Lust by Francine Pascal Page A

whispered. Without needing to think before she reacted, Gaia turned with her foot already in the air and caught a guard straight in the gut. The guy fell backward into his partner, who ran yelling down the stairs.
    â€œJake!” she shouted, knowing he was just outside in the yard. In response, she heard a whoosh and a pop, then smelled acrid smoke. Immediately, shouts filled the courtyard.
    The prison riot was on.

nerve endings
    Wiping out at seventy-five miles per hour would turn them both into red smudges in the white snow.
    Face-to-Face
    TOM MOORE WATCHED IN AMAZEMENT as he realized his hallucination was real. His daughter was here; she had appeared out of nowhere, as if his mind had created her out of the raw material around him. She beat both guards, the ones who had beaten him, and then she turned around to where he was standing, still, in the opened prison cell.
    â€œDad. Dad. Come on. We’ve got to go.”
    â€œI’m groggy,” he explained. “Some sort of drug. Knocked me out.”
    â€œWell, the air’s cold enough to wake you up.” She took off her own coat and put it on him. He followed her out.
    â€œHow?” he asked. “I can’t figure out how.”
    â€œI’ll explain later. Right now, we’ve just got to get out of here.”
    They hurried down the stairs. Tom felt like an old man. He was trained to handle harsh conditions, but this prison had been the most brutal place he’d ever experienced. Even in the short time he’d been here, the cold had sunk into his muscles, robbing them of strength. He’d barely been fed at all. And his lungs felt weak. He was embarrassed to be seen like this.
    At the bottom of the stairs, he stopped Gaia. “Be careful,” he said. “Those guards have a supervisor, adoctor. He’s a brutal man—and he has some sort of interest in keeping me here.”
    â€œI’ll watch for him. Right now, we need to head across the yard there. Do you see where we got in? There was a fault in the wall and we broke through.”
    The yard looked like a scene from a war movie. Men dressed in the thick, burlaplike uniform of the prison had broken en masse from their barracks, panicked by the acrid smoke, and were running in all different directions. Tom could see that a group of them had ganged up on some of the guards, repaying them in kind for the cruelty they’d been shown. There were fistfights going on all around them, and bricks were flying through the air like concrete-colored missiles. It was hard to see through the smoke and chaos. But the noise helped jar him out of his grogginess and his mind started to focus.
    â€œI see it,” answered Tom.
    â€œI need to find Jake in all this mess. Wow.”
    â€œWe can’t look for your friend now,” he said. “We need to get out of here ourselves. If you planned this properly, he’ll know to meet us on the outside if we can’t be found.”
    â€œHang on,” Gaia said, scanning the early dawn sky. Was she waiting for a helicopter? Tom didn’t see how that would work. Where would it land? Suddenly there was a loud popping sound, and a flare shot up into the air. Gaia’s eyes followed it to its source and she grinned.
    â€œI can’t believe that worked,” Gaia said, shoving Tomin the direction of the exit. For the next few moments, he knew nothing but the need to run, as he avoided flying fists, bricks, and even bodies. A few others had found the broken wall and were piling out. They only had a few moments before the guards discovered it, too, and began shooting at anyone trying to escape.
    Once outside the walls, they ran straight toward the woods, where they were joined by a young man Tom didn’t know. “You did this?” he asked the boy. “You’re Gaia’s age. How did this happen? What’s going on?”
    â€œNice to meet you, Mr. Moore,” the young man said. “I’m