Page 168 of Storm Caller

Mowry shakes his head. “She’ll use him. She already knew about the girl, but then she found the Solitude—two of you—it was like her prayers had been answered . . .”

“And she figured no one would miss him?” I ask.

Mowry shrugs.

“I’ll kill her,” I hiss. “I’ll destroy her if she hurts him.”

“It may already be too late,” Mowry says.

“We don’t have time for this bullshit,” Justin says, pressing the muzzle of his gun against Mowry’s temple. “You know where our brother is?”

The doctor’s lips press together in a thin line.

He doesn’t want to tell us.

“Your daughter,” I say, and his gaze flicks to me. “Sol was threatening her.”

A tear slips from the corner of his eye as he brings his hands together. “Yes. Please. I just want to go home. I want to see her. I want to see my grandchildren.”

I take a step toward him and lean in. “I’ll find them,” I say, and he nods eagerly. “And if you don’t tell us where Rook is right now, then I promise you’ll wish I hadn’t.”

My voice drops to some bottomless depth I don’t recognize at all.

I’m bluffing. Probably.

It feels like even I don’t know what I’m capable of right now.

I want to tear the world apart.

If we don’t find Rook, nothing will stop me from fulfilling this threat.

“That’s right,” Justin says, appearing beside me. “We have friends in the Neo-Cities. A few phone calls and . . .” He snaps his fingers, and Mowry flinches.

“Please,” he whimpers.

“Enough,” Fisher grunts as he stomps across the room, grabs the doctor by the arm, and hauls him to his feet.

“Wait, I have more questions!” I say.

“How far is this place?” Fisher asks.

Mowry’s expression crumples. “An hour on foot, give or take.”

“Perfect,” he says. “Then you two can chat while we walk.”

59

Within thirty minutes, we’re ready to depart from the Fog’s headquarters with Mowry in tow. I feel a little bad for threatening him, but I shrug it off. Rook needs me, and that’s all that matters.

It takes a bit of arguing to decide who will join the rescue mission.

Edward and Ada are staying behind to monitor things from the computers. They’re both wearing headsets so they can communicate with us and keep an eye on our group using the city’s network of security cameras.

Edward hands Henry a small device. “This is a data drive,” he says. “Once you reach the computers with the cure research, insert this into the matching port. It will download everything.”

“Even if it’s locked?” Henry accepts the drive and conceals it in a pocket of his vest.

“As long as I’ve coded it correctly,” Edward says.