Evolution - The Oasis Project Book 3

Four - Ira

"Hmm." Four chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Not bad, Ira. Quick thinking."

"Thanks. I know it kept Linkin from getting worse last time." I wasn't used to Four warming up to any of my ideas. "So you'll tell the rest of the team? And the twins?" I didn't want to ask about how her interrogation went; judging by now Mato and Anaba were speaking to Linkin, I wasn't sure if I could take any more drama involving the newly rescued recruits.

"I will tell them," Four replied dutifully. "Anything else?"

My impatience must have been showing. "The equipment that Linkin requested..." I raised my eyebrows.

She pointed to the wall behind her. "There's a storage space that way towards the back exit. I am not a doctor; I don't know how to set any of it up; don't ask me. But it's there."

"Thanks," I said again, and Four nodded and excused herself to debrief everyone who wasn't brainwashed in this prison. Left alone in the room, I took a couple of deep breaths before opening the door myself.

Yulian almost knocked on my face. "What are you doing?" He looked agitated. I was obviously not his favourite person right now.

"The machines have arrived, Doctor." I spoke in Russian, making Yulian scrunch up his nose. "Sorry. I didn't mean to. It just kind of..."

"Stuart is doing a checkup on the ones with problems," he said as if it had much relevance. "Thierry is helping. He says he is me?"

"Linkin's not with them?" I had no idea what his last statement meant.

Yulian shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't see her on my way here."

I sighed and shook my head. After looking around the quiet prison, I realized who I was with. "Can you hear her?"

"Thanks for asking." Yulian seemed still annoyed at having to play doctor, and I slung an arm across his shoulders. "Be quiet, One. I'm trying to find Linkin," he said, a frown spreading across his forehead when I stopped moving. "Why is she talking about Naaa...zeem? That one?"

"Fuck!" Blood rushed to my head, and Yulian was already making his way to the exit doors. I ran after him, past the storage room where Four said the equipment for Linkin was, the equipment I went into all the effort into obtaining just so Linkin would not have to tell Asmar anything, especially the fact that it was now impossible to hand Nazem over.

"Ira?" My name echoed through the cold hallway. "Yulian? What's going on?"

Stuart was the last person I wanted to see right now. He was leading Alessia and Trevor to the stairs, with Thierry flanking the group from the back, just a little taller than Trevor. The two mutants looked at me with curious eyes, and there was a question written on Thierry's face - the same question that Stuart had just asked out loud.

"We warm up," Yulian said, putting on an innocent voice and thickening his accent. "I train One outside."

Alessia and Trevor seemed to buy it, already forgetting how strange and suspicious we looked. If they didn't look so exhausted and spaced out, I'd be concerned that part of their brains were missing. Stuart was a different story. "Okay. Good luck, One," he said. His face was as unreadable as when he was on Dell Island, but I knew that we hadn't fooled him one bit. "Let's go, Four and Five." Stuart started his walk upstairs. I knew he would have left the recruits to Thierry if he could do it without raising suspicion about Yulian and me. He watched us with every step, even looking through the gaps between the stairs.

"Let's go?" Yulian snapped me away from Stuart's gaze. I responded by taking a step, shivering when Yulian opened the door. It was dark and quiet outside, and if Yulian hadn't said Nazem's name, I would have asked if he was screwing with my head. He switched on the outdoor lights, which ran along the fence that boxed us in. "You should tell him, Ira."

"I'm not going to."

Yulian stopped to drag his boot back and forth across the topmost, recently fallen snow. His breaths were puffs of thick fog against the lights. "Ira, it's not like we know what to do. Linkin obviously has no idea what to do. One wrong move and-"

"Would Stuart know what to do? There's no guarantee." I gritted my teeth. "All of us are already vulnerable, and putting any more people in danger isn't going to help anyone."

"He doesn't believe us. Neither does Thierry. Sooner or later Stuart is going to ask."

I tugged at my clumped hair. "And I won't tell. Neither will you." I met his hazel eyes with a challenging gaze.

Yulian shook his head in defeat; he was well aware of the risks too. "Damn you, Ira. You shouldn't do this to him."

"It's not my fault," I said, although it was getting harder and harder to pinpoint whose fault anything was these days.

"She's coming." He suddenly changed the topic, his forehead creasing with concern. I balled up my hands into fists when I saw her shadow approaching, and Yulian laid a hand on my upper back, slightly stepping forward.

"Hi?" Linkin greeted us, confused as if she also didn't know why she was out here in the first place. A phone with thick black casing was in her right hand, her pale fingers clenched around it. Her engagement ring sparkled under the harsh prison lights. "Something wrong?"