Ultramarine | The Darkest Minds Fanfic

Chapter 20, Sheena

This is not getting anywhere.

　　I leaned back into the chair in Cole's room, rubbing my eyes as I decided it was about time I gave myself some rest. The research on the cure...I couldn't say that it was uninformative. I had found out more and more from these documents, it's just that...they didn't give me what I'm looking for. After my discussion with Chubs, most of the information I gathered since was not so much about the cure itself, but the methods in which the doctors conducted the research. In short, it was disturbing, to say the least.

　　Maybe we really do have to pin our hope on Lillian Gray. She's the person that authorized and participated in this research, so she must have known of these methods—I really don't want to trust anyone that'd do something like these to children, but the likelihood of it becoming our only option had seemed to increase by the day.

　　It was another night where Cole holed up inside his office, and I just hadn't got the strength to be turned away anymore. It was bad enough knowing he was hiding something from me, but the fact that he was meeting Clancy Gray without anyone checking on him... I tried to talk to him about it, but he had always found a way to avoid that conversation.

　　I wondered towards the direction of vibrant sounds of discussion, and found myself in front of the gateway leading to the garage. Liam was there, deep in conversation with Liza and Lucy.

　　Before I could take a step in there, a girl—Kylie—came out of nowhere and stopped me. The conversation inside snapped shut as all four of them stared at me, expression unreadable.

　　"It's okay, Kylie. She can come in." Liam said.

　　She looked unwilling to budge, though. "Are you sure? Isn't she your brother's—"

          　　Pet. I finished in my head.

　　"Really, it's okay." Liam insisted, and stood up to greet me at the gateway. Kylie finally stepped down, but was still staring at me in a guarded look.

　　"So, Sheena." Liam put a hand on the door frame, leaning over me, and I had to fought the urge of putting this smile side by side with another one I knew in my head. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

　　"I just..." I muttered, "I had nothing else to do, so I thought I should come and see what you guys were doing."

　　"Well," Liam gave me a tight smile and began, "For you to be let in, you'll have to be a little bit of a rebel, because we do what we do here under the radar for a reason..."

　　"Are you going to tell me something I can't tell your brother?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

　　"Do you still want to know if it is?" He returned a challenging look of his own.

　　I looked at him for a moment, and sighed. "Well, it's not like he's not been keeping secrets from me."

　　Liam took in my expression carefully, and for a second, I wondered what kind of face I was wearing to prompt him into giving me such a pitiful look. I hated it. I hated how much his eyes had looked like Cole's, but the light emitting from them was so different.

　　"All right." He broke eye contact with me, and gestured for me to walked deeper into the garage.

　　On the floor before Lucy and Liza, lay some papers and sketches—almost like maps.

　　"We are working with a reporter from Amplify on the Oasis hit." He said.

　　"I don't follow...?" I frowned. "Did you persuade Cole and Ruby to change the plan?"