the daylight seared through my eyes to the back of my skull. There was no time to adjust, so I squeezed my eyes closed except for a tiny crack and let Adrien pull me ahead.
“We’re on the east end of the building, right?” Adrien asked.
“Yeah.”
“Good.” He sounded relieved. “That means my duo-rider is around the corner.”
I had no idea what a duo-rider was, but I just focused on running as fast as I could and watching the concrete under my feet so I didn’t trip.
“There!”
I looked up and saw a small egg-shaped vehicle by the wall. The engine was already running and it hovered a few feet off the ground, though I didn’t quite know how. There weren’t any of the fuel-burning propulsion modules roaring along the bottom like I’d seen in other flying transports. The engine was just quietly whirring. The top half of the vehicle was made of one solid oval window. Adrien raised his hand and clicked a small hand-held device. The window lifted up and backward to reveal two seats, one behind the other, and a small stepladder dropped down the side.
I tried to step up with my thick, booted foot, but it didn’t fit into the ladder rung.
“Come on,” I said to myself, as I tried again and managed to get my boot tip wedged in enough to hike myself up. I heaved my body over the side and into the narrow backseat, looking up just in time to see a Reg burst out of the backside of the building.
“Adrien, get in!”
His wiry body moved faster than I’d ever seen as he leapt into the front seat and sealed the window shut in the same motion. The Regulator ran straight at us.
“Why isn’t he shooting?” My voice was near hysterical. We were a clear target out in the open like this.
Adrien grabbed the steering controls. “He’s the one missing his firing arm.” We lifted off the ground.
I sat back and buckled myself in. After another moment, I breathed out in relief as the vehicle rose higher and higher into the air.
We were safe.
Then the vehicle rocked forward suddenly, making me lurch in my seat. I looked ahead and saw a metal hand clamped on the small hood of the duo, inches away from the window. We were almost twenty feet in the air now, but the Reg had still managed to launch himself high enough to grab hold.
He pulled himself up over the front edge with his one arm. The flesh portions of his face were blistered from the acid, parts of his nose and his bionic eye missing entirely. Even the metal on part of his face had melted and partially slid off, revealing the bone underneath. But none of it stopped him. He pulled himself higher up the hood of the duo with single-minded determination.
Adrien fought with the steering, veering wildly left then right in an attempt to shake him, but the Reg had gotten an iron grip on the lip of the front windshield.
I closed my eyes and tried to focus. I needed to use my telek. I could easily dislodge him.
Nothing happened.
With a giant crack, the Reg smashed his head against the window. It was reinforced plastic, so it only cracked and dented inward, but a couple more hits like that, and he’d make it through and get to Adrien. The image of Milton’s crushed skull flashed in my mind.
There was no more time to try accessing my power. I reached over to the front seat and grabbed the weapon holstered at Adrien’s hip.
“Open the top,” I yelled. Adrien didn’t look my way, but he reached forward and clicked a switch. The window started lifting up and backward, creating a crazy rush of air that almost knocked the weapon out of my hand. I managed to keep a grip and pushed the trigger. A burst of red light flared straight into the Reg’s face with enough momentum that he was blown backward. He didn’t release the metal shell as he tumbled down. The duo’s hood peeled off with him, leaving the engine underneath exposed.
Still the Reg held on.
Adrien flipped the switch so the roof sealed shut again, then swung the steering stick back and forth in a zigzag. We could only see the Reg’s hand, gripping the shredded metal of the hood, but the rest of his body bobbed below, his weight still throwing us off balance. He wasn’t letting go, no matter how much we swerved and twisted.
“Hold on to something,” Adrien said. I was already nauseated from the movement, but I gripped the armrests.
Adrien jerked the stick full backward, and we headed straight up into the sky. My head knocked against the back of my helmet at the sudden movement. Then he rammed it back down and sent us in a spiraling freefall. My stomach dropped and I clung to the armrests, trying to contain the terrified scream that rose in my throat at the sight of the rapidly approaching ground. As we spun, the centrifugal force pushed the flap of hood metal outward. The Reg flew out with it away from the body of the duo, but he still held on. His added weight threw us into an even more intense spin.
After a few more dizzy, chaotic seconds, the piece of hood the Reg gripped so tightly ripped off with a screeching tear, and he was flung off into the air.
The vehicle rocked heavily as the Reg fell free, and Adrien’s knuckles were white on the steering stick as he attempted to right us. But we still spiraled downward and the ground was so close that I could begin to make out the leaves on trees.
“Adrien!” I shouted, bracing my hands against the back of his seat.
He strained with his whole body to pull the stick backward.
My heart lodged in my throat as I waited for the impact, but finally we pulled up out of the spin, and after another few moments we were flying straight again.
It was suddenly bizarrely quiet.
“We made it,” I finally whispered, barely believing it.
But Adrien shook his head. “We’ve only just begun.”
Chapter 3
ADRIEN’S BACK WAS RIGID as we flew. The only hint that he was rattled at all was a slight tremble in his hand as he punched through an interface cube that rose as a projection from the duo’s console.
I looked behind us. The lab was only a square dot now with the outline of city buildings jutting up behind it in the far distance. No one was following us.
I looked back at Adrien. I could see in the small mirror that his face was taut with focus and his thick hair was matted around his forehead. I’d never really seen him like this. I’d known Adrien as the quiet voice talking to me late at night in my room about beauty and the human soul, not as Adrien the soldier. I’d known vaguely that he used to run missions like this all the time. He’d lived on the run and then joined up with the Rez when he was fourteen. But seeing him in action was something totally different.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He pressed his lips together tighter. He looked almost angry. For a second, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me, but he finally said, “I should have been there earlier. I was so stupid. I should have found a way to get an encoded message out. I could have warned Milton not to come into work today and gotten you out another way. Now he’s gone, and I almost lost you—” He stopped and clenched his jaw like he was physically holding words back. “I should have done things differently.”
“It’s not your fault, Adrien.” I tried to reach out to touch his shoulder, but my strap held me back.
“I can see the future,” he said, his voice hard. “Whose fault is it but mine?”
“Without you that Inspector would have captured me. You saved me.”
His jaw stayed just as tight. I couldn’t tell if he believed me.
“We’re not safe yet,” he finally said. “Those Regs will be calling for an armada to find us,” he said. “The duo’s cloaking mechanism isn’t built for long runs, but the beta site’s nearby. I should be able to get us there before it wears off.” His voice dropped. “At least I can do this one thing right.”
