Page 81 of The Program

His inhale was sharp as I stepped up to the barrier, my hands raised to try again. ‘Do you have enough control to flip it?’

I shrugged. ‘Only one way to find out.’

A chorus of alarmed yells sounded behind me, but it was too late. I was already pushing my magnetic field towards the barrier. Luckily, this time it worked.

I stepped through, pushing Tarren out of the way before turning back around, a smug grin on my face. ‘See? Totally fine. Let’s go!’

‘You’re insane,’ Urman muttered as he was the first to join me on the other side. The others were quick to follow, and I hadn’t really thought about it before but he might have had a point.

‘Probably,’ I admitted to him when the last of them finally exited. Tarren and Katira were standing well away from any potential health and safety hazards, hiding behind the group of giant laundry bins. Tarren peeked out first, but kept his distance when he realised we could suddenly attack him if we wanted to and there’d be nothing he could do to stop us.

No barriers to save him now.

Fortunately for him, he’d proven himself truthful thus far and I was less inclined to murder him. Torture still wasn’t off the table, however. If growing up inside The Program had taught me one thing, it was how to cause maximum pain and suffering, even without lifting a finger. He’d shown his cards, and his sister was his most obvious weakness. It wouldn’t be difficult to use her against him if I needed to.

‘Okay, let’s go get the children,’ I said, already pushing a cart and heading in their direction.

‘Wait, what? What children?’ asked Reece.

‘From The Program’s breeding program,’ Henrik informed him, sticking close in case he showed any signs of weakness from his injuries. He wouldn’t, but it was nice to have a medic on hand anyway. ‘They took all the babies and brought them here.’

He blew out a breath through pursed lips. ‘This just keeps getting more fucked up.’

I felt for him, I really did, but we didn’t have time for processing right now. I needed to get to Bal before they could hurt him.

‘We’ll talk when we’re off Nova Station and safe, okay?’ I told him. ‘I’ll explain everything then. Right now we’ve got a lot of kids to save.’

‘Right. Babies, escape, then talk. Got it,’ he punctuated with a jerky nod then winced at the strain the action caused. He and Adara both seemed less than stable, their legs still a little wobbly from what they had endured. What they were still enduring, really. Their bodies were going to take a lot more than a few turns to adjust to the changes, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.Luckily, they’d survived the worst of it already, but if they collapsed then we’d just put them in the carts with the kids and roll them the rest of the way.

The echo of fast-approaching footsteps thundered towards us, and we were officially out of time.

‘Move,’ I urged. My enhancements increased my speed, and I was well ahead of everyone else. I slowed down to keep them close, but they needed to pick up the pace if we were going to get those kids out safely.

The silver lining to the guards’ arrival was that there was no time for anyone to start something with Tarren. He was keeping up for the most part, though his sister was lagging behind a bit. So was Addy and Reece, for that matter.

Ah, fuck it.

I halted and addressed them. ‘Climb in, you’re too slow and we don’t have time.’

Reece looked like he was about to argue before thinking better of it, and Henrik helped him up and over the tall walls of my cart. I picked up Addy and lowered her gently next to Reece, and Tarren did the same with Katira in the cart Foryk was pushing.

With me and Foryk now pushing the slowest of our group, we moved a lot faster and were able to outrun the guards before they could catch us. We hadn’t caught sight of them yet, but I knew they were hot on our tail and it wouldn’t be long until we would have to fight our way through them.

I almost ran past the door we needed, and it was actually Tarren who called out to let me know. If he were anyone else, I would have sent him a grateful smile, but since it washimI settled for not punching him in the throat.

I shoved the cart through. Unable to really see over the top because it was so tall, I craned my neck to get a look at what we were working with and froze. Bodies and carts jostled me as they, too, entered the room, but it wasn’t until the door slammed shut behind us and the lock engaged with an audible click that I shook myself free of the horror that had momentarily paralysed me.

The room was cavernous. Lined with metal table after metal table, each one contained two small children all strapped down, white bands with subject numbers encircling their wrists. Machines beeped, substances dripped frombags into tubes that connected to the kids, but it was the lack of sound that was truly terrifying. Hundreds of toddlers were unconscious, all except one.

Scientists that had been roaming the gaps between the tables had paused to stare as we entered, and the guards stationed around the perimeter and the doorways were already pointing their weapons at us. But it was the familiar wail of a little boy that snagged my full attention.

There, in the centre of the room, was a single table on a dais. Instruments and machines surrounded the platform, and no less than four scientists were in the process of cutting into one, single child.

‘Bal,’ I choked out through the emotion clogging my throat. There was blood dripping from the table onto the dais below, and two of those four scientists held aloft red-tinged scalpels.

‘Artemis…’ a voice spoke from behind me, though I was too far gone to process who it belonged to. When they reached out to touch me, it was as if the room un-paused and I snapped into motion.

‘Get your filthy fucking handsoff of him,’I growled, my voice almost completely mechanical. I didn’t dare chance averting my eyes for fear they would hurt him again while I was distracted, but the now-familiar tingle covered my entire body before abruptly ending, enough proof that I was now fully encased in the metal skin. But even though these fuckers couldn’t hurt me, they could still hurt my friends.

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