“No.” She shook her head. “That’s not Omega’s style. They would have wanted her back, after what they did to—” She shook her head again, and I could see the emotions rushing over her face, as she snapped back to masking them, calm indifference returning. “I’m sorry, that can’t be right.”
“I saw her die,” I said. I looked at her, and cocked my head. “Where’s Kat?”
My mother’s arms tightened, folded in front of her on the arms of her suit, which was a perfect match for something Ariadne would have worn. “Not here,” she said. “Why do you ask?”
“Because she’s my friend—”
“Don’t lie to me, Sienna,” she said, with a frank air of unconcern. “I’ve been watching you since you were a child; I can tell when you do it. She’s no friend of yours. You don’t even like her.”
“I…I like her fine.” I reeled slightly. “She…tries to be my friend. If she’s not, it’s not her fault, it’s mine. And she’s…my colleague.”
“Deep concern for a co-worker?” She studied me with a frown. “I doubt it; not for the little cheerleader. No, it’s something else.” She stared at me, sifting into my soul as though she had her hands on me and was draining the answers out of me. She laughed, a short one that was mostly fake, and her arms uncrossed. “They think you betrayed them. Erich Winter thinks you’re working with me.”
“No,” I said in a hoarse whisper. “He thinks I’m working with Omega.”
My mother laughed, a real one this time, originating from deep inside. “Ohhh, that’s a good one. I doubt he really believes that, though you certainly kicked up some suspicions fraternizing with James Fries. I hope you learned your lesson about that particular glass of rotten milk without giving the cow away for free.”
I blinked. “Was that…are you talking about me sleeping with him?”
“I don’t care whether you did or not,” she said, voice cracking like a whip, telling me something else entirely different from her words. “I just hope you didn’t make a stupid mistake that you’ll regret for the next eighteen years.”
I flinched at her words. “Are you…are you talking about…me?”
Her look turned from raging to wary in an instant. “I have to go.”
“Why are you here?” I said, and felt my back press against the tree again. “Did you stop by just to insult me? To add a few more logs on the fires of my insecurities?” I blinked back the tears that had been long suppressed.
“No,” she snapped. “I saw you go into the woods, and I followed you.” She hesitated now, seeming as though she were torn. “I wanted to—”
Something whistled through the air above us and I felt a tingle. I was moving even as Mom’s head was swiveling, looking around us for the threat. I knew, however, that it was coming from above, directly above, and without even thinking I acted, pushing her with both hands. The look on her face was pure shock, and she lanced out with a fist that hit me in the jaw even as she was falling. She hit the ground on her back and used her momentum to roll back to her feet.
I, on the other hand, felt the blow from above, the one that had been meant for her, hit me square in the back and fling me facedown to the ground. My chin, fresh from being hit by her fist, was slammed into a root, followed by my chest, knocking the wind out of me. Stars filled my eyes, the metaphorical sort which were really colored flashes of light in my experience. I saw my mother looking at me for a half-second, her mouth a flat line, before she turned and ran, leaving her high heeled shoes behind in a sprint to get away from the place where I lay.
I stared at her back until she receded from view, my head full of lightness, and my limbs trapped, immovable beneath a net of light that restrained me, hugging me to the earth. I decided not to fight the desire to go limp, preferring instead to just lay there, hoping that the earth really would swallow me, that the sky really would fall down – not a net from Eve Kappler, like what was keeping me down now. I waited, and I heard the footfalls of M-Squad a few seconds later. I felt strong hands reach down, hard like iron, and rip the netting away, and then twist my arm behind me.
I cried out and was pulled to my feet, Clyde Clary standing in front of me, his skin turned a black, rubbery color. It felt like metal. He was leering at me with his stupid grin and had my hand twisted behind me, locking it into place behind my back as he did the same with my other hand, effectively handcuffing me without needing actual handcuffs. “Lookee here,” Clary said. “Caught her fraternizing with the enemy red-handed.”
“If my hands are red, it’s because you’re cutting off the circulation to them.”
“Loosen up, Clary,” I heard another voice say, and I was spun about to face the speaker. Roberto Bastian looked back at me, his black, short-cropped military flattop standing out in the late day shadows. His browned skin looked sallow in the fading light, and his lips were puckered like he was holding back whatever he wanted to say to me. “No need to hurt her.”
“We got her,” Clary said, dumbstruck. “We got her talking to her mom, live and here. What, you want me to let her go?”
“She ain’t going anywhere,” Bastian said, and turned to look back at Headquarters, “so loosen up your grip. It ain’t like you can’t run her down and catch her if she tries to rabbit.” He turned to face me. “And it’s not a crime to talk to your mother, though obviously it doesn’t look good. We’re gonna have to take you to Ariadne,” he said, speaking to me at last. “If you try to run…” He shook his head, almost sadly. “Just don’t. Let’s get this over with.”
“What about Eve and Parks?” Clary said with a nod in the direction my mother had run.
A noise in the underbrush got us all looking, and a wolf slinked out, then stood up on its hind legs as it became a man. Its fur became clothing, the hair atop its head and face becoming a gray beard and a long, bushy mane. “Eve’s aloft,” Parks said, “but it’s pretty clear Sierra got away. Managed to leap the fence and make it to a car. I called Ariadne and the helo’s warming up, but it won’t be up in time to catch her.” He turned to look at me. “What’s your story?”
I swallowed hard. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me,” he said and gestured with a nod of his head to start walking toward the headquarters building.
“I just got done with the interrogator,” I said as Clary put pressure on my arms and started me moving forward, “and I came out here by myself. My mom was apparently on campus to do something and said she saw me and followed me out here.”
“Simple,” Parks said. “Undetailed. She was definitely here. Why would I doubt it?”
“Because the coincidences are piling up,” I said as Clary tugged on my arm, causing me a surge of pain. I looked at him and he grinned. “And the circumstantial evidence of my guilt is gaining more and more circumstances with every passing day.”
Parks chortled, and I heard Bastian clear his throat. “True enough,” Parks said, and lapsed into silence.
I considered the only fortunate part of this being that headquarters would be close to abandoned when I arrived, just as it had been when I left a few minutes earlier, the people who worked there already gone for the evening. I especially didn’t want to face the thought of the people around the campus seeing me in such a state, looking like hell, my face and clothes dirty and even ripped in a couple places from my rough landing after being taken down by Eve’s net. I looked down and saw smudges of brown dotting my grey t-shirt. I couldn’t imagine what my face must look like, but I could feel some of the dusty grit on my forehead and cheek.
The route back to the headquarters building carried us past the dorms, and as Clary led the procession off the path and across the grass, I realized too late what he was doing. Bastian and Parks said nothing until we rounded one of the glassy corners of the building and I saw the boxy outline of the cafeteria and the shapes within. By then it was too late, and as I started to resist, Clary twisted my arm, urging me to go on.