Y - Novel Teaser

Consequences

Only four beeps had sounded from the bedside table before the sound of footsteps reached Marlie's ears. She lifted her head as she sat up a little higher on her bed. The headboard creaked as she lay her head against it. Four beeps. A little under two minutes were left on the timer. They were earlier than she'd hoped.

Light came after the footsteps. One figure stepped into her bedroom, flashlight strapped to the underside of her rifle's pronged barrel blinding Marlie as it was trained on her. She raised an empty hand slowly to cover her eyes and ward off the glare as the figure announced in a firm, female voice, "Target acquired. Looks unarmed."

Within seconds, a handful more women in the uniforms of tower security had crowded into the little bedroom. Each one was armed with a rifle, and five different flashlights lit up Marlie as she heaved a quiet sigh and let her hand drop to her side. "You ladies think you could turn a few of those off?" she asked as she turned her head away from the bright lights.

Not one of them switched off their flashlights, and Marlie just sighed as a quiet chuckle came from the doorway. "After your work today, Doctor Mathews, do you really blame them?" came another female voice, as rich and smooth as silk. "Command override," she announced, her voice suddenly sharp. "Overseer Angela DeWinter authorizing. Restore power."

"Power restored," announced a mechanical voice from elsewhere in the apartment. All at once the room's natural light flashed back to light and banished the darkness. Marlie hissed at the sudden shift, and her hand rushed up to cover her eyes all over again. She'd been used to the dark, even after those flashlights had nearly blinded her. At least the whir of the apartment's systems restoring hid the quiet beep of her timer. One minute.

The click of her heels on the floor marked the Overseer's approach toward Marlie. "Oh, Marlie. Marlie, Marlie, Marlie. You make me chase you all day, and you come right back to your apartment?" Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Luring us to the Archives and locking us in first was a nice touch, but still... here you are. Disappointing, after everything else you've done."

"Shouldn't have made it so easy for me, then." Marlie frowned as her eyes began to refocus again. There was the Overseer in all her glory. Black, strapless dress, ebony heels and white gloves. Her features were sharp and white as porcelain and she had eyes so piercingly blue that they could have been lasers that bored into Marlie's skull. She was an imposing woman at the best of times, but standing there with her hands behind her back and staring down her nose at Marlie? Angela was in charge, and she knew it.

She knew Marlie knew it. She reveled in it as Marlie grit her bloody teeth. "Still, sorry I keep letting you down, Angela. I'll do better next time. Promise."

The cool smile on her lips was all the more malevolent for it, though it sagged slightly with obvious fatigue. "All can be forgiven. You know what's at stake. All you have to do is give me back the data and we'll call this whole thing done." Angela's eyebrows lifted slightly as she rolled her shoulders in an easy shrug. "I'll overlook the fact that you took down the tower's internal security systems. I'll overlook the twenty-six dead. I'll overlook the treason. You just need to give me the flash drive."

Marlie snorted as she licked some of the blood off her lower lip. "And then give me the finest medical treatment available? Reinstate my position? Ensure my safety? Please. I give you the drive and you execute me here and now."

"So much for not letting me down next time, I guess." Angela shrugged again as she looked around the darkened room. "No games, then. You are going to die. I am going to kill you myself. However, if you don't hand over the drive, I will kill you and then shift my wrath to your son." Her eyes glittered as she watched Marlie bristle. "I don't want or need to kill a breeder, Marlie. You've already forced me to send one breeder to the black floor today. If you'd like dear little Rohan to join Mister Roth there..."

Marlie's lips pressed tightly together as she stared Angela down. "Go to hell, you bitch," she growled through clenched teeth.

The pistol that was clutched in Angela's hand wasn't the same model of electrolaser that Marlie had handed her son. The muzzle flash of the pistol was startling to Marlie, but the silencer dimmed it almost as much as it dulled the weapon's report. Marlie jerked back against the headboard as she brought a hand down to her stomach. Her fingers came back slick with fresh blood, and they trembled before her face as she stared between them at the Overseer. "W-was that s'posed to m-motivate me?" she asked with a snort. Pain broke apart her words as she clutched at her new wound.

"You'll be sitting through that gut wound for a while yet," Angela replied with a shrug as another member of the tower security force shouldered her way into the room. She kept the pistol leveled at Marlie's chest as she perked a single eyebrow. "Plenty of time for us to discuss the drive, your research, and where you've hidden it. I think you'll find that... what was that?" she asked, as the sixth beep from the end table interrupted her.

Marlie just smirked. "Wh... that? That means five minutes are up, Angela." She gave a shaky laugh as the computer systems of the apartment gave another whir and spontaneously shut down. The lights dimmed and shifted from white light to red, and the lights in the hallway outside did the same thing. They began to pulse slowly as if with their own unified heartbeat as the security personnel looked around with confusion. "M-maybe you should take care of that first... or did y'think I'd just sit here without a backup plan?"

Angela's brow furrowed as she glared down at Marlie. "What have you done?" she demanded.

The smile on Marlie's lips widened even as it grew a little bloodier. "Shouldn't have pissed off a biochemist, Angela. Hydrofluoric acid's a... heh, a bitch when it gets into th-the main power lines, isn't it?" She began to laugh as Angela straightened up with a growl. "I'll never tell you where-"

A second silenced shot lit up the room for a second and cut Marlie off in the middle of her sentence.

Blood trickled from the fresh hole in Marlie's chest as she fell across the bed, and Angela tucked both hands behind her back again. "Of course you won't," she muttered, and heaved a quiet sigh. Defiant to the last. How frustrating. The Overseer turned from Marlie's body to the security guard who'd entered the bedroom earlier. "What have you found?"

The woman just shook her head and bowed it before the Overseer. "Internal communications are still up, but we're running off internal backup power. Tech's saying she cut the main conduit through-"

"Not the sabotage," Angela snapped as she slipped the pistol back into its holster through a slit in her dress. "The drive. She wouldn't sabotage our security system if she still had it on her. Where is the drive?"

The guard recoiled back from the angry Overseer, but she straightened up after a moment and snapped to attention. "Checkpoint Twelve heard from a training boy that her son was down on level forty-seven and appeared bloody. Lost sight of him before she could detain him, though."

Angela nodded as she glanced around. Each of her security guards met her gaze unflinchingly. "Send the word to every guard in the tower," she ordered. "As of this moment, Rohan Mathews and anyone seen with him is an enemy of the state, by my authority on behalf of the President of the United American Territories. The full resources of this tower are to be used in his capture."

She paused for a moment as she took a deep breath. "You must get that boy, and you must get him quietly. The last thing we need is to rile up the whole tower over this. We can't have the other males here thinking they can go on the run whenever they want. Or worse, that they need to run."

One of the security guards straightened up, and Angela nodded to her. "You said full resources, ma'am," she repeated. "Does that include lethal force? He's still a breeder."

"He won't be if you have to use lethal force," Angela replied through gritted teeth. "Full resources doesn't mean you need to kill a breeder. If the men or the other boys found out we were hunting him through the tower?" Her eyes narrowed to slits. "Hurt him if you have to. I'll accept reasonable damage. But to any woman who kills Mister Mathews, I'll have your head on my desk. Is that understood?"

The guard nodded and lowered her head again as Angela brushed past them. "Begin now. Find Rohan. Bring him to my office however you must, and do it fast."