Recompense

FOURTEEN

Berg hesitates. "You're sure?"

"Positive."

He jerks his head and his men back off. I relax my knife hand, my whole arm aching with relief.

"Leave us."

"Jewel," Berg protests, but she cuts him off.

"I said leave."

He nods to his men. They file out one by one. Berg is the last to go. "We'll be right outside."

"Thank you," I tell Jewel once he slips through the door. "I thought we were goners."

Jewel doesn't smile. "What are you doing here?"

"You've heard of the kidnappings?" I ask.

"Everyone has."

"They're reaching epidemic levels, both here and in other cities. Ethan and I have been sent to help stop them."

She eyes Ethan suspiciously. "But why are you here? You think the Lowers have something to do with this?"

"We don't know who's at fault. But we've tracked one of the missing girls here. To the old city."

"Who?"

"Markay Peterson."

Jewel is quiet for several seconds. "It's not the Lowers. Berg knows everything that goes on in the Warrens. You weren't here five minutes before he found out."

"Is he your boyfriend?"

Her lip curls like I've said something funny. "My brother."

I take in her copper skin and kinky curls. They're obviously not blood relatives, but I don't press the issue. Jewel would make an excellent ally, and I want to gain her favor. She probably knows as much about the Warrens as Berg. "We could really use your help finding Markay."

"What is she to me?"

"A human. A person who's in trouble."

Jewel shrugs. "She's never done anything for me."

"Jewel," Ethan says, "I don't think you understand the scope of what we're dealing with. This is not an isolated case. There are hundreds of girls missing now, in every zone. We've got to find out what's happening to them. We have to stop it, and we need your help."

Jewel gives him a look of complete disdain. Ethan's whole persona screams wealth and privilege. She isn't about to offer him anything.

"Please, Jewel," I say. "This isn't about caste. There are Uppers, Middles, and Lowers being abducted."

She considers my words in silence.

"Can you at least tell us where this is?" I ask and pull up our destination on the holomap.

She gives it a cursory glance. "It's the old Chemistrad factory."

"You're familiar with it?"

She shrugs noncommittally.

"How is it that Berg was on our tail in five minutes," Ethan says, "but nobody saw anything unusual at the factory?"

She glares at him. "Because no one goes there."

"Why not?"

She gives him that look of disdain again and holds her silence.

I shoot a look at Ethan that clearly says shut up and let me handle it. "Jewel," I say gently. "We really need to know what we're heading into."

"The factory isn't stable."

"Worse than the condition of the neighborhoods we've passed through?"