The agents were on the opposite side of the central space, forced there by the press of bodies moving in the opposite direction. But they were still watching, shouting at each other.
I tugged Zane with me, keeping my head level and showing no obvious signs of distress, other than the ones everyone else was making. This was the trickiest part. If the agents recognized us in the crowd, we wouldn’t be able to get free before they caught up with us.
We merged in with the others, first on the edges and then on the middle, the flow pulling us along, like driftwood on the ocean. Or so I would imagine, if I’d ever seen the ocean.
My heart pounding, I waited, anticipating the ripple in the crowd as agents pushed toward us, ordering people out of the way.
But everyone continued to funnel outside without disturbance. After a few minutes of jostling, with Zane using his elbows and size to make space for us, the doorway loomed in front of us, and it seemed like we might just make it.
I bit my lip. Had we gotten away with it? I couldn’t tell for sure, unable see a damn thing besides all backs, sides, and elbows surrounding me.
I looked up at Zane, catching his attention by squeezing his hand.
“Do you see them?” I mouthed. Speaking aloud wouldn’t help with the noise of the alarm, and I was unwilling to rely on our intermittent ability to communicate by thought.
Zane craned his head to look back, then he turned to me with an admiring grin. “Two of them are looking around, checking stores,” he said near my ear so I could hear him over the alarm. “The other one is heading straight toward the back exit.”
I nodded, relieved, my shoulders sagging with it. Give them what they expected—a distraction, an attempt to evade—and then use it against them. Yet another of my father’s lessons that had saved me.
I felt a pang in my chest at the thought of my father. Was he out there somewhere? Lured into town under the guise of some request from his former employer, the military? The Committee had made it pretty clear that the target, well, targets, were not being held captive, had no idea they were being hunted.
My father was one of the smartest people I knew. He would have avoided any hint of GTX or Dr. Jacobs. But if the army had found him and asked him to come here for one made-up reason or another, I wasn’t sure he would say no. His loyalty ran deep.
Even to a child that wasn’t his, wasn’t even wholly human.
I pictured him as I’d last seen him, watching me run from GTX, his face grave but proud.
And my imagination immediately transformed that image into a photo, slipping free of a manila envelope and falling into Ford’s hand. I wondered if they’d given him to her intentionally, knowing that her appearance would disarm him. Possibly long enough for her to kill him.
My free hand contracted into a fist reflexively, fingernails digging into the palm of my hand, the bite of them a reassuring reminder that I was alive and free and there was still time to stop Ford and save my father.
Assuming he was even here. It was possible that they’d found someone else.
Next to me, Zane picked up my tension, whether through the grip of my hand on his or something more ephemeral, like the whisper of a stray thought. He bent down with a worried look. “What’s wrong?” He glanced around, searching for a new threat.
“Nothing. We’re fine,” I said, forcing a smile.
And we would be. As we crossed out in the bright sunshine, I refused to let myself consider any other possibility.
OUTSIDE, ARIANE KEPT US WITHIN the cloud of our fellow evacuees, leading me through as they milled around, using them as cover for as long as possible.
“Where are you supposed to meet Adam?” she asked when we reached the corner, moving swiftly to the right so that the buildings would block us from view. “And when?”
The sharpness in her expression was a little alarming. This was Ariane on a mission, certain, unrelenting, and not entirely human. Or, not human in a way that I’d seen in everyday life. She was focused but distant, a contradiction but the truth, regardless.
“You think Adam’s going to help us?” I asked. “He’s as douche-y as he looks, trust me.”
She shook her head. “If Justine thinks about it, she’ll realize that’s our only move. We need to beat her there.”
I hesitated. “We were supposed to meet at an alleyway, not far from Hole in One. I can show you where it is, but I don’t see what—”