Del shrugged. “If I cared, I wouldn't be here.” I escaped you once before. But he was past lying to himself, and the thought was merely reflexive. Empty bravado wouldn't help him.
What would help him was finding the genius who could outthink Sigma, hold the shattered Society together, and direct an organization like this back from the brink of disaster. A genius like that might have an idea or two Del could use.
A genius like that might be able to help Del figure out what he'd done to his own head, and what he couldn't remember. Andrews laughed, sidling back out the door. “Yeah, sure you don't care. Come on, Breaker. For this assignment, your ass is mine."
"Color me excited,” Del mumbled, and followed him out the door into the blinding white-tiled corridor beyond. They were underground in the high security warrens, armed guards with personal dampers everywhere and trackers in special cells on every level. Someone down the hall screamed—probably undergoing their first reeducation session. Zed and a beating, just the right way to wake up in the morning.
Sigma. Back home in the bad old cradle. They were going to send him out on an assignment for the first time since his recapture. And any assignment, however well-planned it was, might offer Del a chance to do something other than keep being a Sigma lapdog.
Excitement rose at the thought, but his training clamped down, regulating his pulse back to a steady even thudding. Even a heartbeat could give him away.
That was just a vanishing possibility, though. It was far more likely that Anton and Andrews were going to use Del like a ferret in a hole to smoke out any Society operatives possible. They had all the weight of the government behind them, and they had learned a few things since Del's last escape. Whoever this Price girl was, she was still playing in a rigged game. Del's unwilling acquiescence to Sigma might be the thing that tipped the balance against her.
Whoever you are, Price, keep running, he thought. I hope I did train you, I really do. ‘Cause that's the only thing that's going to save you if they somehow make me hunt you down.
* * *
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