The Girl Who Dared to Think by Bella Forrest (e reader for manga TXT) 📕

floor. I glanced over my shoulder as well, to see Grey moving and looking more alert than before. Adrenaline—the best antidote to a sedative.

“You really sure you want to be giving him those, Liana?” Roark asked as he shakily got his feet under him. “He’s been following you for some time—he might already have all the information he needs.”

“I don’t care. We need to—”

My skull began to vibrate, and Scipio’s voice slipped into my head, catching me totally off guard. I grabbed at the area as his haughty voice sounded in my ear. Guard down and unresponsive, Cogstown C19 quarters. One detected in room. Liana, your mission is to find and capture the one.

The buzzing cut off violently, and I looked up, eyes wide, at Roark and Grey. “Scipio—he knows Gerome’s down, and has detected a one in the room.” We all immediately held up our wrists—but they all read nine.

Tian shifted uncomfortably and started gnawing her lower lip. “It’s me,” she announced softly. “Kind of... Technically I’m an undoc. Well not really, but kind of.” She shifted nervously, and looked at Roark. “I heard you were someone who had some pills to help with rankings?”

Roark’s eyes narrowed. “Heard from whom?”

“Not the time, guys!” Grey shouted, and I stood up.

“Grey’s right—more Knights are coming. We need to get out of here. Roark, Grey, Tian, get the pills.”

“Which ones?” Roark asked, his hands already pulling bottles and boxes out.

“All of them!” I shouted. “And give Tian some Paragon. Last thing we need is for her to set off the alarms.”

I heard them moving behind me while I quickly shoved everything I could think of into a bag I found in the front closet. I piled it with food, blankets, and water, my mind already spinning as I wondered where I could hide them while they waited for this all to die down. I took a moment to consider it as I force-fed Gerome the memory pill.

“I’m taking you all up to Smallsville,” I said, and Grey shot me a look. “You can hide with Sarah. She’ll shelter you both for a few days.”

Tian looked up, craning her neck quizzically as she tucked another bottle of pills into a bag. “Why go there,” she asked hesitantly, “when we can go into the Depths? I have a place there, and it’s secret. Safe. Oh! You can even meet my friends. My Cali. My Quess! Doxyyy! Oh, I’m sure you’ll get along and be the brightest friends in no time.”

She smiled, completely in earnest, and it was all I could do to keep from taking a step back. I felt powerless to argue against such a sweet yet decidedly odd creature. She seemed so fragile, even though she had knocked Gerome out cold. I felt like questioning her too intensely would cause her to run away, without explaining to us why she was even here. But the idea that this girl had a home in the Depths was so foreign to me, it was hard not to. She had to be mistaken, or misusing the name to refer to something else. There was no way there were people living at the bottom of the Tower. It was impossible.

Yet, as my eyes passed over Roark, the old man looked unsurprised by Tian’s declaration.

“Sorry, Liana, but it’s too exposed between here and Smallsville,” Roark said, his gaze apologetic. He slung a bag weighted down with equipment and pills over his shoulder and nodded. “And, Scipio knows where you are, or at the very least that he sent you here. It’s going to look awfully suspicious if we just miraculously escape, especially after you were supposed to kill one of us not too long ago. We’re going with Tian. And you’re coming too.”

Tian let out a little crow of victory, and I watched as something familiar slid into her hand. She had her own set of lashes. “This is going to be so much fun!” she shouted, and with a flick of her wrist she was airborne, lashing down the hall and out the door. “C’mon!” she shouted eagerly.

We followed Tian as she lashed down the hall ahead of us, her lashes and body spinning to and fro in a way that made me feel a little bit intimidated. I might have lived for lashing, but Tian had taken to it like a bird in flight or a fish in a stream, her movements so natural and graceful that they belied the gawkiness of her frame.

She led us to an elevator shaft and stood waiting as we rushed up.

“I haven’t taken an elevator in so long,” she said excitedly as we approached, hopping from one foot to another. “We can take it now!”

I looked at her wrist and was shocked to see that the wristband and display were missing. The microthread was impossible to cut. “Where’s your—”

She reached into her shirt and pulled out the indicator, which was hanging by a braided bit of cloth around her neck. The number showed a cool, glowing blue nine, and it reflected on her face, illuminating her excited smile. “This means I can go to the Lion’s Den,” she exclaimed happily, clapping her hands together.

“Tell us about it later,” I said. “We have to go... to what level?”

“Five,” she replied, skipping up the ramp and then performing a little twirl in midair. “You’re going to like it there.”

Five? That was unexpected, and not at all where I had thought “the Depths” should be. In fact, it was where Greeneries 1 and 2 were located. Why were we going there? What was she planning?

I exchanged a look with Grey and discreetly handed him Gerome’s baton. Tian seemed nice, but this was all happening too quickly for us to put any brakes on. Still, that didn’t mean we couldn’t be prepared if the other shoe started to drop.

We all got onto the elevator, and it began to descend. Beside me, Tian looked up, her face watching the shaft above in childlike wonder.