MOTHERS

◙twelve◙

Elle had gone up and down the main stairwell so many times she could hop up those steps with her eyes closed. But this time, her eyes were wide open and her eyelids were twitching, and she wanted to drown them in water to erase what she'd just seen. Or not seen.

Cole is not in his room.

It wasn't possible, no matter how many scenarios she ran through in her mind. If he'd been moved, someone would have told her. If he'd been taken to the training room, she'd have been notified. That lump under the covers, that semblance of a body—it either wasn't Cole's, or it wasn't a body at all.

She burst into Dr. Price's office without knocking, and though she sensed she'd regret that later, it was an emergency. He'd have to understand.

Can I get fired for barging into my boss' office with an urgent report?

"Sir," she said, breathless, her heart trying to shoot up and out her mouth as she waited at the threshold for Dr. Price to look at her. "We have... a problem."

He'd been seated at his desk, going through paperwork, but glanced up at her through his squared spectacles as if her arrival had been expected. No shock, not even a trace of anger showed on his face.

"What problem?" He set his papers down and clasped his hands on his desk, cocking his head as he observed her. "Certainly nothing that warrants blasting into my study without invitation, right? This isn't appropriate behavior, Elle."

She'd usually calculate her words, rehash her speech—but there was no time. "Appropriate or not, it's absolutely something worth blasting into your study over, sir." Elle swallowed. "Because it's urgent. Cole—room two, he's... out. He's not in his room. He's... no one's in there." She hunched over, still trying to catch her breath. "Or someone is, but it isn't Cole."

It didn't take Dr. Price long to hasten over and grab hold of her arm to shake her. "Excuse me?" His eyes enlarged, and streaks of red pierced through the whites of them. "Are you saying one of the children isn't in his room?"

Sick of formalities and pretending to be on her best behavior, Elle grunted. "Look, you heard what I said, I'm not going to repeat it. He's not in his room and I don't think he's been in there for some time now."

Dr. Price yanked her out of his office and into the hallway. Without a word, he took her back down the stairs, two steps at a time, and once landed on the middle floor of the building, he stopped, sniffed the air, then proceeded down the next staircase.

The lowest level of the lab was a mystery to Elle. She'd never been allowed down there, though she knew its hallways and rooms by heart, having watched them from the monitors of her security room. The ground was the same off-gray tile as upstairs, and her heels smashed onto it as they landed at the bottom of the steps. The air felt different; colder, biting, tinged with an overly chemical odor that tickled her nostrils.

Most of the activity on this floor took place inside the labs and the other private rooms. The children were safe in their quarters, occupying themselves as they saw fit. Which left the corridor empty but for a few guards garbed in their olive green uniforms, standing watch by doors or speaking into devices around their wrists to communicate with their colleagues.

Dr. Price barged out into the hall, intercepting one of his guards. "You," he snapped, "get room two open for me, right now."

"Sir, you—" the man straightened up and flinched, "—you told us to never open the doors outside of mealtimes or emergencies."

"This is an emergency, you idiot," said Dr. Price, continuously snapping at him, as if he were a dog he needed to tame. "Open the door, right now."