Book I - ch 37. The Pieces That Remain

* * *

Sarah opened her eyes, and the darkness receded bit by bit.

Someone squeezed her hand.

Robyn!

She pulled her sister towards her, wrapping her arms around her as tightly as she could as she started sobbing.

Robyn tried to pull away, but she only held on tighter.

“Sarah, what’s wrong? Does something hurt?”

“I’ll go call the nurse,” an unfamiliar voice said.

Sarah looked around. This was the campus hospital. She’d been here a few times to donate blood.

She wiped at her eyes, releasing Robyn from the hug, but still holding her hand trapped in hers.

Robyn helped her wipe her eyes with her free hand. “Are you feeling better now?”

Sarah nodded, swallowing back a sob.

“What happened?”

“I felt sick, and I couldn’t move.” Sarah didn’t dare tell her the truth.

“Well, congrats on freaking everyone out. I called Mom and Dad. They’re coming to pick us up.”

Sarah stiffened, fighting back another wave of tears.

“Are you sure you feel better now?” Robyn’s voice was as gentle as she’d ever heard.

Sarah pulled her into another hug, her tears slowing as she listened to Robyn’s heart beat. Was it fine now? Was the nightmare gone for good?

Anxiety seeped into her happiness, twisting her insides. “Robyn? Do you think you could ever kill someone?”

Robyn laughed. “Were you having a nightmare?”

“Maybe.” Wasn’t nightmare too simple of a word?

“Well, next time, just remember that no, I wouldn’t kill anyone. Geez, what have you even been dreaming? I told you to stop watching those murder shows.”

Unfamiliar questions flashed like lightning in her mind. Would you trade a random stranger off the streets for your parents? A building full of strangers?

“If Mom and Dad’s life were at stake, what would you give to keep them safe?”

Robyn pulled away from her, meeting her gaze straight on. “Stop being weird.”

“Just answer me. For my nightmare. Would you kill someone to keep us safe?”

Robyn sighed, flicking her on the forehead. “If I had to choose between you and some other person, of course I’d choose you. Is that even a question?”

Was if the other person was also her?

* * *

Pegasus rubbed his sore eyes. He automatically reached over for the pen that Unicorn had taken away from him, but she slid it further away without a glance in his direction.

What were they talking about now?

Cypher raised his hand without looking up from his screen. “They’ve finished the sweep, sir. There’s no trace of any sort of sabotage. If there’s anything we haven’t found, I’m the queen of hearts.”

Unicorn rolled her eyes. “I told you to stop with those nonsense comparisons.”

“I figured she didn’t have the time to plant anything,” Cypher said.

“Maybe her plan wasn’t to blow us all up,” Griffon said. “But we don’t know because she was interrupted.”

“My questions made her suspicious,” Pegasus explained. “And I asked November to let me know when she tried to leave, but he let something slip in front of her.”

“Thankfully, all she did was knock him out and stick him in an empty bed,” Cypher said. “The nurses were too busy to notice he wasn’t just sleeping.”

“Good thing he was useless enough to not be a threat to her.” Scorpion pulled up the footage from the hallway outside Sarah’s room. “The guard was a different matter.”

On screen, the impostor made her way to Sarah’s room. Maybe affected by the knowledge of what followed, Pegasus thought her smile looked forced.

The power of hindsight.

They watched in silence as Robyn tried to get into the room, playing up the sickly act, but the guard didn’t budge.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

If the guard had known her better, he might’ve thought something was odd when for once Robyn didn’t make a fuss like she was prone to do when not getting her way.

She turned around as if to head back from where she’d come, then turned around and shot him.

He unholstered his gun as he fell. Robyn shot him again, and he was dead.

The silencer explained why Sarah hadn’t noticed anything. Pegasus doubted she would’ve recognized the sound.

Unicorn was the first to break the silence. “Killing the guard in plain view of the cameras wasn’t exactly subtle.”

“I think she didn’t care at that point. Her mission was over either way.”

“Why was the guard there?” Zeus asked.

“That was my fault,” Pegasus said. “I’d asked Cypher to put a guard on Sarah’s room. At the time, I was concerned with Sarah being an impostor.”

“Roger normally works—worked—at the entrance. I redirected him downstairs,” Cypher added.

Pegasus looked back up at the screen, expecting to see himself rushing down the hall any minute now.

Zeus frowned at the screen. “But she didn’t shoot Sarah as soon as she went into the room. Do we know why?”

“Because it was her sister. Or close enough,” Pegasus whispered. “She mentioned something about trying to change her orders. I think she was hoping for an alternative.” Then she gave up. “She confirmed the passageway exists, but she claimed not to know where it was. She also said she didn’t have anything to do with the New Nation, and agreed they’re puppets. I think the term was narrow-minded little insects, good at creating chaos.”

“Whoever she worked for doesn’t seem to have a good opinion of them either.”

Pegasus made a face. “She claimed to be working for the W.R.O.”

For the first time, there was a hint of surprise in how Zeus’ eyes widened. “That’s worrisome.”

“But she said her intel came from someone else, someone I wouldn’t approve of.”

“You specifically?” Zeus asked.

Pegasus nodded. “I got that impression, yes.”

“Who do you think that would be?”

He shrugged. “The puppeteers, maybe.”

“And did she share this intel?”

“She said she didn’t know the why or how, but killing Sarah would save her world.”

“Do you believe her?”

“I wouldn’t kill someone I cared for—or even a mirror image of that person—without getting some proof.”

“Robyn wouldn’t blindly accept it either,” Scorpion said. “We barely know Sarah and even we wouldn’t kill her on someone’s claim that she’s a threat. Not without proof. There’s no way Robyn would unless there was something else going on.”

Griffon nodded. “They could have threatened her family, her sister. But that doesn’t tell us why they would focus on Sarah.”

Zeus watched the screen, where Roger was now bleeding out on the floor. He signaled for Cypher to fast-forward the recording.

Cypher skipped it to when Sarah burst out of the room.

She slipped on Roger’s blood and tripped over his body. Robyn emerged from the doorway.

Pegasus had already watched this part of the recording more than once, but he couldn’t look away. It was so strange seeing it play out in silence. It was even worse than watching Roger get shot.

The desperation on Sarah’s face was painful to see. When Robyn fired a couple of shots down the hall, his own memories intruded and intertwined with what was happening on-screen. Sarah used Robyn’s momentary distraction to pick up the gun.

Pegasus hadn’t watched this part of the recording before. He’d always stopped it right there, unwilling to watch the girl who looked exactly like his friend die.

Now that he was paying attention, though, he noticed the way Sarah grabbed the gun, the way she held it steady. He wasn’t the only one. He caught several others sitting up, frowns matching his own.

To avoid seeing Robyn’s death, he focused all his attention on Sarah. He focused on her hands, on how steady they were, and the way she held the gun. When Sarah pulled the trigger, he couldn’t help moving his gaze to Robyn as she fell.

He already knew from the autopsy. She’d been dead instantly.

“I didn’t know she could shoot,” Zeus said into the reigning silence.

Cypher closed his mouth that had been hanging open. “There’s nothing to indicate she should know how.”

Scorpion scoffed. “That’s one hell of a lucky shot.”

“What do you mean by that?” Pegasus didn’t like her tone.

“Nothing, except that maybe keeping her alive is not such a good thing if there’s any truth to that whole her death saves the world business.”

“At best it’s an unsubstantiated claim from an enemy combatant and an unknown source. I don’t think we should put much weight on it,” Pegasus objected.

Scorpion waved him off. “Oh, calm down. I’m not gonna go slit her throat while she sleeps. I realize the fake Robyn could’ve been messing with us.”

“I don’t think she was messing with us.”

“You can’t have it both ways, Pegasus,” Unicorn said. “Either you think she was telling the truth or you think she wasn’t.”

“If there were any lies, I don’t think they came from her.”

“What?”

“I don’t think she was lying. But someone could have lied to her. She had no motive for killing Sarah unless she believed it was necessary. Her cover was already blown. And it wasn’t about revenge, you could tell she didn’t want to do it. She never would have stalled for so long and let us carry on a conversation if killing Sarah was what she wanted to do.” He waited until they all could think about it before continuing. “Robyn did things she didn’t want to do kicking and screaming, I’ll wager both versions of her had that in common.”

“You think she truly believed that killing Sarah would save her world?” Griffon asked.

“She had to believe it for it all to make sense.”

“How does killing Sarah save the world?” Cypher asked. “What’s the connection?”

Scorpion threw a balled up report at Cypher, hitting him on the forehead. “There’s a distinction between saving our world and saving her world. I got the feeling that it was her world and hers alone she was gonna save. Ours was up for grabs in the whole thing.”

Pegasus nodded.

Cypher rubbed his forehead. “Then why would it be our Sarah?”

“It makes little sense to target someone from our world,” Griffon said.

Zeus turned away from the screen and signaled Cypher to stop the recording. There was nothing left to see but bodies being taken away.

“Cypher, check with Athena when she’ll be back,” Zeus ordered. “I want her talking to Sarah as soon as the girl wakes up.”

Cypher nodded, typing something into his computer. “Should the doctor sedate her again? Because he just sent me a message saying she’s awake.”

He pointed at the screen with a flair and surveillance from the infirmary appeared, showing Sarah speaking to Doctor Green. Or rather, the doctor was speaking to her, and she was looking as if through him, gaze unfocused.

At least she seemed calm. If calm could be a word to describe catatonic.

“Do you mind if I try talking to her in the meantime?” Pegasus asked.

“See if you can get her to tell us anything that will help make sense of this mess,” Zeus said.

“Sir? What are we going to do with Sarah?” Unicorn asked. “Surely we can’t send her to her aunt’s now.”

“I would like to know why they wanted her dead before sending her anywhere,” Zeus said.

“We should send her as far away as possible,” Scorpion suggested. “Hide her with some of our contacts overseas or lock her up in our brig. At least that way she’ll be safe and in no position to hurt us.”

“Whether she’s a threat to us is far from certain,” Pegasus said. “And I don’t think she’ll appreciate being shipped off or locked up anywhere.”

“Does she have a choice?”

“Well, technically, unless she’s a threat, we can’t make her do anything.”

“No, we can’t,” Griffon agreed. “If she’s not a threat, it’s up to her.”

Scorpion crossed her arms. “And what do you suggest we do with her?”

Pegasus shrugged. “Ask her?”

Scorpion pointed at the screen. Sarah still hadn’t moved. “I don’t think a zombie can have much of a say in anything.”

“Talk to her first, and then we’ll decide,” Zeus said.

“And what do we tell her?” Unicorn asked.

Pegasus shrugged again, his gaze returning to the screen. “How about the truth for once?”