“Stand up,” he says. “Turn around.”
I turn to the window, my mind naturally traveling back to that first night on the base when Topher pressed himself into my back, his drunkenness, his heartbreak, his disdain for me so potent I wanted to kill him with my bare hands. Maybe everything that I thought had changed was an illusion. I don’t even think we were ever really friends. And he was never going to be Tucker. Even Tucker wasn’t who I thought he was. Neither of them was. I feel like I just keep taking their masks off but never get to the real person underneath.
“Put your hands behind your back.”
“Topher, please.” Like all the senior officers, he carries around cable ties, to truss up anyone who gets out of hand. It’s been happening more and more, with the younger men especially. Cabin fever and homemade alcohol. I’ve never seen Topher restrain a girl before though. “Come on. Where am I going to go?”
“Hands. Behind. Your back.”
I do it. And flinch when he pulls the cable tie much too tight.
“You brought a Nahx here.” His voice is choked with fury. “You brought a Nahx to the one safe place left on Earth.”
“I had no other way of getting back. I couldn’t have done it without him. He saved my life.”
“Are you that stupid? It was a trick. It tricked you into leading it here.”
Outside, the wind turns to rain, fat drops clicking against the small window like distant gunfire. Topher yanks me back and pushes me into the chair, my hands crumpling uncomfortably behind me.
“You have about sixty seconds until security gets here. It’s time to tell me everything you know.”
“About what?” I ask stupidly.
“Did this Nahx have any others with him?”
“No. He killed the only other one we encountered.”
That makes Topher frown. “What about communications? A radio? A transmitter?”
“None that I saw. He was lost. Like separated from his . . . whatever . . . platoon. I think he was basically AWOL.”
“Or a spy.”
I almost laugh at that. August seemed so confused most of the time; I can’t imagine him stringing together that kind of deception.
“I saw the one he killed. If he was a spy, why would he kill one of his own people?”
“Did you see him actually kill it? This other one?”
“No. But I know he did. There were two of them. A male and a female. I killed the female and August killed the male.”
“How do you know he killed it?”
It occurs to me that Topher has started referring to August as “he” and not “it.” Perhaps I should file that away as a minor victory. “He told me. Why would he lie?”
“To gain your trust, of course. You haven’t been watching the videos. Most of the time when you think one of them is dead, they get up and walk away a few hours later. So he pretended to kill it, to prove he was on your side so you would lead him right here. Jesus, Raven.”
He begins to pace.
“That’s not what happened. He abandoned his people. He saved my life.”
“Saved your life? All I saw was a Nahx beating the crap out of you. I thought you were dead when he picked you up.”
My blood turns to ice. “That wasn’t him,” I say. “He picked me up after the other one knocked me out. He killed that one too, I think.” Out in the hallway, I hear the door burst open and the sound of boots on the concrete floor. “Topher, there were two Nahx there with me in the stadium, right? You saw him. You saw him save me.”
“I don’t remember.”
“You must remember! A dead Nahx with my knife in its throat would have been right there! August killed him to save me.”
“Raven, I was out of my mind. I thought you were dead. This Nahx was running off with you. I was firing arrows at him and chasing you. I didn’t stop to check out the scenery.”
Before I can convince him, the security team arrives. Xander and Emily.
“What’s going on?” Xander says.
“Take her down to a detention cell,” Topher says.
Xander, bless him, scratches his head, looking down at me. “Toph?”
“You heard me. Take her. I’m right behind you.”
Xander thinks about it for a few seconds until Emily steps forward and hoists me up. I bite back a whimper of pain.
Faces turn to me as we travel through the base, toward the long stairway down to the detention cells. And we pass people I know. People I recognize. They don’t seem very surprised to see me being hauled away in restraints. But I suppose nothing much surprises anyone anymore. Faces turn away from me just as quickly.
While the command deck is about two hundred feet above the residence decks, the detention cells are deep beneath, tucked among the storerooms, the generator, and water heaters that feed off an underground river and hot springs. Under many feet of rock and ice. Uncomfortably claustrophobic for me, a cell will be a nightmare for August.
“Let me speak to him,” I say, twisting my neck back to look at Topher. “Let me see the Nahx. He can help us get out of the occupied territory. I know he can.”
“I thought you said they can’t speak,” Topher says.
“They don’t. Not with voices. They have signs. I learned a lot of them. And he can read. Maybe he can write.”
Topher walks in silence behind us as I watch him, my neck cramping from the effort of twisting it back.
“Put her in an empty cell,” he says, then turns to me. “Liam is on his way down. You need to speak to him.”
I stumble as Emily shoves me into a cell, and I fall painfully to my knees. Topher stares down at me from the doorway as I roll awkwardly into a sitting position.
“Can you untie me now?”
“A black belt in karate? Would that be wise?”
“You’re a black belt too.”
“You know I can’t take you, Raven. I’ve never been able to.” I guess the irony of the truncheon and pistol holstered at his hip is lost on him. But then he shrugs and cuts the bindings with a pocketknife. I hear voices out in the corridor, as Topher steps back through the door, clicking it shut behind him.
The walls seem to close around me. After a few minutes I hear Liam’s voice outside. He is yelling. He is not happy.
“Go back up to command!” he bellows “Make sure the sentry patrols are doubled. You take an attack team to the north entrance.”
“Yes, sir,” I hear Topher say. It gives me chills.
The lock on the door clicks open and Liam stands there staring down at me, with Xander and Emily behind him as guards. I twitch involuntarily, my shoulders aching. Liam steps forward. He looks as though he might say something. But then in the blink of an eye, before I can react, he pulls his fist back and punches me so hard in the face I feel my brain jangle against my skull.
“What the fuck did you do?” he says as I struggle back up onto my knees, my face throbbing. “That piece of shit in the next cell is your doing. When its army arrives and kills us all, it will be your fault.”
“No army is arriving,” I say. “August is on our side. He left his platoon. He saved my life. He can help us get out of here. He could help us get to the coast. He wants to help us.”