Book I - ch 15. Duomaieusophobia

* * *

Robyn crossed her arms in front of her chest to disguise her nervousness as she glared at Griffon.

“This is idiotic.” Thankfully, she sounded calm.

Scorpion was standing quietly out of the way in a corner.

Pegasus came in, disrupting the ensuing silence. “Alright, she’s here, she’s contained. Now what?”

Robyn turned her glare on him.

“Did you get anything else from Gellman?” he asked when no one said a word.

“No,” Griffon said. “Hydra and Python are having a go at him now.”

“And he’s no longer my concern.” Robyn turned to watch the screen showing Sarah. “Unlike the girl who happens to be my sister and who is locked up in the next room.”

“What did you think about Sarah?” Griffon asked Pegasus.

“She seems confused, upset. Looks genuine.”

“During the times you two talked to her, did she seem to have any knowledge of us or this place?” he directed to both Pegasus and Robyn.

They both shook their heads.

“She was completely clueless,” Robyn said.

“She didn’t even seem to know about the W.R.O.,” Pegasus added. “Nothing obvious comes to mind about why she would be a target for the New Nation.”

“And genius here had to be nice.” Robyn punched the wall since she couldn’t punch Pegasus. “You had to take her outside and put her in danger.”

“In more danger?” he asked.

Maybe she could punch him. Once should be fine. “They could have gotten to her.”

“She’s back and she’s alive, isn’t she?”

Robyn ignored him. “Griffon, can’t I go talk to her?”

Pegasus pointed towards the screen and she turned to see Scorpion entering the interrogation room.

Distracted, Robyn hadn’t noticed when Scorpion slipped out of the room. That certainly wasn’t a good sign. She was being overly emotional about this whole thing with Sarah.

She recognized it, and it hardly came as a surprise, but recognizing it and doing something about it were not the same thing.

Robyn hung back, letting Pegasus have a full view of the screens. She could still see them over his shoulder.

On the screen, Scorpion shut the door behind her and Sarah stopped pacing the room like an injured, caged animal.

“Sit down,” Scorpion ordered, taking the seat facing away from the main camera.

Sarah stayed where she was.

Scorpion threw a photograph onto the table. “Do you know this man?”

Sarah walked over to the table to look at the photo, but she remained standing. “What’s going on? What happened?”

“Sit and look at the picture and tell me if you recognize this man.”

“Ease up, Scorpion,” Pegasus whispered over the com. “Ask her.”

Robyn glanced his way. It really was unnerving when he did that. But it was also unnerving that he was right.

“Sarah, please sit down and look at the photo,” Scorpion tried again, heeding his instructions.

“Tell her it’s important.”

“It’s really important,” Scorpion said, her voice softer.

Sarah pulled out the chair and took a seat, drawing the photograph closer to her. “I don’t know him. Why?”

“You’re sure you’ve never seen him before?”

Sarah leaned back in her chair. She looked angry. “I have a terrible memory. Hell, I wouldn’t recognize you if I saw you again in a week. Now, why should I know him?”

Scorpion met Sarah’s gaze straight on. “This is one of the men who killed your parents. The thing is they had no idea who Robyn or Mark were. They were after you.”

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Sarah looked up at her, shock clearly taking the place of anything she might have said.

Robyn made a move for the door. Griffon was faster, blocking her path.

Robyn had to stop herself from trying to push through. “Is this really what you want? The crazy approach?”

Griffon gave her a questioning look.

“Oh, c’mon, we all know you divided us up into categories. Pegasus is the good cop, I play the bad cop, and Scorpion plays the crazy cop who’s gonna set you on fire at any moment.”

“I don’t do that.”

“Of course you do.” That’s why she’d been channeling Scorpion during her interrogation of Gellman. It seemed the best approach.

Pegasus nodded without looking up from the screen.

“Even if I do…” Griffon ran a hand over his hair. “Scorpion will behave. And you will stay here.”

Robyn glared at him. She hoped she hadn’t said too much.

* * *

Sarah stared at the man’s sunken eyes staring up at her from the photograph. Should she recognize him?

Could she have seen him on the bus on her way home? Or maybe at the corner store where they stopped for ice cream now and then? With her memory, would she even know?

Scorpion hovered over her, watching. But that made no difference. She doubted she’d remember anything even if she stared at that photo for hours.

Was this payback for having asked Pegasus to take her to the cemetery?

No, that would be too cruel a joke. Besides, they wouldn’t play a trick like that on her, if for no other reason than Robyn wouldn’t let them.

She looked up at Scorpion. “Why would the New Nation be looking for me?”

“We thought maybe you’d know.”

“Do you not know what they wanted?”

“They wanted you dead.”

“What? Why?” Sarah pulled the photo closer to her. Nothing came to mind.

“We’re working on getting more information.”

It didn’t make any sense. Why would anyone want her dead? “Where’s Robyn?”

“You’re talking to me right now.”

Sarah blinked at the response, then hardened her expression.

“Would you like to tell me why an assassination squad would be targeting insignificant little you?”

“I’d love to, if I knew.”

“You realize this makes you responsible for the death of your parents, Robyn’s injury… It’s all on you.”

Scorpion’s words washed over her like a bucket of icy water. But the cold was quickly replaced by something more fiery. Sarah latched onto the rising anger and pulled it to the surface. “Where’s my sister?”

* * *

Seeing the pain that flashed briefly in Sarah’s eyes, Robyn gave Griffon a pleading look, which he once again ignored. Had Griffon always been this difficult to deal with?

“She’s busy right now.” Scorpion’s lie traveled over the speakers. “What’s the matter? You don’t like my company?”

Robyn watched Sarah’s face. She looked furious now. There was no way she’d be cooperating if Scorpion continued like this.

“Don’t let her close down, Scorpion.” Pegasus muted himself, turning to catch Griffon’s attention. “Do you want me in there?”

Griffon shook his head. “Not yet.”

Robyn kept her mouth shut. She didn’t know whether it’d be better to have Pegasus speak to Sarah.

“Can’t this guy tell you what’s going on?” Sarah asked, tapping a finger onto Gellman’s photo.

Scorpion relaxed her posture a little, glancing at the photo. “He was following orders. It’ll be almost impossible for us to trace where those orders originated. The New Nation fanatics are little more than puppets. So far, we haven’t made much progress locating the people who pull their strings.”

This would be new information to Sarah. It was a carefully guarded secret that the New Nation terrorists were nothing more than obedient dogs.

Sarah looked at the photo again, confused. “And you’re sure they were there to kill me?”

“Yes, we are,” Scorpion answered. “We’ve sent someone to check on your aunt in case the New Nation is looking for you.”

“Good,” Sarah whispered. “I don’t get it, why would they be after me? It’s not like I know anything. Could they have confused me with Robyn?”

Scorpion shook her head.

“Could be something she doesn’t know she knows,” Pegasus said as if he were talking to himself.

“That’s not helpful,” Robyn said. “It’s not like we can go fishing in her head.”

But that was more or less what Scorpion did. She started with things that might link Sarah to the New Nation, from places where she hung out to people she knew. Even what she did online.

Minutes went by as the questions seemed endless. Scorpion—with an occasional prompt from Pegasus—pressed on.

Robyn could tell that Griffon had already given up on getting anything useful from Sarah. He’d been skimming through other reports for the past five minutes. The only reason he was still there was probably to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid.

“Anyone new in your life? Someone who started going to your classes or that you might’ve noticed hanging around your house?” Scorpion asked.

Sarah shook her head.

“Anything out of the ordinary happen that day? Any of your friends acting out of character, maybe?”

“I can’t think of anything that would be important.”

“What were you doing that afternoon?”

Anyone with eyes could see Sarah was getting frustrated. “I went to the university, spent some time hanging around looking for a book I needed, then home.”

“We’ve been at this forever,” Robyn complained. “It’s not getting us anywhere.”

“Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way,” Pegasus said.

Griffon set aside his tablet. “What do you mean?”

Pegasus glanced at Robyn, looking apologetic. “What if they were trying to kill her so they could replace her?”

Scorpion, having heard the exchange, adapted her questions to the new possibility. “Did you love your parents?”

Sarah hesitated for a second, clearly taken aback by the shift. “Of course.”

“What would make you leave them behind?”

Sarah’s eyes widened. “What? In what way?”

“What might make you throw their lives away?” Scorpion rephrased, her tone sharper.

Robyn held her breath for the answer.

Sarah’s mouth opened, moving soundlessly for at least two seconds before her voice followed. “Are you saying I had something to do with this?”

Pegasus turned off his com. “Still, if that were the case, I don’t see the point in an open assassination. And why kill the family, too?” He shook his head. “I mean, you could kill the family to avoid recognition during a replacement. But in this case, when she was the primary target, I don’t know.” He turned back to the screen.

Scorpion was insisting, and Sarah’s shock was gradually turning back to anger. Pegasus let Scorpion push this time.

Robyn placed a hand on his shoulder. “Pegasus…”

“We can fix it later with an apology,” Griffon said, once again invested in what was going on in the next room.

“If an apology is needed,” Pegasus added. “I hope it is.”

“What’re you thinking?” Robyn squeezed his shoulder harder, but he didn’t turn away from the screen.

“Something no one wants to.”

“Spit it out then.” Her tone was sharper.

Pegasus turned to look into her eyes. “What if she’s not Sarah? Not your Sarah?”