Obviously, they weren’t just going to fly the missing Star-Touched right back here to Detroit, pat them on the head, and let them go immediately. We didn’t even get any current video of them, so there was no way to know for sure what sort of condition they were in. Instead, there were simply reports from the prison itself that they had picked all three women up and would be bringing them home as soon as they went through various debriefings and medical examinations to ensure they were safe. But according to the report, there are no serious injuries.
That was reassuring, to say the least. Now that they had publicly acknowledged that the women were with them, it would be much harder for Breakwater to just make them disappear and pretend they had no idea what anyone was talking about. It took an enormous load off my shoulders.
And if I felt better about it, Paige and Sierra were like totally new people judging by the conversations we had online and over texts that night. Oh, there was still suspicion there, of course. Especially on Sierra’s part. Neither of them would be exactly satisfied until Irelyn was right in front of them. But still, this was pretty positive and we all knew it.
At the very least, it helped me get to sleep that night without feeling too guilty and anxious. Which was a real treat, for sure. I had school the next morning, and the whole weekend had been long and draining. Getting good news to cap it off was just the thing I’d needed, so I decided to crash before anything could happen to ruin that. It was basically a ‘stick my fingers in my ears and pretend there’s nothing bad going on so I can fall asleep’ defense.
As for school itself the next day, it was, well, busy. There were a lot of people talking about the Flea and Trivial thing, and how they had gone in to save ‘the unknown woman.’ And boy was there a lot of speculation about who that was. People weren’t sure if Breakwater was covering up her identity, or the news, or the government, or all of the above. The fact that she was someone who lived here in Detroit prompted everyone to start asking one another which important people in the city they hadn’t seen in awhile. And yes, my mother’s name came up. As did a few others I recognized. But no one could agree on whether they’d been seen, or even seen closely enough to be certain they were that person and not some sort of double. To say nothing of all the talk of holograms or shapeshifters or whatnot. When that subject came up, I felt like the living embodiment of the awkward look monkey puppet meme.
In any case, Amber and I spent some time out on the bleachers by the football field, well away from anyone else. We talked a lot about what had happened Saturday at the park, as well as the whole Breakwater thing. She seemed distracted, but when I asked about it, she just said it was a personal situation and she’d be fine. So I asked if Jae was doing okay after that whole weird situation with the maybe homeless guy. According to Amber, she was also fine, but there was a little bit of hesitation there that made me think she wasn’t completely sure.
Or maybe she just didn’t want to talk about Jae having a boyfriend in Damarko. I had seen the two of them (Jae and Damarko, that was) talking again at the edge of the school grounds when I was dropped off, and whatever it was about, they seemed pretty close. But I still didn’t know if Amber was aware of that situation or not. Or if she was pointedly ignoring it. He was already their friend, so I could see how that might be a little weird. But it definitely wasn’t my place to push. I had enough stuff going on as it was anyway. Not to mention how dangerously close I was veering toward being a gossip. So, I just let it go.
On the other hand, Amber did want to talk a lot about Izzy agreeing to be adopted. Obviously, we both knew that entire situation was a lot more complicated than it was even on the surface, and it was already complicated there. Izzy knew what she was getting into, and had apparently talked it over with Amber a bit as she was coming to her own decision. As for Amber, she wasn’t sure how she felt about Izzy being adopted by the people in charge of the Ministry, considering she still thought they might have been responsible (at least in some way) for the guy who killed her dad getting away. That made things even more complicated, and I promised if there was any chance to find out if they were involved or knew anything about it, I would help her find answers.
After all that business at school, I spent a little time at home with Izzy as we made a whole big deal about playing games together to celebrate the adoption. Mom and Dad had already put the paperwork in the day before (it being Sunday didn’t matter at all for various obvious reasons), and the judge would be going through it over the next couple days. It wouldn’t take long at all before Izzy was officially and legally my sister. Not that I needed anyone to tell me anything ‘officially and legally’ for that to be true at this point. I’d only known the other girl for a short time, but it still felt like she’d been around for much longer. Was that just because I had needed someone in my family I could completely trust and confide in?
That was part of it, sure. But not the whole thing. Izzy was amazing all on her own, no matter what my own situation was. Her being here, knowing things, and me being able to confide in her was clearly one of the luckiest things that had ever happened to me. And, to be quite clear, my life was already pretty damn lucky to begin with, despite its complications.
So, Izzy and I made our appearances in the house to make sure we looked appropriately giddy about the situation. Not that it really mattered all that much given Mom and Dad weren’t even home (but I was sure Mom would ask the staff how we were and if we seemed okay). Then she went off to do Minority stuff, and I made my way to the shop to check in.
Peyton was already there when I arrived, apologizing for being stuck with her mother the day before. I tried to tell her it was fine, but she informed me, with a slightly haunted look, that her mother had dragged her through something called a ‘craft fair,’ whatever that was, and that it definitely wasn’t fine. She looked like she had just been through a war. When Fred asked if she’d rather spend a few more hours at one of those, or fight more super-heated zombies, she had to think about it.
Unfortunately, it was Murphy and Roald who wouldn’t be joining us today. They were stuck babysitting at home, since Roald’s sister Rubi had an important meeting at work to try to get a raise while his little sister was having friends over for some sort of party.
All of which meant it was just Fred, Wren, Peyton, and me waiting there when Sierra showed up on her own. She came in the front door, just like a customer, holding up this silver-topped cane she had apparently found lying around the Banners house. The girl was going on about how it had a taser in the tip that she could either poke someone with or shoot out a full fifty feet if needed, and wasn’t that cool?
“Sierra,” I finally interrupted my blonde doppelganger once I could get a word in edgewise. “Where’s Paige? We thought she was with you.” She had come in all by herself, and considering how long she had been talking about the cane without the other girl coming through the door behind her, seemed to be alone.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
“Huh?” Looking up from the cane, Sierra made a dismissive noise. “Oh, that, she’s talking to people from the Ministry over at the house.”
Needless to say, that provoked a reaction. Especially from Wren, who was sitting cross-legged on top of the glass counter. Even as the rest of us were jerking a bit in surprise, the younger girl fell over backwards with a yelp. There was a crashing sound behind the counter that sounded like a bunch of metal pans falling over, and Fred gave a visible flinch.
“I’m okay!” Wren called out, popping back to her feet with her hands up. “I’m okay!” Only then did she notice the metal colander on her head, quickly taking it off with a blush. “Uncle Fred’s showing me how to cook!” She added that bit while holding up the colander proudly.
Ignoring the fact that that didn’t really explain why there was all that stuff downstairs behind the counter, I focused on the much more important and immediate situation. Which was Sierra, who happened to be curiously poking through a shelf full of random stuff with her new cane. My mouth opened, but before I could actually say anything, Peyton beat me to the punch.
“What do you mean, she’s talking to the Ministry?!” All of her marbles were spinning in circles around her head like a multicolored halo or something. In most cases, it would have been distracting. But now? Now I barely noticed.
Sierra, still looking completely unconcerned, shrugged. “Uh, after what we did, are you that surprised? I mean, even if they don’t know it was us, obviously they’d want to see if she knew anything about it. Or how she feels about Irelyn coming home. Or if she has any idea where the Banners are. You know, all that stuff. Of course they sent someone over to talk. We were expecting that. Even if…” She trailed off, glancing toward me.
“Even if what?” I prompted, my stomach already twisting itself into knots. Yes, it made sense that the Ministry would want to talk to Paige after that. But still, the idea that she was out there with them… it made me anxious. Anything could happen. How was Sierra so calm about this?
Looking like she wasn’t sure if she should say anything or not, the other girl finally sighed while leaning on the cane. “Well, we’re pretty sure the people who are over there talking to her right now are your parents. You know, using their disguise holograms or whatever they are.”
Now I kind of wished I had a bunch of pots and pans to fall off a counter onto. As it was, I made a choking sound in the back of my throat, eyes widening as I grabbed hold of the nearby shelf. “My what?! What? What?!” It was tempting to just keep shouting that single word at her, but I restrained myself to just three times.
“Right, I was supposed to say that when I first got here.” Sierra frowned thoughtfully. “Sorry, I got distracted when I figured out this thing could shoot the taser darts too. Anyway, yeah, we think your parents stopped by for a two-on-one conversation. They’re in disguise, like I said. They’re not saying they’re the leaders of the Ministry or anything, it’s just… sort of the impression we’ve got.”
“So why are you here?” That was Fred, asking the very good questions. “Why aren’t you back there, just in case things go wrong?”
“Well, one, we’re in contact up here.” Sierra tapped the side of her head. “She’s letting me know how it’s going. So if that whole situation does go sideways, I’ll know. And now, since I’m here, so will you guys. Which brings me to point three, if the Ministry decided to abduct Paige, I’d sort of need you guys to help stop it. And if it comes down to that and I had to have a confrontation, it might be a little awkward to just be there as myself.” Her finger twirled around her face demonstrably. “They might have some questions, you know?”
Okay yeah, that made sense. Still, I took a moment to breathe out and try to calm myself just a little bit before asking, “You said you’re still in contact and she’s fine? What’s going on?” It was all I could do to convince myself that changing into my costume and charging out there right this second was probably a bad idea. My parents, if they really were the ones over there (and even if they weren’t) would also have questions if Paintball suddenly showed up.
Clearly realizing we were anxious about this whole thing and enjoying dragging it out, Sierra took a moment to make herself comfortable leaning against one of the shelves. Then she shrugged. “They’re just asking about what she knew and if she had anything to do with this information getting out. She’s telling them that someone she doesn’t know came to ask her what she knew and she told them the same thing. Then they told her about the Breakwater thing and asked if she wanted to help. So she gave them the boat and let them break it to make those pictures and send them. We figured they might be able to figure out what the boat was somehow, and that it was actually sitting at the marina here. So we might as well give them that one. They wanted to know why she didn’t come to them, and she pointed out the whole ‘trying to shoot her in the head thing.’ They seem to be accepting that.”
Taking that in, I tried to make my heart slow down. It didn’t really help. My stomach was still all twisted up. I was paranoid about what else could happen. My parents were at Paige’s house right now. What if they decided she needed to be disappeared and put that into play before we could actually do anything about it? Yes, it made sense that they would want to talk to her, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t really thought about that too much. With everything that had happened over the weekend, I just didn’t consider that part of it.
Sierra was already continuing. “She’s telling them that she doesn’t know who these people are, just that they contacted her in person. She’s giving them a couple descriptions that won’t lead anywhere, and telling them that she’s pretty sure those people were intermediaries. Plus the usual other ways this sort of thing happens. You know, meeting in dark warehouses with people she couldn’t see, that sort of thing. Real interesting spy stuff. The point is, she can’t identify them. She did say they might have worked with Mr. Banners, so that might lead them down the wrong rabbit hole.”
“But she’s okay?” I pressed. “I mean, they aren’t calling for a van to take her away, or giving her any dangerous vibes? Does she want us to suit up and be ready? I mean we could–”
Pushing off the shelf, Sierra walked over to stand in front of me, putting her hands on my shoulders. And boy did it ever feel weird to have this happen with someone whose face looked like my mirror double. “Dude,” she pointedly intoned. “It’s gonna be fine. We knew they’d want to talk to her, so we planned this out. I mean, we didn’t know it’d be your parents exactly, but still. If she’s in trouble, she’ll let me know. And we’ve got plenty of emergency measures just in case. I mean, it’s not perfect and foolproof, but it’s better than you losing your mind and rushing over there.”
Okay, if having my near-twin talk to me face to face like that was weird, having her tell me the same thing I had been telling myself was even more so. It was like my inner monologue was given physical form. And she was right, of course. Just like I had been right when I thought the same thing. So, I exhaled and gave a little nod. “Right, sure. Just tell us if anything goes wrong. Maybe we should suit up and be ready anyway, just in case? We could get–”
“They’re leaving,” Sierra interrupted. “They said they’ll report to their ‘superiors’ and let her know if they find out anything important. And that she should call the number they gave her if she remembers anything else about the people who came to her. See? No big deal.”
“No big deal?!” Peyton blurted before I could. “It’s a very big deal! The Ministry leaders–her parents–just went to talk to Paige in person about all this! Of course it’s a big deal!”
“What she said,” I muttered with a gesture that way. “But at least it’s just ‘big deal’ and not ‘giant, immediate, blaring emergency.’”
“Weren’t you worried at all?” Wren pressed. She had put the colander on her head like a helmet.
Holding the cane up, Sierra replied, “Why do you think I was distracting myself with my cool new toy? Yeah, I was worried too, kid.” She sounded like it was hard for her to admit that. “But seriously, everybody just breathe. Paige is gonna be here soon.” Her eyes found me with a tiny smirk. “And then you’re really gonna be in trouble.”
“Me?” I blinked at that. “Why would I be in trouble?”
With a small chuckle, the blonde version of myself poked me with the cane. “Because Paige really needs a distraction right now. And you told her about those new paint combination things. So you better be ready when she gets here.
“Cuz she is gonna put you through so many tests you might as well change your name to Guinea Pig.”