Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

Eloise’s arm and with his other hand lifted her chin up so he could look into her eyes. The woman didn’t try to object, and just went with the flow. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘I’m all right.’ The words came out weak as she slowly blinked her unfocused eyes.

‘Bullshit, what’s wrong?’

‘I’m fine, just a bit tired,’ she replied, a note of impatience creeping in.

‘Can you operate the lift for Toscano?’

Eloise nodded.

‘We’ll need the lifts to get the Leeches to the surface anyway,’ Ingram interjected. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be eavesdropping on their conversation, but since she had heard it anyway there was no point pretending otherwise. ‘If the interface is wearing Ms Moretti down, we don’t have time to waste. The Leeches have been confined to small cells for months. Some probably can’t walk, and carrying the injured up eight to twelve flights of stairs will take too long.’

Gonzalez took a heartbeat to decide. ‘Fine. The lifts are on your left. Go to the end of that corridor. Ms Moretti, you will report if you can’t manage the interface before it’s too late. Understood?’

‘Yes. Major, power to lifts is on. Forget the personnel lift—it requires… BCC to access. Use the supply lifts. Three tonnes… weight restriction each.’

‘Roger that,’ Ingram replied, pretending not to notice Eloise’s struggle. The speed at which the Elite woman’s energy was abandoning her was worrying, but there was nothing she could do to help except work fast. ‘I doubt any of the malnourished Leeches will weigh more than sixty or seventy kilogrammes, so using both lifts we can get… maybe a hundred of them out per trip. That’s still going to take some time, but less than carrying the injured up the stairs. Are the lifts spacious enough for those who’ll need to be taken out on stretchers?’

‘Don’t worry about that. We might have to plan the evacuation differently once we’ve seen what state they’re in, but the lifts are big enough to fit bulky equipment,’ Gonzalez replied.

‘I’m in. Do I just use the buttons to operate it?’

‘Yes,’ Gonzalez confirmed after looking at Eloise and seeing her nod. ‘Go to minus twelve first.’

The descent went smoothly, taking a mere few seconds. In the basement on the lowest level, Ingram took a moment to orient herself. She was halfway along a long corridor. In both directions she could see rows of metal doors with small openings at the height of an old-fashioned cat-flap.

‘Just cells on this level?’

‘Yes, the VR playrooms are on minus seven—minus eight through to minus twelve is all cells. Turn right. At the end of the corridor there is an alcove with security terminals. Eloise is displaying a schematic with the available information on who’s kept where. Very basic data. But there are a few names that have larger files. There’s an ex-military called Kaal who—’

‘Corporal Nathaniel Kaal?’ Ingram interrupted, surprised.

‘File says Sergeant Nathaniel Kaal. Do you know him?’

‘I knew a Corporal Kaal during the Wars. A hell of a pilot and a good man. He was reassigned after the battle of Ashgabat in 2703. I haven’t seen him since.’ She was about to ask if the files said anything about how he ended up in Cassandra’s dungeons, but she had arrived at the niche carved into the wall and could see them for herself.

The information available was indeed sparse. It obviously came from the official records, but seemed unusually thin, even for someone of Leech origin. Elites normally liked to keep track of the Leeches who worked for them, especially in the military. But except for his name, age, rank and basic information about his pilot licences, the file was stripped of any information about his service. Even the military discharge box only had a tick, without a date or a reason. There was a code next to his name, 12E4.

Below followed a sickly detailed description of Kaal’s body, including height, weight, fat to muscle ratio, bone density and a full-body scan from a Medibot followed by a note stating suitable for stage-three experiment.

Ingram really didn’t want to know what stage three was, or one or two for that matter.

‘Is 12E4 his cell number?’ she asked, focusing on what was important right there and then.

‘What can you see around you?’ Gonzalez asked, but then Eloise spoke up.

‘Yes… level twelve. Cell E4.’

‘But the cells don’t have letters on them. They—’ Ingram turned around and paused.

The cells along the corridor had only numbers, but a row right outside the niche with the computer terminals was different. Not only did they have the letter E preceding the numbers, but the doors were much closer together. They were half-doors, really, since they only reached Ingram’s waist. The realisation of what that meant struck instantly. Coffins. Small, cramped spaces with no room to move.

‘Colonel, do you see this?’ she asked. ‘His file doesn’t say how long they’ve had him, but if he’s been in there for a while…’ The words got stuck in her throat.

Her memories of Corporal Kaal were warm. Following her basic pilot training, she had been shipped off straight to one of the forward operating bases on the west coast of the Caspian Sea near Baku. Corporal Kaal had been her new squadron leader and recognised Ortega’s natural talent instantly. He was the first Leech she had met who hadn’t earned his promotion at the expense of other Leeches. On the contrary, he had done his level best to keep his squadron together, protecting them from the Elite officers and their abusive treatment. She had always thought that had been the reason he was reassigned, because he had cared too much about them.

‘I see it, Aisha. Only one way to find out. You can release the door through the computer terminal.’

Furious about what she was seeing, she nearly snapped at Eloise to do it, since the Elite woman was literally running the whole system with her thoughts. But then she took a deep breath. There was no point in tasking Eloise with