Read Online Twist by Karen Akins - Free Book Online Page A

over and put her thumb over a red button on the controls.
    â€œHer?” I looked down and that’s when I realized what ICE was storing here. Or rather, who. It was a woman, her skin a rippling map of wrinkles framed by snowy hair. She seemed familiar, but it was impossible to place her in such unusual circumstances.
    Accident victims were sometimes placed in cryostasis until new organs could be designed and produced for them. But something told me ICE wasn’t keeping this woman frozen while they made her a kidney.
    Future Me brushed a wisp of the woman’s hair back from the age-etched face before pressing the red button, sending the woman back into the confines of the cryostorage unit.
    â€œWho is she?” I asked. “I mean, is she … dead?”
    â€œShe’s alive.” Bree looked back and forth between the woman and the tank before shaking her head slightly and turning back to me. There was a new expression on her face, like something had clicked. She gave the central tank one last, long look before turning back to face me. “Oh my gosh. I know who … umm, I have to go.”
    â€œWhat? You mean synch?”
    She shook her head and raced off to one of the entrances of the room. The door slid open. As if an afterthought, she turned back around and pointed at a metal screen propped up about ten feet from where I was standing. “You’ll hide behind that.”
    â€œHuh?”
    But she hadn’t stuck around to explain. I didn’t have much time to mull it over, though, because the opposite entrance began to unseal. I raced over to the metal screen and slid behind it. She hadn’t said I’d get caught here, so that made me feel a smidge better.
    Even through the screen, I could tell who one of the people was. Well, not who so much as what. His stiff, red scrub pants swished as he entered the room backward, dragging something heavy behind him. He was one of ICE’s workers.
    â€œCouldn’t have picked a light one, ehh?” he said to another person following behind him.
    I craned my neck as far out as I dared to get a glance at the other person, but the metal screen was grated, and I worried they’d detect the movement.
    â€œI was following very specific orders.” The voice was garbled with a grating rasp to it. I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman.
    I risked a further peek to see why. My hand flew to my mouth before I could stop it. At least I prevented the cry of shock from escaping. It was the person I’d seen earlier. The person at the London Fire, dressed head-to-toe in the same silver protective suit as before. They did work for ICE.
    â€œWell?” There was a harsh clip, even through the mask that distorted the voice. I stared at Raspy, willing him or her to pull the hood and mask away so I could get a look at the face, but no such luck.
    â€œWell what?” said the red scrub.
    â€œWe had a deal,” said Raspy. “She comes with me.”
    â€œIt’s gonna take a lot more than one. They got big plans.”
    â€œBut we had a—”
    â€œTake it to the higher-ups. Nothing I can do about it.” The red scrub raised the soligraphic controls in front of the central tank. Willowy robotic arms descended from the ceiling and clamped onto the heavy object at his feet. They lifted their load above the tank and dumped the contents in with a splosh . The red scrub entered information into the controls, ignoring Raspy, who was pacing behind him.
    â€œFine,” said Raspy. But his (her?) posture spoke defeat as she (he?… dang, it was really impossible to tell) headed to the far exit.
    Blark. The exit that my future self had taken only a few minutes ago. I tried to think of a way to warn her, but then I realized that by virtue of the fact that I knew Raspy was going out there, so did she.
    â€œFine,” the red scrub jeered at the sealed door. He finished up with whatever