Chapter 32 #2
I’m tempted to start now, but the interrogation is nearly two hundred pages. I don’t think Kallister would appreciate me being here all night.
I set the tablet aside, licking my dry lips. “I can’t figure it out.”
“Figure what out?”
“If she cared about me at all. My mother.”
A frown mars his lips. “What makes you question that?”
“I know she went to great lengths to protect me. Hell, she probably stole another kid’s bones and started a fire to keep me hidden. But is that because she actually wanted to protect me? Or was she trying to cover her own ass?”
“Can’t it be both?”
“Maybe. I don’t remember the incident that Jim told me about—the reason she asked him to take me.
It must have scared her when I incited her.
I keep trying to put myself in her shoes.
Her five-year-old manifesting a power that could get them both killed.
She could’ve reported me to the Company, but she didn’t.
That means some part of her must’ve loved me, right? ”
“Of course your mother loved you.”
Emotion fills my chest. “You think so?”
“I don’t believe Marina was heartless,” Kallister says.
“I think she was capable of love. She loved your father deeply. She loved Julian. I don’t believe that’s something you can fake.
But like I said, she had strong opinions.
We all have our own moral codes, and your mother’s led her to choose to serve Merrick Redden. ”
I shake my head. “I don’t understand how Jim could still love her after that.”
“You can’t control who you love.”
“No, I guess you can’t.”
A short silence falls. I watch as Kallister leans forward to set his tablet on the table. He straightens and crosses one leg over the other, watching me thoughtfully.
“What can you tell me about Lydia?”
I blink at the sudden topic change. “You mean Lyddie? De Velde?”
“Is that what she goes by?” When I nod, he says, “All right. What can you tell me about Lyddie?”
“I can tell you she betrayed me,” I say darkly.
Kallister isn’t deterred. “Yes. That tends to happen in this world. What else?”
“She was working under Travis before I fled the city. I think she mentioned her father worked in Command Intelligence, too?”
“Alexander De Velde. He’s a colonel. And her mother is Catherine De Velde, head of Biotech. Did Lyddie speak about her?”
“Not really, and I never met either of Lyddie’s parents. I was supposed to the night of the Jubilee. They were both there. But I was busy setting charges for Adrienne and then helping her escape after she corrupted the General’s mind…”
I trail off, remembering Cross’s allegations that Adrienne is corrupting people in the wards. I haven’t told anyone but Xavier, but the disturbing notion has been weighing on me.
“Is she doing it on a wide scale?” I find myself asking.
A groove appears in his forehead. “Adrienne?”
“Yeah. I was thinking about it the other day,” I lie. “The hospital ward I mentioned when I first got here. I got the feeling it wasn’t just fragmented Mods. Some of them might have been corrupted.”
His expression sharpens.
“I asked Adrienne about it. She said she’s only used corruption when it’s absolutely necessary, like with the General. She insisted it’ll never be done on a mass scale. Is that true?”
“The Authority voted on the General’s corruption. Unanimously, by the way. And I can assure you, if mass corruption of innocents was ever brought to a vote, it would not be a unanimous decision, not by a long shot. I’d never allow it, and I’m confident the others wouldn’t, either.”
A wave of relief sweeps through me. “So you’re not doing it.”
“The Authority has never approved a mission like that, no.” He pauses for a beat, looking troubled. “I don’t want to think that Adrienne would do anything without our consent, but…” He stops again, then gives a firm shake of the head. “No, she wouldn’t.”
I tend to agree with him. I don’t believe Adrienne is capable of it. And yet…the doubts linger.
“Anyway, sorry, I sidetracked us. Why are you asking about the De Veldes?”
Kallister shrugs. “Not sure yet. Could be nothing, but we’ve been hearing some murmurings.”
Murmurings. The Authority is always hearing murmurings, and they’re never inclined to share them. In fact, as much as they claim to freely share information around here, it seems like they like to keep most things close to the vest.
I’m about to push him when an unfamiliar voice slices into my mind.
“They are not innocent, brother.”
I jerk in surprise.
That was…Travis Redden?
“Everything all right?”
I blink. “Sorry. I keep spacing out. I must be tired.”
“Would you like another coffee?” Kallister offers.
“Sure. Thanks.”
He’s barely out of the room before I hear it again.
This time, I know it’s not a hallucination.
“Even our father knew that they could be useful.”
It’s Cross.
My heart jumps into my throat. He’s safe.
And he’s with Travis.
He didn’t leave, after all.
That hits me hard. More than it should, probably. But I can’t forget the ravaged look on his face when he told me he was tired. When he said the world was unsalvageable and that he’d given up on trying to fix the system from within.
If he truly felt that way, why had he gone back?
“Don’t let the base bombing or the Ice Canyon assault cloud your judgment,” Cross is saying.
This doesn’t feel like telepathy.
It feels like…when someone projects an image into my mind. It’s the same uncomfortable sensation behind my eyes. But there are no images in my head, and as far as I know, Cross doesn’t know how to project.
Could this be another spontaneous connection? The way we linked telepathically as children?
My pulse careens as an entire conversation unfolds in my head. Cross is furious. I feel his rage vibrating through my own body. Travis is mostly irritated.
“This isn’t our father’s Company anymore.
The General was too complacent. He wanted to use them for labor, yes, but to me, they’re not even worth that.
They’re too fucking dangerous. You might have Silver Block back, but I can take it away again with the snap of my fingers.
If you’re serious about coming back into the fold, then I need you to get your head on straight. ”
Back into the fold?
Shock slams into me.
Fucking hell, Cross. What are you doing?
He didn’t just go back. He went all in.
“I’m trying, brother. But I’m not going to stand by and watch you kill people. What Roe is doing is straight-up murder. Those people didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Maybe not, but the rest of them needed to learn a lesson. Sometimes the only way to teach that lesson is to show them what happens when they wreak havoc in the wards. Examples need to be made.”
“That’s your plan then? To execute every Aberrant you find?”
“Yes, brother. Because they’re only useful if they can be controlled, and right now, they’re causing too much trouble. So if you’re going to be part of this new regime, then—”
Silence.
The voices stop without warning, leaving me desperately wondering how to get them back.
“You sure you’re all right?” Kallister reappears holding two tin cups with steam rising from the rims.
I hesitate. The Authority made it clear during disclosure that you have to report a new power, but there’s no way I’m disclosing unless I know what the hell that was.
“Yep,” I say, accepting the coffee. “Thank you.”
I try to refocus on my mother’s file, but my mind is now a million miles away. I’m eager to link with Cross and get some answers, but it’s not a conversation I can have in front of Kallister, so I force myself to wait until later.
But when later comes, it doesn’t bring any answers.
Cross still refuses to link with me.