Betty rises to her stiletto heels and starts to strut in his direction. “I know you want to help Ash,” she says, curling her lips into a sly smile. “You know what your best chance may be?”
I can’t believe he stays with her long enough to ask, “What?”
“You’re a software expert, aren’t you?” she asks. “Come up with a new app, one that simulates how Ash used to think. Like, an artificial brain or something. Then, find a way to implant the thing in her head. Won’t it be totally cool, if she’d be wired?”
Except, I’m about to say, it won’t be me anymore.
He grumbles, “You must be kidding.”
“Am not!”
Listening to them, my distress is mounting. There’s no time to waste. Relying on the help of others proves to be futile. I try to calm my racing heartbeat, try to figure out a way to escape, while Betty goes on doing her number on my boyfriend, which is maddening, especially because she does it in plain view.
It’s then that the first bullet whizzes by my head.
A sudden flash is followed by a burst of smoke. I can’t make sense of what’s happening, even as another bullet shrieks in the air, even as the shell meets a target close behind me. The doors of the hospital take a hit. First they crack, then explode in a shower of glass slivers, which shakes the air violently, like a Beethoven crescendo.
My first thought is that whoever fired that shot must have missed me on purpose. Then again, I may be wrong. The street lamps are off and so are the lights in the parking lot, which makes it tricky to find your aim.
Betty turns on her heels, starts to run.
Michael gasps. He must be in shock. I think one of those shards flew into his arm. Yes, he’s wounded.
I stifle a scream, reminding myself to focus on one thing: trying to spin the wheelchair around. My fingers are stiff but they do tremble, which is a good sign, because that’s motion, too.
Is it just my imagination, or did the wheels start to turn under me? I think I hear the crunch of some pebbles under them. I must move, must get away from here before Vlad arrives, before he lays his hand on me.
But already, it’s too late.
Ash finds herself in the ER diagnosed with coma. She has no memory of what has happened to her, but what she can do--despite what everyone around her might think--is listen to the conversations of her visitors. Will she survive the power outage in the hospital and then, being kidnapped out of it?
~Serenity, TOP 50 REVIEWER
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