“So you’re ignoring me now?” Ridley demanded. Christa looked up toward a corner of the ceiling. Ridley followed her gaze. Was that a camera? Christa’s eyes slid to Ridley, then returned to the elevator doors. She continued staring in silence. Ridley continued seething.
Ping. The elevator opened. Christa pushed the bed inside, then squeezed around it to press the button for the fifth floor. The doors slid shut. Christa turned immediately to face Ridley. “Can you at least try to imagine the impossible situation I found myself in before you judge me too harshly?” she snapped. “Alastair Davenport discovered the bunker. He threatened to reveal us all unless I swore to hand over any elementals who happened to cross my path. So yes, I gave up a few to save the rest of us. There aren’t that many of you elementals, so I knew I wouldn’t be sentencing too many to their deaths. I know that doesn’t make it any better, but that’s how I managed to sleep at night: Knowing I was responsible for the death of only a handful of people instead of the dozens and dozens who just wanted to live in peace beneath the city, using magic the way we should all be allowed to use it. Right and wrong isn’t always as easy as black and white, Ridley. Sometimes there’s no right answer, just two wrongs with you stuck in the middle trying to choose the wrong that sucks less.”
Ridley stared at her. She was seething less now. In fact, the seething was almost gone, replaced by a hollow hopelessness. She could never condone the choice Christa had made, but the alternative was unimaginable too. If Alastair Davenport had revealed the bunker, everyone living within it would have been sentenced to death. It was indeed an impossible choice. “I guess that does suck,” she said quietly.
Ping. The elevator doors reopened. Christa pushed the bed into the corridor.
“Are you really getting me out of here?” Ridley asked quietly.
“That’s the plan. Couldn’t very well leave you to die a third time.”
“Thanks. I’m feeling the love.”
“Look, you probably find this difficult to believe, but I do actually care. I gave you as little sedative and arxium as I could without that monster of a doctor figuring out I was messing with things, and now—”
“You did? When? Oh, wait, was that you in the gas mask? Doc was laughing at you because he thought you were afraid of me.”
“I was wearing the mask,” Christa grumbled, “so you wouldn’t recognize me and reveal that we knew each other. I was hoping to avoid you altogether until breaking you out, but Doctor Schulze asked me to come in and change the IV bag. I was aware I looked like an utter idiot, but I figured it was necessary.” She rammed the bed into a door, which swung open to reveal a storeroom. Shelves on either side were lined with lab equipment and jars and bottles of whatever reagents were necessary for Doc’s research. Between the shelves was a gap just wide enough to accommodate the bed. The door swung shut behind them.
“Are you sure there’s no camera watching us right now?” Ridley asked as Christa began to undo the buckles that secured the straps around her wrists.
“There’s one at the other end of the corridor out there,” Christa said, “but it’s angled so it can’t quite see this door. We should be fine. And there aren’t that many people who work here anyway.” She moved to the straps around Ridley’s ankles.
With her arms free, Ridley was finally, finally able to sit up properly and twist her upper body from side to side. She stretched her arms above her and asked, “How’d you end up here?”
“Well, as you might be aware because you’re probably the one responsible for this, I was thrown out of my own home by my own friends. I didn’t have much left to lose, so I figured it was time to get rid of Alastair Davenport and his Shadow Society friends for good.” Christa tugged the straps away from Ridley’s feet, and Ridley pulled her knees up to her chest, still turning her body this way and that to relieve the stiffness in her muscles. “Here, put this on.” Christa tossed a lab coat at her. “Once you’ve changed into your clothes, I mean.” She retrieved a pile of neatly folded clothes from the back of a shelf, and Ridley recognized the jacket Dad had conjured. Her sneakers sat on top.
“I managed to get some information from one of the lab techs who escaped their last experimentation facility,” Christa continued. “A building in the wastelands that was burned down.”
“Oh, yeah, that was me.”
Christa gave Ridley an appraising look. “Nice. Well done.”
Ridley eased herself off the bed, unsure if she could trust her legs to properly hold her up. Turned out it was her head she should have been worried about. Everything went white for several moments. She blinked, holding tightly to the edge of the bed. “Definitely been lying down for too long,” she muttered.
“Oh, this is also for you,” Christa said. As Ridley’s vision cleared, she saw Christa lifting a tray from one of the shelves and placing it on the bed. On it sat a sandwich, an apple, and a glass of juice.
“Real fruit?” Ridley said. “They treat their prisoners well here.”
“I may have swiped the apple from Doc’s section of the fridge in the tea room,” Christa admitted with a self-satisfied smile. “We’ll be gone by the time he notices.”
“Thanks.” Ridley took a large bite of the sandwich and reached for the pile of clothes. Christa turned her back as Ridley began changing.
“Anyway, the lab tech lady was too frightened to continue working for Davenport,” Christa continued, “but he wasn’t about to give her the option to step away. Not after everything she’d seen. I offered to help her disappear—something I’ve helped numerous people with over the years—in exchange for information. You may have burned down one building, but I knew they’d just set up shop somewhere else. I figured if I could get myself on the inside, I could learn as many names as possible and start picking them off one by one. I managed to convince Doc that his other lab technician had run away and that I already knew everything she’d been working on and was just as excited about it as he was. He’s so damn besotted with his research. Not to mention egotistical. I basically begged for the honor of working alongside him as he makes groundbreaking discoveries that will change the world, blah blah blah. It was easy after that. I’ve been here a week now. Just have to make sure to avoid Davenport when he visits.”
“And have you discovered anything useful?” Ridley asked. “Learned any names?” She finished pulling her shoes on and took another bite of the sandwich. Her stomach protested—thanks, arxium—and she almost gagged. But a deep breath helped her recover, and she forced herself to keep chewing. She’d been fed through a needle in her arm for days now, and she wasn’t sure how long that would keep her going once she got out of here.
“A few,” Christa answered. “I’m hatching plans to deal with those people. Hey, are you okay? Sounds like you’re about to lose your lunch.”
Ridley forced herself to swallow. “Yeah. All good.”
“Ready to go then?” She turned back to face Ridley.
“Yes, but there’s something I need to get before we leave.”
Christa’s eyebrows climbed. “Don’t be stupid. We need to get out of here before someone discovers what I’ve done and kills us both.”