Sally nods, taking shaky breaths. “Okay. Okay. I need to call Stephan. I need—”
“No,” I tell her. “I’m sorry, you can’t. Things have changed. If you tell him anything, it could put a target on his back.”
Her face pales even more, making her look ashen. “You’re right.”
Wren looks up at me. “There must be something there. Maybe what the anti-vaxxers are saying isn’t complete nonsense.” Her voice drops lower. “There must be some truth to what they are saying. Otherwise, why would they try to bury this? Surely these males are deranged? They sound deranged…but…” She shrugs. “It’s the only thing that makes sense to me. Are the vaccinations really for Hemorrhagic Fever? Are theypoison? Surely not. No one has died or had any crazy side-effects.”
My respect for Wren triples in that moment. She’s clever, and she’s putting the pieces together faster than I expected.
I like her. I like her a lot.
“You might be right.” It’s all I have for her. “That’s my thinking as well.”
Wren nods slowly, processing this. “So, the Mainland is covering something up. Something big enough to frame you. Something big enough to possibly want to kill all of us.”
“Looks that way,” I admit.
Sally is looking between us, her face still pale. “What are we going to do? How are we going to get out of this? I can’t see a way.” Her voice hitches.
I take a breath. I’ve been turning this over in my mind since Drake hung up.
“I have an idea,” I say. “But you’re not going to like it.”
17
Wren
I sigh. “You’re right, I don’t like the sound of that at all.”
Sally is hugging herself, barely holding it together.
“We have to tell the anti-vaxxers everything that’s going on,” Grim says, rubbing his chin. The stubble catches against his hand. His eyes are focused on the opposite wall. He looks worried, and rightly so.
“Um…sorry…as in tell them how much exactly?” I can’t believe he’s suggesting this. It’s a little nuts.
“All of it. Starting with us having this cellphone.” His eyes are now steady on mine, completely serious.
My stomach drops. “I think you might have hit your head, Grim. Are you feeling okay? Because you’re talking utter crap,” I whisper. “They’ll take it away,” I hiss. “That will be the end of that. It’s our only lifeline. Our only way to—”
“I know,” he cuts me off, his voice calm. “But we need to tell them in good faith. We need them on our side.”
“Good faith? Can you hear yourself? The problem is that they’re not on our side.” I shake my head. “These assholes nearly beat you to death in the parking lot. They’ve taken us hostage.”
“Thanks for filling me in because I hadn’t noticed any of that.” One side of Grim’s mouth lifts in the start of a smile, and my stomach does this flip. It irritates me. “And for the record, if it was five against one, I would’ve had them.”
“Stop being a smartass. This is no time for dick-swinging bullshit. I can’t believe you want to trust them.”
“I don’twantto trust them, but I don’t think we have a choice at this point.” Grim shrugs. “We need to work with them if we have any hope of getting out of here alive.”
Sally makes a small noise beside me. “Wren is right. This doesn’t sound like a good plan,” she says in a small voice that is not like her at all.
“Think about it.” Grim shifts his position, making his muscles move and tighten beneath his skin, and I have to force my eyes back to his face. “We need to tell them about your cellphone. We do it to show them we’re being honest. Then we urge them to check out the media coverage, just like we did. They’ll see for themselves that what we’re saying is true. That they’re burying this. That they’re being set up to die, just like we are. We’re all in danger here. At this point, it’s us against them.” He jerks his head toward the wall, toward where we know Draig Security is assembled outside.
My hands feel a little clammy at the prospect. “So we tell them about the cellphone. Then what? We wait for Draig Security to raid us like sitting ducks?”
His eyes are intense and focused on me.
“Grim might be right.” Sally’s voice is trembling. She’s still pale, her hands shaking in her lap. “We need the anti-vaxxers. We’re more vulnerable without them. They need to be prepared for what’s about to hit.” She looks up at me, and there are tears in her eyes. “It won’t be long before the security forces storm this place, and then it’s too late for all of us.”
