The Girl Who Dared to Stand (The Girl Who Dared #2)(10)

“Our next move?” Quess asked, looking slightly incredulous. “Liana, Cali and Roark are… gone. We made off with some of Roark’s Paragon, and if we have his notes, we might be able to continue making it, but to what end?”

“We don’t have his notes,” Grey added, his eyes hooded. “He was grabbing them off the table when the Champion…” He paused and swallowed hard, and I instinctively reached out and placed a hand on one of the arms folded over his chest. His eyes met mine, and in spite of the fact that there was a deep sorrow in them, there was also a gratitude that made me uncomfortable in its appraisal. I wasn’t certain I was worthy of such a look, and took my hand back before I could think twice about it. “The only formula was in his notebooks,” he continued. “He dropped them when Devon… when Devon jumped in. Then Cali shattered the glass with that thing…”

“Sonic charge,” Quess said quietly, wrapping his arms around himself. “I made it as an emergency escape tool—in case you were ever trapped outside the shell or needed to make a fast getaway. It works on everything, but glass is the easiest for it to break. It reacts better to the frequency the tool emits.”

“We still have the pills,” I said. “Which is a good starting place. But that’s neither here nor there—and we can talk about it in the ventilation shaft.”

Besides, I was hoping that Jasper, the computer program I had befriended in the Medica, might be able to give us the formula for Paragon, considering we had given him one of our pills to run tests on. I hoped he was okay—he’d helped us out while we were escaping, and I really hoped nothing had happened to him as a result. Once I had time, I would make sure to find out, but for now… there were more important things to attend to. Unfortunately.

“Yes, but why even bother?” Quess reiterated. “Leaving here was Roark’s plan. Roark’s and Mercury’s. Even with his stockpile, there are twenty-nine other people relying on us providing for them! We can’t supply them all forever! And certainly not for as long as it would take to create some mode of transportation that would get us safely across the Wastes! So what is the point?!”

Quess’s questions were beginning to prey on my own doubts. I hadn’t considered any of this until just now, and now that he was forcing me to think about it, a pressure came with it. It weighed on me, making me feel inadequate and ill equipped to come up with any sort of answer, but with a silent demand to deliver one anyway.

“I don’t know what the plan is yet, Quess,” I said bitterly. “I honestly don’t know what we’re going to do. Which is why I want to talk about it with you and Grey—because you two are the most collected right now. I also think we need to check out these vents sooner rather than later, because there could be more rust hawks lurking in any of these rooms. I want to know how many different doors there are, and where we might have to worry about unexpected company! And yes, while we do that, I was hoping to get a little chat in about any ideas for how we should proceed.”

I stopped and took a moment to compose myself. My tone had become sharp and frustrated, and it wasn’t what I wanted to sound like, especially since I had caused all of this with the mission I had created. The other stuff was important, and I would be making sure it got done, but this was every bit as important. “Look… just… help me or don’t. I’m going.”

“Well, there’s already one entrance over there,” Quess announced, a grin coming to his face as he pointed a thumb at the hole Grey had created earlier by removing the section of wall.

“It’s actually a service tunnel. It leads to the Menagerie directly above, but luckily for us, it opens up under a pigpen full of a bunch of mud and… other stuff, so it doesn’t get a lot of use. Part of the reason we chose this place.”

“That explains the smell,” Zoe commented from where she and Eric were now tying ropes around the rust hawks to haul them through the vents, and I sniffed at the air. My nasal passages were still a little clogged from all the dust in the office, but I immediately detected what she was talking about—the air did stink slightly of feces.

“If we brought any oranges, I can make candles,” Tian offered, her voice still thick with tears. “Ca—” She stopped and fidgeted, her fingers fluttering up to wipe away tears while she caught her breath. She tried again. “Cali taught me, and it makes the smell better.”

“Thank you, Tian,” I said encouragingly, offering her a smile. “But first is the paint, okay?”

“Okay.” She gave me a tremulous smile in return before turning back to the wall to resume painting. I watched her for a moment, glad to see at least some semblance of a smile, and then turned back to Quess and Grey.

“So, are you two going to come with me?” I asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of my voice. I really didn’t want to drop the Scipio bomb right then and there. Everyone else might panic, and that would be… detrimental.

“Yes,” Quess said, giving Grey a look. “I’m going to go grab my pad, though, so I can map the area.” He darted off to where they had tossed the bags we had brought with us from Sanctum during the rust hawk attack.

I turned to Grey, and before I knew what was happening, his arms were around me and he was holding me closely, one hand pressed to the back of my head. “Are you okay?” he asked me, and I blinked, taking a moment to self-assess.