Page 150 of Tapeworld Induction

Dylan let her head fall back with a sigh.

I’d better be right about this.

Back IRL, Dylan safely lifted the Sleeper from Jewel’s head.

The heavy-set woman's eyes opened with a gasp, eye sockets sunken, forehead coated in day-old sweat and matted hair. She instinctively tried to raise her arms, only to be stopped by the rope restraints Dylan had tied around them. Jewel blinked. “You didn’t kill me.”

“Looks like it, huh?” Dylan said, frowning. She leaned closer to her. “Am I going to regret that decision?”

Jewel shifted uncomfortably on the gurney. “What do you want?”

“Talia.”

“Fuck that!” Jewel spat.

Dylan held the Sleeper above Jewel’s head. “You want to go back in?”

“No! No… Please, I… I don’t like it.”

Dylan raised her eyebrows. “Really? ’Cos it sounded like you were ready to stay there your whole life.”

“That’s Astrid’s shit. It makes you do whatever she wants. She… volunteered me. I never wanted to go in.”

So Jewel was another brainwash victim, a bodyguard that Astrid had grown too fond of – to the point of experimenting on her with the Sleeper, and the behaviour programming. Dylan’s instinct had been right.

“Let’s try again. Where is Talia?”

Jewel took a deep breath, shifting the creases of her gym-tuxedo. “Astrid keeps her close any time she’s in there. Find Astrid, find Talia.” She looked into Dylan’s eyes, brows bunched in a plea. “Will you let me go now?”

A metal clank sounded from below, startling them both. The shutter to the warehouse.

“Shhh. Did you alert someone?” Dylan pressed the Sleeper against Jewel’s cheek, hard enough to make her shake, her other hand bound into a ready fist.

“No,” Jewel whispered.

Hurried footsteps climbed the stairs.

Fuck.

She knelt down behind Jewel’s bed, hiding with a line of sight to the way she and Isaak had come in. The Sleeper was still in her hands. Jewel had better behave.

Dylan thought about Isaak asking her if she had a gun. One would have been fucking useful right about now.

Someone wearing a tradesman’s overalls walked in from the stairwell.

“Where are they?” said someone behind the first man.

“Holy shit! Look at all these people, Elo!”

It was them! She shot up. “Sacha, I’m here!”

He jogged towards her and they hugged.

“Hello.” Jewel’s gruff voice startled him, making him jump.

“I’m surprised to see you still alive, you evil bitch.” Sacha leaned closer to Jewel’s bound figure on the gurney. “Tell me where Talia is!”

“It’s okay, Sacha. She’s going to help us.”