All of them? I thought. Or just the ones who aren’t disposable?
As if to punctuate my thoughts, Mrs. Perkins turned, lifted her gun, and put a bullet between the headmaster’s eyes.
My stomach rebelled, nausea slamming into me with the force of a truck. I fought back against it, swallowing and willing my ears to stop ringing.
“Do I have your attention?” Mrs. Perkins asked.
“Yes.” I gritted out the word.
Mrs. Perkins knelt next to me, the way Dr. Clark had. The expression on her face was almost motherly. “You and I are going to have a chat, Tess. And then, as a show of good faith, I’m going to let you go.”
I stared at the hole in Headmaster Raleigh’s forehead, the blood streaming down his lifeless face.
“Let me go?” I repeated.
“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Perkins said. “I’m going to let you go, and you’re going to tell dear Ivy and the acting president and everyone else who asks everything I’m going to tell you. You will communicate our requests, and you’ll encourage the powers that be to respond appropriately.”
Respond appropriately. As in, give the terrorists what they want.
“And if they don’t?” I asked.
“You’re a resourceful girl,” Mrs. Perkins said, “related to some very powerful people. I have every confidence that you’ll work this out.”
My mouth went dry. “And if I don’t?”
“I’ll give you eight hours. After that, every hour on the hour, I will put a gun to one of your classmates’ heads. And, Tess?” Mrs. Perkins reached out and gently pushed a stray hair from my face. “I’ll enjoy pulling the trigger.”
CHAPTER 54
Less than two hours after I’d heard the first shot, I walked out the front gates of Hardwicke with my hands raised. I was greeted by a SWAT team, the FBI, Homeland Security, and a dozen guns trained at my head.
“Are you armed?” a woman in an FBI jacket asked. “Are you wearing any explosives?”
I shook my head.
“Are you injured?”
I gave another shake of my head.
“We need you to get down on the ground,” the woman said. “Face-first.”
I did as she asked. A second later, I was being patted down. They found nothing other than the USB drive I wore on a chain around my neck. Instructions. For the authorities. From Senza Nome.
They let me sit up. I didn’t realize I was bone-cold and shaking until the FBI woman put her own jacket around my shoulders. “You’re okay,” she told me. “Tess, I need you to listen to me: you’re okay.”
Maybe those words should have been comforting, but they weren’t. I was okay. But if I didn’t do exactly as Mrs. Perkins had instructed, if I didn’t follow orders, the others wouldn’t be. Not Vivvie. Not Emilia. Not even Henry, if they thought they had anything less than his undivided loyalty.
“I need an EMT in here!” the female FBI agent shouted. “She’s going into shock!”
People crowded in around me. Agents fired off questions. A medic shined a light in my eyes.
Eight hours, I thought. I have eight hours.
“Tess!”
My body responded to Ivy’s voice, my shoulders caving inward, my head coming up.
“Oh God, Tessie.” Someone tried to stop Ivy from coming to me. She turned on him like nothing I’d ever seen. “That is my daughter,” she said, fury in her voice and tears streaming down her face. “And the next person who tries to get between me and my daughter is going to rue their existence on this earth.” Ivy didn’t believe in unspecific threats: “Every secret you’ve been keeping will find its way out. Every decision you make will be questioned. You will be audited, investigated, and transferred to the most hellish nightmare of a desk job I can find. Now, get out of my way.”
Everyone got out of Ivy’s way.
She was by my side in a heartbeat. She dropped to her knees, fast enough and hard enough on the concrete that it must have hurt, but she didn’t seem to feel it. Her arms encircled my body, pulling me tight against her one second and pushing me away the next as she ran her hands over my shoulders and arms, assuring herself that I was here, that I was in one piece, that I was whole.
Then Ivy was saying my name, over and over again, a low, keening sound. She asked me if I was okay, her hands finding their way to the side of my face. She smoothed down my hair, pressed a kiss to my forehead.
My arms wrapped their way around her. “Ivy.”
“I’m here,” Ivy murmured into my hair. “You’re safe. I’ve got you, Tessie. I won’t let anything happen to you. I won’t ever let anything happen to you.”