The Gender Game by Bella Forrest (motivational novels .TXT) 📕

with, or the fault had something to do with the two cylinders that I'd dropped, I didn't know.

I hurried back to the explosives and examined the wires, thinking that perhaps I hadn't inserted some properly. I thought I'd been so careful to check them, but now that I scrutinized them, one looked slightly out of place. On one of the cylinders that I'd dropped, the fitting had become loose. I needed to push the wire further inward, but that could cause the explosives to detonate too soon.

I had no choice now. I gazed around the lab, looking for some—any—kind of utensil that could assist me. I found a pair of longish tongs and grabbed them. Gripping the wire, I pushed inward.

A beep sounded.

It had worked.

"3" flashed up on my activator's tiny screen.

Adrenaline surging through my veins, I threw myself against the floor and tried to get beneath a table as the bombs erupted. Although I'd managed to duck beneath a steel table which bore the brunt of the blast and shattering glass, the billowing heat scorched my face and inflamed my Porteque injuries. An alarm blared.

Three minutes.

Coughing, I gripped the hem of my dress and pulled it up to cover my mouth and nose. I stood up and gazed at the explosion's aftermath. Setting off something like this in a lab was extremely dangerous—Lee had warned me of that. Any number of flammable substances could ignite at any moment now. That was why I had to grab the egg and get the hell out.

I picked up a chair and planted it a few feet in front of me, using it as an island to draw closer to the unprotected egg, still perched in its stand, until I could lean over and close my hands around it, touching it for the first time. It was cool and sleek and heavier than I had expected it to be. My palms being sweaty didn't exactly help my grip around it, but I held on to it for dear life as I raced to the lab's exit.

I dashed along the corridor, back to the stairwell. I scaled the first flight of stairs, and as I reached the second I heard the second round of explosions, higher up in the building. Lee hadn't been joking when he’d said I needed to get out in time.

The door at the top of the stairwell was like a gateway to heaven as I reached it. I pulled down hard on the handle, pushing it open, and staggered out into the cool night breeze.

I'd done it. I'd made it out alive. And now… where was Lee?

I gazed around the rooftop, whose atmosphere was quickly clogging with smoke. Lee wasn't up here.

Did something go wrong?

Rotors whirred above me. My immediate fear was that it was one of Patrus' helicopters called to the incident.

I was sure that they would arrive soon, but this… this was not one of them. This was something… I wasn't even sure how to describe. It was a bizarre hybrid aircraft. Its body was a large motorcycle, long enough to fit four people. Above it, fixed to a thick pole that ran down the center of the motorcycle, were spinning rotors. And on either end of it—where the wheels should have been—were two square wooden boxes, big enough to fit two men: I guessed some kind of balancing mechanism. Sitting on the seat and clutching the handles was Lee. He was twisting the latter to navigate the aircraft.

This must have been what he had been working on all along in his garage. "Fixing" his third spare motorcycle. I had assumed that by "arranging transport" for us, Lee had meant that Matrus would have provided something. But no. All this time he had been building an illegal aircraft in his basement. His engineer Chris had also broken the law. Lee must've bribed him well… and hidden the aircraft somewhere nearby in anticipation of tonight.

Lee looked relieved to see me, to say the least. He lowered the aircraft within two feet of the ground. Clutching the egg with one arm, I hauled myself up onto the seat and sat behind him.

"Hand me the egg," Lee said.

I placed it on his lap. He carefully slid it into a basket at the base of his seat, keeping it protected with both feet.

I wrapped my arms firmly around his waist as we took off. As we moved past the rooftop of the lab, my stomach flipped. As we flew over a sheer drop, I couldn't even see the ground because of the smoke, and certainly nobody could see us.

Lee sped up—we had to get out of here before Patrian aid arrived.

We headed firmly eastward, leaving the smoke-infested area. The river came into view, and Matrus' border loomed in the distance. Screams and shouts still echoed in my head as I glanced back over my shoulder at the destruction we had left behind. Then my eyes dragged over the rest of the city, and the looming mountains beyond.

So long, Patrus… So long.

34

Lee and I had been quiet the whole journey. As we reached Matrus' border, he hovered a little lower, closer to the tops of the building. When I realized we were headed straight for Queen Rina's palace, I asked, "Are you going to finally tell me what's in the egg or not?"

"Not," Lee replied, clipped. "I don't have permission. That doesn't change because we've crossed borders. You'll have to ask the queen or Alastair and see if they'll reveal it to you. Alastair will have the key, and no doubt he'll want to verify the egg's contents are intact."

I ground my teeth. After everything I'd been through, I felt I was owed an explanation. I would ask Alastair when I next saw him. When I'd spoken to him before we left for the banquet earlier this evening, he'd said that he and the queen would be waiting to receive us on the highest floor of the palace—which