“So it’s true,” Justen said. “You two and Persis—”
“And my sister,” Tero added matter-of-factly.
“You guys are the Wild Poppy?”
“The League of the Wild Poppy, yes.”
“Tero,” Isla tried again. “Shut. Up.”
“Don’t you dare shut up, Finch,” said Torin Blake. “I may not be able to tell Her Highness here what to do, but you’ll listen to me.”
For the first time, Justen could appreciate an aristo’s power. He wanted answers out of Tero, too.
The Blakes were looking from Isla to Tero, their faces drained of color. Kai and Elliot were remaining silent, clearly realizing that this matter was none of their business.
“You are saying,” Heloise began slowly, and Justen was sure it took all her strength to speak aloud, “that my daughter, with the assistance of a few of her school friends, has been spending the last six months running back and forth from Galatea in disguise, defying Citizen Aldred and his entire army, in a foolhardy and possibly deadly attempt to liberate imprisoned Galatean aristos and other dissidents?”
Tero grimaced but nodded.
Heloise turned toward her husband. “I knew we spoiled her.”
“Noemi Dorric is fired,” Torin said. “Fired. She’ll be lucky if she can get a job vaccinating cuttle jellies when I’m done with her.”
“Sir,” said Justen quickly, “Noemi Dorric is a skilled medic and—”
“And she had no business helping my daughter with such dangerous activities and not telling anyone!” Torin whirled on Justen. “And what, exactly, did you know about all this, Citizen Helo?”
Justen raised his hands in surrender. “Nothing! Believe me, I’m even more blown away by this than you are.”
Completely blown away and more than a little fascinated. His mind reeled with replays of conversations he’d had with Persis that now overflowed with double meanings. When she’d comforted him in the sanitarium, confided in him in the star cove, scolded him on the Daydream—all those times, she was New Pacifica’s most infamous spy.
She’d known all along that he was responsible for the Reduction drug, yet she’d welcomed him into her home. Why? To keep a closer eye on him? Why had she let him visit the refugees, if she only planned to rip him away? And what had she made of his confession an hour ago at the party? What had she been thinking while they danced . . .
Justen felt knocked sideways as if by a giant wave. Persis Blake was the most skilled actress he’d ever known. He’d handed her all that information, and she’d talked to him about dancing.
He looked at Tero. “When she left, what did she take with her in terms of drugs?”
“Drugs, now?” Torin Blake roared.
If Kai and Elliot had seemed out of their depths at the party, they looked completely lost now.
Tero appeared ill at ease. “The usual. Supplements for knockout doses. Enough genetemps for her and my sister and the targets.”
“Genetemps!” Her father threw up his hands in despair. “This is a disaster.” He turned to the princess. “I want you to send a security detail down there to get my daughter back. Now.”
“Please,” Isla scoffed. “Do you think for a moment that Persis would let a few paltry Albian soldiers stop her? She’s outwitted the entire guard force of Halahou city prison.”
That might have been the wrong thing to say. Heloise put her head in her hands. Her shoulders were shaking, though Justen couldn’t tell if she was laughing or crying. His medic instincts warned him that the fragile woman should probably not be involved in this, but at the same time, he wasn’t about to be the one to point it out. And he had other things on his mind, anyway—like what Persis had taken from his conversation with her as the Poppy.
“Did she request doses of the Helo Cure?” he asked Tero.
Tero’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, she did, but I didn’t have any on hand. Given the gengineering requirements, it would take a while to code. She did order some, though. Why?”
Justen shook his head. “Nothing.” If she asked Tero for the cure, that meant she trusted his information. She did want to protect herself and Andrine should they be captured, and anyone else. But she hadn’t told Tero why. Had she simply been in too much of a rush?
“You mean for Ro?” Elliot asked anxiously. “The cure. It’s supposed to be for Reduced like Ro, right?” She looked at the others. “Does anyone here but Persis know what that Vania girl is planning to do to her?”
“She won’t hurt her,” Justen stated firmly. “All she needs from Ro is a genetic sample, but having her in Galatea is insurance.”
“Insurance for what?” Elliot asked.
“That I won’t bomb Halahou into oblivion, for a start,” Isla muttered.
“Insurance for me,” Justen clarified, as the visitors’ eyes went wide. “Vania wants me back and she thinks if she has Ro, she’ll get me, too.”
“Why?” Elliot asked again.
Justen sighed. “Because I’m the one who wants to experiment on her.”
Kai’s face turned severe. Elliot’s turned into that of an avenging goddess.
“Wait just a minute—” Kai said. “You can’t simply kidnap people and run experiments on them without permission—”
“I wasn’t going to,” he said quickly. “I simply wanted a sample of her genetic material for my work. At most, a brain scan. Nothing invasive or painful, and naturally I was planning on asking for permission first, and explaining to all of you—”
Kai held up a hand. “I don’t need the details right now. The important point here is that whatever it is that Vania is planning to do to my friends, clearly Persis—who is apparently quite learned in these matters, what with being such a good spy neither her parents nor her lover had the slightest inkling that’s what she was doing—”
“I’m not her lover,” Justen grumbled defensively. He especially didn’t need Kai throwing around terms like that in front of the Blakes.
But Kai had also set Justen’s thoughts on another track. Vania knew all he needed from Ro was some genetic material. Material he might already easily have had. A strand of hair, a scrape of cheek cells. It was all a Galatean scientist would need as well. Something Vania could have gotten from Ro just by asking nicely. Something she might have gotten from Ro without anyone ever being the wiser.
“Apparently Persis thought it was so important that this not happen that she ran off to Galatea at a moment’s notice,” Kai finished. “Am I right?”
Justen’s mind whirled. There was no pressing need to take Andromeda and Ro in the middle of the luau, to separate them from their friends.
“And now she’s off,” Kai went on, “alone but for Andrine, trying to rescue our friends. I don’t know much about Galatea, but if someone is risking her life to rescue Andromeda and Ro, I feel duty bound to help.”
But Vania had done it like that anyway, and she’d told Justen about her plans, too.
“Persis and my sister had to go quickly,” Tero was explaining. “Persis believes it will be easier to intercept the visitors before they reach the Halahou city prison than try to get them out later. If that’s where they’re going.”
And when Justen had refused to join Vania, she’d injured him, but she hadn’t captured him. She hadn’t silenced him. In fact, she’d left him alone, so he had time to . . .
Warn the Wild Poppy.
The truth hit him like the smack of a wave. Vania wasn’t after Andromeda and Ro at all. They were merely perks of the process. She’d been laying a trap for the Wild Poppy. And Justen and Persis had fallen right into her hands.