Page 82 of Cerulean Truth
“Shut up!”
Voices.
Two voices.
Two voices I didn’t recognize.
“I still don’t understand why we couldn’t portal her out of here and take our time with this…”
Three voices. They seemed…far away. I tried to focus on what they were saying.
“Well thatwasthe fucking plan, wasn’t it?” the second voice hissed.
“Then why aren’t we doing it?”
“They bubbled in the Collective, you idiot," the second voice spat. "If we portal out now, we'll likely end up incinerated instead. You want to take that risk?"
“We’re sitting ducks in here!” the first voice snapped.
“No one can track us here, we’re inside the Collective. It’ll take them too long to find us. Now, hurry up and fill up that third vial.”
Vial? Vial of what?
I tried to wiggle my fingers again. No movement.
“Fuck, I think she’s waking up,” the third voice whispered.
What? How did he know?
Before I could react, something akin to a blow to the head pulled me back out of consciousness, just as the last wave of panic crashed into me.
TWENTY-TWO
JAMES
After spending twenty minutes in the Assembly room, it felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of there. Matthew and Nino were still dancing, and I'd already completed my obligatory dance with Justine. She was a talented dancer, and I enjoyed our time together, but my mind wasn't fully in it.
I couldn't help but wonder why Emma wasn't in the room with the rest of us. Now that I thought about it, it had been quite a while since I last saw her. Our last interaction must have been at least half an hour ago.
Deciding to go find her, I started to wade through the crowded room. I hadn’t seen her leave and there was no other exit. She had to be here somewhere. I stepped outside, taking deep breaths to clear my mind, and scanned the area for any sign of her.
After a few minutes of searching and walking several rounds around the venue, worry began to creep in. My attention was drawn to the garden up ahead. Maybe she had gone there for some quiet, or perhaps she was with someone else. The thought of the latter made me quicken my pace, but once I entered the garden, I found it deserted. My brow furrowed.
Where the fuck is she?
I continued to explore the garden, calling out for her a couple of times, but there was no response. As I was about to return inside, I noticed something glimmering in the grass. I picked it up. An earring. Unmistakably Emma's earring, shimmering.
I searched the area more thoroughly while a growing sense of anxiety gnawed at my chest.
That’s when I noticed several different footprints in the grass, torn leaves, and branches on the ground from the plants surrounding the garden, and—my breath caught at the sight of them—something looking like drops of blood against the back of the bench.
A sense of dread hit me like a wrecking ball: these were signs of a struggle. It was subtle but unmistakable. Emma had been here and she had been struggling with someone.
As an Offensive I learned to kick into higher gear whenever I was confronted with danger. Emma being the one in danger sent me into a gear I didn’t even know existed.
Within seconds, I had pulled Maurice out of the Assembly and dragged into the garden. I thrusted the earring into his palm, pointing at all the evidence of the struggle, and demanded an explanation he clearly didn’t have.
“This is not good, James. We must find her at once.”
