The Long Game (The Fixer #2)(60)

No time to listen. No time to check the tablet. I stepped into the hall. I was out in the open. I was exposed. And the hallway was . . .

Empty.

There were snipers on the roof and guards patrolling the first two floors and armed gunmen at every exit, but the third floor was quiet.

Right up to the point when it wasn’t.

“As of this moment, every child in this school is accounted for and alive.”

I recognized the headmaster’s voice the moment it broke the silence.

“That can remain true. We can reach a peaceful solution, but that solution will require your cooperation.”

It took me two seconds to pinpoint where the voice was coming from and another after that to realize that he wasn’t speaking to me.

“Here is what that cooperation will look like. You will release Daniela Nicolae to our custody. As well, you will be provided with a list of others imprisoned by your and other governments without due process or trial. You will use your resources to secure their release worldwide.”

It was one thing to realize abstractly that the headmaster was the person in the position to have brought these men into our school. It was one thing to think that the man who’d chided you on appropriate behavior could do something like this.

It was another thing altogether to hear him issuing demands.

Drawn like a moth to the flame, I crept toward the voice, hugging the wall.

“A sum of twenty million dollars will be transferred into an account we specify. This money is nothing to us but a gesture of goodwill, from Hardwicke parents understandably concerned about the welfare of their children.”

Prisoners. Money. The scope of the demands made my mouth go dry.

“Additionally, private requests will be fulfilled by a small number of Hardwicke parents.” The headmaster began reading a list of names, and all I could think was that once upon a time, the picture that had allowed me to tie together three of the players in another conspiracy had hung in his office.

It never ends. I felt hysteria bubbling up inside of me. Terrorists and politicians and school officials, rogue Secret Service agents, and a White House physician who could be bought.

Every time I thought it was over, thought it could be over, I was wrong.

“Priya Bharani.”

The mention of Vivvie’s aunt brought my attention back to the present. She was on the list of Hardwicke parents who would be required to fulfill a “private request.” So was Ivy.

“And William Keyes,” the headmaster finished.

Ivy and the kingmaker. That made me a very high-value target. And the fact that Priya was on the list made Vivvie one as well. They’ll be looking for me. They’ll be looking for Vivvie, if they haven’t found her already.

“Details on these requests and instructions for your cooperation will follow.” Headmaster Raleigh let a single note of tension creep into his voice. I’d made it to the end of the hall. My back pressed against the wall, I leaned out just far enough to catch a fleeting glimpse of what awaited me around the corner.

Headmaster Raleigh was sitting in a chair in the middle of the hallway, facing a camera. There was a piece of paper in his lap.

Behind the camera, there was a woman wearing a twinset and holding a gun.

“We are everywhere,” the headmaster read. “We are in your government, your law enforcement, your military. We teach your children.”

Mrs. Perkins. I struggled to process what I’d seen—the woman, the gun. The headmaster’s secretary?

“We know your secrets,” Headmaster Raleigh said, and now—only now—I could hear the slight quiver in his voice as he delivered the words that someone else had scripted. “We do this for the common good. The time for waiting—”

A hand closed over my mouth, pulling me roughly back.

“—is over.”





CHAPTER 51

I should have fought. I did fight, a moment too late. An arm wrapped around my body. I couldn’t breathe through the hand over my mouth, couldn’t scream. I struggled against my captor’s grip, but I was already immobilized.

Too late.

“Be still.”

I barely heard the words, but I felt the whisper, directly in my ear. Henry. The arm around my waist, the breath on my neck, the body I was trapped against—Henry’s.

I could feel his heart beating, as hard and fast as my own.

“Nicely done, Headmaster.” The sound of Mrs. Perkins’s voice served as a stark reminder that nothing—nothing—was as it had seemed. “Now it’s time we had a chat about our missing students.”

As Mrs. Perkins began to prod the headmaster for information, Henry sidestepped to face me, moving with an unearthly silence. His eyes met mine and held them for one second, two—then he removed his hand from my mouth. His index finger went to his lips, and he jerked his head toward the stairwell.

Quiet. This way.

I gave a curt nod to show that I understood. As we made our way back down the hall, he kept one hand on my arm, ready to pull me out of the line of fire at any moment.

Ready to step into the line of fire himself.

I won’t let you do that for me, I thought. After Ivy trading her life for mine, after Emilia giving herself up so we didn’t both get caught—no one else was taking a metaphorical bullet for me.

No one was taking a literal bullet for me, either.