[Contributor 02] - Infiltrator (2013) by Nicole Ciacchella Page B

assured her and her father that the facility where Leona would live was nice, but Dara hadn’t imagined they might be able to do things like bake cookies there. The taste wasn’t the same as when they were made with the fine, white flour and sugar used in the cookies she received on rare occasions in the dome, but as she swallowed she felt as if her mother’s love was filling all the dark places inside of her. It wasn’t just the cookies that amazed her, but also that her mother had remembered Dara’s birthday. She suspected she and Joshua had shared the same fear: that once Leona moved away, she would forget about the family that loved and missed her.
    “A little. When Mal told me you were coming for the meeting, I went to visit her, to see her for myself. I figured you’d want a full report, and I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
    Despite her heroic efforts, a few tears escaped, and she kept her head down as she brushed them away. “Thank you, Raj. Thank you so much. You said she’s a little better?”
    “Yes. Making cookies was part of her life skills training, and the reports there are good. She still suffers from headaches, but she’s learning to better manage them, and the doctors are working to find good drug therapies for her, to lessen her pain. Her memory is improving, but there are still holes in it, and it causes her some confusion. She always asks about you and your dad whenever I see her, though.”
    Sniffling, Dara managed to say, “We miss her.”
    “She misses you too. I have a stick with a full report for you, but I didn’t want you to have to wait until you got back to the dome.”
    Taking his hand, she squeezed it and raised her eyes to his, soothed by the compassion she saw in his dark gaze. “I appreciate that.”
    “We should get going,” Tasha said, sounding sorry to break into the conversation.
    “Right, yes,” Dara said, taking another nibble of cookie. “Do you see my mom often?” she asked Raj as they walked.
    He shook his head. “Every few weeks or so, usually if I’m assisting with integrating a new patient into the facility.”
    “Do you think I could…” She let her voice trail off, afraid to allow the small spark of hope to ignite.
    “I’ll see what I can do,” he said.
    From the tone of his voice she could tell that getting to the facility would involve a fair amount of planning. He had said he would tell her and her father where the facility was located, and she was tempted to ask, but she knew he was right when he said it was better if they knew as little as possible. It was the same reason Mal kept her so in the dark. The less she knew, the less she would be able to tell should she be caught by the Authorities.
    The thought made her shiver, and she hoped neither of them had noticed. What she had already done was dangerous enough, but getting herself in deeper with this Andersen affair would increase her risks exponentially. She would be dancing on a razor’s edge. Andersen was both suspicious and vicious, and she would have to be meticulous to ensure she didn’t set off any of his warning signals—no easy task.
    Pushing the thought aside, she followed Tasha and Raj through a steel security door, closing her eyes for a brief second and letting her mother’s gift take her back to a much less complicated time.

Chapter 11

    The last time she had seen Mal was in a command center, but this was more like the bunker where she and Letizia had stayed after they’d been stranded in the wasteland. Dara wondered how many were scattered throughout the wasteland. It made sense that the Free Thinkers used multiple shelters. Many different people coming and going from the same bunker would garner too much attention.
    “Dara,” Mal said with a curt nod. He was no less intimidating than he had ever been, but she found she was beginning to take reassurance from his brusque manner. It couldn’t have been more apparent how seriously he took what he and the Free Thinkers