He’d admitted it. He’d gone to the museum. But . . . if he was trying to conceal what he’d done to Natalya, would he have admitted it so casually? Or maybe he was so casual exactly because he wanted to throw me off? I stepped back. What was I supposed to believe?
“You okay? Are you tired?” he asked, but the moment I saw his hand reach out for me, my body jerked away so violently that he withdrew it immediately, shocked. “Maia . . .”
“Sorry, I’m okay,” I lied. And we stood there staring at each other.
Did he or didn’t he kill Natalya? The truth was, I wasn’t prepared for the consequences of knowing.
9
IT WAS EARLY IN THE evening when I got a call from Cheryl, Sibyl’s mousy assistant.
“The mission starts in sixteen hours,” she said. “But before your briefing, Director Langley wants you to report to the Research and Development department. Fifth floor.”
She sounded distracted, so I wasn’t surprised to hear shuffling in the background. Probably another mountain of paperwork. She now had to deal with constant requests to set up photo shoots, radio interviews, and other frivolous marketing stuff superfluous to her actual job as an assistant. I guess when she suggested to Sibyl that we get pushed as the pretty and marketable faces of the Sect, she didn’t expect to be the one taking on the brunt of the work.
“Just me?” I wasn’t particularly feeling up to doing much of anything after what had happened this morning.
“Just you.” Cheryl sounded annoyed over the phone, but then these days she was always a little irritated with someone. “You need to get fitted for your new equipment before the mission begins.”
Effigies get equipment? I get equipment? I jumped off my bed. Hopefully, it was something badass. I always thought it kind of sucked that agents got really high-tech weapons and gizmos while we Effigies just relied on our own natural ability to control the forces of nature and summon giant weapons out of nothing—
Actually, no, that was kinda cool too.
But having actual equipment certainly wouldn’t take away from the cool; it could only enhance it. Like how you could equip Aki from the Metal Kolossos series with different armor and accessories. Hey, being an Effigy was dangerous and bloody and usually resulted in tragedy and death, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t have a little fun with it. I definitely could use a little fun right about now.
Chae Rin and Belle were off training again—separately. Not unexpected for the two in our team who were the least gung ho about being in one. My dear roommate, Lake, was still stomach-down on her bed, completely free other than anonymously writing malicious comments on pop forums about her old pop group.
“What?” she said. “I’m nervous about the mission and this helps me relax.”
“Okay.” I dragged her off her bed by the legs. “Let’s get some fresh air.”
It was better to go to R & D with someone else anyway. The long trek across the grounds was twisty and confusing, the directions taking us through the stone halls and the overhead walkways overlooking the grounds.
We reported to a giant, busy laboratory on the fifth floor of the department. While some scientists bustled up and down the long aisle, others were busy at their terminals, studying the metallic-blue specs projected onto translucent LCD screens so thin and wide the figures could have been twisting in the air all by themselves. Natural light sifted in through the army of blinded windows lining the walls. But the electric lighting fixtures on the ceiling would have been more than enough to illuminate the room.
My eyes followed down the aisle all the way to the huge monitor hanging on the wall at the front of the lab. There were other computer screens, much smaller, screwed into the wall, but this one showed a map of the world against a black screen. Some areas lit up with red spheres of different sizes, its color fading as it radiated outward.
“What’s that?” I pointed at the monitor, walking ahead of Lake down the walkway.
“A map. Novel, isn’t it?”
I stopped in my tracks. Behind one of the terminals to my right, just in front of a glass case filled with Sect-grade weaponry and Sect maroon suits, stood Rhys, dressed in a blue-gray baseball jacket and a pair of faded jeans just tight enough to showcase his long legs.
“Uh, I swear I’m not stalking you,” he said, noticing my surprise.
As he started toward me, I thought back to the momentary silence that’d stretched between us in the gym and started shifting on the balls of my feet, my brain sputtering for some kind of excuse to leave.
“Those red circles represent cylithium-rich areas.” He tossed his black hair with his long, delicate fingers. “Helps them anticipate phantom attacks.”
“Right, right. Cylithium.” I took a step back. “What are you doing here?”
I asked because I couldn’t look at him without thinking of Natalya. It was difficult enough to approach the questions with a clear mind even when he wasn’t around. But when he was . . .
“I said, why are you here?” I repeated a little too sharply.
Rhys stopped dead in his tracks. It could have been disappointment softening his eyes—or hurt.
“They made some upgrades to our suits.” He pointed at the glass case. “I came to make sure everything was ready for the mission. That’s all . . . really.”
Maybe it was because of the accusatory sting in my tone that he sounded so insecure.
He started toward me again, but before I could run, he stopped at a terminal to his right by the wall, tapping someone on the shoulders. I couldn’t see what the very short woman was welding at her desk, but I could see the smoke sizzling from the little pen she gripped gingerly in her hands. She jumped a bit at Rhys’s touch, lifting up her safety glasses to glare at him, her sleeves pushed up past her elbows. But with an amused look, he pointed at me instead.
She whipped around, blinking when she caught sight of me. “Oh, you’re finally here?” Grinning wide, she waved me over. “Oh, good, good. Get over here and take off your clothes.”
“Excuse me?” Lake exclaimed behind me.
I could barely see the woman’s face before she whipped around again.
“Dot, you’re thinking of someone else.” The blonde at the terminal next to her shook her head. “These are two of the Effigies.” She nodded at me. “You’re Maia, right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “And I’m definitely not taking off my clothes.”
“Oh, right!” The woman named Dot smacked her own forehead. That’s when I finally took stock of her tiny face and nut-brown eyes, wide and bright like jewels against sallow, sickly skin. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Forget that, go away, I don’t need you. Oh, wait, no . . .” A pause. “Sorry, the neck-band, right. I was working on that. Come here, come here.”
Blindingly pink high heels clicked on the tiled floor as she adjusted her seat at the bench, her lab coat swishing behind her.