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"And me--" The words were only just out ofat the other end of the room I turned around in time to see Nico stu in He pressed both hands against his ave out under hitoward hi his ar "What? What is it?"

By then, Cole and the rest of the roo my viehatever was on the screen

"Cate," Nico cried, "Cate Ruby, they took her--they took Cate"

Gasps flew up around rip on Nico and pushed to the front of the kids, who folded against each other to create a path forthe laptop, had lifted it off the desk, and it was only because Chubs was there to grab her arainst the hard surface

"You son of a bitch!" she spat at Cole "This is on you, assle! God dam her ar who she kicked She thrashed around, trying to headbutt hilasses off his face Zu rushed to pick them up before they could be trae of a news site, fuzzy and shaky, as if it had been shot fro line of s were lying on the side of a highith se nearby They were loaded onto the back of a military truck one at a time, overseen by soldiers arht The headline running beneath the pictures was Children’s League Agents Captured in Colorado

My head throbbed as I watched it play through again, searching for her, trying to see what made Vida and Nico certain Nearly all of the prisoners were dressed in black sweats or Op gear, the sah to identify Sen’s long braid Instructor Johnson’s ients in time to try to turn them back--maybe she was the one who had recorded the video, and was safely on her way back to us--maybe she--

Cole paused the video on a shot of the prisoners lining up at the truck, and pointed to a s er, I saw the traces of white-blond hair escaping fro calle at which they’d bound her ar them even on their way into imprisonment Cole unpaused the video and she walked forward, head down, not sooff the touch of the soldiers who lifted her into the back of the truck

No

I felt a painful crack down my center The shapes and faces aroundhter I couldn’t calet the jitters out of ht Cate

She left

I let her go

They’ll kill her, they’ll execute her as a traitor, I let her go, and now they have her--they have Cate--I heard Nico’s crying and felt the pressure build behind my own eyes, a pain that spread to cover my whole face

"What does the AMP waterht-hand corner of the video"

"That’s short for Around news outlet Gray must be livid They’ve shown he hasn’t successfully staeles attacks like he promised"

"Do they collect information? How do they distribute it?" Liam pressed "Do you have any contacts there?"

"Well, yes, but--"

"But it doesn’t esturing toward the laptop "They got the video to a major online news outlet They convinced the that Gray could come after this co" Kids were nodding nohispering "We don’t need guns, we need to get people information--information about camp locations, what the conditions are like there Aet the word out, and then the parents ant to do soo to the cae protests---"

"Liam!" Cole barked "Pay attention to what’s ianizations cannot be trusted, no round they claim to be They’ll sell you out in a second if it ood story You want to knohy I won’t contact them? Because I don’t want to risk the lives of everyone here by accidentally or intentionally revealing our location We can do this ourselves End of discussion"

Lia up from his throat to his face as his te as furious as I’d ever seen hi "Where is the nearest prison bunker to where they were picked up? Would they fly them east? They’d have to keep theht? We can put our ear to the ground, stage an Op--"