“It’s pretty smart,” I say. “Flush us outside, where our options are limited, then dispatch enhanced personnel to finish—”
She’s shaking her head. “We have no options, Ringer. Wonderland. We have to get to Wonderland . . .” She tries to stand. Her knees buckle and she goes down. “Where the fuck are my clothes?”
“Here, take mine. I’ll wear yours.”
For some reason she laughs. “Commando. That’s funny.”
I don’t get it.
I can feel the toxin worm its way into my legs after I pull on her fatigues, and thousands of microscopic bots swarm to neutralize its effects. I hand her my dry shirt, shrug into her wet one.
“The poison doesn’t do anything to you?” she asks.
“I don’t feel anything.”
She rolls her eyes. “I already knew that.”
“I’ll take it from here,” I tell her. “You stay.”
“Like hell.”
“Sullivan, the risk is—”
“I don’t give a shit about your risk.”
“I’m not talking about the risk to the mission. Your risk.”
“That doesn’t matter.” She stands up. This time she stays up. “Where’s my rifle?”
I shake my head. “Didn’t see it.”
“Okay then. What about my gun?”
I take a deep breath. This isn’t going to work. She’s more a liability now than an asset, and she’s never been much of an asset. She’ll slow me down. She might get me killed. I should leave her here. Knock her out if I have to. Screw our deal. Walker’s dead; he must be; there’s no reason Vosch would keep him alive once he’s been downloaded into Wonderland. Which means Sullivan is risking everything for nothing.
I am, too. For something I can’t even put into words. The same something I saw in her eyes that I cannot name. Something that has nothing to do with Vosch or avenging what he’s done to me. It’s more important than that. More solid. But that’s about as close as I can come to describing it.
Something inviolable.
But I don’t say any of that. My mouth comes open and these words come out instead: “You won’t need a weapon, Sullivan. You’ll have me.”
90
I LEAVE HER for a little while. First I make her promise to stay. She’s not interested in making promises; she wants to hear them. So I promise I’ll come back for her.
She seems better when I get back. Her face is still red, but the hives or boils or whatever they were have almost disappeared. She’s not happy about it, but she throws her arm around my neck and leans against me on the way to the command center.
The entire base is eerily quiet. Our footsteps fall like thunder. You’re watching us, I silently tell Vosch. I know you’re watching. Sullivan pushes away when we reach the door.
“How’re you gonna do this?” she demands. “We’ll be burned alive by the toxin.”
“Don’t think so. I just shut off the water main.”
I smash my fist through the steel door and push down the bar on the opposite side. No alarm sounds. No light blinds us. No bullets take us down. The silence is stifling.
Sullivan breathes in my ear, “It’s the waves, Ringer. The power. The water. The plague. You know what’s next. You know what’s coming.”
I nod. “I know.”