The Six: Genesis | A Reverse Harem Novel

Nineteen

On the ground floor, the mandala locks into place. Massive winged doors close the gaping roof hovering far above our heads, plunging us into darkness. In the dark, my system titters and chirps, delving through the darkness to account for every doorway, item, person or otherwise lurking nearby.

This must be what Zhyv feels like. She and her twins are at ease in the dark. They surround her, cocooning her in the safety of their presence. Charlie and Gatlin do the same to me, reaching out in the darkness to ensure no one touches me. Even without the ability to see, they are painfully aware of where I am. A thrill shivers up my spine, but I remain calm and wait.

With a hard crunch, the lights shudder to life like a child awakening from a nap. They throw a yellow glow. Light hugs the recesses of the vast cavern and chases away the lingering shadows.

We stand at the center, perfectly situated between two sets of gigantic steel doors. Riveted, and gleaming, their as silent as a grave. There are no other souls here beside us, with only a few stacks of green crates to my left, a pristine military humvee to my right and a dozen or so helter-skelter stacked cardboard boxes.

I don't have to ask where we are.

I know.

Darcy's company keeps the interworkings of the Black Raven site hush-hush. If they're bringing me here, not only their largest supplier and largest competitor, then something is horribly, dreadfully, terribly wrong. Trepidation takes flight inside of me and I slink closer to Gatlin as the final lights crack on.

"This way, please."

We follow her forward, shrugging off fear when the mandala ascends to the surface when we abandon it. Charlie stays near me, but he's focusing on the hovering machinery in awe. It floats upward, without assistance, a disc without tethers. I'd designed the entire thing, but I didn't know where they'd put it until now.

The doors crawl open on grinding gears. They're bigger than any set I've ever seen—even mine. They have to be nearly 46 meters (150 feet) tall and over two and a half meters thick. Inside, concrete separates two panels of steel, cushioning against impact.

"We need to move quickly."

Darcy's gait speeds up, nearly sprinting down the hall. We pass a handful of closed doors on each side of the hallway, and amble straight through an arched corridor with four exits and a round table in the center. She powers on, ignoring the whispering voices goading us. I can't pinpoint them, but they must be close.

Finally, at the end of an outrageously long hallway, we come to a stop.

Another steel door imposes over us, but it's only five meters tall and is round inside of a rectangle. A lock rests at the center, anchored by a strangely glowing square pad. It pulses red and yellow in a patterned sequence. Curious, I glance at Darcy's trembling frame.

"Before we enter, there is something I must tell you, Blue."

"Oh, shit." I curse under my breath. "What did you do?"

"It wasn't me and it was against my suggestions."

Fuck me. What the hell had her bosses done? I didn't even know, and I already want to strangle them!

"I'm assuming this has something to do with my organisms?"

"Yes."

Charlie interrupted. "Excuse me, organisms?"

"You call them robots, but in my house, they're organisms," I answer. "They're not all robotic, you know. Some of them have interfaces and AI to allow them to process emotions and understand the human experience. It helps with policing."