Abraham was right. The original families had been scrambling to put their names on as many people as possible. Something terrible was expected to happen soon. I wasn't a Fuller by blood. I know the documents Dredge produced were false. Still, the lie helped everyone in my family, so I didn't question his motives.
Blue and the other girls looked desperate for information. I shared everything I learned from Abraham while making time to stare coldly back at Noah. Having a few moments to rest, let me think about Jason. He was young and strong and healthy. The injuries he suffered might not be fatal. The sirens I heard before being taken away meant help would have found him. Diff would have gotten him to the medical center and called the family to help.
Jason must be beyond livid. My family, Ugg, my mother, would be clinically inconsolable. My father and brother, all our family friends. The thought of all those angry and worried people. My stomach soured and I became queasy and hot.
I sat still and breathed shallow, trying to keep myself from throwing up. Sweat beads formed on my face and neck. Blue pulled my hair into a plastic band from the cheese packs and dabbed my wrists with a damp cloth cookie wrapping.
“You tried, you tried to tell them to let us go so many times. Give yourself a rest. Take what they have to offer. We need food and sleep. Tomorrow we will see what happens next. Okay.” Blue was right, passive and cowardly, but she was right. There was nothing I could change about my situation tonight.
After a half-hour, one of the older women led us to an enormous beige tent at the community's edge. The tent contained an open bedroom area with several neatly decorated cots and a long bathroom section with white metal tubs and a row of real water showers.
Clean towels and frilly nightclothes sat prominently on each decorated bed alongside an assortment of fruit candies and herbed soaps artfully shaped into hearts and stars. Each clan assembled one of the beds in anticipation of a female occupant.
“The Miss Conception beauty pageant must begin with good night sleep,” I remarked sarcastically to the room. None of my fellow captives found my observation funny.
We wandered around the beds in silence, inspecting the lavishly decorated displays.
“Blue, look four of us and four beds. They knew how many of us were captured even before we arrived.”
Blue looked at me with wide eyes. “They had help. Or, maybe they were able to get word to the compound while we were traveling.”
“Probably, a communicator, but how can anyone secure a digital account without a citizen number?” Blue shook her head at me slowly.
The exhaustion in her eyes matched the looks on the faces of my fellow captives. I wasn't going to get any help out of the three of them tonight.
After we showered and changed into clean clothes, we dragged our four beds together at one end of the room and tried to fall asleep. Proximity and numbers were our only defense. It wouldn't help in a real encounter, but the arrangement of the beds and the false sense of safety allowed me to let the exhaustion of the day take me under.
VILLA DE PARIS
“Beryl, thank you for coming to see me today.” Priscilla Eaton was not one known for thanking anyone for anything. My grandmother was one of her oldest friends and arranged a meeting to discuss education credits and my breeding rights. All I knew about her was that she was widowed some time ago, a water heiress with no remaining family.
I met Priscilla at the entry salon of her gargantuan estate. The prevailing rumors say she keeps thirty full-time staff working on constant repairs and upgrades to the sprawling property.
“Of course, Mrs. Eaton, thank you for agreeing to speak with me again. I felt our first meeting went well, but I didn't expect to receive a second invitation to visit with you so soon,” I confessed.
“This business with your sister's abduction is appalling. Eaton provisions and arms have been sent to the Tilley-Fuller armory. This type of terrorism cannot be allowed to fester in the world unchecked. These people must be stopped,” she groused.
“Thank you, with all the families involved I can't imagine it will take long to find the girls and bring them home. “As I spoke the words out loud, I knew they were lies. The old seabed is uncharted, and few have traveled west from our continent. No real need to map the unforgiving terrain existed until now.
“I know I mentioned scheduled several interviews, but I say that in all my business dealings. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up unjustly. With your clarified lineage, the breeding rights you hold are quite valuable. Are you sure you want to align with house Eaton? I don't want to mislead you, we have wealth, but we are a relatively small house. Situations, like we have today with your sister, remind me of how small a family we really are,” Priscilla explained.
“My grandmother spoke very highly of you, Mrs. Eaton. She considered you a good friend. I would be honored to accept her advice and provide your family with an heir,” I explained just as I rehearsed many times in my mirror at home.
“Constance was a sister to me. After my Thomas died, rumors surfaced that I was having an affair with Edgar. These lies were fanned
