The party goes on around me, and I want to escape what I've been asked to do. I want to escape everything. Garrett doesn't say a word, but when we get our food and drinks, he guides me to the outer edge of the group as if he knows I can't stand to be in the center of them.
We sit furthest from the door that leads out to the main hall of the Celare. While everyone else seems comfortable with it, to me, it's the furthest point from freedom and I'm as desperate as an addiction, skittling around under the surface of this community. Waiting for the 'right moment' to come at any moment is wearing me thin. Especially knowing that once I leave the Celare, I'll have such great opportunities ahead of me, like the chance to get myself killed, by trying to follow the Addo's pipe dream of finding the Core. Or I can take a good hit of what The Fury has to offer. The anxiety of it all grabs me by the neck and I try to force it down with a swallow of Brandon's looted cola.
The horrible visions of selling out overwhelm me, of breaking my bond with Garrett, leaving the Celare and just being miserably free. I think of myself getting sucked in, before I even make it off the Hotel block, by the idea of looting for all the things I've always wanted and couldn't have. There is a no-poverty-pass out there now. It's a help-yourself and take-from-the-top welfare system and I'm strong enough and Contego enough right now to be able to overwhelm any of the Simple that get in the way of my wants. I think of all the things I've always wanted and couldn't have--designer clothes and high end cosmetics, a closet full of shoes, a shelf full of perfume, a fancy cell phone, a new MP3, no...the whole mall, a car. Dang, I could steal a house. All I'd have to do is kill to keep them out. The only ones I'd really have to look out for were the other Contego, the ones that hadn't lost their minds yet. That's when the kids pop up in my head.
Annabelle and Tommy. I wonder if the two of them are still alone in the attic of the house that Milo and I chose for looting. I wonder if the kids are still fending for themselves or if their missing parents ever turned up again. The whole world outside what was their upper-class suburb window was busy looting and burning and crashing down all around them. I wonder if they're still alive.
I wonder if they are there, still believing what I said when I told them it'd be okay and that I'd come back. I take a hard swallow of the pop, hoping the sting of the carbonation can get my head off the sting in my tear ducts.
Garrett's finger taps my forehead. I snap back to the hallway, to his smile that opens me like a book in a spotlight. I'm instantly ashamed that he might be able to read the cowardice on my face, the addiction beneath my skin, my failure to help two little kids.
"What is going on in that head of yours, Rebel?" he asks. His smile is so accepting, the warmth wraps around me. I think again of wanting the clothes and cell phones and houses. I think of Anabelle and Tommy. I wipe the corners of my eyes and the cable whizzles from the binding box. Having every thing I ever wanted in the world would suck if I didn't have Garrett with me--laughing and making wherever I'm at feel like home, just because he's there. I don't have anything right now, but I can block it all out and still be happy because I have Garrett talking me through it. Laughing when I feed him rice. Kissing my neck. Telling me he's not looking at my body, when he is.
I've always heard people say it's not the things that are important, and I realize, as I look around the room at my friends, at this family that I have now, how the things could ever make me happy to begin with. Having designer clothes could only make me happy if Garrett was complimenting me in them. Having all the upscale make up wouldn't make a difference unless Robin, Zaneen, and Deeta were there to use it with me. They are the things that are important to me.
And they are worth taking on Addo's impossible mission.
"So, are you going to tell me what you're thinking?" Garrett asks. But the mission makes me think of my mother and the things that were important to her. My sadness jingles like pennies in a homeless man's pocket, but then the little diamond bell, the one she left in my heart, chimes. I look at Garrett. The diamond vibration overwhelms me. I think she left it here just to remind me of what is most important.
"Mankind," I say with a grin. "I was thinking of mankind."
Zane flomps down beside me.
"So, what's the plan?" he says. I glance away too quickly and Zane clicks his tongue. "So there is a plan after all! That's good to know. I was getting worried that the Addo didn't have anything up his sleeve." He rocks closer, until the side of him is pressed up against my side, and he wiggles his butt against the floor as if he's making a permanent spot for it. He flashes me a smile. "Okay, ready, Nals. Spill it."
Garrett lets out a low growl at the contact and Zane giggles, backing off a couple inches.
"Sorry, sorry," he scoots away a couple inches, raising his hands to Garrett in fast surrender. "Too close, I get it. Ok, I'm back. So, now, Nali Girl, go ahead and gimme the lay of the land. What do you know?"
Dang it. I try to look convincing when I shrug. "I don't know anything. What do you guys know?"
"I know that itchy kid still creeps me out." Zaneen jerks her head toward Nok's cell. I try not to wince, but I wish Zaneen wouldn't even bring him up. I want to keep Nok completely off the radar.
"He's still here?" Mark asks. I hold my breath, but Mark doesn't give anything away about Nok as he continues, "Why are they bothering to keep him around? If the cells are so packed, it's kinda dumb to keep that guy. He's a brand new Contego and pretty useless, from what I saw. He's not trained and he itches like he's got fleas."
Sitting beside Lenta, Mark is pretzel-legged, with his unbound thumb absently rubbing the ankle of his crossed legs. He's nowhere near a man yet, but it's really obvious he's going to be just as handsome as his brothers. Maybe that's why Lenta's eyes aren't all red and swollen from crying over getting stuck with him anymore. Now she sits with the grace of a lace handkerchief dropped as close to him as she can be, without actually touching him. She even lean in toward him as if she trusts that he'll protect her. He doesn't seem to notice, even when Lenta asks a question in her timid, breathy voice.
"You think he's a spy?"
Robin answers Lenta with a pit bull stare. It makes me grateful that I'm not the one on the outside again, trying to earn Robin's trust. I feel for Lenta as she cowers back from Robin.
"He's just a dumb kid and we gave him a lift back on the Free Ball," Milo's answer cuts into the tension like a hacksaw. "But Robin's probably right. Better to keep him locked up until we know for sure."
We all turn to look at him and suddenly, under our inspection, he throws an arm over Deeta's shoulders. Robin puffs her hair away from her eye as if Milo's just trying to suck up. Maybe he is, but saying he should be locked up and not trusted, rather than set free, will confuse the issue, which is exactly what we want. Deets does a happy little sigh, snuggling into Milo's armpit like it's a little hammock in heaven.
But the one I notice most is Zaneen. Her face never once changes as she watches Deeta. There is no smile, no frown. Just an intensity, as if she's trying to either memorize every second of Deeta's happiness--or rip her eyes off it.
Holy crap.
Zaneen is jealous.
After all that garbage she gave me about how she only wanted him for a boy toy, it's obvious now that it was all a lie. She really does like Milo and from the dead stare on her face, seeing Deeta with Milo is killing her.
When her gaze flicks away and catches mine, I try to grin at her and my pity just makes it worse. She kind of snarls as she looks away. She seethes as she lifts her cup and kicks back a hard shot of cola.
I glimpse over at Milo. He's dialed in on Zaneen too, as if the rest of us aren't even in the room anymore. As if she's steak and he's starving.
Holy crap crap.
They're nuts about each other and then there's Deeta, curled up and purring like a content kitten in the crook of his arm. Believing he picked her.
What a mess. And as if things can't get messier, Brandon hops up and strolls over to Nok's cell.
"If this guy's a spy, then we should get rid of him," he says. Robin and Milo and Garrett and I are all yelling for him to stop as he flips the latch. He pops his head in the cell and shouts, "Get outta here, Itchy!"
Nok bolts out of the cell as if he's a rabid dog that's been waiting for the mailman to open his gate. He launches at Brandon in a kick, pounding flat against Brandon's chest and shooting him backward onto the floor. We're all on our feet in an instant, pizza plopping on the carpet, cups spilling out black stains.
Wojtek lunges forward making a half-hearted grab, but Nok is like a bead of light shot from a laser. It's got to be intentional. This is all staged. Nok's all the way to the far end of the hall before I can even blink and he's got one hand on the door's L-shaped handle. He's leaving.
I shout at him, the desperation flooding me for a whole different set of reasons.
"Don't go!" If this is all staged the way I think it is, my Contego instincts drag up the need to protect him. He's probably got ninety different tunnels ready for his escape and I have to be sure he's safe inside one before I come unglued. But getting him out of here safe might kill my mission, and if I'm the Addo's lucky straw, that means it could kill us all. I have to know how to find the Core first.
Nok cranks his hand down on the door handle. Watching him do it is like bungeeing off a cliff and hearing the line snap free on the first recoil. But instead of the door popping free, the red light above the frame pops to life like an ogre's infected eye.
"Someone re-wired the alarm!" Wojtek shouts. "It's going to get everybody down here! Get back in your cells! Hurry!"
Milo pulls Deeta into their cell and slams the door.
But Nok's opposite hand raises up. It flutters in the air, almost like he's waving good bye to us, but then the letters fly up in my face from the floor. They explode in front of my eyes like reverse-launching comets, zooming up, from off the back of a tipped 2 liter that is foaming out on the floor.
F--pop!--O--pop!--L--pop!--L--pop!--O--pop!--W--pop!--
I kick the bottle as I surge forward, but holy shiznit... I'm still bound.
"It's time!" I shout to Garrett as I turn and lunge toward Nok, hoping I can throw myself into it enough to break the cable off. The binding box screeches as the cable blazes through the hole. I'm quickly at the end of it and yanked backward. If I can just get my end to break free of the box...I grab hold of the cable and pull as hard as I can. Glancing back at Garrett, he's dragged forward, his arm jacked up Frankenstein-style in the air in front of him. His Caribbean blue gaze meets mine and I hope the look I return can convey the Titanic boatload of how sorry I am to have to leave him.
But I'm not so sorry about getting free. The loop cuts into my wrist as I dive forward again. The cable doesn't break free, but Garrett moves forward with me, even though he lags behind.
It feels like a whole football field lays between Nok and me as I try to swerve around Lenta and Mark. Lenta turns as I try to dodge them, but she moves to the same side I do. We do that lightening-fast Contego hustle, flashing back and forth in front of each other, but we only mirror each other's moves. I think I'm going to have to drop kick her through the roof. Garrett makes a grab for her too, just as Mark shouts at her and heaves on their binding.
"MOVE!" Mark tries to hoist Lenta out of my way, but she just tangles her bindings with mine.
She flashes me a smile that stands my nerves on end. She's not some innocent little girl that's been trapped into binding after all. She's a spy.
"Traitor!" I shout. I try to trip her up as I flash around, getting mine and Garrett's cable free of her's and Mark's. Once there's slack, Garrett swoops in to grab her again, but Lenta dodges him, dropping into a crouch on the floor. Her and Mark's binding cable becomes an ankle-amputating jump rope. I try to skip over it, but she pulls up, catching my toe. I stumble and land with a hard flomp.
Lenta raises her foot above me, like she's going to bring it down on my head. Mark grips his binding cable, digging his heels into the floor, and heaves backward toward their open cell door. Garrett gives his brother a hand. He scoops up Lenta, while I scramble to my feet as he does it, and he tosses her through the open door of Mark's cell. Mark zooms in right behind her, slamming the door himself and locking them in together.
Zane yells for Robin and Brandon to clear out with Zaneen. Nok is still at the blinking door, arguing with Wojtek and stabbing a finger at the door handle.
"Open! Open now!" Nok shouts. I have to get free and follow him. The binding box hisses as Garrett grabs my wrist.
"Not without me," he says. The floor quivers, the message shooting up my legs. A stampede is coming.
"NOW!" Zane howls. "We gotta get outta here Robin! Grab Neeny! Move it, Brando!"
Robin collars her sister-in-law and the four of them disappear into one of the cells across the hall.
"What are you going to do?" Garrett yells to Wojtek.
"I'm on guard duty!" Wojtek shouts back. He throws what's left of the pizza into a stack and pulls out a metal door from the wall. It opens like an expanding file. Wojtek tosses the evidence of our party down the incinerator chute. Over his shoulder, he yells, "Itchy...YOU CAN'T GO THAT WAY! THEY'RE COMING!"
Nok drops the idea of getting out the door and bolts back toward us. But he shoots right past.
"In cell!" he shouts as he shoots past us. He scoops up the 2 Liter that was on the floor and pitches it into our cell as he motions and shouts, "GO!"
I'm paralyzed. The quiver in the floor becomes a solid vibration, the herd closing in on us. Nok dives for his own cell door, dragging the door closed with a hard BANG. Garrett's hands clamp around my upper arms as he hauls me into our own cell. He lets go of me as he slams the door shut behind us too, locking us back in.
The lights poof out in our cell. It's so black, my eyes struggle in the dark to even make out shapes, but there is nothing. The cable at my wrist wiggles like a lucky fishing line and the binding box whirs as Garrett pins me to the wall beside our bed. He slides one leg between mine and frames my face with his forearms. I get it. When The Fury arrives, we are going to be making out.
"You okay, Rebel?" he breathes.
"Yeah."
There's a pause as we listen, but the cells don't let any sound in from outside. It makes the dark darker, and the only relief is feeling the heat of his body near mine.
"You were going to leave, weren't you." His lips are near my ear, his voice so deep I feel it in my soles. "You were going to break our binding and leave."
"Yeah."
"I understand that you have a mission," his whisper expands like it is swallowing up the dark, even as he nuzzles my neck, "but you aren't going without me."
I don't bother to tell him that I think it's already over, even before it started. It was obviously time to leave, and Nok couldn't get out. We're locked back in. I don't think anyone's going anywhere. The only thing that helps numb the hopelessness I feel is Garrett.
His arms move around me, the cable stretching as he settles his embrace. Held to his body, his muscles are solid, a fortress that keeps the anxiety out.
"Make it believable," he whispers, dipping his face to mine. From face to ankle, his entire body touches me. It's not hard at all to make our kiss convincing. I push everything else out of my head and just focus on his lips, his mouth, my hands tracing along the cords of muscle on his back.
In the unbreakable darkness of our cell, it's almost like meeting Garrett for the first time all over again. The citrus smell of him softens the air around me and his breathing is as steady as a heartbeat. I analyze the texture of his skin with my fingertips. Soft and rough at once, his skin is as comforting as the leather cover of an heirloom Bible.
I'm sinking into my senses as the lights pop on. The lights are cranked up brighter than they've ever been. It's cell-block-blinding, get-the-hose kind of lighting.
I squint as Garrett jerks away from me. I hold in my shriek when I hear an unexpected, blunt crunch of plastic, and then Garrett's arms fold around me again, pushing my head to his chest. The familiar scratch of my blanket falling around my shoulders.
"Kiss me," he murmurs through my hair, "and don't stop."
His tone tells me not to ask why. I spear my fingers through his hair, lean my head back, and guide his lips to mine. His mouth opens and I mirror it, letting his tongue in. As he kisses me, he moves closer, squeezing out whatever molecules might be left between us.
Overwhelmed, I sway backward, but Garrett's body lurches with me, his bound hand stretching up past the blanket, the cable whirring as his hand cradles the back of my head. He crushes his mouth to mine and I sway again, tripping on something at my feet, but this time the sway keeps going. We fall in a blanketed tangle, Garrett's hand out, his palm hitting the floor in a one-arm push-up. He presses me to his chest with his other hand, elbow at my back, forearm running up my spine, his palm cradling my skull. His grip keeps me from slamming against the floor.
The urgency of his kiss ratchets up 100 percent as he lays me down on the floor. His breath is thick and hot on my face, his tongue dips beneath mine. Beneath the prisoner spotlight, he's got me trapped beneath his frame. It turns me on to feel his entire body pushing into my hollows, but I know that this is not the way Garrett kisses me. Garrett isn't this pushy and this rough.
But this kiss isn't meant for me.
So I return his hunger, full force. I weave my legs around him instead, making a tight the knot of my ankles so he is as trapped as I am. He hums his approval. Yes, this is what he wants me to do. I curl my fists in his hair and crush his lips against mine even harder. His hips move against me. I press back.
The lights pop off in our cell. We're back to pitch black. Garrett kisses me a moment more, his hips making a slow, circular grind against mine, but then he eases off. I'm sure it's not where my thoughts are supposed to be, but I don't want him to stop what he's doing. Garrett's hand slides down my body and his hair brushes against my lips as he bends down. I wait for his touch, but his fingers just wiggle across my feet as if he's searching for loose change.
"What are you doing?" I ask, but he gets hold of something and pulls it up, along the side of my leg. I immediately know what it is from the feel of it. He was hiding the plastic two liter in the shroud of our blankets. Letters spin up and pop in my face. In the darkness, it's like a paint gun full of white bullets. The letters spray across my vision.
It's a good thing I didn't follow Nok after all. It's not what he wanted me to. I know it for sure now because I can see that I only had half of his message before.
"What does it say?" Garrett whispers. He turns his head, positioning his ear to listen.
I recognize that it is a choice, to tell him. And by telling him, I'm just about allowing him to come with me, because there is no way I'm going to be able to leave him behind or make him stay, once he knows. I make the choice, fitting my lips into the shell of his ear.
"The message is: follow gears."
The door flies open, banging against the wall. Tuco strides across the room, towering over Garrett and I before we can jump up. It's like being pinned by a junkyard dog.
"Where did he go?" Tuco growls.
"Who?" Garrett asks.
"You know. The Veritas." Tuco narrows his eyes on my throat like he's going to try to strangle the truth out of me. I try not to swallow the lie that I need to spit out.
"What Veritas?" I say. Tuco bends, snaking out his arm to grab mine. At the same time, Garrett gets hold Tuco and I drag my knee up into Tuco's groin. I don't nail him square, but he still lets go and doubles over. He moves away as Garrett and I get to our feet.
"Tell me," Tuco coughs. "His life depends on it."
"We don't know what you're talking about," Garrett says.
"Tell me! You are going to get him killed!"
Wojtek appears in the doorway and my worries run like they're attached to me by rubber bands. They shoot off in all directions and come snapping back, knocking into me with a dead weight. I know Sean said the Addo gave the ok on Tuco, but I still don't know if Tuco is on The Fury's side or not. If he is, then so is Wojtek. But Addo was sure that Wojtek was one of ours.
I swing my gaze between the two men, trying to figure them out. Maybe Wojtek doesn't know what Tuco is. Or vice-versa. I decide to keep my mouth shut and try to tingle a thought over to Garrett, to keep his mouth shut too. Not like he needs reminders, but still. When his eyes flick to mine, with a blink that is a second longer than a usual blink, I know he gets it. And I have a plan. I drop my chin a hair. Garrett's looking in the right place. His eyes are glued on Tuco.
"We know who the Veritas is. The tall kid. The one who scratches." Tuco gets to his feet, glaring at me from beneath the ledge of his forehead.
I let my own forehead bunch up like a skid-surfed rug. "You mean, there's been a Veritas...here?"
Maybe it's a little thick on the fake shock, but the two Procella just plow over it.
"We've been keeping a close eye..." Wojtek says.
"...on Nok," Tuco finishes, his eyes darting around the room as if someone else might be listening, besides us. "Protecting him until he was ready to leave."
"Ready?" Garrett asks.
"Situations needed to be resolved and Nok helped with that." Tuco says.
"Nok staged his escape tonight to help flush out the spy," Wojtek adds.
"Lenta," Garrett frowns. Wojtek nods, scrubbing his chin with his fingers.
"Yes. Nok left as soon as he helped us identify her."
Between my ears, the words from the pop bottle fizz: follow gears.
"We have also been to the Cache," Wojtek says. "We infiltrated, found Fisk, and substantiated her involvement, as you said."
"Did you find the Cornerstone?" Garrett asks.
"Instead of repeating, let's wait," Wojtek says. "Procella Reese will be here to speak with you shortly. She will tell you what you need to know."
Mrs. Reese slides into our cell ten minutes later. Actually, Robin appears first, peeking inside and scoping out the four of them standing there, as quick as a flashbulb. She steps aside and Garrett's mom walks in, Zane trailing behind her. She starts multi-tasking immediately, nodding to Wojtek and Tuco as she drags Garrett and I into her arms.
"We've got to talk fast," she says. "We drugged Van so I could get free of the binding and Robin helped me sneak in here, but we don't have much time."
The embrace isn't long enough, but she squeezes us together so hard, I feel ever bit of what she wants me to feel out of it. She steps back and rubs any sadness out of her eyes fast. There's no time for it.
"Did you find the Cornerstone?" Garrett asks.
Her gaze become suddenly weary. "Yes. Van has it hidden away somewhere. I think Charlotte may have it, since we haven't been able to locate it yet. Do you two know where Nok went?"
"No," Garrett says. I don't throw in anything Nok told me when he visited me, via my mattress a few days ago or the message he sent me via 2 liter. I don't know how he expects me to get out of the Celare now, but I do know he's on his way to the Core and that I'm supposed to follow gears to get there too. Since Garrett's not blabbing more, I don't either.
"Nalena," Mrs. Reese says. "Addo said he's given you a mission."
I nod. Mrs. Reese nods too, without asking for the dirty details.
"Then you need to get out of here, don't you?"
"Yes."
"I'm going with her," Garrett says. I don't even argue with him this time. I've made my decision.
"It's not for me to say," Mrs. Reese says. "Nalena knows what the Addo told her. That's what she needs to do. All I know is that the Celare is becoming completely unstable and I don't know how long we'll be able to hold it all together."
"Addo gave Nalena a mission?" Zane says. "If you don't need extras, me and Robin could go along to give Nalena a hand."
Mrs. Reese shakes her head. "No, Zane, we need you here. Families need to stay together if they can, and we can use all the help we can get in guarding the Addo."
"Why not just move him to a more secure location?"
"What place would be more secure? It's chaos in here, but it's worse out there and no one knows exactly where he is right now. If he leaves, there won't be any projection on Sean and we can't afford another lapse. They already think my granddaughter is the other Addo."
"There would be projection," I say. "Milo."
Wojtek and Tuco both shoot glances at Mrs. Reese that make the hair on my arms stand up like they're caught in a high-tension wind storm. I should've kept my trap shut. Something's wrong.
"Honey, they took Milo a few hours ago. He and Deeta both."
"What? Where?"
"We don't know. But we sent Larson after them."
"Larson?" I almost choke. "How could you send him anywhere? The Jamb made him into a vegetable."
"Watch," Robin says simply. She disappears out the door and seconds later, the light in the hall flashes on and the window-wall of our cell becomes transparent. I'm not sure what she wants me to see. Then, the light in Larson's cell, across the hall, also pops on. I squint. Larson's standing where he always stands, a couple feet back from the plain wall, wrapped in his crazy jacket, his head tipped as he drools at the wall like it's his favorite TV show. Or as if he's caught in the pull of a mind-eating laser beam.
"Larson's right there," I say, my voice floating away with the question.
"Meet Wax Larsy," Zane says from beside me. I don't know how he got so close so fast, but I jerk back from him. "Hit the lights and show them, Robs!"
Tuco grumbles that we don't have time, but Robin flashes the lights off and back on in Larson's cell anyway. A fresh spit-line of drool glistens off Larson's lips again. Zane snorts a laugh.
"We can make candles out of him when this is over! Awesome, right? He's rigged to drool when the lights go up! He faked his way into being traded back to us and those unitards fell for it. The Fury thought he was burnt, so they gave him back."
"That's..." The words drift. I don't know what it is. Incredible? Unbelievable? Freaky?
"I know it, but that's what things are now. Everything's going crackers--you've got no idea. You know, all the upper floor Curas have been losing it...they've been throwing their mattresses out the windows. That's how they mark ownership of the rooms now. If you own it, you show it by chucking the mattress of the last guy who owned it. And they're starting to hollow out the walls. They're trying to turn the Celare into a Cache."
"Alright, Zane...focus. We don't have time for all of this," Mrs. Reese says.
"Right, right." Zane clears his throat and starts again, more business-like. "We're working on something waxy for you two, for once you hightail it out. But it's going to have to be some kind of flexible wax that doesn't melt under friction," Zane snorts, and I punch him, full-on, in the arm. Nobody steps in or disagrees. Garrett laughs as Zane hops away from me wincing, as he covers what should be a monumental bruise with his hand.
"What we need to concentrate on," Mrs. Reese says sternly, "is getting Nalena and Garrett out of here."
"Jeez...yes. We've got a plan," Zane says, slowing his hop.
"We do," Mrs. Reese says over the top of him, as if she wants him to shut up. Suddenly, Robin's Emen skills totally skeeve me out, when she's suddenly standing beside Zane, elbowing him to shut his trap. I never even saw her drop the comm in the hall.
Mrs. Reese ignores it all. "Nalena, I heard there is a tunnel out of this cell?"
I dart eyes at Wojtek and Tuco, but if Mrs. Reese trusts them, I will too. But before I spill my secrets, Mrs. Reese puts up a hand.
"I don't want you to say where or how it works. I just want you to take it out of here. Very soon. Go right instead of left this time, do you understand that?"
I nod, a little hesitant. I remember being in the wall and there was a right or left, but wasn't there a tunnel that went straight too? I have to hear the rest of the directions, so I can't just cut her off to mull it over.
"Get to the end of that tunnel and Robin will be there, to get you out the rest of the way. Once you're out, I believe you have instructions?"
I scratch my leg with the top of the opposite foot. Kind of. I kind of have directions. I mean, if follow gears is any kind of road map. Mrs. Reese stares at me, her eyes wide and waiting for some kind of answer.
"Yes," I say, like I mean it, and like I know what the crap I'm going to do once I get out of here.
"I've always liked how blue your eyes are," Robin mumbles as she rises up to kiss Garrett's cheek. What? I lean in, but Robin doesn't back off. Her eyes only flick to me momentarily and then return to Garrett. "If this is over fast, and I mean like busting-glass fast? Whatever I can afford, we're gonna break the sound barriers with a party. Maybe we'll even get out of dodge together, alright?"
What is she thinking? My first impulse is to grab Robin by her Goth hair and claw her big, black-linered doe eye right out of her head for flirting with Garrett. But then I see how Zane's just standing there, looking the other way.
"Sure," Garrett says with a grin.
Then Robin leans over to me and kisses my cheek too. I jerk away, like I've been stung. Robin doesn't kiss people. I doubt she even kisses Zane and she's married to him. No, Robin kissing us is a bad sign. Like she's saying good bye. She can't be saying good bye. But she steps back and Mrs. Reese sweeps me up in a bone crushing hug. It feels the same. Another good bye.
"Good luck, Nalena," she says. "You know, you're as much my daughter as Iris." She gathers up Garrett next. "Good luck and God Speed, I love you both."
She lets go of him and steps back, switching back from mother to Procella again. She straightens down the hem of her shirt. "You're leaving the minute that the lights go out in this cell.”