That’s the plan. Even if they weren’t speaking about Vanik at the time, I know that’s what needs to happen. That’s how we stop him—by locking him away in their secure SCARS facility.

I don’t allow myself to wonder what will happen if we fail. I don’t allow myself to wonder what’s about to happen—to my friends, to my brother, to me. Instead, I focus with all my hope on the plan.

But … as Ward continues dragging me to the other side of the room, as Arryn and Cami continue to struggle for their lives and Kael sits as still and silent as death, his face a mask of fury as he saves his strength and bides his time, I understand that having a plan and seeing it through are two completely different things.

“Any problems?” Vanik asks as he steps from a side door into the room. In my dazed state, I hadn’t even realized he was absent. But now I stare at him as he stops beside the small wooden table. From where I am, I can’t see if there’s anything on it, or get a hint of what he might have in store for us. For me.

There’s no one else here with him—with them—and that surprises me. Once Vanik had a working serum, I assumed he would have started using it. Especially after what he said to me in his lab:

By studying you, I’ll have the means to start our race afresh, beginning with my army of Speakers, who will look to me for direction, for leadership, and who will be submissive to my will.

Where is that army? Has he already sent them out into the world, or is he … waiting? If so, for what?

Why,

why,

why did he lead me here?

“She made a phone call,” Ward answers in an emotionless voice. “To her mother. I’m not sure how much she revealed before I stopped her.”

By “stopped her,” he means “elbowed me in the face.” That’s something I’m not going to let him live down anytime soon, even if we pull off a miracle and free him from Vanik’s control.

The scientist’s expression tightens, his dark eyes locking on me. “I thought you said she didn’t have a phone?”

Ward doesn’t respond, as if acting like the question wasn’t directed to him. I’ve been with the Remnants for over a week— at any time I could have been given a phone and he wouldn’t have known. Vanik made a mistake in trusting Ward’s assumptions, even if there was no way he could have known Riley gave me one just a few hours ago.