Page 126 of Love, Nemesis
The more she came to know him, the less she understood about him, but as strange as it was, as she’d come to accept her own past, she’d recognized and connected with something in Lethe that felt intangible and, in its own way, unbreakable.
She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it, granted that it seemed largely out of her control. Right now, it was just a distraction, and as they searched Hailey’s office, she tried her best to keep her inner musings at bay.
She rushed through another stack of papers, a box on Hailey’s desk, and a few of his drawers.
Still nothing.
She glanced up at Lethe, keeping watch near the door with his arms crossed. As if sensing her gaze, he looked over at her.
“I’m sure we’ll find something,” he said. He seemed resolved to support her, but also withdrawn into himself. “You said Hailey never keeps the lab key on his person, right?”
They both looked sharply toward the corner of the room as something fell from a small wooden stand and shattered on the ground. Cal sat there on the ground with a metal box in his hand, working on the combination. During his fidgeting, he’d bumped a nearby wooden stand and knocked off the vase.
Ana had handed off the metal box she’d discovered in Hailey’s desk to Cal after trying every combination she could think of. Her next move after finishing her search of the office would likely be to beat that box with anything she could find.
Cal grinned sheepishly. “Sorry,” he whispered.
Lethe and Ana exchanged glances.
“Why did you insist on bringing him?” she asked.
Lethe shrugged. “He’s a wildcard. I like wildcards.”
Ana kept shuffling through Hailey’s desk. “I feel like we have enough wildcards.”
Another few minutes passed. Lethe leaned his head out the door at one point and whispered something, which caught her attention.
“Hey,” she said, but he didn’t lean back in. Now, it looked as if he was waving someone over.
Ana ran over to the door. Lethe opened it just in time for Diane to storm in. She and Ana nearly ran into each other, and face to face, Diane simply stared for a moment. Her eyes looked down at Chronos, then the office, then Cal.
Ana explained their motives, leaving Diane still standing there as she processed the events as they’d transpired. She glanced at Lethe, eyes narrowing.
“How did you recognize me?” she asked.
Ana looked at Lethe too. That was a good question.
“You’re in an Hour’s uniform sneaking around the capitol building alone. I took an educated guess,” he said.
“Still seems like a risk,” Diane said.
Lethe unfolded his arms, revealing the cherry knife tucked along the inside of his forearm. “Not really.”
Diane looked over at Ana, eyebrow raised, “I like him.”
Ana rolled her eyes, pulling Diane into the room to search. Without another word, Diane started tearing through the office too, looking for the lab key.
“So, you’re really okay now with breaking it?” Diane said, causing Lethe to look back into the room curiously, the door cracked beside him.
“Yes,” Ana replied. “The truth needs to get out.”
“Some of your family and friends could be illusions,” Diane replied, looking behind picture frames now before heading toward the box that Cal had. “The entire State could just be an illusion. Poof.”
“I know.”
“Generations of people will disappear. Natural disasters and damage in En Sanctus will be uncovered. Mass graveyards, pollution, miles of wreckage will appear again.”
“I know,” Ana replied simply, looking up to see Lethe and Diane exchange glances.
