“I bet ten thousand yen that this leads to the secret labs,” Hex says, diving into the tunnel.
I send Mong after him, going last so I can close the fridge. I hear clicking and clanking when I press on the square button once I’ve gone through the gap, and the two panels slide back into place. The shelves are all stacked against the side of the fridge, which would be strange to anyone who opened it, but unless they know it doubles as the entrance to the off-limits part of the ship, they’ll just scratch their heads and move on.
“Aran, are you coming?” Hex’s voice echoes in the narrow space, ringing off the empty walls and low ceiling.
I jog through the tunnel to catch up. The space is illuminated by equally spaced blue lights that probably change to red in the case of an emergency. Fortunately, they hold out as we reach the end of the tunnel, where a biometric scanner and a reinforced door await. Security hasn’t found the bodies yet—we still have time.
Hex and Mong step to the side so I can access the door controls. Taking out Claire’s eye, I hold it to the scanner and hope it works.
[Eye scan completed. Please proceed to voice recognition.]
I blanch, gawking at the device. Fuck. Did I remember to record her talking before I killed her? I’m not sure. I don’t think I did. I was so agitated and furious when I heard how hard Hex was trying to keep it together… His voice was so weak and shaky, so scared, and yet he didn’t let himself break down. He carried his weight, standing next to me like an equal in this mission.
God, he’s grown so much. He’s amazing. Yet I let my emotions get the better of me, so focused on making her pay for what she tried to do to him…
Fuck! What do we do now? We are stuck because of me.
“Ahem.” Hex clears his throat. “Let me squeeze through, or are we going to just stand here?”
I whip my head back and stare at him. He smiles sweetly, playfully,wickedly, his lovely brown eyes sparkling with pride as he pulls out Claire’s tablet.
“You looked very murderous when you came to save me. And then you kind of lost it in the middle of interrogating her, so I…” He licks his lips and winks at me. “I thought you might get carried away and forget to record her voice in case we needed it, so I did it instead.”
He plays the file, making me relive my failure to conduct myself professionally once more. But that’s fine, it’s not the end of the world that it should have been, because Hex had my back. Because he makes up for my shortfalls. He’s not a damsel in distress, he’s never been one, even if I tried to fool myself that he was so I could justify clinging to an old promise. So I could fight what I truly wanted because I was afraid I didn’t deserve it.
Yes, he needs protecting sometimes, yes, he can be a bit oblivious and too trusting of people, but that’s just who he is. That’s whereIcome in to complete him, just like he completes me.
I hug him so tightly he almost drops the tablet. I can’t help it, my entire being demands I hold him even if just for a few moments. It’s needed so I can be me again, so I can move past a mistake I should’ve never made, so I can fill myself with his scent and his warmth.
Hex sighs in contentment, sagging in my arms as I support his weight. Joy floods me, uncontrollable and overwhelming, but with effort, I manage to stash it for later so I can show him just how irreplaceable he’s to my world.
[Identification completed. Welcome, Claire Streiss.]
The robotic voice interrupts the blissful moment. We separate abruptly, a tinge of charming red painting Hex’s cheeks. He’s always been so confident, so levelheaded and stubborn when it comes to his interest in me, and seeing him flustered because I did something he didn’t expect is a delight.
“You’re playing dirty, Aran,” he accuses me when he notices me staring. “It’s unfair.”
His lovely pout makes me yearn to kiss him, but as the door opens, I once again force myself to leave that for later. We are so close now to the truth, mere steps away from solving this conspiracy.
“I’ll compensate you. Later.” I go in first this time, finding myself at the top of a white staircase.
I can hear machinery from below, hissing and clanking. It smells sterile, like a hospital. I know straight away that we are in the right place, but as we climb down and go through the glass sliding doors to find what we’ve been looking for, I don’t know what to make of our discovery.
Because this is no ordinary drug lab. With all the unconscious people lying in cots hooked to IV drips, it looks like the testing grounds for human experiments.
33
Hex
IspotEleanorimmediately.She’s lying still on the second cot on the right, her face scrunched and pale as if she is in great pain even though she looks sedated. “Mong! Over there!”
The two of us rush to her, Aran on our heels. An IV drip is hooked to her right arm, where all the veins are bulging in an unusual way.
“What is this? Can we take it off?” I shake the thin plastic tube.
Aran squeezes my shoulder and retrieves the pack of fluid from the IV pole. “It’s saline, probably to prevent her from dehydrating.”
“We need to wake her up! She can probably tell us what happened and who did this to her.”
