SAGE
The cafeteria looked different at lunchtime. Brighter, more energy. The recruits had endured only half a day’s worth of workouts, and it showed. They talked louder than they had last night at dinner. Two tables down, a boy grabbed his friend in a headlock, rubbing hard on his scalp before releasing him, laughing. In the food line, two girls appeared to be practicing assault moves with their eating utensils.
All of them looked so healthy. So alive. So normal … Nothing like the recruits I’d encountered this morning in the west wing.
Across the table from me, Imogen pushed a bite of garbanzo beans into her mouth. The midday sun poured in through the wall of windows and created a glowing halo around her auburn hair and porcelain face. The picture contrasted the version of Imogen I’d seen yesterday, tearing apart that boy in the dirt.
“How bad was it?” she said. “Cleaning out the cages?” She’d already heard about Jack and Finn from Caesar.
I placed a piece of bread in my mouth, chewing without tasting. I shrugged.
“Worse than horse stalls. You don’t have to tranquilize horses.”
My chest contracted at the thought of Beckett and his parents back home with all the animals, trying to figure out what happened to us.
Imogen took a few more bites, hesitant when she asked her next question. “And how was your brother?”
I bit the inside of my cheek, unable to maintain eye contact with her. I stared down at my tray, green, just like the color of Finn’s skin. “Like all the others,” I said.
Imogen’s face darkened. “The doctor will pay for what he’s done. We’re going to make sure of that.”
We took a few bites in silence.
“I saw them kill my mother,” Imogen said, so matter-of-fact that it took me a moment to register that she was serious. “I pretended I didn’t know. I wanted to exact my revenge from the inside, ya know? When I got here, Jack caught me making plans. He told me I could join him.”
She cleared her throat, as if she was choking on memories. “Anyway, we leave in four days. Your dad is sending a helicopter to the other end of the island. Caesar told me to let you know.”
“My dad has his own helicopter?”
Imogen shrugged, like it made no difference one way or another. “I’m pretty sure your dad has access to as many helicopters as he wants. From what I’ve heard from Caesar, even before Vasterias came along with their offer, your dad and Dr. Adamson had already made plenty of money.”
I had no idea how much “plenty of money” was, but apparently it was enough to employ helicopters whenever he pleased. My mind flitted to the years of my family struggling to earn enough money just to get food on the table. Millie with her gangrene. Plenty of other times we’d had less than enough to run the farm. I clenched my jaw, suddenly furious. It was the least my dad could do to get Finn out of here and help him get better again.
“Four days is soon,” I said, thinking of Finn and the way he responded this morning.
“It’s all we’ve got,” Imogen replied.
“I’m not leaving without my brother.”
“We know,” Imogen said, throwing her napkin onto her empty tray. “So get him ready.”