As such, Adrienne Knox has been sentenced for the high crime of treason and will be executed at midnight.
Chapter 60
Atmidnight?
I whip the blanket off and stumble to my feet, stunned by Kallister’s message.
“Is he allowed to do this?” I turn to Gray in shock. “He can’t just execute someone because he fucking feels like it? Can he?”
“He’s the sole leader of the Uprising now,” Gray says flatly. “He can do whatever he wants.”
I’m already hurrying to my closet, yanking out items of clothing. I feel Gray watching me as I pull on a pair of dark jeans. I button them and reach for a long-sleeved shirt to put on over my white tank.
“We still have some time,” he says. “She’ll need to choose her method of execution, and then she’s allowed to pick one witness to be there. Kal won’t just walk into the cell and blow her brains out. We have protocols for this.”
“Do you really trust Kallister to follow protocol after everything he’s done? Because I don’t. We need to go find him.” My jaw is so tight I can barely get the words out. “We can’t let him kill her.”
“He won’t,” Gray assures me.
We stride toward the door, but I grab his arm before he can open it.
“Wait. I need to finish what I was trying to tell you before the alert came in. I found out tonight that Kallister has been using Hawkins to corrupt minds in the wards.”
Gray freezes in place. “What? How is that even possible? Hawkins is an inciter.”
“He’s both. Trust me, I was as shocked as you are. But I suspect this is why Kallister isn’t concerned about executing Adrienne. He doesn’t need her to corrupt. She’s of no use to him anymore.”
“Fuck.”
“I don’t think we should tell him we know, though. There’s still time before Hawkins gets out of regen. Once he’s awake, I’m sure it’s the first thing he’ll tell Kallister, but right now we can still use it to our advantage. Pretend we don’t know he’s a sick, power-hungry tyrant and—”
I halt when I feel Adrienne nudging my mind.
“Adrienne’s linking,” I blurt out.
“Wren,”she says telepathically.“Can you come to the cells? Kallister approved my visitor request.”
“I’m with Gray. We can both be there in—”
“Just you.”
Biting my lip, I glance at Gray. “I’m allowed to visit her. Just me.”
He thinks for a moment, then gives a brisk nod. “Fine. Divide and conquer. You go make sure Ade’s all right. I’ll find Kallister and talk some fucking sense into him.”
We part ways in the hallway, heading in opposite directions. I’m tempted to stop at the armory and log out a weapon, but I assume the cells are guarded, and there’s no way Kallister is letting me bring a gun inside anyway. He’d be too afraid I’d try to break Adrienne out.
On my way down to the Operations floor, I reach out to Kallister via telepathy, but he ignores me. Too busy sentencing innocent Mods to death, I suppose.
When I march inside, I’m startled to find an unguarded holding area. Although my instincts are humming, I carefully enter the cellblock, where I spot Adrienne sitting alone in the first cell. She’s wearing black leathers, a formfitting shirt, and combat boots, and if itweren’t for her pale, drawn features, I’d think she was the captor and not the prisoner.
“Why isn’t there a guard posted outside?” I warily approach the cell.
She offers a tired laugh. “Kal’s worried I’ll corrupt them.”
I curl my fingers over the bars, eyeing her in concern. “Are you all right? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“I’m fine.” She walks toward me. “Thank you for coming.”
