Enders(80)

“He used you to release Starters from your institution,” I said. “So they could run free.”

She put down her drink and folded her arms. “What do I care? He paid me.”

“Couldn’t have been much. Because he was just a Starter.”

“Ten thousand dollars. Per child. That’s nothing to sneeze at.”

“You sold them, knowing they were going to be used by Enders, maybe forever.”

Her hand moved to her ZipTaser.

“You can hurt me, but you can’t kill me with it,” I said. “Not like Sara.”

“Sara had an unfortunate condition.”

“You knew about her weak heart. And you allowed your guards to use it on her anyway.”

“Nobody escapes my institution.” She narrowed her eyes and picked up her drink. “Not Sara. Not you.”

She threw the scotch at me, drenching my face, my shirt. I wiped at my eyes and saw her grab an object off the desk. The letter opener. She gripped it like a dagger.

I took a step backward. She smiled and took a step toward me. I hadn’t prepared for this. I had no weapons.

My heart quickened as she raised the letter opener. But instead of attacking me, she brought it down on her other arm and stabbed herself in the forearm. Her scream made my skin crawl.

“Don’t!” she cried. “Don’t hurt me!”

Blood trickled down her arm. She thrust the handle of the weapon in my palm. I dropped it, letting it fall to the carpet.

The door opened. I turned, expecting for a split second to see her guards. But of course it was Dawson, flanked by two marshals.

“She stabbed me.” Beatty held out her wounded arm.

“Get her,” Dawson said to the marshals.

As they approached us, Beatty slipped me a smirk that no one else saw. “Thank goodness my guards called you. She stuck me with that.” She pointed to the letter opener on the floor.

Dawson looked down at the letter opener and shook his head. “No, she didn’t.”

“She did. That girl is dangerous,” Beatty said.

“That’s certainly true,” Dawson said. “But she didn’t touch you.”

“Give it up, Beatty,” I said. “He saw it all through my eyes. Heard it through my ears.”

Beatty’s jaw dropped as she looked from me to Dawson. “He was … in you?” She stood there, in shock, still as stone, like a troll caught in the sunlight.

Dawson nodded to the marshals. One pressed a handkerchief to her wound to stop the bleeding.

“Good job,” Dawson said to me.

“Just holding up my end of the bargain.”

“What bargain?” Beatty asked.

“I’d do what he wanted if he’d let me take you down,” I said to her.

I nodded to the marshals and they cuffed her behind her back.

“No! You can’t do this. I’m the headmaster. I have connections.” Beatty’s face contorted.

“Not anymore,” Dawson said.

As they carted her off, I made sure that the last memory Beatty would have of me was a huge grin on my face.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX





A week later, I stood outside a secret location in the middle of the desert and stared at a complex of imposing dark gray structures. A large seal with a logo was embedded over the entrance. This was Dawson’s Transposition Research Center.

My father stood beside me, his arm around my shoulder. Michael was several yards away, keeping Tyler amused. Dawson’s sales pitch played through my mind.

“Our enemies plan to take us over from within and without. We have to stop them.”

“You want me to be a spy,” I said.

“It isn’t just for your country. The buyers who escaped will be after you and Tyler for your chips. They’ll want your father for his expertise. Working with me is your family’s best chance at survival.”

I longed for a normal life with my father and brother, but with the chip in my head, I’d come to accept that my future was destined to be different. Brockman was in jail but was not cooperating. If he knew how to remove the chips, he wasn’t talking. I couldn’t live looking over my shoulder, always afraid, as if I were borrowing my own body.

I would be a trainee with the others, but only some of us would pass the tough three-month program and join the team. Many of the Metals I’d known would be here, but there was only one I was looking for.

I hadn’t been in touch with Hyden since the day his father was arrested. He wasn’t answering his phone. I couldn’t imagine him joining, after all Dawson had put us through.

The transport vehicle that had brought us here waited behind us. Other vehicles pulled up and dropped off more Metal recruits.

Michael approached me at the drop-off location once the new prospects started to disembark. Savannah, the black belt with medical skills. Lily, the acrobat. Jeremy, the martial artist. Briona. Lee. Raj. Blake.