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“Yeah, we did,” Jackson said. “Whatever happened, he isn’t there anymore.”

“We’d better get out of here,” said Nicole. “Before more units show up.”

“Where to?” Jackson asked.

“We should go check the engineering deck to see if Mason’s there,” I said with a sick feeling in my stomach.

As I turned, a low beeping came from somewhere amidst the forest of motionless robots. “Did you hear that?” I asked.

Nicole made a face like she didn’t have time for my insanity, but I pushed by her and ran to the discarded wristcom. The sound wasn’t coming from there. I turned it off so it would stop transmitting the signal, and listened hard. The beep came from somewhere along the side of the building.

“This way!” I hissed and jogged toward the source.

In seconds, Nicole and Jackson overtook me, yanking me forward and nearly off my feet altogether. “What—”

Jackson made a shushing motion and turned me to look behind us. Two staff members rolled forward through the fake night. I had no problem following the others’ lead and clinging to the side of the building as we edged toward the sound.

As we neared the curve that took us toward the back of the aquarium, a mere ten feet from the edge of the seawall, I forced myself to breathe through the fear. I bumped into Nicole when she stopped short. It only took a moment for me to figure out why.

Mason’s limp form lay sprawled on the ground, half hidden behind a bush. His outstretched arm was striped with cuts that oozed dark liquid. His wristcom emitted a low and regular beep.

I ran to his side, grateful that he had managed to get far enough away that he would not be obvious to the robots unless they searched the entire grounds. And with all the commotion we’d spread throughout the resort, they hadn’t taken the time.

I switched off his wristcom and tugged it off him before turning him onto his back as gently as possible. Scratches covered his handsome face, his swollen cheekbone sported a dark bruise, and spots of blood peppered his forehead.

“Is he breathing?” Nicole asked timidly over my shoulder.

Pressing my head to his chest, I tried to hear past my own thumping pulse. “He’s alive,” I said. Relief flooded through me. I smoothed the hair from his face, leaned down and kissed him. He responded, slowly but passionately, and his deep blue eyes blinked open.

“You found me,” he whispered as I backed away enough to help raise him to a sitting position.

“Are you injured badly?” Jackson asked, kneeling between us to check him over.

“I got cut up pretty good when Travis smashed the glass.” He winced as Jackson hoisted him to his feet.

I swallowed back the hurt, wishing I’d never let Travis go. He did this. There was no question now.

“We need to get out of here. They’ll look around this time.” Jackson glanced back toward the path we came down.

“We should take them out,” I said. “This is our chance to get the majority.”

“We’re missing one good fighter, and another is down,” Nicole said.

“Sam’s right,” Mason said. “Here.” He pulled out a knife.

I closed his fist around the hilt. “You keep that one. You need to have something to defend yourself if they find you.” I wished there was another way. I wished we could sneak Mason out of there and find some kind of escape pod.

“Holy shit!” I clamped a hand over my mouth as the others gaped at me. “There’s a way out of this place.”