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She opened the main door of the library, and the group slipped out into the cold. “On second thought, it’s too early for the tower. Blair’s not even awake yet.”
Dixon and Lila exchanged glances.
“My sister marches to the beat of her own drummer and her own alarm clock.”
In the end, they visited the greenhouse first, an open-air room covered in plastic and steel tubes. The ferns were, in fact, bigger than Dixon, as were the aloe plants and roses. They were beautiful, even more beautiful than the ones at Bullstow or the Randolph estate.
Kenna pointed out the cafeteria next, a structure nearly as large as the library. “You can have lunch there tomorrow, though we’ve stocked the refrigerator in your cabin. Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like. As for breakfast tomorrow, Mòr has invited you to eat with us. She’ll be better then, and well rested.”
The sun dipped below the horizon as they walked toward a stumpy tower in the back of the compound.
Kenna folded her hands behind her back. “We haven’t had a chance to go over that list of missing children yet. Do you wish to interview them? I could set up a place for you in the library or the administration building.”
“Holding interviews would tip off the mole whether they’re on your list or not,” Lila replied. “I want to keep my reason for being here a secret for as long as possible.”
“Mòr was right. You are sneaky.”
“Sneaky and thorough. I’ll start digging into your logs tonight. The mole has been sending information to the empire somehow. Maybe if we’re lucky, they’ve sent them from here. I’ll look for evidence. While I work on that, you and Connell can take a pass at the photos and see what you think of the matches.”
Th
e group jogged up the stone stairs. Only boxes filled each floor, as though the tower served as extra storage for the compound. After climbing several stories, they stepped out onto the top floor. The domed metal roof had been cracked open, revealing a wide telescope pointed away from the fading sun. Tables filled with open books and pencils littered the room. Bookshelves lined the circular walls.
A pale woman in her mid-twenties sat atop a stool in the center, her boots crossed under her butt, somehow balanced so that she did not fall. Blonde hair cascaded down her back as she pored over a spreadsheet on her computer. She wore a forest-green sweater and bright pink pajama bottoms, both baggy on her wispy frame. A yellow knit cap perched on the top of her head, matching her fingerless gloves. A muffin sat beside her, only one bite taken from the top.
“Blair is an astronomer, and my youngest sister,” Kenna said. “We stopped trying to get her to participate in the family business a long time ago.”
The group waited for Blair to look up and notice them.
She did not.
“We also stopped trying to get her to participate in much of anything.”
Kenna tugged on her sister’s hair.
Blair startled, but did not turn away from her notes. She merely threw out a lazy arm to bat her elder sister away. “I had breakfast. Go away.”
Kenna pushed the muffin toward her sister. “Oh really?”
Blair finally looked up from her work. “I’m going to finish it. It’s on my to-do list.”
“This is your muffin from yesterday, Blair. I know because you took the last chocolate chip. You didn’t even finish it.”
“It’s not from yesterday. I just got it an hour ago.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I think I know my own breakfast.”
Kenna picked up the muffin and chucked it at the wall.
It broke into two hard lumps.
“It seems my muffin is defective. Can you bring me another?”
“No, I can’t. And it’s not defective. It’s just old.”
“Maybe I lost the one from this morning.” Blair looked around her table helplessly, moving books around in case a stray muffin had gotten lost underneath. “Or maybe I ate it. Did I eat it?”
