No Return (The Internal Defense Series) by Zoe Cannon

Author:Zoe Cannon [Cannon, Zoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Five days, and she hadn’t lost them.

Becca squinted down at the papers spread across her coffee table. Blurry lines of print swam in front of her. She rubbed her eyes, swallowed a yawn. I’ll sleep when I find something, she told herself for the hundredth time. She would sleep when this mountain of trivia from Meri’s Surveillance informants—no, not Meri’s, not anymore—showed her a way to find the next spy. Not before.

Something buzzed at her hip. She jumped, scattering pages to the floor. She blinked down at them as she tried to think through the sludge in her mind. The buzzing meant something—it meant… her phone. Right. She fumbled for it as it buzzed again.

“Hello?” Somehow she managed to sound awake.

“Hey, Becca.” Vivian’s voice. “Can I come over?”

“It’s…” It’s the middle of the night, she started to say, before the light pouring through the window caught her eye. When had it gotten to be morning?

Six days, and I haven’t lost them.

“It’s almost time for work,” she amended, realizing it was true. She had to get dressed. She had to shower. She had to find something in these papers before another wasted day went by.

“I know,” said Vivian. “I won’t stay long. I just need…” She paused, and now Becca could hear the strain in her voice, the telltale signs of someone trying too hard to sound okay. “Look, you know I think the whole support group thing is kind of stupid. But I think I need your help. I… I don’t know. I need to talk to someone.”

Becca pushed down a flare of resentment. Right now she’s not the investigator trying to get your people killed, she told herself. Right now she’s your friend, and she needs you.

But the resistance needed her more.

“You don’t have to come over,” she said. “We can talk over the phone.” Becca picked up another stack of papers. She could listen to Vivian with half an ear while she scanned the surveillance reports. That was the best she could offer. She would worry about being a good friend after her people were safe. “What’s wrong?”

“Actually…” Vivian hesitated. “I was kind of hoping we could talk in person. It’s not something I should…” Another hesitation. “Just let me come by and I’ll explain.”

Becca set the papers down.

She recognized that too-cautious tone in Vivian’s voice. She had used it herself countless times, had heard it in hundreds of evaluation subjects who hoped she wouldn’t see what they were trying to hide.

She could hear what Vivian wasn’t saying.

Vivian wanted to talk in person because she didn’t want Surveillance to hear what she had to say.

“Sure,” she said carefully, suddenly aware of who else might be listening. “Come on over.”

“Thank you.” The rush of relief in Vivian’s voice, as if Becca had just pulled her out of a burning building, sent Becca’s tension climbing higher. She wouldn’t have sounded like that if this weren’t important. “I’ll be there soon,” Vivian promised, and hung up.

Vivian, like Becca, had taken advantage of the free apartments Internal offered its employees.

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