Sixty-one

 

Talia hovered. She never hovered. She was usually outrageously decisive.

But seeing Kaleb inside that conference room, his head down, made her nervous. His father’s face had grown red, and his gestures curt, almost violent. One of the men sitting next to him actually put a hand on Kaleb’s father’s arm, as if to calm him down.

Ms. Rutledge didn’t seem upset. She had templed her fingers, and was tapping them together as she listened. She wasn’t watching Kaleb’s father.

She was watching Kaleb.

Talia stood a few meters away, mesmerized. She really needed to get back to class, but she didn’t want to leave this. She wanted to know what was going to happen.

One of the security guards looked up and frowned. Then he glanced at his companion who seemed to be working really really hard not to show any surprise.

But something had happened.

Talia felt the beginnings of a headache, and heard an ache in her ears. She recognized this feeling. She’d had it once before, in her closet in Valhalla Basin, after those idiots who killed her mother—who would kill her mother at that point, but hadn’t yet—shut off the links.

She was just imagining it. No one shut off all the links in Armstrong. It just wasn’t safe. Armstrong was all about safety.

She tried to access the school links, and couldn’t. Maybe the school system was down.

Then she decided to use her private link to contact Kaleb, see if he wanted her in there. The message she planned to send bounced back at her, something that had never happened on any links before. At least to her. At least here.

“C’mon, honey.” A security guard put his arm around her waist and pulled her backward. “We need to move you.”

He was already moving her. She elbowed him—hard— in the stomach. Nobody touched her without her permission. Nobody. Not after what happened with her mom all those years ago. Talia took care of herself and didn’t let anyone force her to do anything.

The guard grunted, but didn’t let go. He pulled her behind one of the plants.

She sent a help message to her dad—Something’s weird. Get here at once!—through her emergency links, and that message just fizzled.

The emergency links were down, too.

She struggled. “Let me go.”

“I can’t, hon. We have to get you out of here. Let’s get you to class, okay? Where are you supposed to be?”

His voice sounded calm, as if he weren’t holding her in a death grip. Five Armstrong police officers came down the hall, pointing and nodding. They didn’t seem to be using links either.

Had they come to arrest Kaleb’s father?

She planted her feet, hard, and the security guard couldn’t budge her. “What’s going on?”

“It’s none of your business, hon,” he said. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“It is too my business!” she said loudly, even though she wasn’t exactly sure why.

“Shut her up,” one of the police officers hissed, “and take her somewhere else.”

“I’m going to need help with that,” the guard said.

“We can’t spare anyone,” the officer said. “Don’t cause trouble, kid, or we’ll have to restrain you.”

“You can’t do that. My dad works with Security Chief DeRicci. They’ll—”

“This is on their orders,” the officer hissed, his voice very soft. “Now shut up and get out of the way.”

Something about his tone convinced her. She stopped struggling. The guard tried to pull her down the hall, but she kept her feet planted hard. He’d have to lift her to move her.

She wasn’t going to yell any more, though.

“I can’t check the specs,” one of the other officers said to one of the guards. “Every room here have its own environmental system?”

“Of course,” the guard said.

“Where do we get to it?” the officer asked.

“I’ll show you,” the guard said.

They took off at a run down the hall.

Talia stared at the conference room. No one in there seemed to notice what was going on in the hallway. Kaleb had raised his head, but his hand shielded his eyes.

He looked miserable.

She wanted to catch his attention, but she couldn’t. The guard held her arms. She’d been in that conference room once. It was soundproof, so it didn’t matter how much she yelled.

Still, she felt like Kaleb should know something weird was going on. If nothing else, it would stop the stupid talks about him leaving school. It would give her a chance to think about whether she wanted to help him or not.

Maybe she wouldn’t have to do anything. Maybe the police were here for his dad. Her dad knew she was worried about that whole family. Maybe he had told Security Chief DeRicci. Maybe they found something. Maybe they could arrest him, and Kaleb would become the state’s problem.

She wanted Kaleb to be the state’s problem.

The police officers had moved into a weird line, like they needed to see each other to relay information.

Only one stood in the hallway now, and he looked really, really nervous.

He gave a small hand signal to his other officers. The guard put his hand over Talia’s mouth. His fingers smelled of onions. She tried to move away, but his grip got tight.

The police officer opened the door to the conference room.

“I need to speak to the lawyers, please,” he said. “Outside. Right now.”

The lawyers looked at each other, clearly confused. But they didn’t get up. No one did.

And Talia had a feeling that was a very, very bad thing.