Skin Rebellion Read online

  Skin Rebellion

  Skin Hunter Book 2

  Tania Hutley

  Contents

  Previously …

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Also by Tania Hutley

  Previously …

  Stuck in a worker’s shelter in the buried city of Old Triton, Milla dreamed of escaping her dangerous life.

  Devastated by the news her best friend Tori was being transferred to another shelter, she stole a stranger’s identity band and became Rayne, a participant in the Skin Hunter contest.

  A chip was embedded in the base of her skull so she could transfer her consciousness into the body of a biologically engineered clouded leopard. In her Leopard Skin, Milla’s senses and abilities were heightened. But when her Skin was wounded, those injuries also appeared on her human body.

  One of her competitors, pro gamer Cale, offered to help Milla train for the contest. As they trained together, their feelings for each other grew. So when Cale was kicked out of the contest, Milla was heartbroken.

  On the day of the contest, Milla battled her way to the top of the tower. But another competitor, Sentin, threw her off the tower and claimed the winner’s prize.

  Milla lost both the contest, and her Leopard Skin.

  Devastated and badly injured, Milla learned Director Morelle planned to experiment on her. Then Milla made another discovery. Her human body had grown stronger and faster, mimicking the speed and strength of her Leopard Skin. Using her newfound strength, she was able to break out of the Morelle Corporation and flee back to the darkness of Old Triton.

  Now all she wants is to save her mother and Tori from Director Morelle, and get her beloved Leopard Skin back…

  Chapter One

  I was ready to smash a window to get inside the house. Instead, I find one that’s unlatched. It’s small, high up, and awkward, but I think I can climb up to it.

  Digging my fingertips and toes into the rough brick exterior, I scramble up the side of the house. Climbing would be a lot easier if I still had a leopard’s body instead of a human one.

  At least my human body is stronger and faster than it used to be. The old Milla would never have been able to scale the vertical outside wall of a house, rough brick or not. But even the new, enhanced me is weaker and slower than my leopard was.

  In my Leopard Skin, I would have bounded up in an instant. I wouldn’t have had to struggle and curse.

  Pushing the window open, I squeeze through and drop soundlessly inside. I stifle an exclamation as I land on bare feet that are bruised and cut.

  My heart is pounding. I’m not certain the house I’ve broken into is the right one. In fact, the only thing I am sure of is that I have stompers after me, and if they catch me, they’ll probably hand me back to Director Morelle so her scientists can cut me open. I need to stay silent and undetected while I figure out who’s in the house.

  Whoever’s here, they must be asleep. The house is quiet.

  It’s dark in here, but my night vision is a lot better than it used to be. I limp forward, trying to figure out what kind of room I’m in. In Old Triton, people live in shelters or small apartments, so I’ve never been inside a house like this one. The room I’ve landed in is huge. There’s a couch in the corner facing a switched-off holo, which means this could be a living room. But there are also tables cluttered with electronic equipment. Tangles of wires snake around monitors and into exposed circuit boards. Delicate-looking tools lie among the mess. And is that a robotic head?

  Easing forward to see the head better, I accidentally bump my hip against the table. A metal pipe falls off it, striking the floor with a deafening crash.

  Shit.

  My cat burglar skills could do with a little work.

  I wait, breath held and body tense, listening for sounds of anyone waking or moving. All I can hear is the drumming of my own heart. Could the house be empty? Is its owner away somewhere?

  I should search the place, and I’d kill for a drink of water after a day spent running and hiding. But I can’t walk past the robotic head on the table, because it’s facing me, making me feel like I’m being watched. Letting my breath out slowly, I pick it up and study it in the moonlight that comes from the window. Its face is smooth, made from some kind of flexible polymer. Its cybernetic eyes glint, like my old one used to. It gives me the creeps.

  But I’m being paranoid. There’s no way it could really be watching me. Unless… could those eyes hide a camera?

  A harsh voice comes from behind me, making me jump and drop the robot head.

  “The police will be here in a minute. Leave now, and you might get away.”

  The room floods with light. A woman stands in the doorway, her expression grim. Her face looks more lined and care-worn than the last time I saw her, though perhaps that’s because I’ve woken her. I can smell both her fear, and her determination to defend her house and protect what’s hers.

  My face is still mostly hidden by the T-shirt I tied around my nose and mouth. Moving slowly so as not to scare her any more than I already have, I reach up and tug it off.

  “Doctor Gregory,” I say. “It’s me.”

  “Rayne?”

  Doctor Gregory is dressed in pyjamas and soft slippers, which helps explain why I didn’t hear her approach, though my enhanced hearing should still have caught the shushing of slippers on her hard floors. Problem was, I let myself get distracted.

  “What are you doing here?” she demands.

  Not exactly the welcome I was hoping for.

  “You said…” I falter, aware of how badly I’ve been counting on the doctor’s help. “You gave me your address. You said if I needed you, I could come.”

  If Doctor Gregory’s called the police, I need to leave. But I have nowhere else to go.

  “What happened to you?” She frowns. “Are you okay? How did you get in? The front door is locked.”

  I take a step toward her without thinking about my injured feet, and wince. After escaping from the Morelle Corporation wearing only a hospital smock, I found some clothes on a washing line. I’m wearing baggy jeans and a giant T-shirt, and I stole a second one to tie around my face. But I couldn’t find any shoes, and running on bare feet has left them raw.

  “I came in through the window.”

  “The window? Why?” Her gaze drops to my feet, and her frown deepens. “You’re bleeding. Sit down and tell me what’s going on.”

  “The police are coming?”

  She waves me to the couch. “Sit. I’ll call them off.”

  If stompers could burst in at any moment, the last thing I want to do is sit down. But the doctor still looks jumpy, and I can hardly blame her. Obediently, I sink onto the couch in the corner, though I’m coiled like a spring, ready to run if I need to. Even on wounded feet.

  She taps the band around her wrist, frowns at its control panel, then looks up at me. “I’ve cancelled the call and logged it as a false alarm. They were still a few minutes away, so I don’t think they’ll bother coming to check.”

  She’s too casual about it for my liking, but she has no idea I’m being hunted. She still thinks I’
m Rayne.

  I have so much to tell her, I don’t know where to start. And I’m dreading having to confess I’ve been lying to her about who I really am.

  “Thank you,” I say. “And sorry to wake you. I know it’s late.”

  She shakes her head, brushing off my apology. “Before all this madness started, I would have checked what the disruption was before placing an emergency call. But now…” She runs her hand over her face. “I’ve been on edge. Of course, we all have.”

  “Madness? What madness has started?”

  “You know. The war.”

  “The war?” My throat is dry, and the word comes out so hoarsely, it makes me cough.

  “You don’t know?” She looks as shocked by my ignorance as I am. “We’re at war with Deiterra.” She crosses to a door and goes into her kitchen. “You sound like you need something to drink.”

  When she comes back with a glass of water, I gulp it down gratefully, then wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “When did the war start?” I ask. “Have many people been hurt? Any Old Tritoners?”

  If war’s broken out, Ma and Lily could be in danger. And what about Cale?

  “How can you not know about the war?” she asks.

  “I was unconscious, and maybe I was out for longer than I thought. How much time has passed since the contest?”

  “The Skin Hunter contest? That was, let’s see, ten days ago. Saturday before last.”

  “I was unconscious for ten days?” I gape at her, shocked. I had no idea the doctor who tried to run experiments on me had kept me unconscious for that long. No wonder my body has healed after I was so badly injured in the Skin Hunter contest. The doctor must have wanted me whole so she could monitor exactly what was happening when she used my Leopard Skin to wound me again.

  “What happened, Rayne?” Doctor Gregory sits next to me on the couch. Her eyes are soft and she’s back to being the kind woman I remember. Taking the empty glass from my hand, she sets it on the low table next to the couch.

  I swallow. The first thing I should tell her is that I’m not Rayne. But how can I explain the truth without sounding like a criminal? Until I find Cale, Doctor Gregory is the only person who can help me. If she turns her back on me after learning the truth, I’ll have nowhere to turn.

  “I’ll tell you everything,” I say, stalling. “But first, will you tell me about the war? I’m worried about my family and friends.”

  “Before we talk, I should get some healing spray and bandages for your feet.” She starts to rise again, but I put a hand on her arm to stop her.

  “My feet can wait. Please. I need to know.”

  She sinks back down. “Well, shortly after the contest, there was a series of explosions. Deiterran terrorists hit police stations and military targets. A co-ordinated attack. They killed thousands of soldiers, and destroyed almost our entire stockpile of weapons.”

  “What?” It comes out as a breathless gasp. Could there really have been so much chaos and death while I slept?

  “I’m sorry. I know what a shock—”

  “Did civilians die?” I interrupt. “My mother and my best friend are both in Old Triton, and my brother’s in an academy.”

  “It was mostly policemen and soldiers killed. But they also blew up a portion of the wall, and collapsed a section of New Triton. An office building came down.” She picks at the seam of her trousers, her hands restless. “People are saying the war started because the Deiterrans think Skin technology violates the peace treaty. If that’s true, the researchers working on the project are at least partly responsible for the attacks. I share that blame.” She looks stricken at the idea. No wonder her hair is grayer than last time I saw her, and the lines around her eyes are more deeply scored.

  “I’m sure it’s not your fault. But don’t we know why the Deiterrans attacked? Haven’t they told us?”

  She shakes her head. “Deiterra denied responsibility. The Deiterran ambassador swore it wasn’t them. For the first few days, everyone thought The Fist had done it. But President Trask found proof the ambassador was lying, and a few days ago, he officially declared war. Here, I’ll show you what the Deiterrans did to the wall.”

  She taps her band, and the holo in the corner of the room flicks into life. This is the first time I’ve watched a hologram since my cybernetic eye was replaced with a real one, and I’m amazed at how easy it is to focus on it. It’s showing footage of smoking rubble, the 3-D projection so real I can almost smell the smoke.

  “That’s the hole in the wall,” says Doctor Gregory. “The few soldiers we have left are guarding it. They’re expecting the Deiterran army to come through and attack us.”

  At first I can’t tell how big the rocks are, then I spot a man in army fatigues standing at the base of one of them. He looks like a fly guarding an apartment complex. The wall is immense, at least a hundred stories tall, and a mountain of rock has spilled from it. There’s so much rubble it looks like it’s blocked any gap in the structure. Did the collapsed office building fall on top of it? I can see some rubble with sharp angles through the smoke, like destroyed rooms.

  “The Deiterrans managed to blast all the way through,” says the doctor. “Can you imagine how much explosive material that would take? The earth shook all the way to the other end of Triton.”

  The wall was built almost five decades ago, after the ecological collapse and food wars. Since then, there have only been rumors and speculation as to what Deiterra might be like. As far as I know, the Deiterran ambassador and Sentin are the only ones who’ve been to the other side, and they’ve always refused to talk about it.

  “What about the automated attack systems built into the wall?” I ask. The wall is supposed to be able to destroy anything that’s a threat. Drones can’t go anywhere near it, for fear of getting shot down by the old anti-aircraft weapons installed when we still had planes and places to fly to.

  She shakes her head. “I don’t know.”

  I peer through the dust and debris, trying to get a glimpse through the gap in the wall, to see into Deiterra. All I see is fallen rock.

  The doctor touches her band again, and the holo changes to show Director Morelle. She’s standing in what I recognize as the lobby of the Morelle Corporation scraper, with the Triton flag hanging behind her. The sight gives me the chills. Not just because the director looks real enough to step out of the holo, but because I’m looking inside the building I escaped from only hours ago. In that building, a red-haired doctor was about to cut my Leopard Skin to pieces, just to see the effect it would have on my human body.

  And somewhere in that building, my leopard is still waiting for me.

  “No more Triton lives need be lost,” Morelle is saying. “My gift to Triton is the means to safely defend our great cities. To end this war swiftly and decisively, ensuring no innocents suffer any more harm.”

  The camera pulls back a little to show President Trask standing by the director’s side, nodding as she speaks.

  “In a series of cowardly attacks, the Deiterrans have brutally and callously slaughtered thousands of brave soldiers. But President Trask has accepted my offer to use Skins to protect Triton. Manufacturing has begun and the first Skins have already rolled off the production line. Soon, we’ll be defended by an unstoppable force.”

  I draw in a sharp breath. “She’s going to fight Deiterra with Skins?” When I turn to Doctor Gregory, she nods.

  “I’m worried too,” she says, pinching the skin on her throat. “I don’t know if they’ve determined the cause of the somatoform injuries you displayed on your human body when your Skin was injured. They must prevent it from happening again, but I’m not sure the Skins have had enough testing…”

  My attention switches back to the director, and I tune out the doctor’s concerns, which sound like the same ones that got her kicked out of the Morelle Corporation.

  “We’re training volunteers to use the Skins,” Director Morelle says. “They’ll operate them from a secr
et location, where they can come to no harm.” The view changes, panning across a giant, windowless room. Pods are arranged in rows across the floor. The pods are smaller and less elaborate-looking than the one I used when I transferred into my leopard, and when the camera zooms back I can’t believe how many of them there are.

  The director’s building an army. Hundreds of pods means hundreds of Skins.

  The camera focuses on a small group in army fatigues marching into the room. They’re all young, in their mid-teens, and must be Old Tritoners because they obviously haven’t been tweaked. Some have acne, most are pale, and one girl has a large mole on her cheek that would have been removed from any New Tritoner at birth.

  Surely they’re too young to be soldiers? They’re marching in perfect formation, their arms all swing to exactly the same height, and their steps are precisely the same. They must have been training for some time.

  When I picture hundreds of them transferring into Leopard Skins and padding out to war in perfect unison, my stomach churns. Is it smart to give so many kids that much strength and power?

  The young soldiers each lie down on a pod. The camera zooms in on one of the boys closing his eyes. Then it cuts back to the director giving her speech in the lobby of the Morelle scraper.

  “On Thursday, our president will join me for a public event in Central Square,” she says. “You’ll get to see the new Skins the soldiers will use to defend our glorious city.”

  Morelle nods at President Trask, and the President nods back, his expression serious. He has shiny black hair that’s full on top and cut short on the sides. He’s wearing a cream jacket in contrast to the director’s severe navy one, but they both have bronzed skin that’s as smooth as glass, and they both look ageless.