Page 285 of Shadowblood Souls
I haven’t been taken to any separate areas of the valley yet, but his explanation doesn’t surprise me. Zian said that he and Dominic were escorted to a rock-climbing area yesterday afternoon while I was in the field again.
Jacob takes a bite and considers me over the table as we chew. “We have to get off this island for one of these missions. See how it all works. Then we can make more of a decision.”
Exactly what I’ve been thinking. I offer him a crooked smile in return. “Yeah.”
We eat for a few minutes in silence, wary of who might be listening unseen. Then Jacob motions his fork at me.
“You said ‘we.’ How many of the others have you seen?”
“All of them, now. But only here and there. And never more than three of us together at once.” I swallow a lump of cheese-saturated egg, the flavor turning sour as I think about my answer. “Clancy made it clear that he doesn’t think it’s in his best interests to let all five of us have a chance to collaborate.”
Jacob lets out a disdainful huff. “Because we’d run fucking circles around his operation here.”
He could be right. But we’re not getting to find out, are we?
Even though the omelet is perfectly enjoyable, my stomach has twisted into a knot by the time I’ve finished eating. I get up to put my dishes away, knowing that in a matter of minutes some of the staff will come by to usher us to our various next destinations.
But I’ve barely set my plate down in the bin when Clancy himself pokes his red-topped head into the cafeteria.
He walks over to my and Jacob’s table at a briskly professional pace. “The two of you appear to be settling in.”
Jacob eyes him, looking like he’s grappling with his self-control. “I’d like to see the rest of my friends.”
“We’ll get to that. I’m sure Riva’s already told you that they’re perfectly fine, as she is.” Clancy motions to us. “I was hoping to talk to just the two of you in my office for a moment.”
Jake and I exchange a look. Our new captor makes the request sound voluntary, but somehow I don’t think he’ll be pleased if we refuse.
We’ll get more chances to figure out this place and how to leave it the more we dance to his tune.
But I’m not going to let him call all the shots either—at least, as much as he’ll let me have a voice.
As we follow him into the hall, I clear my throat. “There were a few things I wanted to ask you about too. Just to understand how we ended up here better.”
I don’t know whether to be relieved or suspicious that Clancy answers without hesitation. “That’s completely fair.”
Of course, after we’ve stepped into an office room that’s got the same stone walls as the rest of the mountain facility, it’s Jacob who speaks up first. He doesn’t even wait until Clancy has moved behind the desk at one end of the room.
“In the other facility, the one we broke into—you set us up to get caught, with my brother’s help. How did you know we’d be coming there? Why did you let us get the kids out first?”
I’ve been wondering a lot along the same lines. I study Clancy’s face as he sinks into the simple office chair behind the desk, leaving us standing.
“About your brother’s part in things, I think that’s something you should discuss with Griffin, as much as he’s willing to. As for the rest, I didn’t intervene right away because I wasn’t sure how the situation would play out. Not everyone working at that facility was completely on board with my approach. I hoped their strategy would work and that I could arrange your transfer to the island regardless.”
The knots in my gut pull tighter. “But it didn’t work, so we slaughtered a bunch of people who were causing problems for you.” How convenient.
And technically,Islaughtered most of them.
Clancy doesn’t show any reaction to that statement. “I’m not happy about the loss of life. It is what it is. We did have to resort to a certain amount of trickery in the end, but I’d known that if brute force wasn’t going to do it, we’d have to be as smart as possible instead.”
They’d waited until we’d started to split up and then divided us even further.
“What about the younger shadowbloods—all of them?” I ask. “The ones I’ve talked to here all already know about the sha—the monsters we’re supposed to be fighting. Some of them have already been sent on missions directly against them. That never happened with us.”
Clancy folds his hands in his lap as he leans back in his chair. “We’ve made some modifications to our process from generation to generation. We were able to train in the younger shadowbloods faster because we’d learned from our experienceswith you. And after your escape attempt, a significant portion of the Guardianship felt it would be too dangerous for the six of you to leave the facilities under any circumstances.”
Modifications in their process. He probably doesn’t realize what we learned from Ursula Engel’s computer files—that she never gave the rest of the guardians her full formula for creating us.
The kids have weaker powers than we do.That’sat least as much a part of why the guardians worried less about sending them into the field.
