Chapter Thirty-Seven Faith

She rubbed her aching neck, glancing at the time on her wristclip. Ten p.m.

As Noah had headed out with Robyn, Faith had come to the library to write her speech. Feeling like she finally had a purpose, she had set to work as though her life depended on it. If delivering this speech was her way of contributing to the Resistance, then she was determined to do it well.

But putting the words together to convey everything that had happened to her over the past few months was proving more difficult than she had anticipated. Her thoughts kept drifting to the explosion in the forest, Kemp's beating, Sophia's forced pregnancy, Laura's death. So many terrible events.

How could she possibly convey them all in a short time? Describe the heinous crimes that Danforth had committed, was still committing, and would continue to commit, unless someone stopped her?

It was the reason the speech was so important. But also why it was so damn difficult to write.

Faith slumped back in her chair. She had around a page of decent material now, but she'd written and discarded so many sentences she'd lost count.

Deciding to take a break, she wandered out of the library and went downstairs. Most of the Resistance members would be in bed now, but there was a fair chance that Diane would still be up. After failing to find her in the bunk room, Faith headed for Blake's office.

Inside, Blake was huddled over a datadev. The techie had been working flat out ever since she'd agreed to help the Resistance hack into Danforth's speech on Liberation Day. She barely looked up as Faith entered, but Diane waved a hand from her position at another desk.

"How's the speech coming?"

Faith took a seat on the stool in front of Sophia's monitor. "Don't ask."

She stared at the screen. Sophia was sleeping now and looked fairly peaceful. In her waking hours she was anything but.

Hold on,Faith willed her. We're coming for you.

"That bad?"

Faith turned to see Diane's eyes on her. She shrugged. "Not that bad. I just needed a break." She looked over at her friend. "What are you doing?"

"What are we not doing, is more the question." But Diane's eyes glowed with pride. She loved working alongside Blake. At Faith's inquisitive gaze, she sat back. "See this?" She brandished a flat, rectangular piece of plastic. "It's a keycard, like the ones they use at the hospital."

Faith's mind went back to the night she had broken into the Bellator Hospital. She'd had to steal a keycard from a medic to access the datadevs in the restricted area.

"We've been trying to clone them." Diane tapped the card against the desk. "So anyone going into the hospital could use them, rather than having to steal one, like you did."

"It would certainly reduce the danger involved in breaking and entering." Faith gave a wry grin. "If you had a key."

Blake grunted. "It would if we could get it right."

Faith frowned. "It doesn't work?"

Diane glanced at her unofficial mentor. "We're almost there with it."

"Hmph. Not close enough." Blake's eyes remained fixed on the screen. She looked exhausted. "Not for Noah to use, anyway."

Faith froze. "What do you mean, for Noah to use? Why would Noah…" She glanced at Diane. "Where is Noah going?"

Diane frowned. "He didn't tell you?"

"No." A surge of anger rolled through Faith. She turned away, glancing at the screen again. Sophia slept on. "He didn't tell me."

Abandoning the keycards, Diane moved towards Faith. "Maybe Madeleine swore him to secrecy. He's heading to the hospital in a couple of days—undercover—as a drudge. He's part of Sophia's rescue."

"A very important part," Blake added.

"He's the one who'll be gaining access to the Fertility Ward. Opening the door for the Resistance to get in." Diane looked impressed.

"If he can pull it off."

Faith felt her heart constrict. She'd known Noah would leave at some point, and with all there was to organise for Liberation Day, it made sense for him to be put to work. But knowing that he would be in such a dangerous position was not comforting news.

Diane's face darkened at Blake's comment. She leaned closer. "He'll do fine."

"I hope so."

"He will! Evelyn told me he did a great job the other day. She really put him through his paces." Diane turned to Blake. "Speaking of Evelyn, has she had any luck yet?"

"Don't think so. Let's see." Blake tapped a few buttons on her keyboard. "She's still in place. No movement as yet."

"And there's been no sign of him?"

"No sign of who?" Faith asked.

"Arden. Evelyn's hiding at a location close to the academy." Blake ran a tired hand across her forehead. "We've had someone there for the past two days now, trying to get the placebos to him, but…" she shrugged, her face taut with worry, "no success as yet."

"And you're worried…"

"Every minute we don't make the switch is a minute that students are being given metraxilone." Blake sighed. "There's nothing we can do but wait, though." She glanced at Diane. "And there's plenty more that needs to be done in the meantime."

Faith shot Diane a questioning look.

"We're under pressure to get the keycards to work, plus Blake is trying to work out the logistics of hacking into the Liberation Day feed. If we don't manage to do that, your speech will never be heard."

Faith turned to Blake. "You can't just do what you did with Stella's last broadcast?"

Blake whirled on her. "I can't just do anything. It's a complex procedure, which changes almost daily. I manage to hack in, Danforth's tech wizards block me. I have to investigate as many avenues as possible. That way, if one method fails, there's a backup. I have to give us the best chance of this working."

As she bent her head over the datadev again, Diane explained. "We're pretty sure that Danforth's tech people have put additional security measures in place. We're looking at ways to get round them, but it might not be possible to do it remotely."

"Which means…?"

"Which means we may need someone to go in and manually disconnect their system." Blake shot them a dark look. "Something I was trying to avoid."

"That sounds pretty dangerous." Faith shuddered.

"It's extremely dangerous." Blake massaged her temples. "And we can't really spare the manpower. We're stretched to breaking point already with this mission."

She was right. Their final operation involved multiple teams in multiple places, all at the same time: Robyn's team, who were going to retrieve Sophia from the hospital; Evelyn, who had been charged with guiding Flynn and Helen safely into the city; a small group including Olivia and Diane who were keeping an eye on things in the square; Faith, Blake and Madeleine, who were running things back at the library…

The list went on and on.

"No." Blake sat up straighter in the chair. "I'm not out of options yet. If people would just keep quiet and leave me to work…"

Faith let out a breath. "Sorry."

"It's fine." For once, Blake looked apologetic. "I'm just feeling the pressure, that's all. But we all have to play our part." She wagged a finger at Faith. "Just be certain to make every one of those words you're writing count. Okay? And… since I've no idea how long we'll be able to breach Danforth's feed for, you'd better pack a lot into the beginning of your speech."

As Blake turned back to her screen, Faith tried not to feel buried under the weight of the very pressure Blake had mentioned. "I guess I'll get back to it, then," she began, "and make sure I–"

A beeping sound from Blake's datadev interrupted her. The tech whiz leaned forward, flicking a switch on the dashboard in front of her.

"Evelyn!" She barked into her headset. "Tell me you've you got some good news."

She listened, her head cocked to one side. For several minutes, the room was silent. Faith felt like she should be holding her breath as they waited for Evelyn's report. Blake's face was unreadable.

Eventually, she gave a terse nod. "Will do. Thanks for the update."

She cut the call and slumped against the back of her chair. Diane and Faith exchanged glances, knowing not to rush her. When Blake finally turned to them, her eyes were sombre.

"Evelyn spoke with Arden. He has the placebos and will make the switch as soon as possible."

"That's great!" Faith burst out. "Now we don't have to–"

"You don't understand." Blake paused, a hitch in her voice. "It's too late."

Diane moved forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. "What do you mean?"

Blake's expression was bleak. "Because they've been administering the metraxilone to six of the senior girls for the past forty-eight hours."

Faith and Diane's eyes met, anticipating Blake's words before she spoke them.

"When they went to wake the girls this morning, two of them were dead."