The Elite by Fredric Shernoff

Author:Fredric Shernoff [Shernoff, Fredric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-22T22:00:00+00:00

14

“Quinn! Quinn! Are you okay?”

She blinked and harsh white light blinded her. Slowly her eyes adjusted, and she saw there was an obnoxiously bright examination light floating right above her.

“Turn that fucking thing off!” she tried to yell, but her voice came out weak and muffled. Everything felt weak.

“Sorry, sorry!” There was a click and the light turned off.

Quinn tried to turn her head but even that seemed like too much effort. Suddenly, Director Borgia appeared in her view. He looked down at her with so much worry on his face that she couldn’t think of a witty comment.

“Where am I?” she asked. “What happened?”

Now Borgia looked more concerned than before. “You don’t remember?” he asked.

“I don’t know…there was a fight or something…” she trailed off as images flooded her mind. She saw the violent, angry man with the glasses attacking Cole. She saw the car pull up to attack the man, and saw his abrupt getaway that left Josie bleeding. “Cole and Josie,” she said. “Are they okay?”

Borgia winced. “Cole will be fine,” he said. “Dislocated his shoulder. He’s in some pain but he’ll get better.”

“And Josie?” she asked, knowing the answer before she’d even asked the question.

Borgia shook his head. “I’m sorry, Quinn. Her head…it was awful. There was no saving her, no matter what you did.”

She was silent after that for a while. Borgia left her view, but she knew he was there somewhere. She could hear his deep, methodical breathing.

“What did I do?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” he replied.

“You said I couldn’t have saved her no matter what I did. I don’t even know how we got back.”

“You got them back,” Borgia said. “You brought them all back. You’re more powerful than we even realized, Quinn.”

“But I couldn’t save her,” she said quietly. Then a thought occurred to her. “Why couldn’t we get back on the tether? Why wasn’t Josie able to get any info on our mission?”

He paused. “Well…there was sabotage, Quinn. We’re still getting to the bottom of it. Somehow your tether got cut. We think someone wanted to trap all of you in that alternate universe.”

“Even Madison?”

“Well, yes. Madison was a last-minute substitution. Why?”

She thought about explaining Madison’s involvement with Hodges. She hated Madison Rossi, but the girl had been just as terrified as the rest of them. She hadn’t planned any of what happened, and she would have been stuck in that other world with the rest of them.

“Josie wasn’t ready for this,” she said instead. “She deserved better. We all did.”

“I know,” Borgia said. “This disaster is on me.”

“Yeah. It fucking is,” Quinn said. “Why the hell can’t I move?”

“Your body’s drained from jumping between the universes,” Borgia said. “You should be fine soon. Just rest. I’m going to leave you be.” He paused. “Quinn, I want you to stay here, but I’ll understand if you want to leave once you’re better. This should never have happened.”

She thought about a reply, but instead stared silently at the ceiling until long after she knew he was gone.

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