Abandon

Saffediene, Indy, two technopaths from Baybridge, an empath from Northepointe, and three people to run communication between our group and the others.

Our target: Rise One. Our goal: capture and detain Director Hightower. It sounded easy in my head. I knew it wouldn’t be.

Water met land, and I nudged my board north, following Jag. Just when I thought we’d successfully executed the element of surprise, bright white tech lights blinded me.

I automatically slowed my board to a stop. Next to me, Gunn did the same. To my left, the Confinement Rise strobed from ground to roof. The door gaped open, and out marched two men, shoulder to shoulder.

They split as soon as they left the building, creating a space for the two men who followed them. And the two who followed them. And the two who followed them.

I hovered, stunned, as clone after clone after clone filled the street in front of the Confinement Rise.

“Thane,” Jag said. “I think you can handle them by yourself. Let’s continue, guys.” He maneuvered his hoverboard away as Thane descended toward the Confinement Rise. I paused, waiting to see just how many clones there were.

They kept coming and coming and coming. “Ja-ag,” I said, but he was too far away, and the hoser didn’t wear an implant. Saffediene heard me, and she settled by my side to observe.

Thane had reached the clones. Nothing happened. I waited, expecting him to put them to sleep, the same way he had in Grande. Saffediene had cached me the report, and while I knew she’d wanted to talk about the clones, I hadn’t engaged her because I didn’t want to “use her” the way Jag had accused.

What’s he doing? Saffediene asked over my cache.

Thane gestured wildly at us. Without another chat, Saffediene and I took off to help him. The frontward clones pulled out tasers. The motion rippled back through the crowd until every single one was armed.

“Whoa,” I said out loud, forgetting completely about being stealthy. They obviously already knew we were here.

Thane shot straight up as at least twelve tasers fired in his direction.

Evasive maneuvers, I chatted to Saffediene. Thane! What did you say to them?

My heart beat double time, my body vibrated with crazy-adrenaline as I flew in close to the clones who had already discharged their tasers. I had a three-second window before their weapons would be ready to fire again.

“Sleep,” I said in my most powerful voice. The clones didn’t move. They didn’t so much as blink.

I ducked as taser barbs arced toward me. Saffediene cried out behind me. She didn’t have a voice; she couldn’t do anything but get killed. Retreat, I commanded her.

Thane! I called again. I couldn’t find him in the night sky. The lights surrounding the Confinement Rise were too bright.

I twisted back and flew in front of the clones who’d just fired at me. “Deactivate your weapons,” I said. I’d never achieved this level of control in my voice. It should have worked. They should have pocketed their tasers.

They didn’t.

Another wave of taser fire caught my board. The hovercraft lurched under my feet and went right while I continued left. I couldn’t help it. I screamed.

I was falling, falling into an army of clones that wouldn’t respond to my voice. I hit the ground hard. Four clones stood over me. I reached for the taser at my belt. If my voice wouldn’t work, maybe I could at least fight my way into the orchards.

Zenn! Thane’s voice over my cache could barely be heard over the pounding of my heart.

I fell! I chatted, sprinting down the line of clones. If I could just make it to through the fray . . .

I’ll pick you up on the beach, Saffediene said. Can you make it there?

I dodged a clone as he stepped out of line. I plowed into another clone, and we both fell to the ground. My legs and arms tangled with his, but I scrambled to my feet just as a taser discharged. Techtricity struck where I had stood a moment ago.

I ran. I don’t think so.

“Stop! Stand down! Drop your weapons!” I shouted as I ran.

They don’t respond to voice control, Thane said.

What gives? I asked. They’re just clones.

They’re deaf, he said.

Horror struck me, and I tripped over my own feet. I slapped away the reaching hands of a clone even as the whine of a taser filled my world. I pulled myself to my knees, desperate to get away and reach the safety of the orchards.

We’re screwed, I thought just before the techtricity entered my body.

Jag 33.

A jolt of fear struck me as Vi’s voice sounded in my head. I didn’t wear an implant, but when she screamed, Jag! I heard it reverberate in every cell.

I twisted to find her several yards behind me, hovering in the air, pointing back the way we’d come. Below me, where the ground was once black and forbidding, it was now streaked with light.

Curses flew through my mind. I zoomed toward Vi, but I didn’t need her to tell me the problem. Zillions of tech lights chased every shadow into the orchards.

Thane hovered near the roof of the Confinement Rise, but I couldn’t see anyone else. Anyone besides the hundreds and hundreds of clones.

Deaf, Vi said inside my head. Her voice rattled around in there, as if it didn’t quite know where to settle.

I cocked my eyebrow at her. Deaf?

Meaning they can’t hear, she said. Your voice won’t work. A tremor shook her body. Zenn fell.

Should I have been worried? Yes. Was I? Absolutely. I’d seen the naked fear in Zenn’s eyes when he’d spoken about Hightower. I’d heard him say, You don’t know what he’s like. I could not abandon Zenn here.

Where? I asked.

I don’t know. I can’t find his mind, either. It’s like he’s . . . She didn’t finish the thought, but she didn’t need to.

A rocking boom! shook my attention from Vi’s escalating worry about Zenn. We faced the direction of the noise. Rise One wasn’t hard to spot, what with it being the tallest building in the city. Smoke wafted from it, illuminated by a pulsing blue light.

Can you communicate with Thane? I asked Vi.

Yeah.

Tell him to stick with Saffediene and try to find Zenn. We have to get to Rise One.

She looked at me, and her accusation didn’t need to be said—or thought. I could read it in the way she stiffened.

Are you coming? I asked, unwilling to apologize for what needed to be done. Did she think Zenn didn’t know the risks? That he wouldn’t leave us all behind to finish the job? He knew this was