Once at the Cave, Sylvia rushed Heather past Arthur, Barrett, and the waiting security. Lydia and the others followed the march up to the holding cells, passing Gary and a security guard coming from the hall to the cells. “I know I had that discharge paper before I came here,” he said, talking to the guard. “Did Morella and the other guard find it while cleaning? Maybe they left it at your desk?” Then he gawked at the prisoner. “She’s back?”
Sylvia ignored him. She grabbed the guard’s keys, opened Heather’s cell door, threw Heather hard into the cell, and slammed the door shut, and then hit it for good measure. “Sylvia,” Arthur said, prying her fist off the metal. She resisted and he grabbed harder as the rest of his entourage caught up to them. “Sylvia, let Dr. Barrett check you out.”
She shrugged off Barrett’s attempts to examine her wounds. “Did Rogers capture any of them?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “He called a while ago. They managed to beat them back though.”
“Please tell me you found something in her cell then,” she said. “How did she do it?”
“Sylvia, you need to see Dr. Barrett. She’ll want to look at your arm and hip.”
Sylvia slapped Barrett’s hands away. “Stop it!”
“You slap my hands away one more time and I’ll slap your eyeballs out of your head!” Barrett snapped. “Shut up and let me examine these!” Sylvia was startled, as was everyone else. Barrett took advantage of Sylvia’s dumbfounded silence and checked her hip. “It’s nasty. Shouldn’t be hard to remove though. But the arm is worse. Looks pretty deep in there. I need you to come with me.”
However, Sylvia had recovered by then. “I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers. Did you find anything? How is she always one step ahead of us?” She glared at the small window. Heather stood and faced them, her expression calm and placid. “There’s no way she could’ve known.”
“We didn’t find anything in her cell,” Arthur said. “Morella and the guards searched it top to bottom and I helped check, too. But there was nothing.”
“Then how did she know?” Sylvia asked.
“Perhaps,” Heather said, “because you’re focusing on the wrong person. I’m not one step ahead of you.” Everyone exchanged looks with one another. “Come in after you get that arm looked at and I’ll explain. Only Arthur, Sylvia, and Lydia. Send everyone else away and turn the cameras off.”
Sylvia mouthed, “No,” to Arthur, but he shook his head, turning so Heather couldn’t see him.
“What other choice do we have? There are no leads,” he whispered. “We’ll be all right.”
Barrett whisked Sylvia away for a few hours while a nurse assisted with Heather’s gash in her ribs. After Heather was patched up and in a new jumpsuit, Arthur shooed the guards, Jando, and Aidan out into the Center’s main hall, locked the janitor closet, and shut down the cameras. Only Arthur and Lydia remained at the security guard desk, neither really talking and Lydia recuperating from the mill after a nurse deemed her fine physically. However, it had been a while since she had been in a fight so intense. Her nerves were shaky, and her hands wouldn’t stop forming fists.
Sylvia returned a few hours later, drowsy and drugged, with her arm in a cast supported in a sling and thick bandages on her hip. “Barrett Juice should have me healed in three weeks, give or take a few days.”
“Should you be on your feet?” Lydia asked, wondering if she should be prepared if Sylvia fell.
“Barrett said I should stay off my feet as much as possible.”
A long silence passed between them as she and Lydia locked eyes, Sylvia’s seeming to ask, “What?” Arthur clapped, breaking the moment. “Shall we?” he said.
They entered the cell and Sylvia eased into a chair, wincing and favoring her hip. Heather sat on her bed and Sylvia leaned forward in her chair, pursing her lips. “All right. Talk.”
“Whyte is the one who tracked us,” Heather said. “I told you he’d come for me.”
“That’s impossible,” Sylvia said. “We only finalized the plan and route this morning to prevent that. The transports were checked before we left. No trackers or anything suspicious on them.”
“There are other ways,” Heather said, a hint in her words.
“The pill,” Lydia said, catching on. “The one we used to keep track of Heather.”
“Bingo. We have a winner.”
“Wait a minute,” Arthur said. “The pill is our own creation.”
“Based on Rooke’s design. Don’t you think he made some for Whyte?” Heather asked. “It would be easy to create an exact replica of your equipment since he knows the core design. And I’m willing to bet he did just that.”
“But how could he get an exact copy?”
“How indeed?” Heather folded her hands. “You’ve had a leak in your little organization for quite a while, Arthur. Who created the tracker?”
“Barrett and Brentle, right?” Lydia said.
“It’s not Barrett,” Arthur said flatly. Heather raised an eyebrow.
“And why would Brentle do it?” Lydia asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Perhaps it’s someone else. It could be anyone,” Heather said.
“Then why even trust us and tell us this?” Lydia said.
“Because I know it’s not any of you,” she said. “Arthur wouldn’t betray a cushy position like his, and he lives and breathes the BEP Division. Sylvia is dedicated to the cause to a fault.” The two frowned at her descriptions. “And you have every reason to see Whyte fall. Why would you help him? No, it’s someone else.”
Sylvia narrowed her eyes. “How do you know this? Did you know about this person already?” Heather sighed and nodded. Sylvia rose and her whole body clenched rigidly tight. But she restrained herself and shoved her finger in Heather’s face. “Eleven people are dead because of you!”
“Good people,” Arthur said, agreeing.
“If I told you about this person beforehand, all that would’ve done is start a witch hunt. The mole would get spooked, and then they off me and go to ground. You’d be left without a case or any information,” Heather said. “Besides, last time I told you anything, you didn’t believe me.” She turned pointedly to Sylvia.
“You—” she started to rise.
“Look, I didn’t even know if the person was still here, all right? But I confirmed it.”
“How?” Arthur asked.
“When you threw me into the office,” she said to Lydia, “I ran into Mark. As well as some glass.” She lifted her arm to show her the lump of bandages underneath her jumpsuit. “Thank you for that.”
“Sorry. Wait, you’re taking Mark at his word?” Lydia asked.
“Yes. He’s not crazy about Whyte either.”
“Do you have any proof there’s a mole?” Sylvia asked.
“Yes,” Heather said. “Whoever this mole is, he or she doesn’t know where this place is…yet. You can be sure he or she is working on it though.”
In all, that eliminates the BEP agents, higher-ups, and anyone new so far, Lydia noted silently.
“Mark said the person knows about when BEPs leave. He and a few others were assigned to recruit somebody being discharged soon. A swimmer from Vermont.” Lydia’s breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened. “I take it you know who that is?”
Cooper! He was in danger. She had to warn him and Nina.
“Hang on,” Heather said, reading her reaction. “I know what you’re thinking. But this person has access to that information, and if you suddenly stop the discharge they’ll find out. Then they’ll know you’re onto them.”
“So what? We let him get discharged?” Lydia asked. “Screw that!” She looked to Sylvia and Arthur for support, but they were quiet. “You can’t seriously be considering this. We have to warn him.”
“No, you can’t,” Heather said. “Nothing about this can leak until you find the person. To anyone.”
Sylvia hung her head, staring at the floor, her brows knitted in concent
ration. Arthur rubbed his eyes and slowly nodded. “As much as I hate to admit it, she’s right,” he said.
“No, she’s not,” Lydia said. “What about creating a problem with his discharge papers?”
“That would be Harper’s department,” Arthur said. “We would have to involve him then.”
“How about faking an injury? Barrett could sign off on it. Only she and Cooper would have to know. We can trust her, right?”
Heather shot down that idea. “An injury right before he’s discharged? That would draw suspicion. And you can’t trust anyone else.”
Grasping at straws, Lydia said, “Fail his test next week?”
“If this kid is so good that Whyte’s interested, then it will definitely raise alarms if he fails a simple swimming test,” Heather said.
Lydia felt that she was drowning, with a weight tied to her ankles, no life preserver to keep her afloat, and no aid in sight. Exactly like Cooper, except that his ocean was swarming with predators, chomping at the bit to sink their jaws into him. She ground her teeth. “You can’t let him leave.”
“If we stop the discharge or alert anyone else, then there’s a big chance that whoever the mole is will go into hiding and run,” Arthur said. “They’ll know we’re onto them, and it may put more BEPs in the future at risk. Perhaps the whole Cave.” He held Lydia’s shoulders. “Look, we’ll assign a security detail to Cooper once he leaves next week and send his family to a safe place. I won’t let him fall into Whyte’s hands. I promise.”
“One of the guards could be a traitor,” she said.
“I’ll choose from some newer guards.” Lydia slumped and he added, “We do recruit members of the military after all. These people are all combat oriented.” He offered a small smile, but Lydia looked past him, past the walls to where Cooper was merrily swimming at this instant, waiting to be discharged and looking forward to the day his sister would come home, too. The day their family would be reunited, all of which teetered on the brink of shattering and breaking apart.
“That’s the best you can do,” Heather said.
“Shut up,” Lydia said. “You know Whyte will find out where he’s at and get past the security. And when he does, Cooper is a goner.”
“Not necessarily,” she said. “If Cooper joins him, Whyte won’t kill him. Then you could have a person on the inside.” Everyone glared daggers at her and she shrugged. “Only a suggestion. If I know Whyte though, he won’t waste too many people on Cooper. He wants me. At most, he’ll send a couple BEPs or a small squad of mercenaries. Maybe a mix.”
“Yeah, what if he sends more?” Lydia asked.
“I’ll send three of my best agents,” Arthur said. “And I’ll have Rogers send some of his people, too.”
“Oh? What can they do? Can they kill smoke? Break through rocks?” She waved her hands. “And you sent your best already! Your second-in-command! Did you not see how many of us came back alive? With Sylvia out of commission, how many do you expect to return this time, if at all?”
“I did see how many survived, and we were unprepared and outgunned. We know what to expect this time. At the first sign of trouble, we’ll get Cooper out of there. His safety is my top concern. Our people will be sure to capture one of Whyte’s men and repel the rest. Then we can get some answers.”
“Really? Did anyone get answers out of Emeryl or anyone else from Golden Springs? Cause I saw them free out there, and I haven’t heard any news that they gave up anything.” She spun around, tearing at her hair. There had to be something more she could do.
“She has a point there,” Heather said. “Only Whyte knows who the mole is. Nobody else does.”
“Either way, until we can figure out more and isolate the leak, we have to let the discharge happen. Lydia,” Arthur said, pulling her face back to him. “You can’t let anyone know about this.”
“But—”
“No ‘buts,’” he said. “We’ve already had two major leaks, one only this morning. We can’t risk it. Consider the safety of everyone in the Cave.” Her eyes fell to her shoes. “Everything has to run like normal. No suspicions. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said, almost in a whisper. Three other agents and fresh-faced guards for security. She didn’t know them, but she did know that Sylvia wasn’t going. Whyte’s forces had been too much for all of them, so what hope did the new group have?
“Look, if we find this person, it’s all moot,” he said. “So focus on finding this mole and Cooper will be safe.”
That was true. Lydia raised her head, resolved to throw her all into rooting out this hidden enemy and stopping them before anyone else was put in jeopardy. She rounded on Heather and crossed her arms. “Tell us more about this person.”
“I don’t know much,” she said. “Either they’re a disgruntled employee or Whyte offered a better deal. They’ve been here for a while now. Not sure how long. At least a year or two.” She hummed in thought. “This person has limited access, as it takes a while for them to dig up stuff.”
“They do know their way around well and were aware of your transfer,” Lydia said.
“Good,” Heather said. “Don’t assume it was someone connected to the transfer though. This person has had a while to learn how to avoid security here, and they know about discharges. It could be any number of people, all right? Broaden your minds and don’t overlook anyone. Any suspicions ringing a bell?”
One name jumped into Lydia’s mind. “Harper. He’s in charge of all discharges.”
“I don’t know,” Sylvia said. “He’s worked here for years.”
“He’s as disgruntled as they come,” she said, countering. “But fine. Who else?”
Arthur and Sylvia were clueless at naming suspects. Every name they offered was shot down by themselves or the other. “No, not him. Couldn’t be,” or “She’s dedicated to the BEP Division. Always has been. Never had any complaints.”
Heather eventually threw one into the ring. “What about that guard this morning? The one who was sick?”
“Morella?” Sylvia said. “He’s our Chief of Security.”
“The perfect cover,” Heather said. “No one would suspect him. And no one would question his presence in any room.”
“But he was sick this morning,” Arthur said.
“Was he?” Heather asked, leaning forward. “Or was he trying to avoid getting caught in the crossfire? Did anyone actually see him this morning and confirm his illness?” The three looked at one another but none answered. “Could even be he’s working with Harper.”
“I thought you said it was one mole,” Lydia said.
“True, but the mole could have recruited others,” Heather said. “Half of the entire population here could be under Whyte’s control.” And in that moment, the Cave seemed smaller, exposed, and Lydia didn’t want to leave the safe, padded cell.
“Then we have work to do,” Arthur said. Sylvia put away her chair and they headed for the door. “I want Harper and Morella monitored. Their phones, everything. And get me a list of any more suspects that fit the bill.”
“One more thing,” Heather said. “Be careful if you catch this person. Whyte may know right away.”
“How could he?” Lydia asked.
“Because he sees the future,” Heather said. The three halted, Arthur’s hand gripping the door handle until his knuckles were close to bursting out of the skin. His reaction said it all. But it couldn’t be. The BEP Lydia heard about when she first came to the Cave who could see the future? The same BEP who stayed only for six months at the Cave? However, Lydia knew it wasn’t a coincidence. “Not sure if he’ll be able to see this,” Heather continued, “but since it’s part of his operation, there’s a chance he—Hey!” In a flash, Arthur ran to her, grabbed her arms, and pressed his face close to hers.
“He’s a BEP?”
“Ow! Not so hard. Yes, he is.”
“And you didn’t think to mention this why?” Sylvia asked.
“I needed an ace up m
y sleeve. And because it wouldn’t matter,” Heather said. “He couldn’t see what we were doing here, and I knew he wouldn’t come after us himself. He doesn’t do his own dirty work when he has others for that.”
“How far?” Arthur asked, shaking her. “How far can he see?”
“I don’t know. About a few days ahead? Only sees things related to him.”
Arthur released her and half stumbled, half jogged to the door. Licking his lips, he left, saying, “Follow me.” Sylvia obeyed, but Lydia wasn’t sure if he meant her as well. When he left the door open, she took that as an invitation. She shut the door behind her, locking it, and rushed after the other two.
* * *