Flawed (Flawed, #1)(84)

“Granddad!” I call. He doesn’t hear me.

I start to panic. I pick up the microphone that only moments ago I couldn’t think of a word to say into and shout into it, but it has already been turned off.

“I have to find him.”

“Lulu will get him.” Alpha grabs me by the arm and pulls.

“Forgive me if I don’t have much faith in Lulu,” I snap. “Did you tell the Whistleblowers I was here?” I shout. “Was this a trap to catch Carrick?”

“What?! Why would I do that?” she asks, so alarmed and disgusted that I believe her.

“Lulu thought I was speaking here today. Did you advertise this?”

She looks guilty. “I might have mentioned it to a few people, but I certainly didn’t advertise it.”

“Damn it!” I shout, pulling my arm away from her. “You used me!”

“Let me explain,” she says, changing her body language. She appears panicky. “Come with me and I’ll explain.”

“Where are we going?”

She doesn’t answer—she just moves more quickly. The room is in utter chaos. There are those who want to leave, and those who are strong and firm in their stance and stay where they’re seated, arms folded in defiance.

The speaker from the F.A.B. institution tries to get Alpha’s attention. She runs along the side of the stage, chasing after us. “You said I would be protected!” she says, panicking, as Alpha ignores her and pulls me away with her.

As we reach the back of the room, I hear the whistles, and my heart pounds with the memory of Angelina Tinder and my own experience ringing in my ears. It makes me freeze on the spot, and it has that effect on most people. Caught. The room starts to go silent at the sound. Freeze. Panic. Alpha gets me moving again, pulling me in the opposite direction.

“Granddad,” I say, a sob catching in my throat. I see the red vests swarming into the room, I see a baton swing in the air, and I hear people scream. Alpha pulls me through another door, and we leave the mayhem behind.

“Jesus.” Alpha pants as we start to run now. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”

We run faster. She leads me down a corridor and into an elevator. We go down another floor. When we come out, the ceilings are low, the hallways narrow. This part of the house is not so plush. It’s more like a bunker.

“This way.” We can no longer walk side by side in the narrow hallway, so I follow her, her looking back regularly to make sure I’m still there.

“The Guild likes to keep an eye on us, and, more important, lets us know that it’s keeping an eye on us. It sends one or two Whistleblowers. They sit in the back row, listen, and keep an eye on things. This isn’t an illegal gathering. They know about my cause. Usually there’s nothing to worry about,” she says.

“Usually,” I say bitterly. “But you told people I was coming. That I was speaking. And I’ll bet Crevan has introduced a new law against this. He’s going to say you were holding a rally. That I was speaking at a rally.”

She looks at me and swallows. Her look of fear doesn’t do anything to comfort me. “But we’re not doing anything wrong. We’re just sharing our stories. We’re allowed to do that.”

That wasn’t the vibe that I was picking up on as I was encouraged to walk to the stage. It changed from story sharing to a different kind of energy. “The rules have changed,” I say. “Crevan is changing everything now.”

Crevan is scared. He feels his power slipping away. Perhaps he’s heard about the secret committee investigating him, perhaps not, but either way there is enough rising opposition to the Guild among the public and now among the government to make him panic. And on top of that, if I’m right, he’s going to extreme measures to silence the Guild guards and Mr. Berry, if he gets his hands on him. He is panicking.

Alpha stops in the middle of a hallway and lifts a section of the dado rail and inserts a PIN code. “I can assure you, Celestine, that I did not alert them to your presence. I may have told a few people that you’d be here, but I’m not ready to announce you as a friend of the foundation yet.”

“Good,” I snap. “Because, right at this moment, I certainly am not a friend of the foundation; and if you think you’ll be allowed to homeschool me from now on, you better think again. I’m sure this is the last time you and I will ever be allowed in the same room together. I’m surprised they let you in the first place.”

“Like I said, the Guild encourages counseling of the Flawed. They felt that I would be a positive force in your life. That I could stop you from speaking out against them.”

I snort.

“I’ll tell them you were going to share your sob story and persuade them not to make mistakes, that life as a Flawed is miserable, that you weren’t going to glamorize it.”

“I wasn’t going to glamorize it.”

She looks at me in surprise. There’s a beep, and a door that I hadn’t noticed before suddenly opens.

“A secret door?”

“Not secret, just not as clearly marked,” she says defensively, with a sly smile.

Once inside, I find myself in an office. Walnut desk, shelves filled to the brim with books. Leather chairs with gold buttons. Photographs in gold frames covering every inch of the wall. “You’ll be safe here. They don’t know about this room,” she says quickly. “I have to go back and talk to the Whistleblowers, sort this mess out, but I’ll be back with your granddad. Stay here till I return.”