Flawed (Flawed, #1)(87)

“Why?”

“Just don’t. It will worry her. She never knows what I’m going to say. Good luck.” He opens the door and, as if remembering something, turns around. I try to see past him into the other room, and when I look in, I freeze in terror.

There’s a Whistleblower.





SIXTY

BILL NOTICES THE look on my face and turns to the Whistleblower, who is standing in the doorway and doesn’t see me—for now, anyway.

“Marcus,” he says, his tone friendlier than I expected. “What’s going on up there?”

Marcus the Whistleblower shakes his head and runs his hands through his hair. “Crevan has them all panicking. Everyone’s turning on one another. Flawed, unflawed. Whistleblowers, with each other. It’s a mess.” He suddenly sees me and stops talking. He turns and walks away, out of view.

“Marcus is shy,” Bill whispers loudly to me.

I am so stunned by how he and the Whistleblower have just conversed. The Whistleblower is on our side?

Bill comes back over to me. “She told me about your search, you know,” he says. “I’d like to see him again, too. I liked him.”

I’m unable to keep up. Liked whom?

“Almost as much as she did. We never had children, she and I. I suspect she’s told you that already. He was the first one they allowed to live here after years of her begging. It was difficult for her because of me, of course, but she proved herself over the years. They told her a year in advance that he’d be coming here. They like to vet the families, you see, prepare them, make sure they’ll follow on in their teachings. She visited him a few times in there, struck up a friendship, and she counted down the days to his graduation, even watched him graduate. We thought he’d like it here; he seemed to like it here. But then he just upped and left, never said good-bye. I think that’s what hurt her the most. She could have helped him, but he didn’t give her the chance. He never learned what she was capable of or what she was planning. He might have stayed if he’d known. She very quickly grew attached to him. So did I, but mostly because I just liked seeing her so happy.” His eyes fill. “If you see Carrick, tell him to visit us again. Tell him I’m sorry it ended like it did.”





SIXTY-ONE

GRANDDAD AND I travel home in the truck in silence. It took two hours in hiding before the Whistleblowers left the house and we felt it was safe to leave. Professor Lambert was wrong about nobody being taken into custody. If it had started out as scaremongering, it didn’t end that way. The Whistleblowers didn’t expect a small percentage of the gathering to defend themselves, to simply not heel to the Whistleblowers’ requests, something I’m sure that I will be blamed for despite the fact that I never even opened my mouth. I believe this is the first time people have risen against them; nobody would dare before. A threat to a Whistleblower is seen as a threat to the Guild’s rules, which in turn is seen as aiding the Flawed cause, therefore, aiding a Flawed. It’s a stretch, but that’s how they justify protection of Whistleblowers.

Six people were taken away in the vans. Four were Flawed who would be punished in accordance with Guild punishments, two may be facing imprisonment for aiding a Flawed. Four more were taken to a hospital for wounds caused at the hands of the Whistleblowers’ batons. Some of Alpha’s greatest “perfect” supporters had turned on her instantly, telling the Guild absolutely anything it wanted to hear to save their own skins. Overall, Alpha’s peaceful “counseling” session had been a disaster. She herself is safe, but only by a breath, and I imagine she is on the watch list. She was shaken when I saw her. She had had a long session with the Whistleblowers, trying to understand what had gone wrong.

Bill’s Whistleblower, Marcus, located Granddad and brought him to me, and I was surprised to learn that he was the person who took Granddad to the bunker in the first place. Granddad and I learned that Marcus was married to a Whistleblower, Cathy, and that they were both on the side of the Flawed campaign. He told me that there were many more of these people and that the numbers were growing, but the numbers in opposition to the Flawed were rising, too. Cathy and he felt things were unsettled even among the Whistleblowers. They were turning on one another, and those who were deemed traitors would be made examples of. Marcus was naturally worried.

I’m angry and still don’t trust Alpha for so many reasons, but on the other hand, the protection of my granddad and the revelation that she and her husband once looked after Carrick in their own home give me reasons to stay on her good side. Her desperation to find him and be reunited with him tells me that she genuinely doesn’t know where he is. I wanted to ask Marcus, the Whistleblower, to help me out, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. If this is a trap, I don’t want to fall into it. I can’t let Crevan know that I’m searching for Carrick. I can’t let him ever know that Carrick was a witness to the sixth brand. That power belongs to Carrick and me alone.

After being briefed on everything, Granddad and I finally leave Alpha’s home and get back on the road. I’m anxious to get home well before my curfew.

“That was Professor Bill Lambert,” Granddad says, checking the mirrors constantly. “I remember him being in the news. He had a contract with the government. He was an old friend of Crevan’s. Reading between the lines, I think Crevan set him up to get rid of him. Crevan’s cousin took over the job. More Crevans everywhere. I think half the reason Alpha gets away with her campaigns is because Crevan feels guilty, if he knows what such a feeling is.”