I’m confused at first, unsure of whom he’s talking about, but then I remember Pia and note that he doesn’t want to mention her name. He thinks people are listening.
“You don’t need to worry about … her,” I say. “She says she’s trying to help me.” He must be afraid she’s going to write an article about Mr. Berry. Of course he would tell her he’s not there. They’re all afraid of Pia. Who would speak to her? I would insist on her honesty, but I can’t do that when I’m not completely sure myself.
“He can trust me,” I say.
“He’s not here, I told you,” he says, more impatient and a little louder. Then quietly again he adds, “He had to go away. He didn’t tell me where. He was in a hurry. He knew about the others.”
That startles me. So Mr. Berry wasn’t taken by Crevan. He is in hiding after what happened to the guards.
“Okay…” I think quickly. He doesn’t want to give names away, any information away. How can I say what I want to say? “I’m looking for something—do you know what it is?”
“Yes,” he practically whispers.
He knows about the sixth brand.
“Did you see it?” I ask, not wanting to mention the video directly. If Crevan’s people are listening, I don’t want to make it too easy for them.
There’s a long silence again, and I know my patience is being tested. This is like pulling teeth, but I must stick it out. I know he won’t answer the phone to me again. It’s now or never.
“Yes,” he says, finally, so faintly. “I saw it. I’m sorry about what happened to you.”
I try hard not to cry. “Do you have it? Do you know where it is?”
“No,” he says. “I told the other woman already. I don’t have it.”
I collapse back on my bed, so disappointed, so angry, my eyes fill up.
“But I didn’t tell her this,” he adds quickly. “You have it. He told me you have it.” He hangs up.
FIFTY-SIX
I SPRING UP to a seated position on my bed and stare at the phone in shock, goose bumps all over my body.
I have Mr. Berry’s video?
I redial his number. It rings and rings, no answer.
I have it? Mr. Berry says I have the video? How? When? Where? I look around my room, my head spinning, trying to think where it could be, how he could have given it to me, trying to remember those final moments when I was removed from the chamber and taken to the ward. Did I see him then? Did he slip his phone to me? But I was just wearing a gown. Where would I have put it? Did he visit me afterward? I was so heavily drugged, and in such shock, I remember very little. I remember Tina. Tina cared for me mostly while the nurse tended to me. But I don’t remember anyone else. Mary May already thoroughly searched my room. Was that what she was looking for? If she was, did she find it? I doubt it. I believe she thinks I have only five brands—she has referred to that fact enough. I don’t think she has any idea of what happened in that chamber, and I won’t make the same mistake I made with Pia, blurting it out just to show I have the upper hand. I know now that this information is highly sensitive.
And then I realize. Carrick is the only other person who was in that room with him. Carrick must have it.
I need help. Pia is gone on her mission and will report back to me who knows when, and the only other person who has been able to give me any information whatsoever on Carrick is Alpha. I decide I’m going to Alpha’s meeting, but I’m not going alone. I dial another number.
“Hello?”
“Granddad, I need your help.” I was never ready before, I never believed him before, I thought that he was a conspiracy theorist and that he was too irrational, but I know now that he was right about everything. I am ready now.
“Ah, she finally calls,” he says, a cheery sound. “And so it begins.”
*
The positive outcome from the week’s house arrest is that the press have disappeared from outside of the house, and they haven’t yet learned that the punishment has been withdrawn. If I’m not coming or going, there’s nothing for them to report, so I successfully manage to get to the local ice-cream parlor, my meeting point with Granddad, because that’s where he always used to take me and Juniper after Ewan was born to give Mom a break from us. Granddad is waiting in his dusty pickup truck with two ice creams.
“Showtime,” he says when I sit inside, and it’s the best I’ve felt for weeks.
After driving for almost an hour, during which I’ve filled him in on everything that has happened to me since we last met, including Alpha and her charity for the Flawed, the guards’ going missing, Pia’s helping me search for them, and my mission to find Carrick, especially now after Mr. Berry’s husband has told me that I have the video. Granddad listens intently as we drive, sometimes pulling over and asking me to repeat what I’ve said, listening to every word and, most important, believing me.
“What makes you think this lad Carrick has the video?” he asks.
“Well, it just makes sense,” I reply.