Black Marion

35

Monday morning, before the sun had risen, Bennie stumbled into the underground meeting room with a look of alarm.

"The Regent is gone," she said.

The room, which hosted MM, Stefan, Kai, Alex, Haneul, and two others, broke into a contained panic.

"What?" said MM. "How?"

"Sweep the shelter," said Haneul.

"But I don't understand," said Kai. "There is literally no way out—"

"It was me," said Alex.

The room fell quiet.

Alex folded her hands and said, "I left the door unlocked last night."

Another silence.

Through the lights of the holographic map between them, someone ripped a chair out of its place and threw it crashing against the floor. With a growl in his throat, that man said, "What the fuck! We have no idea what he could do! Are you out of your—"

"That's enough, Rio," said Haneul, holding out an arm. His voice was hard, his shoulders tense. When he turned to Alex, his eyes were a terrible mixture of frustration, anger, confusion, hurt. He seemed to be searching for an answer, which Alex could not give. Daunted by the guilt, Alex looked away.

"What do we do now?" said Kai, toneless.

"We have to find him first," said the man named Rio.

"For all we know," said MM, "he's already back up with the Council."

"Do we pull the Op, then?"

"No," said Haneul.

Hands slammed on the table, shaking the lines of the hologrammed towers. "It's too dangerous now. How much of the plan rides on Myeong? And if she's freed that damned bastard, how do we even know we can trust her? All those months up there—maybe they fucked her brain over the line. Maybe she's—"

"If I planned to betray you," said Alex, quietly, "I would have kept my mouth shut. It was—"

A mistake? No. It was deliberate, and she could not say she regretted it yet.

"It was a personal decision," she said at last.

The inadequacy of those words silenced the room once more. At last it was Haneul who stepped in front of Alex, shielding her from those dissecting, accusing, doubting eyes.

"We go on with the plan," Haneul said calmly, "and we hope Scio keeps out of it. If we don't, or if he doesn't, then this will all have been for nothing."

"You're telling us to—"

"Hope for the best," said Haneul, "like we always have."

Across the table, Rio heaved a thick breath through his nostrils.

"Get your men prepared," said Haneul. "We move in forty."

Slowly, the room dispersed, each pair of eyes lingering on Alex before they vanished through the doors. In the end, only Haneul had not moved, and Alex, standing behind him with her fingers wringing, was coming up empty on words to mitigate what she'd done.

"Haneul," she said, but with nothing to follow.

Haneul exhaled and turned. Alex glanced up at his face. She was given a brief glimpse before arms encircled her body and brought her into a firm, heated embrace. "You don't have to explain," said the doctor. His voice was not soft. It bordered tension. Still, he pressed his lips to her hair and there murmured, "I'll trust you. Like always."