“Listen to me carefully,” Riley says quietly. “When you are asked questions, you will tell them everything that happened to you, but you are not to mention any information regarding your identity or anything that could lead to that information. Understood?”
I nod.
“Something isn’t right here,” she mutters before she pulls a blue shirt out of the cabinet and stands. “Put this one on. I’m pretty sure Colonel Mills is going to be there, and I like this color on you.”
She smiles sweetly as she hands me the shirt. I take it from her, dress quickly, and follow her out of the lab.
She is right about the guards. There are six of them, and they follow along as we head to a part of the medical center I haven’t been to before. We enter a large conference room already filled with people. I sit in the chair Riley points out to me, and she sits beside me.
Isaac and Dr. Rahul enter the room and sit opposite us. There are other doctors there I haven’t met before as well as several members of the technical team. I am not introduced to any of them, and they already know who I am. A few minutes later, Captain Mills and Colonel Graham Mills walk in and take the two seats at the head of the table.
I’m nervous. I have no idea what is expected of me in a setting like this, and I’m afraid I will slip up and say something about my identity. Then I realize Riley has given me a direct order not to speak of such things.
She did that on purpose.
There is no way I can accidentally divulge anything about my past. I look over at her, but she is focused on her tablet. If she were lying all this time about how I got here, why would she intentionally help me hide it now?
“You doing okay?”
I glance at Isaac. No one else knows he’s spoken.
“Better,” I tell him in the same manner.
“They really did a number on you,” he says.
“They aren’t the only ones,” I murmur back.
“What do you mean?”
I look straight at him.
“How do you think you got here?” I ask.
He looks at me quizzically. I’m playing a dangerous game, and I know it. I can’t actually say anything to him while under the influence of Riley’s command, but I want him to know what I know. I want him to know we didn’t volunteer for anything.
“What do you mean?” he asks.
I don’t get a chance to say anything else before the meeting begins.
“Specimen Seventy-Two,” Captain Mills says as she looks at me, “we have already heard Fourteen’s account of the mission. I want you to start from the moment you broke away from the other specimens.”
I take one last look at Isaac before I take a deep breath.
“I disengaged from the group and went back to verify we were not being followed,” I say. “I discovered later that I had been hit with a tracking device and that my implant was compromised. I was compelled to backtrack, which is when I was captured.”
I recount everything from my capture and subsequent torture. They are primarily interested in the presence of Errol Spat and Anna Jarvis. Most of the doctors take notes as I speak, and a few of them ask me questions. Riley doesn’t take notes and says nothing. When I glance at her, I have the impression she’s barely keeping herself together as I tell them what I went through.
I say nothing about my conversation with Merle regarding my identity, and I don’t bring up Hal at all. I simply skip seamlessly from one point to the next until I get to the part of the story where Riley finds me.
“What was the name of the man who came to speak to you?” It’s the first time Colonel Mills has spoken to me.
“Merle, sir,” I say as I look him in the eye. “He never gave me a last name.”
“Merle Hudson,” Captain Mills says. “He is still alive.”
“Hudson?” I look between each of the Mills officers, and they both nod.
“Peter Hudson’s cousin,” Colonel Mills says. “He was a dean at Carson University before the comet struck. We’ve had conflicting intelligence over the years concerning his activities and whereabouts, including rumors of his death.”
The technical team asks for clarification on Errol Spat’s activities in my presence, and I answer them as best I can. When they’re finished, Captain Mills questions me about my escape.
“I don’t have much memory of it,” I tell her. “Spat said my implants were failing, and Jarvis said I was going to die.”
“Why didn’t they just let you die?” Dr. McCall sits up straight in her seat and glares at me. “They could have dissected you, had plenty of time to hack into your implants, and learned everything you were unable to tell them yourself.”