Destiny: Quantic Dreams Book 3 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (books for 20 year olds .txt) 📗

Security was nowhere to be seen, the only signs of surveillance were small cameras mounted in the corners of every panel. Marcus lifted his gun as we moved and shot out the camera lenses. It wouldn’t keep us hidden, but it might slow down any pursuing androids on our way out. Harder for them to know our exact position. Eliza walked behind me, her back pressed to mine as she covered the hallway behind us. The fact that no one had appeared to even slow us down made me nervous. The air smelled strange, like a tinge of metal. I took a deep breath. The smell was mixed in with something chemical. Marcus must have had the same thought I did. He cast his eyes about nervously, looking for the source of the gas. The single vent leading into the hallway was clear. Unless the gas was clear, it wasn’t coming from there. Marcus cocked his gun and raised it as wisps of smoke curled around the corner where the hallway split into a T.

We rounded the corner to a sight straight from an action movie. Android bodies littered the floor, some leaking cooling fluid onto the tiles underneath our feet. Bits of broken glass crunched underneath our boots and I could see a fire burning twenty or so feet away. Eliza swung around from behind me to take the lead position aside Marcus. The smoke thickened as we moved, the stink of smoldering electronics mixing with burning fuel.

I almost tripped when I saw a spot of blood on the floor and stopped cold. Dad was hurt. Only my father could cause this level of chaos and manage to get away with only a scratch. Crazy old man. Eliza and Marcus kicked the android bodies as we passed them, making sure that the dead were truly dead. We came to the end of the corridor where it turned a corner and I saw a black foot that looked different from the rest. I reached forward to knock it with my hand and my fingers brushed against shoelaces.

No.

I ran my fingertips over the rest of the foot. It was distinctly human.

Oh God, please, no.

My whole body turned to ice. Marcus and Eliza noticed my reaction and came running. Laying on the floor, limbs askew, was my father.

I dimly heard Marcus shout. Eliza wrapped her arms around me and yanked me back. Someone was screaming. I think it was me. My eyes shot to Dad’s chest, then his neck, searching frantically for some sign of life. A breath. A heartbeat. Anything. Blood was pooled under him, the stain spread so wide I knew there was nothing I could do. I didn’t think as I kicked Eliza in the shins, making her lose her grip. His body was still warm, rigor mortis not having yet set in. I lifted his head and for a second I thought I saw his eyes flutter, but they were nothing but dim orbs in their sockets. A huge laceration lay across his chest and abdomen. Blessedly his shirt covered most of the wound. I swallowed back the sour taste of bile as the smell of it washed over me.

“I’ll kill them all!” The ice inside me shattered and grew into an inferno of rage. “Every last one! I want their heads!” Some part of me knew that we couldn’t stay here, but I didn’t care. I dropped to my knees and hugged his body to mine, a keening wail breaking free from my throat. I flinched as Marcus's gun spat bullets at something and was answered with shots fired back at him.

Our presence had been noticed.

“Fiona, we have to go.” Eliza tapped me on the shoulder and I looked up through puffy eyes. “Honey, we have to go, now. They’re coming.” Her voice cracked. “We have to go.” She was almost pleading with me now. I knew that I should go with her, but nothing else even existed in that moment.

“I don’t care.” They would have to gun me down if they wanted me to leave this place. Jacob Alvaro didn’t deserve to die in a place like this, away from his family, alone in a cell like a caged animal. Nobody deserved this.

My hand drifted toward my gun and I felt Eliza’s hand under my chin. “I do. Get up.”

“No.” His face looked like it still held color. With his eyes closed, it almost looked like he was sleeping. If only there wasn’t so much blood. Some distant part of me felt the warm liquid coating my fingers. I didn’t care.

“Fiona if you don’t get up and move I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here. There’s nothing we can do for him. We have to go!” She reached for my wrist and tugged, forcing me to drop my father’s body. His head fell to the floor with a sickening crack. I hesitated a moment and Eliza pushed me forward. “Go now. Mourn later.” I shot her a murderous glare. She was right, of course, but I didn’t care. I took one last glance at Dad’s body and turned away.

The three of us ran from the hall. Alarms sounded in the building now, footsteps echoing through the hallways behind us. Marcus took up the rear, turning to fire off an occasional shot to keep our pursuers at bay. I left the navigation to Eliza. The task of putting one foot in front of the other took all of my mental capacity. We burst out of the building to find ourselves in an alleyway. The alarms were still going off but I couldn’t hear any androids running behind us. “Stick to the shadows,” Marcus hissed. The cool weather clothing was insulated enough to shield our body heat from any thermal cameras the androids might have had. We moved through the passages as quietly as we could. Searchlights blazed to life, their beams sweeping the ground across major intersections and down streets.