1407 Bridgemont, Cambridge

I compare it to notes on the Secretary’s desk where he jotted down some random tasks, including an appointment at 7:00 with LeGru. The handwriting doesn’t match. He didn’t write this note. I commit it to memory and put it back just as I found it, tucked in a corner of a lower drawer. I return to the files. I’ll have to take a chance and hope I don’t freeze or crash the whole system as I try to open additional files. My finger hovers over three possible folders identified with icons, no names. I briefly close my eyes. Concentrate, Locke, which one? I open my eyes and touch the one with a red triangle and hold my breath. A hundred subfolders spring into the air in front of me. A hundred. My eyes scan across them, bare titles that give little clue as to what’s inside. There isn’t time to hunt and peck. I zip my finger across the whole first row. A hundred more files fly into the air, the room a virtual littered mess of folders and files.

Time ticks wildly in my head. Seconds count. I scan as fast as I can and I’m almost to the end of the bottom row when I spot something. Blueprints for a lighting grid. I press it and a dozen more files open. Immediately I recognize the Old Library Building, but then something far more interesting—

“What are you doing?”

I look up. Raine is in the doorway.

What can I possibly say? I’m lost? Curious? I just stand there and she steps closer, her expression incredulous. “What are you doing?” she repeats.

“Raine, please, I can’t explain right now. Keep your voice down. I just need another minute to—”

She comes at me, screaming, “This is what you had to tell me? You were going to snoop through my father’s files? I can’t believe this! Get out! Get out!” She swipes at the open folders and I grab her by the wrist.

“I know this doesn’t look—”

“You’re nothing more than a spy! That’s all you ever were! Exactly what he warned me about! I was only a way for you to get to my father!” She reaches out with her other hand for the files but I pin her to my side.

“Please, Raine,” I whisper into her ear. “I need this information. You have to trust me.”

“Trust you? You’ve never done anything but lie to me! Let go! Let go of me right now!”

I miss half of everything else she’s yelling as I try to maintain my grip on her with my injured arm and read the file that I need. Arlington station—a lighting grid, two pressure points, another grid down the main tunnel—

She stomps on my foot. Her elbow finds my already cracked ribs. I let go, bending over the desk trying to breathe. She jumps away from me and spins, a river of anger and hatred spewing from her mouth.

“It all adds up now! Your sudden entrance into the Collective, all the questions about my father, the—” Her eyes widen impossibly larger. “Oh my God. That little Non-pact girl. She knew your name because you’re one of them.” She steps back like the thought horrifies her and she shakes her head. “I trusted you. I gave you—”

She turns and runs out of the room.

I close all the files in one sweep and run after her, catching her midway on the stairs. I grab her hand from behind. “You have to listen to me, Raine! You owe me that much! I—”

“I owe you nothing! Now get out! Get out of my house and get out of my—”

“What’s this?”

We both stop and look up. At the top of the stairs a crowd has gathered. Shane, Vina, Cece, Ian, Hap—and the Secretary.

Raine yanks her hand away from mine and continues up the last few steps. I follow her. The group ambles around us silently, the Secretary’s eyebrows still raised waiting for an explanation. Neither of us speaks, so he does. “It seems that my daughter is throwing you out of our house,” he says. He reaches out and pulls Raine to his side. I watch her stiffen under his touch. He never takes his eyes off me, zooming in on my gashed lip and cheekbone. “Was he inappropriate with you, my dear?”

Raine stares at me, her eyes large black pools, frightened and filled with fury all at once. Please don’t say it, Raine. If you mention the word spy, I’m a dead man. She breaks her gaze with mine and looks down. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she whispers. “I just want him to leave.”

The Secretary nods. “I understand. You’re upset. We’ll discuss this matter later in private.”

“I’ll throw him out. I’d be happy to,” Shane says, taking a step toward me.

“I wouldn’t,” I tell him.

Shane stops. I don’t know if it’s the sound of my voice or my eyes drilling into him, but for once he makes a wise choice. He holds back. Vina, Ian, and Cece all stare, speechless, still trying to understand what just happened in the space of a few minutes.

“No need, Shane,” the Secretary says. “I think my daughter has quite capably handled Mr. Jenkins already. Her message is clear enough. I’ll walk him out.”

I look at Raine one last time. She turns away and refuses to meet my gaze. I walk to the foyer, the Secretary following behind me. The elevator doors open and I step inside. I turn to face him. His smug smile returns and he touches his cheekbone in the same place where I have the deep gash on mine. I see his gears turning, wondering where I got it. “There was always something about you I found unsettling.” His hand drops to his side. “I suppose one’s true character is impossible to hide for long.”