Three (Article 5 #3)(34)

The whispers began to fly. Jack and Billy were the first to suspect Tucker and the carriers. I could hear Sean reassuring Rebecca and some of the others that we were safe here. I forced my gaze forward.

“The council is determining an appropriate course of action. In the meantime, return to your posts and await orders.”

With that, DeWitt placed his hand over his heart, like we used to do in school when we’d say the Pledge of Allegiance. All those before him did the same, even the children. Even Billy, who had about as much idea of what the gesture meant as I did.

Lines formed for breakfast, and as we went to them I caught sight of the guard who’d escorted Chase and me to the dorms last night. He stood two people behind us, and when I recognized him he quickly looked away.

“He’s been tailing us all morning.” Chase didn’t look back. “Stayed outside the dorms all night, too.”

“DeWitt doesn’t trust us,” I said under my breath. “He thinks we know something about the attacks on the resistance posts.”

A scowl passed over his face before he flattened his expression.

“Because of Tucker,” Chase surmised, biting down on the name. “Because he was broadcasting what happened, and looking for us.”

Maybe I’d been uncertain about Tucker since he’d been kicked out of the FBR, but Chase would never trust him. And even if I trusted Tucker sometimes, I would never forgive him.

We took a step closer to the food.

“And because we were in Chicago and Knoxville when they were hit,” I said.

Chase considered this, running his knuckles absently over his jaw.

“We have to prove we had nothing to do with it,” said Chase. “I’d rather the MM want us dead than Three.”

“Agreed.” At least with the soldiers chasing us we could hide with the resistance. If the resistance was chasing us, nowhere was safe.

The guard behind us appeared in my peripheral vision, closer than before. Our conversation was no longer private.

“Where’s your uncle?” I asked. “He wasn’t here during Dr. DeWitt’s announcement.”

Chase stood tall, shielding his eyes from the sun as he searched. He nodded to my right, where Jesse appeared as if summoned.

“Nephew. And neighbor.” Freshly shaven and with hair still damp, Jesse threw his arm over Chase’s shoulders. I found myself mirroring Chase’s scowl. With DeWitt on the hunt for traitors to the cause, Jesse should have been more careful to wake up on time.

“Bad news, kid,” smirked Jesse. “Looks like you couldn’t dodge the draft after all.”

“He didn’t dodge the first time,” I said.

Jesse looked to Chase for confirmation, the skin around his eyes tightened with regret. He would have known that if he’d stuck around.

“What are you talking about?” Chase asked Jesse.

“The guy in charge—Doctor something,” he began.

“DeWitt,” I corrected quietly.

“Right. DeWitt.” Jesse glanced away. “DeWitt’s sending all able bodies down to join his little security detail.”

I stood on my tiptoes and looked to where a group of our people crowded around the old man with the eye patch. Billy was the first in line. For some reason this worried me. It wasn’t like he’d never done field work before—he’d left the Wayland Inn to find new recruits lots of times—but without Wallace watching over him, this seemed different.

I wasn’t hungry anymore. Chase seemed to have lost his appetite as well, but he crammed down the meat patties and brown bread all the same.

“What do you know about Three?” Jesse asked Chase. He didn’t look for my input, and given the way I’d reacted, I couldn’t blame him.

“Not much.” Chase pooled the crumbs in the center of his hand, then sifted them into his mouth.

“Nothing?” Jesse pressed, in a way that made me wonder what he had heard.

“There was a medic when I was in the service.” Chase rubbed his thumb between his brows. “After fights he used to hold up his fingers and tell me three—”

“—is the only number you should remember?” Jesse snorted, and shook his head.

“Yeah.” The corner of Chase’s mouth quirked. “How’d you know?”

“Someone said the same to me once,” he said. “Figured he was nuts.”

They grinned at each other, as if relieved that they connected over something from their time apart.

“What exactly does the security team do?” I interrupted.

Jesse glanced down, as if he’d forgotten I was there. “Only one way to find out.”

I didn’t like it, but he was right. If Chase and I were going to prove we had nothing to do with the attacks on the resistance, we needed to gain Three’s trust. I was just about to follow Chase toward the man with the eye patch when Will appeared at my side.

“The doc wants to see you,” he told me.

For one strange, strained moment, he met Jesse’s gaze, and then he looked down as if intimidated and hurried toward the cafeteria entrance to the lodge.

“Weird kid,” commented Jesse. “Heard he’s one of DeWitt’s charity cases.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Sick folks hide out in the Red Zone,” he said. “Sometimes they abduct kids from near the border to do their dirty work. We ran into them a couple of times at the safe house—the Lost Boys, people called them. Bunch of little psychopaths, more like it.”