Page 233 of Silver Elite

She wears a simple dark-blue dress with long sleeves and a high neck, her red hair secured in a neat bun at her nape. She stands near the far edge of the stage, focused intently on the General.

My stomach twists. She’s doing something to him. But what?

Redden continues to fall apart on the stage. Blinking, clearing his throat, getting a sentence in, stopping, blinking, shaking his head, getting another sentence in, a word, rubbing his face.

Nobody is quite sure how to react to the spectacle unfolding before them. His triumphant speech has devolved into a distorted jumble of words.

“And so, my fellow comrades, esteemed guests, and honored friends,” he says, then falters again. “Where did Vinessa go?”

Apprehension sweeps through the room like a dark shadow. I hear the people around me speaking in hushed tones, exchanging whispers as they watch Merrick Redden unravel before their eyes.

“Where is Vin?”

Travis steps forward, but the General holds up his hands as if to ward him off. A frown mars Travis’s lips.

“Where is she? What did you do with my wife?”

“Sir,” Travis hedges. His voice is steady as he reaches for the General. “Maybe we should go get you a glass of water. Your throat sounds dry.”

Redden eyes him incredulously. He shoves him aside. “I’m giving a speech, boy.”

Travis glances at Cross, who approaches with slow, measured steps. Roe stays put, but he doesn’t look so entertained anymore, only fearful.

Tension fills the room as the General insists on finishing his speech. A speech that is now nonsensical.

“And so, I want you to raise your glasses to another twenty-five years. Cross is not, but everybody is. And I saw her there and thought, yes. Or was it no?”

His voice grows increasingly erratic. His gestures wild. Then he scrunches his face and begins thumping his fist against his temple.

When Travis grabs his arm, he loses it, lashing out violently. I search for Adrienne again, but the agitated crowd keeps moving and swaying, obscuring her from view.

The General stops hitting himself. Then he stops talking altogether. He mumbles gibberish under his breath while everyone stands in wide-eyed shock.

He transforms into a pitiful figure up on that stage, and a chill goes through me as I watch his mind slipping away. Seeing him now, without knowing what came before, I would assume he was a fragmentedMod. But Idoknow what came before. I literally saw it happen, right now, right here. In warp speed. I watched his mind fragmenting in front of me, as if someone was—

Corrupting it.

Jayde Valence’s voice reverberates through my brain.

They’re unnatural. They’re corrupting minds.

The sick notion knocks the wind out of me, just as I spot Adrienne again. I try to catch her eye, but she’s pushing away from the stage.

Travis, meanwhile, is attempting to calm the crowd, leaning toward the podium. “Everything is all right, ladies and gentlemen. I think we might have a little blood pressure medication problem on our hands.”

Nobody’s buying it.

Cross tries to help Travis subdue the General, whose expression has gone completely vacant. The man walked into this ballroom with authority and he’s leaving it like a broken child, alternating between batting his sons away and slapping his own face.

“It’s okay,” Travis says into the microphone. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. He’ll be fine and—”

The rest of his words are drowned out by the explosion.

Chapter 52

Chaos erupts. The soldiers on site snap to action, officers barking orders and shoving their way through the crowd. Civilians shouting that a bomb went off, racing toward the exits in a panic. I’m not concerned. I know where the explosion originated. I know I’m in no danger of more charges igniting. I’m too busy tracking Adrienne’s movements.

“The supply room!” someone shouts. “I see smoke coming from there.”

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