Page 101 of Anarchy Chained: Alpha Thomas

“Those two years you thought you were with Prodigy?”

Oh, shit. Here it comes.

“You weren’t, Sadie. You were with Cyan and Uzi the whole time.”

“What?” she gasps, sitting up in bed. “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Sheila says.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” I snap. “You’re a goddamned know-it-all.”

“I don’t see a school in her memories, Thomas. I see underground bunkers or something.”

“Wait,” Sadie whispers. “I remember that now. I was in a room. But I wasn’t with Cyan and Uzi.” She stops to massage her head, like it’s painful to think about these things. “I was with Iziah.”

“They had both of you, Sadie. They were using you. Training you to be a weapon.”

“Good God,” she says. “I knew there was something between them. I knew it. They were acting all funny.”

“Well, they’re acting funny again right now. And I don’t think we fully understand just how dangerous these two are. They’re like you and Sadie, Thomas. Mentalist and illusionist. Except they know what the fuck they’re doing.”

“Shit. Get Case and Linc right now.”

“Well, I could do that,” Sheila says. “But… I’m telling you, Uzi is raging downstairs right now. He can’t be left alone. There’s no telling what kind of damage those two could do. I don’t know if Case or Lincoln could fight an attack like that. They’ve never been exposed to that kind of thing.”

“So what do we do?” Sadie asks. I’m only half surprised that she’s ready to jump ship so easily. Sheila is right. Somewhere deep inside her, she knows everything Sheila said is true. Those memories they stole are still in there, filed away for secret-keeping. But they’re still there. “I don’t want them to get a hold of me again, Thomas. Ever. I want to stay with you.”

I pull her close to me and hug her. “I have no intention of letting them get you, don’t worry. Uzi needs to sever that link to have any control over you, Sadie. I’m your link and I won’t let him cut it. I promise.”

“OK,” Sheila says. “Now that all that stupid emotional stuff is over… can we please come up with a plan to get these freaks out of Lincoln’s house? All we need is for them to find the lab and things will get really ugly, really fast.”

“We need to tell Lincoln, Sheila. Send him a message now.”

“I can’t. Uzi and Cyan are right there. I can’t even ask him to leave the room. You don’t understand the level of tension down there right now.”

“You know what I want to know?” I say.

“What?” Sheila replies.

“Why the fuck can’t you talk to Lincoln in his head? You really need to work on that.”

Sheila huffs. “I’ll take your upgrade suggestion into consideration, Mr. Brooks. Now stop being so… not-Thomas. I need that cold motherfucker back, pronto. Get dressed and get your ass down there. Now!”