Taken (Erin Bowman)

that even though I loved your mother dearly, I thought she was losing her grip on reality. She hated Claysoot and the Heist. She was always telling me about how unnatural the place was, sharing her doubts and suspicions and making me promise to not repeat her words.”
    I’m shocked at how little I knew about my own mother. She never expressed any of these feelings to Blaine or me, not in all the years leading up to her death. It’s like we were raised by a different person.
    My father swallows heavily and continues. “She was the only one obsessing about these things. No other villager questioned the Heist, including me. And I wanted to spend my final year with both my sons. I wanted to be able to carry you both outside, through fresh air and sunlight. I didn’t want my only time with you, Gray, to take place inside, hidden away from the world.
    “Sara won, though. Above anything else, I could not bear the thought of her being unhappy during our last year together. She was so sure the experiment would prove something. I thought she was crazy.” He rubs his knuckles and looks up at me. “Turns out, she was completely right. Claysoot is unnatural and the Heist is so much more than a standard part of life. It’s been a giant scheme all along, and she never even got to see that.”
    “Yes, Claysoot is one big experiment and you go working hand in hand with the man that started it. What a great way to honor her memory.” I feel bad as soon as I say it. I only want to confirm that Harvey is in Crevice Valley, but my father’s in mourning and I still can’t be decent for five minutes. If Blaine were here, he’d shoot me a disapproving big brother look for sure.
    “Harvey is a very influential man. Powerful. Smart,” my father says. So Harvey is here after all. “We need his help.”
    “I think the only help you need is someone with the guts to torture answers out of him. So that we can get everyone out of Claysoot. So they can be free.” Blaine would be glaring now, but I wasn’t expecting this sort of loyalty for Harvey. Especially not from my father. It doesn’t make any sense.
    “It’s not that simple,” he says.
    “Then tell me why you’re working with him, because I don’t get it.”
    “It’s only going to make adjusting harder. Maybe you should rest, visit Blaine in the hospital, take it easy. I’m not sure turning everything upside down is a good idea.”
    “No, it’s an excellent idea. I need to hear it.”
    “I’d feel better if you settled in first.” I cross my arms over my chest. He looks between me and the door and adds, “What are the chances you let me leave this room without giving you any details?”
    “Slim to none.”
    He sighs. “I should have known you’d demand answers immediately. I was the same way.”
    I lean against the dresser and wait. He kneads his palms together. Stares at the floor. It feels like hours before he speaks again.
    “Harvey didn’t start the Laicos Project. Frank did.”

TWENTY-FOUR
    MY LEGS FEEL WEAK.
    “Whatever you’ve heard in Taem, it’s not true.”
    “But there are wanted posters,” I say, “and a list of crimes.”
    “He was framed, Gray. Harvey wasn’t gathering followers. He wasn’t killing soldiers or selling information or plotting the downfall of AmEast. He was running from the Order because he is innocent.”
    I slide up onto the dresser because my feet can no longer support my weight. “How can you know that?”
    “Elijah brought Harvey in a few months ago, and Harvey told us the whole story. Said he wanted to help us, too.”
    “What if he was lying?”
    My father laughs lightly. “He’s fifty-five.”
    “So?”
    “So Claysoot has been around for nearly fifty years. If Harvey was responsible for the Laicos Project, he would have been a child during its inception. It’s impossible.”
    Harvey’s age had been listed with other Operation Ferret details; I just hadn’t realized what the numbers meant. I kick myself for this. Had I noticed, maybe Emma and I would have left the room sooner, avoided Marco. Maybe she’d even be with me now, instead of in a jail cell.
    “But why would Frank blame Harvey?”
    “It serves him best. The more crimes Harvey has committed, the more people are on the lookout for him.”
    I remember Frank’s words in his office that first day I arrived in Taem: He uses fear as a weapon . Frank wasn’t talking about Harvey . . . he was talking about himself. Everything he’d told me