Democracy is Dead

Chapter Twenty Four

Dyo was no longer smiling when, half an hour later, he was standing in Bree's apartment with Ismene, Don, Sephy and Orion.

"Are they okay?" he demanded, his face clouded with anger.

"Ares and Penny were both let off with a caution for trespassing. They pretended to have got carried away on a date and broken in. Their details will be on file, but otherwise no repercussions," Bree told him.

"And Hermes?"

"Separated from everyone in the darkness. He left through one of the northern emergency exits without being caught. But back to you: the camera turned back on? You're sure?" Bree asked, disbelief colouring her features.

"One hundred percent, Bree - the security guard found us, after all." Dyo was pacing the kitchen, too anxious to stay still, while Athena sat on a bar stool at the kitchen counter next to Sephy.

"The security guard... God, Dyo, you could have been thrown in jail! They could have traced the data stream back to us!" Bree was sitting too, her hair in disarray. When the data stream stopped, she'd lost it, certain that Dyo must have been caught. She was still on edge.

"But we weren't, Bree. We got out."

"With so little data it wasn't even worth going in!" She looked to Don for support, who, of course, nodded in agreement.

"Would you have preferred me to leave them there, for someone else to find tomorrow morning and - how did you put it, 'trace the stream back to you'?" Dyo stopped pacing and wheeled to face Bree, his face flush with anger.

"No. Of course not. I'm just saying that something isn't right." Bree's voice was measured. She placed her palms on the kitchen counter, pushing into the dark wood. "This is your second failed mission in the past month. And with what happened in the theatre tonight..."

"Stop dragging it out, Bree. Just come out and say it."

"You don't fail, Dyo. You never fail," she drew each word out, her dark eyes blazing into his amber ones. "I don't know how you manage it, but you've completed every other task I've ever set you with flawless precision. But something has changed." She glanced at Athena before bringing her attention back to Dyo. "How do we know we don't have a leak?" Athena's stomach plummeted.

"I agree completely," Dyo replied. Both girls looked at Dyo, eyes opened wide in mirrored shock.

"You do?" Bree exclaimed. "Well, why did you bring her here-"

Dyo cut her off mid-sentence. "We need to start interrogations. Question everyone who knew what we were planning to do tonight and at the voting centre. There can't be more than five or six of us who know everything."

"Don't be ridiculous, Dyo!" Bree cut across his tirade, banging her hands against the counter. "We don't need to interrogate everyone in the group. Your leak is sitting right there!" She pointed straight at Athena.

"What?" Athena said, her eyes widening in panic.

Dyo stopped pacing. He froze, mid footstep, and turned to face Bree. The room was so silent they could hear the sound of people in the street below calling to each other. When Dyo spoke, his voice was quiet. "What did you say?" Every word was slow, careful: a challenge.

"There's only one variable, Dyo. One change. It has to be her."

Athena's breath caught in her throat. Everyone was looking at her. She needed to defend herself, but the words stuck in her throat. She had been feeding information on them to the Freedom Institute, not in the way they thought and not about this. But why should they believe her if she told them the truth? She should have told Dyo what was going on earlier, before she got herself into this mess.

While she was trying to formulate some form of response that wouldn't result in Dyo refusing ever to speak to her again, Sephy spoke up.

"That's ridiculous, Bree. Athena isn't the leak; she didn't even know about the mission in advance. You wouldn't let her listen, remember? Just because your parents-"

"This has nothing to do with my parents," Bree spat. "Athena didn't need to know about it in advance. She could have tipped off the Institute about the meeting tonight and messaged them while they were streaming the data - she still had her glasses on, didn't she?"

"Sephy's right, Bree" Dyo replied. "You're letting what happened to your parents cloud your judgement. The fact that they were sold out by someone who'd recently joined the group doesn't mean all new members are untrustworthy."

"If they'd been more careful about who they let come to meetings they wouldn't be rotting away in the Tower right now. They'd be here, leading the group themselves. There's nothing wrong with my judgement. I'm drawing the only logical conclusion. We had no problems until your new plaything turned up."

The room was silent again. Bree and Don were both glaring at Athena. Even Orion looked doubtful.

"I didn't tell the FI about the meeting, or that Dyo and I were going to be there tonight, I swear." Athena cringed at the tremor that crept into her voice.

"That's not a denial that you're a spy," Bree countered with an astuteness Athena had been dreading. "We've been doing some research on you, Athena. Your roommate is dating Castor Grant. Seems an odd coincidence, don't you think?"

"I-" Athena began, unsure of what she was going to say next.

Dyo places his hand on Athena's shoulder and glared at Bree. "Leave her alone, Bree. She just said..."

Athena put her hand on his arm, cutting him off.

"I'm not responsible for what happened tonight. But the FI did ask me to spy on you when I went along to your first meeting." Dyo's hand left her shoulder. Athena swallowed and looked at the ceiling, the floor, anywhere but the person whose reaction she was most afraid of. Then she forced herself to turn to meet his eyes. "Cress told Castor about Sephy and he convinced me that you were behind the bomb in Trafalgar. He asked me to go along to a few meetings and tell him if I noticed anything suspicious. As soon as I realised that he was lying about the bomb, I refused to give him any more details. Please Dyo," she said, her eyes watering. "You've got to believe me. I'm not your leak."

"I think you need to leave, Athena." The voice was cold, hard and determined. But it belonged to Bree, not Dyo. Blinking through a sheen of tears, she tried to make out Dyo's expression, imploring him to defend her. To ask her to stay.

"I-" she began, desperate to make them understand.

"Go!"

Athena got to her feet, unable to hold the tears back any longer. She pushed past Orion, who was standing nearest to the door, and fled from the apartment.

{I'm changing up my posting schedule over the summer due to time constraints. There will still be two DiD updates a week, but they'll be posted on Mondays and Fridays. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please vote/comment to let me know your thoughts!}