Unsung

Chapter Sixty

Garrick raised an eyebrow at Sophia. "That doesn't sound very...church-y," he said.

Sophia placed one hand over her heart and another up to the sky. " 'Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.' "

"Meaning?" Garrick asked.

"I'm just being honest," she answered simply. "But to be fair, I'm not sure Clarissa even knows what the truth is anymore."

"What do you mean?" I asked, intrigued.

"Well, the girl is in a bad way to begin with," Sophia said. "That drawin' you made of her? That was a good day."

"She's that bad?" I asked, wincing.

"Worse. When I asked her if I could buy her lunch, she ordered a whiskey and coke, minus the coke," Sophia said.

"Funny, my drink's the opposite," Garrick joked.

"She might've also done the other half of her drink in the bathroom," Sophia said, making a motion like she was sniffing something up her nose.

"Oh, man," I said.

"At first, I thought maybe she was just self-medicatin' over what she'd been through. She insisted that what she'd said in the article was true. That Cain had pursued her, brainwashed her, dumped her and then found himself a new little treat," Sophia explained. "But the more she drank, the more her story changed. And when I told her that I was a part of a group that was tryin' to bring justice to the whole situation, that's when she let her guard down. She wanted to know how much I thought she could get if she sued the school and Cain for what he did to her. I said that I wasn't sure, but it would probably depend on what exactly she was accusin' him of. That's when she said, 'Well, what would get me the most money?' "

We all let out a collective gasp.

"That bitch!" McKayla shouted, causing a few kids on the nearby playground to stop what they were doing and stare in our direction. "I swear I will kick her—"

"McKayla," I warned, and flashed apologetic smiles at the kids as they continued to stare, mouths agape.

"So, that's it," Ty concluded. "Now we know that the story is bunk. We can go to Cain and tell him what we know, clear his name, and everything can go back to normal."

"Not quite," I said. "I agree, it looks like Clarissa wasn't telling the truth, but we haven't cleared everyone from that story yet. You still need to talk to Phillip Jenkins."

Ty held up the paper with the number we'd procured. "I'm on it."

"Okay," I said nodding. "And what about you, Austin? Did you reach out to the Senator?"

"His office said they'd be in touch when his 'schedule opened up'," Austin said, using air quotes to make his point.

"Well, did you tell them it was important?" McKayla asked him.

Austin gave her a look. "I did," he said flatly. "And it was as if they thought a U.S. Senator's time would be better spent not talking to a high school student. I, for one, was shocked."

His sarcasm was obvious and I decided not to argue. The Senator thing had been a stretch, anyway. And considering what we'd already found out, we may not even need the man's thoughts on Cain to prove his innocence.

"Y'all, I know that it's important to clear Professor Cain's name and all, but it seems like the more pressin' question is, who's behind this whole witch hunt in the first place?" Sophia said. "I mean, someone is tryin' to take him down, right? It's not just coincidence that all this is comin' up now. So, shouldn't we be tryin' to find out who's lightin' the match?"

I turned to Sophia in surprise. She was a hundred percent correct. We could clear Cain of all the allegations, but if we didn't figure out who was after him, the attacks wouldn't end. And God help us if they decided to step things up a notch.

"Sophia's right," I said, finally. "We need to know who the villain of this story really is. Cain won't be safe until we do. And to do that, we need to find out who was on the phone that day."

We all looked over at Ris expectantly.

"It's on a server in Cain's office, and I need to be there to access it," Ris said plainly. "And as you all know, the center is currently closed. Thus, the reason we're spending our afternoon at this lovely place."

He swept his arms wide, gesturing to the park around us.

"Don't complain," McKayla said. "This place is where we get our practical training in."

Ris raised an eyebrow at her.

"Hello?" she said. "It's a parkourer's paradise. We were never meant to only use what we learn at the Hero school in a comfy, state-of-the-art gym. We're learning it so we can bring our skills out into the real world. Well, here you are. This is the real world."

"The real world sucks balls," Ris muttered as he removed a leaf from the bottom of his shoe.

"So, we have to wait until the institute opens back up to get any answers then?" Garrick asked, bringing the conversation back around.

"And who knows how long that will take," I said to myself, thinking about how the FBI had carted Cain off in cuffs just the day before.

He was probably still being detained, made to spend his days in a tiny room all alone, while we were out here enjoying the fresh air and our freedom. Did he have any idea people were working to clear his name? Did he know he still had allies? Was he losing hope?

"We can't wait that long," I said, not sure what I was suggesting, but knowing it was true.

"Agreed," McKayla said. After a long pause, she added, "So, we break in tonight then?"

"Huh?" Sophia asked, surprised.

"We can't break in," Austin argued.

"The game is on tonight," Ty grumbled.

"Bitchin'!" Garrick exclaimed with a grin. "Now I get to show off my smooth ninja skills. We're all wearing black, right? I can get us matching hats."

I was too busy thinking about what we were considering, to laugh at Garrick's comment. Up until now, everything we'd done had been on the up and up, and very clearly on the side of good. Breaking into the training center, even if it was to clear Cain's name, definitely fell into the grey area on the scale. On the other hand, if we waited any longer, we may never catch the guy who was doing this, and that could do far more damage than us breaking in ever would.

I felt the scales tipping to one side.

"Then we'll meet at midnight," I said resolutely, before dropping from the bar and landing with a thud on the ground below.