Waters of Lethe, Book 2

41. Outside the Box

She was stronger than I ever thought possible, which was the reason I was able to get some sleep on the flight back to Maine. Well, that the fact that I had hardly slept during the days leading up to seeing El again.

Now, back in Maine, after having told Audi everything that happened and everything that El had told me, the older man could only stare at me.

As he looked at me, he ignored the questions in the room from the thirty different people who sat around. All he had to do was hold a hand up and they all hushed. I didn't know who half of the people were, as usual; if they were here for legal reasons or if they were here to actually help. I hoped it was the latter.

"So..." his rusty, oddly comforting voice said to me. To me, not anyone else in the room. "Let me... She knew you, but didn't know you-?"

Before he could spout off a hundred different questions I couldn't get to all at once, I interrupted him.

"She remembered me, but couldn't put a name with me." If that was even correct. But it was what I got out of her bubbling realizations when everything came back to her.

Audi nodded. "They're kidnapping kids-?"

"More like saving them. Or at least that's what Scott is making them all think."

"And how many of them are there at this place in Toronto?"

I rubbed my face, trying to keep all the information in my head in order. "A little over a dozen. Maybe fifteen or sixteen. Maybe a little more. I don't know."

Another nod from Audi. "And Jane, who El killed, was this Alex person's girlfriend?"

I nodded, a small jerk of my head. El had seemed pretty upset about remembering that she killed Jane, who had tried to kill me. Which made me think that she had grown close to Alex. Which sent a jolt of anger through my chest.

But I had thanked him, before we parted in London. For keeping El safe, because they trusted each other. I knew Alex had to have been respected from the way the two other guys and two other girls, including the little girl, Piper, had listened to him and followed his commands. If it came down to it, I'd want El to have someone she could trust by her side if I couldn't be with her. Her being alone and away from me was unsettling.

Audi squinted his eyes at me, questioning me, wanting me to elaborate.

"Alex seemed to be the one in charge. I mean, he's one of us, but he's the one they look to if they don't have Scott. It was obvious."

"And Alex doesn't know El killed Jane?"

"I guess not. Unless he knows and is letting it slide for some reason."

"Huh," Audi huffed. "Which brings me back to this brain washing deal-"

"El said Scott was erasing her memories or something... Erasing all of theirs. And replacing them with other thoughts, like they're trying to turn them against something-"

"Or someone," Audi finished. "He tried to get her to turn against us."

"Exactly. From what she told me, only she and Alex think something's up. El knows that Scott isn't legitimate, and Alex has his suspicions because he remembers things from before Scott got a hold of him. As for the others, they're clueless."

Audi was silent, taking everything in, trying to put together this billion-piece puzzle. I was afraid of what the puzzle would look like after we got all of the pieces to fit. "And she wasn't the one who killed the men we sent over to Tibet-"

I avoided Gomez's gaze as I, again, interrupted Audi. "Alex. El didn't shoot because she thought I was one of them," I explained.

"But I thought you said she didn't know you-"