Page 89 of Choosing Jenny
My stomach twisted, because this was not part ofourplan.
“Monitors on,” Justice said.
The three new screens flared to life. Each showed a different point-of-view feed, marked with whoever wore the camera. Left to right, they read Rex, Zavarion and Thunder.
Rex’s camera footage showed what looked like a human hospital on Earth—sterile halls, bright lights, people in scrubs and white lab coats, and medical equipment in various rooms.
Zavarion’s screen was focused on a park where children played.
Thunder’s view was of an estate, where a pair of young men raced rokwas through coffee fields. I hadn’t seen a rokwa since the last time I had visited Grenevar, where Rasmine was from.
“Monitors, freeze,” Justice said, and the views paused.
Rasmine gripped the wheel of the rack, holding on to it for support since it appeared his legs were about to give out from under him. He glared at Justice. “What is the meaning of his?” he hissed, seeing something that I clearly hadn’t yet.
Justice’s smile did not reach his eyes. “I am asking the four of you the same thing. Play Rex’s camera view,” he said, and that feed continued.
The Rex cam approached a tall, thin woman from behind but did not interact with her. Without seeing her face, I did not recognize her, and that was the only view we had. He followed her down some of the hospital’s busy halls, and we heard her say, “See you tomorrow, Carly.”
“Bye, Liz,” the other woman said.
Then we watched as Rex raced to a parking garage and laid beneath a vehicle, and I instinctively knew he was waiting for the first woman there. When her feet became visible on the driver’s side as she unlocked her door, he used a jet injector on her ankle. I doubted she even felt it, or at the very least she probably thought she got stung by an insect.
Her white shoes vanished from view as she slid into her vehicle, but it didn’t start up or drive away. Rex crawled out from beneath the car, popped the passenger side door open, and slid inside, staring at a pretty woman who sat unconscious in the seat next to his.
“So much lovelier when they can’t fight back,” he purred deviously.
The woman…fuck, the resemblance was uncanny. She looked like Jenny and Sarah, and I knew this had to be their sister, Elizabeth. Everything inside of me went a little crazy and revolted, and I knew that Longshot had to have felt my tense reaction. Remaining outwardly composed took every ounce of restraint I possessed.
I shifted my gaze back to Justice, unable to keep the fury from my voice. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Monitor, freeze the Rex feed,” Justice said, ignoring me. “Play the Zavarion feed.”
I stood there, rage vibrating through me as Zavarion’s camera showed him approaching the children at the park. One girl in particular was his focus, and I didn’t miss the way Noc’s body stiffened, while his hands glowed black with his magic.
Through clenched teeth, he said, “Justice, I swear—”
“You don’t want to do that, Noc,” Justice replied, ice in his tone. “Iswear toyouthat you will not be able to live up to whatever threat you were about to make, so shut your mouth.”
I presumed the girl was Noc’s daughter. She had the same black skin, the same rainbow sheen. She was about twelve, by the looks of her. I could not imagine Zavarion hurting a child, but I knew Justicedidenjoy blackmail. I wondered what he could possibly have on Noc.
Zavarion’s voice filled the chambers as he spoke to the young girl. “Hi there. I hear you have something that doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the Bateens. Can you come with me?”
Her eyes went wide, fear flickering across her face as she shook her head. “I don’t have anything—”
“That’s not what our ruler says,” Zavarion said in a light tone. “Come on. It’ll only take a minute. You wouldn’t want to disappoint our ruler, would you?”
She hesitated, clearly deciding whether to trust Zavarion or how wise it might be to displease her ruler. “Of course not.”
Noc made a pitiful noise in the back of his throat as Zavarion led her toward a group of nearby trees, one hand on her back.
“Freeze the Zavarion feed,” Justice said, leaving Noc frantic to know what had happened to his child. “Play the Thunder feed.”
Rasmine’s hand slowly traveled to his side knife handle, his eyes glued to the monitor as he watched Thunder climb higher to her sniper perch in a tree. The boys were coming into range. They couldn’t have been more than fifteen. Thunder shot the boys, but it wasn’t a hand cannon. It was a tranquilizer gun. She climbed down and collected them in a net, then dragged them to an onworlder.
Fury poured off of Rasmine. “If you so much as hurt my son, I will—”
“The attempt onmylife has failed,” Justice said, cutting him off while his narrowed gaze took each of us in, one by one. “Since I can no longer trust the four of you but still require your cooperation to get to the bottom of this, I have decided toborrowpeople I believe may be important to you to maintain our fragile alliance.”
