Taken (Erin Bowman)

supplies.
    “So you can cultivate more when you return,” she says, handing the bag to Harvey.
    “Much obliged,” he says.
    The music cuts off abruptly, and then starts back up, looping from the beginning. Harvey tosses the bag to me. “We should go. You hang on to that for safekeeping.”
    Something has changed in Harvey. He is confident, the nervousness gone from his face. I wonder if he is positive we will succeed, that with the vaccine acquired and the diversion still strong, we can escape Union Central easily. I hope he’s right.
    “Thanks, Christie,” I shout over my shoulder as we race from the room. She waves an arm overhead and we disappear around a corner.
    “Bree, we’ve got it!” I call into my mic. “Where are you? Let’s meet up and get out of here.”
    “Well that’s going to be a problem, isn’t it?” My heart drops. “They’ve got Union Central in lockdown, trying to figure out who started the music. I can’t get out. You won’t be able to either. I’m guessing they think AmWest infiltrated the Union somehow. This music was supposed to create a little panic, distract them for a while, not scare them into a full blown Code Red.”
    “So what do we do?” I ask as Harvey and I reach the main floors again.
    “I don’t know,” she says. “Try to get out to the training field. It’s chaos outside, but if we can at least meet up, maybe we’ll figure something out.”
    Harvey and I make a quick turn, heading back down the hallway where he was being held. The music finally cuts out, but the sirens continue blaring, the red lights flashing off the walls. As we near Harvey’s room, I see a figure moving beyond the corner of his doorframe. I recognize it, know who it is before his face even appears. I’m prepared to shoot him if I have to, but then a team of Order members spill into the hallway, and I realize we’re trapped. I do the only thing I can think of that might preserve our cover.
    “Freeze,” I yell at Harvey, aiming the gun at his back. He looks at me in horror, but then, as Marco steps from the room, he understands.
    “I caught him trying to escape in the panic,” I tell Marco.
    “We wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we? Not after all you’ve done to get him back to us.” Marco smiles savagely. “I think Harvey is a bit more troublesome than we give him credit for, wouldn’t you agree, Blaine?”
    “Definitely.”
    “I’ll speak to Frank,” he says. “Seems best to move the execution up to tonight, take care of things before anything else happens.”
    I feel my mouth fall open. “Move it up? But why? I still don’t understand why we are so quick to dispose of him. Didn’t Frank need Harvey’s help?”
    I know the answer is yes. Frank wants his limitless Forgeries and he needs Harvey to get them. Unless . . .
    My grip slackens on the gun. Maybe Frank solved it. Maybe in the time I’ve been away, someone in his labs wrote the right code and now Frank can make Forgery after Forgery after Forgery. Endless replications of the replicas. His voice echoes in my mind. There has been some progress since you left. We no longer need his answers.
    Marco sneers at my question. “Frank doesn’t want the help of traitors. The only thing he wants from Harvey’s kind is to see them die.”
    And with that, he walks up to Harvey and yanks his shoulder back out of place. Harvey cries out in pain and slumps to the ground. All I can do is stand there, helpless, knowing we’ve failed.

THIRTY-FOUR
    WE GET LOCKED IN A room together. It has no windows and the ceiling panels refuse to give way when I push on them. There is no escape. Harvey keeps telling me it’s fine, that things will work out.
    “How is this fine?” I snap at him. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. We were supposed to get out. We were supposed to be successful.”
    “You still can,” he says. “I never planned on making it back, even from the beginning.”
    My eyes go wide as I understand. “This is what you were talking about in those private meetings. The fact that you might have to die in order for Bree and me to escape.”
    He nods.
    “Why did I have to be kept out of those conversations?”
    “Because you would have argued,” he admits, “as you are right now.”
    “Of course I’m arguing, because it shouldn’t be like this. If I had been included in those meetings, maybe we could have thought up another plan, a strategy for if we got into this predicament. Plus,