Читать книгу Code Name Flood - Laura Martin, Laura Martin - Страница 11

“So, um, this is it,” Chaz said as we walked into the small room I’d be sharing with her for the foreseeable future. It was three levels higher than the conference room, but still too far down for any sunlight to penetrate. It contained two twin beds, two small closets, and a lamp. One whole wall was glass and looked out into the lake. Were there any rooms in this place without a monster-infested view? Next door I could hear Shawn and Todd arguing over who would get which bed.

“It’s not much,” Chaz apologised as she attempted to push a pile of dirty clothes under her bed with a booted foot. “I can get you your own room if you want. I’m sure Boz could arrange it.”

Shaking my head, I walked over to press my hand against the cool glass of the window. “It’s great,” I said, turning to her with what I hoped was an acceptable smile. “Really.”

Chaz nodded, flopping down on her rumpled bed. After the shock had worn off from viewing the video, Boz had got himself together and begun giving orders. The first thing he did was swear us all to secrecy. The information would do nothing but cause chaos and panic if it got out, he said.

Todd had been the hardest one to convince. As soon as he heard that the big plan was to do nothing until further notice, he’d pitched a fit. Not that I could blame him. If I hadn’t been so overwhelmed by the information overload, I would have joined him.

In the end he’d agreed to a compromise. We would let the lab’s head council discuss a course of action before he did anything. Although it wasn’t like we had any choice. Boz was incredibly kind about it, but he’d made it clear that leaving wasn’t an option.

I jumped as someone knocked loudly on our door.

“Come in!” Chaz called, not bothering to get up from her bed, where she was fiddling with a port screen. Todd stormed through the door, followed by a glum-looking Shawn. I shot him a questioning look, but he just shook his head and plopped down on the foot of my bed.

“How can you stand it?” Todd asked, pacing our small room like a caged animal. “Being underwater. It’s horrible. My skin is crawling, the air has no smell, and I feel like my head is going to explode.” He looked to Shawn and me for backup, but Shawn just shrugged apologetically.

“I feel at home for the first time in days,” he admitted. “This is like North Compound, but bigger and better because of all the windows.”

“I don’t get how anyone lives like this. It’s awful,” Todd said. Then he looked over at Chaz. “No offence.”

“None taken.” Chaz shrugged. Just then a long-necked plesiosaur, what Chaz had called an elasmosaurus, emerged from the darkness, yellow lamp-like eyes glowing, and I jumped instinctively away from the window.

“That is so creepy,” Todd breathed.

“You can say that again,” Shawn said as we watched the creature disappear back into the murk of the lake.

“Do you realise,” Todd said a moment later, breaking the silence, “that your dad might have just saved the entire world by getting that plug into Boz’s hands?”

“It hasn’t really sunk in,” I admitted. “I’m not sure how to wrap my brain around the Noah’s plan, let alone that my dad was the one who somehow stumbled upon it.” Even though my dad had hinted at the world being at stake in the letter he’d hidden inside his compass, I guess a part of me hadn’t really thought he was being literal. Kennedy and his marines coming after me made a lot more sense now.

“What’s scary,” Shawn said, interrupting my thoughts, “is that I can totally understand why the Noah thinks wiping the planet clean of dinosaurs is going to solve everything.” Todd and Chaz shot him identical disbelieving looks, and Shawn held up his hands defensively. “Let me finish,” he said. “I understand because if I hadn’t seen and experienced the topside world, hadn’t heard Ivan and Boz explain things, I probably would have thought his plan was great.”

“It’s not great,” Todd muttered.

Shawn rolled his eyes. “I know that now. I guess we’re just lucky Sky’s dad found out about all this.”

I smiled wryly. “So you really think he’s a hero?”

“I’d say he qualifies,” Chaz said.

“The thing is,” I confessed, “I’m a little disappointed.” But even as I said it, I knew disappointed wasn’t the right word. It didn’t encompass the dark emptiness I felt inside, the sense of loss that I wasn’t sure I’d ever shake.

“Because you’re stuck in an underwater lab, and they won’t give you the passcodes to get out?” Todd asked.

“Because the world as we know it might be ending in the not-so-distant future?” Shawn added.

“No.” I sighed. “Because part of me still believed that my dad might be here.”

“But, Sky,” Todd said hesitantly, shooting a worried look at Shawn. “You heard that General Kennedy guy; he said your dad was dead.”

I thought back to that moment in the woods where Kennedy had explained without remorse that he had murdered my father within hours of his escape, and shivered.

“I know what he said. But I’m still not sure if I believe it.” I saw the look of pity on their faces and flapped a hand at them. “Don’t look at me like that. I haven’t lost my mind. I just, I don’t know, I feel like I’d know in my gut if he was gone.”

“Well, my gut says waiting around down here for some council to vote on a plan is suicide,” Todd grumbled.