The Hourglass by Donaldson Casey

Author:Donaldson, Casey [Donaldson, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Casey Donaldson
Published: 2014-10-25T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

The Thief and the Forger

They didn’t talk much on the way back to the factory floor. Both Sarah and Finn were ignoring each other and Marland and April appeared to be giving them their space. As Sarah sat down at her usual seat in front of the conveyer belt she made a decision. She was in this position whether she liked it or not. It wouldn’t help her at all if she just moped about and said it was impossible. She had to try. No, she had to do better than that. She had to succeed. She liked her eyes and her friends too much not to.

“Boulder,” she said, strengthened by her new resolve and throwing caution into the wind. “If I wanted to get off this ship, how would I do that?” She had been thinking about their options if they failed to get the paperwork the Queen wanted. So far she hadn’t come up with much. Finn rolled his eyes, obviously thinking her less than discreet, but she needed the opinion of someone who had been there more than a week or so.

Boulder snorted. “There’s only three ways you can get out of here early,” he said, sorting through multiple tubes with a fluid motion. “One, you die.”

Finn nodded his head, interested. “Go on…” he said, like it was an entirely plausible option. Sarah waved a hand at him to be quiet.

“Two,” resumed Boulder, ignoring Finn, “you join the army. Three, you volunteer to be experimented on.”

“Experimented on?”

Boulder nodded. “The Hourglass Group takes volunteers god knows where and uses them to try out new drugs, superweapons, you name it. The deal is that if you live through the trial, you get to go free.”

Sarah’s eyes flickered to the boxes that lined the walls of the factory floor. They all had the symbol of the Hourglass Group stamped on their sides. The scar on her shoulder-blade prickled and she thought again of the striking similarity between the symbol of the Hourglass Group and her scar.

“And people actually volunteer?”

“It’s a risk, for sure. You don’t know what trial you’re signing up for, you see. On one hand you could be used to test a drug that makes you faster and stronger, on the other you could be in the firing range of some new weapon. Either way it gets you off this damn ship. More people volunteer for it than you think. Some people actually think it’s a safer bet than the army. At least with the Hourglass Group you have a fifty percent chance of getting out alive.”

“Surely that’s illegal, right? Maybe not the increased strength, but testing the weapons out?”

Boulder shrugged. “They’re volunteers, they all signed on the dotted line, and in case you forgot, we’re in a war. A war where resources are running out. Both sides need something big.”

Finn frowned. “You’re remarkably well informed.”

A sly smile appeared on Boulder’s face. “I have my sources.”

“Do you know what’s happening in a week?” This time it was Finn asking the revealing questions.

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