Page 87 of Anarchy Missing

“I don’t understand.”

“No,” he says. “You wouldn’t. No one would. Not if they weren’t there.”

I sigh in frustration. “I’m trying my best, Case. But you’re not telling me much.”

“We were tortured, OK?” His voice is loud and angry as he spits the words out like venom. “Is that getting through?”

I squeeze him tighter. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. Your parents didn’t owe bad people a favor and decide to give their only son over to a school that was trying to make us…” He shakes his head. “Turn us into… some kind of fucking bunch of superhuman… asshole… villains.”

I process that for a little while. “It’s not your fault either, Case.”

“It doesn’t fucking matter, Lulu. The only thing that matters is that they succeeded. You want to know who we are?” he asks, turning his whole body so he can look me in the eyes.

I nod my head slowly.

“Freaks. That’s who. We’re a bunch of fucking freaks. We don’t even know what we are, but we know it’s not good, OK? And even though you think we’re the ones behind all this shit happening in Cathedral City, we’re not. There are worse things out there than us, Lulu Lightly. So much worse than us.”

“Blue Corp?” I ask.

“Alastair Montgomery was the head of Prodigy School. He’s Thomas and Molly’s father, for fuck’s sake. They bred Molly, Lulu. They bred her to be what she is. And even though she never told me this, I know. She was born at that school. He made his own children into mutants.” He gets up, making me let go of his arm, and begins to pace the room.

“How can this happen? In this day and age—”

“In this day and age?” Case asks, bewildered. “This is the perfect day and age, Lulu. We have more knowledge and technology than we know what to do with. There’s no ethics in science. You can’t control everyone. There will always be people willing to cross lines to get what they want. And you know what?”

It’s a serious question because he pauses, waiting for me to answer. “What?” I ask, even though there is a voice in my head screaming for me not to let him tell me this.

“I’m one of them. I will cross all the lines to get what I want. We all will. You need to understand that. Because something is happening with us. Not this,” he says, with a gesture out the window. “We’re not the ones fucking shit up in the city, OK?”

He walks towards the door, making an escape. But I stand up and say, “Don’t walk out, Case. Do not walk out.”

He whirls around, snarling. “Why the fuck not?”

“Because,” I say. “I’m one of them too. Not one of you, obviously. But one of the people who might cross a line to get what’s right. And I’m not leaving. You can tell me everything, Case. I’m still not leaving.”

“Then you’re not as smart as you look,” he says. “Because we’ve got a plan, Lulu. Something we’ve been working on a very long time. And if you stick around, you’ll be part of it whether you want to be or not. And believe me when I tell you—what’s about to happen to Cathedral City will be written down and talked about for hundreds of years.”

I know this is it. I’m at a crossroads. There is a choice to be made. I can stay here with him and his friends. Join up with them and become one of them. Or I can walk out, go downtown, find Randy and tell him everything. Put a stop to whatever sick plan they’ve got up their sleeve.

“That’s what I thought,” Case says, turning his back on me.

“Wait,” I demand. “For fuck’s sake, Case. You can give me a minute or two to give the situation some thoughtful consideration.”

“We don’t have time for bet-hedging.”

“I’m not hedging shit,” I snap. “I’m just being rational.”

Case smiles. “Nothing about this is rational, Lulu. Even Thomas would agree with me on this and he takes these damn pills to keep the feelings away.” He withdraws the prescription bottle from his pocket and shakes it. “This is about revenge, and yeah, it’s justice, Lulu. With a capital fucking J. Just not the kind of justice you’re looking for. They gave us these… powers… weaknesses. Whatever you want to call them. And we fully plan on using them to take all those motherfuckers down.”

“Well”—I snicker—“it might be a good idea to learn what these powers and weaknesses are before you go committing the atrocities you’re hinting at, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I guess it would. Which is why I probably need to say goodbye now and get my ass back down in that lab and let Sheila poke me until we figure it out.”

He turns his back to me and reaches for the door again.

And again, I say, “Wait.”