Page 103 of Never Lost

My hands clenched involuntarily in the chains. Wait, so had I fucked up, or hadn’t I?

“I didn’t want or need to blow your cover,” Wheatley went on, “so I didn’t.”

I bit my lip and looked at my hands again. “But did you?—”

“No. The answer is no. Never, not once, did it ever occur to me you might be a slave.”

Really?I let out a short laugh. “No offense, sir, but you should probably turn in your badge.”

“Damn right I should. You fucked everything up pretty much from beginning to end. Now, looking back,Ifeel like the idiot. Anyway, shoddy police work on my part or a good con on yours, I’m impressed.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll take it, if you insist. Just one question, though… What about Felix?”

“Felix, sadly for him, is just Felix.”

Somehow, despite everything, we both laughed.

“Even doing what I do, I’ve never seen a slave successfully try to pass for a free man—for that long, anyway. Something always gives them away.” He paused. “You know what you did is a crime in itself, right?”

I scoffed. “So what are you gonna do? Arrest me?”

“No. Punishment is for your master to decide. But in the eyes of the law, you do belong in a mine.”

“I know. But I had my reasons.” My voice was quiet. One of the reasons I’d done it sat in the chair across from me now, and I couldn’t look at her if I wanted to keep this conversation going.

“I know you did. And what you did took balls. Helping those girls?—”

“Like you care,” I grumbled. “They’re slaves.”

“They’re people.”

My head snapped up.

“Things are changing in the feds, you know. I’m one of the ones trying to change them.”

“You told me you took a university course,” Louisa broke in. She’d been listening as closely as I had, while Keith just stared at the whole thing like we were speaking in tongues.

“I did,” Wheatley said. “From one of Erica Muller’s associates, in fact—a former fugitive, one my own father tried to put away back whenhewas at the agency. But beyond that, I’ve seen evidence with my own eyes that the system is broken, that the line between free and slave is an accident of fate. You’re living proof, man. That evidence you gathered—without it, we’d be investigating and probably charging the wrong man.” He looked at Keith.

“Yeah, and look where it got me,” I muttered.

“Look, I’m under no illusions that it was easy for you. But you saved their lives, your master’s reputation and future, and probably Langer’s conglomerate, or most of it. White Cedar is fucked, of course, but Orbital Dynamics will live on. Langer’s shares will eventually go to his lenders, and the board will appoint somebody else as CEO.”

“Yeah,” Louisa cut in. “Making billions for everyone at the top, while he kneels here in chains. How is that justice?”

“Loulou, whatarethey teaching you at that school?” Keith muttered.

“That said,” Wheatley continued, ignoring them both, “I know it’s your own future you’re thinking about now, and I don’t blame you. Did you know Mr. Wainwright-Phillips has been fighting nonstop around the clock since you got thrown in here to get you back?”

I blinked. “He—he has?”

“Yes,” Louisa said, her hand on her father’s arm. “I couldn’t believe it either. But he has.”

“And now, it’s my turn to apologize because it was me and my colleagues who were preventing that from happening. I couldn’t risk anything happening to you while I bought myself time to get back on the job. It’s also why you haven’t been re-chipped. Oh, and by the way, whatever happened to your chip is none of my business,” he added pointedly.

Louisa looked as relieved as I felt. Whatever Wheatley knew or suspected about the breakthrough, it would remain safe—for now. Idly, I wondered if Louisa had told her father about it. In any case, he’d invested in White Cedar, so he had to at least suspect. Not like it mattered with me in chains, and Langer—for all intents and purposes, anyway—dead.

“But now,” Wheatley said, shifting his focus back to Keith but still addressing me, reaching for some papers and a pen folded inside his suit jacket. “Your master can sign some paperwork right now and you’re fr—well, you’re out of here, at least.”