Adamant by Emma L. Adams Page A

people started gathering out here. The killer must have run fast, if that’s when they got in.”
    “Something’s not right,” Markos said. “That girl we saw. She’s the killer? Did anyone see her face?”
    I didn’t even see it was a girl. She’d moved wicked fast.
    “Hopefully, the other guards will bring her in,” said Ellen. “We were supposed to be headed for the Passages now.”
    A burly guy beside her nodded. “Yeah, we’ve the next shift. Reckon we’d better get a move on.”
    “Hold it,” said another guard. “We all have to stay here, wait for the police to come down. They want to speak to everyone who was here.”
    A collective groan from everyone. “Seriously,” Aric muttered. “They expect us to stay here all night?”
    I glared at him from out of the corner of my eye. If anyone here were capable of committing murder… but of course, he had an alibi. And no motive that I knew of. My mind was already racing through the possibilities, even though I knew there was nothing we could have done.
    It was going to be a long night.
     

     

CHAPTER FIVE
    ADA
     
    “You were foolish,” said Nell for about the fiftieth time, from the other side of the kitchen table. She’d waited up for us, and I’d predicted her reaction dead-on. “Never assume that you’re invulnerable no matter what tricks you have up your sleeve.”
    “It’s Jeth’s fault,” said Alber, and our foster brother glared at him. He hated it when one of his treasured technological contraptions failed to do its job. He was fiddling with the Chameleon device and had scattered dismantled bits of metal and wire and God-knew-what all over the table.
    “Look, everything glitches sometimes,” he said. “These Chameleons are ninety-nine point nine percent reliable. By that, I mean they’ve never just stopped working before. It should have had at least another hour’s charge in there. I checked them all. Honest.”
    “Yes, well, that’s not the important thing,” said Nell. “Ada, you shouldn’t assume that because something has always worked, it will continue to work in the same way.”
    “What was I supposed to think?” I said. “Besides, there were a ton of people gathered out back at Central. They have two guards, and they never come near the back entrance. Something must have happened.”
    “Let’s hope no one saw your face,” said Nell. “Their cameras, too.”
    “I had my hood up,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. I hated feeling vulnerable. “Still, I got the powdered bloodrock, and plenty of it. We won’t need to make another trip there for a while.”
    Nell sighed. “Well, that’s good news, at least. I’ll send one of the others to hang about the Alliance for a bit tomorrow, to find out what happened.”
    And that was that. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get much sleep that night, and when I did, it was only to wake sweating and shaking from nightmares of being chased down the Passages. Just as I was finally dozing off, someone banged on my door.
    “What?” I groaned. “I’m asleep.”
    “It’s midday,” said Alber. “Nell wants to talk to you.”
    “I thought she was done lecturing us already.”
    “Nope. She’s just getting warmed up. Also, someone died at Central last night.”
    I sat bolt upright. “You what?” Sliding my feet into slippers, I went to the door. “You’re joking.”
    “Nice pyjamas.” I was wearing the blue rabbit-patterned ones Jeth had bought me as a joke. Idiot older brother. “Seriously, though. Some supervisor or something. He was killed at Central last night. That’s why there were so many people outside.”
    “Oh. Shit. We were there.”
    “I know. Damn. Hope no one saw you.”
    “You and me both.”
    I wished I was working. Not that I’d spoken to my boss since missing my shift yesterday. Oh, crap.
    On cue, Nell’s voice rang through the hallway: “Ada! Stop hiding in your room. I need to talk to you.”
    The dreaded words. I came out into the