The Unpaired (The Pairings Book 3) Page 14

  If I don’t find Jarid there, if I don’t find those scientists, I’ll kill you instead.

  The coordinates for the lab drew us to a non-descript two-story warehouse in the middle of an industrial park. We passed graffitied buildings with colorful anti-corporation sentiments on the crumbling structures. I peered at the side mirror again, looking to see if I could catch a glimpse of anyone following us, but it was still clear.

  Syeth parked the truck in the parking lot outside of what looked like the main entrance. Jarid hadn’t given us any more information than a scrambled version of the latitude and longitude of the building, which hadn’t taken Syeth long to figure out. It had been a cipher from their past when they’d played “spies” as children.

  Once we were outside, with not a noise to be heard other than the slamming of our doors, the air around us seemed to stand still, waiting for whatever unknown laid inside the building. Syeth and I scanned the area.

  “Do you think we were followed?” I asked, wondering if I had missed our tails.

  “Probably,” Syeth said. “There’s no way Isra would have let us get this far from Chicago without having an idea where we were going. I’m sure whatever eyes are on us are already reporting that we’ve stopped. But it will take time to get an assault team here, which will buy us a little time to ourselves before they strike.”

  I glanced at the windows of the building. They were near to the roof, eighteen or so feet from the ground. There wasn’t any movement around, but Syeth and I stayed vigilant, arming ourselves. Syeth held his gun pointed downward as he pushed open the main door.

  My rifle was in a similar position as we spilled into the warehouse.

  The moment we were inside, Syeth closed the door tightly. There wasn’t a lock, but at least the door would be a brief deterrent to the Unpaired getting into the building. The room was a wide-open space, most of it filled with shelving units that spanned both stories. Each shelf was tall enough to fit our truck parked outside. But they were all empty.

  Our footsteps echoed around us as we headed toward the other end of the room. It must have taken up most of the square footage of the building, and we didn’t see any signs of life.

  “Let’s make sure we’re alone here,” Syeth said.

  Being alone was the last thing I wanted. A familiar feeling of betrayal snaked through me. This couldn’t be it.

  But there wasn’t anyone in the main room. There were two bathrooms on the far end—a men’s room and women’s room—but both were empty.

  We walked the space twice more. “We must have the wrong building,” I said.

  “This is what the coordinates said.”

  I couldn’t help thinking that it might be a trap. Isra would revel in proving Jarid untrustworthy.

  Syeth’s phone rang. “It’s Isra.” He picked up. Her voice carried through the line, telling them she knew they’d stopped and demanding to know what was happening. “This place is empty,” he replied. He paused. “Yes, we looked around.” Another pause. “Well, Lora doesn’t care for you threatening her life, so we are telling the truth. You can come here and see for yourself. There’s no one here.”

  The mention of the threat to my life made my throat clench, but not as much as the thought that Jarid had lied to us about his location. Had his team somehow been tipped off that the Unpaired were planning to attack? Or had he lied to us the whole time? The cure had worked on Dad, but what if BioPure meant to use that to lure me to a location and steal another uncooperative scan from me? His mother hadn’t seemed worried when we had been in the VaxWell lab. Was I a fool like Isra thought?

  I leaned against a shelving unit between the two bathrooms, not expecting it to shift against my weight. But it did. When I turned, I could see something of interest behind it.

  A set of elevator doors.

  Why on earth would someone hide them if we were expected?

  I whipped around to Syeth, but his gaze had already snapped to what I saw—another entrance. He strode over to me and turned his phone on speaker, and held it between us.

  “There are Unpaired on the way to your location, but we will wait to hear from you,” Isra said. “Once you make contact again, let us know. Otherwise, we will be monitoring his communications.”

  The phone switched off, and Syeth dropped it to his side.

  “Do you think that’s where the lab is?” he asked.

  I nodded and touched the pin Isra had given me to remind myself that both help and hindrance were just a click away.

  Syeth and I moved the shelving unit, which slid easily on rollers, to give us enough room to slip by. He clicked the button next to it. I almost expected it not to work since the place seemed deserted, but the answering whine of the motor humming to life gave me a surge of hope. We were close.

  When the doors opened, Syeth and I didn’t hesitate to get inside. There were two basement levels, but the lower one had the number scratched off. I pressed that one before the doors slid closed, sealing us inside.

  “Do you think they’ll wait for us to contact them?” I asked.

  “No idea. Which is why we need to focus on getting your brain scanned and then getting Jared to a safe place.”

  Visions filled my mind of going up the elevator with Jarid in tow, and Isra at the main floor with her gun pointed at him when we arrived.

  The doors opened, squashing that image from my mind before it was blown away with another.

  Syeth and I stepped out of the elevator, and for me, time seemed to stand still.

  “Holy shit,” Syeth said, reading my mind.

  The laboratory wasn’t anything like the abandoned first floor or the surrounding area and buildings. It spanned about half the size of the main warehouse two levels above us and was even more technologically advanced than anything we’d seen at VaxWell or the BioPure lab in Denver.

  Gorgeous, brand new, gleaming equipment filled a partitioned space to our right. At least thirty researchers sat at computers or scurried across the room, visiting at other stations as they moved. There was enough light in the space to make my eyes water a little. There were three full-sized scanners hooked up side by side next to groups of biomedical fabrication equipment. No wonder they were able to afford to give us some of their treatment. They had enough staff and equipment to make vats of it if needed.

  The other side of the room was blocked off by walls with the word DORMITORY written on a placard next to a set of double doors.

  “Come on,” Syeth said, waving me along. No one seemed to pay us any mind as we walked through the open path in the center of the room. Either they’d expected our arrival or they were too busy with more important tasks.

  “How have they not been found out yet?” I asked. “The electricity they’re using in this place alone… Isn’t it dangerous?”

  “It must be solar or wind power. It’s the only way they would’ve been able to stay under the radar for this type of operation.”

  And what an operation it was.

  We passed a long table with a dozen researchers around it, with one at the head of the table pointing at a whiteboard with black-markered equations etched across it.

  I wasn’t sure why I slowed down, but the faces of all of the people at the table seemed important. I didn’t recognize anyone until I noticed a young man standing next to the guy with the black marker.

  Jarid turned around then, and Syeth let out what sounded like a gasp mixed with a groan.

  “Lora!” Jarid said.

  The man holding the marker turned around and so did the rest of the researchers. I only had eyes for him, though.

  “John?” I asked.

  A wide grin crossed his lips, and he rushed over and pulled me into a hug. I squeezed his arms, trying to be sure that I wasn’t dreaming and he was really there. Right in front of me.

  “I can’t believe it,” I said against John’s shoulder. “I can’t believe it. Jarid, you did it.”

  I couldn’t believe that Jarid had come thr
ough. John was safe. He was with us again. A rush of relief coursed through me, slamming into my body hard enough that my legs almost gave out from under me. I held onto John harder.

  Jarid quirked a smile and clapped a hand on Syeth’s back before Syeth pulled him closer into a hug.

  The others at the table seemed almost as proud as Jarid. All of these people wanted a better life for their families. Everything that we had been working toward aligned again. Suddenly, everything seemed possible. We could find the cure for good this time. We could help my parents and everyone else who’d been diagnosed with New Zero, and without BioPure’s control. We could take that corporation down for good and end the war.

  When John pulled away, he raked his hands through his hair. It was much longer—or maybe it only seemed that way since we hadn’t seen him in so long. He was freshly shaven, though, and the others in the lab seemed to feel comfortable in his presence. How long had he been there waiting for me?

  I launched myself into Jarid’s arms, wondering how I could ever repay him for getting John back. I almost regretted complaining about the two-week wait for the plan to take place because it had given Jarid enough time to work his contacts and perform a miracle in getting my dad back.

  “Thank you,” I said to him again. “But wait, where’s Marisha? Didn’t she come with you? Is she okay?” My mind immediately began thinking that something horrible had happened to her, but John spoke up.

  “She’s safe, but they weren’t able to bring her, too.”

  I wanted to ask more questions, but Jarid cleared his throat and untangled himself from me. “Guys, I’m so glad you made it. But there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Not waiting to hear what he had to say, I jumped in. “I’ll do the scan now,” I said, knowing this was how I could help him as much as he’d helped me. I knew John would want to get back on track right away, especially if Marisha wasn’t there to help. He had been a rebel for so long, I felt sure he’d been excited to get back into the lab to go against BioPure. Especially with the high-tech equipment they offered. It was ten steps up from where we had been in our lab.

  Jarid massaged the back of his neck. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “What did you mean?” Syeth asked.

  A tingling sensation rippled at the bottom of my spine. His expression didn’t match our elation.

  Jarid glanced over his shoulder.

  I spotted John’s reaction—a restrained one as he sucked his lips inward.

  “Jarid, what’s going on here…” I trailed off as the tall woman behind him, who had been hunched over a computer right next to us, turned around and straightened her spine.

  My heart ached as if someone had just punched me in the chest.

  “Hello, Lora darling,” Mia said, moving her silky black hair over one shoulder. Her eyes shifted from me to Syeth. His hand reached for his gun while Mia’s pursed lips spread into a wide and wicked grin as if she was in on a joke that we certainly weren’t. “It’s so good to see you again.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Seeing Mia again brought back the last time we’d seen her at the BioPure headquarters in Denver. She had stalked us around the building, killing most of our team and nearly killing us.

  I stumbled backward, recalling with perfect clarity the moment she had dropped into our trap in the office. We hadn’t expected her arrival through the closet, and she had nearly murdered me, Syeth, and John before we’d managed to get the best of her.

  Jarid reached his arms out to me as if to comfort me, but I only wanted Syeth. I backpedaled toward him.

  John’s mouth opened as if there was any way he could explain his betrayal, but my heart pounded in my ears like the gunshots which had killed our team in Denver. I fell into the vision of that night, seeing Mia covered in rebel blood, still with the same wicked expression on her face.

  I reached for my rifle and pointed it at her face.

  Mia moved like a lightning bolt. Her hand struck forward like a snake catching its prey within its fangs and gripped the muzzle of my gun. She held the rifle down, even against me pushing it up toward her. She was impossibly fast and strong. Her long fingers squeezed the front of the barrel, holding it down effortlessly. “Careful,” she purred. “Someone might get hurt if you keep waving that thing around.”

  The researchers who, only moments before, had been busy in the room, quickly filed out, and then a click sounded behind me.

  Mia’s gaze flicked toward Syeth. She might have been juiced up on mods, but she wouldn’t be able to stop both of us at the same time.

  “Get away from her right now,” Syeth growled. “Or I blast your brain open all over this place.”

  Her lips mashed into a line, but her gripped loosened.

  I tugged at the rifle, and surprisingly, she let go. Though, in a matter of seconds, she grabbed my arm. Her nails dug into my skin like claws before she spun me around. I tried to get out of her grasp, but she had an impossibly strong grip. It was like fighting against my attraction to Syeth or the Unpaired as a force. I didn’t stand a chance.

  Mia’s hand wrapped around my neck and squeezed until I choked on the lack of air.

  “That seems unwise, Syeth,” she said. “So, why don’t we all just stand here like this while Jarid explains? Since I doubt you will believe anything I have to say right now.”

  “Step away from Lora and try me,” he said. Then, Syeth turned a murderous glare on his twin brother. “Start talking.”

  Mia’s hand loosed slightly, and I sucked in a breath before she tightened it again. Spots filled my vision as Jarid started to explain.

  “Remember I told you about the mysterious benefactor placed highly in BioPure? Close to Sledge?”

  “Her?” I croaked out. “You can’t be serious.”

  I slid a glance toward John. The way Mia held me didn’t give me much opportunity to turn my head, but he should have known better. He knew what she was like and what she did to people. He rocked on his heels, not looking me in the eyes.

  My mind whirred. Jarid hadn’t been on our team in Denver, but surely John must have told him about her reputation. Mia’s hand was steady, but I didn’t dare move. If she was the one who Jarid had chosen to help us, I wanted to hear that nonsense from him.

  “She helped get John back from the train to New York. She made all of this possible.”

  “The lab? You did this?” Syeth asked.

  “Why not?” Mia asked.

  “Because you tried to kill us in Denver!” Syeth’s hands kept the pistol trained on her. “And you work for Sledge.”

  “Formerly,” she commented.

  “We can’t trust her,” I said, knowing I wasn’t in any position to insult her since she could snap my neck without a second’s notice.

  “She brought me here, Lora,” John said.

  Even if she had saved John, she was Sledge’s second in command. What could have happened in the six months since we’d last seen her to make her switch sides? She was highly modded and beautiful. BioPure gave her the ability to be the worst kind of assassin and look good doing it. Why would she ever move away from BioPure and leave her access to the mods behind? It made no sense.

  “I might have thought so, too,” Jarid said with a pained expression on his face.

  “What do you mean?” Syeth asked.

  “She didn’t share her identity until I came out to the lab,” Jarid said. “I promise I would have told you ahead of time. Though, you probably wouldn’t have trusted me then, huh?”

  “Nope,” Syeth said.

  “You can trust her,” Jarid said, staring at Syeth’s gun. “She’s had so many chances to betray us already and hasn’t. She brought a serious enemy against BioPure to this place at the risk of her own life.”

  I glanced at John, who gave a slight nod.

  “Sledge is after her,” Jarid continued. “She’s just as desperate to take him down as we are. Right, Mia?”

  Mia didn’t say anything at fir
st, which made her seem guilty. But her hand disappeared from around my neck, and she shoved me forward. I stumbled into Syeth, who held me against him as he finally lowered his gun. His hand brushed against my neck and I sucked in a breath. Heat seared the spot, and I wondered if her fingerprints were burned into my skin.

  “I didn’t need to get my brain split open—as you said, Syeth—before Jarid explained his side. It seems, though, Rothkind number one, that your family doesn’t even trust you. So, I suppose I could try and ease your minds.”

  I wasn’t sure if that would ever be possible. My neck ached from her touch and my hands trembled with anger. I hated her, and now I was expected to trust her?

  “Is what he said true?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “Sledge knows someone tipped the rebels off about his plans in Denver. He’s been hunting for that person, trying to pin a hole in that leak.” She made a cutting motion with her finger across her own neck. “I’ve directed his suspicions at several other members of his inner circle. He’s torturing them right now, and since they didn’t actually do it, he’s eventually going to figure out his mistake. Then, things are going to get a bit trickier. His suspicions will lead him to the person who fingered them.” She pointed both thumbs at herself. She was so calm at the mention of someone threatening her life.

  “Now,” she continued. “I have to get Sledge out of power before that happens. Helping you all is my best shot, and I’m taking it. I’ve stolen top-level prisoners and left the company, with its most prized research team in tow, as well as a boatload of expensive equipment. I can’t go back until Sledgie’s gone and Jarid and his friends here are in charge. I’m not about to spend a single hour in Sledge’s torture chamber. Mostly because I designed it, and it’s a bitch to escape from. I made it that way, and I never want to be on the other side of any of that equipment if I can help it. So, I think maybe we should all get along. What do you think?”