Читать книгу The Fall - Laura Nolen Liddell - Страница 8

“So there I was, minding my own business in my new office on the Guardian Level, when I got news that the Commander was dead. Thanks for that, by the way,” Adam nodded at me. “I wasn’t sure I had the nerve until that moment. They need me, you know. This Ark.” He leaned in. “They know it, and I know it. They need someone who can keep a sense of order around here.”

The Commander had had control of the Guardians, and he’d wielded them like his own personal army in a failed attempt to retain control over the Ark and to crush the Remnant, a hidden group of survivors who opposed him.

Oh, and he was also Eren’s father.

Eren. Blue eyes. Security, like a thick blue blanket. A fleeting moment of happiness from a silver ring with a pale blue stone. But there was something dark in my memories of Eren, too. My thoughts pressed themselves forward all at once and without a coherent order. I rubbed my leg nervously, trying to clear my mind, but they kept coming. Green pins of light and a red expanse of blood. His father had died by my hand. Surely I hadn’t meant for that to happen, had I? I wondered where Eren was. Hadn’t I sent him away? I wondered if he missed his father in spite of everything he’d put us through.

Wait, stop. Stabbing. I needed to focus on stabbing now.

“Hope Eren didn’t take it too hard. So I thought to myself, Adam, we’re doing all right. Everything’s coming together. Isaiah may not ever come around, but we’re better off without him anyway. The only way the Remnant was going to achieve equal footing was by blowing everything up and starting over.”

He crossed his legs, studying my face. The fork was light in my hand. I shifted my grip without looking down.

“But you, Char. You were different. I thought, I can explain myself to her, and she’ll listen. Maybe not at first. But she understands what it’s like, being ignored. Being feared. She’ll know what to do. I didn’t even want to kill Isaiah, Char. Honest. The Remnant—the whole thing was his idea in the first place. It wouldn’t have been right.

“You didn’t have to be my enemy. But then Amiel was dead. And you walked right into my trap.” His head tilted. “And I decided to change tack.”

“You’re lying,” I said. “My family isn’t dead. The Remnant isn’t—”

“There she is!” Adam sat up straight. “Welcome back, Char. It’s been a long, hard year without you.”

“If you’re trying to scare me, give it up, Adam. I’m not afraid anymore.”

“A return to form!” Adam clapped. “This really is exciting. Can I tell you their last words?”

Don’t listen. Don’t listen. Don’t—I breathed in measured beats. Steady. I had a job to do.

“Do you ever wonder whether they were talking about you? Worried for you? I don’t think we got this far last year.”

Don’t listen dontlisten‌dontlisten. I breathed a little faster. The handle of the fork bit into my palm.

Adam leaned in, exposing the softest part of his neck, and lowered his voice to deliver another blow. “They didn’t die right away, you know. There was screaming.”

I rushed him, arm high, and made a sound like a burning pterodactyl. He jumped, predictably, and I drove the fork into his neck.

Or at least, I tried to.

At the last instant, a blunt weight tackled me from the left. I hit the floor harder than I expected. For some reason, I was unable to break my fall.

That’s when I remembered that my right arm ended just below the elbow, and I howled again, angry. Helpless.

The sound of Adam’s laughter filled my mind, and the Lieutenant shuffled me onto my back. She was armed in an instant.

I saw the needle coming for me, but Adam stayed his hand, savoring a final moment with me, his favorite prisoner.

“We can make this stop, you know. Tell me what happened to Ark Five, and I might let you stay awake this year.”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that? Seriously, I have no idea.”

The control room was like a slippery plastic slide, and I had the intense feeling of falling into a void beneath it. “Happy birthday, Char. And many happy returns.”

The corners of my brain went dark and began to expand. With my last cogent thought, I focused on the weight of the Lieutenant on my chest as she scrambled to secure my bad arm, which was pressing into her throat. Her breathing leveled off as I came under her control, but so did mine. She’d landed right where I wanted her. I focused my last seconds of consciousness into my remaining hand, which was already halfway to the black pack she carried across her flank, just under the flap of her uniform jacket, until my fingers touched steel. I hoped that she was a moment too late, that her nerves had made her overly concerned about the fork. I hoped desperately that I hadn’t dreamed the last few moments. That I wasn’t dreaming already.

And then, my moment was spent.

The slide grew steeper, and the Lieutenant relaxed her grip on my upper body. There was nothing left but the fall. My latest prison had no cells, no bars, and no hope of escape. So I couldn’t say I’d ever enjoyed the trip into mental stasis.

But this time, I smiled the whole way down.