asking for an update on the electrolysis results.
Prakesh swings his arm up, trying to hit Darnell across the side of the face. Darnell knocks it away, his hand swinging back. Prakesh’s anger vanishes, replaced by bright terror. He tries to hit Darnell again, but thelab boss grabs his wrist.
“Do that again, and you’ll lose the arm. Where is Riley Hale?”
Prakesh tries to answer. He might as well try to make trees grow using his mind. All the stories, all the little rumours he’s heard when he’s taking a break with the other techs, are popping up one after the other. It feels as if they’re clogging his throat, sealing it shut.
Darnell sighs. He jabs his forearminto Prakesh’s neck, banging his head back against the lockers.
Prakesh claws at the arm, desperate for air. There’s a tiny sting in his neck. It grows and grows, the pain flooding through his body. He has to scream, he has to, but Darnell clamps a hand over his mouth.
“You’re not going to like what happens when you wake up,” he says. He’s at the end of a very long, dark tunnel, and by the timePrakesh figures out what the words mean, he’s gone.
12
Riley
Too close. That was way too close.
Every stride brings another image flashing up. The tagger standing above me. The glint of metal. The sound of his scream, like water burbling through a rusted pipe. If he hadn’t been there, if I hadn’t stopped in that exact spot …
No. I can’t think about it like that. Darnell’s guard killed the tagger because he was in the way. If it wasn’t him, itwould have been someone else. I was the target – and since not even Darnell would risk murdering me in the middle of the Air Lab, he sent his goon to do it for him. It’s a good thing I left before …
Oh gods –
Prakesh
.
I’m already running through every memory I can think of, trying to remember if Darnell had ever seen us together. I don’t think so. But the last words Prakesh and I said to eachother are running over and over in my head.
I should go back. No. No way. I can’t show my face in Gardens until I’ve figured this whole mess out. Stompers? Not a chance. They’ll throw me in the brig along with Darnell.
Amira. She’ll know what to do.
I keep running, fast as I can, doing my best to push everything else away. But the anger I felt when I was attacked is still rolling in my stomach.It’s not just anger at Darnell. It’s anger at the ugliness of the station. The dirtiness of it. It’s like I’ve ripped back a scab, one so old that I’d almost forgotten it was there. I feel like I’ve had a look at the raw flesh underneath.
Enough. Focus on running.
Movement helps. It always does. I let my muscle memory take over, and in no time at all, I’m in the upper-level Apogee corridor thatleads to the Nest.
For most people, there are only six levels on Outer Earth. But there are things in this place you won’t find on any official map. Vents, wiring ducts, sewerage pipes. And storage units that a person can easily stand up in. These are places that the rest of the station has long since forgotten about. But if you know where to look, you can score yourself a very handy base.
I have to look for a moment to spot the hatch in the ceiling. In the dim light, I can just make out the yellow warning label, its Hindi and Chinese script almost illegible. I break into a run, willing my body to go a little further. It’s nine miles from the Air Lab to the Nest in Apogee, and I can feel every single one of them in the arches of my feet.
As I run up to the hatch, I jump towardsthe wall, launching myself back off it in a reverse tic-tac towards the ceiling. I flatten my hand against the hatch as I pass underneath it, and push – it glides silently upwards and away, the hydraulics Carver built into it working perfectly. I land, and then immediately leap towards the opposite wall for another tac, pushing off and backwards in one smooth move.
I fell on my ass hard the firstfew times I
Prakesh swings his arm up, trying to hit Darnell across the side of the face. Darnell knocks it away, his hand swinging back. Prakesh’s anger vanishes, replaced by bright terror. He tries to hit Darnell again, but thelab boss grabs his wrist.
“Do that again, and you’ll lose the arm. Where is Riley Hale?”
Prakesh tries to answer. He might as well try to make trees grow using his mind. All the stories, all the little rumours he’s heard when he’s taking a break with the other techs, are popping up one after the other. It feels as if they’re clogging his throat, sealing it shut.
Darnell sighs. He jabs his forearminto Prakesh’s neck, banging his head back against the lockers.
Prakesh claws at the arm, desperate for air. There’s a tiny sting in his neck. It grows and grows, the pain flooding through his body. He has to scream, he has to, but Darnell clamps a hand over his mouth.
“You’re not going to like what happens when you wake up,” he says. He’s at the end of a very long, dark tunnel, and by the timePrakesh figures out what the words mean, he’s gone.
12
Riley
Too close. That was way too close.
Every stride brings another image flashing up. The tagger standing above me. The glint of metal. The sound of his scream, like water burbling through a rusted pipe. If he hadn’t been there, if I hadn’t stopped in that exact spot …
No. I can’t think about it like that. Darnell’s guard killed the tagger because he was in the way. If it wasn’t him, itwould have been someone else. I was the target – and since not even Darnell would risk murdering me in the middle of the Air Lab, he sent his goon to do it for him. It’s a good thing I left before …
Oh gods –
Prakesh
.
I’m already running through every memory I can think of, trying to remember if Darnell had ever seen us together. I don’t think so. But the last words Prakesh and I said to eachother are running over and over in my head.
I should go back. No. No way. I can’t show my face in Gardens until I’ve figured this whole mess out. Stompers? Not a chance. They’ll throw me in the brig along with Darnell.
Amira. She’ll know what to do.
I keep running, fast as I can, doing my best to push everything else away. But the anger I felt when I was attacked is still rolling in my stomach.It’s not just anger at Darnell. It’s anger at the ugliness of the station. The dirtiness of it. It’s like I’ve ripped back a scab, one so old that I’d almost forgotten it was there. I feel like I’ve had a look at the raw flesh underneath.
Enough. Focus on running.
Movement helps. It always does. I let my muscle memory take over, and in no time at all, I’m in the upper-level Apogee corridor thatleads to the Nest.
For most people, there are only six levels on Outer Earth. But there are things in this place you won’t find on any official map. Vents, wiring ducts, sewerage pipes. And storage units that a person can easily stand up in. These are places that the rest of the station has long since forgotten about. But if you know where to look, you can score yourself a very handy base.
I have to look for a moment to spot the hatch in the ceiling. In the dim light, I can just make out the yellow warning label, its Hindi and Chinese script almost illegible. I break into a run, willing my body to go a little further. It’s nine miles from the Air Lab to the Nest in Apogee, and I can feel every single one of them in the arches of my feet.
As I run up to the hatch, I jump towardsthe wall, launching myself back off it in a reverse tic-tac towards the ceiling. I flatten my hand against the hatch as I pass underneath it, and push – it glides silently upwards and away, the hydraulics Carver built into it working perfectly. I land, and then immediately leap towards the opposite wall for another tac, pushing off and backwards in one smooth move.
I fell on my ass hard the firstfew times I
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