Superior

Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

Delaney

"Alright," Nessa began briskly, lacing her fingers under her chin. "We have limited time, but this is your chance to ask any questions you may have. I'll answer them to the best of my ability."

Caleb looked hesitant. "What about..." He trailed off.

"Miracle? No need to worry about her. She thinks I'm interrogating you, and I convinced her not to put up security cameras in here on the pretense that you'd be more likely to talk if you weren't pressured by cameras."

"How do we know you're not lying?" Abby demanded. "Or, how do you know that Miracle hasn't gone behind your back and put up cameras anyway?"

At that appalling thought, I leaned back and glanced around Nessa's small, ground floor office. I didn't see any traces of cameras along the white walls or stuffed bookcases, but that didn't prove anything. There were plenty of cameras too small for the eye to see, and they could be anywhere.

Nessa blinked slowly. "I don't," she stated. "But, strange as it may seem, when Miracle is in a good mood, she actually trusts my judgment. And after stuffing you guys in the sub-basements, she was in a very good mood." She paused. "And as for whether or not you can trust me, well, I guess that's your choice isn't it?"

It was a smart answer, and Abby seemed satisfied. Even with my paranoid tendencies, I felt that I trusted Nessa—at least somewhat. More than that, though, I wanted any information I could get, and that was what she was offering us.

"So," Nessa continued, realizing that she'd won us over, "questions?"

The four of us glanced at each other from our respective chairs, our mouths open with the unasked questions lingering on our tongues. In the end, Caleb was the one who spoke first.

"This may sound stupid," he muttered, "but who are you?"

Nessa just laughed. "I'm Miracle's personal adviser. She doesn't trust me as far as she can throw me, but it lets her keep an eye on my activities. And besides, I give pretty good advice.

"Of course, I doubt that's the answer you were looking for." In the moment before she continued, her eyes glinted with pride. "In reality, I was the first lady of the United States of America. At the time of the Superior takeover, my husband was just beginning his second year as the youngest president in history."

We stared at her blankly. "President, like, of a company?" Trai asked finally.

For a moment Nessa looked confused, then she nodded. "Something like that. I forget that you kids weren't alive before the Superiors. The President was the one who—uh—ruled the country, I guess you could say. Except it wasn't quite ruling, it was—well, it was complicated. And very, very different from this secretive, disgusting, totalitarian regime we have now."

I frowned, my eyebrows knitting together. I knew there had been some kind of government before the Superiors, but I'd never heard anything about it other than that it was corrupt. The only presidents I'd ever heard of were, like Trai said, heads of businesses.

"And what about the United States of America?" Abby questioned, sounding out the words slowly on her tongue.

"That's what this country used to be called," Nessa explained. "Now, of course, it's just 'The States'." She sighed and shook her head.

We took that in silently. Then I spoke up, saying, "Okay, so you said your husband was the president before the Superior takeover. And Miracle told us that she was the first Superior. The takeover happened more than half a century ago. No offense, but how are you still alive?"