The Girl Who Dared to Think (The Girl Who Dared #1)

“This is beautiful,” I said, my head tilting as my eyes absorbed the sights.

My shin connected with something hard, and I looked down to realize we were standing in a dining area in the style of the Water Treatment people. Pillows and mats littered the area around a small table that stood maybe a foot or two off the floor. There were already seven places set, along with a bowl of steamed vegetables and another bowl brimming with steamed rice.

A young man stepped around Grey, carrying a tureen, and I looked over at him as he approached, suddenly wary. His dark blue eyes seemed to smile at me as he sat the tureen down on the table. When he straightened, his hand was already held out.

“I’m Quess,” he said in a surprisingly soft voice. “Well, my full name is Quessian, but everyone has a hard time pronouncing it, so Quess is better.”

I grinned. “Medica?”

“Born and bred,” he replied with an answering grin, sharing in the joke. The Medica were known for giving their children unusual and never-before-heard-of names. It was a way of ensuring their prodigy and department would stand out. “But I transferred to the Eyes when I was fifteen, and later was a Cog.”

I blinked. He’d been an Eye and then a Cog? That seemed unlikely; Eyes were notoriously loyal, probably because disloyalty was rewarded with harsh and corporeal punishments. Not just for the offender, but for the offender’s co-workers. Their cruel tactics may not have inspired a lot of love, but they did inspire a lot of obedience.

“How’s that possible?” Grey asked, seeming to manifest between us, and I realized we were still shaking hands. I quickly let go, and to my surprise, Quess winked at me before giving a nod to Grey and disappearing into the kitchen. It took me a moment to realize he had left without answering Grey’s question.

Cali stepped off the ladder and into the room, softly clapping her hands together. “All right, everyone, we have guests tonight, so I expect your best behavior. Doxy, I am specifically addressing you when I say that.”

I looked over to see the statuesque woman rolling her eyes, begrudgingly getting back up off the sitting pillows to start shedding herself of knives and other tools of violence. By the time she was done, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly impressed—and extremely intimidated.

She caught me looking at her and swung her long hair over her shoulder, offering me a mocking smile as she sat back down on her cushions. I licked my lips and then chose a spot across from her, wanting to keep her within reaching distance. Grey took up a position on my left, while Roark took up a whole side of the square table to himself. Quess set down two more dishes: what appeared to be some sort of marinated potatoes, and some kind of bean dish.

My stomach made a pitiful sound at the sight of all that food, and I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t eaten at all today. Still, that didn’t stop my mouth from opening and questions from spilling out before I could remember my table manners.

“Where did you get all this food from? How are you living here undetected? Is it only the four of you? Why did you leave the Knights? How did Quess work in two different departments? What is it you want from us?”

I paused to take a deep breath, and Cali’s smile grew as she gracefully crossed her legs. Tian appeared from a door just past the kitchen and plodded over to Cali, curling up right beside her, and Cali immediately made room for the young girl.

“She has more questions than you do,” she said in a stage whisper into Tian’s ear, and the young girl grinned at me, showing me a toothy smile.

“Not possible,” she crooned, and Cali laughed.

“Our food is grown here,” Quess said. “Luckily, Maddox here got some time in as a Hand before her rank dropped to one. We have enough to take care of ourselves, although if your medication works the way that you say it does...” He turned a quizzical eye to Roark, who was already beginning to shovel food onto his plate.

Roark paused when he realized everyone was staring, his eyes going wide. “What? Were we not starting?”

“No,” Cali replied amiably. “Please, dig in, and I’ll do my best to explain. We are four, yes, but there are other smaller, family-like groups like ours scattered in hidden nooks and crannies all over this Tower. Not just in the Depths, but in the Tower proper. We aren’t detected because of the paint that you saw on the inside of the upper levels. It’s one of Quess’s designs—he’s quite the genius with inventions—and it blocks Scipio’s scanners from detecting us down here. I am sort of the de facto leader, but that’s more out of a desire or need to trade to get other supplies. As for this place, it used to be one of the water monitoring stations, back in the early years of the Tower, before Scipio was fully operational. Now that he is, the station is remotely operated, which means no one comes down here much.”

She paused to pour herself some water from a pitcher in the middle of the table, and took a sip. “Let’s see... Shortly after I lost out as Champion, I fell into a state of depression. If it weren’t for Doxy, I’d never have gotten through it. Anyway, my rank crashed and burned. I’d actually had some suspicions about the system being skewed to begin with, but when my number refused to improve no matter how good I felt, I knew something was going on. I started digging, and the more I dug, the faster I fell. I probably would’ve let myself get caught, if it hadn’t been for Maddox, because I was so stubborn about finding out the truth. She convinced me to run, and we ran. We’ve been hiding ever since.”

I took this all in, and looked around the room. “What about Quess?”

“Oh, I can explain that,” he said around a mouthful of broccoli. “You see, I was pretty much told to join the Eyes, which I wasn’t complaining about. As a Medic, I was garbage.” He grinned at me and added in a low voice, “Can’t stand the sight of blood. Anyway, I was excited to go to the Eyes because I thought it’d be tough and challenging. I had a good head for numbers and tested well in basic programming. Well, it took about three years before I got bored.”

I frowned. “You requested another transfer?”

Quess threw back his head and laughed loudly. “Oh, lord no. The head of IT would never have allowed it. Too many questions going on. But I didn’t really have to. I just created fake credentials with a new identity for myself, and showed up the next day with new quarters in Cogstown.”