“And why listen to Jules, any more than they listened to his father?” Mia speaks, but her voice is soft. Furious—but resigned.
“It will be better all round if you stay here,” De Luca says smoothly.
“For how long?” I ask, my heart sinking.
“Until the situation is resolved,” he says simply.
“You can’t hold us indefinitely,” I protest. “We have rights.”
Abrantes shakes his head. “In the currently escalated security situation, we can.”
“But that kind of arrangement is for times ofwar,” I protest. I read up on this stuff after my father was arrested and confined at IA Headquarters in Prague.
De Luca’s smooth expression is all faux regret. “And we are rapidly approaching just such a situation,” he says. “The IA is the only thing standing between that ship in orbit and all-out war between the countries who want it. And we can use whatever means necessary to ensure your cooperation.” His eyes flick over toward Mia, who stiffens, eyes burning with fury.
“Leave my sister out of this,” she snarls. “She’s just a kid.”
Mink has been watching this in silence, and her gaze lingers on Mia for a moment longer before she finally speaks again, her tone sharp. “I don’t recognize those teenagers in the cell. And I am completely confident I controlled the flow of traffic to and from Gaia.”
De Luca shoots her aReally, still this?look. “Operative, if you were able to smuggle your crews—including Mr. Addison and MissRadcliffe here—to Gaia under the noses of the IA crews manning the scientific vessels, then who is to say someone else could not have done the same to you?”
She shakes her head. “We need to take this to Prague.” For once, Mink’s voice carries with it some heat—she doesnotlike De Luca.
And De Luca’s expression as he looks back at her is just as unfriendly. “So Dr. Addison can find a way to twist it to suit his version of the truth?” He waves a hand in a regretful, mock-helpless gesture. “I wish I could assist.”
Mink fixes him with a stare that’s all cold fury. I’ve seen this woman shoot someone between the eyes and then calmly go about her day. If she was looking at me like that, I’d be running. “I can petition to have all the prisoners released into my custody and bring them to Prague myself. You don’t have the authority to prevent me.”
“Petition whomever you like,” says De Luca mildly. “And when the decision comes back in two months, feel free to come and collect them yourself.”
Two months?The words land like a physical blow, leaving me winded and groping for support. We can’t be stuck here for two months—whatever the Undying are planning, it’ll surely be too late to stop them. We’ll be watching an alien takeover of our planet from the inside of a jail cell.
Just like my dad.
As if he senses my thoughts—or the mounting tension between the head of security and the covert operative—Abrantes calls for a pair of guards with the press of a button on his earpiece, then addresses us. “Mr. Addison, Miss Radcliffe, the guards will escort you back to your quarters now.”
I start to rise from my chair, but Mia leaps from hers and strides across to Mink, getting up in her face. “Mink, youknowwhat’s happening. You have to do something!”
In the most intimate gesture I’ve ever seen from her, Mink restsboth her hands on Mia’s shoulders, gazing down at her. “You’re not helping your cause, kid,” she says quietly.
And Mia, uncharacteristically, falls completely silent. For once, Iwanther impulsive outrage, Iwanther headlong rush to act and speak without weighing the possible outcomes. Iwanther to be Mia. But she just stands there, wide-eyed and blinking at Mink.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to stop this. A pair of guards enter, preparing to escort Mia and me back to our cells. De Luca just stands there, watching us with that cool stare, utterly unperturbed by anything we’ve said.
This man is going to be single-handedly responsible for the overthrow of humanity.
And there’s nothing we can do to stop him.
AS THE GUARDS WALK US BACK TO OUR CELL, I CAN’T HELP BUTthink of the crash course in overwhelming an armed opponent I received from Javier, one of the mercenaries who followed Jules and me through the temple on Gaia. There are only two guards, and they don’t seem half as well-trained as the operatives Mink brought with her to Gaia’s surface. But even if I could wrest the gun away from one of them—and even if I could pull the trigger—the second one could use Jules as a hostage, or even kill him.
And assuming I could get control, we’re still in the middle of a detention facility whose floor plan we don’t know, full of IA operatives and staff, with countless locked doors between us and freedom. Not to mention, killing someone here would make us fugitives and criminals forever, even if I had the stomach for it.
Mink’s gaze, intense as it met mine, has left me shaken—and burning with curiosity, because there’s a slim outline of pressure inthe front pocket of my jacket. She slipped something to me, while she had me by the shoulders. But I can’t risk a look until the guards are gone.
The cell door whooshes closed behind us and the guards retreat without another word. The seething frustration and fury in Jules’s expression is slowly giving way to a blank-eyed hopelessness, and he barely glances at Atlanta and Dex, who are almost exactly where they were when we were escorted out.
“If I could just get to a phone,” Jules mutters, shoving his hands deep into his pockets, defeat in every line of his body. “Or get the SIM card for my watch back. I could call Neal, see if he could get word to my dad, tell him what we know. Tell him that I’m okay.” His lips twist. “For a given value of okay. It’s been so long, I know what he must be thinking.”
“And I could call Evie. Tell her to get out of town, hide somewhere until this is over.” I cast a long look at our cellmates, using it as cover to glance at the camera in the corner. Once I’m sure I’ve got its position memorized, I sigh and say in a clear voice, “There’s nothing for it but to wait. Come here—it’ll be okay.”
