Gallagher frowned at me. “Delilah, I feel like I’m missing something...”
“There’s been another series of mass murders, all of them since our escape from the Spectacle.” Lenore set her knife down, carrots forgotten. “The victims aren’t all kids this time, and the killers aren’t all parents. But they’re all authority figures. People the rest of the world should be able to trust.”
“And the events seem to be getting closer and closer to this general area. It’s like they’re closing in on us. See for yourself.” I plucked the top edition from a stack of newspapers on the floor next to the front window and shoved it at Gallagher. “You can feel the difference in town. People are terrified and on edge. They don’t know who to trust. They’re starting to blame the killings on a second wave of surrogates, and I’m starting to think they’re right.”
Gallagher set the paper aside and looked directly into my eyes. “This is just more of the same thing humanity has been doing for centuries. Blaming their problems on someone else because they don’t want to face the darker side of their own nature. They were right once. Thirty years ago. And now they’re going to see surrogates every time they turn around.”
“What if they’re not wrong? What if the surrogates are using me?”
“They’re not—”
“What if something about the fact that I’m carrying thefuriae—or this baby—makes them able to do more with me? Like I’m more...susceptible to violence now. Or what if I’m one of them? What if we onlythinkwe’re here because of Rommily’s vision, butreallywe were drawn here because of me? For the same reason the other surrogates are evidently headed this way?”
“Other—?” Gallagher took me by both arms, and the rare uninvited touch conveyed the weight of whatever he was about to say. “You. Are not. A surrogate. As far as I know, thereareno more surrogates. We don’t even know that the original little monsters are still alive. For all we know, the government had them executed.”
“They wouldn’t have,” I insisted. “Not all of them, anyway. The government would want to understand who and what they were. What they were after. What they’re capable of. To prevent a second wave. Or at least be ready for it. What if this is what they were getting ready for? What ifI’mwhat they were getting ready for?”
“You’re just tired,” Gallagher said, and he couldn’t have said it if he didn’t truly believe it. “You’re exhausted and full of hormones, and we’ve all just suffered a very difficult loss.” He glanced out the window at Eryx’s fresh grave.
“That’s not—” I exhaled and started over. “Okay, all of that is true. But that doesn’t mean that what I’m saying isn’t also true. Facts don’t change just because I’m tired.”
“But you don’t have facts, Delilah—you have theories. Until we have some actual facts, there’s no sense in getting upset about this. Or jumping to conclusions.”
“You’re right.” I shrugged out of his grip and headed for the darkened bedroom.
“Where are you going?” Gallagher’s footsteps followed me.
“To get some facts.” I sat on the side of the bed, opposite of where Rommily was still asleep, and grabbed my shoes from the nightstand, where I’d started keeping them now that it was too hard for me to pick things up from the floor. “I need an internet connection.” And a little time to myself. A need none of my cabin-mates—other than Gallagher—ever seemed to feel.
“You can’t go into town, Delilah.” Mirela leaned against the bedroom doorway holding up the front page of one of the papers Lenore had brought back, folded in half to show the headline. “None of us can go into town for a while. There were cameras in the laboratory. They know who broke us out, and they probably suspect we’re still in the area.”
“Shit.” I took the paper from her on my way to the table, where I spread it out to look at the pictures. There were only a couple of shots in the article, and they—like the rest of the paper—were in black and white. But the top image showed all of our faces clearly. It had been taken from the hallway, and based on the angle, the camera must have been directly over the security guard’s head.
Eryx was most prominent in the shot, but my face was clearly visible over Gallagher’s shoulder, because of the high angle.
However, my belly was not.
“Were there other pictures in the other papers? Or online?” I turned to Lenore. “Can you tell in any of the images that I’m pregnant?”
She frowned, clearly thinking. Then she tapped the image on the front page. “This is the one they’re using most often. There are better pictures of Miri and Lala, taken before the breakout. And there are some close-ups of Eryx and Gallagher. The authorities seem most concerned about them.”
“Okay. Well, they’ll definitely be looking for the rest of you in town,” I said, giving Miri a nod. “But they won’t be looking for me, because everyone thinks I’ve been arrested in Oklahoma. And they won’t be lookingatme—not with suspicion, anyway—because they still haven’t figured out that I’m pregnant.” I went back to the couch, where I sat and began the struggle to put on my own shoes. “But there’s a timer ticking down on that unforeseen advantage. As soon as they figure out that Elizabeth Essig isn’t me, they’ll be looking for the real Delilah Marlow again. I need to be back here before that happens.”
“You can’t go into town by yourself,” Gallagher insisted.
I saw no point in arguing. “I’ll take Lenore.”
“She can’t protect you.”
Lenore started to argue. Then her mouth snapped shut and she only shrugged. “He’s right.”
“What exactly do you need from town?” Gallagher asked.
“Information. I need to know who Elizabeth Essig is and why she looks like me. If we’re somehow connected, I want to know how.” I also hoped to find out what had happened to the original surrogates since they were taken into custody en masse nearly thirty years ago, and to gain some more insight on the recent mass killings.
“Even if it were safe for Gallagher to be seen, I don’t think we should go back to the internet café,” Lenore said. “Or even back to that town. We’ve spent too much time there already.”
“Agreed. We’ll get on the highway and drive the opposite direction.” I stood in my slip-on shoes. “And we probably shouldn’t go inside anywhere. We just need to park close to some place that has free Wi-Fi. But we can’t take the van, in case that campus cop mentioned it in his call for backup.”
