Superior

Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

Delaney

Leary reacted in the last way I expected: he laughed.

"Idiots," he wheezed, "all of them. Those wretched anarchists think that they can overtake our forces with a mere one hundred people? How naïve."

Abby shrugged, her composure regained. "They probably thought they'd have the element of surprise."

"Well, they won't," Leary sneered, his features twisting into a self-satisfied smirk. "And we have less of a problem than I expected. I'll simply notify a few guards, and they'll be able to take care of it all, no problem." He dug a cellphone out of his pocket and keyed in a message, presumably telling his guards to watch the East and West Wings. I glanced at Abby, wondering what Leary would do if he knew that she was lying.

"I must say, I'm surprised that you revealed so much to me," Leary continued happily. "I was anticipating that I'd have to use much more force."

"So what, do we get a prize?" Abby asked in a snarky tone, wiping the smile from the doctor's face in a heartbeat.

"Watch your tongue, Abigail," he warned. "I'm not finished with the three of you yet, and I can make your punishment as unbearable as I so choose. Speaking of which, since it appears I'm on a bit of a time limit, we should proceed."

During Leary's interrogation, I had all but forgotten that we were going to be punished. Now that he brought it up, and so casually, too, I found myself drowning in sudden fear. I'd thought the gun was bad, but who knew what else the man had up his sleeve? Images of Medieval torture methods flooded through my brain: the Judas cradle, the brazen bull, the crocodile tube... Maybe we'd even be hung like heretics were, hundreds of years in the past.

So preoccupied was I by my increasingly dark thoughts that I didn't realize I'd been unchained until a rough hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me away from the wall. I stumbled forward, only to be caught by the collar of my shirt and hauled into a standing position. I looked up into the face of an unfamiliar male guard, who was scowling down at me.

"All right, let's be going," Leary said briskly, waving a hurried hand to the guards who had seemingly appeared out of thin air. There were two more besides the one next to me, each of them holding onto Trai and Abby, respectively. At Leary's command, they dragged us forward and through the one of the doors.

My hands were still cuffed behind my back, the metal biting painfully into my wrists, and the way the guard kept tugging on them didn't help at all. But as we were led down the long, dim corridor, I was much too apprehensive to complain.

Our footsteps sounded loud and intrusive as they echoed off the walls, penetrating the heavy silence around us. I flinched at every step I took, knowing that every one brought me closer and closer to my fate...whatever it was.

Eventually, Leary stopped in front of a door, which automatically slid open upon recognizing his presence. He stepped inside, then turned around to face us, smiling and saying, "Thank you, guards, that's all you'll be needed for. You are free to return to the ceremony."

The three men nodded, then pushed us all through the door after Leary. We were in a dark space, and though I couldn't see anything, I instinctively knew that it was very large. Monstrous shadows hugged the walls, looming over us with their still bulk. At first, the dim light from the hallway gave meager illumination; then the door eased shut, and we were plunged into a thick darkness.

Leary's voice drifted out of the shadows, saying, "Stay put while I find a light." None of us answered. For me, at least, it was because the black cage around us seemed to be suffocating me, pushing on my lungs so that I was unable to speak.