happened to make her ruin the wrong man’s life?

The answering silence to the timid Terran’s statement was loud.

‘She means we can put the children in the laundry carts and wheel them out in batches. Like oversized pushchairs,’ Tarren elaborated on her behalf.An understanding of their relationship and their actions regarding Reece slowly started to form in my mind when she shrank back and he stepped protectively in front of her, and though I didn’t like it, a begrudging respect began to form for the man.

If I was correct, perhaps he wasn’t as evil and malicious as we’d originally believed.

‘And you can access those easily?’ asked Artemis.

‘The laundry rooms aren’t too far away,’ Tarren confirmed. ‘It’s just a quick detour.’

She pursed her lips. ‘No detours.’

He huffed in exasperation. ‘Fine. I’ll go grab them now.’ He walked off, but his sister remained, wringing her hands awkwardly in front of her.

‘The barrier…’ she began, then cleared her throat when her voice came out weak and strangled. When she spoke again it was marginally louder and clear enough for us to hear her properly. ‘The barrier is a magnetic shield. We just need another magnet with the same force to neutralise it.’

Artemis slapped a hand against her forehead, shaking her head. ‘Of course. I’m so stupid. I should have figured that out.’

I scowled at her. ‘How could you have known that?’

The look she sent me was sheepish, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment. ‘Because I’m pretty sure I can create a magnetic shield myself.’

Reece almost fell off the table in his astonishment. ‘Sorry… what?’

CHAPTER 29

Artemis

Iplanted myself in front of the barrier, ignoring Tarren and Katira on the other side. Holding my hands up, Ipushed. My shield formed directly in front of me, but as soon as it hit the barrier it was clear I’d done something wrong.

The collision echoed throughout the small room and down the hallway after a bright white explosion of light, and I was tossed against the back wall. My skull cracked, probably alongside a few other bones, but I was too far gone from the head injury to notice as I crumpled to the floor. The impact blinded me, and I was pretty sure I had severed my spinal cord and paralysed myself from the neck down. Soon, however, I felt my nanites rushing to heal the damage. It was excruciating when sensation returned to my limbs, but it only lasted for a click or two. I held in my screams of agony through practiced techniques I’d long ago learned, but it was over quickly.

Hauling myself up onto my hands and knees, I panted through the last of the healing process while the buzzing in my ears dissipated to reveal a chorus of panicked voices. A glance up showed everyone crowding me, terror and alarm bleeding through their words as they all spoke over one another in a cacophony of noise. It made me wince, my newly healed eardrums too sensitive for the bombardment.

‘I’m fine,’ I promised as I let Bromm pull me back upright. He dragged me into a hug, burying his face in the crook of my neck.

‘Fuck,love. You can’t do that.’

‘Sorry,’ I said, stroking my hands down his back in soothing circles.

‘Are you okay?’ asked Cadmus. ‘You’re bleeding.’

Henrik rushed in to check me over, but I waved him away. ‘I’m fine. Bleeding’s stopped. I’m fully healed, I promise.’

A quick check of the brand on my arm showed it had turned a deep red. Accompanied by the sudden rumbling of my stomach, I knew I needed to eat to replenish the excess energy I had just accidentally expended in my first attempt. Maintaining contact with Bromm with one hand, I used the other to pull out one of the Nutri-Bars I’d stashed there for this very reason. When I noticed him watching, I realised I was probably being rude by not offering him some and gestured the question. He scrunched his nose in response, but I merely shrugged and took a bite.

‘Woman, you about damn near gave me a heart attack,’ Addy complained as she wedged herself between me and Bromm for her own hug. I kept one hand around Bromm’s waist while I let her cling to me for a moment, hugging her with my elbow while I continue to eat, but pulled away when Tarren’s frantic words broke through the moment.

‘If you’re going to break out,hurry up!Someone’s going to come to check what that was any moment now.’

I couldn’t say I was glad to see him, but at least he had actually come back with the carts. I stared at the six of the oversized bins on wheels and wondered how long I’d been out of it if he’d managed to acquire that many. It would have taken him six trips, one per cart.

‘I’m fine. Thanks for asking,’ I snarked, but I moved back to the barrier anyway, pocketing the leftovers and hoping I’d had enough. As I walked past him I accidentally made eye contact with T. He looked pained, as if he were restraining himself from restrainingme.

‘What happened?’ he asked me instead.

I sighed, feeling even more idiotic at my mistake. ‘When you place opposing poles of two magnets together it cancels out the magnetic field. Apparently, I chose the wrong pole…’

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