Eve of Destruction by Patrick Carman Page B

confided, and I felt the stream of lies coming before he even said them. “We came back, you know, to see how Mrs. Goring was doing. She freaked out, something about vials down here we had to retrieve for her.”
    â€œAnd she locked you in?” I asked.
    â€œLooks like she tricked you, too,” Rainsford said. “I think she’s unstable.”
    â€œWhat was your first clue?” I joked.
    His voice didn’t have the Rainsford hypnotic quality I remembered. Maybe his powers of persuasion were locked inside a much older version of himself.
    â€œHi, Avery,” I said, looking past Rainsford to the shadowy figure behind him. “You doin’ okay?”
    She wouldn’t speak, just a nod and half a smile. Avery Varone didn’t look well. She was pale as a ghost, except for the circles under her eyes. Those were dark. Everything else about her face looked like the blood had been sucked clean out of her, leaving only a fragile shell for holding a confused girl. And it wasn’t just her face, it was her hair, too. That was the most shocking part about the new Avery Varone. The streak of white had spread. All of her hair was white. The dark eyes, the pale skin, the white hair—she was a ghost, or something like one.
    â€œHow long have you been down there?” I asked. Avery looked up doe-eyed at Davis like she needed approval to give the answer, and he reached out, holding her frail hand.
    â€œLong enough,” he said. “I’m doing okay, but Avery, she’s not taking to the surroundings. We need to get her out of here.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with her?” I asked. Avery leaned forward into the camera before Davis could stop her.
    â€œI’m fine, Will. You worry too much.” Her papery voice and vacant eyes made me nervous. She was even weaker than she looked.
    â€œWhat did Goring tell you?” asked Davis. “Did she say she would let you out?”
    â€œIf we get what she sent us down here for, she will.”
    â€œI can help with that,” he said. “I know where the vials are. Rainsford told me. Tell me where you are and I’ll come to you. We can figure it out from there.”
    Yeah, right. Like I’m going to trust you. Nice try , I thought.
    It was bizarre knowing Davis was Rainsford, hearing him talk about himself in the third person.
    â€œCan I ask you something?” I said.
    â€œSure, anything.”
    Davis kept glancing at Avery, then back at me, like he was trying to make sure she didn’t give me a signal of some kind while his back was turned.
    â€œWhere are Connor and Alex?”
    There wasn’t any getting around the fact that two people were missing, and I began to wonder why Rainsford wouldn’t have just brought them with him to the monitor. Something wasn’t right.
    â€œInsurance,” said Davis, his face changing ever so slightly in the monitor. The old Rainsford was in there, screaming to get out. He didn’t like having to hide.
    â€œI don’t follow.”
    â€œI know you have special awareness, Will Besting. I can see it in your eyes. You know who I really am. Avery does, too. Don’t you, sweetheart?”
    My cover was blown, but the cool thing was I didn’t care. There would be no pretending, no dance about what he knew and what I knew. He’d dropped all pretense of being Davis, so I’d be dealing with the real Rainsford, straight up, no games. I doubted he’d planned to drop his cover so fast.
    â€œOkay, Rainsford . I’m going to ask you once more,” I said, trying to gain the upper hand. “Where are Connor and Alex?”
    â€œI didn’t expect such bravado, but you always were unpredictable.”
    â€œJust answer the question.”
    â€œThey’re in the room where I left them.”
    â€œSo they’re alive?”
    â€œDid I say that?” he looked at Avery, a dark smile on his face.
    â€œAvery, you know