The Lofties (The Echelon Book 2) by Ramona Finn (no david read aloud .txt) 📕

static pricked at my tonsils, at the backs of my eyes. “Fine. We’ll go back. Just tell me your name.”

“Sergey. It’s Sergey. Get out of my way.”

I reached deep within myself, searching for calm. I found rage instead, a hot coil in my guts. My irritation caught light, and I elbowed my way forward. “Okay, you know what, Sergey? It’s too late to turn back. There’s just one way out of here, so that leaves you two choices. You can climb down that shaft, or I can push you down. What’s it gonna be?”

“I can’t.”

His voice caught and quavered, like a mosquito in my ear. I seethed and boiled over and gave his foot a good shove. Sergey yelped like a puppy, and I shoved him again.

“No! No—”

I dug my nails into his ankle. “Last chance.”

“You won’t. You wouldn’t kill me.” Sergey squirmed again, mashing my pack into my face. This time, I shoved with all my might. His scream split my eardrums, and I ground my teeth.

“You’re fine. Just go. You could be on the ground by now, safe and sound.”

For a long moment, nothing happened. Sergey lay where he was, shivering in the dark. I could smell his rank sweat, and the dirt off his boots. I breathed through it and waited, and he kicked my pack again. But that seemed to be his final protest, because then he moved forward, wiggling out into the shaft. I heard him stop breathing as he swung himself down, then the rope rasped through his gloves. His boots hit the wall, and it was my turn at last.

I hooked my pack over my shoulder and edged headfirst into the shaft. I found Ben’s rope by touch and hung my weight on it as I turned myself around. After that, it was easy—a quick twist, a long slide, and I was squinting under the fluorescents, Lazrad’s lab gleaming white. Starkey scowled at the sight of me.

“What took you so long?”

I glanced at Sergey. His face was bright red, his fists balled at his sides. He didn’t matter now. Only our mission did, and Lock waiting in the mountains. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

I marched through the glass doors, past the mutants in their tanks. I didn’t look at them. My head buzzed and crackled as white noise filled my skull. I focused on the sensation, squeezing it smaller and smaller till I could think around it. It helped to picture it shrinking like a loud sheet of tinfoil being crumpled into a ball.

“Whoa.” Ben stopped in the map room, jaw slack. “What is this place?”

“It’s where the maps are. Where we saw those other Domes.” I kept walking, nerves jangling. Ben trotted after me.

“Wait.”

“What?”

“We need those maps. Where are they?” He beckoned Jasper over. “She says this is the map room.”

“Here.” I tapped on the nearest screen. A foreign skyline popped up, streets and skyscrapers in wireframe. “The bright spots are cameras, or you can pinch to zoom out.”

“Pinch?” Jasper reached out hesitantly and pinched the corner of the screen.

“Not like that.” I showed him what I meant, setting two fingers on the screen and dragging them together. The city dwindled to a dot, a faint smudge of purple overlooking an endless sea. A black forest marched to the east, dotted with yellow lakes. The mountains were nowhere in sight. “Well, I don’t know where that is, but there’s a different one on every screen. Or, there was last time. You could just—oh.”

Jasper had moved to the next screen and was feeling up and down its sides.

“These are just terminals,” he said. “They don’t have any dataports. I can’t download anything from here.”

“So do it the old-fashioned way.” Ben felt in his pockets. “Who’s got a pencil?”

Starkey pushed past us, scowling. “We don’t have time for this. Where’s that armory you promised us?”

“Over that way. But we can do both.” I unsnapped my phone and thumbed off the network switch. Jasper watched, wide-eyed, as I flipped to the camera app. “This takes pictures,” I said. “Just aim where you want it and tap the red button.” I tossed it his way, and Jasper caught it.

“This is a camera?” He aimed it at Starkey, and I heard the shutter click. “And that’s—it’s saved the picture now?” He turned the phone so we could see, but Starkey pulled a face.

“Idiot. Don’t waste film on me.”

“I don’t think it uses—”

“The armory’s this way.” I headed into the static, teeth vibrating. The sensation was maddening, and I clenched my fists against it. Someone loosed a low whistle, and I resisted the urge to punch them.

“Fill your packs with blasters,” said Starkey. “But don’t take so many we won’t fit through the vents."

"Ben." I caught his wrist as he brushed past me. His lips pursed with concern.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine.” I swallowed. “But I need to trust you with something big.”

“You can trust me with anything.” He set down his pack, and I handed him mine.

“Take this. Set the charges. But before you blow anything up, see that hall to your left?”

Ben glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah. I see it.”

“Down there, to the north, you’ll find a room full of gretha tanks. Find one with a red cross on the side—no, find two. Find three. As many as you can carry.”

“That’s what Lock needs?”

I nodded, quick and tense. “You’ll do it?”

“Of course. But where’ll you be?”

“Where do you think?” I grimaced through the static. “Ona doesn’t talk like that. Whatever they did to her, so she’d throw me to the wolves—”

“Where would you even look for her?” Ben made a sweeping gesture. “I mean, I get where you’re coming from, but this place is huge. She could be up there, down here, anywhere at all.”

“No, she couldn’t.” I tilted my head toward Sky. “Those towers from the broadcast, looming over her shoulder—those are by Lazrad Corp. She’s up there. I’d bet on it.”

“So, the belly of the beast.” Ben’s face fell. “I can’t talk you out of this?”

“Not a chance.”

“Go,