Page 91 of Victorious

She looked down at her wrists, surprised to find they weren’t cuffed, but when she tried to stand, a hand came down on her shoulder. Noah.

“It’s time we had an honest talk,” said Gabriel.

Noah’s hand retreated, but she could feel him, looming like a shadow at her back. “You’ve probably noticed that EON is going through some changes.”

Rios snorted, cold and humorless, but the doctor only smiled, as if they were sharing a joke.

“Do you know why I write in pencil?”

“With all due respect, sir, I don’t care.”

His mouth twitched. “Do you remember, the day we met?”

She did. The conversation had bothered her then. It still did. A splinter she couldn’t seem to excavate, and so it never healed. “You asked me how I felt about putting my fellow EOs in cells.”

“That’s right. I was impressed by your conviction—but I believe you were lying, even to yourself.”

Rios started to answer, but he held up a hand.

“I think you knew, on some level, what I was just discovering. That organizations, like people, can get stuck in negative cycles. This place,” he gestured at EON, “was stuck. It was holding itself back. And so, it either needed to be dismantled, or evolve. I have chosen evolution.”

Stell’s voice played through her head.

We have the chance to change the face of EON.

EOs are like ordinary people. Some are good and some are bad. The good ones deserve a chance to help.

Dr. Gray’s words weren’t so different from the dead director’s, but for some reason, they landed like an off-key note. At odds with the way he’d brought her here. At odds with the empty cells. At odds with Noah.

“What did you do to Agent Harris?”

He spread his hands. “The same thing I did to Helena Roy, and the board, and the forty-seven guards, and most of the field agents. I changed their minds.” He tipped his head. “Agent Rios, when I am done with EON, it will no longer a prison. It will be a program. And every EO housed inside these walls will be here of their own volition.”

It sounded too good to be true. And judging by what she’d seen so far, he was playing fast and loose with the term volition.

“And the ones who say no?”

Gabriel shrugged. “I can only help those who want to be helped.”

She thought of the empty cells.

The agent, telling her they’d been moved to Sublevel 1.

“Listen to him, Rios.” This, from Noah. Noah, who wasn’t in the morgue. Who wasn’t a walking, talking corpse but standing right there.

She glanced toward the other EO. “You chose this?”

Noah nodded. “He convinced me. Let him convince you.”

Rios studied the doctor. “Do I have a choice?” she asked skeptically.

“Of course.” He sat back. “You’re free to go.”

“All right.” This time when Rios stood, Noah didn’t try to stop her. In fact, he stepped out of the way, letting her round the chair, and start toward the door.

But as her fingers met the cold handle, Gabriel cleared his throat and said, “However.”

Rios paused, heart sinking.