The brother who I killed.
Suddenly my breath is gone. My mouth opens, gasping for air, but I can’t find any.
I feel Miranda’s hand on my shoulder.
“We all got scared,” she says, her voice gentle. “I’m still scared.”
She gestures toward the backhoe in the main square.
“I saw it when we drove in,” I say. “Sergeant Burch. What happened to him?”
“Lee accused him of something, and people went crazy.”
The area has emptied around us. We stand alone, an arm’s reach from one another.
“There are things going on that you don’t know,” she says.
“Can you tell me?”
“First I have to ask you something. Why did you come back?” she says. “For real.”
“I had a feeling,” I say.
She searches my face for more. “What kind of a feeling?”
“A feeling that I might be needed.”
She reaches out and touches my shoulder. Briefly.
“Come inside,” she says. “We have to talk about some things.”
I follow her through the door of a building I’ve never been in before. She leads the way down a long, dark hallway.
“Where are we going?” I say.
Suddenly I hear a whooshing noise behind me, followed by a propulsive bang as the twin prongs of a Taser-like device hit me from behind. My brain registers it in a second, faster even than the electricity passes down the wire into my body. I relax my body before it hits, knowing that fighting will only make it worse.
I’ve been Tased as part of my training, and I know it’s possible to ride it out like a storm, coming out the other side weakened but not incapacitated. But as the electricity surges through me, I realize this is not a standard Taser. It’s some kind of adapted, hypercharged device that takes over my body and shatters my consciousness.
It’s followed by a stinging sensation in my neck: the sharp prick of a needle and the poisonous warmth of a chemical being injected into my carotid artery.
I try to hang on to the mission, the plan, the intent of my being here. I try to locate Miranda’s face through shadowy hallway in front of me.
But the combination of the electricity and the drug take all of it away, spinning me down into a dark so pure it’s almost peaceful.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
I WAKE UP IN A CONCRETE ROOM LINED IN SHADOWS.
I try to move, and I cannot. My hands are tied behind me. I’m sitting in a chair, my body aching everywhere.
A stinging slap snaps my head back.
It’s Lee. He paces in front of me. I try to stand but find my legs are tied as well.
“Where am I?” I say.
“No matter,” Lee says. “Nobody can get in, and you can’t get out.”
His voice has a hard edge to it. He paces back and forth, agitated.
“Where is Francisco?” Lee asks.
“How should I know?” I say.
Lee stands across from me now. His eyes have changed. There is something dark in them, an intensity and anger that is unsettling.
“You were the last one to see him,” Lee says.
Lee knows I was with Francisco, but he doesn’t know what happened or he wouldn’t be asking the question.
And if he doesn’t know what happened, he has no way of knowing the timeline. Maybe I can use this against him.
“So Francisco hasn’t turned up?” I say as if I’m surprised.
“Obviously not,” Lee says.
“Doesn’t that make you wonder?” I say.
“Wonder what?”
“He disappeared right after your father died,” I say.
“After?” Lee says, confused.
“Who cares about Francisco?” Miranda says to her brother. “Would you drop it already?”
Miranda is somewhere in the room outside my sight line. She brought me here, which means she set me up.
“We need Francisco!” Lee says to her. “We need his help.”
“We’re fine without him,” she says.
“Listen,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady. “I don’t know what’s going on exactly, but I know you’re making a mistake.”
“It’s no mistake,” Lee says. “You left the compound after my father died. Only someone guilty would do that.”
“I’m not the only one who left,” I say.
Lee slaps me hard across the face again.
“Lee,” Miranda says, attempting to calm him.
“He’s trying to confuse us,” Lee says.
He whirls around and steps behind me, confronting Miranda.
“We have to kill this bastard now,” he says.
“No, we don’t,” Miranda says.
“Dad said there could be an assassin sent into camp,” Lee says.
“He’s not the one,” she says, which surprises me, because she found me in the woods, found me making a call. She has more evidence than anyone that I might not be who I say I am. Why is she lying for me?
“We can’t trust him,” Lee says. “Not now, not when we have important work to do.”
“Our father trusted him.”
“And you see what happened to him.”
Moore said he’d warned Lee about me, but Lee was easily swayed. That means he liked me. I can play on that.
“I don’t know what you’re doing, but maybe I can help you,” I say.
“Maybe he can,” Miranda says. “You saw him during The Hunt. He did fine.”
“Fine won’t cut it,” Lee says.
He comes around where he can see my face.
“Where did you go when you left camp?” he says.
“I panicked,” I say. “I drove home to talk to my parents, but they were out. I drove around in circles, then I went to the mall. I didn’t know what to do.”
“He’s right that he’s not the only one who left camp,” Miranda says.
“That’s true,” Lee says, thinking about it.
She walks over and joins her brother, puts an arm on his shoulder.
“Maybe we’re asking the wrong question,” Miranda says. “Instead of asking why he left, maybe we should be asking why he came back.”
Lee looks at her. “You think he had a change of heart?”
“Maybe he’s one of us,” Miranda says.
Lee considers it for a moment, then shakes his head, determined.
“We can’t take that risk,” Lee says. “Not now. Not when we’re so close.”
So close to what? What is Lee planning?
Miranda lowers her head.
“We can’t kill him.” That’s all she says.
“That’s not your decision to make,” Lee says.
He’s holding the Taser-like device in his hands. When did he pick it up again?
“Your father invited me here,” I say.
“I won’t make the same mistake my father did,” Lee says. “I don’t know who you are for real, but I know I can’t trust you anymore. You were kind to me and to my sister, so I’m going to spare your life.”
Lee’s presence is dominating now. He’s changed quickly, taking on the demeanor of a military commander.
Lee says, “By the time you wake up, it will be over.”
I search for Miranda, but I can’t see her now.
“They will find you here,” Lee says. “You can be sure of that. And you will bear witness for us.”
He comes toward me. I test the rope on my wrists, hoping to find a loose bond. If I can get a hand out—
Lee grabs me under my chin, pulling my face forward. His eyes are wild, his breath fetid.
“You will tell them that I was the one. Not my father. Not anyone else.”
His nails dig into the flesh of my chin.
“Tell them I was the one,” he says. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes,” I say.
In killing Moore, I’ve given Lee the chance to step up and be the man his father wanted him to be. Unwittingly, I’ve set this all in motion.