Free Into the Abyss by Stefanie Gaither

She turns the direction Iverson disappeared toward, and takes a step as if she is thinking about following him.
    â€œWhat meetings?”
    Catelyn hesitates before glancing back at me. “He and a few others formed this . . . group thing, a few months back. They said their goal was to help bring the CCA back to its roots, to the philosophy they started with, which . . .” She doesn’t seem like she wants to finish her sentence, butall I have to do is think about his son, and the way Silas himself hurried away from me just now, and I can guess the rest on my own.
    â€œWhich probably didn’t include harboring a clone within the very walls of the CCA, for whatever reason?”
    Catelyn picks at her fingernail instead of looking at me. “Something like that.”
    â€œIt was only a few of them at first,” Jaxon says. “Mom figured it was just a knee-jerk reaction to her bringing you back here, a protest that would die out before it gained much momentum. But more and more people seem to be listening to him lately, and they’re getting more secretive about things. We’re pretty sure they’re holding meetings somewhere outside of headquarters, but we haven’t been able to figure out where—or what they’re planning, exactly.”
    I suppose this means Seth wasn’t lying when he mentioned the changes taking place around here, then.
    Should I have trusted some of the other things he said, after all?
    Almost as if she can read my thoughts, Catelyn forces her eyes to mine again and says, “Maybe you should talk to the president about leaving for a while? If you won’t go back to our house, I’m sure she can figure something else out. She has plenty of connections.”
    Is there really no other option for me, other than running away?
    Catelyn is watching me closely, waiting, but I just silently walk over and press the buzzer outside the president’s room.
    We messaged ahead, so she knew I was coming. Still, it is several long moments before someone comes to the door: a man with a bruise on his left cheek, who I could swear actually jumps at the sight of me. I hold in a scowl. I haven’t done anything to startle him.
    Though I will admit, the longer I stand here under his wary gaze, the more tempting it is to offer him something frightening to jump about. To simply become what they all seem to expect of me.
    But I restrain myself. This time. What I can’t stop, though, are those stupid words Seth said earlier from running through my head: Do you ever wonder why she brought you back? Just so everyone here could hate you?
    Maybe it is time I stopped wondering and started asking.
    I like this reason for my still being here better, at least: the idea that I was pursuing knowledge, instead of being dragged along by some connection to Catelyn that I couldn’t manage to control.
    I leave Catelyn and Jaxon and follow the man inside. There is another door once we step through the first, one with a security code panel beside it. I watch his fingers move over the panel, slowly, as if he hasn’t been entrusted with the correct numbers for long enough to have them fully memorized.
    The next space we enter is set up as a formal kind of sitting room, not as cold and clean lined as the office the president usually operates from, which is just down the hall. But it is still clearly a place meant for business. Sheand a handful of others are gathered around a large table in the corner of it, their heads bent over a flat display screen in its center.
    The man who escorted me in walks over to the president, and only once he is directly beside her does she seem to notice his presence. From him, her eyes travel to me, and they linger there as she stands up straight and dismisses most of the table, informing them that they will finish their discussion in the morning. While the others file out, my escort stays by the president, as does one other