The Forbidden Trilogy(99)

She stood back, on the defensive, as the man-beast stepped out of his cage for the first time in who knows how long. He placed each foot in front of the other tentatively, as if testing to see if the floor would hold him.

"I thank you, Girl, for freeing me."

She nodded and let him take the lead so she could keep an eye on him. He hadn't lied to her, but that didn't mean she would let her guard down. Still, something about his eyes, his soul, pulled at her. He was more than he seemed, and her heart broke at the life he'd been forced to live.

They reached the radiation room, and he stood before the door. "Stand back. I open it."

She stood on the other side of the room. Just as she opened her mouth to protest that the door was too big for him to open alone—it must have weighed a ton, made of solid metal—he pushed the door in and closed it behind him.

Within minutes, he returned with a small metal sphere in his hand. "I know not how it works, but much power in it. You take it to help you."

She reached for it, but pulled back. "Is it safe? If it was in a room with radiation, will it hurt me?"

"It safe. It protected."

He spoke the truth. She paused, uncertain, and looked into his eyes. "Lie to me," she commanded.

"I do not understand?" His bushy eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"Tell me something that isn't true, that, you know, is a lie."

"I could not lie to you." Again, he held out the sphere.

Her body burned to take it, to study it and know its secrets, but she had to be sure her powers were working. She had to be sure she could trust him.

"I just need to test something. Please?"

"Okay, if it make you feel better. A lie: I have been free my whole life, and happy."

The lie washed into her mind like a poison and her head buzzed with it. Her powers worked, and she could trust him.

She reached out and accepted the sphere from him. "Thank you." The cool metal tickled her skin and sent goosebumps running up her arm. She examined the sphere, but found no opening or button of any kind. Nothing about its appearance indicated its use, but it pulsed with an energy that warmed her.

"What's your name?"

"Name?"

"Yes, what do they call you?"

"I have no name. They give me number."

Lucy slipped the device into her jacket pocket. "Well, I have to call you something. How about Adam? Do you like that name?"

He smiled. "Yes. Adam. I Adam. I like."

He grabbed a discarded lab coat to hide himself, and they headed through the long, vacant hall toward the nearest exit.

"Luke, you around?"

"I made it through and am waiting for you. Did you seriously free a mutant?"

"You have to meet him. It's not what you think. Talk later, getting close to exit."

Lucy pulled Adam behind a vending machine. "Crap. A guard at the exit door. If I fight him, it could alert others to where we are."

"You not need to fight. You have power to compel. Truth and lies... all slip easily from tongues when you around. Talk to him. Tell him to lie. Tell him hard in your mind and with your lips."

"What are you talking about?"

"You see lies, yes? You can also make lies. Shadow power exists in everyone. Use it now."

Luke shouted in her ear. "Don't do it, Luce! You don't even know this guy. He could get you killed."

"Yes, but so could fighting the guard, or not leaving the building, or leaving the building. Honestly, my staying alive options are pretty slim. What else can I do?"

Lucy left the relative safety of the vending machine and walked the last steps of the hall to the guard, nerves rattling around in her stomach like grenades about to go off.

He saw her and raised his gun.

Everything inside her screamed Run! But she forced her legs forward.

Adam moved to fill the space next to her, a calming presence despite the potential danger.

The sphere in her pocket hummed, and warm energy filled her.

She held up her hand. "Excuse me, but you need to tell your buddies out there to let me and my friend through. Tell them we are staff who got stuck in a locked office and are just now finding our way out."

He cocked his gun. "What the hell, lady? I'm radioing you in."

He pulled out his radio. "Delta Leader, do you read me? I have...."

Lucy held his eyes and with force of will repeated her instructions.

His eyes glazed over. "...two staff who didn't make it out in the first sweep. Hold all fire. Repeat, hold all fire."

Lucy and the mutant walked through the door, just inches from the guard. Lucy's skin crawled but she kept moving.

Outside, the cold and darkness blanketed the landscape. She shivered, but didn't have time to let her eyes adjust. Instead, she relied on the surveillance lights to guide her way over the large field, toward the outside gate guard and past the snipers.