I was sitting on the ground against one of the beds between Patrick and Edan. Laila and Dorsey were on the bed behind us, Priya on her stomach on the other one. The news played on the television. So far, nothing about MDG or what had happened tonight.
“Anything?” Priya asked Noah and Madison softly.
“Not yet,” Noah said. “It’s too dark. I’m about to check Patrick’s camera, though.”
“The New York Times just broke the news of Grayson’s death,” Laila said, eyes on her phone.
Madison’s eyes snapped up. “What does it say?”
“It just says that he died in London this evening, more details to come.”
Noah’s phone rang. “It’s Saira,” he said, and swiped at the screen. “Hey, Saira? You’re on speaker with the team.”
“No, it’s Connor,” the voice on the other end said. “Saira’s getting Thomas checked out of hospital, and she asked me to call.”
“Is the rest of team thirteen OK?” Priya asked. “Harry, I mean?” She winced. UK team thirteen was down to four members.
“Yeah, he’s fine, thanks. But I’ve got bad news. That truck that Clara saw leave before anyone got there? The one we followed? It was empty.”
“Empty?” I repeated.
“Yeah, we lost track of it, so we called it in to the police. Don’t know if it was always empty or if they unloaded it after hearing about what happened. But it was totally empty by the time the police stopped them.”
“Does it really matter, though?” Noah asked. “There were shipping containers full of scrabs. They were locked in a barn. The police saw all of that.”
“Yeah, they did, but Saira’s just heard that there’s nothing tying MDG to any of it. There’s one dead MDG employee there—uh, Webb, I think was his name—and apparently they’re denying any knowledge of what he was doing. Everyone else took off.”
“There must be something there that leads back to MDG,” Madison said, frowning. “The equipment, the vans, something.”
“Maybe,” Connor said. “I imagine it will be days before they sort through it all. But that’s not the worst part.”
Noah’s eyes flicked from his laptop to the phone. “What’s the worst part?”
“We just heard that Julian gave the police a statement. He said that Webb killed Grayson. He completely denied everything Clara told them. Said she was just trying to get back at him for breaking up with her.”
“Seriously?” Priya practically yelled.
“The American news stations are picking it up,” Dorsey said, staring at his phone. “Are you seeing Twitter?”
Edan glanced at his phone. “Julian leaked his statement. TMZ is saying Grayson was killed by a rogue MDG agent, that Webb guy. And—” He cut himself off, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“There’s also a story about you,” Priya said. “But no reputable news site has it,” she added in a rush. “It’s mostly just on Twitter.”
“What story?” I tried to grab for Edan’s phone, but he moved it away, giving me a pained look.
“It says you cheated on Julian, got really mad when he broke up with you, and stalked him.” Madison said the words furiously, reading them from her phone. “Apparently there’s a source who said you showed up at a friend’s house and made a scene in front of his mom.”
“He’s just trying to discredit you,” Noah said. “Get his story out there first.”
“The crazy-bitch defense,” Madison said bitterly. “A classic.”
I pressed both hands to my forehead, a humorless laugh escaping my mouth. I’d take a scrab or a SAC or whatever you wanted to call them any day over Julian. All these monsters couldn’t compare to him.
“Did you get any proof from your uniform cameras?” Connor asked. “You were wearing them, weren’t you?”
“Still looking,” Noah said. “Let me call you back when we know, OK?”
“Yeah. Talk to you later.”
No one spoke for several minutes as Noah and Madison combed through video footage. I pressed my arms to my chest and said a silent prayer that we captured something that would incriminate Julian. I desperately wanted him to pay for killing Grayson, and Zoe, and Gage, and Archer. He may not have shot them, but he released the scrabs that killed them.
“It was too fucking dark.” Madison pushed her computer off her lap and gripped her hair with both hands. I got the feeling that searching the camera footage had been the only thing keeping her from bursting into tears. “He shot Grayson, and there’s absolutely no proof of it.”
“Noah?” Edan asked.
Noah shook his head sadly. “I’ve got nothing. These cameras aren’t good in low light, and they don’t have audio. We’ve got some footage of scrabs in the barn from Edan’s phone, but not when Julian is in there with them. Everything else is just total darkness or jumpy footage where you can’t see what’s happening.”
“So we have nothing.” Priya moaned in frustration.
“Not exactly,” Edan said quietly. He looked at me. “We have Clara.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You could tell the truth,” Edan said. “Julian’s out there lying because he’s scared you’ll tell the truth. He told you everything, and he’s terrified.”
“Why would anyone believe me?” I asked.
“Why wouldn’t they believe you?” Dorsey asked.
“Because it’s just my word against Julian’s. And apparently everyone is already listening to him.”
“Some people won’t believe you,” Edan conceded. “But some will.”
“Dorsey, hand me my camera,” Noah said. Dorsey grabbed it from the side of the bed. “We could film a video right now. I can get it up immediately.”
I hesitated. Could I even be coherent talking about what had happened? Where would I even start? MDG’s plan to build a scrab army was so wild that I still had trouble believing it.
“You don’t have to,” Madison said quietly. She swallowed hard, blinking back tears. “You already
