Chapter 109

Grace

Bomb sirens? When were those installed? Eason put my laptop and Amira's laptop in our arms and hurried us out of the building. He got on the building coms.

"Please proceed to the bomb shelter on West and Finley as quickly as possible. I repeat, please proceed to the bomb shelter on West and Finely as quickly as possible."

"We don't have bomb shelters."

He ignored me. "Move your ass. You're going to City Hall."

I tried to push back against him, but I couldn't. "Wait! You said they're bomb sirens, but they didn't go off for the water plant attack. It has to be something--"

He scoffed. "Why activate a warning when the threat has been neutralized?"

He opened the car door and nudged us inside.

"I'll meet you at City Hall. Get going."

"Where are you going?" I said, grabbing his arm.

He scoffed and pulled free. "Don't worry. You arrest me for sedition later."

"Eason!"

He turned and ran back inside as the car pulled away. I grit my teeth. Amira said nothing beside me as she opened her laptop and kept typing. I looked at her.

"Do you know anything about this?"

Amira blinked. "It was a part of the pamphlet that Eason put together for people new to Mooncrest."

I set my jaw. Of course, it was, and he hadn't bothered to brief me or include me in the making of that at all. I thought back to the orientation speeches I'd given and every bag I'd passed out. Looking back, I felt a bit like a puppet just dancing along to the plan.

"Do you have a copy of it?"

She blinked. "It's in the Shared Drive."

"The what?"

She bit her lip. "The cloud storage on your laptop."

I didn't have cloud storage on my laptop. Amira directed me to find the folder; seeing how much stuff was in there made me grit my teeth. Then, The shrill ring of my phone snapped me out of my thoughts. Charles's name illuminated the screen, and I answered it with a sense of urgency.

"Charles, I've been trying to call you--"

"Now is not the time," Charles said as he started telling me about the planned attack on the city. I bristled.

"Eason."

"What?"

"Eason just ran back into Wolfe Medical and sent me and Amira to City Hall."

"Good thinking on his part. You'll want to address the city about the threat. Have you put out a message about getting off and staying off public transit?"

"Eason's activated the sirens."

"... you have sirens?" He let out a surprised laugh. "That's good? Shelters? We have less than twenty minutes."

"But how do we know if any of them are safe? I don't know when any of them were built, and I don't think Eason has been completely honest--"

"Grace," Charles said firmly. "What are you talking about?"

I clenched my jaw. "I think Eason wants to be alpha."

A beat of silence passed. Even Amira stopped typing.

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't mean it the way you did," Charles said. "And tell you to get to City Hall and address the citizens. Let them know which bomb shelters are closest to them and try to keep them calm. If you have sirens, you have to have an emergency broadcast system inside City Hall. Get the police to start pulling people off public transit and closing it down, especially buses in populated areas."

I grit my teeth. "But what if all the other vans--"

"Now isn't the time for even talking about the van situation. Get the police and the citizens moving, Grace. While we still have time."

Then, he hung up just as we arrived at City Hall. Amira hopped out of the car and hustled inside, leaving me behind as she pulled out her phone. I got out and followed, trying to focus on what I should do. My doubts were still churning in me as I reached the office. I heard Amira on the phone making calls, and I called the nearest police station.

Amira came back with a map and a list for me before opening a binder from the bookshelf.

"What is that?"

"Eason said the access codes for the emergency broadcast system are in here," she said, flipping and pulling up a keyboard from within the desk. It glittered with magic as she keyed in the code. Then, it asked for my handprint. I placed my hand on the scanner and was surprised that it worked. A camera turned on and directed at me. My stomach churned as Amira slipped the map, a list, and a short script in front of me called Bomb Threat and Shelter.

I read it out loud.

"This is Alpha Wolfe on the Mooncrest Emergency Broadcast. All citizens are advised to go to their nearest bomb shelter. Locations can be found on every major intersection's map. Please abide by Mooncrest Police's orders and remain calm."

I repeated the message three times before getting off the air. I could see messages from the police stations passing around the order to get people off the public transit, and all of it was signed with the seal of the Office of the Alpha, but I hadn't sent it.

I turned off the microphone and looked at Amira. "Who sent the message?"

She blinked. "I did while we were headed here."

"How did you know how to send it?" I asked.

"Eason gave me a handbook."

My jaw set as the door opened, and Eason came in, his laptop under his arm and a set of documents tucked under his arm. His suit was darker and dripping. The black liquid he was sweating had dried partially and made him look even dirtier. He stumbled forward. His eyes were dark, though still glowing, as he set the pages on the desk, and he panted.

"Investigation notes." He pushed back and stumbled to the couch on the other side of the room, unbuttoning a few more buttons of his shirt.

Amira hurried out and came back with a bag of ice.

"You're an angel," he gasped, popping a few cubes in his mouth. "Do me a favor--"

"I really think you should rest," Amira said. "Can I at least get you out of your jacket? It's ruined by now."

He let out a helpless sound. "Probably. I'll deal with my jacket. Could you get the news on?"

He shrugged out of his jacket, pulled out his phone, opened his laptop, and put another ice cube in his mouth. Amira turned on the news.

The reporters were inside one of the bomb shelters collecting statements from people.

"It's sickening," a woman sniffled. "All this terror for pride. She damn sure didn't care before, but now that everyone's life is in danger, she wants to care like her family's legacy means so much to her. She's so fucking fake. Her father must be rolling in his grave."

I glanced over at Eason, who was scrolling on his phone.

Amira changed the channel, and a man came on, showing the Mooncrest police trying to get a bus emptied.

"What we don't know is--"

A shriek filled the air as the explosion blew the reporter and the entire shot out. I gasped. My heart lurched. The news anchor changed. Amira changed the channel, gnawing on her lip. Eason cursed under his breath and shifted to sit forward, popping more ice in his mouth as he continued to sweat black goo that smelled even worse now than before.

"We've got news from the scene," one of them said. "So far, one bus has exploded, injuring seven people, including a group of students."

"How long is Grace Wolfe going to put the lives of Mooncrest's citizens in danger?"

Amira turned the channel as I tried to understand. Each channel seemed to have a different shot of smoke rising from the wreckage of the bus. My stomach turned as I got pieces of people's statements whenever Amira stayed on a channel long enough.

"Step down, you bitch, before you get us all killed!"

"Don't pretend like you give a damn now!"

"I'd rather be destitute than dead," a young woman cried. "Just step down."

"It's ironic," I said softly as I listened to all the statements. "I wanted to step down, and everyone close to me said don't, and the whole city says do... I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't."

Amira turned off the television as my phone rang again. I stepped into the hallway to answer it.

"Are you at City Hall?" Charles asked.

"I am."

"Good. We've caught the others and neutralized the bombs. We're keeping them in a Mooncrest police station for now."

My jaw trembled. "What good is that? One of them already went off."

"No one was killed, and no one else was hurt. Don't you think it's something to celebrate?"

I sniffled, wiping my face. "I guess..."

"Grace--" He cut off. "Never mind. There's another reason I called. There's someone of interest I think you'll want to talk to in custody."

"Who?"

"A man claiming to be Ethan Darrow." My heart lurched. "More importantly, Ethan is willing to talk, but only if he gets to see Eason."