Weeping Justice

by Jennifer Froelich

  “Come in.”

  She peeks around the door. Her eyes are wide, and her cheeks are flushed. Nox stands behind her, looking the same.

  “You have a visitor.”

  Both girls step back and Trinidad walks in. I have never seen her like this—dressed in yoga pants and an oversized shirt, with hair tied back from her makeup-free face. I think she has never looked more beautiful.

  I jump off my bed. “Trinidad, I—”

  She pulls me into a fierce hug and begins to cry.

  “Girls, can you give us a few minutes?” I ask Electra and Nox. They nod and back out of the doorway, closing it behind them.

  “Trinidad, I am so sorry.”

  She pulls away and wipes her tears with shaking fingers. “I don’t know what to do. He was my… He took care of everything. I’m lost without him, Xoey! Lost!”

  I take her hands, leading her until we are both sitting on the edge of my bed. “I told my father what I told the police—Kelan did not put anything in my purse. I had it with me the whole time. But they don’t believe me. No one will listen!”

  Trinidad looks up at the camera in the corner. Her lip trembles, and she shifts on the bed just enough so it is not focused on her face. “We have to trust the police to do their job. Somehow, new evidence will come to light. He’ll be exonerated, but only if we are patient and support the process.”

  Her eyes lock with mine. “You understand, right? And agree with me?”

  Suddenly I do. All this time, I have been thinking that Kelan was framed because of his association with me. But Trinidad clearly thinks it’s about his relationship with her.

  I nod. “Are you going to be alright?”

  She wipes her eyes and attempts a smile. “Yeah, I’m a survivor, you know? But today, I just needed to see you. What you’ve been going through is terrible. You find out who your real friends are, don’t you?”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “Your fans will be loyal too, Xoey. Your true fans. And once your album comes out, you can put this all behind you.”

  I scoot back and lean against my headboard. The truth is, I couldn’t care less about the album anymore, but Bess was right. I don’t know which opportunities are going to open a door for me here to do what I came to do, so I need to make sure I do not slam any of them closed.

  “I’m getting so bored in here, practically locked up until all this hubbub settles down.”

  “Scoot over,” Trinidad says, then she turns around and sits next to me. “How about if I keep you company for a little while.”

  “That would be wonderful.” I blink, surprised to realize I’m fighting tears. “You’re a good friend.”

  “Anytime. We gotta stick together, right?”

  I nod.

  “So you want to listen to some music or play a game?”

  “Both.”

  I tilt my chin toward the camera and laugh.

  Trinidad stays for two hours. Most of the time, we sit on my bed, listening to music while playing games on our tablets. Some of the time, we send each other instant messages—anything we don’t want to end up on the next episode of Life with Sean. Of course, the questions I want to ask are off limits. We are both surely being monitored, so we keep it politically correct. Eventually, I ask her to go out to the living room and chat with my stepsisters. She even sings with them a bit, signs their tablets, and poses for dozens of selfies with every filter imaginable. They are thrilled.

  Nox hugs me as soon as Trinidad leaves. “This was the best day of my life!” She runs off to her bedroom so she can message all her friends, but Electra stays behind, staring at the door.

  “I wasn’t happy when Mom said you were coming to live with us,” she finally says. “Don’t get me wrong, I was glad you were rescued. But…”

  “But you don’t know me, and I disrupted your life—and stole your bedroom.”

  Electra nods.

  “I understand.” I sit down next to her. “But things will not always be this way. I’ll move out before long. Then you will only have to put up with me during visits.”

  It makes me sad to consider, but this is the most logical future I can imagine right now.

  Electra frowns. “Now I don’t want you to go.”

  I smile. “Because I’m friends with Trinidad Ray?”

  “No.” Her brow furrows. I think about her having to live with my father. Maybe I understand after all.

  “I’ll always be here for you, okay? You and Nox. Even after I move out. If you need help or…anything. I’m just a tap away.” I scoot across the sofa to hug her. She stiffens at first, then relaxes and hugs me back. Just then the front door unlocks.

  “Xoey? Are you home?”

  I roll my eyes at Electra. She giggles. “In here, Dad!”

  “I have a surprise visitor for you,” he says.

  “Another one?” Electra whispers.

  The familiar click clack of high heels echoes down the hallway and the laughter dies in my throat.

  44

  Riley

  I’m standing at the window again when Reed gets back from The Rose. As soon as he sees me, his brow smooths. He smiles and I know exactly what he’s thinking: He’s happy I’m safe. I wonder if he sees the same momentary peace on my face.

  “Hi.” He walks toward me.

  “Hi.” I blush and let him take my hand.

  “I’m so glad—”

  “How are—”

  We talk over each other, then stop. Now Reed is blushing. I wonder if he’s thinking about last night when I woke up from another nightmare to find him already kneeling by the bed, stroking my hair, whispering comforting words.

  “Stay awake with me?” I asked. “Just for a while.”

  He nodded and I scooted over on the bed so he could sit next to me. I was still shivering from the nightmare, so Reed wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead. Eventually, I stopped shaking and fell asleep on his shoulder. When I woke up this morning, he was asleep too, but still holding me against his side. His dark lashes brushed his cheeks, making him look so peaceful, I hated the thought of him waking—of taking away that peace. In that moment, I realized something. Not only do I love Reed Paine, I forgive him. I forgive him of everything.

  But how do I tell him that? And when?

  “How was work?” I ask.

  “Good.” He squeezes my hands. “I talked to Gabriel. He says he can convince Lexie to leave with us.”

  I close my eyes. Please God, let it be true!

  “Good, because Reed? We need to act as soon as possible.”

  He lets go of my hand. “What do you know? And how?”

  I grimace. “Okay, about that… Let me explain.”

  Reed freaks out, of course. Then I freak out because, love him or not, I am not going to let him tell me where to go or what to do. We spend—or waste, actually—almost two hours arguing about it, then I suppose we just get tired of the drama and decide to move on. We have my sister to save, after all, and little time to plan it.

  The first step is for Reed to talk to Lexie tomorrow night. If he doesn’t get a chance, he’ll have to pass along a message through Gabriel.

  “There’s a lot that could get lost in translation,” Reed says. “And I’m not sure Gabriel is all there mentally.”

  “Either way, we can’t wait,” I say. “You’re getting out of there with Lexie the day after tomorrow.”

  On the night of the escape, Reed plans to leave through the kitchen, taking out the trash as he usually does halfway through his shift. Lexie will have to come up with her own excuse to leave.

  “Maybe she can spill something on herself. Then a bouncer will have to escort her back to the dormitories to change.”

  “What if she’s not even in the salon?”

  “Better yet. No bouncer necessary. Either way, she’ll need to climb out a dorm window on the south side of the building. One that’s shadowed by the cathedral roof. The windows are too high to reach the ground, but
if she can land on top of my trash bin, it won’t be that big of a drop.”

  “Then you plan to go to Gabriel’s quarters above the garage? Won’t someone see you?”

  “Not if we skirt the building. When we get there, Lexie will change into some of Gabriel’s clothes and I’ll change out of my uniform.”

  “You’ll pick dark clothes, right?”

  He rolls his eyes. “Yes, Riley. I’m not completely incompetent.”

  “Just checking! I hate that I won’t be there to help.”

  “Yeah, because you’re a control freak.”

  “Me? What about you?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Both Lexie and I will be glad you’re not there. In fact, it will give us peace of mind to know you’re waiting by the train tracks, far away from Mr. Bell.” He shudders.

  “Right. I’ll be waiting in the first tunnel we crossed through. The one with all the graffiti.”

  “And we’ll get there as soon as possible. After we leave Gabriel’s, we’ll just use Neil’s wire cutters to cut a hole in The Rose’s south fence and run like mad.”

  “Lexie’s tracker…”

  Reed nods. “It’s the biggest obstacle. But we need to get on the train first, Riley. Then we’ll try and interrupt the signal with the magnet we bought at the junk shop, like Sam suggested.”

  “I’ll bring it, but he said it might not work.”

  “It will work, Riley. It has to.”

  Reed and I barely slept last night, so you would think I would be dragging today. Instead, I can’t sit still. Right after Reed leaves for work this afternoon, I head down to the tea shop to check in with Sam. Before I even step through the door, I see Ridhaan and Zoya waiting for me inside. I slide into the booth across from them.

  “What is it?”

  “Two things,” Zoya says. “First, we got a message from a contact in the Sand. Your friend Xoey just got a visit from Major Kino.”

  My heart sinks. I know Xoey wanted this, but all I can think of is how Kino held me down and beat me with her belt buckle. “Do you know anything else? Like why?”

  “Only that Kino’s arranged for a helicopter flight. We’re hoping to track it—find out where she’s going next, and if she’s planning to take Xoey with her.”

  “But that’s not why we came to find you,” Ridhaan interrupts. “You’ve got bigger problems. You and Reed.”

  “Tell me.”

  What am I doing, what am I doing, whatamidoing?

  The bus creaks forward. Zoya and Ridhaan stand on the sidewalk, watching it pull away with looks of encouragement on their faces.

  You can do this, they are telling me.

  But what if I can’t?

  It doesn’t matter. It’s too late to change my mind. Anyway, I don’t want to.

  Dusk falls over the city, reminding me that time is running out, but I can’t help noticing how beautiful the sky looks—as if God has smeared pink and purple paint across an orange horizon. How can something so beautiful be right there, even when the world below it is so awful?

  The bus rattles through the UDR gate and we are scanned like food in a grocery basket. I try to take deep breaths without looking like I’m taking deep breaths, but my heart is pounding so hard, I’m sure the woman in the next seat can hear it. I have done this before, of course. A couple of nights ago when I met Zoya and Ridhaan at the Garden, I passed through the gate without any problems, but that was different. The only danger was for me, not Reed.

  “We have a military source,” Ridhaan said this afternoon. “One who saw Captain Ogas studying a tablet with a dossier on Reed Paine.”

  “What? No.” I shook my head. “No, Ogas has seen Reed several times. He’s never confronted him, so he can’t know who he is.”

  “This was several days ago, Riley,” Zoya said. “If Ogas knows who Reed is, but hasn’t alerted the authorities to his alias, he must have something else in mind.”

  “And that can’t be good,” Ridhaan added.

  “I need to warn Reed,” I said.

  “Yes,” Zoya agreed. “And soon. We told you a big battle is coming. Our contact says it involves some scheme Ogas has to help Northcote overturn Amaron for good. But there’s been a snag. Some problem that would mean execution for Ogas and his team if things don’t go their way.”

  “But last night, Ogas seemed happy,” Ridhaan says. “Like he’s figured out a solution.”

  “At the same time he’s studying intelligence on Reed?”

  “Exactly.”

  I stood up. “Then I need to get out there and warn Reed tonight. But how am I going to avoid getting caught?”

  Ridhaan raised one eyebrow. “With an elastic bandage and Reed’s extra work uniform?”

  Zoya and Ridhaan helped me with the details, which is how I ended up on this bus, heading toward The Rose, praying I will get there in time.

  It takes almost an hour to reach the bus stop that lets me out two blocks from The Rose. I shoulder my backpack and climb off, then find a dark corner where I can quickly change my look. I got the idea from Reed, but Ridhaan helped, offering me a crash course in acting like a boy. By wearing Reed’s extra work uniform, I plan to blend in just enough to get his attention and warn him about Ogas.

  “Mostly, you’ll need to wing it,” Ridhaan said. “Which has always worked for me.”

  “Very comforting,” I said. Reed would be horrified—will be horrified when he sees me there, but I have no choice. The thought of Ogas getting his hands on him makes my blood curdle. I have to get there in time to warn him.

  When I turn the corner and see The Rose, I stop for a moment and stare. It is exactly as Reed described it: a huge cathedral decorated with a beautiful stained-glass rose window that has since been adorned with neon lights and a tacky billboard that flashes “Girls, girls, girls!” I swallow my disgust and circle the building. I don’t know who I will run into first, or how quickly I will have to defend my position here, but I know from our hand-drawn plans of this place that the kitchen entrance is in the back, and that seems the safest place to start.

  Luckily, I easily get inside.

  “Are you Tom?” someone yells to me as soon as I come around the back corner.

  “Uh—”

  “Where have you been? Get over here and help. Hurry!”

  “Yes sir!” I rush toward the truck that is backed up to a wide set of double doors and begin unloading boxes into a large freezer, grateful that Tom never showed up tonight. We work for half an hour straight. As soon as the truck is empty it pulls away. The guy who yelled at me directs three of us to finish putting the rest of the boxes in the freezer.

  “Meet me in the kitchen when you’re done,” he says.

  It only takes a few minutes to finish the job and I’m trying to decide if I should head to the kitchen or break off and look for Reed elsewhere when a scrawny guy stops short in front of the freezer door and stares at me.

  “Wait.” He points at me. “I don’t know who you are.”

  “That’s Tom, right?” Another guy says.

  The scrawny guy shakes his head. “No. Tom called in. That’s not Tom.”

  “I—” I stop and clear my throat, realizing I forgot to lower my voice. “Uh, the agency sent me.”

  The scrawny guy is not buying it. “What’s your name?”

  “I know her name.”

  His voice stops my heart. Like Reed, I would recognize it anywhere, but I have to turn around to look at him. The mustache, the uniform—everything is just as Reed described. It’s Captain Ogas, and he’s staring at me with a smile on his face.

  45

  Xoey

  “Hello, Xoey.”

  Kino’s voice connects to my nerve endings, immersing me in my past. In every place but reality, I am back at Windmill Bay. A girl with a battered face who trembles in Kino’s plush office. Broken, scared, friendless. I blink and I am back in the closet where she locked me up for “religious accommodation,” starving in the cafeteria she raided for
her own profit, or standing ankle deep in snow, watching her put a bullet in my classmate’s head. I can hear the shot ring across the courtyard.

  But I am not that girl anymore.

  My father stands next to Kino, smiling like he’s given me a gift. In a way he has. I feel Electra at my side. She has moved closer to me, instinct alerting her to the danger this beautiful woman always brings.

  I blink and focus on the present.

  “Director Kino,” I say. “What a surprise.”

  “It’s Major Kino now,” my father says.

  “I see.” All these weeks of acting for the cameras have finally paid off, I think. My heart is pounding, and I feel sick at the sight of this vile woman, but I hold it all in and smile. “Won’t you sit down?”

  “Thank you.” Kino sits on the edge of the sofa, gracefully crossing her legs while studying me with a quizzical smile. I sit across from her and tuck one foot under my leg. My father asks Electra to leave the room and sits down between us.

  “I am sorry I’m not dressed for company.” I turn to my father. “Dad, you should have warned me.”

  “Don’t blame him,” Kino says smoothly. “I wanted it to be a surprise. We haven’t spoken in a long time, Xoey, but I remember your difficulty with the unexpected.”

  “Like your unexpected accommodations for religion at Windmill Bay.” I smile sweetly.

  “Xoey…”

  Kino waves away my father’s concern. “It’s okay, Sean. As special liaison to the Joint Council on Core Education, I am still ultimately responsible for your well-being, Xoey. Our community has invested in you for more than seventeen years, even caring enough to provide you with moral training when bad thinking had derailed your progress. I need to assess where you are now. To determine if more…aggressive measures are needed, or if we should simply stay the course.”

  “I am surprised you waited so long,” I say. “When I was found several weeks ago, I fully expected such an evaluation then.”