I had fought back at round one.
I had been drugged at round two.
I had been paralyzed, then hysterical, at round three.
This was round four, and I was somewhat finding myselfwanting to vote with the secret twin. It was time to end this, and Calhoun dead was a viable option. There’d be no more rounds after this.
Then I got into the system and booted up all the security feeds. “I’m in!”
Hoda! I recognized her coding from school. She had a distinct style.
The floor rocked under my feet, and I looked, belatedly, if we really were in an earthquake. No. Nothing was falling off the walls. That was me, having everything swept out from under me.
Hoda must’ve been holding back, or learning hard over these last few months. I never knew what side she was, not really. Now I knew, I guess.
“We can go there.” Kash pointed to a screen.
Chase grunted. “The next one.”
They both looked.
Kash growled, “No.”
Chase growled back, “Yes.”
“The third one.”
“No.”
“Yes!”
They were both silent, both studying the cameras.
Chase gave in. “Fine. That sixth one.”
No clue what he was relenting to.
A sigh from Kash. “Fine.”
No clue about that, either.
“Good.” Both nodded together and looked at me.
“What?” said Kash.
“I have no idea what you guys just said to each other.”
Kash bit out a curse at the same time that Chase hid a grin, looking away. They moved around me. Kash took my arm, dragging me with him. They both reached for a gun and began filling shoulder holsters that I’d not seen them put on.
“Babe.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “What?”
Kash was taking me to the back bedroom, grabbing the computer and handing it to me. “You know that time we had a conversation where I needed you to trust me? That you might not want to do what I needed you to do, but you just needed to do it anyways?”
“No.”
We were in the bedroom. He was leading me to my closet. “Well, we just did.” He swept the hanging clothes aside, ones that I’d left behind, then opened one of the drawers and touched a button. The back wall swung in, and my mouth was hanging open.