The Hacker

Chapter Four

I woke up on a cloud.

My alarms didn't start going off for a few minutes after I opened my eyes but when they did, I sprang up. All senses on alert, I fought my way through a white cocoon filled with stale air until fresh air blew onto my face. I took a deep breath, relishing it, and wormed my way out of the white.

My head poked out of a gigantic marshmallow of a comforter in the middle of a nice room. Probably the nicest I'd ever been in. It outstripped the sacks in the marketplace by a mile, and my spotty memories of a dorm in the Academy told me that this paradise outdid it as well.

I pushed myself up in the bed, dimly realizing that it was the most comfortable thing I had ever sat on, and surveyed the room. Light filtered in through a window in the corner that was so frosted I could barely make out any shapes that would tell me where on Earth I was. After flipping my legs over the side, my toes kneaded their way into a lush white carpet. I let out a contented sigh.

The room looked as though someone carved it out of a single block of marble. The bed I flopped back onto had four white columns that trailed off into a plaster ceiling. An indent on the far wall revealed the location of the door. A pale table with white chairs arranged around it sat beneath the window, and a cavernous closet gaped open next to the bed where the only splotch of color in the room came from. Straining my eyes, I caught a flash of blue from inside the closet, and I gasped.

The produce market.

The man in the suit.

Hayden.

Footsteps echoed through the wall, and the logical portion of my brain, the portion that the neurochip enjoyed the majority of control, shut off. Instincts took over, and my breathing sped up.

I needed to get out of there.

My eyes flicked around the room again, the cold appraisal from before replaced with panic, and they alighted on the chair and window.

Chair.

Window.

Chair.

Window.

The footsteps grew louder and I jumped off the bed towards the window. I had barely kicked off the sheets from my ankles when my right arm was jerked backwards. I yelped. A gleaming piece of steel had my wrist fastened to the top bedpost. An apparatus laid in the middle of it, and as I watched, it absorbed a link of steel chain. I looked at it quizzically before giving the chain an experimental tug. Another chain link disappeared into the box. I grumbled and stared longingly at the window.

The footsteps stopped outside of what I assumed to be the door. Fear fluttered in me, but I shoved the butterflies down and took a few calming breaths. Hayden taught me to escape handcuffs this way once when we were arrested together. I'd only had to do it once since then, and I hoped I remembered how to do it.

I also hoped that it hurt less than I remembered.

With a pop, my thumb was out of it's socket and my hand was out of the cuff. I bit my lip to keep from yelling out, and when I trusted myself to take a breath without screaming I could taste blood.

I was diving into the space under the bed with the comforter covering either side as the door slid open.

"As you can see, we spared no expense to the asset's comfort." A man's voice came through the comforter muffled. An awkward silence filled the room.

Someone cleared their throat. "Erm, Mr. Ladrier?" A woman asked. She sounded polished from the way she addressed him. Somewhere I knew that I didn't like her at all.