A'Dimsyte is enraged. He's staring out the glass wall in Seeker Headquarters, gazing at the galaxy—when I, accompanied by JT and Lily, limp in, filthy, covered in blood—and immediately launches into a lecture why it's always Abigail's warriors who get into the most trouble. He can't fathom how the Cluster broke into a space station without anyone realizing and kidnap someone. He doesn't forget to include the part about JT lying to Abigail about where he was going. Turns out, JT has a few connections with the Cluster, and that's how he and Lily got to the planet in the first place. He's very vague about it, however, and doesn't want to explain full details.
I don't have a chance to explain my side of the story. I'm not able to tell A'Dimsyte I saw Frankie with Isabelle. Or even tell him that the Nightfire spacecraft was somehow miraculously in our reach. He's too busy getting off at insulting us.
Abigail arrives, Kendall following her. My mentor and the leader of the Nightfire fixate me with their eyes, and I'm not sure if they're proud of me, angry, or relieved that I'm alive.
It's later found out some of the Cluster had infiltrated as imposing Seekers. These past invasions have been planned for months.
"The Cluster is really smart!" Lily swears.
"Yeah, and one of them looks like that evil boy from The Good Son," I add on.
"This will be an incident I'm not going to let slide!" A'Dimsyte says to Abigail through his teeth. "Eliminate him from the tournament now."
Abigail sniggers. "I was planning to," she confesses. "But as you know, it's not really up to me. It depends on who the other mentors vote for."
"Then find a mission that sends him home crying!" A'Dimsyte screeches. "You have no idea how much time I have to spend fixing his mess! He should have never been picked for Joffrey! This never would have happened!"
"It would have," JT says. "The Cluster found a biochip into his brain. He was tracked inevitably."
"What?" It sounds like Kendall is choking.
I approach JT delicately. "It was the Cluster who planted it. Are you sure?"
JT shakes his head. "They didn't plant it, but they used it to find you. The Cluster somehow found out you had a tracking device in your head from one of their infiltrators." He pauses and gulps. "The mole has to be in Nightfire. I don't know how else they could have known."
A'Dimsyte is appalled. "And how would you know something like that?"
"Let's just say a little birdie told me." And I have no idea what JT means by that, but everyone else seems to. His mysterious answer r somehow gives them the little birdie's specific name anyway. I see it in their expressions. "It also explains why the Zusks attacked the first time," JT adds. "They were after Sag."
A'Dimsyte doesn't believe the information at first, but reconsiders. "But how is everyone flying around the universe undetected? What kind of technology are these scumbags using?"
"I don't know, Sir," JT says.
"Well, figure it out, now!" A'Dimsyte roars, then he turns his attention to me. "And what do they want with you?" he asks me personally.
I'm intimidated. "I—I..." I stutter.
"Speak up!" he impatiently interrupts. "Jesus Christ! Are you telling me these lizards turned you into a retard? Can you speak, boy? Enunciate, damn you!"
I flinch when he yells at me. "They wanted to know where my dad is," I explain slowly. Everybody listens to me fascinatedly. "I was supposed to meet with Kor but got out of there before I had a chance to. They didn't kidnap my dad after all."
"Is the tracking device still in your stupid, little napper?" A'Dimsyte asks.
I nod, confessing.
A'Dimsyte takes a long pause to stare at me, as if he doesn't believe me. "Take him to the surgical room," he orders. "Pull the parasite out of his head and destroy it, so these invasions stop happening." The Seeker Leader marches away angrily, his temper flaring. "And put them in a damn quarantine!"
Abigail, more grim than usual, takes a loose strand of her hair out of her face. "Well, well, well," she sighs with a disappointing tone. "I think we have more things to talk about. Like how our Nightfire spacecraft arrived there undetected. Kendall, you seem to know all about that. You keep telling me this crazy lie that Frankie—"
"Are we really going to argue about this now?" Kendall asks reasonably. "In front of a warrior he's competing against?"
"No, Abigail. She's right. I saw Frankie at the Cluster's castle." They both look at me in disbelief, and Kendall, who makes the accusation in the first place, is the most startled. "He took the space—"
"Sag!" Abigail stops me maliciously. "Head to your surgery, and I don't want to hear another word about my top warriors from anyone ever again! Are we clear?"
When we're finally dismissed, I notice Lily leave with JT. Not sure where they're headed off to, but it feels like another rejection.
During my surgery, I'm awake the entire time, but don't feel a single thing thanks to the drugs. The Healers and their state-of-the-art medical equipment puts me in good hands. Their knowledge and expertise are more extraordinary than the doctors on Earth, so they're able to do the procedure within a matter of minutes. To distract me from knowing about the fact my head is dissected open, one of the Healers tries to tell me jokes to lighten up the mood. They seem to work, and she gives me a lollipop after the surgery.
My head is wrapped in a bandage, and they used Skin Spray from where they made the incision. It's amazing the drugs they've give me aren't giving me much side effects. No headaches. No after medication and no stitches. Within a few hours, my head will be back to normal, and I won't notice the scar afterwards.
Kendall pulls me aside outside the recovery room, immediately after my surgery ends. "You saw Frankie?" she asks, wanting to make sure what I said the first time was true.
I nod in a haze. "Yes, and I think he was with Isabelle!"
"Isabelle?" Kendall gasps. "Her, too? That's scandalous! Did you confront them?"
I shake my head. "No—"
"What?" Kendall is appalled. "For heaven's sake, Sag. Why?" She puts her hands up in disbelief. "You didn't even say hi to them?"
"You weren't there, Kendall," I tell her. "I panicked. I wasn't sure—"
"No, don't give me excuses," Kendall snaps. "You don't get to do that. Now we don't have any proof that they were there! Come on, Sag! We could have had caught him in the act! You could have figured out how he got there! Or maybe how they got out—Exactly..." she adds questionably. "How did you guys get out?"
"With the spacecraft," I answer. "JT found it; I think on his GPS?" It sounds like a question because I have no idea what his monitor is called.
Kendall narrows her eyes at me and folds her arms across her chest. "Huh," she says. "But you stole Frankie's ride. If Frankie is the one stealing the spacecrafts, how did he get out this time? I mean, I know he's going to be at the bunkers tomorrow and pretend like nothing happened. And there couldn't have been another way out."
"Isabelle," I tell her again. "He's working with her."
"But how would she know a way out?" Kendall challenges. "She's not a warrior. We have to be realistic here and remember she only runs a corporation. And you're sure it was her?"
I nod. "She was wearing white robes."
"White robes, huh?" Kendall says, unsure. "You sure it wasn't one of Kor's daughters?"
"Kor's daughters?" I echo.
"He has three," Kendall describes. "But I don't think you would have saw Juleena. White robes are definitely not her style. Actually...the more I think about it, I've never heard of any Cluster wearing white robes." She bites her lip nervously. "Okay, if it really was Isabelle, then we have a big problem. We need to figure out what her connections are. Find out how she's capable of escaping the most dangerous planet in the universe. Does this mean now you'll help me get to the bottom of this? Because, you know, the last time I talked to you about this, you weren't down before."
I sigh. "I guess so. If my dad is involved, how can I not?"
"Great," Kendall says with a cheery smile, and her voice is a kick. "I owe you big time."
"Excuse me," says a voice. "Mr. Devlin?" I turn curiously to see one of the Healers left the operating room. She's still wearing her white lab coat, white facemask, and clean white gloves. All I see is her black turtle eyes, and there's a look of controlled worriment. "We need to do another full body scan on you to make sure nothing's there. And then get you to quarantine as soon as possible."
I don't agree or disagree to follow her. I'm more eager to talk to Kendall. "Okay."
"It shouldn't take longer than five minutes."
"Okay," I repeat to the Healer. "I'll be back in just a second."
The Healer dismisses herself. Her iguana-like head, lime-green and rough skin, points out when she turns.
"I don't understand," I say, after waiting impatiently for the Healer to leave. "The Cluster didn't plant the biochip in me, but they use it to find me. How does that work?"
"We have a mole," Kendall says with certainty. "Frankie. Least it's not JT this time."
"Not JT?" I ask curiously. "What's that's supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing," Kendall says. "It's an inside joke because JT used to work for the Cluster."
"JT used to work for the Cluster. Come on..." It sounds ridiculous, and I think she's kidding at first. "Wow. That explains his charming personality." It also explains how he has all those connections with the Cluster and his history with Maxwell. I'm shocked, like I just found out an epic twist in one of my favorite soap operas.
"Oh, yes," Kendall verifies. "Not that JT is a bad person, actually. He just intended to hang out with the bad guy crowd. You know, anything to piss off Abigail."
I'm intrigued. "Did you guys plan to kill him?"
"More like...brainwash him," Kendall cringes, thinking back. "JT felt he wasn't receiving enough attention from Abigail, so he quit Nightfire and joined another elite team. I remember some fourteen-year-old boy hanging out with him a lot. He was sort of the leader of their little gang."
"Maxwell!" I recall. "Prince Maxwell."
"How'd you know?" Kendall asks, impressed.
"Oh, we met," I say. "He was...lovely. Is he one of Kor's children?"
"No," Kendall answers. "I think he's a royal descendant from the Nebula Armstrong galaxy. He's not related to Kor at all. Best to stay away from him. Strange the Cluster didn't plant the biochip in your head. How did you find out it was there in the first place, anyway?"
I'm silent at first. "Kendall, I have to tell you something. Back at what happened at Judges' Houses..." I bite my lower lip uneasily. "It wasn't luck when I found that flame pistol. My dad led me straight to it. He was somehow in the virtual reality with me."
Kendall looks at me more closely, her dark eyes full of concern. "What?"
"Yeah," I admit. "Jace figured out where the biochip came from. It was from Isabelle. She was in the virtual reality, too."
Kendall is shocked. "Sag..."
"Jace and the Megaminds think my dad is behind all of this," I spill. "But that can't be true. Not after everything we just found out. Isabelle must have planted that biochip. She's behind my dad's kidnapping. And now she's got Frankie working with her, too. They're taking extreme measures!"
After telling her everything, she doesn't seem angry with me, disappointed, or upset. Then I realize it wasn't cheating. I remember Jace telling me, no one said you did. When they say everything is at our disposal for missions, they mean it. Finding that flame pistol might had nothing to do with her decision picking me.
"I didn't realize my brother was helping you," Kendall says slowly. "You guys must be pretty close."
I nod, smiling. "Yeah. Lily, too."
Kendall cringes hearing her name. "Oh, he always had a friendship with her. Maybe that's why I haven't been talking to him lately." She shakes the thought out of her head. "Anyways, if Isabelle and Frankie really did send the Cluster after you, then the Exchurch have a right to know about this. I'll see if I can contact Isabelle. At least that's a start."
"And I'll look more into Frankie." I'm about to go back inside the operating room for quarantine, but Kendall gently touches my shoulder.
"Sag," she tells me, worriedly. "Just be careful."