“No. Titan’s plant was destroyed, obliterated,” I tell her.
“There wasn’t a backup?” she asks. “That doesn’t sound like the rebels I know. There were always backups for backups. They never put all their eggs in one basket. The main plant made the majority of Titans, I’m sure. But that can’t have been all of them.
“I know humans. I know how they get when they’re scared. They stockpile and stash things in places so safe that sometimes even they forget where they put them.”
“Sounds like a terrible plan.”
Sefina gets up.
I grab her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To check out Craze’s body.”
I arch a brow.
“That came out wrong.” Sefina plants a hand on her hip. “I mean to see what’s up with the situation around him.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Sefina stops me with a hand to my chest. But as she opens her mouth to speak, a strange noise leaves the tunnel access, making us both wince. “Oh, stars. What is that?”
My ultromotor charges in my chest. “A Titan in agony.”
As I’m about to check it out, the sound fades. When Sefina opens her eyes again, she notices the rips in the thighs of my tactical pants from welvir claws.
“When did that happen?”
“Yesterday.”
“No blood?”
“I heal fast.”
She shakes her head like she can’t think about it right now. “Stay here. I’ll be right back. If it’s a trap, it’s for Titans. I can’t afford to have you corrupted.”
I catch her arm.
Sefina glowers at me.
“Be careful.”
She unlocks her jaw and gives me a terse nod. “Don’t go anywhere.”
I watch her crawl down the mountainside and toward the decommissioned Brother. She scans the woods around her as she approaches his body.
Something about her looking so closely at another Brother has my insides squirming. I don’t like the situation. I feel like I’m leaving her vulnerable.
She turns to me in the distance as she approaches the body and motions a hand across her throat. He is definitely gone.
Sefina crouches beside him, keeping a gun in one hand. With the other, she reaches for my Brother and pulls something from his chest. I can’t see what it is at this distance, but it concerns me. Something is not right with Craze.
The sound of a Brother in agony comes from the access again. I get up and inch toward the shaft. I can’t help it because I can’t stand listening to it while I sit on my thumbs like an apathetic machine. I’m not.
Someone is hurting a Brother. I must find out what’s going on and stop it.
“Menace!” Sefina calls to me as she sprints toward me. “Stop! Get away from that hole!”
But it’s too late. My body is moving on its own. It’s programmed into us to protect our brothers. I have to get to him.
I’m already dropping down inside the access. I don’t know where it leads, only that the room fills with light. A numbing hum sweeps over me with electricity that shocks me and thrusts my mind into oblivion.
Someone has lured me into their trap because they know exactly how Titans operate.
I have made a deadly mistake.
