Page 48 of Consume Me

I nodded. It was the most I could afford without losing my cool. She’d been stupid and selfish and scared. Traits she shared with me. So how could I blame her any more than I blamed myself?

“If you think of anything,” Brex said, sounding tired.

“I’ll keep trying,” she promised. “But it’s not going to be useful.”

“I’ll take you back to your room,” Georgia said. She moved to place an arm round her and Sarah stiffened.

“Sorry,” she murmured. “They used to say that after the tests.”

“Tests?” She’s failed to mention that. Then again, we’d been grilling her for location details.

“They took my blood sometimes. They told me they were checking my vitamin levels. Then they’d give me more pills or less pills.” She smiled apologetically at Georgia and began to follow her out.

As soon as they were gone, we turned to stare at one another.

“I doubt those were simply blood tests,” Smith said. “So what were they looking for?”

I couldn’t begin to guess. It was an interesting twist but not very useful.

“Maybe we’re thinking about this the wrong way,” Brex said thoughtfully.

“What do you mean?” I glanced at the clock aware that I promised Belle to check on Elizabeth within the hour.

“They might have been doing something more or they might have been doing just that. Why would you check someone’s blood serum levels?”

“Malnutrition,” Smith mused. “Isolation therapy. Overexposure. Lack of exposure.”

As soon as he said it, Brex nodded. “Exactly. What would happen to a person who didn’t go outside? Who had no windows?”

“Vitamin D depletion,” Smith said. “That can cause all sorts of problems.”

“But Sarah came home healthy…”

“Someone kept her that way,” Brex said grimly. “Someone who would know the effects of along-term lack of sunlight.”

“What are you getting at?” My brief nap hadn’t done much for keeping my head on straight. Neither had the last few hours questioning my sister.

Brex walked over to the bulletin board he’d covered with photos and leads, but instead of pointing to a suspect he opened the panel I’d shown them. “These were built during the wars. Where do they lead?”

“Fall-out shelters. Other major government buildings.”

“They’re not just about movement. They were about protection.”

“Are you saying?” I trailed away as it all began to make sense.

“They kept her underground,” he said. “Now what organization would know all about fall-out shelters that were no longer used? What organization could cover that up?”

We weren’t looking for MI-18 for help. We were looking for MI-18 to find my wife.

There was one other place that connected Sarah and the war: Windsmoor. Although the house sat on the outskirts of Windsor far from the nearby castle, I believed the two might be connected. It was the kind of information I should know. But finding out for certain meant digging into files.

“Don’t we have secretaries who could do this?” Georgia asked as she scrolled down a computer screen.

I glanced over at her, surprised she even had to ask. “We can’t trust them.”

“We don’t know who has contact with MI-18.” Smith nodded. “We need to be extra cautious.”

But if waiting around for intel was frustrating, being on the verge of the information we needed was driving me crazy. “Why don’t we just go out there?”