Free Genesis by Lara Morgan Page B

as he watched her.
    “Why?” she said.
    “It’s what they do,” he said.
    She shook her head, folding her arms around herself. She wanted to cry. She should be crying, shouldn’t she? But she only felt a dull tightness behind her eyes.
    “When you turned on the beacon, Rosie, it was like starting a chain reaction. And the people who did this will start at the beginning and follow it to the end. They don’t miss things.”
    “What about my dad?” she whispered. “Is it true they found him because I …” She couldn’t finish.
    “Yes.” His tone was quiet, serious, but there was no condemnation, he merely told her the facts. “I’m sorry. I saw too late you’d looked up your aunt’s name. It would have been easy for them after that.”
    “Is he okay, do you think?”
    “I don’t know. But if it’s any consolation, I’d say he’s still alive. They probably would have just left his body in your apartment if they’d killed him.”
    His body. Rosie felt like throwing up. She rubbed a hand across her eyes. Juli was dead, her father gone, all because of something she’d found.
    She fingered the pendant in her pocket. Perhaps she shouldn’t keep it. She pulled out the small, green disc.
    “This was in the box too.” She held it out to him. A faint smile curved his lips, and a look of recognition lit his face as he took it from her.
    “What is it?”
    He shook his head. “Nothing. A keepsake.” He regarded her thoughtfully. “Here.” He reached into his case and pulled out a silver chain with a key hanging on it. He took the key off and threaded the chain through the pendant then held it out to her. “You have it.”
    Rosie didn’t know what to say. It was obvious the pendant meant something to him. “I don’t want it.” It was part of the trouble, pretty as it was. It was one of the reasons her dad was gone and Juli was dead.
    He took a step towards her and forced it into her hand. “You should wear it, Rosie. It’s important sometimes to have something to remind us of the consequences of things we’ve done.”
    Was he blaming her for Juli’s death and her dad’s kidnapping? “I didn’t know what would happen,” she said. “It’s not like I wanted anyone hurt.”
    His calm expression didn’t waver. “I know, but as you’ve seen, the effects are devastating and it’s not going to end here.”
    There was more to come? Rosie swallowed and her voice sounded weak when she said, “What is the Shore beacon?”
    “I can’t tell you. The more you know, the more dangerous it is.”
    She felt like he’d slapped her. “More dangerous? My dad is gone and Juli is dead! We have to go the Senate,” she said. “We have to tell them what happened.”
    “They can’t help you, Rosie. And you cannot tell them.”
    “Why? We have to do something!” His calm was infuriating.
    “No, I have to do something. And don’t think they won’t stop hunting you down. They know who you are now and they have people in the Senate. There’re probably guards looking for you right now. You go to them and you might as well hand them a gun to shoot you with.”
    She stopped, shocked. Was that true? “But what about my dad?” she said.
    “If he’s still alive, they’ll use him as bait. In fact they are probably counting on you running to the Senate for help so the people they have in there can just swoop on you. Easy.”
    “But who are they?”
    He regarded her for a moment and she thought she saw a flicker of sympathy. “They are very powerful and you are merely a small itch to be scratched out.”
    “But–”
    “I’ll send them a message and tell them you don’t have what they want any more.”
    “But what if they don’t believe you?”
    “They will.” He sounded so certain but Rosie couldn’t understand why. If these people were so powerful, why would they believe him?
    She turned to Pip but he seemed just as remote as the man. She felt like she was in a nightmare that wouldn’t end. Just