The others are closing in. You’re going to lose!
“They’re tracking the targets too.” Damn. No one had ever said anything about that. But then again, they’d also kept the whole multiple targets thing to themselves as well, so the lack of transparency on their part wasn’t really a surprise.
It was a problem, though. That meant Jacobs would be able to tell when Ariane wasn’t making progress, or whatever he deemed as acceptable progress. I pictured two glowing dots on a computer screen, moving closer or farther from each other. This morning, Ariane had pretty much done nothing more than go in very large circles. And if they had a contingency plan, some kind of backup in place in the event of rebellion or a hybrid gone wild—I pictured military snipers positioning themselves on nearby rooftops—then she might be in very real danger.
“Ariane, I think we might need to keep moving,” I said, glancing over my shoulder to the buildings across the street. I couldn’t see the roofline because of the angle, but suddenly it felt ominous that it was hidden from view. Like maybe we’d walked right into conditions ripe for a trap.
But Ariane didn’t seem to hear me, focused on the messages still. “‘The others,’” she said slowly.
“Yeah, I don’t…” I stopped as her meaning filtered through, and I felt a sudden stab of cold. “‘The others,’ as in more than one. More than Ford.” That could only be one person. Crap. “Adam.”
“He has your phone and vitals tag,” Ariane said with a nod, letting me know she suspected the same thing. “And he saw the contents of the packet, the pictures of Carter.”
I shook my head, even though the sinking feeling in my gut told me more than I wanted. “He was just supposed to be out there, moving around, pretending to be me, so they wouldn’t realize I was with you.” It had been Justine’s call to use him as a decoy instead of bringing in someone else on our secret.
“Jacobs could be lying,” she said. “Just to motivate me.”
It was possible, but all I could see was the look on Adam’s face when Emerson told him that I was going to the trials in his place. It was the same expression I’d seen from him every time I’d failed at using my new abilities or simply not succeeded as quickly as he had. Disgust. Envy. Hate.
“No,” I said. “Adam’s got something to prove, and I think he’s using us to do it. He wants to be their guy. Badly.” I shook my head. “If he accomplishes the mission while I ‘fail’…”
“He’s hoping the Committee will honor success over anything else, including that you were chosen as St. John’s official candidate,” Ariane said. “Actions speak louder than words.”
“Exactly.”
“Which means Carter is in danger.” Her expression was grim. “Along with our plan.”
“IF ADAM FINDS CARTER AND kills him, we lose our connection to Ford and whomever she’s hunting,” I said, trying hard to focus on the practical, the logical, against the wave of emotion inherent in the thought of Carter, with his shy smile and his iPad and his desire to keep attending school, dying.
My chest ached at the idea of impending loss; there were so few of us. Living, anyway. We were like a small, oddly shaped family. No branches on our tree, just strands of DNA binding us, like the old-fashioned paper dolls for which our project had been named. Always tied together by our similarities, unable to escape them.
“But I’m more worried about what Ford will do,” I added.
“I thought you said distance keeps them from actively connecting,” Zane said.
“Yeah, but if he dies, if the bond is completely and permanently severed, I can’t imagine that she won’t sense that,” I said. Even if it was just an absence where previously there’d been…something. If so, she’d certainly recognize the feeling; she’d lost other members of her group. Nixon. Johnson.
“You’re afraid she’ll lose her shit,” Zane said.
“I think if Carter is gone, she’s got no reason to keep from lashing out,” I said. When Nixon died, she threw SUVs around and killed at least one of Laughlin’s security team. With Carter, the last member of her family and her motivation for trying to succeed, I could only imagine how much worse it would be. I wasn’t sure any human would be safe around her at that point, let alone one who had been designated as a target.
Whomever she’d been assigned would die, and it would be ugly. There would also likely be additional civilian casualties, anyone who got in Ford’s way once she’d pulled herself together after the temporary disorientation from Carter’s death.
So, no, this particular row of dominos could not be allowed to fall, never mind that I had no idea how to stop it.
I squared my shoulders. “Did Adam say anything else to you when he looked at the packet?” I asked Zane. “Anything that might tell us where he’d be going to find Carter?”