I put my hands up, showing him I’m backing off. “Don’t—”
“Shut up! Sit down in the chair. Now.”
I look at Raine. He’s holding her so tightly she can’t speak, but I see her eyes, angry, telling me in a million ways not to do as he says. But I have to. I can read his face even more clearly than hers. I slowly move to the chair and sit and he instructs LeGru to get the body cuff from the guard who lies unconscious on the floor. LeGru grabs it from the guard’s belt and places it over me and the cuff contracts, snugly pinning me to the chair. Once I’m secure, the Secretary loosens his hold on Raine and pushes her back in his chair. “So, my daughter got mixed up with some sort of lab beast, or at best, a cyborg.”
“Fully human,” I say. “More so than you.”
“Who do you work for? You couldn’t have pulled this off on your own.”
Raine jumps forward. “Don’t tell him anything, Locke!”
The Secretary spins, hitting Raine’s face with the back of his hand, sending her sprawling back into the chair. I strain against the cuff but it holds me tight. Blood dribbles from the corner of her mouth. She wipes it away. “Don’t tell him,” she says, glaring at him, daring him to hit her again.
He turns back to me. “Sadly, it looks like you’ve infected her with your lies, but worse for you and her, you may have told her what it is I need to know. Our experimental scan may have failed on you, but it won’t fail on Raine. Are you going to force me to use it on her?”
“I haven’t told her anything.”
He turns to LeGru and tells him to inject her. LeGru prepares another injection and walks toward Raine.
“Wait!” I say. “I have what you want.”
The Secretary turns, raising his eyebrows. “And just what is that?” he asks. “Don’t stall. I won’t give you a second chance.”
I have no doubt that this once, he’s a man of his word. I look at my pack lying on the floor, the knife—his golden fleece—only inches from his feet. But it’s not nearly as valuable to me as Raine is. I look at her sitting in the chair just behind him. Once I give him what he wants, I’m dead, but he’d have no more reason to harm her.
“I have the missing numbers.”
I watch his face transform, like now he’s the one who has been injected.
“They’re at your feet,” I tell him.
“Don’t play with me, boy. I know games and lies when I see them. I warned you—”
“In my pack. On the floor. There’s an old knife that had belonged to Karden. The only thing of his that you didn’t burn in the fire. The missing numbers are engraved on the smallest blade.”
He glances down at the pack, sixteen years of greed and hunger spreading across his face. “For your sake, I hope you’re telling the truth.” He reaches down and grabs it, but like lightning, Raine is moving, snatching, spinning, and before he even straightens back up, the tip of a sword is at his throat. He looks with horror at the empty display behind his desk, his prized silver sword now firmly in Raine’s hand.
“Don’t move,” she says. “You know I could sever your jugular and be out of this room before your body even hits the floor.”
He swallows carefully. “But, Raine, I’m your father.”
She presses the tip of the sword harder against the tender skin at the base of his throat. I watch her struggle, but only briefly, the mere flutter of an eyelash, as the hatred, betrayal, and trained devotion are overtaken by the calculated control she learned from him. “And that’s why I haven’t already killed you.” She motions with her head to me. “Release him,” she says to LeGru.
LeGru looks at the Secretary for confirmation. He carefully nods, obviously seeing Raine teeters on the edge of slashing his th
roat anyway. “Hurry,” he whispers.
LeGru loosens the cuff and pulls it off me. I get out of the chair, pushing him down where I was sitting, and I back another chair up to his. “Your turn,” I tell the Secretary. Raine carefully walks him over, the sword never leaving his throat. He sits and I place the cuff over both of them, securing them back to back.
“It won’t do you any good,” he says. “You’ve dispatched two Security Officers. It will be only seconds before more are swarming all over this building.”
I grab my pack from the floor. “Then we’d better go.” We head for the door.
“Raine!” the Secretary screams, raised veins furious at his temples. “Don’t you dare leave me like this! You’ll be sorry if you walk out that door! You’ll become a hunted criminal just like him! I’m giving you one last chance—”
Raine spins, thirsty rage in her eyes, her chest heaving, the sword cutting the air and then balancing in her hands like she’s testing it, eager to plunge it right through his heart. “You’re giving me a last chance?” She steps closer until the sword is dead center between his eyes.
“Raine,” I whisper.