EDGE OF DAY

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Day ran through the vent system. "How far to Vent 4?" she panted.

"At your current pace," Logan said, "seventy-two seconds."

She pushed harder. Her muscles and organs hadn't forgotten the rigorous training.

You can always do better.

The voice in her head was her Veda instructor who'd trained her for the first six months.

"Sixty-nine seconds," Logan corrected. "You are receiving three incoming calls."

"Ignore," Day panted.

"One is from the interstellar police."

"Ignore."

The convict bracelet shone bright red, but the burning had subdued. Perhaps it was the adrenaline buzzing through her body that dampened the pain.

"Ferdinando is hacking my system," Logan continued.

"How long until he's in?"

"Stop," Logan said. "The panel linking vent 4 and vent 5 is to your left." Day turned and searched the wall. She found the panel and put her hand over the slight relief on the surface. Nothing happened.

"The panel isn't opening."

"Ferdinando has cut your security clearance. He will have total control of my system in ninety seconds."

"Can you open the panel?"

In answer to her question, the handle beneath her fingers pressed up against her palm, creating a gap between her hand and the wall. She turned the handle and removed the metal plate. Day slipped through the gap, jumped to her feet, and ran.

"How long until I arrive at the panel that opens into the Atrium?"

"Three minutes, twenty-six seconds." The adrenaline washing through tipped into panic. "But you won't be able to open the panel," Logan added. "Ferdinando will have control of the Mind-Hub. I won't be able to override the security system."

The pressure against Day's body increased. She was fighting a losing battle. She'd set an impossible task and was stubbornly holding to it, when she had zero chance of succeeding. Once Ferdinando controlled the Hub she was a rat in a cage.

She halted. Breath heaved in and out of her chest. She leaned over, hands on her thighs. There had to be some way out of this. A memory of Will flashed through her mind. It was just after Ed had abandoned her and Will had rescued her from the highway police. His warm smile poured over her like the light of a thousand suns.

She didn't want to let him go. But she was too late. Too late. Unless...

"Logan. I'm next to the Restoration Department, aren't I?"

"Two meters away."

"Open the panel, please."

A handle popped out from the surface beside Day's feet. She crouched down and pulled up the lid. The access vent to the restoration lab was narrow and low. She squeezed through the L-shaped tube, shuffled along on hands and knees, and kicked out the plate at the end.

The restoration lab was where they'd hooked her up and given her back two years of her life. Her skull prickled with the memory of the machine boring into her head.

"Logan, please switch on the restoration machine without alerting the medic droid."

The machine powered up. Day edged back into the dentist chair and put the sensor-helmet on. Her skull itched as nanobots tinier than hair strands burrowed beneath the surface.