“Oh, Camille.” My mom dropped her head into her waiting hands. “This might very well have earned you a life sentence.”
I shoved the camera at them again, flicking through the bleak pictures one by one. “They’re dying,” I said. “Kids are dying because they can’t get the Onadyn they need.”
My dad scrubbed a hand down his face, and the action reminded me of Erik. Erik. Thinking of him caused my stomach to clench. What was A.I.R. doing to him?
Was he okay?
“I can’t let you get any more involved in this, Camille,” my dad said with a shake of his head. He wasn’t angry now, he was sad. “You could be killed. You’ve already put your own life at risk. And your future—” He pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No. Sorry.”
I peered up at him, my gaze unflinching. “I saved lives tonight. I made a difference. Together we can do more.”
He waved a hand through the air, the action clipped, angry. “I don’t care about the Outers. I care about you.”
My mom’s voice trembled when she said, “I can’t lose you, baby. You’re all I’ve got.”
“You won’t lose me,” I promised, but we both knew that wasn’t a promise I could realistically make. “If I survived tonight, I can survive anything.”
“No,” she said.
“No,” my dad reiterated. “Do you know what would happen to me if I tried to change the Onadyn laws? I’d be fired. No other firm would hire me. We’d lose my income, and we’d lose our home, our cars, our food.” His features hardened. “We’ll take you to A.I.R. headquarters and tell them you were forced. They’ll stop hunting you and we can pretend this night never happened.”
Erik had given up everything for these people and my dad wanted to make it worse for him by saying he forced me. No damn way. I had to do something! Find someone who could help me. But who?
“You’re bleeding,” my mom suddenly gasped out.
I looked down at the bandage covering my upper arm. Tiny drops of blood had dried on the edges. I recalled how that woman, Mia, had squeezed the injury, trying to hurt me so that I’d tell her what she wanted to know. My eyes widened as an idea took root in my mind.
Mia had been hard; she’d been mean. But she’d been seeking the truth. Erik thought she was half-human, half-alien. If she was, she might understand. She might sympathize.
Would she help me, though? She thought I was guilty of selling drugs to humans. You don’t have anyone else right now.
It was worth a shot.
The most Mia could do was kill me and that had been threatened so much it no longer bothered me. Which was as sad as it was empowering.
“You’re taking me to A.I.R.?” I asked my dad.
“Yes. And I don’t want you to talk to them. I’ll handle everything. I’ll do whatever it takes to clear your name.”
I didn’t contradict him. In fact, I sat up in the seat and waited.
15
Head high, I strolled into A.I.R. with my parents at my sides. The glass doors swished behind us and I studied my surroundings with trepidation. It’s not too late. You can still run. I kept walking forward. Agents littered the lobby area, some striding back and forth with folders, others dragging screaming aliens to…God knows where. The cells?
I’d probably find out firsthand.
As we approached the front desk, I kept my shoulders squared and my features blank (I hoped). Of course, I was stopped before I reached my destination.
A computerized voice announced my entrance and sirens exploded into action.
“Now just a minute,” my dad shouted. “She’s innocent.”
The male agent at the desk withdrew his pyre-gun and aimed it at my heart. He scowled at me. “Stop! Stay right where you are. Hands up.”
I obeyed without protest. “I’m unarmed,” I told him, refusing to show fear. I’d left my knives in the car.
“She’s unarmed,” my dad shouted. “Put your weapon away.”
My mom jumped in front of me, but I pushed her out of the way. Seconds later, a group of agents rushed me. They tackled me to the ground, knocking the air out of my lungs. Dazed, I didn’t say a word as they banded my wrists and jerked me to my feet.
“Leave her alone,” my dad snapped. “We’re here to clear her name.”
“Stay here, old man,” one of the agents commanded.
They could have killed me and I half expected them to, but they didn’t. Instead, they hauled me off while my dad yelled and my mom cried. I was escorted to a cell and strapped into a chair, just like before. Most of the debris from earlier had been cleaned away.
“I’d like to speak with Mia,” I said, as confidently as I could. “I have information she wants.”
He snorted and the group filed out of the room, leaving me alone.
How much timed passed, I didn’t know. Every few hours, I was released from the chair and taken to a bathroom where a female guard watched me use the facilities. I’d never been so embarrassed in my life.
At one point, someone cleaned my wound and rebandaged it. But finally, blessedly, Mia entered the cell. Not so blessedly, Phoenix and Cara were with her. All three women wore expressions of fury. And—dare I think—grudging respect?
“You have some information for me,” Mia said. She stopped directly in front of me.
Eyeing her, I lifted my chin and fired off all the questions that had been building inside me. “How are my parents? Where’s Erik? Is he okay?”
“You don’t get to ask questions,” Cara snapped. “You’re as bad as he is, and you deserve the same punishment.”
“You said you were innocent in all of this,” Mia said to me.
“That was before.” I lifted my chin another notch. Don’t back down.
Cara arched a dark brow. “Before what? Before you started sleeping with Erik?”
If my hands had been free, I might have slapped her.
“Cara,” Mia said. “If I have to send you from a cell one more time, you’ll be riding a desk for the next month.”
Cara pressed her lips together.
Mia nodded at me, a command to continue. “Tell me what you came to tell me.”
“Erik hasn’t been selling Onadyn to humans. He’s been practically giving it away to Outers, for a fraction of the price he buys it for. He told me that he gave it to them without charge for a long time, but when he lost everything, he had to start selling. I—” Come on, finish this! “—took pictures of them to show how they die, how they suffer.”