Julie immediately moved from Sin's side to flick a switch on the wall and grab a cable. Without a word, she dragged the length of it over to Rissa. Behind the long row of ten priests, a large screen was being revealed as the panels slid back. Then, before Julie could offer her the cable, Rissa knelt supplicant, bowing her head so she could release the buttons at the back of her neck.
"Please use the smaller port for data retrieval," she announced, trying to make this as close to a normal data transfer as possible.
So Julie gently inserted the probe and secured it. Immediately, Rissa knew she wasn't connected to a system. This was little more than a direct line to the monitor, and she wanted to smile. With little more than a thought, she sent the records of her memory to it.
Vivid colors and quickly-moving images filled the screen, starting with the moment Sin pushed Rissa down behind the dumpster. Her view was limited, but the words thrown between Sin and the men threatening them were audible. Then the first shot went off. The bangs of the so many guns were loud. The screams were louder. She caught every bullet that hit Sin's body, every time he jerked in pain.
She had been scared, and it came across in the replay. Her eyes closed for moments, blocking out the sight, but the sounds just kept going. When her eyes had opened, the sights were even more gruesome, and then the gun was shot from Sin's hand. It slid across the ground, sliding toward her, but she pulled away from it.
There were more shots, more screams, along with grunts from Sin, but when the last man had jumped onto the dumpster, Rissa had acted. Lunging forward, her fingers closed on the gun and she'd quickly calculated the fastest way to stop a threat. From her angle, a shot under his arm should work.
She hadn't aimed. She hadn't looked down the barrel. Ingénue R1554-9370S-02K16 had simply lifted the gun and pulled the trigger—and the last assailant had dropped immediately. Rissa ended the playback.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Julie said as she removed the probe from Rissa's back, "but wasn't that last man Brother Paul, the priest in question?"
"It was," Benedict said, answering instead of Joshua.
And the man in the center of the long desk picked up the gavel and beat it three times. "Are the assembled Tribunes ready to cast the first vote?" he asked.
One by one, each of the ten priests declared Legate Sinclair Cassis innocent, but Rissa wasn't even allowed to smile.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Immediately after the trial, Rissa had been returned to OutLink. Sin hadn't even been given a chance to talk to her about the verdict. Instead, Trent had returned her to the Enclave. When he got back, he'd made a comment about how "that genius" said the good stuff would be on the web. That was why Sin had looked online himself.
It seemed his rebuttal questions had been recorded, repeated, and published everywhere. Day after day, the media focused on his questions about how to interpret the first precept, and yet the comment sections merely became more polarized. People wanted to hate, and having an obvious set of people to group together made it easy.
Thankfully, the next week of Rissa's assignments were pretty routine. The girl always solved her problems fast, which was normal. That she refused to talk about leaving OutLink wasn't. Each time Sin tried to broach the subject, she reminded him the Legion had to come first. She was safe. His church wasn't. Their few private minutes together were always spent talking about the problemsheneeded to deal with instead of hers.
At some point, he mentioned the likelihood the molecule she'd found had been stolen. Rissa couldn't disprove Sin's theory, but she said it didn't matter. History would be revealed in time, but the future all pointed at the same outcome, regardless of where the cure had come from. The Legion wanted a miracle, and the Ingénue had been transporting it unknowingly.
As they reached the door to her latest contract, he reminded her that if someone was trying to hurt her because of what was in her head then it damned well did matter.Shewas his responsibility, not the entire church. Certainly not the whole city! But, like a switch had been flipped, Rissa instantly turned robotic, falling back to the same habits she'd used when he first met her. Even worse, he had no idea how to talk her out of the act. She was a little too good at it.
And now, here he was, leaning against the wall outside the download room. He was starting to think they made this one of the least comfortable places on purpose, but he wouldn't go any further from her than he had to. Since he couldn't go in with her, this was it. Sadly, even after the attempt on her life, Daniel Briggs didn't seem concerned about the lack of security during data transfers, so there was nothing Sin could do but wait for her. Wait, and hope she was fine in there, out of his sight.
When the sounds in the room changed, he checked his weapons and pushed away from the wall, expecting to see his angel any second. It didn't take long, but something was wrong. She didn't bother waiting for him. Rissa staggered out of the room and kept going, forcing Sin to catch up. Reaching out, she trailed her fingers along the wall for balance, her tiny feet moving quickly. He rushed to her side, grabbing her arm so she wouldn't collapse. Why was she in such a rush? She was never like this!
"What are you doing?" he demanded as quietly as he could.
She didn't say a word until they were in the elevator and even then her voice was a whisper. "You need to get me back."
"I thought you..." He looked down so no cameras could see his mouth. "Thought you hated that place?"
"I do, but the Legion needs you." She dared to look up at him just as they reached the first floor. "Not later. Now."
He didn't have to drag her off the elevator. This time, it was the opposite. Running on sheer willpower, Rissa glided through the lobby, turning right for the closest train platform. Sin felt like he could barely keep up.
"Damn it," he snapped, grabbing her arm to spin her around the moment they were outside. "What the fuck?"
"Trust me, Sin."
He nodded but refused to let her go. Instead, he supported her weight while they hurried to catch the next train. She'd never spoken this much in a public place where she could be recorded, so whatever it was had to be important. Her comment about the Legion made his skin feel clammy and he resisted the insatiable desire to drown her in questions. When the train arrived, she beat him to the private car, turning to face him as the doors slid closed.
"Dyntek has a superior network, which includes access to the web," she told him. "Trying to distract myself from the download, I was reading current headlines when it came up."
He threw up his hands. Why was she being so damned vague? "When what came up?"
She lifted her hand, almost reaching out for him. "The Praetor has suffered an embolism, Brother Sin. He collapsed at the altar while we were making our way here. No more than a few hours ago. Now, he's being treated at Parkland General Hospital."
