the government is willing to give us,” Priyanka said, swaying with the movement of the truck. “More importantly, it’s Psi-only.”
Clever. I pushed back the strands of hair glued to my face, considering it. She’d picked the one group the government, myself included, knew next to nothing about. I’d hated the idea of the Psion Ring from the moment I’d heard about it. The last thing the Psi needed was a rogue element causing chaos.
“So you were there to do…what? Report back on what I said?”
“We were there for a fresh start,” she said, her voice taking on an edge. “To try to get our lives straight again after leaving an organization that got to be too much. Too violent. They were broadcasting your speech, remember? What information would I be gathering that I couldn’t get by sitting in my dorm room and turning on the TV?”
I could think of any number of things, actually. Security protocols, identifying the car we’d used, studying Mel or the agents and analyzing potential threats.
“At least then I could have been lying on my bed, eating Pop-Tarts,” she said. “Do you think we wanted to be there listening to you tell us what the government was going to take away from us next? It was a mandatory event. They all but dragged us out of the dorms.”
If there was one thing I’d learned about liars, it was this: they gave you way too many details. The Pop-Tarts were a nice touch, but she wasn’t the only one who could spin a detailed cover story out of nothing.
“Well, sorry to disturb your busy day,” I said. “Those dorm rooms were nice. Southgate, right? I got a tour from the dean right before my speech. That’s where they finally found the missing mascot head, right?”
Lie, lie, lie. Southgate wasn’t the one dorm they’d reopened—it wasn’t even a dorm at all. As far as I knew, the mascot’s head had never gone missing, either.
There was a silence that stretched a second too long before Priyanka looked me in the eye and said, smoothly, “Yeah. They found it in the oven of the third-floor kitchen.”
Liar.
It should have filled me with some small feeling of victory, but it only set my nerves ablaze. My skin felt like it was slowly being cut away the longer she stared back at me, as if daring me to call her out. To see what would happen when I did.
My grip on the knife was slick with sweat. I tightened my grip on it again, drawing it closer to my body.
“I’m glad you got out. Of the Psion Ring, I mean,” I said. “I’m a little surprised that a group that basically sounds like a terrorist organization simply let you go, considering the secrecy surrounding it.”
“We had to fake our own deaths to get out,” she said sharply. “And go ahead, call them what you want. At least they’re trying to do work on behalf of the Psi.”
“No, they’re ruining our work,” I said. “You can’t burn a house down when we’re all still inside it. You have to come in and sit down at the table if you’re going to create lasting change. The Psion Ring has only succeeded in scaring people, which makes the job of the good guys that much harder.”
“You really believe that, don’t you?” Priyanka said.
I didn’t want to fight with her about this, and I didn’t have to justify myself, either. I worked with the government because even with its flaws, it was still our best bet for protection and security.
I held up my cuffed hands, feeling strangely hollow as I forced myself to shrug.
Finally, Priyanka’s gaze fell back on Roman. She blew out a long sigh, then started again, her voice softer. “Look. While I will confess I am not unfamiliar with certain criminal elements in this country, these guys honestly just seemed like your run-of-the-mill, stereotypical bad guys. They were clearly trained, so maybe ex-military? Former PSFs hiring out their services to third parties? I mean, would it kill you to just…?”
“What?” I prompted.
“My stupid, heroic Boy Scout of a best friend survived a bomb blast and still ran toward you, not because of who you were, but because he thought you needed help. And yet, it feels like you think we’re the bad guys,” Priyanka said. “Can we please just focus on getting out of here?”
An unwelcome flicker of guilt moved through me. The rawness of her voice had been…
I looked away. If it turned