“Kyra,” she said, saying not just my name, but saying it so sincerely and looking me in the eye that I couldn’t help the jolt of alarm that boomeranged in my chest. “I need you to get Tyler out of here.”
I didn’t understand why Griffin was being so secretive, or why she was all of a sudden confiding in me, especially considering she’d been the one to order my detainment in the first place.
“Where are Simon and the others?” I demanded, wondering if they were being held the same way I was.
“Simon’s safe. He’s making plans as we speak.”
“Plans? He was there when you had me arrested. I seriously doubt he’s helping you make any plans.”
“I explained everything to him; he gets why I had to do that now.”
“Mind explaining it to me?” I gave her my best this-better-be-good look while I waited.
Griffin pinched the bridge of her nose, releasing her breath on a hiss. “I know you don’t trust me, but you need to believe me when I tell you we have a traitor in our midst.”
Traitor. The word hit me like a thousand tons of lead.
I thought of Simon’s complicated history with Griffin.
“It’s not Simon,” I defended, my voice raising and echoing off the concrete walls. “And it’s not Willow either.”
“Shh!” she shushed, flapping her hands and warning me to keep it down. And then she met my gaze directly, her expression weary. “I know that, Kyra. It never was.”
I lost some steam with her admission. “So who, then?”
Pulling out a key, she unlocked the door and opened it. I didn’t know if she was coming in or if I was coming out, so we both just stayed where we were. “I wasn’t sure until I had you locked up. I had to make it look believable, so everyone would think I was keeping you prisoner.”
“Well, bravo. You were convincing.” I cocked my head to the side, crossing my arms. “But for what purpose?”
“I needed whoever the traitor was to think I was willing to trade you myself. That I planned to turn you in to the Daylighters. And then I waited.”
“For what?” I asked.
“For someone to try to get a message out.”
“I take it they did.” It wasn’t a question. Of course they had or Griffin wouldn’t be here now, telling me what her plan had been, and asking me to get Tyler away from this camp. “So . . .” I was almost afraid to ask. “Who was the traitor?”
Griffin came inside and dropped to the bunk. She put her face in her hands. It was a strange reaction, not at all what I’d expected.
I ran through the list of possibilities. I’d already ruled out Simon and Willow, and I mentally ticked off Jett, and Natty since she’d been with me almost every minute of every day since Simon and I had landed in Silent Creek.
“Thom,” I breathed, almost at the same time Griffin said it. But even hearing her voice echoing mine, I shook my head. “No . . .”
“It had to have been him back then too.” The accusation was pitiful, as if it was painful for her to say. “He must’ve been working with them, colluding all these years. I’ve always wondered how they could know so much.” Her face lifted so we were eye to eye. “Has Simon ever wondered how the Hanford camp was found out?”
“Thom?” I asked with almost as much disbelief as her. “But . . . why? And if they knew where the camps were, why didn’t the Daylighters just round you all up years ago?”
“Because we’re not the ones they really wanted. They’ve been looking for a Replaced. The Returned are child’s play.” Even her shrug was unenthusiastic. A whisper. “I mean, sure, they’re willing to do their experiments on us if we’re all they can get. They extract our DNA and dissect us and . . . who knows what else they do in that lab of theirs.” I hugged myself tighter, her words making my skin tighten. “But it’s always been about finding a Replaced. Thom’s no good to them, none of us are, not if they can’t get their hands on one of you.”
“One of us. You mean, me and Tyler?”
She nodded wearily. Tiredly.
But we couldn’t afford to be tired. “What about that Alex kid? What if he was a Replaced? What if they . . . the aliens are honing their skills and there are more of us out there? What if they no longer need five years, or even five days? What if we’re coming back in forty-eight hours?”
“That’s not our concern. At least not yet. For now, I need to get you two out of here.”
“And go where?” Just yesterday, the idea of leaving here with Tyler was exactly what I’d wanted. Now it just made me feel sick.
“Simon’s working on that. He’s setting up a rendezvous for you, a way to get you safely away from here.”
“What about the rest of you? What happens to you now? Is the Daylight Division on their way?”
“We’re doing what we always planned to do: fight.”
“I’ll help you,” I told her, “if you tell me the truth. Why Tyler? Why do you care so much what happens to him?”
She didn’t hesitate. “I think you already know the answer. He’s special.”
“So you care about him?” I asked, not sure why I was putting myself through this. I’d seen the way he looked at her. Hadn’t I already wondered if his feelings were more than just innocent when it came to her?
“Don’t we both?” she said, getting up and reaching for my arm. “Now, come on, we don’t have time to waste. We need to get you out of here, before it’s too late.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WE WERE AT THE EDGE OF THE OBSTACLE COURSE when the helicopters appeared overhead. But even before we heard them—or smelled and tasted the dust being stirred in the air, signaling their approach—there were shouts, calls to action all around us.
Griffin’s camp came to life.
It was no longer a group of teens being drilled in make-believe war maneuvers. Her Returned were fine-tuned soldiers under attack. There were far more of them than I’d ever imagined as they swarmed the field and the perimeter, looking like an endless stream of ants as they poured forth, coming from everywhere all at once. They manned their stations, and moved with the fluid quality of those who’d spent years on the battlefield.