The Girl Who Dared to Think by Bella Forrest (e reader for manga TXT) 📕

little thing. It all fit together so well, but in that moment I felt like a cog that didn’t quite fit, and I could feel the hammer coming down, trying to force me into place.

Zoe broke the silence, nudging me with her shoulder. “Hey,” she said. “What’s really going on? You think he’s working on a cure for the Medica and slipped Grey some?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Honestly, Zoe, this wasn’t even something I planned on reporting to the Citadel. I just was looking for a way out. I think I’m getting desperate.”

“I hate to say this, but you have to go to the Medica and report today,” she said with a tight nod. “If you don’t, it won’t be long before you get to two and your parents are forced to drop you.”

As if I needed the reminder.

“But if I go to Medica, I turn into something that isn’t me.”

She reached out and took my hand, giving me a wry smile. “I’d rather have you alive than lose you forever to restructuring. You need to be in a department. No department means—”

“No work,” I finished for her, looking up and watching some Cog children run fearlessly across a narrow pipe overhead, their bare feet slapping against it as they darted by with a laugh. “No food on the ration card, no service to the Tower, the fall to becoming a one taking a matter of days, depending on how optimistic you can be. I know.”

“Sounds like a blast when you put it like that,” she quipped, and it brought the shadow of a smile to my lips. “Come on. I’ll walk you home.”

“Hold up.”

The voice was Grey’s. He was trotting up the hall behind us, and came to stand before me just as I turned. He was ever so slightly taller than me, and met my eyes with that warm brown gaze of his. I watched him warily, wondering what he wanted, and secretly hoping that Roark had changed his mind.

“I’ll walk you two out of Cogstown,” he said. “They probably already know you’re here, and they might try to scare you before you leave.”

“What? Why?” I asked, baffled by his unexpected statement. I looked at Zoe, hoping for clarification. She knew almost everything, it seemed.

She opened her mouth to reply, but Grey beat her to it. “They don’t like outsiders here, and tend to want to make them leave afraid.”

I laughed darkly. “You’re an outsider,” I said. “You’re a Farmer, aren’t you?”

“Not anymore,” he said simply. “But they know me here; if I’m with you, you won’t be bothered. Besides, I doubt you’ll want to hack the elevator right out in the open in front of everyone.”

He gave me a pointed look, and I kept my face neutral, revealing nothing—though my heart was beginning to pound again. It was stupid, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit pleased that he thought me so capable.

Zoe rolled her eyes and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hi,” she said. “I’m the one who hacked the elevator. How did you know we had done that?”

“Lucky guess. Also, I saw the pad in your satchel. It’s an IT design, right?”

Zoe raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed, and nodded. “It is. And you’re right—I don’t want anyone to see me doing it. So… thanks for escorting us, and we really should get going.”

“No arguments here. Shall we?” They both looked at me expectantly.

I didn’t want to leave, but I also couldn’t argue that we had to get going before the residents of Cogstown started messing with us. Grey was apparently being kind and offering to walk us out, which I hoped was his way of making up for being a jerk earlier. I remembered the kiss from earlier and felt myself turning pink as I let him take the lead, climbing down after him, the air full of thick steam and the smell of shaved metal.

We reached the elevator without incident, which gave me time to think. Grey’s appearance meant another chance, another opportunity to try to get the truth. I just had to find the appropriate moment, and an idea was already spinning in my head. Grey went to the security box and slipped a little metallic chip into the top. It turned blue, and a platform slid out expectantly.

Zoe stepped forward onto the platform and looked back at me.

“You coming?”

I looked between her and Grey, then shook my head. “I need to talk to him for a minute. Go on ahead.”

She frowned, but didn’t argue. Instead she looked over at Grey and speared him with a lethal look. “I’d better see her soon,” she informed him, and he flashed her a charming smile.

“Hey, she wants to stay to talk to me,” he announced, but she didn’t back down.

“Yes, and you were the one who stole a kiss using underhanded trickery,” she snapped back, and, to his credit, Grey paled slightly. “So I reiterate: I’d better see her soon. I know great places to deposit bodies so that they’re never found. I’m just saying.”

“Zo, it’s okay,” I said. “I’ll be all right.”

Her face softened as she looked at me. “All right, but I expect details. And I want to know more about whatever it is that’s going on with Roark.”

“If I find anything else out, I’ll tell you,” I promised, and she nodded before giving me a hug. She let go at the last possible moment, and I watched her begin to rise.

“You know that if you do find anything out, you can’t tell her, right?” Grey asked casually, and I gave him a sharp look.

“Why not?”

He looked over at me and then shrugged. “Not important. You wanted to talk?”

There was no dismissing what Grey had said, and my mind had already pounced at the opening. He was here, he wanted to make sure I understood that I couldn’t tell Zoe anything… he was going to tell me. I knew it.

He leaned a hip against the elevator console and crossed his arms,