Secret Super (Book 1)

17. Liar

Kara's mouth went dry. In a daze, she followed the guard.

Thoughts raced through her head. Had Ezra disabled all the security cameras? Had her mask slipped? Had Jace marked her as a suspect? She curled her hands into fists. If Kian had just stuck to the plan—

"Where are you taking me?" she asked the guard as indignantly as she could. "I'm a trainee here! I'm allowed to come and go!"

"Not after curfew you're not," the guard grunted.

Okay, fair point. But that had never stopped her before, and the guards had just waved her through every time.

The guard led her into the Super HQ into a room off the side, one she'd never seen before.

Several people looked up when she walked into the room. There were maybe twenty people sitting there altogether, some leaning back in their chairs scrolling through comm devices who barely glanced up when Kara walked in, others pale as a blank comm screen who wouldn't stop twitching. A trainee she knew from one of her classes looked up and desperately tried to make eye-contact.

Kara felt a shudder of relief. If there were so many people here, maybe this wasn't even about the factory. Maybe they didn't know what was going on. . . . And most importantly, she wasn't their only suspect.

The guard pointed her to a seat.

"What's going on?" she tried again. "Listen, I have classes at six in the morning tomorrow, so if I could just go back to my dorm and sleep—"

The guard just rolled his eyes and left the room.

Oh well. It was worth the try.

Kara didn't know how much time passed while she was in the room. A few times, the security guard returned with a twitchy trainee, a disgruntled pair of young supers, or an annoyed-looking group of superheroes.

The longer she waited, the more agitated Kara got. She was dying to fight something or go somewhere, do something except wait and wait and wait. Her fingers drummed the arms of her chair, feet tapping the floor. She started clicking a pen absently, until that drew a couple glares from the people around her.

Finally she heard the door swing open from the other side of the room. Kara's head snapped up. She made eye contact with the Council member coming in and her blood froze. It was Davis, the Council member the least sympathetic to her. Every time Kara got into trouble for something, he was the one who always advocated for the strongest punishments for her and regarded her with a cold glare.

"I'm sure all of you are wondering why you are here," Davis rumbled in his gravelly voice. "Everything will be cleared up shortly. Everyone entering this sector tonight was detained. If you are innocent of any wrongdoing, you have nothing to fear." His eyes narrowed as he scanned the room further. "If, however, you are guilty of crime against the supers, then you very much should be afraid."

"I'm trembling in my boots," Kara muttered, slinking down further in her seat. The girl next to her stifled a snicker.

Davis' eyes flashed to her. There was that frown again, the first crease in his giant forehead appearing. Kara resisted the urge to flash a cheeky smile.

"Let's start with you," he said. "Kara 637. Follow me, please."

As soon as Kara stood up, she remembered that she still had a black face-mask crumpled up in her jacket pocket. When she passed the trash can while she was walking, she balled it up in her fist and dropped it into the can. Luckily, Davis had his back turned and didn't notice anything. She breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't look or turn around.