Brought Down

23. Rykar

Garrett

I start following them but quickly realize I won't achieve anything this way. Rykar gave the order and I have to talk to him about it. I turn around and head to the control center.

His order doesn't make any sense. He couldn't possibly agree to an exchange, knowing that Julian could lead the royal forces straight to us. What does he have on his mind, then?

In my hurry, I barely notice the people that I pass, and when someone grabs my sleeve, it takes me by surprise. I whirl around and find Maggie standing there, smiling at me, accompanied by a couple of older girls.

"Uncle Garrett!" She lets go of my hand and frowns upon seeing my expression. "What happened?"

"Nothing." I clear my throat. "Just on some urgent business."

"Is uncle Julian in trouble?"

"Uhm...no," I say, surprised by her assumption. "I have other things to do in life, apart from saving uncle Julian."

She shrugs. "He just seems to require an awful lot of saving. Anyway, my new friends showed me around and I didn't see him anywhere, so I thought --"

"We're going to the hangars," one of the girls says. "To show her the planes."

"You better do it later." No need for Maggie to see uncle Julian escorted by armed people, by now probably gagged and tied up. "You won't be allowed in there right now."

I turn around and start walking before they can say anything else.

I find Rykar in the room next to the control center. This place is usually used to hold large meetings, but right now, there's only Rykar himself, sitting at the desk, talking to one of his assistants. As I enter, they go quiet and look at me.

"Are you really going to exchange him?" I burst. "You can't be serious!"

He looks at his assistant. "Mike, will you give us a minute?"

Mike hesitates, but Rykar gives him a barely visible nod and he leaves, giving me a heavy stare on his way out.

"Sit down, Garrett," Rykar says.

"I don't want to sit down." I stride across the room. "This is a mistake. Julian's been outside, and if we let them have him, he will lead them straight to us. He's dangerous."

"Is that why you took him to your room last night?" His voice is calm, but the question makes me stop in my tracks.

"I just..." I begin. "We needed to keep him alive, and he wasn't eating any of the artificial food, so I gave him some of my own, that's all."

"And he wasn't sleeping well in his cell, so you lent him your bed?"

"What? No! I intended to return him to his cell. He just fell asleep in the armchair..." Even as I speak I realize how ridiculous it all sounds.

Rykar gets to his feet.

"Garrett," he says. "Let me set things straight. Your capturing one of Maynard's sons was quite an achievement, but then something went wrong. It seems you have developed some personal interest in that captive—no, wait, let me finish. You treated him rather mildly, which in part allowed him to escape. You brought him back alive, against any reasonable judgement. Now, this night tops it all."

He takes a few steps to me and looks me in the eye. From so close, the wrinkles on his forehead and at the sides of his mouth look surprisingly deep, but his eyes are as sharp as they were when I was a kid.

"I won't ask you what you've been doing in your room this night --"

"Nothing," I interrupt. "I'm telling you, that's all there was—I took him there to give him some food. You've known me for years --"

"I know you," he says sharply, "and that's why I do not assume even for a second that you were conspiring against us. Any other person even trying to take a captive of such rank out of his cell would have been under an investigation already. I know you wouldn't betray us. But you may be betraying yourself."

He lowers his voice and steps even closer.

"He's not your friend, Garrett. He could never be your friend, or your love interest, or whatever you could have imagined him to be. Whatever he told you was only an attempt to save his hide. Without knowing what you talked about, I can guess that he told you things that made you feel compassion and a desire to help him—am I right?"

I nod slowly. He hit the target.

Yet Julian seemed so sincere. He actually cried. He sounded so convincing I never doubted his story. Could it have been a lie?

I suddenly feel very stupid.

"Royals lie," says Rykar. "This is the rule. This is what I've been telling your father, and had he listened, he could have been with us today. As his friend, it's my job to prevent you from making the same mistake."

There's a lump in my throat. He's so right. It feels like I was under a spell, an Rykar has broken it.

He gives me a little smile. For a second, it seems as if he's about to hug me, but then he steps away and turns his back to me.

"I'm sure you understand that it's in your best interest that others handle this exchange."

"I understand," I say. "But...the exchange itself..."

"With General Connelly of the royal forces," he says. "Or Burnface, as they call him."

"But if you send Julian there alive, he will tell them..."

"We'll send him alive." Rykar turns to me, and there's a smile on his lips, but it's very different from the warm smile that he gave me before. "That doesn't mean he'll get there alive."

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