Caged (Talented Saga) (27 page)

“Have you found anything?” Erik asked.

“No; it’s so frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I have no suspects, and sometimes I feel as if I have too many. And then Penny seems to think that maybe Crane just recognized me and that we don’t have a spy at all!” I shook my head, agitated; just thinking about the fruitless endeavor got me worked up.

“Well, we definitely have spies.
Whether that is how Crane knew who you were, I can’t say,” Erik shrugged against my back. “Wish I could be more helpful.”

“It’s just nice to be able to talk to someone without overthinking everything that I say,” I said.

We talked about the blood transfusion for a while, and Erik couldn’t fathom a reason for Mac to keep it a secret either. Just like with the spy business, it was nice to speak freely without worrying that I might get in trouble for my doubts and beliefs.

When he finally deposited me in my room, I didn’t want to let him go.
But the sky was already fading from black to vibrant pinks and oranges, and I knew that he should leave – Mac was not going to like his all-night visit. When I put my arms around him to hug him goodbye, he pushed me against the door, not concerned whether I became overstimulated, and crushed his mouth to mine. I didn’t care either. I kissed him back, letting him into my heart and my mind.

My unchaste thoughts got Erik very worked up and he pulled back, holding me at arm’s length pressed against the door.

“You’d better go to bed, Tals,” he panted, his eyes deep intense pools of turquoise liquid.

“When will I see you again?” I whispered.

“Soon,” he promised. “If the Director let you go to Festivis, then I bet he’ll let you come into the city again. We’ll work it out.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

There was still another day left of Festivis break, so I didn’t have any classes to attend.
After just two hours of sleep, I made a brief stop at Medical. Dr. Thistler took one look at my puffy eyes and promptly launched into a long lecture about the merits of getting enough sleep. I listened politely and assured her that I would be sure to remember that for the future.

Penny was already waiting for me when I arrived at the Crypto Bank, and she looked awful.
She was wearing torn jeans and a rumpled white t-shirt that sported several coffee stains. Her hair was piled in a messy knot on the top of her head, and red cobwebs spiked around her lime-green irises.

“Hey,” she called, rubbing her temples.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” I asked, mirroring Penny’s wince at the sound of my voice.

“Promise me that next time someone offers me a shot, you’ll say no,” Penny moaned, then took a long swallow from her steaming mug.

“I’ll try,” I promised, positive that once Penny was feeling better, she’d conveniently forget this conversation. It wasn’t as though this was the first hangover that I’d watched her nurse.

Taking a seat in my chair, I hit the power button on the keyboard.
The monitors sprang to life before my eyes. I typed my passwords into the white boxes and waited while the Operatives’ files loaded.

“Where’s Gemma?” I asked, nodding to the chair that the girl normally occupied.

“Um, she went home for the holiday. Hopefully she’ll be back tomorrow – I haven’t accomplished anything without her.”

I glanced over at Penny.
She stared blankly at the scrolling gibberish of numbers and letters running down the screen in front of her. My heart went out to her. Sure, getting drunk was her own fault, but I hated how miserable she seemed.

“Did you at least have fun while it lasted?” I joked.

Penny managed something between a smile and a grimace.

“Yeah, I had a great time last night.
It wasn’t until this morning that I started hating life.”

“So you and Harris kissed and made up?” I teased.

“The end of the night is a little fuzzy, but yeah, I think that we did.” She giggled, then immediately seemed to regret it. She massaged the crown of her head.

“How about you?
I noticed that Erik didn’t leave until this morning......” Penny tried to shoot me a sly smile, but it appeared to hurt her face too much.

“We just talked,” I mumbled, blushing as I recalled what happened on the ledge.
“How did you know when he left?” I added suspiciously. I didn’t mind Penny knowing about my overnight tryst; I would’ve told her anyway. Maybe not all of it, but I didn’t think that she’d have much interest in the touchy-feely heart-to-heart moments anyway.

“Hover records.”
Penny shrugged, looking only the tiniest bit guilty about checking up on us. “When I signed in this morning, I saw that he’d just signed out.”

Hover records; I hadn’t even thought about that.
If Penny noticed, then someone else – say, Mac – might, too.

“Anything you want to tell me?” she teased, using a great deal of effort to widen her eyes suggestively.

“No, nosey, there isn’t. Like I said, we mostly just talked.” I rolled my eyes, but the blush returned to my cheeks. If we didn’t change topics soon, I might get overstimulated just sitting here.

“Uh huh, sure......”

“You’ll be the first to know,” I promised her.

“I’d better be.”
She gave me her best impression of a stern look. “Alright, enough gossip. Where do you want to start today?”

“I want to take a closer look at Cadence’s brother,” I began.
While I’d pretty much ruled her out as the spy, I didn’t have any better leads, and I figured that covering all of my bases couldn’t hurt. Even now, the memory of her intense emotions caused me to shiver uncomfortably.

“Okay, what’s his name?” Penny asked.

“Randy Choi. He’s imprisoned at Tramblewood.”

Penny paled to match her tee.

“Oh, yeah. He’s the guy who helped that Coalition woman escape. Let me see if I can find the incident report.” Penny’s fingers flew across the keys, entering search terms into boxes that popped up on her screen. “Here, sending it now.”

“Thanks.”

My monitor instantly went black and then a report filled the screen. I began to read. Six years ago, Randy Choi was arrested for helping Ellen Larson escape from Tramblewood Correctional Facility. Larson had been imprisoned after she was caught breaking onto school grounds. Using psychic interrogation, Dr. Wythe had determined that she was a member of the Coalition. The mention of Dr. Wythe gave me unpleasant reminders of my time in his office; his probing questions and suggestive counseling techniques were not something that I wished on anyone.

I knew from Cadence’s file that Larson was Crane’s sister, but seeing the relationship now was still unsettling.
When I thought about Crane, I never really considered the fact that he had a family. To me, he was this monster, a beast that had no regard for the pain that his actions inflicted. To me, he was my parents’ murderer. But to Ellen, he’d been a brother, a friend. Maybe to someone else, he was a father, a son, a husband. I didn’t like to think of him that way; it made him too human.

Dr. Wythe had diagnosed Ellen as “crazy” and “delusional” based on her “outrageous claims,” but there was no mention of what her actual claims were.
I scanned through the rest of the twenty-page report, but couldn’t find anything useful.

“Is there anything else about this?” I asked Penny.

She didn’t answer right away. When I looked in her direction, her head was resting on top of her crossed arms on the desk.

“Penny?” I shook her shoulder gently, prodding her awake.

“Hmmm,” she mumbled, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.

“Sorry,” I apologized, hating to disturb her.
“I was just wondering if there is anything else about Randy’s interrogation or this woman, Ellen Larson.”

“Crap, did I fall asleep?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“I’ll check;
gimme a minute.” Drowsily, Penny returned her attention to the computer and searched for Randy Choi and Ellen Larson. “Um, his official interrogation report is sealed, but I can call the Director tomorrow and have it unlocked if you want. There is one other report that mentions Ellen Larson – looks like after she escaped from Tramblewood she was caught just before she could cross the border into the Coalition’s territory, and was killed.” Penny’s voice wavered slightly when she said the last part, and I gave her a worried look. “I’ll send it to your computer.”

“Thanks,” I said.
I tried to get a better handle on her emotions, but her face was now composed, and I wondered if maybe I’d imagined her reaction.

When the report appeared on my screen, I started reading.
Ellen had refused to surrender when Toxic’s guards had caught up with her, and she’d lost her life as a result. I understood Penny’s pain when I saw the photographs of the woman’s mangled body. She hadn’t just been shot; she’d been torn apart. The automatic weapons the Operatives had used destroyed Ellen’s features, making her virtually unrecognizable. Disgusted, I quickly clicked through the pictures to the end of the report. I shuddered. What an awful way to die.

You have no idea what your Agency does to innocent people.

But Ellen Larson wasn’t an innocent person; she’d been one of them. Why had she been trying to break into the School? Of all the Toxic facilities, it seemed like the place that would be of least interest to the Coalition. What had she been looking for?

“Do you want me to have Randy’s file unsealed?” Penny asked beside me.

Tearing my eyes away from the screen, I nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

“Approval has to come from the Director, I think, but I can try Janet if you want to see it today.”

“Um, yeah, call Janet,” I decided. I wasn’t sure how important the file would prove to be, but it was the most solid lead that I had.

Penny picked up the communicator on the desk and dialed.
When Janet answered, she agreed to unseal the record and have it sent to my computer. As promised, several minutes later I had an incoming message.

I opened the email and began quickly scanning the contents.

Just like with Ellen, Dr. Wythe concluded that Randy was “delusional” and his claims were “unsubstantiated.” And just like with Ellen, there was no indication of what that actually meant. I wondered whether the report had been redacted or was purposely left vague. I resolved to ask Mac when he returned.

After leaving Penny for the day, I headed back to my room.
The campus was eerily quiet since the students and Instructors that went home for the holiday wouldn’t return until the following day.

When I passed Medical, I detoured, deciding to visit Ernest.
I hadn’t seen him in a couple of days, and while I doubted that his condition had improved, I wanted to check on him.

I wound through the long corridors of the facility until I reached the Psychiatric Ward.
Today, Ernest was propped up in a large recliner in the corner of his room. His hazel eyes darted in my direction when I entered, but they remained unfocused, and I knew that he didn’t actually see me.

Feeling a rush of sadness, I pulled a chair next to his and sat.
Dr. Thistler had said that a memory implantation was too risky, but the emptiness inside of his mind broke my heart.

I took one of his limp hands in mine, closed my eyes, and concentrated on the images that I’d pulled from his head.
Selecting his childhood memories first, I projected the scenes toward him. At first nothing happened; the same hollowness remained. I focused harder, and then slowly a faint smile graced his lips. It was all the encouragement that I needed, and I pushed more and more of his memories at him.

The effort proved to be too much for both of us.
Ernest’s smile was quickly replaced with a grimace, and he started to shake. He wasn’t the only one; my hands trembled and my peripheral vision darkened. Pulling back before I lost consciousness, I slumped against the back of my chair, panting. My head felt two sizes too big, and sweat trickled down the sides of my face. Dr. Thistler was right: Memory re-implantation was not easy.

When I looked at Ernest, his eyes held a spark of life and wisps of thought floated through his head like smoke.
I knew then that the physical toll the effort had taken on me was worth it. I wouldn’t be able to restore him completely, at least not in one session, but I felt confident that in time I’d be able to give him back the life that I’d stolen.

Completely exhausted, I stumbled back to Instructor housing.
A comm from Erik waited for me, and I grinned stupidly as I hit reply and flopped onto my bed. He didn’t answer, so I left him a message, sad that I couldn’t at least hear his voice after what I’d just done.

I didn’t have the energy to pull myself out of bed to brush my teeth and wash my face; instead, I just closed my eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, it was back to business as usual. Donavon hadn’t called me once over the holiday and didn’t meet me for breakfast in the cafeteria. I sat alone in a corner, picking at my food until the cleaning staff began to wipe down the tables. I contemplated reaching out to him mentally, but I was afraid that he would block my attempts. Numbly, I moved through the rest of my day.

I spent more time than usual reading to Ernest.
The Medicals assigned to his unit no longer questioned my presence; Dr. Thistler had told them that as long as Ernest didn’t become agitated, I could sit with him for as long as I liked. Secretly, I figured that Mac had been the one to give the go-ahead since nothing around here happened without Mac’s say-so.

That train of thought brought me back to Erik’s letter and what he’d told me on the ledge.
Had Mac known about the raid? Had he approved the exchange of Erik’s service for the lives of his remaining family members? Worst of all, had Mac been the one to broker the deal? Erik hadn’t named the devil he’d sold his soul to, and I now wondered if that had been intentional. He’d wanted me to believe him, and accusing Mac of something so heinous wouldn’t have helped in that department. Originally I tried not to give too much thought to Mac’s potential involvement, but now I really needed to know.

I considered looking up the report on the raid of Erik’s family and his subsequent collection.
The names of the Toxic men involved would be listed. However, as much as I wanted to know, I also wasn’t eager to verify that Mac was keeping another secret from me.

When I arrived at the Crypto Bank, Penny and Gemma were in their usual positions.
They both smiled when I entered. Since I’d spent more time than I usually did with Ernest, I set right to work on my never-ending task of analyzing Operatives’ files.

“What are you doing this afternoon?” I asked Penny, gathering my belongings in preparation to leave for
Annalise’s class.

“You’re looking at it.”
She gestured to the scrolling lines of text on her monitors.