now.
Becca didn’t say anything. Was there any point in trying to pretend she hadn’t helped Jake? And yet she couldn’t bring herself to say she had done it, couldn’t admit to dissident activity in this of all places.
“Did Jake approach you first,” Eli asked, “or was it one of the teachers?”
Becca blinked. “What?”
“Who was it that recruited you? Was it Jake, or the teacher who told you to warn him and find him a place to hide?”
The teacher thing, Internal’s invented conspiracy. He wanted to weave her into it. Make her useful. Just like her mom had said.
“There isn’t—” She almost told him there had never been any conspiracy, almost admitted she knew what Internal had been doing. She stopped herself just in time. If they knew her mom had betrayed Internal’s secrets by telling her…
So what if they knew? Her mom hadn’t gotten her out of here. Why should Becca protect her?
But she didn’t finish her sentence.
She started over. “He didn’t recruit me into anything. Nobody did.”
“Please, Becca. I just want to get you out of this place. You know what will happen to you if you stay here.”
She didn’t answer.
“You don’t have to worry about how it will reflect on you. With a mother like yours, I know you would never have ended up in a position like this if there weren’t some very persuasive people behind it. I understand. Just tell me what Jake and the others have been telling you, and who told you to protect him.”
“You said all I had to do was tell you where Jake was.” Not that it mattered; she wouldn’t have told him anyway. She wouldn’t have traded Jake’s life and his dad’s for hers. Right?
Right?
“That would be a good start,” he said. “But finding one dissident isn’t going to help us very much, especially since he’s probably an innocent victim like you. We need to find the people responsible for dragging kids like you into this. Maybe it wasn’t even anybody at your school. Maybe this has reached further than we suspected.”
He wouldn’t let her go. No matter what she told him, no matter who she accused. He would add it to their collection of false confessions and use it to condemn more innocent people. Public Relations would take advantage of the fact that she was Raleigh Dalcourt’s daughter to prove that the dissidents could corrupt anyone. And she would die in the room where Anna had died, or on TV for everyone in the country to watch.
He wouldn’t let her go. It was a lie.
Wasn’t it?
Eli sighed. “This is silly, Becca. Why are you protecting these people, after what they’ve gotten you into? Why are you protecting Jake, when he’s the reason you’re here in the first place?”
How did she know it was a lie? Her mom had even told her Internal let people go sometimes if they weren’t a threat to society. Eli had said she wasn’t a threat. Maybe she didn’t have to end up like Anna. Maybe she could walk out of this place and forget any of this had ever happened.
She could say Jake’s dad had gotten her involved in whatever this was supposed to be. Eli had said it didn’t have to be a teacher, after all. That way she wouldn’t have to condemn anybody else—Jake’s dad would end up here anyway if she told Eli where Jake was.
No. What was she thinking? How could she even consider killing them for the sake of her own possible freedom? The cost was too high.
Anna wouldn’t have been here, wouldn’t have died here, if not for Becca’s lie. Nobody else would die because of her.
“All I did was call him,” she answered. “I don’t know where he went. And nobody recruited me into anything.”
So easy, too easy, to say the words that determined the way her life would end.
She couldn’t tell whether the sadness in his eyes was real or as much of a lie as everything he had said about the conspiracy. “In that case, I guess I don’t have a choice.”
She had thought she would start crying again. She didn’t. She sat perfectly still, trying not to imagine what was coming.
Eli walked over to her. “Give me your hands.”
She held her arms out to him; he refastened the handcuffs. He guided her out of the chair and toward the door, one slow step at a time.
As he reached for the door, it flew open.
Becca’s mom stood in the doorway.
Chapter Sixteen
Becca’s mom blocked the door, wild-eyed, hair spilling out of her untidy braid. “I’m here to take my daughter home.”
Becca pulled away from Eli and rushed into her mom’s arms. It didn’t matter what her mom had done, or how she had lied. All that mattered was that she was here, and she was going to get Becca out of this place. She was going to save Becca’s life.
Her mom wrapped her arms around her, a noise like a sob escaping her throat. Becca would have clutched her mom just as hard if not for the handcuffs. Tears of relief prickled at the corners of her eyes.
Her mom smelled like day-old sweat. Becca didn’t care.
“I can’t let her go,” said Eli from behind her. “I’m sorry, Raleigh.”
“I talked to the directors.” Becca felt the heat of her mom’s breath against her hair as she spoke. “It took me two days, but I got them to agree. She’s free to go.” She let go of Becca with one arm to pull something out of her bag. “The forms are right here.”
Two days? Had Becca really been here that long? How long had she waited in that cell?
“You need to think about this, Raleigh. What will happen to you if you let a dissident go free? It could mean the end of your career, or worse. You’d probably be investigated.”
Her mom’s voice turned glacial; even though it wasn’t directed at her, Becca shivered. “What are you accusing me of?”
“I know you’re not a dissident,” he said hastily. “I understand. You just want to keep your daughter safe. But you have to think about how it will look.”
Her mom’s voice didn’t warm up. “My daughter is not a dissident.”
“There’s evidence against her,” Eli persisted.
Her mom’s arms tightened around her. “I’ve seen your evidence. I think it’s ridiculous, and the directors agree.”
Eli made a disapproving noise. “If you’re sure you want to do this, and you’ve convinced the directors to go along with it, there’s nothing I can do to stop you. But you still have a chance to change your mind. If you think it through—”
Her mom cut him off. “I’m not leaving this room without her.” Her tone made the way Jake had threatened Laine sound like the mewling of a kitten by comparison.
Eli sighed. “Like I said, I can’t stop you.”
Her mom released her slowly, like she had to pry her own arms away. Eli fiddled with Becca’s handcuffs until they slid off her wrists. She rubbed her wrists and swayed on her feet. The world wobbled around her.
Her mom put an arm around her shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”
Leaving 117 felt like being reborn.
As her mom guided her out the door and across the parking lot, the sun shone down on her as brightly as it had yesterday—no, two days ago—when the Enforcers had brought her here. She could almost believe that no time had gone by at all, that her time on the underground levels had been nothing more than a bad dream.
