Part 8 (1/2)

”I can guarantee you that Old Blue is never coming anywhere near the Guard again. Last I heard, he's an inpatient at a mental hospital.”

I flinch. He is. And so is my mom, and dammit, I haven't thought of her and that ticking clock for at least an hour. I mean ten hours. I've lost so much time being here.

”I just think it's a little suspicious, that's all. Especially since there would've been an easy way to figure out what happened to Orange.”

Indigo stares at me.

I sigh. ”Send us back to before his tracker deactivated, right? Then we could see with our own eyes what happened.”

”You know we can't actually do that. It's one of our key rules. No do-overs. You know that, Iris. Sending us back to before Orange disappeared would have tipped him off that something was wrong-he's too well trained not to notice us-and considering we don't know what the h.e.l.l happened, that would have been a very, very dangerous situation. For all of us.”

”Look, I just-”

”We need to get back,” Violet cuts me off. ”Standing around here sharing crazed theories isn't going to help us find Orange. He's obviously not here. So we need to follow protocol: go back and report everything we found.”

She's right, of course. It doesn't help Orange at all, but we need to leave.

Bonner and Red are waiting outside the gravity chamber when we arrive.

”Anything?” Red practically barks at us.

Indigo shakes his head. ”Not a trace. Nothing. Everyone at the State House was going about their business like nothing was wrong.”

Red's brow furrows, while Bonner stays still as a calm sea. She's giving nothing away.

Red gestures down the hallway. ”Back into Sit Room One. All of you. I need to know everything that happened from the moment you arrived in 1904 until now.”

I touch his arm. ”Blue?”

”Traveling back now. He's probably five minutes behind you guys.”

Then there's a ziiiiiiiip sound and a whoosh, and Abe steps out of the gravity chamber. I forget the rules, forget decorum, forget everything. I leap forward and fling my arms around his neck. I breathe him in, resisting the urge to kiss his jawline, my favorite part of him.

”Thank G.o.d you made it back!” I squeeze him closer to me.

”What are you talking about?”

Bonner clears her throat, and I drop my arms from Abe. ”Blue, did you see anything unusual during your mission?” Bonner asks.

Abe's nose crinkles like it always does when he's confused. ”Um . . . no? Unusual how?”

”Orange is gone,” I say. ”His tracker deactivated on a mission.”

Abe blinks. ”He's dead?”

”That is what we're trying to ascertain,” Bonner says. ”Blue, go upstairs and start on your report. Make sure you include a detailed summary of every person you encountered and pay close attention to any events that seemed out of the ordinary, no matter how small. A casual glance, a misplaced object. Anything.”

I give Abe's hand another squeeze as Bonner ducks into the Sit Room with Red right behind her.

”Love you,” I mouth, and he does the same.

As I enter the room, Indigo, Violet, and I exchange one quick glance that lets me know they're not going to reveal everything that happened. Our little conversation at the end will stay private. But I still can't shake the feeling that something is very off here. And that one or more of the people in this room might know what really happened.

Indigo and Violet take a seat, but I rip the sticker from under my sleeve and thrust it into Red's hands. He looks down at it, then up at Bonner, and shoves it into his pocket.

And that tells me everything I need to know. Red's been trained to hide his real thoughts. But I've seen them sneak out before, when I confronted him with Alpha's deception back at Peel. And I just saw a flash of them now.

He knows way more than he's letting on.

And now my mind is made up. I'm not keeping XP a secret any longer.

CHAPTER 8.

I take a deep breath and look at my teammates. All of my teammates. Well, the ones who can project anyway. We're the only ones who have the genetic ability.

I look from Yellow to Violet to Indigo to Green and finally to Abe. We're all gathered in my bedroom. I've barely slept since we got back from 1904 last night. My last nerve is fried, and it's only six in the morning. Green's been complaining nonstop about being here early. I'm not sure why. I'd love any excuse to leave if I lived in that c.r.a.ppy bas.e.m.e.nt studio in Allston that's all his government salary will allow.

”You're being weird,” Yellow says. ”Just so you know. I feel it's my duty as your friend to tell you that.”

I ignore her. ”Guys, we need to talk.”

”About Orange?” Indigo says. ”I agree. I don't understand how he could just disappear, no trace of him. Like, I don't get the physics of it. Unless he's dead, he'd show up on the tracking system, right?” He looks over at Abe. It didn't take long for everyone to view him as the authority on these things. Abe always a.s.sumed he'd be drafted to join the science and technology wing of the CIA. But he chose to be here with me.

”That's how I understand it,” Abe says.

And now we're all business.

”You're sure he wasn't anywhere in the State House?” Yellow looks directly at her brother. ”Like, one hundred percent confidence?”

Indigo narrows his eyes. ”Thanks for second-guessing my ability to do my job. Yes, Yell, I'm one hundred percent confident he wasn't anywhere in the State House.”

”I don't think we can ever be one hundred percent confident on anything.”

I touch Indigo's arm because I think he's about to chuck something at his sister, but he waves me off and shoots Yellow a dirty look. ”We checked every spot in the State House that we could find. Obviously, given the time constraints, we didn't have a chance to check blueprints ahead of time to make sure there weren't any secret rooms, but Violet did that when we got back.”

Violet nods. ”Nothing. We searched the entire place.”

”And there's no way someone could have killed him and smuggled him out,” Indigo continues. ”It was an election day. The place was packed.”

”Look.” Violet motions to Yellow, Green, and Abe. ”I know you guys weren't there, but you have to take our word that Orange just disappeared. There's no explanation for it.”

”Of course there's an explanation.”

All of our heads turn to Green, who's leaning with his back against my door, arms crossed. His s.h.a.ggy brown hair has flopped in front of his eyes, but he doesn't make a move to brush it away.

”He's dead,” Green says matter-of-factly.