Lucas’s hands were like steel bands around her wrists as he dragged Eden out of Bianca’s room, where she stood with her gun trained on Rory. Eden let him pull her away although every molecule of her being was screaming at her to fight and struggle and get Rory away from that woman and her cruelty. Rory’s face was tight and hard, a mask that she could see beginning to crack. He’d been so brave, taking every turn through the Hive in stride. How much more could he take? She’d agreed to work with the Hive to protect him, and it had still ended with a laser pointed between his eyes. She bit her cheek to keep from screaming.
As soon as Lucas had wrestled her out the door–although she didn’t struggle, she didn’t exactly cooperate either–and the door had shut between her and Bianca, Eden dropped to the ground. Lucas caught her but pitched forward from the effort, so Eden twisted and pushed up against the floor. The top of her head collided with Lucas’s chin with a crack. He grunted and stumbled back, dropping his hold on her entirely and rubbing his chin.
“Stop fighting me!” he hissed at her. “We don't have much time."
“We’ve got plenty, " Eden growled back.
Lucas thrust his hand into his pocket, and she braced herself for whatever was coming. Instead of a weapon, a brass key sat in the palm of his hand. Some kind of trick, or trap. Although, she thought, they were already so trapped down here, why bother?
“I can’t stop her,” Lucas said. “I can’t.”
“Why--”
“But you can. She’ll check the cell before we leave for the launch site. I have to lock you in. Use this, find the coordinates of the launch pad in her office, and find us. You can stop her. Or we can, together. But I can’t stop her alone.”
His eyes, dark and pleading, held only the truth, but still Eden hesitated. He seemed earnest, sure. This act of defiance against Bianca was strange for him though.
“How can I trust you?”
“I know she needs to be stopped. The Tyche was one thing when it was just a satellite, but that weapon in her hands will be no less dangerous than in Dr. Abrahams’. Come on, Eden. Be serious. I don’t want to die.”
She believed him then. She nodded. She let him lock her in the cell again, the same cell she’d been in before. He let the door shut behind him and she held the key so tightly in her hand that it bit into the soft skin. The darkness in the cell was the same. This time, Eden was too wound up to sit in the twilight and wait for Bianca to peer inside. He could have been lying, she admitted to herself as she paced back and forth in the cell. It was too narrow, too low ceilinged. She wanted to burst out of her skin.
Time passed and eventually a shadow passed in front of the door, and dark eyes peered inside. Unmistakably Bianca. Eden came up to the window, hating that she had to look up at her. Their eyes met; no words exchanged but enough was said. Bianca’s footsteps echoed down the corridor as she left, two echoes following dutifully behind her. Lucas and Rory.
Eden started counting when the footsteps disappeared. She timed her breaths to her count and tried to slow her racing heart. The room was still too small. There wasn’t enough air down here anyways. When she reached 100, she slid the brass key into the lock and grinned when the lock clicked open obediently. It worked. The corridor was empty, but Eden crept as noiselessly as she could back to Bianca’s office, retracing her steps easily. The office was unlocked. Eden let the door shut gently behind her, wondering how much longer her luck would last.
Footsteps, outside the door. Eden held her breath, and crouched behind the bookcase. They passed quickly, and then there was silence again, broken only by what sounded like a low hum from the glowing vase in the center of the room. The pink glow was hard to see by, but she crossed to Bianca’s desk in the corner. It was worn and heavily used, with initials carved in a heart in one corner. Eden wondered where Bianca had found the desk, how she’d moved it down into the base unseen. The ceiling was too low, the light too dim, the walls too rough hewn and uneven. Even with the plush rug, the steel beneath was cold. Eden shivered as she stood in front of the desk, hesitating.
She sifted through each desk drawer, ducking every time she heard footsteps outside. The activity beyond the office was picking up. Eden focused on her breathing and her sorting. There! Finally, she found a piece of paper in the drawer, ripped from a notebook hastily. A short set of directions was scribbled on it. Half mile towards Paradise. Green door. That must be it. She pocketed the scrap and hurried to the door. She’d been searching too long. Too late already. Hand on the door, she paused. A pair of tables flanked the door. She checked the drawers. Nothing. Eden spun, eyes searching the room hungrily, until a glint of silver from atop the bookcase caught her eye. She had to jump to reach it, but eventually her fingers caught the cold metal and she tucked the laser gun into the waist of her pants. The cold was comfort, security. She crept out of the office and retraced her steps towards the common room, and from there, the ladder up to the rail tunnel.
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She poked her head out of the door to the rush of an oncoming train. Eden yelped and fell backwards, almost tumbling headlong back down the ladder. Breathing hard, she waited and listened, and when the tunnel was quiet again, she began running down the track.
Her steps were heavy at first, and clumsy, but she fell into rhythm quickly and beat the ground as hard as she could. She had to be fast enough. Rory was waiting for her, counting on her. In a way, everyone was. The rumble of the tunnel sent a spike of adrenaline through her body, and she threw herself against the wall of the tunnel, fighting against the suction of the train pulling her along with it. Her hair broke free of her ponytail and whipped around her head in a blonde storm, beating against her face and her neck. When the train was past, she fell to the ground and gasped for breath.
The half mile passed more quickly than she expected and she came to the green door, and Eden realized that she was alone in this, after all. For all Lucas’s help until this point, he would side with whoever he thought would work out best for him. That much was clear. Eden stood outside the green door, frozen, and hoped it was her. And for all of Rory’s love and loyalty, he would be no assistance in a fight.
Bianca would be ready for a fight. That fire in her eyes, the cold passion in her voice. And Eden was alone. Eden took a deep breath and pushed the green door open, and was confronted with another ladder. The room was small, and dark, containing only the ladder leading down, and lit by only one bare bulb above. There was no point hesitating. Eden took the ladder down deeper into the belly of the planet.
She heard their voices about five feet from the bottom of the ladder and paused to listen, feeling her pulse in her hands and in her ears. Bianca was angry. Her words were unintelligible but her tone was unmistakable. Something wasn’t working out for her. Eden’s heart missed a beat when she heard Rory’s pleading voice murmur something and then cry out.
She scrambled down the last few rungs of the ladder and dropped into the corridor below, following the voices towards a softly glowing light in the room at the end of the corridor. She paused in the doorway. The ceiling of the room was strange: two panels that met in the center of the room, wired and mechanized to presumable slide apart. Eden could see the reason why just below. The rocket housing the Tyche gleamed cruelly, its nose pointed up towards the panels. The room was wide and empty besides the behemoth that was the Tyche, but off the side of the room was a door cracked open. The voices came from within. Eden crept forward, through the shadow of the beast, towards the room. She took her laser from her boot where she had stored it and held it solidly in her hands. She took a deep breath.
Eden was struck again by the fact that she was alone, facing Haven’s greatest threat. The weight of the gun in her hand was comfortable, natural, and made her feel braver. Bianca would not be expecting her. She had a chance. Another cry, sharp and full of pain, came from the room and there was no more holding back.
Eden shoved through the ajar door, laser gun preceding her into the control room. The walls were covered with screens, all displaying things that Eden had no mental energy to decipher. It didn’t matter what was on the screens. Bianca was standing behind Rory at the control panel in the center of the room. He was bleeding from his forehead, the trickle of blood dripping from his hairline down his face and onto the floor. His left eye was swollen shut, and he hadn’t noticed her entry. He typed clumsily away at the control panel. Even at the distance, Eden could see his hands shaking.
“I’m trying,” he said. “Really, just give me time.”
Bianca hadn’t noticed her yet either, so focused she was on Rory’s work, but Lucas’s eyes lit up as they met Eden’s and he nodded. He touched the laser gun at his side. She tried to trust him. Eden cleared her throat. It was time to confront Bianca, but the wail of an alarm drowned out her words.
“What’s going on?” Bianca shrieked.
“I don’t know!” Rory’s panic cut through the alarm. “My credentials tripped some sort of alarm!”
“Make it stop!”
Rory hesitated, and Bianca jabbed her gun into the back of his head.
“Put it down, Bianca. It’s over,” Eden called over the alarm. She leveled her weapon at Bianca.
She turned and betrayed only a split second of surprise before she grinned wickedly at Eden, keeping her own gun jammed into the back of Rory’s neck. “Too bad it has to end this way, Eden. But really, it’s for the greater good. Trust me.”
“Put your weapon down,” Eden repeated through gritted teeth.