“No excuses, Trella. I have orders from the Committee to arrest you.”

Wide awake now, I said, “But—”

“You had your chance to explain down in waste handling, but you chose to run away.”

“I—”

“Running is an act of a guilty person. I had no choice. Yuri, secure her.” Anne-Jade stepped back to let Yuri closer.

With nowhere to go, I could only appreciate the speed in which Yuri slapped a handcuff onto my left wrist, spun me around and snapped the other cuff onto my right. With my arms pinned behind my back, my sore shoulder ached.

“Anne-Jade, the cuffs aren’t necessary,” I said.

“I disagree. Let’s go.”

She gripped my arm, propelling me forward as if I would resist. With a lieutenant in front of us and one following, they marched me from my room. Lamont hovered in the sitting area. Hour three shone on the clock.

“You could have at least waited to call Anne-Jade until I got more sleep,” I grumped at Lamont.

“Give us some credit, Trell,” Anne-Jade said. “No one called us. You weren’t that hard to find.”

True. If I had known she’d arrest me, I’d have slept in the ducts. She’d been to our storeroom and the small control room where we had hidden Domotor. That was back when I could trust her. I needed to find a new hiding place. The image of the bubble monster sitting on top of the Expanse filled my mind. No one would find me there.

Our little parade entered the lift and went up to level four. When the door swished open, a horrible possibility struck me. I resisted Anne-Jade’s pull.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re not taking me to the brig, are you?” I couldn’t keep the panic from my voice. The thought of being there with Karla and Vinco, even in separate cells, caused me to sweat.

“It’s up to you. The Committee has a number of questions for you. If you refuse to cooperate, they’ll send you to the brig to think over your decision.”

We bypassed Anne-Jade’s office and walked down the main corridor to Quad G4. Inside didn’t seem so big until I was handcuffed and stared at by every single person we passed in that hallway. The time it took us to reach the conference room off the main Control Room felt like hours.

My relief to be out of the public’s eye disappeared in a heartbeat when I faced the nineteen Committee members. They sat around the long oval conference table. Domotor’s wheelchair faced the front of the curved end. Scanning the faces, I did a quick calculation. Five members gave me encouraging nods, twelve people wore a variety of unhappy expressions from pissed off to mildly annoyed, one wouldn’t meet my gaze— Riley’s father—and one kept his face blank—Jacy.

Anne-Jade pushed me into the empty chair at the end opposite Domotor. I perched on the edge since my hands were still cuffed. She stood behind me as if I might try to escape or harm someone. I would have laughed, but I couldn’t miss the heavy tension that filled the room. The lines of strain, dark circles and signs of fatigue were the common denominator from all eighteen members. Jacy wasn’t giving anything away, and that scared me more than anything else.

Domotor took the lead. It was a good sign as he had been one of the encouraging nodders. The mics sat on top of the bag on the table. Computers were another new feature on the table. Each member had a small monitor in front of them.

Domotor started asking me questions about the riot.

I was honest to a point. Admitting I planted the mics, I got a little creative with why. “I hoped to overhear the saboteurs.” Which was the truth.

“Why didn’t you and Logan tell us about them?” Domotor asked.

I noted the lack of Anne-Jade’s and Riley’s names. They were both aware of the sabotage and failed to inform the Committee. Funny, I had been the one to argue to tell the Committee. “The evidence was circumstantial. We didn’t want to accuse anyone without proof.” Also true.

“Where did you plant these mics?” he asked.

“The air shafts about Sectors E1 and F1.” I pointed my chin at the mics. “I planned to do more, but was…interrupted.”

“She means caught,” Anne-Jade said. “The scrubs in Sector F1 heard her in the air shaft.”

“I haven’t climbed through the ducts in weeks. I’m a little rusty,” I said in my defense.

A few Committee members smiled at my play on words. I wouldn’t go as far to say I was winning them over, but it was better than nothing.

Anne-Jade wanted to know who pulled me from the air shaft and incited the riot.

“I started the riot. It all happened so fast, I didn’t get a good look at him.” Just because I protected the bastard who slapped me, didn’t mean I would forget him. Oh no. I owed him a visit. I just didn’t need the scrubs to think I was an informer as well as a traitor.

The questions then turned to the bomb in waste handling. Those I answered with complete honesty. Jacy relaxed back in his chair. His gaze contemplative. Probably wondering why I hadn’t told them about his request to plant his mics over sensitive areas. Right now they assumed Logan provided the mics. I’d like to say I had a grand scheme in mind, but at this point, I operated on pure instinct.

When all the questions had been answered, Anne-Jade escorted me out to the main Control Room so the Committee could discuss…I wasn’t exactly sure what.

We waited near the door. “Thanks for not mentioning me,” she said in a quiet voice. “I owe you one.”