"Do you know why you"re here?" I shook my head. "You know what I am." It was not a question but I nodded anyway. "How?"
I silently rehea.r.s.ed the Pledge of Allegiance in my mind instead of answering.
He chuckled softly.
"You know, because of you, I"ve gained an extensive knowledge of earthly American musical history." Aha! So they were listening. Thank G.o.d I thought to sing instead of pining for a rescue from certain individuals. "You"re smart. That"s good. You"re gonna need to be." He shifted and got closer to me, completely blocking the door"s view from me. "You"re gonna need to be strong and disciplined and patient if you want to make it out of this."
I looked at him blankly. I was very confused. He was strange. Unlike any Lighter I"d met before, which unfortunately had been a few.
He whispered his words to me, like it was a secret.
"I"ve been a.s.signed to your door for now. I know you won"t believe me, but I"m blocking you right now, meaning- no one can read your thoughts but me. When I"m in this room with you, I"ll do that, but when I"m not, don"t trust anyone or anything. Keep your mind blank. Use your songs, whatever it takes."
I felt my brow furrow and he sighed softly.
"You"ll have to stay here, I can"t just walk out with you, not right now. We"ll have to wait for the right time. You"ll have to tough it out for a while. I know it"s not fun and they will be in later to interrogate you. And that... definitely won"t be fun. But I"ll help any way I can. Be strong."
He got up to leave, my mouth wide open in confusion and wondering. He"s tricking me. Trying to get me to let my guard down around him.
He turned back around to look at me.
"I"m not. Like I said, I knew you wouldn"t believe me. But at this point, it doesn"t matter. I can"t change anything. You"re here and most humans don"t leave this place."
"Where am I?" I croaked out.
"You"re at an enforcement containment facility for rebels. This cell is an interrogation room. The last room most humans see before..."
He didn"t need to finish. I knew exactly what he was going to say. Before they die.
"Why are you telling me this? Trying to scare me into confessing something?"
"I won"t have to scare you," he said sadly. "You"ll be scared plenty enough without my help. But...I"m working on something, just tough it out until then." He turned to go but stopped at the door and turned one last time and gave me a sad smile. "By the way, my name is Daniel."
Useless Measures
Chapter 39 - Merrick.
I practically blurred to keep up with Margo as she ran down the hall. All the way down, pa.s.sed all the new rooms, pa.s.sed the new bathroom. All the way down to where the rooms end and the new construction begins.
I couldn"t help but wonder what kinda problem there could be way down here. Then she stopped and turned around. She just stood there, looking at me. I stared at her expectantly.
"Margo. You said there was a problem, didn"t you?"
"No Merrick. I didn"t."
"No you-" She was right. I a.s.sumed. "You told me to come, to hurry. What is it?"
"Just wait."
"For what?"
"Just wait."
I sighed and looked around. I watched her for any sign of something. She just continued to stand there.
"Ok, Margo, I"m sorry but I don"t like Sherry being up there alone. I"m gonna head back up if there isn"t anything you need."
"Just wait!" she yelled and grabbed my arm to stop me.
"For what?"
"Something"s going to happen."
"What do you mean?" I said as chills ran up my arms.
"Just wait for it. We must wait."
I tried to pull my arm but she tightened her grip and I didn"t want to hurt her.
"Let go, Margo."
"Almost time." She looked all around at the walls and ceiling. Her eyes were glazed over. "Just wait. Almost. See, I had to be careful. Sherry can tell if I lie. She can tell, so I had to watch my words. Be careful, they told me. Don"t look at the ones who"d been marked, they"ll know, they said. Make sure you do this, they said. Don"t mess up."
I jolted and felt my heart skip. I grabbed her shoulders and made her look at me. I knew that look. I pulled her shirt up and there it was. She didn"t even try to stop me.
NO! No. Not Margo.
The shiny red circular patch was right over her ribs on the right side and she was under the compulsion. Oh no. With the patch, they can see through the person"s eyes, anytime they want. They had seen everything. The bunker, us, the store. Who knows how long she"s had it. Must not have been too long or they would have been here already to storm us, right?
"Margo, what did they tell you to do."
"They said to get one that was important and small. Fragile and easy. One that the rest of us would come after if she was taken. One that would draw us out of hiding. One that we would try to rescue."
Sherry. No!
I took off running. I blurred all the way up to the commons room, up the stairs to the store and saw it was empty.
Sherry! Answer me!
I ran outside. It was dark now and I didn"t see any lights anywhere. I ran into the street and looked both ways. Nothing. I blurred back into the store and searched every closet, every room, every cabinet.
Sherry!
It was useless. They used Margo to lure Sherry there and she lured me away so they could take her. Oh G.o.d no. They took her. It was hard to breath. No! No stopping. We gotta move quick if we"re gonna get her back.
I blurred back downstairs, straight to Margo. She was still leaning on the wall down the hall where I left her.
"When did they put this on you?"
I pulled up her shirt again and pointed to the patch but didn"t touch it.
"This morning. They wouldn"t take me. I"m not important they said. I"m old they said. They didn"t want me."
"Margo," I chose my words carefully. "They can"t make you take the patch."
"No. No. They said they"d make me a Lighter if I didn"t put it on. They said I"d be one of them and turn against you. They said she"d be safe it I took it."
"Who"d be safe? Sherry?"
"Celeste."
Of course. They saw Celeste in her mind and used it against her. I didn"t bother to contradict her that females can"t be Lighters and they were lying to her. It didn"t matter anymore. This was all about to get very ugly.
"Do they know about us? Why didn"t they attack us?"
"They don"t know. I only thought of Celeste. I couldn"t help it. I didn"t think of you down here. I was smart. Was good. Only Celeste. They put patches on everyone along this highway. They are looking for us. They want us all to look for them. Be their eyes. They are looking for us."
So they are just spreading out. The store wasn"t pinpointed.
"What else did they say? Why take Sherry, then?"
"They are taking more people. To torture them for information and then put them out as bait for a rescue. That"s how they think they"ll find us. You"ll rescue her. They"ll find you. Poor Sherry. Tortured."
"Enough, Margo! Enough!" I barked.
I couldn"t listen to her say another word about Sherry and the things I have no doubt they"ll do to her. Were we not prepared to do just that and more to the Lighter we captured when they took the kids?
I took off my b.u.t.ton up shirt and tied it around her eyes, leaving me with a white undershirt.
Jeff! Max! Ryan! Kay!
I called them all in my mind, pulling Margo behind me we swiftly made our way down the hall. I banged on doors the whole way. I heard people come out of their rooms behind me.
"Commons room. Now!"
Get everyone in the commons room. Now!
We got there. I was so mad I was shaking. Furious. I felt like I could literally kill someone. This was worse than the caves. There"d be no hideout for Sherry this time.
It wasn"t Margo"s fault, I knew that. And now, she was going to die for being naive. Once the patch was removed, she"d die and there wasn"t anything we could do to stop that.
We a.s.sembled. It looked like a lot of people but no way to remember everyone to tell if we were all here or not. I was gonna start without waiting any longer but Jeff interrupted.
"What"s up, Merrick?"
What did Margo do?
"Mom? What"s the matter?" Celeste asked.
I ignored her, for now.
"Everyone, lift your shirts." They all just looked at me like I was insane. I was too mad to hold my anger in. "Now!" I bellowed.
They did reluctantly. And I searched, I saw Jeff searching too, knowing what I was looking for.
"We"ll need to search everyone further, just to make sure."
"Why are you looking for patches on us? Why would one of us have one?" Cain asked.
I lifted Margo"s shirt in answer and heard the gasps, a scream I knew was attached to Celeste, the cries of outrage. Most everyone knew you had to accept it. It couldn"t be forced on you. Celeste ran forward and started to remove the shirt I had tied around Margo"s eyes.
Kay got to her before I could grab her.
"No, Celeste. We can"t, honey. You know that. She"ll see. Which means they"ll see. She"s not herself right now."
I knew from the look on Celeste"s face she knew what that meant. She"d been there when we had to deal with Bobby. When he attacked us and then when the patch was removed. She knew her mother was going to die.
She cringed back up against Kay and buried her face in her neck as Kay wrapped her arms around her. She looked at me and shook her head in anger and resentment at what would have to be done. There was no easy way to do this.
And they didn"t even know about Sherry yet.
"Max? You take Margo to a room somewhere. We"ll have to...deal with that later." I took a deep painful breath. "They took Sherry," I blurted out and felt a hot sear of pain through my chest at speaking the words out loud. I laid a hand on the wall to steady myself.
I can"t even recount or recall the explosion of emotion and words and movements that happened after that. I do remember the pressure and fuzz of so many Keepers probing my brain at once to get the full story.
"Oh no," I heard Jeff mutter beside me as he saw what I knew, Marissa pressing him for details quietly.
Danny came bounding through the line and stood beside me, taking Celeste from Kay. Being torn between comforting his girl and rescuing his sister. He petted her head and I was proud, for just a second, I let myself be proud, let the rage go and saw him. He was doing what needed to be done. He couldn"t just let Celeste stand there broken and he couldn"t forget Sherry needed us.
He was fierce. He looked at me, in the eye. I knew what he was doing. He was waiting on instruction. Plans to go and get his sister. In his mind, there was nothing else to think about.
"Wait, wait!" Piper yelled. "Now, they set this trap. And don"t even look at me, Merrick. I saw it all in your mind. They took her on purpose, knowing you"d all run after her life a bunch of nave idiots. You can not go after her and risk everyone else."
"Oh, this is just your dream come true isn"t it, Piper!" Celeste yelled, pulling her face up from Danny"s shoulder to look at her. "Sherry out of the picture. Everyone knows you hate her!"