Z 2134

tears in her eyes.
    She allowed her hair to fall into her face, masking her pain as she climbed off Cody and turned back to the pedestal and smashed her fist down onto the button.
    The platform lurched forward with an angry grinding sound as she headed back to the surface, sword in hand, hoping she could find Liam.
    After a long moment, she finally raised her eyes and met the stare of the orb, with Kirkman’s smiling face filling the screen.
    “What do you have to say for your fans back in City 6?” Kirkman asked.
    Ana stared into the orb, and then, to her surprise, she raised her fist and said, “To Jonah!”

CHAPTER 14 — Jonah Lovecraft
    J onah opened his eyes just as Father’s needle pinched his flesh of his neck again.
    A sudden rush, followed by a swimming mind, led to seconds that fell into minutes while he searched for a focus that didn’t want to be found.
    When his vision finally cleared, a man from Jonah’s past was sitting across from him — Charles Egan, who was staring at him with heavy lids over red-tinged eyes. Jonah wasn’t sure if the man’s eyes were red due to rage, tears, alcohol, or all three. Egan was thin, his dark hair thinning, and his face haunted looking. He looked like a shell of the chubby man of a decade ago.
    Jonah’s mind flashed back on the last time he’d stared into the man’s eyes, as Watchers were dragging him from the courtroom. Egan had been begging Jonah to just do one thing — tell the truth. The truth that Jonah had sworn to uphold as a Watcher. A truth that Jonah had turned his back on, no different than his corrupt bosses. Egan’s unfortunate end in City 6 ran in miserable parallel to Jonah’s own, honing a blade of guilt so sharp that Egan didn’t even need to wield it for Jonah to feel its edge.
    “I’m sorry,” Jonah said, swallowing hard and wishing he could disappear. He was almost willing to die if it meant not having to meet the man’s eyes.
    It wasn’t as though Jonah had anything to live for, not with Ana and Adam and the all of his life still stuck behind The Wall of City 6.
    Egan said nothing, keeping his gaze fixed on his enemy.
    Jonah tried again. “I swear,” he said, shaking his head. “I had no idea. I thought I was doing the right thing.”
    Egan ignored him and started in with his line of questioning instead, as Father Truth stood behind him, arms again folded across his chest.
    “Who set you up?” Egan asked.
    “I don’t know,” Jonah said, telling the truth, knowing that whatever was rushing through his veins would prevent him from lying anyway, even if that was where he most wanted to go. There was no longer any reason to lie. There was no way on Earth that Egan was a City Watch spy.
    Egan made Jonah stew in his guilt for another minute before asking his next question. “Why were you set up? Why would they need to silence you?”
    Jonah said, “I don’t know,” then whimpered another apology. His earlier euphoria was nowhere to be found, only a thousand pounds of shame and guilt. “I’m so, so sorry,” he continued to cry.
    “How does it feel to watch your life torn apart piece by piece?” Egan asked. “Oh wait, I don’t need to ask you, do I? Tell me, Jonah, why did you set me up? How could you lie, knowing your untruths were tearing a family apart?”
    “Because I didn’t know,” Jonah insisted. “I thought I was doing the right thing. They told me, Keller told me, that you were part of the Underground.”
    “I wasn’t,” Egan snarled.
    “I didn’t know! I wouldn’t have lied if I had known you were innocent!” Jonah couldn’t get his head to stop spinning. “I’m sorry.”
    “Tell my wife and son you’re sorry,” Egan said. “Oh yeah, you can’t, can you? My house was seized, and they were banished to the Dark Quarter, weren’t they? And we all know what happened then, don’t we?”
    Jonah shook his head, not wanting to remember, or stare into the eyes of his past.
    “Say it,” Egan said, his voice rising almost into a scream. “Say it out loud. What happened to my family? Tell me what happened to my wife and daughter!”
    “You already know,” Jonah said, only half understanding what Egan wanted him to say.
    “I want you to say it,” Egan said, almost whispering now. “I want what you’ve done to ring in your ears.”
    Jonah swallowed, then drew a fresh breath and said, “Your wife was raped and murdered.”
    Egan’s eyes met his. “And? My son?”
    Jonah swallowed the lump