Free Anew: Book Three: Entwined by Josie Litton Page A

odds that I’ll remember
naturally?”
    “It’s possible that you could but
certainly not guaranteed. The longer you go without remembering, the less
likely it becomes that you will.”
    I really want to know what happened
in the tunnel but whatever it was, it’s private between Amelia and me. I’d
rather take a chance and hope that I find out for myself.
    “I’ll wait. In the meantime, I’m
due in rehab.”
    “Take it easy,” Rosen calls as I
leave. His scowl suggests that he doubts I’m capable of following even that
straightforward instruction.
    I’m not an idiot for all that I can
behave like one on occasion. Throughout the two-hour rehab session that I
insist on, I pace myself. Even so by the time we wrap up, every muscle in my
body is trembling and I’m covered in sweat.
    Still, to put it in perspective,
less than a week ago, I was bleeding out in the street. Anything beats that.
    I shower and put on fresh clothes,
then make for the Operations Center on the other side of the compound. Along
the way, I pass training fields where my people are hard at work. We all
understand the importance of physical conditioning as well as mental
discipline. Right now, I could use a hefty dose of both but first I need to get
up to speed on what’s been happening while I lolled around in a hospital bed.
    The buzz of activity doesn’t falter
when I walk into the large room filled with communications equipment and
monitors. Still, I’m well aware that my arrival doesn’t go unnoticed. Hollis
has made sure that regular reports about my medical condition were circulated
but I understand that people want to see for themselves that I’m okay. I figure
the best way to assure them of that is to get back to work.
    Hollis and Gab are in the midst of
what looks like a tense conversation. They break off as I approach.
    “Any luck?” I ask, my gaze shifting
between them. I’m referring to the search for Davos, as they both well know.
Nothing else has occupied my thoughts, at least professionally speaking.
    They exchange a glance, the kind
that communicates volumes between people who work together as closely as these
two.
    “You sure you ought to be here,
boss?” Gab asks. “You just got out of the hospital yesterday.”
    I frown, wondering why she’s taking
this detour around telling me what I want to know. “I’m fine. What’s going on?”
    The pair stare at me a moment
longer before Hollis relents. “The divers have finished searching the aqueduct
where Davos was last seen. They’ve confirmed what the scavengers told us. At
some point, probably decades ago, a portion of the channel collapsed into an
underground river that discharges into the harbor just beyond the city.
Tracking wind and tide patterns, we isolated the area where Davos’ body should
have washed ashore. There’s no sign of it.”
    “And you’re still convinced that
the scavengers themselves don’t have it and just aren’t ready to reveal that
yet?” I ask.
    “I spoke with Edward McClellan
myself,” Gab says. “He has excellent sources among the scavenger community. If
they had the body, he’d know it.”
    I can’t help but smile. Not too
long ago, those condemned to exist in the underbelly of the city were ‘scavs’,
so far as Gab was concerned. But since they’ve shown a willingness to fight for
their rights, they’ve become a community worthy of respect.
    “There’s a slim chance that Davos’
associates could have beaten us to the body,” Hollis says. “But the much
greater probability is that the bastard is still alive.”
    I wish I could remember how Davos was
right before he went into the water--in despair, suicidal, enraged? Maybe I
should reconsider getting that memory probe. But from the description Amelia
provided, it strikes me that he was more defiant than resigned to his own
death.
    “We have to go on the assumption
that he survived,” I say. “He’s got to be holed up somewhere but he can’t stay
on his own forever.