AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m not going to like who it is, am I?”
“I don’t suspect any of you will.”
Lila quickly told them what she had found.
Kenna shook her head. “I always had a feeling about her, but she’s made Cecily so happy. It’s going to crush her. She’ll doubt herself for the rest of her life. That woman slept in my daughter’s room a thousand times.”
“That’s unusual for an outsider, isn’t it?”
Kenna nodded. “She stays here a lot, Lila. There’s an off-and-on boyfriend in the picture, a rotten one. Camille’s had nowhere else to go. She’s an orphan, or at least she claimed to be. I suppose it was just a lie for sympathy.”
“Broken bones are a lot of commitment for a lie.”
“Yes, but she’s a soldier,” Connell said. “It’s what soldiers do.”
“That soldier fed information to our enemies,” the oracle reminded him, tugging her robe’s collar. “You have no idea what they had planned for those little girls. Fetch her, chief. Secure her. Interrogate her. Find out what she’s told her comrades back home, and find the identity of the second mole. Whether that one gets away or not is immaterial. Whether Camille lives or dies afterward is immaterial. I only care that the leaks stop, and that we find out what they know. Take her down carefully. No half measures. Take all precautions.”
He sat up straighter at his title. “Are we at risk? Are you at risk?”
“Everyone’s at risk every day. Secure Camille. I see nothing but blood and fire and dust in our future if you do not.”
Connell cleared his throat and didn’t press. “Kenna, ask Cecily to come downstairs. We have no idea how Camille will respond once she’s confronted. She might have a weapon, and we don’t want her taking a hostage.” He turned to Lila next, jutting his chin toward her tranq. “I heard you’re awfully good with that thing. Fast, too. Have it out and ready, will you? Watch our back?”
Dixon got to his feet, looking at Connell expectantly.
“I had a feeling you’d volunteer too. I’d appreciate the extra pair of hands. She’s seen you at breakfast every morning. It won’t be odd to see you in the house.”
“Will you summon your militia to help?” Lila asked.
“Not yet. Her friend might see them gather and get tipped off. He might try to warn her before we take her into custody.”
Voices hushed, they hammered out a plan.
Chapter 26
Kenna led Cecily through the house, explaining that her father had called early for the solstice and wished to chat over holo. The young woman trudged down the hall in blue flannel pajama bottoms and a matching hoodie, her unbrushed hair corralled into a messy bun. Her sock feet whacked against the wooden floorboards. Each step creaked noisily.
Kenna quietly locked the door behind her.
After the Cecily had settled into a conversation with her father, Mòr and her sisters locked themselves in a back bedroom, each armed with a sidearm and a rifle.
Connell, Dixon, and Lila checked their own weapons, and the group padded down the corridor toward Cecily’s room, faces grim.
A thousand images flooded Lila’s mind, images of how their confrontation might go wrong. Camille had years of experience with the house and the compound, learning every exit, every nook, a
nd every hiding place. In a chase, the soldier would easily best her and Dixon.
Perhaps she already had.
“Wait here,” Connell told Lila under his breath. “If she comes out before I secure the hallway, tranq her.”
Lila crouched in the middle of the corridor while Connell locked the rest of the bedrooms, wincing every time a lock snicked too loudly or the keys rattled against one another in his grip. She extended her gun and fixed her eyes along the sight, finger riding the trigger, just in case Camille heard their movements and got spooked.
The door didn’t open.
Connell finally rapped sharply upon it with one knuckle, Dixon at his side. The pair did not wait for an answer. They both plunged into the room, weapons drawn.
A woman murmured in reply. Furniture scraped against the floor.
