The Fall

“Lieutenant?” Eren said.

She looked at him mildly, like a puppy preparing for a nap. “Where am I?” she said.

“In headquarters,” said Eren. “You’re in stasis, mostly. I think.”

“Unlike Adam,” I said. “He has some kind of immunity?”

But instead of answering, the Lieutenant slumped to the floor. “I wasn’t always…” she said, and closed her eyes.

As I watched her, the knot in my chest doubled down, pulling tighter. Maybe Eren was right, and we were all just Adam’s prisoners.

But I was still out of breath and exceedingly unwilling to think about Eren right then. I knew the feeling that crept through me, and I hated it. It had only ever made me weak.

Eren, meanwhile, wasted no time in shoving a chair into the doorframe. Grunting, he slung Adam into another chair and cuffed his hands through the armrest. By the time he finished that, I moved to search Adam’s jacket. When I came near, Eren stepped away.

“No antidote,” he said. “He doesn’t keep it on him.” I didn’t answer, and he shifted awkwardly back to help the Lieutenant, his mouth tight. About the ti–me he got her into a comfortable-looking position, I found Adam’s holster.

He was armed, of course, but I didn’t recognize the weapon. It was some kind of oblong metal box that came to a point at one end. One side had a flip-button labeled with letters etched into the metal by hand. “D F¯ DEW…” I looked up.“What the heck does that mean?”

Eren looked at the weapon, avoiding my eyes. “Deuterium Fluoride Directed Energy Weapon. I’ve actually seen that one in action. It concentrates a stream of infrared chemicals—heavy hydrogen, for example—and neutralizes the target via plasma breakdown.”

“Plasma…” I muttered. “Hang on. Are you telling me he made a real-life laser gun?”

“Yeah,” said Eren. “Pet project of his.”

“Aren’t they all.” I turned it in my hand, thinking, and aimed it at Adam’s head. “So let’s see how he did.” My thumb hadn’t quite caught the flip when Eren knocked into me, throwing the blaster into a wall.

Speechless, I watched it fall before turning back to Eren to stare a death-ray of my own straight into his face, which was inches from mine. “You have got to be kidding me right now.”

“Charlotte. You can’t kill him.” He had the tone of a man trying to talk a cat down from a tree, but there was a sense of urgency he was trying to subdue. So maybe the cat was dangerous, like a lion. Or maybe the tree was on fire.

Either way, I found it annoying.

“Eren, get off me. And let’s test that theory, shall we? Move.” I shoved him as hard as I could manage, and he moved back a fraction of an inch, mostly out of courtesy.

I leaned over, reaching for the blaster, and he caught me by the wrist again. His voice remained soft, in sharp contrast to mine. “Listen, you can’t. Life support is wired to his vitals. If he dies, we all do.”

He paused, watching me. When he was sure his words had sunk in, his grip relaxed.

A moment later, I let some of the tension fall from my own stance. “Okay. Let me go,” I said, more calmly. “All the way.”

He backed up, looking pained, and took a seat in the chair again. His shoulders slumped a little, and he leaned forward, looking up at me from a much lower vantage point. It was about as non-threatening a stance as any I’d seen. He still made me nervous.

“Sorry,” I said quietly.

He nodded. “Me too.”

“Can we switch it to someone else’s vitals? Maybe someone can hack in.”

He shook his head. “The system is keyed to his heartbeat. No one can replicate that.”

Adam was always a step ahead. “We’ll never be safe while he’s alive, Eren,” I said.

Eren didn’t hear me. “So how did he attack you? Not that it matters, but shouldn’t he have been more like a puppet?”

I shook my head. “He wasn’t in stasis. That’s for sure. You can’t make decisions in stasis. You can remember feelings, like fear or sorrow, but nothing concrete, like needing to attack someone.”

“The Lieutenant would beg to differ,” Eren said dryly.

“I don’t know how she did that, either. Adam must have some kind of automatic antidote. Or he saved the heavy doses just for me. Or he’s engineered a formula that only he’s immune to,” I mused. “There’s no telling. Anyway, he’s definitely out now.”

Eren nodded, staring at the floor, the wall, Adam’s sleeping form, and finally, me. “Good. Because there’s something I need to tell you.”

Five (#ulink_901ca3fc-7c41-5614-8248-2a1f524b2e07)

Eren yanked a stick-like gadget from Adam’s jacket and turned to the comm panel. I’d seen it once before, when Adam had used it to steal an Arkhopper. The panel hummed to life, and Eren pulled the comm device toward his mouth, keying a code into the board. A moment later, it lit up. “Everest to Tribune. Come in, Turner.”

I stood straight, electrified.

Eren looked back at me and grinned. I continued to gape until my voice bubbled up, and suddenly, I was shouting. “Dad? Dad, are you there?!”

Eren held up a hand to quiet me.

“You,” I hissed at him. “I have questions for you.”

“He’s been in touch a few times a year. Keeps this line open. But he couldn’t get to you. Adam’s always watching.”

“And you decided to keep it a secret? Of course you did. Dad! Where are you!”

“We were trying to protect you, Charlotte. Just until we could get you out. And believe me, we have tried everything. It’s more complicated than you realize. We tried getting to her,” he nodded toward the Lieutenant, “but Adam must have kept her on a tight leash.” He shook his head a little. “We figured she was loyal to him. We tried constructing our own antidote, but he just changed the formula. Nothing ever worked.”

The comm popped, and my father’s voice filled the room. It was intensely familiar, unchanged in the five years since I’d heard it. “Turner to Tribune Liaison. What’s the news, Eren?”

“Dad!” I shouted. “Where are you?”

There was a pause, then my father made a sound I couldn’t identify. “Charlotte,” he said slowly. “Eren, is that—is she—?”

“She’s out of stasis,” said Eren. “And Adam’s down. For now.”

“Dad! Where are you?” I repeated. “Did you make it to Europe?”

“I’m here, Charlotte. I never left.”

“But, how?”

“I called in every favor I had,” he said. “Every last one. That’s the short version, anyway.”

He sounded like there was more to say, but Eren interrupted. “Sir, we need to move. We have to assume that Adam set traps. There’s no time.”