“But—!”
“Talk to Director Facet.” The other agent slammed the doors shut. Within moments, the van pulled away.
“Four,” I said, my voice low.
She looked surprised, then came jogging. “Did you see—? I don’t know where they’re taking Red—I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, we—”
“What are you sorry for? You tried to stop them.” I inched farther into the shadows until my back was to the barn. Long grass wafted around our legs.
“That’s not it.” Four’s cheeks were vivid red, probably from both cold and distress. “Red didn’t want to go find Dr. Torrance like we were supposed to. At least, not right away. Red thought—Well, it’s like she said. The chaos of the evacuation gave us a real shot at sneaking in. We could get information or free Neven. We’d lose that opportunity otherwise.”
I let my head rest against the barn, the wall cool against my scalp. “Oh, no.”
“I know! I know.” Four shrugged helplessly. “You said it wasn’t a good idea, but Red thought . . . She seemed so sure . . .” Her eyes shone. “I’m sorry.”
I recognized the shame all too well, and, damn it, I couldn’t even be mad. Not at Red, who’d only tried to take initiative where I’d failed to. Not at Four, who was simply too damn sweet to tell Red no.
“She found something,” Four said quietly. “I don’t know what. Red went into one of the empty offices. While she looked around, I distracted Dr. Torrance. An agent showed up. He said Dr. Torrance was supposed to be on the next van out. She went to the office to grab some things. The agent came along. I tried to stall them, but it didn’t work. When Dr. Torrance opened the door, Red was hunched over one of the computers. I think she only saw Dr. Torrance at first, because she went, ‘Did you know?’ She sounded spooked. When she saw me, she tried to say something else. It all happened really fast. All of a sudden, the agent pushed me aside to get into the office. Red said something like, ‘They think they can—’ I’m not sure what else. The agent was grabbing her by then. Maybe she said ‘rift’? I really don’t know. I’m sorry.”
I chewed on my lower lip. I’d been against sneaking around—and for good reason: The MGA had caught Red within minutes—but if Red really had found something to do with the rift, it might’ve been the right call.
“Whatever Red discovered,” I said, “they don’t want us to know. There are plenty of ways to keep her out of their hair. Instead, they covered her mouth and took her away. Why would they cover her mouth? They’re hiding something.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think Dr. Torrance knows what Red saw?”
“I doubt it. It wasn’t her computer, and she seemed freaked out when that agent grabbed Red—she was yelling at him to let her go. She told me she’d look into what was going on.”
Damn it, even if I retrieved my knife before the MGA found me, what was the point? I doubted I could evade the evacuation, let alone free Neven, find Red, learn what Red found, and act on it, without the MGA noticing I was gone and hunting me down.
I peered back at the medical research barn.
There was one way the MGA wouldn’t hunt me down:
If they thought they already had me.
“Four,” I said tensely, “didn’t Mr. Ávila say we could wake up Alpha if we needed to? We just needed to take out the IV?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“If you can, buy me time.”
I was gone before she could respond.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
I took the long way around, crossing behind the medical research barn in order to stay out of sight from the researchers and agents evacuating across the lawn. Once I reached the makeshift parking lot, I slipped between the ambulance and the van beside it.
I’d known the MGA would search me for the knife; I’d known they’d search the other Hazels; I’d known they might even search Mr. Ávila and Torrance. I’d hoped they’d be too busy to search every inch of the ambulance, though.
I crouched and reached under the vehicle with one hand. I felt around, wincing at the cold metal on my skin, until my fingers hit slick Scotch tape. Underneath it was the familiar handle of my knife. I tugged it free.
Yelling erupted from near the rift barn—overlapping voices, panicky shouts—but nothing close by. I edged toward the front of the ambulance. Four stood a couple dozen feet away, cowering in front of an agent.
Worry flared inside me. I hoped she was simply buying me time, as I’d asked. I had to trust that Four could manage this.
The agent wasn’t looking in my direction. I chanced it, sprinting the few feet toward the barn. I ignored the main door and turned a corner. If I cut through the door lock with my knife, anyone would know the barn had been broken into.
They weren’t likely to check the windows, though. I went over a mental map of the barn, situating myself outside of what had to be Alpha’s room. The window was milky glass, with thick metal wire running through it. I slid my knife under the bottom of the frame, sliced through the lock, then pulled it up. Easy.
I peered inside. Alpha lay unmoving in a bed against the wall, dressed in a beige sweatsuit and half covered under a thin blanket. An IV was taped to her hand.
Nervously, I checked behind me. The lawn stretched out a couple dozen feet between the barn and fence, which had been shredded in multiple places. Behind that, the woods.
Off to my left stood the vans and ambulance, which blocked me from view of the rest of the grounds. I still felt exposed. I climbed into the room, quietly lowering the window behind me.
The room was dim—the light from the milky window just enough to see by—and silent, aside from Alpha’s breathing. No beeping machines, no
