I have to look away.
Andreas kicks dirt and fallen leaves over the crumbled remains of our teeth and the devices they contained. “We’re going to want to hitch another ride as soon as we can, to get more distance between here and the last place they could have located us, yeah?”
Jacob nods. “We were heading toward another highway, weren’t we?”
“It’s at least a few more miles, but that’s the idea.”
“Then let’s get going.”
* * *
By the time the sun is well up in the sky, we’re holed up in the back of a freight truck we spotted at a truck-stop diner.
Andreas grabs some apples out of one of the produce crates and tosses us each one—even Riva, after a momentary pause.
“Thank you,” she says quietly.
I dig into mine, both savoring the tart flesh and wishing it was even half enough to settle the grumbling of my empty belly. I could really go for about five steaks and a side of bacon right now.
Jacob shifts where he’s been sitting with his back against the wall near the door. “When we hop off of this ride, we’re going to need to get more strategic. Focus on our goal.”
My heart thumps a little faster. “Ursula.”
We haven’t been able to talk in much detail about any part of our plans while we were in the facility. We only sketched out the basics.
Now, the possibilities for our next steps seem to spill out endlessly in front of us.
“That one guardian suggested she might go ‘back to Pennsylvania,’” Andreas points out, hunkering down against the crate. “It would make sense to start the search there.”
I frown. “Howare we going to search? All we’ve got is a first name and a few vague details. There won’t be an official employee registry for the facility or anything like that.”
Drey chuckles. “No, definitely not.”
“What about a university?” Dominic says, pitching his soft voice just a little louder than usual to be heard over the rumble of the engine. “We’re the right age—we’d fit in pretty well. We’d have lots of other people around to blend in with. And there’d be libraries and computer rooms and all that, right?”
Other than one mission I’ve run, my experience with the American college system is restricted to TV show and movie portrayals. But his suggestion at least sounds reasonable.
“Who’s Ursula?” Riva pipes up abruptly. “Shouldn’t we just find someplace to settle in where no one at all can notice us?”
Jacob snorts. “Not if we want answers, but then, you’d probably rather we didn’t get more of those.”
I hesitate, not sure how much we even want to tell her, but Andreas shrugs. “We picked up enough info from the guardians to find out about someone important who worked at the facility in the past but then left—or got shut out. If we’re going to figure out what exactly they did to us and what we can do about that, she seems like our best bet unless we figure we can take on the entire facility at once.”
I can’t help letting out a snort of my own at that suggestion, but a bittersweet pang shoots through my chest at the same time.
Is this actually going to work? Is it really possible we could learn something that couldfixall the things that are wrong inside us?
Riva’s forehead furrows. “Isn’t chasing after anyone associated with the facility only going to make us more likely to get caught? What does it evenmatter?”
Jacob shoots her a cold look. “It matters to us. And if you were one of us, it’d matter to you too. But you’re not going anywhere.”
“I don’twantto leave. I was just saying… Fine. Whatever the rest of you think you need to do, we’ll do. Iamone of you, and I’ll be right there with you.”
Jacob eyes her for a long moment. Then he glances at the rest of us. A hint of a smile touches his lips, one that chills more than warms me.
“We can’t have Zian playing guard dog with her twenty-four seven,” he says. “So we’re going to need some other way of ensuring she stays true to her word. And I just thought of the perfect solution.”
Seven