Clare shivered, and Ezra tilted his head to give them a piercing stare.
“You know what that means, right? There are still plenty of thanites floating through the air. Even if you got the upper hand over me, you’d have to watch your girl turn into one of those mindless, soulless creatures you’ve been killing. So no fast movements, because it would be awfully easy for my hand to slip. Right?”
“I understand.”
Clare wanted to reach out to Dorran. His voice was flat, and it seemed to cost him effort to keep it that way. Please, Dorran, whatever you’re planning, be safe.
“You, Clare, step back against the far wall. Yes, just like that. Don’t move.” Ezra waited a second to make sure she was following his instructions, then he pressed a button. The chamber’s door hissed as the seal was broken then whirred as it slid open. Dorran stepped through. Unease crawled over Clare as she watched him go.
As Dorran stepped out of the room, he subtly reached behind himself, holding his ID tag out of Ezra’s view. He slipped the plastic card into the closing door. It caught, its cord dangling, as he stepped away. Clare’s breath hitched. The ID tag lodged in the door’s lock, leaving the glass panel a millimetre ajar.
“Into the other chamber.” Ezra hadn’t noticed. His attention was wholly focussed on Dorran, and the strain in his voice betrayed his stress. His hand hovered over the button, fingers trembling. The unit beside them opened with a muffled hiss.
Ezra gagged as the air inside was released. Clare couldn’t smell it, but she guessed the hollow must reek as badly as Peter’s corpse. Dorran’s expression remained impassive. He gave Ezra one slow, calculating glare then stepped into the second chamber. The door hissed closed, and Ezra nodded as he removed his hand from the control panel.
“Good. Good. All right.” Ezra rocked back on his heels. He looked happy. “I was hoping you’d volunteer, big guy. You look strong enough to brush off any side effects. You should be fine.”
Dorran glanced towards the dead hollow at his feet. He folded his arms and faced the glass, silent and unreadable.
Clare couldn’t so much as breathe. Her pulse was deafening, her eyes burning. She held perfectly still, not even letting herself look down, terrified that movement might draw Ezra’s attention to the door’s lock, where the ID tag was pinned.
Clever, Dorran. But how are you going to get him to leave?
“Good, good…” Ezra typed on his computer. Code flashed across the screen. “You won’t need to do anything. Just stand there.”
Come on, Dorran, you don’t have much time. What’s your plan?
Dorran steadfastly faced forward, refusing to meet her eyes or give her any clues. His instructions had been to wait until Ezra was gone before running for the gun. But Ezra wasn’t showing any sign of leaving. He was typing on his control panel.
And Dorran still refused to look at her.
A terrible idea occurred. He wasn’t trying to barter with Ezra, manipulate him, or coax him outside, because he knew it wouldn’t work. Dorran expected Ezra to leave the room… after the experiment.
“Wait,” Clare choked out. She hit her palm on the glass wall between her and Dorran. The deep reverberations rattled through her enclosure. “Stop—”
Ezra ignored her. He lifted his head, and shadows haunted his cheeks and the hollows under his eyes as he smiled at Dorran. “Good luck.”
He pressed a button. A sharp blue light flashed at the top of the chamber. Clare thought she heard a high-pitched note ringing from the room, but the sound was so piercing, she couldn’t tell if it was real or in her imagination.
Dorran crumpled. The effect was instantaneous; one second, he was standing straight, reliable, unyielding. The next, he was gone. He landed heavily, facing away from Clare.
Ezra’s eyes widened, his smile frozen, as he watched in cold fascination. His finger didn’t lift from the button.
Clare slammed her shoulder into the door. The lock, propped open by the nametag, gave way as she forced the glass open. She launched into the main room, desperation and fear driving her.
“Wait—” Ezra swivelled, shocked. His finger came off the button. The high-pitched noise faded. “You—”
Clare’s fist hit his jaw. He slammed into the wall and dropped, one hand cupped over the bruised skin, his eyes wide.
The gun was within reach. Dorran had wanted her to get it. He’d expected her to use it to protect herself if he never came out of the test chamber. But Clare ignored the weapon. Dorran lay on the cold tile floor, horribly still, and every other necessity paled in comparison to her need to get him out.
She wrenched the USB out of its slot, physically removing the code. Numb hands scrambled across the dashboard, trying to remember which switches operated the doors. She found what she thought was the right one and turned it. Air hissed as the chamber’s airlock opened, and the awful scent of drying blood mingled with the already foul air.
Clare reached towards the open door. Something hard slammed into her legs, upending them. She fell and hit the tile floor hard. Bitter blood ran across her tongue as she bit the inside of her cheek. She rolled and was just in time to avoid the chair Ezra slammed down towards her.
He stood, hunched, breathing heavily, his hair falling into disarray. The chair rose as he prepared to deliver another blow.
Clare kicked, and he yelped as her foot connected with his shin. The chair dropped. Ezra stepped back, wary, and Clare again tried to reach for the glass door. Ezra lunged forward and grabbed her ankle, dragging her back.
“Don’t,” he barked. “You’ll contaminate the sample.”
It took her a second to understand what Ezra meant. The sample. Dorran. Anger rose, blooming out of her stomach and pouring into her lungs like molten lava. Clare swiped at him, curling her hands to use the nails like claws, fighting to get him off her. His elbow jabbed into her chest, sending a bloom of pain across her ribs. Then a forearm pressed over her throat. In an instant, her air was cut off.
Clare struggled. Ezra was larger and heavier than her, and he used his weight to pin her down. The smile, frantically wide, filled her vision. Then Ezra yelped. The pressure disappeared from her throat, and Clare dragged in a gasping breath. She rolled over.
Dorran was no longer in the chamber. He stood over Ezra, eyes blazing and lips pulled back in a snarl. Vivid blood dripped over his face.
Clare scrambled to her feet. She was just in time to catch Dorran as he staggered. She wrapped her arms around his chest and set her feet to hold him up.
Ezra had fallen with his back against the control panel. His skin was white, sweat beading over his face, a vein pulsing in his throat beneath the scores Clare had left. One hand raised the gun.
“Out,” Dorran gasped.
Clare pulled them both left, towards the door leading to the main part of the lab. A crack, so loud that her ears rang, boomed around them. The massive glass panel fragmented. A spiderweb of cracks grew over it as a bullet punctured the glass.
They ran into the labs. Clare kept her arm around Dorran, supporting him as much as she could. His breathing was laboured. That frightened her. So did the blood dripping off the tip of his nose and over his lips. But he matched her steps as they ran for the door.
With another crack, one of the tiles on the back wall exploded. Clare and Dorran skidded to a halt at the doors. Clare slammed her tag into the sensor, and as the metal sheets slid back, they darted through. They sidestepped to put the solid concrete wall at their backs as the doors whirred closed.