The Girl Who Dared to Think by Bella Forrest (best novels of all time TXT) 📗

I eyed Quess as he continued to speak, explaining the friction bond and how it worked, and tried to gauge his competence. I didn’t come up disappointed. He sounded so much like Zoe—even more technically-minded in some ways—as his explanations began to expound into theoretical physics. He fell silent when he realized everyone—including me—was starting to glaze over, and sighed.

“No one appreciates genius,” he grumbled. “Anyway, test them out. I should just warn you, though, to be careful not to hit anyone with them unless you really mean it. If they’re flung with enough force, they will shatter bones on impact.”

“Thanks for the warning,” I said, legitimately nervous about the state of my lashes. I’d definitely be testing them out as soon as I could. “Now, any chance I can find out what is going on with my baton?”

Quess smiled, but it was Cali who answered, surprising all of us with her presence. “Maddox is tinkering with it. I hope you don’t mind.”

I regarded her for a moment. “When will I get it back?”

She smiled, not unkindly. “When you need it.”

I glanced around, and realized everyone was looking away uncomfortably. They could sense a confrontation coming, and didn’t want to be a part of it. Everyone save me had gotten some time to get to know each other, and this was my chance to either make an utter fool of myself, or give a good impression. I licked my lips and decided that I would be direct, but try not to escalate the situation.

“Am I a prisoner here?”

Cali sucked in a deep breath, her smile fading some. “Not exactly, but I can’t let you leave right now. Roark explained to me about your friend while you were sick, and I’m sorry, but leaving now would only jeopardize our safety. Until we know how hard the Knights are looking for you, we just can’t risk you being seen up there. Especially after you’ve been missing for four days.”

I pressed my lips together, trying to keep calm. I really didn’t need a reminder of how much time I’d been away. I exhaled. “Look, I’m not like everyone here. No offense.” I looked around at everyone, my hands raised in what I hoped they would understand was polite contrition, but continued ahead. “I have people in the Tower who are good people. People who know that there is something going on, and who are at risk of being punished for that knowledge. My last interaction with one of them wasn’t good, and once she hears that I’m missing, she will fall. I know her—as furious as she is at me, if she thought something bad had happened to me...”

I trailed off and looked around the room, trying to find some sort of support and only finding Grey looking at me. I met his gaze, pleadingly, and was relieved when he looked over at Cali.

“I want to help her friend, too,” he said. “I owe it to her. Without her, I wouldn’t be alive to stand here right now. Besides, this might be your family down here, but up there—that’s hers. Imagine what you would do in her shoes.”

Cali stared at us both, her face an impassive mask. Then she turned to me and asked, “Do you think your friend could wait for a few more days?”

I felt my heartbeat pick up. “I think she could. Do you mean—”

“I can’t make any promises,” she said, holding her hand up to stop me. “And I won’t give you a firm date. But I have a meeting scheduled with my contact in the Eyes in a nearby signal relay station, and he can give me a better assessment of the situation. Maybe we can come up with a plan to get your friend a meeting with you. Does that seem fair?”

I paused, aware that everyone was waiting to see if I would accept her proposition.

I met her keen gaze. “Only if I get to go with you.”

She hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then nodded. “Very well.”

Our deal struck, I breathed a little bit easier, relieved that Cali did indeed have a heart. Now all I had to do was keep busy until it was time for the meeting—then, hopefully, we could get the information we needed to get Zoe’s rank up before things got too awful for her.

I prayed she could keep it together until I got to her.

30

Five days later, I found myself praying I could keep it together. I was bursting at the seams to get out of the tight confines of the monitoring station, to use my lashes, to do something. Not that I wasn’t finding ways to keep myself busy—there were all manner of ways to keep busy. Chores, training, repair work, sparring—I’d run out of time before I ran out of things to do.

And I got to know Tian, Quess, and Cali a bit better. Maddox as well, I suppose, but the young woman was a tough nut to crack. She talked, sure, but it was mostly dry witticisms, short statements with liberal doses of sarcasm and a general disdain for whatever I, in particular, was saying at any given time.

I’d hate her if she didn’t remind me so much of myself. Just a... gruffer version who was a little more unrefined than I’d like to think I was. Besides, I could fully comprehend that it was hard for any of them to let new people in. I learned that they’d been living this particular hideout for two years, and hadn’t interacted in person with too many people—neither with their contacts, nor with the other undoc units Cali managed. The policy kept them safe, so they couldn’t be identified and so no one knew where they were.

Their closeness was palpable, that much was sure. It was hard to even transition from room to room without feeling like an interloper. Tian, Quess, and Cali all tried their best to