The Girl Who Dared to Endure (The Girl Who Dared #6)

I hesitated. She made a really good point. Dammit. “All right. But be careful.”

She nodded, and then began creeping down the gap in the wheat, turning sideways to keep from rustling too many of the leaves as she went. I held my breath while she walked away, discomforted by the fact that we had just finished bringing her up to speed on everything except for Scipio and the fragments, and now I was letting her turn around and risk getting caught by someone we knew was one of Sadie’s allies.

I watched her for as long as I could before she disappeared behind the vegetation, and then slid out past Maddox, to see what Plancett was up to. He was standing now, both arms lifted high over his head as he stretched his lower back. The handkerchief—blue-and-white microfiber—hung like a beacon from his back pocket, scant inches way from a stalk of wheat.

He emitted a long groan, and then bent over to start gathering up his tools. I realized then that he was done, and that any second he would be moving out of there. Which meant that any second after that, the harvester would come back on—and Dylan could be sucked right into the machine.

My fingers twitched at the thought and I lifted up my arm, about to call to Dylan to forget the whole thing, when I saw a crimson-clad arm shoot out of the vegetation, grab the blue-and-white corner dangling from Plancett’s pocket, and lift it straight out. I stood stock still, waiting for Plancett to notice, but he continued to gather his tools and toss them into a heavy black bag, oblivious.

A few moments later I heard the rustle of leaves that signaled Dylan’s return, the handkerchief gripped tightly in her hand.

“Here,” Maddox whispered, looking over her shoulder before holding up a specimen bag. Dylan dropped the handkerchief inside, and Maddox quickly sealed it up and tucked it into her pocket. “Two down, one to go,” she whispered, patting her pocket.

I nodded and waved at them both to follow me back into the dust cloud, wanting to hurry away before Plancett finished his packing and noticed us. We couldn’t afford anyone noticing us close to him as it could alert the legacies that we potentially knew they were working with him. I wouldn’t feel safe until I was off this floor and back in the Citadel.





31





“Well, that went better than I thought it would,” Dylan commented as we exited the large greenery.

I glanced at the tall blond woman, and found her confidence irritating. All I could think about were the dozens of ways we could’ve been caught—might’ve already been noticed. If any of the Hands had seen us lurking around Plancett and reported it to him, or if Dreyfuss didn’t buy our flimsy cover story, we might have just lost any chance we had of catching Sadie’s partner.

A part of me wished I could just arrest them all and figure it out afterward, but if I was right and we made a move, the legacies would know, and retaliate. We had to take them all at once, but even if we identified who the father was, we still couldn’t account for where the undoc arm of their cell was. Finding them came next, and another chat with Liam might help—but then again, it might not. My stomach twisted into knots as I thought about what would happen if we messed up this chance. If they disappeared before we could corner them…

I looked away from Dylan, despair threatening to overwhelm me.

No, I told myself firmly. I’m not giving in to what ifs. This is the best plan available to us right now. Figure out who the father of all the undocs is, then figure out where the undocs themselves are. Liam might tell us, and if he doesn’t, we can put eyes on whoever the father is and follow him until he leads us there. It might take longer than the week we had, but I wouldn’t be leaving anyway, so I just had to make sure I surrounded myself with trustworthy Knight Commanders before the others left. That way I could finish the mission without them.

“Liana?”

I glanced to my right, where Maddox was walking next to me, and realized I had missed whatever they were talking about. “Sorry, I was thinking. What’s up?”

“Did Sage get back to you with a meeting time?” she asked, and I blinked, reality rushing right back in.

“Oh, one second.” I angled for an area free from people and made my way to it, slipping between throngs of workers and families walking away from Biggins. I grabbed my pad from the front pocket of my uniform, quickly tapped it on, and pulled up my messages. There was one waiting from Sage, and I tapped on it impatiently. It was shorter than I had hoped, just, Sure thing! Tomorrow morning after eight is best for me. See you then. Sage.

Disappointment rippled through me at the delay in meeting him, but there was ultimately nothing I could do. If I pushed for something tonight, it would undoubtedly arouse his suspicions, and without a valid reason to force the issue, he could and might refuse. Worse, if he was a legacy and had already been told to watch out for me, then any suspicious moves on my part would clue him in to the fact that something was wrong. We had to wait.

“Tomorrow,” I said, shutting off the pad and shoving it back into my pocket.

Maddox rolled her eyes, and Dylan sighed heavily. “What do we do until then?” Dylan asked, and I considered her question. There wasn’t much to do but more research, and as we hadn’t told Dylan about the fragments, I wasn’t about to let her join in on that. I didn’t trust anyone beyond my group with that information; it was too dangerous.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t continue to work on this in her own way.

“I want you and a Knight you trust to follow Plancett and Dreyfuss. Give the Knight’s name to Maddox so we can clear him or her and get a DNA profile to make sure whoever you choose isn’t related to the legacies in any way. Don’t tell them what this is about. Just tell them to use plain clothes and be discreet. Pursue, but don’t interfere, and if the subject you are following disappears, don’t bother trying to find him. Just mark down where you lost him and reset in the best position for finding him again. If they disappear completely, I expect they’ll be going to see the undocs, which will mean that position will probably be close to where they are hiding. It is critical that neither of you follows them too closely; if you’re seen, they will disappear, and we might not be able to find them again.”

Dylan blinked several times and then shook her head, as if clearing it from a punch. “Right,” she said, surprise radiating in her voice. “So, that was really specific.” She cleared her throat and hesitated, and I felt a little bad. We had just clued her in to our problems, and I had just laid out a whole heap of orders that spoke to how paranoid I was about this.

“I know a kid,” she said after a moment. “He’s fresh out of the Academy, but he used to be a bit of a pickpocket in the markets before he reformed his ways. He’s good. I’ll have him checked out, but this is a big operation for just two people. We’re going to need more.”

I took a deep breath. She was right, of course, but I didn’t like it. More people involved meant a higher possibility of word getting out. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We can’t afford any word of this getting out.”

“But if we clear their DNA, that should prove they aren’t involved, right?”

“Maybe, but the legacies could’ve corrupted them in other ways. We know they hand out extra ration cards to Plancett—why wouldn’t they use that for other things as well? Who wouldn’t turn their head for a week’s worth of rations?” Maddox asked the questions before I could even get there mentally, but they were all valid points.

The ration cards gave me pause, though, as I suddenly realized that Sage—not Plancett—was the only one in the Tower with the authority to issue ration cards, based on an individual’s nutritional needs at their biannual physical. And I knew that he offered them to anyone who could bring him pre-End medical journals.