where I am without learning to read my men, Val,” Prof said. “Has Firefight replied?”
Val looked down at the screen of my mobile. I lay back, sick to my stomach. They’d been listening in. They knew. Sparks!
“She says, ‘Okay. You’re sure everything’s all right?’ ”
“Say yes,” Prof told Val. “And say, ‘You should stay away for now. Val called Prof over, and we’re going to head back to base. I think I can explain things away to them. I’ll let you know what we find out from this Epic.’ ”
As Val tapped on the phone, Prof walked over to me. He placed his hand on my leg and got out a little box, the thing he called the harmsway—his “technology” for healing others.
The pain in my leg went away. I looked at him and realized I was having difficulty holding back tears. I didn’t know if they were from shame, pain, or pure rage.
He’d been spying on me.
“Don’t feel so bad, David,” Prof said softly. “This is why you’re here.”
“What?”
“Firefight did exactly as we expected,” Prof said. “If she was so good she could infiltrate my own team, I knew she’d have little difficulty compromising you. You’re a good fighter, David. Passionate, determined. But you’re inexperienced, and you melt for a pretty face.”
“Megan’s not just a pretty face.”
“And yet you let her manipulate you,” Prof said. “You let her into our base, and you told her our secrets.”
“But I …” I hadn’t let her into the base. She’d done that on her own. Prof didn’t know everything, I realized. He’d bugged my mobile, but obviously that only gave him information when I had it on. He didn’t know things Megan and I had talked about in person, only what we’d said over the line.
“I know you don’t believe me, David,” Prof said. “But everything she told you, everything she has done, has been part of a game. She played you. Her mock vulnerability, her supposed affection … I’ve seen it all before, son. All lies. I’m sorry. I’d bet even this ‘weakness’ she told you about is a fabrication.”
Her weakness! Prof knew Megan’s weakness. She’d told it to me over the mobile. He didn’t believe, but he still knew. I felt a spike of alarm.
“You’re wrong about her, Prof,” I said, meeting his eyes. “I know she’s being sincere.”
“Oh?” Prof said. “And did she tell you about how she killed Sam?”
“She didn’t. I—”
“She did,” Prof said quietly, firmly. “David, we have it on film. Val showed it to me when I got to Babilar. Sam’s mobile was recording as he died. Firefight shot him.”
“You didn’t tell me that!”
“I have my reasons,” Prof said, standing up.
“You used me as bait,” I said. “You said … this is why I’m here! You were planning a trap for her from the start!”
Prof turned to walk back to Val, who nodded at him, showing him the screen of my mobile.
“Let’s move,” Prof said. “Where’s the sub?”
“Down below,” Val said. “I didn’t plant the supplies. I tracked David instead. You should have told me.”
“The plan required him to believe that we didn’t know what he was doing,” Prof said, taking my mobile and putting it into his pocket. “The fewer who knew, the better.” He looked back at me. “Come on, son. Let’s head back.”
“What are you going to do?” I demanded, still sitting where I’d been shot, my blood a stain beneath me. “About Megan.”
Prof’s expression darkened, and he didn’t reply.
From that, I knew. The Reckoners had used ploys like this before, luring an Epic into a trap with a series of false texts they thought were from an ally.
I had to warn Megan.
I turned and threw myself off the rooftop, engaging the spyril. Which didn’t work. I had about enough time to let out a shout of surprise before I hit the water four stories down from the roof.
It did not feel pleasant.
Once I sputtered out of the water and grabbed the side of the building, I looked up. Prof stood on the edge of the roof, tossing something up and down in his hand. The spyril’s motivator. When had he lifted that? When he was healing me, probably.
“Fish him out,” he said to Val, loud enough that I could hear. “And let’s get back to the base.”
39
I spent the next day in my room.
I wasn’t confined there, not explicitly, but when I left, the looks I got from Val, Exel, and Mizzy drove me back into solitude.