The Gender Fall (The Gender Game #5)(22)

Owen gave her a gentle nod. Meera stepped away from the glass and disappeared from view. My heart pounded in my chest, and I wondered if I hadn’t just made a mistake mentioning Solomon. What if Meera was like Desmond—willing to sacrifice her son for what she considered the greater good?

A few moments later, Meera was back. The area under her eyes was puffy and the sclera around her irises were bloodshot. I realized she had stepped away to cry. Thank God, Meera wasn’t like Desmond. She was a mother who genuinely worried about her son. Finding out he was alive after being told he had died… I couldn’t imagine what she was going through at this moment.

Still, she bore it well. Her face had returned to a hard mask, but the viciousness had softened considerably. “What do you want?” she asked.

“Before I can tell you, answer this question for me. Is Desmond at this base right now?”

Meera hesitated, then shook her head. She looked guilty, but seemed to push it aside.

“Good,” I told her. “You asked what we wanted, and all we’re asking for is this: twenty minutes alone with you and your leadership, with a promise that you’ll watch this video first.” I held the case with the chip up to the window for her to see.

“What kind of video?” she asked, revealing nothing.

I paused, not entirely sure how to answer her question. I turned to Owen for help, and he took a step forward, one hand up. “It’s better if you watch it first, and then ask questions,” he told her. “Just… please, trust me. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, or anyone inside. We all feel that way.”

Meera licked her lips and then nodded. “Fine. Here are the terms: unload your weapons and put them on the ground. You’ll watch the video with us, and we will have guns trained on you the entire time. If we’re not satisfied…”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I cut in. I pulled out my gun, taking a few steps away from the door, then ejecting the clip and clearing the chamber. I set the gun and clip on the floor. I could hear Amber and Owen doing the same, but I didn’t take my eyes off Meera. I also didn’t relinquish the knife tucked into my boot. She didn’t need to know about that.

A few minutes later, we were inside the brightly lit, timeless rock-cut halls of the Liberator base. After the dimness outside, it felt like the time had changed abruptly, as though here it was always midday operational.

We were led to a room with a long table, filled with Liberators—almost all of them women. Several of them patted us down and quickly confiscated my knife, much to my chagrin, but Meera was willing to overlook my interpretation of her terms. Looking at her hard face, I suspected she knew she would have attempted the same in my position. I looked around the room, studying the people there. I knew some faces, but most I didn’t recognize. They stared expectantly at a wall of massive screens stacked on top of each other. The air in the room was decidedly hostile. Amber, Owen, and I each had not one, but two guards pointing the promised guns at our backs. I kept my head up and stared straight ahead, not meeting any of their gazes, but feeling the sights trained on my vitals almost physically.

It was clear something had shifted in their power structure. Meera was clearly in charge, but the reason for the change was not yet apparent to me. Maybe it had something to do with the sudden move from the Facility Amber had mentioned—if they’d truly had to evacuate, that could’ve shaken the command chain up significantly—and I guessed it was also making them even more suspicious than usual. With the mention of Solomon, I’d found a crack in their defenses, but that had been lucky. It had bought us a temporary respite from uncompromising hostility, but there was no guarantee that would continue once they watched the video. I hoped Amber and Owen weren’t putting all their faith in it. I hoped they, like me, were looping scenarios through their heads, planning what to do if this business went south.

Meera moved to the screens and briskly popped the video chip into the reader. A loading screen showed on the wall of monitors, and then the video started playing.

It was my second time watching the video, and that didn’t make it any better. In fact, it was somehow worse now because I knew what was coming. I felt my hands clench into fists as Violet stepped from the garden and onto the stone platform with a fountain. Her voice carried through, loud and strong. Tabitha’s voice was not as strong, due to the distance, but you could still make out her response.

I watched them exchange words, and nodded to myself, once again admiring Violet’s bravery in manipulating the situation to get the women and children of her family out of there. But as the seconds ticked by, my unease returned. When the first explosion caused the view of the camera to shudder and shake, I felt my gut tense, knowing the camera had been on Violet’s person at the time, that it was her bearing the brunt of being thrown to the ground.

The video continued, tracking Violet’s path as she fought with Tabitha before the second explosion went off. When Tabitha started talking about cracking the code for enhancing humans, I noticed several of the Liberators lean forward, probably becoming aware of the implications in that statement—namely, that Elena and Tabitha had access to Mr. Jenks’ complete research, something even Queen Rina hadn’t been given full access to.

But the real kicker came later, on the staircase, when Violet mentioned the boys. There was no mistaking the deadly intent behind Tabitha’s reply, and the room echoed with several audible gasps. I saw people raising their hands up to their mouths, as if covering up their shock would make the betrayal sting less.