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

“Of course I do,” she replied. “But number one, all of us going up to the roof at once to listen to him is foolish, and two, you’re his sister. If it were Tian or even Quess, I’d want some time alone with them. It’s scary—he’s so far away, and if anything goes wrong out there…”

My stomach clenched, and I looked away. “Thanks,” I said sardonically. “Exactly what I needed to hear.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. The elevator chose that moment to stop, and we quickly got off, making room for the group of Cogs who were next in line. I nodded at them respectfully as we passed, and I got a few surprised smiles, as well as a greeting of “Champion” delivered in quite a few excited voices.

I smiled, but didn’t say anything as we slipped past them, moving for the large opening that would take us out of the shell and back into the central chamber. We took one of the nearby bridges into the Citadel—I inclined my head at one of the sentries as we passed his station—and then entered the reception hall, aiming for the elevator.

The entire time, I searched the crowd for some sort of hidden danger lurking among the people who seemed to fill the wide space. I couldn’t help it. Maddox was right not to let me go alone; there had been hundreds of people between Biggins and the Citadel, and any one of them could’ve been sent to kill me. It wasn’t until I hit the final elevator that I was really aware I had been doing it, and the relief poured through me as soon as the elevator slid upward and away.

I couldn’t wait for this paranoia to be finished and done with. I was sick of it—always worrying about someone’s motivations or goals, never being able to trust that they were on my side. If we could just get all of the legacies collected, and then convince the council of what they had done, maybe I could finally relax a little. Maybe I would finally have some people in the council I could share the burden with.

But until then, I had to keep everyone at arm’s length.

The lift stopped between levels 42 and 43—the spot I’d chosen yesterday for the new entry to my quarters, after everything was said and done—and we stepped off and headed down the hall toward the war room. With the exception of Leo and Tian, everyone was in the room working on something when we got there. Even Eric, it seemed, although his pile of work seemed significantly smaller than anyone else’s—no doubt Zoe’s requirement for letting him out of bed.

Quess was the first to notice us. His smile for me was kind, whereas the one for Maddox was pure hunger, his dark eyes lightening significantly. “How’d it go?” he asked lightly.

“We’ve got hair and a handkerchief,” Maddox said, pulling the bags out of her pocket. “But we need someone to get down there and help Dylan keep an eye on Plancett and Dreyfuss. I’d do it, but I’m going with Liana up to the roof to call her brother. And before anyone asks, it’s just us two. No need for anyone else to come.”

“Awww,” Eric said. “But I missed the adventure last night!”

“And you’re missing it tonight, too,” Zoe said from next to him. “The war room and back was what we agreed to.”

Eric huffed playfully, but I could tell he was pleased. I was, too. Their happiness was a spot of joy in my life. I honestly wasn’t sure what I would do without them.

“Well, Liana wants some time alone with her brother,” Maddox said. “So everyone can forget about it. Now, who’s ready to pull an all-nighter and help Dylan? We need someone to help her shadow Plancett and Dreyfuss for the rest of the night.”

Everyone groaned, except for Eric. “I’ll go,” he said.

Zoe snapped her eyes toward him, already sucking in a breath to tell him how wrong he was, but he beat her to it. “There’s a chance Dreyfuss killed my dad,” he told her flatly, and I realized that Zoe must’ve shown him the graphic novel and the messages between Sparks and Plancett. “Quess did fine on my wounds, and I’ve slept enough. Besides, it’s not exactly like I’m pulling much weight, here. Staring at these files is making my eyes cross. I can’t make heads or tails of this crap, and you know it.”

Zoe’s mouth remained open for a second or two longer, and then closed slowly. I could sense an undercurrent to their conversation—something that told me Eric was conveying some deeper meaning that I wasn’t picking up—and for some reason, it seemed to change Zoe’s mind.

“Fine,” she said with a scowl. “But I’m going with you.” I absorbed the oddness of their exchange, mentally making a note to ask Zoe later, but tucked it away, relieved. Especially that Zoe was going with him. I loved Eric to death, but he couldn’t stay awake for a shift to save his life.

Eric smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Let’s go grab some supplies and head down there.”

I watched them start to get up and realized that I hadn’t asked about Grey or Leo. I wasn’t sure who, if anyone, had checked on them since they had fainted this morning and I had tucked them in, but I wanted to make sure they were okay. “Did anyone check on Grey and Leo?”

“I did,” Quess said. “They are still out. I gave them another bag of fluids and left them a plate of food in case they wake up, but that was a few hours ago. Also, I may have gotten a step closer to figuring out who this plastic surgeon guy is.”

I perked up a little. “Really? What do you have?”

“Well, like P, he’s clearly important enough to warrant his own alias. He goes by ‘Dr. Smiley’ in the transmissions, which are untraceable. The messages don’t contain much in the body, but the attachments have files documenting the surgical changes with before-and-after pictures. None of the files are complete, so I’m having Jasper compile the different images to feed into the Citadel’s files and figure out everywhere they’ve been. It also gives us the most recent images of our targets.”

“That’s great,” I said. “But no clue as to who he is yet?”

“No, but I’m going to figure it out. I have a feeling having the most recent pictures of people will help.”

I wasn’t sure why, but I trusted Quess on this. His instincts had proven accurate before, and I was willing to go with anything that led us to the surgeon’s identity. “Keep me updated.”

There was a pause, and I found myself thinking of Leo and Grey again. As much as I wanted to go check up on them both, I didn’t want to put calling Alex off any longer. I could check on them when we got back.

“All right,” I replied. “Quess, looks like you’re in charge while we’re gone.”

Quess looked around the empty conference table, and then back to us. “Gee, thanks.”

“Don’t worry, my boy,” Jasper said. “I’m also here, and happy to help!”

“Well, that’s something at least,” Quess replied dryly before rolling his eyes. “Have fun, I guess?”

“You mean climbing the forty stories of stairs?” Maddox asked sweetly. I started to remind her that there were elevators, but realized she wanted to mask our comings and goings as much as possible, which meant keeping off the elevators. And she was probably right to. Dammit. “Yeah, I’m sure we’ll have a blast with that. We definitely got the better job.”

I chuckled, but my legs were already aching in anticipation of the climb. Quess, however, laughed outright and ducked his head. “Fair point, beautiful. But seriously, be careful?”

“We will be,” she promised as she turned to me. “Ready when you are.”

“Oh, I’m ready,” I said. “But what do you say we raise the quarters first, before we start our little climb?”

Maddox laughed outright, nodding her head in agreement. “Yes,” she replied dryly. “Let’s do that. Because I am not looking forward to this climb either.”





32





Getting to the roof only took us half as long as it had the night before—likely because we weren’t hauling a body between us—but the climb was no less painful. If anything, it was even more so, given that we had barely had a day to recover from the last time.