Promise Me ➵ Newt [3]

PROLOGUE

Welcome to Book 3, Promise Me.

• • •

▬It had been three months since Minho was taken away by WICKED.

The Right Arm - or what was left of the operation anyway - moved to a different location for fear that WICKED might discover us and attack again like they did last time. We had moved to the seaside, where we built a little town that could stay in for the time being. Vince, The Right Arm leader, was searching for another safe place for us to move to, but he had no luck so far. He decided to focus on building and repairing his ship to gain access to the seas, where hopefully, would be our ticket to travel to the Safe Haven.

Thomas, Newt, Frypan and I were determined to save Minho, no matter what the costs, and I could tell that as the months crawled by my friends were getting impatient. We had no clue as to what WICKED was doing to Minho right now - the possibilities were endless. The only lead we had on his condition at the moment was that he was still alive. That was it.

I still wanted to punch him for pushing me out of the stunner's way. During my stay with The Right Arm, I had too much time to ponder about it, and I was certain he had done it. Maybe he noticed the bleeding wound through my shirt and decided that I needed saving more than he did, though that didn't make me any less angry at him for doing so. I often found myself wondering if he regretted pushing me away, now that WICKED had taken him and was doing... whatever they were doing to him.

That night, Vince called for a meeting. My friends and I, including Harriet, Felix, Brenda and Jorge, joined him in a building a little further away from the town and waited to hear the latest news and updates from him. We sat and stood around a creaky table, watching as Vince pulled out an old, wrinkly map and flatten it against the table for us to see; he had stolen it from one of WICKED Bergs a few weeks ago while spying on them with his mates.

"I got good news and bad news," he announced, meeting each of our gazes. "Good news is, I've found out where the immunes are currently being kept, including your friends Minho, Sonya and Aris. My spies and I heard a rumour from the guards that he should be here-"

He tapped a finger on a spot on the map and we all leaned in to see.

"-and he and the other immunes might be moved to WICKED's big headquarters in about a few weeks' time once all of them have been checked and tested for their immunity."

"Where's this big headquarters then?" Thomas asked.

"That's the bad news," Vince said. "We don't know. We're still trying to find out. We'll spy some more on the Bergs and see if we can find out the location of this headquarters from the guards. Even better if we can find out how they're transporting the immunes over there."

"Great," Newt said. "Is that all?"

"Well, we're gonna have to decide who's gonna come with me again for this spy mission," Vince said. "Thomas, Newt, Felix, you three still up for it?"