The Girl Who Dared to Think 6: The Girl Who Dared to Endure

by Bella Forrest

  There was a burst of static, followed by, “Liana, Dreyfuss just met with someone who I think you fought in the qualifiers of the Tourney.” Eric spoke in a low voice, and I blinked in surprise.

  “Wait, what? How could you know that?” I asked. We had the pictures of those individuals thanks to the initial investigation conducted by Astrid Felix, but they used plastic surgery to re-disguise people after their cover had been blown, making it impossible for them to be recognized.

  “I obsessed over those vid files for days,” he replied.

  “He did,” Zoe confirmed a moment later. “He’s been looking for a way to make himself more useful to the group and started by practically memorizing everything Astrid gave us, including the vid files from the Tourney, so he might know what he is talking about.”

  “I do,” he said insistently. “I figured plastic surgery was all about modifying faces, but there are identifying marks all over people that make them stand out, including birthmarks and mannerisms. Anyway, one of the guys in your fight had a birthmark shaped like a bee right under his hairline on the back of his neck. Huge purple thing—hard to miss. I was watching Dreyfuss when a guy in a Knight’s uniform showed up at his stall, the same damn mark on his neck.”

  A Knight’s uniform? We knew Sadie had legacies in the Knights Department, but had they actually had the audacity to put him back inside after he had already committed a crime there? I looked over at Maddox. “Do you have the files on the Knights who were missing after Ambrose’s attack?”

  She nodded, and quickly tapped a few buttons on her pad. A moment later, several pictures began to form over the table, projected holographically for us all to see. “I’ll eliminate the woman, but I can’t see their necks. Eric, which one was he?”

  “Thompson, I believe,” Eric said, and Maddox quickly pulled up his picture, revealing a young man with dark blond hair and muddled hazel eyes. I vaguely remembered him in the fight. I thought Leo had taken him out.

  “Did you catch the name he’s using?” I asked Eric, hoping he managed to at least get the last name from where it was sewn into our uniforms.

  “I did. It’s Andrews now.”

  I looked over at Quess. “Tell me that name matches the one from Sadie’s list.”

  Quess nodded and managed to look even more smug. “And, his name matches one of five aliases and faces he’s used, according to Dr. Smiley’s pictures. Look.” He swiped the screen and four more faces floated up next to the one Maddox had pulled up.

  Side by side, I could see the resemblance between each man—the changes that were made to his jaw, lips, eyes, mouth, ears, and nose—growing more and more pronounced with each figure. “Five faces,” I said, appalled. “That’s horrific.”

  “He’s only twenty-three,” Quess added, and I wasn’t sure why he had thought to mention it. It certainly didn’t help calm the queasy twist of my stomach as I realized just what lengths these people would go to in order to accomplish their goals.

  “Eric, when they met—”

  “They made an exchange,” he said, cutting me off. “I’m not sure of what, but I think it was a net. He left, but I couldn’t follow him and leave Dreyfuss alone. Dylan’s with Plancett on another level, and I wasn’t going to let Zoe follow him without backup.”

  She snorted, the sound causing a loud static pop in the speakers, but held her tongue, giving me a moment to think.

  I considered what he was saying, but realized it probably wasn’t a good idea to follow anyone we knew for sure was a legacy, lest they figure out what we were up to. Besides, we were planning to move on them as soon as Lacey finished up the DNA tests. “Let him go,” I told Eric. “We know where he’s going to be.”

  Eric was quiet for a moment. “Okay. Any word on the tests?”

  “Actually, you’ve just received a message from Lacey Green, marked priority,” Jasper informed us. “Do you want me to read it?”

  I looked around the table to where everyone was watching me, their eyes reflecting different degrees of curiosity. “Yup,” I told him. “Go ahead and read it.”

  There was a pause, followed by, “So, it seems that of the three samples you gave her, the hair tested positive as having a paternal relationship with all thirty-four original samples. She informs you that she can have her people ready to mobilize within an hour, followed by what could be construed as a backhanded compliment.”

  “That sounds like Lacey,” Zoe said lightly through the speakers. “So that means Dreyfuss is the father?”

  It did. I couldn’t help but feel a grim sense of satisfaction that I’d been right. Dreyfuss was the man who had escalated the legacies’ plans twenty-five years ago, when the Patrians unexpectedly showed up at the Tower. The legacies must not have wanted to establish diplomatic relations until they had control over the Tower, and they knew that they only had a limited amount of time before other explorers came. Maybe Sparks had been the head then, but I was betting Dreyfuss played a part in the decision and was now helping Sadie carry it through. It made sense. I wasn’t sure yet why they were working together as partners exactly, but maybe he just controlled the undoc side of things, while she helped him from the inside. Either way, hiding him under the guise of a retired Knight was the perfect cover for a leader of a terrorist cell.

  “Yes,” I said. “So that’s one of two problems down.”

  “Hold up,” Maddox interjected, waving a hand in the air. “So Sage is what in all this? The guy who got away? If you’re right, then this Dreyfuss guy had Roark’s wife and a whole lot of people killed, but somehow missed Sage, who also knew about the whole thing? What’s up with that?”

  “You do realize that there have been multiple attempts made on Sage’s life, right?” Quess asked, before I could even formulate a response. “People who were upset at him for quarantining sections of departments and letting their family members die of disease, people he’s kicked out of the Medica, any of his leads who want to be in charge… The old man has shown a remarkable ability to survive all of them.”

  I frowned. “I’ve never heard of there being attempts on Sage’s life,” I told him. And I suspected that was intentional. Gossip in the Tower had always been manipulated in one way or another by the council, even when certain subjects were supposed to be classified. The expulsion chambers were an example of that. They allowed the gossip because it served their interests to have rumors circulating about them, as it helped keep the populace in line. And by that same token, they wouldn’t want anyone to know if one of their own had come under attack.

  So how did Quess know?

  “How do you know that?” I asked.

  “My father talked about it a few times,” Quess replied. “He isn’t the biggest fan of Sage and tended to bemoan the fact that the old man survived all those attempts.”

  I blinked. Quess had never really talked about his family, let alone told us that his father didn’t support Sage. I had been under the impression that the Medica staff grumbled about Sage being in power for nearly eighty years, but it was all in good fun. Now, hearing that actual attempts had been made…

  It only furthered my belief that they were targeting him in some way. Maybe they’d targeted him several times, and when that hadn’t worked, they had moved on to other means, like slowly setting him up as a fall guy should their ration card or DNA schemes become exposed. Maybe it wouldn’t be enough to convict him, but he’d definitely lose the department in the next election, which could’ve been their plan all along, to try to get more control over the council.

  Either way, it meant that every piece of the puzzle was there, save for one.

  “I need to go have a chat with Liam,” I announced to the others. “I need to see if he can give us the location of the undocs.”

  “Do you really think he’ll tell you anything?” Maddox asked.

  I honestly wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t give him any more time to come around. I also couldn’t wait for Dylan and Eric to figure out where their hideout
was. If Dreyfuss was smart, he’d maintain as much distance as possible, and I doubted they would entrust the information to Plancett, given that he wasn’t related to them. Once I got into that room, I wouldn’t be leaving until I had an answer. There had to be some magical combination of words that would reach him, and I just had to find them.

  “I don’t know. But Sage is going to tell the council that I’ve uncovered nearly thirty-five undocs, which will prompt Sadie to move her people again. And if she does that, we lose whatever chance of finding them we might have had, and the whole plan goes down the toilet. Unless we have all the legacies, and the people controlling them, this doesn’t work. We have to know where they are now.”

  Maddox gave me a doubtful look, but I didn’t let it deter me. I stood up, nodded at everyone, and then made my way to Liam’s room.

  I was halfway there when Leo caught up with me. “Liana, wait,” he called, and I stopped and gave him a surprised look.

  “For what?” I asked, curiosity burning through me. He’d still been sleeping when I slipped out of bed this morning, and we hadn’t had a chance to talk since last night. “Is everything okay?”

  “Of course,” he said with a lopsided smile. “I just wanted to see if I could help. Or rather, Grey would like to help. He’s pretty good with young people, and I know firsthand, from his memories, that he is correct. We figured…” He trailed off and then gave me an embarrassed look. “Sorry,” he said. “Grey interrupted me to say that he doesn’t need my endorsement. When he says he’s good at something, he’s good at something.”

  I was stunned for a heartbeat, confused by the rapid shift in conversation and the fact that I had witnessed an exchange between Grey and Leo that I hadn’t been able to overhear. It was then that I decided that of all the hurdles we had to jump through to make any relationship between the three of us work, that was going to be the first one—especially if we ever got into a fight. I was pretty sure the internal conversation between them was going to drive me crazy.

  But this wasn’t the time to bring it up, so I just nodded. “I’d love to have you and Grey with me. I need all the help I can get with this kid.”

  He smiled tentatively. “I’ll let him take over now.”

  I nodded, and then, on impulse, kissed him. “See you soon.”

  His smile brightened even more, and then he closed his eyes. A second later, they were open again, and I could tell it was Grey by the salacious look he gave me. “If Leo gets a kiss goodbye, do I get a kiss hello?” he asked in a husky voice.

  “Hey, I thought you were just happy that it was your body,” I joked, but I stepped closer to him and went up on my tiptoes to kiss him. Unlike Leo, who accepted the kiss with surprised approval, Grey immediately wrapped his arms around my waist and drew me closer until not a millimeter of space was left between us. I moaned as he drew my lower lip into his mouth and then used the opportunity to slip his tongue over it, tasting me. I shuddered at the invasion and grabbed the back of his neck, my own hunger mounting.

  He broke the kiss after a few more skin-sizzling seconds, taking a step back and panting slightly. “See, Leo?” he said, and I gave him a confused look, wondering why he was addressing Leo out loud. “That’s how you kiss the girl you’re crazy about.”

  My cheeks flushed, and I gaped at him. “Tell me you are not teaching Leo how to kiss me,” I groaned.

  “Of course I am. I’ve got to make sure that when he’s behind the wheel, he’s at least doing things right.”

  I shook my head, torn between laughing and smacking him. A laugh finally escaped me, and I rolled my eyes. “You are a piece of work, Grey.”

  “Yes, but you love me anyway. Sucker.”

  I laughed at that, enjoying how lighthearted our banter was, but all too soon I remembered what we were doing in the hall, and sobered. “We… um… We should probably get this over with,” I said.

  “After you,” he replied. I hit the button on the door the second we arrived and stepped through the portal as the door slid open. Liam stood up from the chair he was sitting in, a wary look on his face.

  “What do you want?” he demanded, taking a step back as we entered. I caught movement from the side of the room and turned to see Tian sitting cross-legged on the bed, her chin in her hands, watching Liam.

  “That’s not how you treat guests, Liam,” she said imperiously. “You don’t just demand to know what they want. You’ve got to say ‘hi’ first and ask them how they are.”

  Liam didn’t look at her, but his words acknowledged that he had heard her. “I would, except they are here, and they want something from me.”

  “That makes you smart,” Grey said from beside me. “I’m Grey. And you’re Liam. And we’re going to talk now.”

  “Don’t want to talk,” the boy said sullenly. “I want to leave.”

  “You know that’s not going to happen,” I said softly. “I’m sorry, but it can’t. Your family has been trying to take down Scipio for several generations, and it ends now.”

  “So you’re going to kill them,” Liam retorted. “You’re right. I’m not stupid.”

  “Liam, no one is talking about killing them,” Grey started, but I put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him before he could go any further.

  “Don’t lie to him,” I said grimly. “It doesn’t do us any good. Liam, the truth is that if this goes according to plan, then they will be found guilty, and will likely be put into the expulsion chambers. Maybe not the children, but… you’re old enough to be tried as an adult.” His face grew pale, so much so that his freckles seemed bright by comparison. He turned away, but I didn’t stop speaking. He needed to hear the truth. “We know that they are your family, Liam, and we know that all of you share one single father, but your mothers were kidnapped from Tower society and forced to get pregnant.”

  “Stop,” he said, his shoulders hunching.

  “That’s not your fault, Liam,” I told him, coming around so that we were facing each other. “I’m not trying to say that it is. But you know about it, don’t you? And you never said or did anything to stop it.”

  He cringed, his eyes filling with pain. “That’s not fair,” he mumbled.

  “No, it’s not,” I said, in perfect agreement. “But it probably wasn’t very fair for your mother, either. You didn’t have a choice about being born, but you’re old enough to decide for yourself—and now it’s time to do that. Do you want to protect people like that? Do you want to wage war on a way of life that you’ve never even gotten the chance to experience, let alone agree with?”

  “Scipio is an abomination!” he spat. “He is content to leave humanity to stagnate and rot, making us fat and lazy, with no dreams for the future. He doesn’t let us survive; he grinds us down, robbing us of the things that make us human! He doesn’t deserve to—”

  A pillow hit him squarely in the face, and I blinked in surprise as Tian pulled it back and then unleashed another blow at him, cutting off whatever legacy dogma he was about to feed us. He lifted his arms in defense, blocking it, but it didn’t stop her from pulling it back over her shoulder again, her face flushed with anger.

  “You’re so stupid!” she shouted at him, launching another blow with the pillow. “Do you even hear yourself?” Another hit, this time to the solar plexus, forcing him back a few steps. “You let them force women to get pregnant, have babies, and die when it became too much for them!” A shot to his side, partially deflected. I briefly entertained the idea of intervening, but it was only a pillow. Besides, Tian was laying down some serious truth. “You slept on the floor, under dirty blankets made out of old uniforms! You ate food that was made over two hundred years ago! All because you think Scipio is bad for us? Worse than what you were seeing around you? You are a stupid, stupid boy.” Hit, hit, hit, until suddenly Tian stopped, her chest heaving, her blue eyes filling with tears. “You need to do a good thing right now and tell us how to find them.”

  Liam’s chin quivered, and he looked away, se
eming to fold in on himself. I held my breath for several seconds, afraid even an exhalation would cause him to lock up and shut down on us.

  “If our mom dies when we come out, we’re called runts by the others,” he said, his voice hollow, and I knew that his mother had died having him. My heart bled for him, and I longed to wrap my arms around him and give him a hug, but I held off, sensing that he wasn’t finished. Not by a long shot. “The others get taken away from theirs when they’re old enough.” He didn’t explain what that meant, and I didn’t ask. Somehow, I knew that particular detail would only make it worse. Any age was too young to be taken from your mother. “We aren’t raised by a single person, after that. I guess everyone cares for us in their own way, but mainly they leave us alone. As long as we follow the rules, we don’t get a whoopin’ or thrown off the Tower.” He gave me a soulful glance, his eyes shimmering. “I watched them do it twice. Once to a boy who was only six, when he left the main room to explore, and another time to a girl who was sixteen. She’d gone out to meet a boy she was sweet on in the farming department. They killed them. And you expect me to fight against that?”

  He made a fair point. “You couldn’t, until now,” I replied. “But if you tell me where your family is hiding, then I will. I promise you that.”

  His eyes darted to Tian, questioning.

  “Liana keeps her word to the best of her ability,” Tian told him with a sage nod, and I shot her an appreciative smile.

  “If they find out it was me…” He trailed off, and I knew he didn’t need to say anything else. The rest might as well have had a big red neon arrow pointed to the words “They’re going to kill me.”

  “They won’t,” I reassured him. “Baldy is already dead, so he can’t hurt you now anyway. Now, tell me where they are. Please.”

  He absorbed the news of Baldy’s death by growing very still. I couldn’t tell how he felt about the news, and for several seconds, he said nothing. “Really?” he asked at last, and I heard the faintest sound of hope curling through his words.