The Lofties (The Echelon Book 2) by Ramona Finn (ebook reader play store .TXT) 📗

my head. Nina fired up her flashlight, and I saw we were in the drainage tunnels.

“How’d you know where to find me?”

“Reyland got an alert when you snuck out of the tunnel.” She splashed across the channel and struck out to the east. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

“My friends—are they okay?”

“I don’t know. If they’re smart, they set a long enough fuse they got out before the blast.”

I swallowed my fear and chased after her. Nina seemed to know where she was going, never once pausing as she wove through the drainage system. She had a pin on her sleeve, I saw, a polished bronze heart that twinkled as she moved. Ona’d had one like it, that she’d worn the same way.

“That pin—is that from Ona?”

Nina patted her sleeve. “We exchanged them before she Ascended.”

“So you were—”

“Courting.” She ran faster. “We said we’d wait, but I’d understand if she’s moved on. Just don’t tell me, okay? I need to pretend, at least—”

“Wait.” I slowed down, and so did Nina. She cocked a brow.

“I can’t get her out, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“No. Not that.” I took a deep breath. “You were close. That means you knew her secrets, even ones she kept from me.”

Nina’s eyes hardened. I shook my head sharply.

“I’m not asking you to rat on her. Just, that speech she gave—”

“I don’t know. I don’t know.” She thumbed at her pin. “Parts of it sounded real. For Echelon, that’s her.” Her lip twitched. “I mean, I get it. I do. We all think we’re the good guys, going in. But seeing what she’s seen, living on the Outside—” She spun and kicked the wall, and thumped it with her fist. Brick dust rained down, and she made a choking sound. “I can’t hate her, never that. But if I could slap her, slap some sense into her—”

“I tried.”

“Keep trying.” Nina scrubbed at her face. “That stuff about you, no way that was her. I mean, yeah, she’d get mad at you—like, the way you’d mother-hen her. She hated that. But she loved you. She loves you. I’d stake my life on that.”

“If you happen to see her, if your paths cross somehow—”

“I can’t tell her I saw you. I’d give myself away.”

“Tell her you love her.” I took Nina’s hands in mine. “She’s all alone up there, and she thinks I betrayed her. She needs to know she has someone who’d never leave her behind.”

“I’ll tell her,” said Nina, and her eyes swam with tears. She brushed them away, a quick, businesslike gesture. "We need to go. Those sirens aren’t stopping.”

“One more thing.” I jogged after her. “My gran, Angeline Abrial. She knows what I am. If Lazrad finds out she kept my secret all these years—”

“We’ll hide her.” Nina stopped at a junction and pointed to the right. “This is where we split up. You’re headed that way, and up the first ladder. You’ll come out by an elevator that’ll take you to Sky Station. Use this to fool the sensor.” She thrust something rubbery into my hand.

“What is it?”

“A handprint off some Lofty. You put it on over yours, and the reader thinks you’re him.”

I fumbled and nearly dropped the thing. “This is someone’s skin?”

“No, of course not. It’s glue. We painted it on, peeled it off—just go.”

I wanted to ask how she’d talked a Lofty into that, but she was right. Time was wasting. I jammed the print in my pocket and took off, double-time up the ladder, and I pushed through the grate. The elevator was waiting, an old model, like Lazrad’s. It wobbled as I got on, and I steadied myself on the rail. The scanner gleamed red in the emergency lights, and I pressed my fake palm to it. It hummed, beeped approval, and I pressed the button for the surface.

Shouts filled the shaft as I rose through the Dirt, the sounds of a scuffle gaining in volume. I smelled smoke, then I saw it, curling in through the vents. My head buzzed with static, warning of battle. Surely, Ben hadn’t come this way, past the cameras on the stairs. If he had—if he had—

The doors slid open, and I nearly tripped over Jasper, curled up on his side with a red-crossed gretha tank in his arms. He yelped and jerked back, and I dropped down beside him.

“Jasper? What happened?”

“The blast went off early. We couldn’t get back the way we came.” He coughed, wiped his mouth, and tried to sit up. Beyond him, down a short hall, I saw Sky Station on fire, smoke and flames belching from the tunnel.

“Are you hurt?”

Jasper nodded miserably, and he pointed at his leg. “I’m scared to look. It feels broken.”

“Okay.” I squinted past him, into the flames. “Stay low, and keep your mask on. I’m going to check out the scene.”

Jasper lay back down, pulling his gretha tank to his chest. “I got this for Lock,” he said. “Hauled it all the way up here. Don’t forget to come back for it.”

“I’ll be back for you.”

I left Jasper where he was and barreled down the hall, through the big double doors and out to the platform. A wave of heat hit me hard, and I felt my lips crack. I pushed my mask back to keep it from melting to my face. Smoke overwhelmed my senses—black, cloying smoke that tasted of engine grease. I stood for a moment, disoriented, then the smoke lit up pink like lightning through clouds. A blaster bolt blazed past me, and I hit the deck. Voices drifted my way, Starkey’s, then Ben’s.

“Hold your fire. Save your ammo.”

“They’re trying to get through.”

I scuttled toward them, sucking smoke through my teeth. Something exploded behind me, raining glass down my legs.

“Ben?”

“Myla? That you?” His shape rose to greet me, black against black. Orange and red flames danced in his goggles. I spotted more shapes beyond him, anonymous in the smoke.

“What happened?”

“They chased us up here. Starkey said it was