by Tarah Benner
“I’m still working on that.”
“Does Riley have any special security clearance I don’t know about? They typically don’t hand those out to Recon cadets.”
“She had to be using someone else’s,” he says defensively. “Probably her friend Celdon’s. His card was the last one used to access Systems this evening.”
Right now, my concern for Harper is the only thing keeping me from putting my fist through Dellwood’s teeth.
“So what I’m getting from this is that you have no actual proof that Riley was even involved in the break-in,” I say. “And if you don’t have any evidence, you have to release her.”
Dellwood smirks. “Actually, we don’t. Now that Constance is involved, we can hold her indefinitely.”
My blood goes cold. Dellwood sees the change in my expression and knows he’s said the magic words.
Constance is the compound espionage unit, comprised of unknown individuals from every section. It was founded at the very beginning to work independently of the board to preserve human life at all costs.
The board likes to assure everyone that Constance exists to maintain checks and balances, but those who serve Constance play by their own set of rules. They have absolute power to terminate any individual they perceive as a threat to compound life.
If Constance has taken an interest in Harper’s case, she’s as good as dead. Nobody ever gets this close to a Constance investigation and lives to tell about it.
“Where is she?” I growl.
“She’s still being questioned. She won’t admit to any of it.” Dellwood leans over the desk, and I catch a whiff of coffee breath. “Tell her to confess, Lieutenant. Otherwise, this is going to get a lot worse for her and anyone she’s involved with.”
“She didn’t do anything.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know,” I say between gritted teeth. “Either release her, or go get your captain.”
“Can’t,” he says, reclining in his chair and putting his hands behind his head. “He’s busy.”
I see why Harper hates this kid. I’ve only spent five minutes with him, and I already want to kill him.
“Get — off — your fucking ass — and get me the captain.”
“Watch it, Lieutenant,” he says lazily. “Don’t make me call your commanding officer.”
The thought of Jayden schlepping up here to spring me from the cages is laughable, but I’ve about reached my breaking point. This kid doesn’t know when to shut up.
“You know, I hope Riley can stay conscious for a little longer,” he jeers. “I’m kind of enjoying this.”
He arches an eyebrow, and before I have time to consider what I’m doing, I’ve vaulted the desk and grabbed the little prick by the collar.
He makes a pathetic gurgling sound in his throat, and I yank him closer. “Get your captain now, or I swear I will put your head through this wall.”
Dellwood’s lower lip twitches, but I can’t tell if he’s trying to smirk or if he’s going to cry like a little bitch.
Disgusted, I shove him away from me into the rolling chair behind the desk. He crashes against the wall on four wheels and sits there, red-faced and dumbfounded.
When he recovers, he throws me a terrified look, staggers to his feet, and walks clumsily down the tunnel.
I wait for a few minutes, mentally preparing for a day in the cages for assaulting a controller. But when the captain appears alone, I know Dellwood’s too much of a coward to arrest me.
The captain looks pissed. His face is a splotchy reddish-purple color, and he’s wheezing as though he tried to run a mile. He’s not a handsome man on his best day, but today he looks like shit.
“What is it, Parker?” he growls.
“You need to release Harper Riley,” I say in a rush. “She wasn’t involved in the bombing.”
He fixes me with a glare. “I don’t need to do a goddamn thing, Lieutenant. I don’t care if you’re some big deal in Recon. You’re in my house now, boy.”
I blow out an angry stream of air through my nose. “You have no proof she had anything to do with the bombing. She wasn’t even there.”
“Even if she wasn’t physically present — which I have every reason to believe she was — she could’ve easily triggered the explosion from anywhere in the compound.”
“But she didn’t.”
Suddenly the pig man looks suspicious. “How do you know?”
“I just know.”
What am I doing? I can’t tell them that Harper probably was breaking into Sullivan Taylor’s office, and I can’t tell them what she was looking for.
“Parker, I’ve been a controller for a long time. I know when something ain’t right.”
I swallow. What I’m about to do isn’t smart. It could get Harper dishonorably discharged before she ever sees the Fringe. I’ll probably be court-martialed, but I don’t have a choice. The words are spilling out before I can stop them.
“I know because . . . Harper was with me all night.”
The captain’s face goes slack with shock. I see his shifty brain working to connect the dots. Then his jowls lift into a sneer. “What do you mean with you?”
I fix him with a look that makes him actually take a step back from the desk. “What do you think I mean?”
His sneer broadens. “I’m going to need you to be more specific . . . for the official report.”
What a creep.
“I mean, we were sleeping together. Up on the observation deck.”
Sell it, Parker.
“She’s a hot recruit.” I force myself to shrug. “What would you have done?”
Bingo.
The captain guffaws — actually guffaws — and starts moving his fat, greasy fingers over the keyboard on the desk.
“I’ll have to put your name in the report,” he says, in the tone of a man who’s looking out for another man. “You’ll see disciplinary action for this. You sure she’s worth it?”
I try to find an expression of cool indifference. “No. But once you realize she doesn’t fit as a suspect, every Recon operative’s ass is going to be on the line. I figured I should come clean now so I don’t accidentally get pinned for this.”
The captain starts clacking away at the keyboard with his sausage-y fingers, nodding a little as though my explanation makes sense.
I feel a little sick when his upper lip twitches at the good parts of the report. I hope he isn’t embellishing my testimony.
Harper is going to hate me for this, and I’ll never hear the end of it from Jayden.
“Hey!” shouts a frantic voice from down the tunnel.
I turn automatically.
“Hey! Harper Riley is innocent!”
I squint through the dim lighting and see a tall, skinny guy with messy blond hair sprinting from the emergency stairwell. He’s wearing a rumpled white blazer and pants that have some suspicious purple liquid spilled on them.
The captain and I both stare at him as he careens into the desk, breathing hard.
This kid is a total mess. There’s plaster dust in his pale hair, and his eyes are red and bloodshot. By the looks of it, he hasn’t shaved in days, and his hands are a little shaky.
“Harper Riley — didn’t steal my key card,” he pants.
“Who are you?” asks the captain, who looks just as shocked as I feel.
“Celdon Reynolds. I got a call saying my identity had been stolen, but Harper never stole anything.”
That name rings a bell, and I realize this is the gifted hacker who’d made several guest appearances in Harper’s disciplinary file from the Institute.
The captain huffs loudly, plainly annoyed that I’ve given Harper an alibi and he now has to pay attention to the testimony of a tier-one worker.
“Mr. Reynolds, we have record of someone entering Systems and remotely overriding Sullivan Taylor’s security code. Somebody was in his office tonight.”
“Yeah,” says Celdon in a shaky
voice. I can tell he’s making this up as he goes along. “That was me.”
He winces, as if to say it’s regrettable that he was at the scene of the crime mere minutes before Sullivan Taylor was blown sky-high. He’s a terrible liar, but I appreciate the effort. Between the two of us, we might get Harper’s name cleared after all.
The captain arches an eyebrow. “You were in Systems at twenty-three hundred this evening?”
Celdon looks up, as though trying to recall the details of his made-up jaunt to Systems. “Uh, yeah . . . I was. And I was in Undersecretary Taylor’s office this evening.”
The captain’s face blanches. “Why?”
“I . . . I realized I forgot to update his malware, so I figured I should take care of that.”
“And you decided to do this in the middle of the night?”
Celdon shrugs and flashes a disarming smile, as though he’s quite used to pulling it out to get people to do what he wants. “I’m kind of an insomniac.”
“Hmm. So you understand why we thought someone was acting as you. Not many Systems workers are so . . . dedicated.” The captain is still suspicious. “How did you know we suspected Cadet Riley of stealing your identity?”
My heart sinks. I’d noticed Celdon’s slip at once, but I’d hoped the captain wouldn’t.
Celdon’s eyes widen in an “oh shit” expression, but he recovers quickly. “He called me,” he says, jerking a thumb in my direction and glancing at the name on my uniform. “Parker said Harper had been arrested. I put two and two together.”
The captain stares between us. I give a quick nod, and he starts typing again. “Are you both fucking her?”
“What?” Celdon’s jaw drops, and I silently beg him not to say anything stupid. He gives me a strange look bordering on delight but drops it. I know he’s probably going to tease Harper about this later.
Once the captain’s finished with his data entry, he drags his fat ass down the tunnel toward the room where they’re keeping Harper. I swear he’s moving extra slow on purpose.
“Well,” says Celdon, leaning against the desk and shooting me a sidelong glance. “That was . . . unexpected.”
I don’t say anything. I’m too wound up. I can’t believe what I just did.
After several minutes of strained silence, the captain waddles back down the tunnel toward me. “Parker,” he barks, beckoning me to follow him.
I practically bowl him over on my way into the interrogation room. There’s another controller guarding her in the corner, and I stifle the urge to hit him when I see her.
Harper is passed out, bound to a chair. Her dark hair is falling around her like a curtain, and she has a fine sheen of sweat glistening on her brow. Even unconscious, I can read the agony in her expression.
She’s got a horrible skid mark running down her right cheek, and there’s a bruise forming along her hairline as though she hit a brick wall. She looks so much worse than she ever has after sparring.
“What did you do?” I snarl.
“Routine interview,” the captain says defensively. But he looks vaguely alarmed himself.
He leaves us alone with the brawny controller and slams the door behind him. Harper jerks her head up in alarm, her eyes opening just enough to assess the threat.
Her eyes land first on the controller and then slide over to me.
“Hey,” I whisper. Since when do I whisper? “Everything’s okay.”
“What are you doing here?” she groans. But I swear she looks relieved. She’s not worried about being in trouble — Harper never is — but she also doesn’t have that familiar animosity in her eyes anymore. She knows who the real threat is now.
“I’m getting you out of here,” I say.
I can’t even manage an expression that’s appropriate for a lieutenant. I can’t feign irritation or indifference when she looks as though she’s been through hell.
I guess that’s okay. If Constance is watching us right now, they might actually believe my testimony.
I bend down and touch her arm, and she recoils slightly when I move up to unfasten the plastic restraints that are making deep divots in her biceps.
She shudders, and I throw a poisonous glance over my shoulder at the beefy controller who’s standing there like a moron. He makes a strange mumbling noise in the back of his throat and shuffles out of the room.
“Can you stand?” I ask.
She drags in a breath that looks as though it takes an extraordinary amount of effort and moves a little. She doesn’t make it all the way into an upright position, but her hair falls back enough for me to see two bright red dots on the side of her neck. Probe marks.
I swear loudly and scoop her into my arms, too angry to wait around here until she regains her strength. If I stay here a minute longer, I’m going to lose it and kill every controller in this place.
Harper lets out a little noise of protest, which floods me with relief. I grip her tighter under the shoulders and knees and kick the door shut behind me.
seventeen
Harper
The pain in my limbs subsides to a dull ache as Eli carries me down the tunnel and away from that horrible room. I can feel the fury pouring off him in waves. He’s holding me tightly to his strong chest, and his arms are surprisingly soothing.
As we walk, I chance a look over his shoulder and see the captain jogging down the tunnel to keep up with us.
“I’ll need her to fill out some release forms,” he says.
I shudder involuntarily at the captain’s cold eyes, and Eli’s grip tightens.
“That sounds like your job,” he growls.
Go Eli.
“This is an official investigation, Parker,” says the captain.
I can tell Eli is gearing up for one of his shitstorms of rage, but then a flash of messy blond hair catches my eye.
I gasp and practically roll out of Eli’s arms to get a better look, and for a moment, I’m certain I’m seeing things.
Celdon is standing outside the station by the megalift. I’d recognize that wrinkled blazer anywhere. His hair is carelessly tussled as always, but there’s a tightness to his eyes that I’m not used to.
Relief like nothing I’ve ever known floods through me.
“Oh my god,” I yelp, thrashing toward Celdon until Eli places me on the ground.
I’m more unsteady than I realize and wobble a little as I half run, half limp toward Celdon. He catches me, and I fall into his arms. I’m not much of a hugger, but today I squeeze him as though my life depends on it.
“Hey, Riles!”
“Celdon! Oh my god,” I murmur into his shoulder. “I thought you were dead. I saw your compartment, and I —”
“Hey, hey,” he says in an uncharacteristically gentle voice. “Everything’s okay . . . I’m okay.”
“But your compartment —”
I pull away slightly, and he shakes his head. “I wasn’t in there.”
Behind me, someone clears his throat. I turn to see Eli at my elbow, and I suddenly remember where we are.
“I talked to them, and it looks like you’re free to go,” says Eli, raking a nervous hand through his hair.
Celdon smirks and slinks away with a new spring in his step. I move toward the megalift, forgetting it’s out of order, and suddenly feel a little dizzy. Eli must have been watching me, because his arm flies out just as I pitch forward.
“Okay, we’re taking you to the medical ward,” he says, lifting me back into his arms and carrying me toward the emergency stairs.
As his warm arms tighten around my back and legs, I feel off-balance for reasons that have nothing to do with my dizziness. Eli came to bail me out of Control, and here he is. He’s not wearing his trademark look of superiority. He actually looks . . . concerned.
Celdon waggles a knowing eyebrow at me, and he doesn’t bother to hide his enthusiasm as he drinks in all six-plus feet of Eli.
“Care to introduce us, Riles?”
“This is Eli,
my commanding officer.”
“Whoa. Going straight for the top, are we? Nice.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about, but I want to punch him in the face. Celdon has that effect on me. One minute I want to hug him, and the next I want to kill him.
Eli clears his throat uncomfortably.
“You really don’t have to carry me,” I say, my face burning.
“You were electrocuted and god knows what else,” he says in that commanding voice of his, not even panting as he lugs me up the stairs. “Don’t fight it.”
I roll my eyes, trying to process everything that’s happened tonight. “Hang on. How are you okay right now?” I ask Celdon. “I saw your tunnel. It was completely demolished. And when I left —”
“I told you. I wasn’t there.” He looks over the railing to make sure there’s no one below us who could overhear. “I was thinking about what you said and decided to look into your bid some more. I was on my way up to Systems when the explosion hit. Good thing, too, since Taylor was blown to smithereens.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah. So thanks for saving my life, I guess.”
“How did you know I was here?”
He grins. “I knew you’d taken my card. It was gone when I woke up. Then your buddy Paxton pinged me to say my identity had been stolen.”
I sigh, feeling a stab of guilt. “I’m sorry. I just had to get into Taylor’s office and find out what he knew.”
Celdon chuckles. “I know. It’s okay. I do need that card back, though.”
“Oh, right.” Feeling awkward, I reach under my shirt to fish the card out of my sports bra.
Eli averts his gaze and clears his throat uncomfortably, which is almost as amusing as it is embarrassing.
Celdon takes the card and wrinkles his nose. “Gross. It’s all sweaty.”
I want to smack him, but my curiosity gets the better of me. “Wait. How did you get back into Systems?”
“My illegal backup key,” he says, as though this is obvious.
I feel the tears burning in the back of my throat, making my eyes itch, but I swallow them down and take a second just to relish the fact that Celdon is alive. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was so worried.”
