Endgame (Book 3)

Chapter 15

"I see you've prepared in advance," I commented.

"How could you say no?"

I laughed.

"I wasn't joking."

My chuckles died out when his meaning hit me.

"Wow. You really are hell-bent on having me here. Makes me feel special," I said dryly.

"Don't flatter yourself," he said. He looked around the room himself as if he hadn't seen it yet. "They did a pretty good job."

"Who did? And how did you get this stuff out of my room without my parents knowing?"

"The movers, who else? No one said your parents were out of the loop on this."

"They would never let you do this to me," I said, gesturing at one of my wristbands with a finger for the opposite hand.

"Maybe not that specifically, no," he admitted. "But they want you out of trouble just as much as I do. Face it, you're a hazard and a bother. I don't know how they put up with you."

That stung.

"Cassie doesn't know, though?" I asked hopefully.

"No, and it's going to stay that way. She and Sage can't find out about this," he said in a warning tone. "Remember the raisin? They're raisins, too."

I wrinkled my brow. "You're a raisin."

He raised the remote threateningly."

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" I lifted up my hands so he wouldn't be tempted to shock me.

He smirked and lowered the remote.

"I think that's enough of this." Jeremiah turned around to head out. "You still need to see the rest before I go."

He showed me around all of the places I was going to be, including the dining hall, workout room (which was pretty sleek, if I do say so myself) and the lab. When I asked why I would go to the lab, he said I would find out with a sinister tone. Better I stayed away from that area.

When he was done, I requested to meet Ben. He told me it wouldn't be wise to go anywhere near him after what I'd done.

"What I'd done for you, you mean," I said.

"I'm past that with him. He still has issues with you, is all," he explained.

"Why is it that only some of us were in those pods?"

"The others were only there to reinforce our hold on you." He held nothing back. "Other than that, we didn't have to share Jake, Adam, or Ben, and we needed them elsewhere."

"The only ones who worry me."

"They were the best," he said with a shrug. "There was no way we were giving them up for an experiment."

"But they still ended up mentally insane," I observed. "And for two of them, dead."

"Once again, that's your problem, not mine."

"It's mine and Zero's," I corrected him. "I have the face of a betrayer."

"Get over it."

He dropped me off in my room with the only instructions being to head to the lab in a few hours.

"They'll call for you," he said.

A moment after he left, an intercom announced that an emergency had sprung up in Oklahoma and for Agent Green to get to the loading docks. Jeremiah hadn't shown me that part of the facility.

Even though my door slid open and closed automatically, it stood wide open now. It was the perfect time, too.

I jumped off of my bed as I caught a glimpse of Ben's shaggy brown hair hurry down the hall.

"Ben!" I called out. He hadn't seen me.

I heard his footsteps slow. Then, they grew louder and Ben peeked around the corner.

He was actually smiling until he glanced over my face, and then it turned into a deep scowl. "Don't talk to me."

Then he disappeared down the hall and left, his skin stretching and growing and beginning to turn green.