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“I missed you, you know,” he says. “First Pike is killed and then you run off. I have no one to talk to during off-hours. I haven’t even been assigned a new team since we’ve been waiting to bring you back.”
“I’m not going back,” I tell him. “They lied to us.”
“I have to take you back, Sten.” Isaac takes a few steps inside the room.
I tense, poised and waiting for him to make a move, but he pauses.
“You had to know this was going to happen.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Yeah, it does.”
The muscles in his legs flex, causing the fabric around them to shift. I know exactly how he will move, how he will attack. I parry, turning to one side and letting him go past me before I punch into his kidney.
He spins and faces me again. I didn’t expect the blow to incapacitate him in any way—I just need to get myself to the door so I can get out of here. If I’m compromised, everyone else may be compromised as well. I have to get back to Wick so he can contact the others and warn them.
“It’s no good, Sten. You’ve got nowhere to go. As we speak, they’re raiding the Carson technical center in Martinsville. There isn’t anywhere for you to run. You just need to come back with me so the doctors can get you fixed up.”
“I’m not going to let them touch me,” I say.
He jumps at me again, an
d we lock arms. I slam my forehead into his, and he knees me in the stomach. We tussle for a moment and then break apart.
“You’re just confused,” Isaac says. “You’re broken, Sten, but they can fix—”
“They lied to us!” I yell at him. “They took away our thoughts, our memories. We aren’t volunteers, and my name isn’t Sten!”
“They’re filling your head with shit, man! We can end this right now. Just give it up, and I’ll take you both back to Mills. We can go back to the way everything was before.”
“I can’t do that.” I shake my head. “I can’t go back, not knowing what I know.”
“You need to be back there, with Dr. Grace. Both of you need to come back home.”
“You’re not going near her,” I say with a snarl. “Not a fucking chance.”
We rush each other again, crash into the cabinet full of drugs, and vials spill out onto the floor. I kick, he punches. He attacks, I parry. We’re getting nowhere, but we continue. He grabs me in a headlock and forces me to my knees as I jab him with my elbow repeatedly. There’s a sharp pain in my neck, and I realize he’s trying to pull out the device Spat installed to keep me from being tracked.
I twist and throw him over my shoulder. Reaching up to my neck, I feel the chip partially detached but not completely. Flashes inside my head are trying to reconnect with it, but can’t quite establish contact.
Isaac grabs a table nearby and flings it at me. I duck, have to regain my balance, and crouch again, ready for his next move.
“Don’t make me do this, Sten!”
“I can’t let you take her, Isaac. You know that.”
“You just gotta come back, bro. Please.”
His plea tears through me. I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to appeal to whatever bond we are supposed to have. If he had pulled the inhibitor chip completely out of my neck, it might get through to me, but it wouldn’t be enough.
He knows that.
He knows if we continue to fight, I will eventually win. The best he can hope for is a stalemate. There are no sounds coming from the hallway that indicate reinforcements have arrived though he has had plenty of time to contact someone.
Something’s wrong.
If they knew I would be here, why would they only send Isaac? Why not a whole group of them? Did they really believe he’d be able to talk me down, get me to come back of my own accord?
