Page 108 of Pride
She must have said that aloud. “But I am. Julius said it all the time. I was the first. The imperfect prototype.”
Water surrounded them, lifting them like the tide. Parker’s legs wrapped around her, a safety net in case the rope failed. With only five feet left to go before they hit the storm grate blocking the street, they knew they were out of time. The gaps between the iron were too small for a hand to fit through. Water was coming in from above at an alarming rate, and once it overflowed, they would drown.
His jaw worked, his teeth ground, and his eyes were fierce and lit with the kind of spirit she’d only ever dreamed of.
“Listen to me, Daisy, when I say this. I read Gloria’s research. I committed it to memory and then I destroyed it because I was ashamed of this”—he flinched—“beast she made of me. I should never have hid the truth from my family, you included. I was jealous because the truth was, she started with perfect. You got the best. She made you the strongest.” His eyes were suns breaking clouds through the storm. “Do you understand? She madeyouperfect.”
Her throat clogged. Her eyes burned. “But I’m not.”
“What you are is a Lazarus. And we never quit. Come on.” He looked up and started climbing again. Even if she wasn’t sure if she believed Parker’s words, he did. And the damned bastard was usually right. Daisy rallied her strength and put her hands back on the rungs.
“Look, Daisy,” he said as his face tilted toward the grate, two feet away. “What do you see?”
Daisy followed his stare and latched onto a small patch of blue sky struggling to hold its own against the storm. Her lips curved. “I see freedom.”
39
“This way,”Axel said to Alice and beckoned her toward a ladder leading up to a manhole.
Her leg was killing her and the robotic arm weighed a ton, but she refused to let Axel carry it. She had no idea how Parker had lived with it attached to his body. Wouldstilllive, she promised herself. Nothadlived. Never that. She was willing to bet her life that he was okay on the other side of that sluice gate.
He was too stubborn to die.
They were a block from where the powered replicate had tried to electrocute them. The second wave of voltage wasn’t as powerful as the first. She’d survived. And then she’d run her sword through the clone’s neck.
Julius fled the moment he realized most of his replicates were taken out by one of his own. She wasn’t even sure he’d shut the sluice gate. It could have been an automatic city process activated by the storm. Whoever was at fault, the outcome remained the same. She’d been cut off from Parker. The tunnels were flooding, and Julius was gone. There was nothing they could do but get out and hope Parker and Daisy had the same opportunity.
Axel shoved the manhole lid aside, and they emerged onto a city street. Frigid rain poured down from the cloud riddled sky. It was so dark it felt like the evening, not mid-afternoon. A car slid to a stop, narrowly missing hitting them. The driver, an elderly man, gaped at them through the windshield.
“Sorry!” Axel held out his palm.
Once on the street, Axel and Alice moved the manhole cover back into position and they jogged to the side, taking cover from the rain beneath a closed bakery awning.
“Is your cell working?” Alice asked him. Her own was waterlogged.
He pulled his out. “It’s waterproof.”
“I need to make a call.” Without waiting for permission, she took the cell and dialed Parker’s number. Dead. Next she dialed Mary’s and made a silent prayer of gratitude that she’d memorized it when working as Parker’s assistant. Mary picked up after two rings.
“Yes?” Mary answered.
“Mary, it’s Alice.”
A pause. “Alice?”
In the background, a baby cried. Must be Amari.
“Have you heard from Parker?” she asked.
Another pause. “No… was I supposed to?”
Shit.
It’s fine. It meant nothing. Parker could still be fine. “We’ve had a situation,” she explained. “I need his watch tracked.”
“Hold on.”
Two seconds later, Flint spoke. “Alice, it’s Flint. What do you need?”
