The second arm raced towards June. She recoiled from it.
‘Dom?’ June whispered.
The needle jabbed her vein roughly and stayed there. She cried out.
Dom smiled. ‘It’s okay. You won’t feel the next part.’
Carissa wondered about his time here. But a third and fourth arm extending down dragged her thoughts back to the next part. One had a set of retractors. The other had a laser and was cutting through the fabric on June’s clothes. The pincers held the clothes apart while the laser continued to cut. It made a neat incision in June’s belly. The retractors pinned the skin back, exposing the womb.
So much blood. Carissa had never seen that much before. The smell of iron filled the air and made her feel dizzy.
148-C said, ‘You promised I could leave!’
Dom nodded to the rebel soldiers and they took him outside.
Carissa covered her eyes, peeking now through slits in her fingers. The set of pincers lifted the baby out. Vanessa had her jacket off and was holding it out for the arm to place it in. The arm hesitated, then dropped the baby into it.
A fifth arm sealed the tear in the womb and the retractors retreated up and into the ceiling. The pincers held the skin closed while the arm with the skin-repair tool mended the horizontal slice in June’s skin. Carissa removed her hand from her eyes and examined June’s belly. Except for a slight bulge from the trauma, her skin was healing nicely. June sighed with relief, but her eyes were on Vanessa, cradling her bundle.
‘Give her to me,’ she said.
Vanessa looked up at her, surprised. ‘How did you know the sex?’
‘I had a feeling.’
Vanessa smiled at the baby Carissa couldn’t see and handed her to June. And that’s when she saw her. A human baby. No flaws. No horns. No strange additions. Just flesh and bones.
Then it began to cry. The noise pierced her eardrums. She covered her ears.
‘Jacob!’ she cried out. ‘Stop the noise immediately.’
The Inventor just laughed. ‘That’s what babies do, miss. It’s their way.’
‘I don’t like it. Stop it.’
The Inventor continued to chuckle, which only irritated her more.
‘I can hear it a mile away.’
It was something the Inventor used to say. She hoped she got the context right.
The Inventor froze. He looked at Dom and Vanessa, then at June.
What had she said wrong?
‘They’ll hear her before we reach safety,’ said the Inventor.
And then she understood. The baby was making too much noise.
Vanessa grabbed Carissa’s shoulder, startling her. ‘The growth machine. Do you know how to operate it?’
That, she’d seen in action. Newborns being grown into toddlers in a matter of hours. She nodded. If it stopped the crying, she was all for it.
June cradled her bundle.
Vanessa touched her shoulder. ‘Are you sure about this?’
June nodded, her lower lip quivering. ‘None of this is her fault. She needs all the protection we can give her.’
9
Anya
Being back inside the medical facility sent a deep shiver through Anya. For obvious reasons. The place lacked the usual bustle that she’d experienced while prisoner. But none of that mattered. Not when Alex and Jerome were still missing.
She was halfway up the first set of stairs when she heard someone behind her. Anya stopped and stared down at Thomas, who had paused on the step.
‘I can do this on my own.’
‘I know, but I need to feel useful,’ he said. ‘I’m trying not to think about what happened.’
Thomas was a tall, skinny twenty-year-old with brown hair similar to Jason’s. His pale skin told her he preferred being inside to out. Just like Jason did.
Had.
A lump lodged in her throat.
‘Were you and Jason friends?’
Thomas stared at the floor. ‘I didn’t know him for long.’ He looked up. ‘But I’d like to think so.’
The loss pinched at her fragile heart. She gripped the wall with the tips of her fingers, to steady herself.
‘Jason didn’t have many friends, but I can see why he picked you,’ she said. Thomas smiled at that. ‘Come on, I suppose I could use a second set of eyes.’
Thomas resumed his climb and she sensed, as she climbed higher, that he also needed a distraction. She stopped short of the door to the second floor. Thomas paused two steps below her.
She turned to him. ‘Were you and Max close?’
He sighed and nodded. ‘If it hadn’t been for him and Charlie, I wouldn’t be here.’
‘It seems we both have the same person to thank for that.’
While Max had not rescued her from this medical facility, he had attempted to rescue her from the ninth floor of Arcis after he, Jason and other soldiers had successfully stormed the facility.
Anya studied Thomas’ face. ‘I don’t remember you from Arcis.’
‘I was never in Arcis.’
‘We were on the ninth floor. The rebels... they came for us. Jason was with them...’ She could barely say his name without bursting into tears.
Thomas smiled sadly. He leaned a shoulder against the wall. ‘Preston went instead of me.’ His smile dropped away. ‘He was killed by the Copies.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She couldn’t think of anything else to say.
Thomas shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.
‘The weapons—your designs—they got them past Arcis’ force field?’
Thomas nodded, looking away. ‘That was the only thing that worked well that day.’
‘They saved us out on that battlefield. They gave us the upper hand.’
Thomas smiled sadly. ‘They didn’t save everyone.’
‘Come on, let’s keep moving. We don’t know who’s around.’
She clutched the Electro Gun hard to her chest, as if the feel of the cold metal might stop the hurt there.
She slipped through the door to the second floor. Sweeping her gun around, she checked for signs of Copy
