“People just disappear right and left around here.” I couldn’t help myself.
“You would know,” Beatty said, leaning in much too close to my face.
I wanted to slap her.
Three tall Ender marshals entered the room. Each one positioned himself behind one of us. One of them passed Beatty a piece of paper, which she handed to the chief of staff.
“What’s this?” the chief of staff asked.
“A writ of prohibition,” Beatty said smoothly.
“What does it mean?” I asked Lauren.
“It means this case will be tied up in court before we’ll ever get any answers,” the chief said. Then he looked up from the paper to Beatty. “You must have friends in high places.”
A smile crept across her face. “You have no idea.” She turned to the guards. “Get everyone out of here.”
The chief and Lauren were escorted out first. My marshal took me by the elbow and followed them to the door. But Beatty whispered to him. At the last moment, he let go of me and exited alone, shutting the door behind him and leaving me inside.
I stood there alone with Beatty. My heart raced. She pulled me by the wrist away from the door, over toward her desk.
“How dare you come back here and think you can peer into my private files?” she said. “You should have left well enough alone, you with the mansion in Bel Air.”
She knew where I lived. It wasn’t a surprise, but it was a threat. She gripped my wrist harder.
“Let me go!” I shouted. The door was too far and too thick for anyone to hear.
“You have so much to lose now, Callie.” She stared at me with her mole-ridden face. “And you will. It won’t be long before you slip. And I’ll see you’re locked up in here again, where you belong.”
My hand was turning white. I tried to pry off her fingers, but she dug her fingernails into me. I could have bitten her arm to get loose, but that was what she wanted. She’d have them throw me in the cell again, and Lauren would have to use more than one lawyer to get me out. With Beatty’s connections, I might never get out.
I looked at the snake-handled stiletto letter opener on her desk. I knew I couldn’t use it. But I kept looking, to draw her attention away, a trick I learned on the streets. She fell for it and took her eyes off me.
In that moment, I was able to get free.
I ran to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. I banged on it. “Let me out!”
The door opened and Lauren and the chief of staff stood beside the marshal putting away his key. Lauren put her arm around my shoulder.
“Are you all right, Headmaster?” the marshal asked.
Beatty smoothed her suit as she walked up to us. “Escort them to the exit.”
As the marshals led us away, I turned my head to get one last look at Beatty. I wished I hadn’t. She leaned in her doorway, a vicious and victorious smile spread across her face.
There was no way I could beat that look. Score one for Beatty.
We all huddled in the back of the limo as the driver took off—Lauren and I and the chief of staff.
“How can she be the headmaster? After what she did?” I asked. The car was silent. “So now we give up? Can’t we get a judge to reverse this?”
The chief of staff shifted in his seat. “It’s possible they didn’t even have his information. The Old Man might have insisted on face-to-face contact—using secondaries. No digital footprints that way.”
I sank back in my seat, defeated. “But how are we going to find him, then?”
No one had an answer.
When they let me off at the house, I knew that was as far as they were going to take it. Lauren got out of the limo to hug me.
She held me tightly, then pulled away.
“Now what?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Just stay safe.”
“I have a potential bomb in my head. I’ll never be safe now, and neither will any of the other Metals, including your grandson, Kevin. You can’t give up.”
She stared into my eyes.
“Callie, I’m a hundred and sixty-one years old. I’ve been searching every day for seven months. I managed to resurrect some hope for today, but now …” Her voice cracked. “I’m not saying I’m giving up, but you can’t imagine how empty I am inside. There’s nothing left.” She paused. “You’re young. You have the fire in your belly. Use it for me.”
Her eyes pleaded with me. Then she turned and got back into the limo.
I watched as it pulled out of Helena’s curved driveway, the iron gates automatically closing behind it.
They aren’t going to help you. They can’t help you. You are alone.
CHAPTER THREE