Rise: Populations Crumble, Book 2 by Gandy, A. (read book .txt) 📕

at the agreed-upon time. When I open the door, they’re holding hands and the sight warms my heart by a few degrees.

“Come in!” I say and step to the side.

“So, these little cottages are super fancy,” Nell says, wasting no time. “They may be little, but they’ve got a lot of extras.”

“Yeah, they’re nice,” I agree as we settle around the dining table. Patrick finishes setting up the plates and the food we’d ordered from the dining room for the occasion.

We all dish our plates, and before I can take my first bite of mac and cheese, Patrick shocks me to my toes.

“Atlas, we need your help with a few things.”

Atlas sets his fork down, food untouched. “What do you need?”

Patrick glances at me once before dropping the bomb. “We need your help to find Josephine. I have a guard friend, Glitch, who’s done some digging into her records since she was taken out of the announcement at the NLC. She is logged in the system as being here, and pregnant. There’s no marriage record, and as far as we can tell she isn’t actually here. We took a tour of the medical facility, but they said there are no pregnant women on site. The only other couples are the two you met this morning.”

Nell frowns. “How would she already be pregnant? And what happened with that Elijah guy, anyway?”

“That’s what we want to find out. Glitch is supposed to call back tomorrow with a report, and I was hoping you’d use your expertise to help us find out what’s going on here.”

Atlas looks contemplative. “How can you be sure it’s not a mix-up? Glitch could be looking at old information, or another woman’s record.”

Patrick shakes his head. “No, Glitch doesn’t make those mistakes. He’s as close to a tech genius as they come, and he’s hacked into the main databases and flagged her to find this information. It’s not in the normal system, which makes us think something else is going on here.”

His eyebrows shoot up at that information, but his otherwise stoic features don’t change. “I see. I’d be happy to help you sort this out. But I have to ask, are you sure you want to kick over this rock for one girl? NLC guards are a dime a dozen, and if you get blacklisted, you’ll never work in the system again.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but this is more important. Josephine may be one woman, but that doesn’t mean we can let this go. And there’s one more thing—I’m not just an NLC guard. I’m Patrick Royce, the prime minister’s son.”

Nell’s jaw nearly touches the table. “Shut the front door. Haven't you been all over the news all week? And, oh, my word, that means you’re the mystery wife!” She claps a hand over her mouth in shock and grabs Atlas’s arm with the other, who is unmoved by the declaration.

“Patrick, are you sure about this?” I ask, shocked myself that he’s revealed his identity to two relatively new acquaintances.

“I’m sure. It’s time we take this search to the next level, and I won’t put anyone else in danger to keep my own secret. The time for that has passed.” His shoulders are straight, his voice firm, and in that moment I see it—I see the man who could lead an entire continent.

Atlas looks thoughtful, the only motion in his giant frame the slight ticking of his jaw muscle. “There could be major political consequences to this. I’m not going to sit back and ignore it if we find something illegal happening, and your father has endorsed this program. Are you prepared for that?”

“He may have endorsed this program, but there’s no way he’d endorse this. I refuse to believe he knows what’s going on. And it’s become clear to me that something more is going on.” Patrick says, and I get a chill down my spine.

“I’ll call some of my contacts later this evening.”

Nell has finally recovered from her shock, and focused in on the seriousness of the situation, “What is it exactly that you think is happening? Do you think they’ve locked her up somewhere, since she caused trouble? There’s already a facility for troubled women. They very well could have sent her there. God love her, she refused to go with the flow. I doubt that changed once the sedatives wore off,” she says with a frown.

“Glitch checked there first. There is one facility where they send troubled women, but there is actually a very low number of women there. Most get released based on health grounds and sent home. She was not checked in there. Her records vanished from the normal system. If Glitch wasn’t as . . . talented as he is, we wouldn’t have any idea that she was here.”

And willing to break the rules, I add internally.

“I’d like to speak to Glitch when he calls you. I think if we can pin down more about where he’s getting his information, we’d have a better starting point for our search. There’s no good reason for a woman’s records to disappear if she wasn’t released from the program.”

“You don’t think she’s in danger, do you?” I ask, both relieved he agrees with us and troubled that he thinks something is going on.

“It’s impossible to say, but if she’s on site, they wouldn’t do anything to physically harm her. They need her healthy enough to carry the pregnancy.”

There’s a whole lot of harm possible that isn’t only physical. My mouth presses into a grim line.

“We’ll find her, Sadie.” Patrick squeezes my hand.

Nell picks up a rib and takes a big bite. “Y’all sure know how to honeymoon,” she says around a mouthful.

I snort. “You can say that again.”

✽✽✽

The next day passes in a pensive blur. We go to Nell and Atlas’s cottage down the beach to await Glitch’s call. Unfortunately, all he has to offer is another blood test record confirming Josephine’s pregnancy is progressing, and it’s still stamped at the Mairmont