Clandestine

forty nine

-diane-

The look on Julia's face is almost worth it. Her eyes bug out of her head and her mouth drops. She stares at her hands in her laps as her cheeks flame red.

In shame. In guilt.

There's no look of arrogance. Of pride of being who she is.

It's embarrassment.

Maybe she isn't working with her mother. Maybe this isn't a game.

Is she trying to help?

I don't have the time to waste thinking about whether Julia is on my side or not. Apparently I'm guilty of a much more serious crime.

Did Julia let is slip that I was able to hack into the Assembly reports page? Are they going to throw me in jail too? Maybe just as precautionary measure. I can rot behind bars until Wednesday and they'll pay a guard to get rid of me.

Maybe they won't wait until Wednesday. Maybe they'll just kill me right here. Once my corpse is dragged away, they'll bring out the punch and cake and celebrate the fact that the city is finally free of Tinsleys.

Marcia Quintana sits directly to my right. I know that it's purposefully put this way. She can glare into my eyes so that I can see every cruel wrinkle next to those cold eyes.

I raise my chin and stare as definitely as I can manage at all other Assembly members. Even Julia. She looks away the second my eyes reach her as if she's been burned. Her mother glances at her when she does this and a small smirk hits her lips.

Is Marcia enjoying this?

Both I and her daughter can be tortured in one day.

It's the first time I've seen her in person and she's even more terrifying than her voice echoing through my cell phone. Her hands sit on the table, her long fingers drumming impatiently. I picture those fingers typing into her computer all that information about me and then putting an innocent little date at the bottom. A few letters after that date marked with a little exclamation point.

What is wrong with her?

She has the nerve to smile at me, "Shall we begin?"

"Yes." I refuse to break eye contact with her. I will not be intimidated. At least, I won't show my intimidation.

"Do you know why you are here today?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Would you like me to explain it to you?"

Does she have to be so condescending? Clearly if I don't know what it is, I need it to be explained to me. "Yes."

"We are here to talk about your father. He escaped the jail a few days ago. This is correct?"

I stare at her. She told me that he was dead. She said that I have to keep the illusion that he is alive and fine. Does that mean that we are going with the story of him escaping? Couldn't she just say that he was set free as he was due to be that day before he was killed?

"Diane, could you answer the question?"

"Could you repeat it?"

"So you can speak more than one word sentences. I wasn't sure about your intelligence." She laughs as if it is all a good joke and we are close friends, but we are far from anything close. I hate this woman.

I just blink at her. Her laughter falls into silence and she clears her throat uneasily. Perhaps it is okay for her to make fun of my father, a grown man. But a sixteen year old? That has to bother at least one of the other Assembly members.

Marcia Quintana says, "The question was: Your father escapes the jail a few days ago, correct?"

"I'm afraid that I don't know the answer to that question."

"Why not?"

"Because no one told me."

A few of the other Assembly members shift. Someone whispers, "Marcia, you said that you told her."

Marcia Quintana snaps, "I did tell her. She's lying."

But some of their faces show that they believe me, not her.

They are doubting Marcia, their unofficial leader.

I'm winning.