Page 158 of Red Marked

Quake is sitting at a table across from Dr. Archer, and his mouth is moving.

Holy shit.

He hasn’t said a word since the day he told me about the mountains. I can’t hear him through the glass. His hands move while he talks. Archer nods and writes. Somebody has cut his hair and taken his beard down to stubble. The two security guys are still at the wall, as per the SOPs, but one of them has his head tilted. He’s listening in.

Quake sees me. He lifts a hand and waves.

I wave back.

Wow. This is amazing. It’s like he’s suddenly turned a corner. The therapy is working.

Archer turns in her chair, smiles, and waves too. She says something to Quake, tucks her clipboard under her arm, and comes out into the corridor.

“Did you see that?” She’s beaming. “It started four days ago, and there’s more every day. We’ve had full sentences since yesterday.”

“That’s incredible, Doc.”

“It is. He keeps coming back to one thing, though.” She looks down at her clipboard. “The females living in the mountain. He asks after them in most sessions. He wants to know whether they’re safe and whether anyone has gone to help them.”

Shit!

My hand has closed around the window ledge. I take it off and put it in my pocket.

“It sounds like he still has a ways to go, then.” I shrug. “You were in the room with Cairn. You heard what the Council had to say. There are no females out there. Quake is confused.”

On the other side of the glass, Quake is looking straight at me. He can’t hear me any more than I could hear him. Thank fuck, because I’m making him out to be crazy.

I know he would understand.

He says he wants the females safe. I’m doing what it takes to make it happen. What about when others talk as well?

Shit! Shit! Shit!

“That must be it.” Archer nods slowly. “Dr. Pryce said the same. It’s a pity. He’s so lucid about everything else.” She makes a note.

That’s exactly the problem.

“Keep up the good work, Doc.”

I nod at Quake. He nods back. I walk away, and I don’t slow down until I’m around the corner.

He’s talking, he makes sense, and sooner or later somebody is going to listen to him. Reed’s hacker needs weeks. We don’t have weeks. We can’t sit around and wait.

What we have is a copper male with green eyes and a set of coordinates forty minutes from here. I hope to fuck that he’s Star’s Holt.

I take out my phone and text Atlas, Saber, Rex, Dane, Brian, and Rift.

Night training tonight. Be at the pad at 21:00. Pearl is on the sheet.

Then I send Star a similar text, only I state that she’s on the flight sheet.

I get a thumbs-up.

In my office, I pull up the night flight log and fill it in. I add the route, the personnel, and the purpose. Under trainee, I type Pearl.

Then I take the paperwork and head to Pryce’s office.

I knock on the doorjamb.