“Yeah, Mom. Meg is all those things and more,” Alik tried to keep the emotion from his voice. He didn’t want to share with everyone what he really saw during his retro-cogging.
He really saw a skeletal version of his sister, gaunt and shaking. He saw her fighting just to stand on her boney legs in a defensive position, wild-eyed and nearly broken. He couldn’t tell his family all that he really saw. He needed them to keep the flame alive. So he only told them what they needed to know.
“What time will you land?” Theo asked.
“We should land midnight your time.”
“I’ll be there to pick you up.”
“Thanks, Theo.”
“This is the closest we’ve gotten to her since—” Margo cleared her voice and glanced anxiously toward Evan who was staring at a spot in the tile floor. “I’m just so thankful we’re getting closer, Alik. We’ll think of something. Thank you for calling and please stay safe.”
“Okay, Mom.”
“I love you, Ali. And tell Farrow and Creed I love them, too.”
“Will do. Bye.”
The phone clicked dead but everyone continued to stare at it as though it would give one more piece of information if they waited long enough.
Minutes later the family made their way back into the living room only to find Danny had crawled into Maze’s crate and was sleeping with one arm draped over the silver coat of the dejected creature. The scene was sweet and sad but turned confusing when Theo reached in to slip the child out and found Maze drenched with water. The coydog’s right front ankle looked completely healthy and absent of the swelling that had been there just minutes before.
“Margo? What do you make of this?” he whispered over his shoulder at the woman in the wheelchair.
Chapter 52 Blood-Red
“Meg? Wake up. We’re almost there.”
“Hmm?”
He watched her stir from deep sleep. It was all he could do not to reach out and gently brush her dark, curly lock away as it slipped across her pale face. As they drove down the long hospital driveway, the street lights lining the edges laid a rhythmic light pattern across the bridge of her dainty nose. He had been watching her sleep for the past two hours and hated to wake her, but he knew Arkdone would be waiting for them. Maybe it was just the echoes of the last three months of watching over her, but he was determined to help her stand tall and ready for what the Senator was going to say.
“Meg…wake up.” He reached out to nudge her shoulder but his hand hesitated, hovering just above her. Fear gripped him.
Do I really want to wake her from her innocent sleep? He thought. Her world is going to change the moment she talks with the Senator. Maybe…
She pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked around blurry-eyed for a moment before her dark gaze landed directly on the soldier seated beside her.
“Gideon?”
“Yes?”
“Just checking.” Meg’s shoulders relaxed.
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Ask me if I’m here, like you can’t see me.”
“Sometimes I can’t see you,” Meg answered cryptically, not wanting to provoke Sirus into pushing forward. “Is all that the Senator’s home?” Meg nodded toward the large complex looming before them.
“He lives in a very small part of the hospital.”
“It’s a hospital?” Meg asked, surprised.
“A psychiatric hospital.”
“Creepy.”
“It has its moments.”
Meg was trying to run her fingers through her thick hair and rub the sleep from her eyes.
“Is the Senator waiting for me?”
“I have no doubt.”
“Should I be scared?”
“Just be yourself. I’ll be right beside you.”
“But he’s your ‘controller,’ right? You have to obey him.”
“He has worked too hard to get you back, Meg. He’s not going to hurt you.” He looked into the girl’s eyes reassuringly—trying to keep his mounting worries to himself.
Meg cocked her head to the side as though listening to his thoughts and he knew he was busted. To her credit, she didn’t burst into tears. Instead, she locked her jaw and nodded once.
“If something happens, I’d like to have a code word and meet-up location with you.” Meg had lowered her voice and leaned toward the soldier’s shoulder to whisper her suggestion in his ear. “You know, something just between you and me?”
“I don’t know if that’s necessary,” Gideon hesitated.
Afraid he would switch before she got to make this clear, she blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Code word: blood red. Meeting place: Gate 8 at the airport we just left.”
“Why Gate 8?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” she said under her breath, eyes wide with anxiety as Ermos pulled the limo up to the intimidating front doors of the psychiatric asylum.