Vesper cleared her throat. “Anyway. Wanna tell me what the fuck is going on? And where are we?”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
Vesper
Mazz sighed, and swiped her hand over the top of the cabinet next to the chair, opening it and surveying the contents. Vesper watched while she scanned every piece of furniture and all the equipment in the room, searching for something before she told them anything. When everything seemed to be as she wanted, she dragged a chair, which had been sitting in the corner, over until she was right in front of Vesper’s bed.
“Alright,” Mazz said, finally sitting. “So, I work with a group thatunofficially”—she put heavy emphasis on the last word—“is employed by the queen to infiltrate and dismantle the Embunuh Organization. The whole thing. I help coordinate efforts in our district. Right now, you’re in a secure facility that has some reasonably trained healers who work with us.” She shifted on her seat, looking between Vesper and Bellamy.
“That’s all I can tell you. It’s honestly more than I should have said, but I don’t feel right keeping you in the dark after…”After Vesper died.Mazz left that unspoken. “Anyway, you are not to breathe a word of this outside of this room.”
“Why does the queen want them disbanded though? I thought the Embunuh was her biggest backer,” Vesper asked.
Mazz sighed and shifted on her seat, looking around the room again. “You didn’t hear any of this, got it?” Vesper and Bellamy nodded. “They’ve gotten too much power. They’re not really her backer anymore. It’s more like… She’s the face while they’re the actual government.”
Well shit. That explained the mandates forcing Energy wielders into assassin training. It felt silly now to think that she’d never even questioned it.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Vesper asked. “I could’ve helped. Shit, you knew I’d been wanting out.”
“You did help,” Mazz shrugged. Vesper was positive Mazz had never told her about this. There was no way. “While you were trying to dig up information on Cypress’s contract,” she explained after seeing Vesper’s confused expression. “You found out a lot about the organization that proved to be quite useful. We had a team getting close. Well, we thought they were getting close. We’d been monitoring that building, along with several others, for months.”
That would certainly explain how they were able to find them so quickly.
“Okay,” Vesper said slowly, trying to wrap her mind around all of it. “Your group…?”
Mazz smiled. “We don’t have an official name, but some of us say we’re the Rahasia.”
Vesper snorted.Secret. Fitting. “How long have you been with them?”
Mazz darted a look at Bellamy and hesitantly said, “It was after we broke up. I met someone and they brought me in.” Mazz smiled at the memory. A distant look in her eyes made her pause before she continued.
“Started out with the Downstairs just being used as a safe house. I mean, I already used the hidden rooms that way, if any of the girls needed it. There wasn’t much of an adjustment there. Then I wanted to get more involved. Sort of worked my way upthe ranks. Built trust. It helped that you were giving me so much information too.”
“So, what happens to the Downstairs now?”
“Why do you care?” Bellamy snapped, glaring at Vesper.
Mazz, ignoring Bellamy entirely—as she had been doing almost this whole time—said, “Nothing. It’s still my business, and overall, it’s only use for the group is as a safe house. That likely won’t change until we’re done dismantling the Embunuh completely. There’s still a long way to go. We only cut off one head, but there’s seven more we need to take down. And we still have to make sure this one won’t grow back.”
“Your sister,” Mazz said, shifting to face Bellamy. She stiffened, clutching Vesper’s wrist tighter. “She won’t be staying. She only moved into the Downstairs as a favor to protect Cypress. Seeing as you’re still sticking around, that’s no longer needed. She’ll be leaving for…” She paused, staring at the wall behind them for a second before she shook her head. “Actually, I don’t remember where she’s off to. But you have a few days before she leaves. If you wanted to say goodbye or anything.”
“If she wanted to say anything to me, she would’ve visited this week,” Bellamy snapped. Vesper sighed. She supposed one helpful deed wasn’t going to clear the slate that easily. Then Bellamy, looking down at the floor instead of at Mazz, asked, “And my brother?”
“Staying. He never relocates. Enjoys his official job too much. He did say you have a spot with him though, if you need it.”
Vesper almost laughed at the expression on Bellamy’s face, caught between confusion, excitement, and fear. “I don’t know shit about Energy Design,” Bellamy said, settling on minor irritation.
Mazz shrugged. “Told him I’d convey the message. He seemed to think if you had a few days before seeing him, you’d warm up to the idea.”
“So,” Vesper started, ignoring Bellamy’s eye roll at Mazz’s suggestion. “There is something that’s been bothering me for abit. Cypress’s parents,” she hesitated, replaying the last conversations with them in her mind. “They said they wanted to study her. They hired me and Bel to kill her though, but…” Vesper trailed off.
“The ‘poison’ they gave you wasn’t to kill her.” Mazz said.
“Well, yeah. That, but also they had access to her constantly. They kept her locked up and everything. Why didn’t they take advantage and study her then? You know, give her the paralytic, or whatever it was, themselves.”
Mazz sighed. “The Embunuh Organization, well, they have a program of sorts. For Dampeners. I really can’t tell you more because we honestly don’t know much more about it. I do know that it’s brutal, and a lot of Dampeners die during their ‘training.’ I have a contact who survived it, escaped it, but she’s pretty tight-lipped about what went on there. I think they meant to put Cy through that. To use her for whatever they’re doing with them.”
“That’s so fucked,” Bellamy whispered, shock marring her features despite having held the belief that the organization employed Dampeners. She clearly hadn’t expectedthatlevel of employment.
