Exported [Book 3 in the Expiring Series]

68 Interrogation

Colton~~

Vienna moves in front of me, bending, twisting, whirling, and shooting, all with grace—as if she were in a dance. Where Iris is a bolt of lightning when she's in combat, Vienna is the wind. I duck behind a column, catching my breath, as she takes out two Amoris, her expression drawn and focused. This is something she has to get through, but for Iris, she's always looked most at place within a battle. It's where she comes to life.

Two women, both raised as rebels, but different.

Erik cuts past me, his elbow slamming into the nose of an Amoris with a crunch. I fire at the Amoris with my gun before he can retaliate against Erik. The male clutches his arm, swearing in Amorian. A kick to the back of his legs from Erik sends the Amorian splaying on the ground. My cousin shoots him with a tranquilizer.

He'll be out in minutes.

"Clear," Vienna calls from the end of the room in the alcove of a hallway.

She tightens her ponytail as we catch up with her. "I know our orders are to find alternate exits, but are we really letting Jonas find her on his own? The two of them . . . aren't like us."

Erik uses this short pause to reload his guns. "They could be anywhere. And as you said, they aren't our orders."

She turns to me. "He's your brother."

"We have no idea where Iris is being held, and we have no idea where the other exits are. I don't think we'll be the ones making the decision of what we do."

She rolls her eyes. "Right. Let's leave it all up to fate."

"We could always ask," Erik says, still reloading his guns. "I'm sure we can be convincing."

I rub at the bridge of my nose. "I don't believe you were ever skilled in interrogation." I pull my hand away to find blood, and I don't know who it belongs to—if it's even mine.

He shrugs. "I was thinking we just go all in on the torture."

I give him a long look.

"Oh I'm sorry." He gives a merciless grin. "If you'd prefer to do it . . . I don't want to step on any toes."

"We're not—"

He heads off down the hallway. "Then we let your brother die. I'm sure Preeminence will suit you."

Vienna gives me a worried glance before following Erik.

I swear. "Fine."

*****

Erik and Vienna pin the struggling Amorian man to the floor of the chambers to which we dragged him. The bed is unmade, and there's fruit sitting out on a small table. I'm sure our arrival from above dragged many from sleep.

I stand over the three of them, the flat of my knife's blade lying across my palm. "Where is the Raggioet being kept?" I crouch down beside his hand. I never wanted Vienna to witness me performing an interrogation. At the Society, I'm in charge of torturing rebels for information, but Vienna wasn't supposed to see into that world.

Especially not after I learned she was a rebel. She wasn't supposed to see what I do to her kind.

Sneering, the man grits his blood-coated teeth.

I give him a long-suffering look. They never make it easy, do they?

I drive the knife into his palm. Blood splatters against Vienna. He screams.