“It’s about Senator Douglas. I’m calling to discuss a few things with you.”
Silence followed.
My heart slammed against my ribs. “Hello?”
“What do you want to discuss?” he finally replied coolly.
I relayed the encounter my boss and I had on the reservation. “You said you already knew of my meeting with the president, but how did you know? Who told you?”
Dr. Roberts cleared his throat. “So what you’re really asking is if Senator Douglas told me? You’re wondering if he’s the one who relayed that information to me?”
I swallowed tightly. “Yes.”
“And why would I tell you if he had?”
Breathing harder, I replied, “Because he’s framed me for a crime I didn’t commit, and I need proof of his involvement and his illegal activities.” I gripped the phone harder, my palm a sweaty mess. “I know that you hate the Kazzies. I know that a Kazzie killed your wife and child—”
His breath sucked in.
I paused for the merest second before adding, “But if you know about Senator Douglas, if you know anything about his illegal activities or involvement with these crimes, please, Dr. Roberts. Please, for once, do the right thing and tell me. Help me prove my innocence. I’m begging you!”
He didn’t say anything. Only his breathing came through the line.
I closed my eyes, willing him to have the answers, willing him to help me, but knowing the chance of any of it were as slim as winning the lottery. He’d shot me only weeks ago. His hatred for the Kazzies had driven him to a criminal act. Who was to say anything would be different now. It was possible he’d gloat over my current state, even happier to hear of my demise.
“I’ll have to think about that.”
His reply had me sitting up straighter. “You’ll . . .” I took a deep steadying breath. “Do you really know something?”
He cleared his throat again. “Perhaps.”
“So you’ll tell me?” My voice rose higher.
“I told you, I need to think about it. I need to speak to my attorney before I make any decisions.”
“What if you revealing information results in an earlier release for you?”
“Like I said, Dr. Forester, I need to speak to my attorney first.”
I didn’t press my luck. The fact that my former boss may have information and was even considering telling me was more than I’d hoped for.
“Of course. I’ll wait.”
We hung up after Dr. Roberts promised to be in touch soon.
However, I had no idea how soon that would be. But I did know one thing, a jail cell waited for me if my former boss refused to divulge whatever information he had.
24 - REVELATIONS
I spent the evening pacing and worrying. My parents, Sharon, and the twins were no different. My call to Dr. Roberts seemed to heighten the anxiety in the house.
From what I could gather, my former boss had information that may help me, but there was no guarantee he’d relinquish it.
“Is there anything we can do to pressure him to talk?” Sara frowned heavily. Her and Sophie’s skin had shimmered continually during the evening. I knew they’d been speaking telepathically since I’d hung up with Dr. Roberts. However, it didn’t seem they had any intention of sharing whatever they’d discussed.
I could only guess they were filled with doubt and didn’t want me to know. Their experience under Dr. Roberts’ rule had solidified him as a monster in their minds.
Cate crossed her arms. Steely authority rang in her tone. “I’ll make more calls. If we can pressure the MRRA to make a deal with him, it’s possible he’d be more likely to talk. Ian?” She glanced his way. “Come with me. We have work to do.”
Cate and Ian retreated to Amy’s bedroom to make calls in private. More than ever I was grateful for Cate’s continued support. With all of us working together, it was possible we’d get Dr. Roberts to talk.
“What about the psychiatrist treating him?” Amy asked. “What if he can convince Dr. Roberts to reveal whatever dirt he’s got?”
I nodded. “I thought about that too. Is there any way we can speak with him?”
Amy’s red hair swished over her shoulders when she turned. “It’s worth trying. Let me get a hold of Dr. Sadowsky. We’ll see if he has any favors to cash in with the MRRA.”
I hadn’t heard from my boss since being arrested. Despite the shock that had covered the Director of Compound 26’s face when I’d been hauled away, deep in my heart, I knew Dr. Sadowsky didn’t believe I was guilty.
He knew me too well.
While Amy, Cate, and Ian were busy making calls, I wracked my brain for any further information that could help my case.
Unfortunately, I came up short. The only hope we had was if Dr. Roberts pulled through.
Now, it was a matter of waiting to see if he did.
BY MORNING THE next day, I was an anxious mess. Despite Davin’s soothing presence the night prior, nightmares had plagued me.
For the first time since beginning my quest over a year ago to free the Kazzies, the nightmares weren’t about them being imprisoned. The nightmares were about jail cells surrounding me.
Amy had only just begun brewing coffee when a sharp knock came on the door. Without waiting for a reply, Cate and Ian strode in.
“We have a deal.” Dark circles lined Cate’s lower eyelids, but her irises glowed with excitement. “The MRRA has agreed to reduce the charges against Dr. Roberts if he agrees to share whatever information he has.”
I dropped the coffee mug I held. It clattered to the counter before dropping into the sink. Coffee sloshed everywhere.
Rushing around the counter, I reached Cate’s side.
“They have?” I asked breathlessly. My heart pounded like a bass drum in my chest.
“Yes. It seems you’re not the only one Senator Douglas has screwed over in his attempts to climb the political ladder. A few officials within the MRRA were more than happy to oblige.”
My lips trembled as hope blossomed inside me.
“How do we get the information?” I asked.
Cate held out her phone. “You ask him for it.” She eyed the bullet scar that peeked out from under my shirt. “It seems most fitting coming from you.”
DR. ROBERTS AND I were on the phone for over an hour. He divulged details that I could only hope to have acquired. The information he had was mind-boggling.
It implicated the senator and Giselle Warren in the explosions and deaths at Compound 3.
When he said Giselle’s name, my first reaction was disbelief. Giselle had never done anything to me. She’d always been friendly and accommodating. Only Monica had shown hostility toward me.
But the more he revealed, the more I realized it could have been Giselle. Everything else fell into place after that.
My mind reeled as I connected the dots together. All along, I suspected it was Monica who had planted the bombs, but it never was. She hated me, that hadn’t changed, but she wasn’t a criminal.
My memory fired to life as flashes of my previous encounters with Giselle turned over in my mind. Like a spinning carousel, they flipped by one-by-one.
I remembered how her smile had frozen when I revealed it was rabies that killed Zoe Mathison and not Makanza. Or how she’d moved so stealthily the first time Dorothy entered the Experimental Room. It was like she knew how to remain unseen. And the day I’d been assaulted in the Production Room. She’d been there immediately after the incident because she’d been the one to shove me to the floor.
She hadn’t been working in the Production Room that day, she’d been planting the bomb. And she and I were about the same size. The person in the security video had been her. Not me.
More memories surfaced. How Giselle had always been happy to help me over the previous weeks, including having me help her assess equipment. Several times she’d had me inspect lab machines. It was my guess that one of those “machines” had actually been part
of the bomb. Little had I known that she was actually having me hold things to get my fingerprints on them.
My former boss went on to say that Senator Douglas had planted Giselle in Compound 3 after the senator had learned of the MRI’s progress toward a cure. Even though the cure would revert Kazzies back to normal humans, it wasn’t what the senator wanted. He wanted to keep the public afraid.
A cure would stop that terror.
With fear running rampant, the senator planned to continue ascending to higher positions of power. The senator had so effectively instilled fear in so many citizens, that they turned to him for help.
Dr. Roberts divulged that the senator planned to run for president in the next election. With the public looking for a strong leader to support our country during this tumultuous time, who better to turn to than the man who’d permanently jailed the Kazzies and posed himself as the protector of those unharmed.
It all made me so sick.
Bile rose in my throat as I realized the depth of Senator Douglas’ acts. His beliefs were selfish and twisted, but if there was one thing I’d learned in my time within the Compounds, it was that the depths of human ambition knew no bounds.
Dr. Roberts further explained how he acquired all of this information. As I suspected, he and Senator Douglas had been in cahoots with one another ever since our breakthrough over a year ago. And that long relationship with the senator had resulted in months’ worth of information passed back and forth.
Information that my former boss had kept stored on his online hard drive which we now intended to use as evidence. Luckily, unbeknownst to the senator, Dr. Roberts had recorded every conversation he and the senator had shared, and he’d saved every email.
When I’d asked how he’d still been in contact with the senator during his imprisonment, Dr. Roberts had merely said he’d had help. However, my former boss refused to divulge which guard was helping him access his email and files stored on the web, but I didn’t care. All I wanted was his information.
His information proved that Senator Douglas had coerced Chicago Children’s CEO. Once again, my suspicions had been right. All along, it had been the senator demanding they don’t conduct the autopsy.
When Dr. Roberts and I finally hung up, I leaned my head back against the wall as months of information filtered through my mind.
“Do you have enough evidence now to implicate the senator?” Davin hunched at my side. I’d retreated to the living room during the phone call. Davin had remained steadfast during my entire conversation.
“Yes. He said everything he has on the senator should be sitting in my inbox. All I have to do is open my email.”
“Do you think you’ll speak to him again, after he’s . . . out.” Davin’s face hardened at the mention of Dr. Roberts walking free.
I shook my head. “No. It wasn’t that kind of conversation.”
My former boss and I hadn’t ended our phone call with flowery affirmations or promises to connect again. He’d called to ultimately secure his release. He hadn’t called because he wanted to be in the Kazzies’ lives or because he wanted to mend things with me. He hadn’t even apologized for shooting me.
But I was okay with that. I’d accepted who my boss was a long time ago—an evil man.
His view toward the Kazzies may have been shaped by the death of his family, but he’d probably always had prejudices against others. His family’s death had simply been his excuse to mistreat those who were different.
I shifted closer to Davin.
He put his arm around me.
“I don’t want Dr. Roberts in my life any more than he wants to be in it. Despite him helping us, I don’t trust him, and I never will. But at the same time, I’m grateful that he’s chosen this current path versus a darker one.”
Davin helped me stand. We moved into the kitchen. Everyone else followed. They all watched me with wide eyes.
I pulled out a chair and sat down. My legs were shaking so badly I was afraid I’d fall over if I didn’t.
Davin sat at my side. He placed a comforting hand on my back. I could tell that a thousand different emotions were swirling through him.
While I didn’t think he would ever forgive Dr. Roberts, I could also see a hint of gratitude in his gaze. A man who had spent years torturing and tormenting him had now just helped the entire Kazzie population—early release or not.
That was something Dr. Roberts had never done in the years he’d ruled Compound 26.
“So what did he tell you?” Sharon tucked a strand of auburn hair behind her ear.
“Yes, what did he say?” Cate leaned forward, her expression shrewd.
I told them everything, including how all of Dr. Roberts’ information should be sitting in my inbox. When I finished, Cate pushed back from the chair and stood. “We’re going to the police with this. Right now.”
KEVIN JOINED US at the police station. I showed the officers the multiple files that my former boss had sent me. Their eyes grew wider and wider with every revelation.
It was crazy to think that an elected official was the center of all of this. And while that didn’t surprise me, I was surprised at the lengths at which he’d gone.
Senator Douglas had willingly murdered innocent people. It was probably his intense hatred for the Kazzies that had bonded the senator and Dr. Roberts.
I didn’t know what fate had in store for Senator Douglas, just like I didn’t know what they would do with Giselle Warren. I could only hope they received the punishment they deserved. The two of them, along with whatever network of supporters had helped them, were the reason my friends were dead.
My throat constricted at the thought of never seeing Garrett, Dorothy, or Bethany again. Each of them had been a light to this world. I had never seen a mean bone in any of their bodies. If anything, they were goodness and kindness wrapped into one.
We spent hours at the police station. Davin stayed at my side the entire time. When we finally finished, Cate and Ian said they were going to the Compound to address the situation more. The building still wasn’t open, too much damage had been done, but upper management was still there daily with the investigators.
“We’ll get this sorted out.” Ian smiled, his dimple appearing in his cheek. “Sooner or later, this will turn out okay.”
I didn’t tell him how much it still hurt that our research was gone. It felt like my friends’ deaths had been in vain. Over a year’s worth of research had gone up in smoke with the explosions and Giselle’s careful destruction of Compound 3’s backup servers.
All of it was gone.
We’d have to start all over, and there was no guarantee we’d recover everything we’d lost.
I FELL ASLEEP that night with Davin’s arms around me. Vivid dreams plagued me through the night—bombs, explosions, the Kazzies’ faces filled with hope at the drug we’d created. But those dreams morphed into something else.
They showed a woman behind a glass wall, knocking on it and pleading with me to open my eyes. She was pointing at something behind me and begging me to turn. With her long brown hair, hazel eyes, and slim build, it was like looking in a mirror.
That’s because it’s you.
With a start, I woke up.
I bolted upright.
Darkness filled the room as Davin’s arm rested across my belly.
My heart hammered in my chest as I took deep gulping breaths. The house was silent. I glanced at the clock. 3:16 a.m.
Rubbing my face, I tried to wipe away the effects of the dream, but I kept picturing myself behind that glass wall.
What does it mean?
I’d been pointing at something behind me, begging me to see what the dream me saw so clearly. I closed my eyes and returned to that vision in my dream. Forcing myself to take steady, even breaths, I concentrated on what my subconscious was trying to tell me.
It’s all there. Just open your mind.
My eyes flashed open as I realized what I’d known all along.
&
nbsp; Lifting Davin’s arm off me, I sprang out of bed. “Amy!”
I dashed into the hall. The sound of Davin’s feet hitting the ground came next just as I opened her door.
“Meg?” he called. “What’s going on?”
But I ignored him and barreled into Amy’s room. “Amy! Wake up!”
I nearly fell onto her bed in my haste to wake her. Long, red curls spread across her pillow as she woke with a start.
“Jesus, Meghan!” Her eyes flashed open as she pushed hair from her face. “What the hell? What time is it?”
“You need to wake up, Amy. The cure isn’t lost! I have the data. I have all of it!”
She sat upright just as Davin appeared in her doorframe. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, that I remember all of it!”
Understanding dawned on her face as dim moonlight filtered in through her window. “You remember everything Division 5 showed us.”
“Yes! Exactly!”
She pushed back the covers and quickly twirled her hair into a ponytail. “Then let’s get to work.”
When I spun around to face Davin, a shocked expression was on his face. “Of course,” he said quietly. “Your memory. You remember it all.”
I nodded and stepped closer to him. He automatically put his arms around me. A grin spread across my face as my eidetic memory roared to life. I closed my eyes. One-by-one, the research Dr. Dornhoff had shown us in the slideshow on our first day at Compound 3 turned over in my mind.
I saw it all clearly. Every chemical compound, every equation—all of it.
Turning to Amy, I said, “What if I recounted all of that information to you, do you think you could record it all?”
“Yes. I’ll turn my computer on right now.” She skipped around us to collect her laptop in the living room, her hair a mess around her head.
We followed her. “I better make coffee.” Davin squeezed my shoulders. “Something tells me that today’s going to be a long day.”
When we reached the kitchen, Davin turned on the lights and shook his head in amazement. “So the research isn’t lost after all.”
I smiled. “No, it’s not. It’s been in my mind the entire time.”
The Complete Makanza Series: Books 0-4 Page 112