Truth & Lie

Chapter 15

Gosalyn was speechless and Webby had tears in her eyes. "What do you mean they're dead!?" Gosalyn exclaimed. Webby looked around at her friends.

Her eyes came to Katie, who bit her beak and rubbed her arm nervously. After reading her body language, Webby frowned at the robin. "You knew?" she said. Katie nodded.

Searching for something, Webby bit her beak. "Where's Huey?" she wondered.

Violet looked at her confused. "FOWL got Huey, remember?" she said.

Webby shot a look at Katie. Katie's eyes widened defensively. "I thought he was here," she said.

Gosalyn glared at her. "You lied to us! I wouldn't be surprised if you were working for FOWL," she said. Then she crossed her arms and turned away from her.

Katie stared at her feet and Webby gasped. "You are!" she exclaimed.

Everybody shot Katie a disapproving look, causing her to tuck in her tail. "Look, it's complicated! I rescued you, didn't I! It's just a long story," she said.

"Well, then we have time. What's the complication?" Drake said, his hands on his hips.

Katie took in a deep breath. "My grandpa is Bradford," she explained.

Nobody was in a good mood, and frankly, everyone was taking out their anger and sadness out on Katie. They started yelling at her, throwing insults. They blamed her for all the mess. She tried to defend herself, but they wouldn't listen. She started to cry.

Finally, Drake let out an exasperated breath. "It's been a long day, and we're all tired. We'll figure out what to do in the morning," he said.

Webby motioned for the others to follow her. "We can sleep in my room," she said. Katie moved to follow, but Gosalyn stopped her.

"You can sleep on the couch," she said. Katie frowned, and went to the front room. Webby gave her a sympathetic look, but then went with the other kids up the stairs.

In the morning, Black Heron threw the door to Bradford's office open. "Sir, they're gone!" she exclaimed.

Bradford answered without looking up at her. "I know," he said sternly.

Gandra came in and leaned against the doorway. "Hey, those girls we kidnapped are gone," she said.

Bradford rolled his eyes. "I know!" he said.

Black Heron put her hand on her hip. "Then why didn't you stop them?" she questioned.

"Because I didn't know until this morning," he said. Gandra glanced up at a surveillance monitor behind him. It was playing a recording from the night before.

"Hey, you'd never guess who helped them escape," she said. Bradford looked at the screen behind him. He gasped along with Black Heron.

"Katie!?" they said. Bradford turned back to his fellow agents, keeping his cool.

"Why would she do that?" Black Heron questioned.

"I told you red would have an influence on her," Gandra scoffed.

Turning to leave, Black Heron said, "I'll go with some eggheads to take her down."

"No one touches her!" Bradford stopped her.

She spun around to face him. "But sir, she betrayed FOWL," she debated.

"No one hurts her," he said sternly.

Gandra rolled her eyes. "Don't you think it's a little funny that it was your granddaughter that betrayed us, especially when you're always yelling at us to-"