Betrayed

whoever I call won't call back with some kind of follow-up report to Neferet. Then all hell would break loose.'

'Ugly scene,' Shaunee said.

'Yeah, Neferet would find out that the hag had another vision, so your promise to keep it quiet would be broken,' Erin said.

'Okay, so stopping the boat is out, and pretending to be Nef­eret is out. That leaves closing the bridge as our only option,' Damien said.

'That's what I thought, too,' I said.

'Bomb threat!' Stevie Rae said suddenly. We all looked at her. 'Huh?' Erin asked.

'Explain,' Shaunee said.

'We call whoever those freaks who make bomb threats call.'

'That could actually work,' said Damien. 'When there's a bomb threat in a building they always evacuate it. So it figures that if there's a bomb threat about a bridge, the bridge will be closed, at least until they find out the bomb threat is fake.'

'If I call from my cell phone they won't be able to tell who I am, will they?' I asked.

'Oh, please,' Damien said, shaking his head like I was a total moron. 'Of course they can trace cell phones. This isn't the nineties.'

'Then what do I do?'

'You can still use a cell. It just has to be a disposable one,' Damien explained.

'You mean like a disposable camera?'

'Where have you been?' Shaunee asked.

'Who doesn't know about disposable cells?' Erin said.

'I don't,' Stevie Rae said.

'Exactly,' the Twins said together.

'Here'—Damien pulled a big dorky looking Nokia out of his pocket—'use mine.'

'Why do you have a disposable?' I studied the phone. It looked fairly normal.

'I got it after my parents freaked about me being gay. Until I was Marked and came here it felt like they were grounding me for life from life. I mean, not that I really expected them to lock me in a closet somewhere, but it's good to be prepared. Since then I've made sure I always have one.'

None of us knew what to say. It really sucked that Damien's parents were so psycho about him being gay.

'Thanks, Damien,' I finally said.

'No problem. When you're done making the call be sure you turn it off and then give it back to me. I'll destroy it.'

'Okay.'

'And be sure you tell them that the bomb's planted under the waterline. That way they'll have to close the bridge long enough for them to send in divers to check it out.'

I nodded. 'Good idea. I'll tell them that the bomb's going to explode at three fifteen, which is the exact time Aphrodite saw on my grandma's dashboard clock when she crashed.'

'I don't know how long these things take, but you should prob­ably call about two thirty, that sounds like enough time for them to get out there and close the bridge, but not so much that they'll have time to figure out it's a fake threat, and let cars back on the bridge too soon,' Stevie Rae said.

'Uh, guys,' Shaunee said. 'Who are you gonna call?'

'Hell, I don't know.' I was feeling the stress settle around my shoulders and knew I was going to have a major headache very soon.

'Google it,' Erin said.

'No,' Damien said quickly. 'We don't want any kind of com­puter trail. You just need to call the local branch of the FBI. That'll be in the phone book. They'll do whatever it is they do when freaks call.'

'Like track them down and put them in jail for the rest of eter­nity,' I muttered gloomily.

'No, they're not going to catch you. You're not leaving any kind of a trail. They'll have no reason to think it's any of us. Call at about two thirty. Tell them you've planted a bomb under the bridge because …' Damien hesitated.

'Because of pollution!' Stevie Rae chirped.

'Pollution?' Shaunee said.

'I don't think it should be because of pollution. I think it should be because you're sick and tired of government interfer­ence in the private sector's lives,' Erin said.

I just blinked at her. What the hell did she just say?

'Excellent point, Twin,' Shaunee said.

Erin grinned. 'I sounded just like my dad when I said that. He'd be proud. Well, not about the pretending to blow up a bridge part, but the other stuff, yeah.'

'We understand, Twin,' Shaunee said.

'I still like saying that it's because you're tired of pollution. Pollution's a real problem,' Stevie Rae said stubbornly.

'Okay, how about I say it's because of government interference and pollution in our rivers? That'll be the reason the bomb's on a bridge.' They looked at me with blank expressions. I sighed. 'Be­cause of pollution in the river.'

'Ohhh,' they said.

'We'd make dorky terrorists,' Stevie Rae said with a giggle.

'I think that's actually a good thing,' Damien said.

'So we're in agreement? I call the FBI, and we all keep our mouths shut about Aphrodite's vision.'

They nodded.

'Good. Okay. Guess I'll find a phone book and look up the number for the FBI, and then—'

A movement caught at the corner of my vision, and I glanced up to see Neferet escorting two men in suits into the dorm. Everyone went instantly silent, and I heard a whisper of 'They're human ... ' begin to buzz through the room. Then I didn't have time to think or to listen, because it was obvious that Neferet and the two human men were walking directly over to me.

'Ah, Zoey, there you are.' Neferet smiled at me with her usual warmth. 'These gentlemen need to speak with you. I believe we can step into the library. This shouldn't take more than a mo­ment.' Neferet regally gestured for the suits and me to follow her as she swept from the big main room (with everyone gawking openmouthed at us) to the little side room we called the dorm library, but was actually more of a computer room with some comfortable chairs and a few shelves filled with paperbacks. There were only two girls at the row of computers, and with a quick command Neferet got rid of them. They scurried out and she closed the door behind them, then she turned to face us. I glanced at the clock over the computer. It was 7:06 A.M. on Satur­day morning. What was going on?

'Zoey, this is Detective Marx'—she pointed at the taller of the two men—'and Detective Martin from the homicide division of the Tulsa Police Department. They wanted to ask you a few ques­tions about the human boy who was killed.'

'Okay,' I said, wondering what kind of questions they could possibly want to ask me. Hell, I didn't know anything. I hadn't even known him that well.

'Miss Montgomery,' Detective Marx began, but he was cut neatly off by Neferet.

'Redbird,' she said.

'Ma'am?'

'Zoey legally changed her last name to Redbird when she be­came an emancipated minor upon entrance to our school last month. All of our students are legally emancipated. We find it helpful with the unique nature of our school.'

The cop gave a short nod. I couldn't tell whether he was an­noyed or not, but I guessed by the way he kept looking at Neferet the answer was not.

'Miss Redbird,' he continued, 'we have received information that you are acquainted with Chris Ford and Brad Higeons. Is this true?'

'Yeah, I mean yes,' I hastily corrected. Clearly this wasn't a good time to sound like a silly teenager. 'I know … well, knew both of them.'