I dropped him to the ground so he could answer. He doubled over gasping for breath. “I don’t know,” he said, his voice raw. “I only know she always planned to keep him alive. She needed his visions. I was just supposed to switch places with him, drop him in the bomb-safe bunker, and then get on the transport with any survivors so I could infiltrate the Rez.” His eyebrows furrowed. “Look, Zoe, you gotta believe me. I’ll tell you everything now, I swear.”
I scoffed. “Believe you? You’re the Chancellor’s spy. You helped her try to kill me during the raid!”
He bobbed his head and looked down. “I asked the Chancellor to use her compulsion to make me stop loving you. And she tried. For a while it worked. I hated you. But then,” he looked back up at me, “when I saw you again at the raid and the Chancellor wasn’t around to compel me, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let you die. I cut the fuse that led to the explosives in the second half of the building. I’m trying to tell you I’ve changed.” His voice was pleading. “Coming back here with you, getting away from the Chancellor’s compulsion, I feel different. I see now that I was wrong—”
“Liar. You’re only saying that now because you’ve been caught!” I yelled. “Did you manage to get any messages to the Chancellor?”
Max paused, breathing heavily like he was trying to get his emotions in check. “I tried. I planned to use my own Link signal to contact the Chancellor until I found out that part of the security system here jams all wireless signals. I started looking for other ways to rig the system, but there’s a glitcher boy who’s always in the security hub. Any headway I’d make in my plans to get a message out, I’d forget the next day because of him. I started writing everything down.”
Max rubbed his throat and took a deep swallow. “But I was never a very good techer and Simin had insane redundancies for monitoring outgoing packet streams. I couldn’t find a way to get past them, especially while he was there and always watching.”
“What about the secret security project you were working on?” I asked, trying to reign in my anger and keep my voice as calm and reasonable as possible.
“There never was any project. I just made that up as an excuse for why I was busy all the time. I couldn’t handle being around you at first. I was still so angry.”
“And the kitchen fire,” I said, clenching my hands into fists. “That was you, wasn’t it? Not Saminsa.”
He nodded. “A diversion. I tried to get a message out while everyone was distracted. But Simin had the system locked down while we were at lunch. He trusted me enough by that point to share the security codes, but like most things he told me, I forgot them before I had a chance to write them down. Then I learned that you were able to Link yourself at night when you sleep. I knew it had to mean they’d opened up a wireless channel just for your Link frequency. I came up with the idea of piggybacking off your signal. There was a transmitter hidden in the necklace I gave you that copied the frequency.”
A rush of hatred choked me in spite of my determination to stay calm. He’d used me. Used my weaknesses and my trust. And then let it all fall on Saminsa. I ripped the necklace off and flung it to the floor.
“And then you dared to pretend to be him. All this time. You let me kiss you. That date—” I shuddered even thinking about it and rubbed my lips harshly, as if I could scrub away all traces of him. I felt like mud had been wiped over every inch of my skin he’d touched. I squeezed my eyes closed. To think that I’d mourned him when I thought he’d died. Everyone else could see what I’d let myself be blind to—there had never been any redeeming qualities in the monster in front of me.
“But I couldn’t bring myself to send the message, Zoe. I took the data from the necklace and was about to send the Chancellor a message. But then I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it, don’t you get it? I still love you.” He leaned toward me. I held up a hand, wrapping my power around him like a straight jacket to keep him away from me.
“Why did you blame it on Saminsa then?”
Max sighed, looking defeated. “Simin came in and saw the code ready on the screen, so I had to blame it on someone.”
I gritted my teeth, trying to hold in all the pain. I tried to get to the peaceful place, tried to touch the shining calm like I was able to do in meditation practice. But all I could feel was rage.
“Is that all?”
He nodded. “I swear, Zoe, that’s all.”
I grabbed him roughly by the arm and dragged him up off the floor. “If you try to get away again, I’ll kill you.”
Max’s eyes widened. He looked at me like he didn’t know me, and it was true—he didn’t. I realized in that moment I was capable of much worse, and that if something happened to Adrien, I might even enjoy it.
He nodded slowly.
“Good.” I forced him ahead of me with my grip like a steel band around his arm. The telek sang in my mind, a harsh screaming harmonic. I spoke into my arm com, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible. “I’ve got him. Meet me in the Caf.” I pushed the mangled equipment room door out of the way and steered Max out into the hallway.
Hurried footsteps pounded down the hallway toward us. I looked up just as a shrill voice called. “Max! Max!”
Molla, stomach protruding far in front of her, was running straight toward us.
“Stop,” I said, putting out an arm to keep her back with my power. Molla struggled like a wild animal against the soft invisible barrier my telek created. I heard more footsteps behind me and saw Cole and Juan running after her.
Tears gleamed in Molla’s eyes. “They said you’ve been here all this time…”
“I’m sorry,” Max said, his eyebrows knit in what looked like genuine remorse. But I knew him too well now. He slipped on masks like others did a fresh tunic. “I tried to talk to you, but you always turned me away.”
“Because I thought you were Adrien!” she shouted. “You didn’t come back for me, did you? You came for her.” She spun on me, hatred in her eyes. “Why is it always her?”
She launched herself at me, but Cole and Juan caught her and held her tight. She struggled against them.
“Calm down, Molla, please,” Max said, pleading. “Think of the baby.”
Juan looked at Cole. “Can you take her out of here?”
Cole nodded and swept the weeping girl up into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” Max called after her.
Juan looked at Max with loathing, pulling out a syringe from his pocket. “Jilia gave me this. He deserves much worse.”
“I’ll hold him still.” I turned to look at Max and poured my telek over him so he couldn’t move while Juan stepped closer and inserted the needle in his neck. “Take him to the Med Center and let Jilia know that Saminsa was innocent.”
“Wait, Zoe, I’m so sorry,” Max said. “You have to believe me, I’m so sorry—”
He slumped to the ground.
When I got into the Caf, I saw Adrien’s mother pointing at a 3-D satellite map hovering in the cube over the central table. The rest of my team was sitting around the table and several Rez fighters stood nearby. I hurried in and grabbed a chair.
“Ginni says Adrien is in Portston, and the Chancellor is with him.” Sophia pushed on the image and the map zoomed in. “Right here, in this building.” She pulled back. “So we need to organize an extraction mission. Can we get the schematics of the building?”
“Wait,” City said. “Shouldn’t we think about this? Won’t it be another trap?”
Sophia’s eyes flashed. “He’s my son!”
“And Bright is the Underchancellor of Defense.” City’s voice rose. “She has squadrons of Regs at her command. It’d be suicide.”
“The girl’s right,” said one of the Rez fighters, stepping forward. “We can’t risk countless lives on a mission just to rescue one person.” Things were quickly spiraling out of control, everyone arguing and panicking. The General slammed her hand on the table.