The Replaced

“I needed whoever the traitor was to think I was willing to trade you myself. That I planned to turn you in to the Daylighters. And then I waited.”

“For what?” I asked.

“For someone to try to get a message out.”

“I take it they did.” It wasn’t a question. Of course they had or Griffin wouldn’t be here now, telling me what her plan had been, and asking me to get Tyler away from this camp. “So . . .” I was almost afraid to ask. “Who was the traitor?”

Griffin came inside and dropped to the bunk. She put her face in her hands. It was a strange reaction, not at all what I’d expected.

I ran through the list of possibilities. I’d already ruled out Simon and Willow, and I mentally ticked off Jett, and Natty since she’d been with me almost every minute of every day since Simon and I had landed in Silent Creek.

“Thom,” I breathed, almost at the same time Griffin said it. But even hearing her voice echoing mine, I shook my head. “No . . .”

“It had to have been him back then too.” The accusation was pitiful, as if it was painful for her to say. “He must’ve been working with them, colluding all these years. I’ve always wondered how they could know so much.” Her face lifted so we were eye to eye. “Has Simon ever wondered how the Hanford camp was found out?”

“Thom?” I asked with almost as much disbelief as her. “But . . . why? And if they knew where the camps were, why didn’t the Daylighters just round you all up years ago?”

“Because we’re not the ones they really wanted. They’ve been looking for a Replaced. The Returned are child’s play.” Even her shrug was unenthusiastic. A whisper. “I mean, sure, they’re willing to do their experiments on us if we’re all they can get. They extract our DNA and dissect us and . . . who knows what else they do in that lab of theirs.” I hugged myself tighter, her words making my skin tighten. “But it’s always been about finding a Replaced. Thom’s no good to them, none of us are, not if they can’t get their hands on one of you.”

“One of us. You mean, me and Tyler?”

She nodded wearily. Tiredly.

But we couldn’t afford to be tired. “What about that Alex kid? What if he was a Replaced? What if they . . . the aliens are honing their skills and there are more of us out there? What if they no longer need five years, or even five days? What if we’re coming back in forty-eight hours?”

“That’s not our concern. At least not yet. For now, I need to get you two out of here.”

“And go where?” Just yesterday, the idea of leaving here with Tyler was exactly what I’d wanted. Now it just made me feel sick.

“Simon’s working on that. He’s setting up a rendezvous for you, a way to get you safely away from here.”

“What about the rest of you? What happens to you now? Is the Daylight Division on their way?”

“We’re doing what we always planned to do: fight.”

“I’ll help you,” I told her, “if you tell me the truth. Why Tyler? Why do you care so much what happens to him?”

She didn’t hesitate. “I think you already know the answer. He’s special.”

“So you care about him?” I asked, not sure why I was putting myself through this. I’d seen the way he looked at her. Hadn’t I already wondered if his feelings were more than just innocent when it came to her?

“Don’t we both?” she said, getting up and reaching for my arm. “Now, come on, we don’t have time to waste. We need to get you out of here, before it’s too late.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

WE WERE AT THE EDGE OF THE OBSTACLE COURSE when the helicopters appeared overhead. But even before we heard them—or smelled and tasted the dust being stirred in the air, signaling their approach—there were shouts, calls to action all around us.

Griffin’s camp came to life.

It was no longer a group of teens being drilled in make-believe war maneuvers. Her Returned were fine-tuned soldiers under attack. There were far more of them than I’d ever imagined as they swarmed the field and the perimeter, looking like an endless stream of ants as they poured forth, coming from everywhere all at once. They manned their stations, and moved with the fluid quality of those who’d spent years on the battlefield.

They were prepared, and Griffin was their general.

The sounds of gunfire split the air, and even without knowing which direction it was coming from, instinctively I ducked my head, lifting my arm to shield myself. It sounded close, and seemed to ricochet inside my head.

“Keep moving!” Griffin shouted. “Simon’s getting Tyler!”

“What about Thom? Did you catch him?”

“No! After we intercepted his message, I sent a patrol after him, but he was already gone. His girl was gone too.”

His girl . . . “Natty?” I shouted back as I tailed Griffin through the tents, staying as close as possible. “No. That’s a coincidence. She wouldn’t betray me.”

“I can’t say if she did or didn’t. But no one could find her. Makes her look guilty, if you ask me.”

We were almost to the cafeteria, near the computer lab, when a voice—a voice so familiar and chilling, and so out of place in Blackwater that I actually stumbled over my own feet—reached out to us from the shadows. “Don’t make any sudden moves, neither of you. Nothing fancy, just turn around slowly.”