Stray by Rachael Craw Page B

August.”
    “Two months.” He exchanges a look with Felicity. “The Warden came through here beginning of September.”
    Miriam shifts in her seat. “We hid Evie.”
    The confession deflects attention away from me for a moment and I stare at the black case and Benjamin’s hands moving over the contents, the pinker flesh of his palms, his deft touch, the implements set in the moulded insert of the lid. What lies hidden in the bottom?
    “That was dangerous,” Tesla says.
    “You know how it is for them the first time.” Miriam leans forwards. “She would have gone mad if you took her in. As soon as we sensed the Warden we got her across the river.”
    Davis shakes his head.
    Miriam’s outright lie stuns me. It was my Synergist link with Jamie that kept me from the Warden.
    “Rather mad than dead,” Felicity says. “We can fix mad.”
    “We had reason to hope.” Miriam leans towards Felicity. “You’ve seen what she can do. Her physical abilities are also advanced.”
    “Not her nervous system,” Felicity says. “Does she experience blackouts?”
    This time I know for sure I must be bright red. My voice comes out like a croak. “Sometimes.”
    “Orientation would allow your body to adjust to your heightened frequency levels,” she says with a glance at Tesla. “It would be safer.”
    “The decision is made,” Tesla says.
    Felicity presses her lips together as though struggling to bite her tongue. Miriam sits back and attention returns to me. I can’t help watching as Benjamin lifts a syringe from the case and a small vial of clear liquid, but I need to hold Tesla’s gaze, to appear forthright – honest, believable, to make up for the half-truths and lies that will come. He tilts his head. “Were you able to retrieve the Spark’s body?”
    Retrieve the Spark’s body? Does he think we’re hiding a corpse in the basement waiting for Affinity to come and clean up after us? I keep my eyes on Tesla so as not to look at Jamie. I think of Miriam’s warning,
Tell the truth
. “You mean, Kitty?”
    “The one you tried to protect,” he says, reading my delay as troubled feelings. Apparently, it’s a difficult time for new Shields, their first failure.
    “Kitty’s fine.”
    “The Stray left the body intact?”
    “Um. No. Yes. I mean, the Stray was … stopped. Kitty’s fine. Alive.”
    Davis’s mouth hangs open a fraction. Benjamin turns at the counter, holding the syringe up before him, about to prime the plunger. He stands unmoving, his attention riveted on me.
    “You deactivated the Stray?” Felicity says.
    “Yes.” As far as I’m concerned it’s true, in the broader sense, and I will Jamie not to contradict me.
    “How?” she asks.
    “Bullet,” I say. Miriam and Jamie warned me the truth would come out whatever the case and now that I’ve been on the end of Felicity’s ability, I realise that is a matter of when and not if. But I’ve been gifted a reprieve in time, an opportunity to do something for Aiden and I sure as hell won’t offer him up on a platter.
    “Mr Nelson,” Tesla says, distracted and distant as though absorbing my confession.
    Benjamin licks his lips in concentration then compresses the plunger, releasing a liquid bead. He places the syringe in a kidney-shaped dish and brings it to the table with an astringent-smelling cotton swab. Davis passes him a small electric hair trimmer.
    “You’re going to shave my head?” I sway a little in my seat against the pulse of Benjamin’s signal.
    “Only a small patch at the base of your skull,” Miriam says. She unclips my hair and loosens the damp knot, fanning it through her fingers. It falls coldly on my neck and shoulders. I shiver. She gives me a brief, tight smile. “No one will see it if you tie your hair carefully or wear it down. The needle will hurt. You’ll have to sit very still. Once the local’s working you won’t feel the implant.”
    Don’t puke, don’t faint
.
    “Tip your head,” Benjamin says.