There was a tense silence after the question. Grayson stared at me, unblinking. I believed she was joking or teasing. but nothing in her expression gave anything away. She was dead serious.

"I...um..." I stumbled, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yes you do." Her eyes stared at me with a cold tenacity.

"No, I don't. Dad would never do such a thing." I said. "He wouldn't!"

She peered at me for a long second, her eyes squinting. I gulped nervously.

Then she reached in her pocket. "You don't know, do you?" She pulled out a remote control.

"No, I don't." I said, thankful that she believed me.

"Then I am very sorry about this, Lavinia." She pressed a button on the remote.

Sorry about what? What does the button do?

A loud beeping sound made me turn my chair around. I saw the wall behind me light up into a TV display. A large image filled the wall, an image I recognized it as a narrow corridor. Several men and woman walked through it, talking amongst themselves. They wore Gamemaker robes...that must be the Control Room, where the arena is manipulated by the Head Gamemaker.

I saw the clock in the lower right hand corner. It read half past two. Grayson said the bomb went off at 2:32.

I braced myself for what I knew was coming.

As I watched, a massive explosion blasted on screen. It started at the far end of the hallway, heading towards me with fire and debris and shrapnel. Two women in the hallway dove into a doorway to avoid the blast. In seconds, all I could see was darkness because dust covered the camera. As the smoke started to clear, I saw people begin to stand up and walk away in fear. I noticed with horror that one man was wet with blood.

I shut my eyes, trying to ignore the tragedy. "That doesn't prove anything!" I say, my eyes still closed.

"It proves that a bomb did indeed go off." she countered.

"Yeah, but what's my father got to do with it?!" I said. A horrid thought struck me. Mr father's car. I found my father's car parked outside the Control Room the day...the day he was killed. But that's just a coincidence.

Agent Grayson pressed a few buttons on her remote. The image on the screen changed to surveillance footage of the exterior of the building. As I watched, a man exited the Control Center. He talked quickly into a headset as he looked over his shoulder. He was moving at a fast pace, nervously pushing people out of his way to move quicker. He looked towards the camera suddenly, and I got a glimpse of his face.

It was my dad.

That's when the bomb went off. A large smoke cloud blasted its way in the building, far from view. It was on the east wing, while my father escaped through the western gates. I heard screams and shouts as people began to realize what was happening. A panic quickly spread and everyone started to run away, my father among them. A Peacekeeper car pulled up and the men inside began to sprint towards the Control Center. My father looked around for his car, but with the large crowd and the police in the way he was simply cut off. He ran away on foot into a nearby alley.

The video ended. Grayson looked at my with triumph in her eye.

"That...that doesn't mean anything!" I spluttered.

"No?" she asked. She rewound the video. The crowd on the screen went from frenzied and panicked to placid and calm. The Peacekeepers drove away. The explosion shrunk until it went back to normal. My father walked backwards until he entered the building again. She paused it there.

"Look what your father's holding. There, in his hand." I looked at the footage. Grayson expanded the screen until I got a better view. My father held a slim white device.

"Now watch what happens. Keep your eyes peeled on his hand." she commanded.

The video played again. As I watched, my father pressed the side of the device. There must be a button or something. Instantly, the explosion occurred. The delay was undeniable.

"That machine is called a remote operator. They are fairly common in District Three where they are made, but they are easy to find here. That device is capable of remotely activating a chain reaction in something like...oh, let's say a bomb." she grinned suddenly. "The evidence is unmistakable, Lavinia."

I couldn't believe it. It must be a mistake. A coincidence. A screwup. Something to explain it.

Grayson held no such qualms. "This brings me back to my original question: why would Mr. Tagaria do this?" she asked.

I had no idea what to say. It was simply too overwhelming.

"Has your father ever voiced opinions against the Capitol?"

"No."

"You sure?"

My father would never watch the Hunger Games. He would retreat to his room instead of watching. He muttered rude things about President Snow under his breath.

I said nothing.

"Lavinia," Grayson said, moving closer towards me. "Your father is a traitor to the Capitol, to Panem, to you, to your brother, to President Snow, to every single person living within this nation. I-"

"No he's not!"

"Yes. He is. Would you like to review the footage again? I can turn up the volume, make it easier to hear the screams." I was silenced. Grayson had a coldness in her that I didn't like.

"As I was saying," she continued, "Tell me anything unusual about your father. Did he meet with strange people, did he have weird habits? Did he ever say anything treasonous about the Capitol? Anything at all?"

"The Hunger Games." I replied flatly.

"What of them?"

"He wouldn't watch."

"Curious. Why ever not?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. He tried to tell Jon and I not to watch them. Whenever they came on, he left the room." I looked down. "He never even gave us money to bet on 'em or anything."

"Good. Good." Agent Grayson's voice was reassuring.

I could tell she wanted more. "It started when he went on a scouting trip."

"He worked for the Gamemakers?"

"Yeah. He started when I was seven...maybe eight years ago."

Grayson turned to look at the mirrored wall with a gleam in her eye. She turned her attention back to me as she said, "Do you know where he went?"

I shook my head. I couldn't remember.

"Try to remember, Lavinia. Did he go beyond Panem? The north? The islands past District Four? The desert below District Ten? Between the Districts?"

I shook my head at all of them.

"The districts themselves?"

Something in her voice made me wonder if this was the answer she'd been looking for all along. I said, "Yeah, I think so."

"An outlying district or an inlying one?" was her next question.

"Outlying, I think. Maybe District 7." I said. Something about that district sounded right to me.

Grayson seemed pleased. "After your father returned, did you see anyone else in your home?"

"What do you mean?"

"Was there a meeting of some sort? Or people who came in for an unusual reason?"

I couldn't recall anything like that. I shook my head no.

"Nothing? Would your father vanish for long periods of time then?"

That did sound familiar. "Yeah, I think so."

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know." I said.

"Okay, last question for now, and then you can see your brother." Grayson said, "What happened before we got to you. Walk me through what happened."

I don't want to talk about it. Not at all. Talking about it would mean revisiting it, which would mean feeling the pain all over again. But if I do this, I can see Jon.

"I came home after spending time with some friends." I began, "I walked in and saw the two Peacekeepers with my father. He was beaten...bruised...I saw blood everywhere. I tried to run but-" I covered my face with my hands. It was too much; I wanted to forget it all.

"Go on." Grayson encouraged.

"But one of them grabbed me. He put a gun to my head. He told dad that they would..." The next words were hard to say. "he told dad he would kill me if dad didn't tell them what they wanted to know. They kept asking him, over and over and over."

"What did they ask?" Grayson cut in.

I paused as I consider it. "'Who are the others?'. That was the main thing: 'who are the others?'"

"And," Grayson said, "What happened next?"

"Well, dad didn't tell them what they wanted to know. They were about to kill me, but he shot them...I don't know, he must have grabbed a gun off of one of them. They were both shot. Then he came over to me and hugged me and told me to get out of there and then..." I choked up.

"Then he was shot." Grayson said bluntly.

I nodded.

"Now Lavinia, and this is very important. Did Mr. Tagaria say anything to you before he died? Anything about where you would go? Anything?"

I know you're scared, and I know that you're confused. But we have to move; we're not safe here. We have to find Gamemaker Maximus. He's the only person we can trust. Okay?

Those words popped into my head instantly. I remembered how my father said them, how he looked me in the eye and told me not to be afraid. Those were some of his last words.

I came back to the present, to where Agent Grayson was still waiting for an answer. I opened my mouth to tell her about Gamemaker Maximus...but something stopped me. I couldn't explain it. It was like she wasn't worthy of it. Like, it was something only my father and I should know. And he told me to trust no one.

No one.

"Go on, it's okay." Grayson said.

"I don't remember." I lied.

"Are you sure?" she said, staring intently at me.

"Yeah." I said.

"Lavinia, we're all friends here. You can say it." she said. She grabbed my hand and patted it lightly. She smiled at me, but not with her eyes.

"There's nothing to say." I said.

"You're lying."

"No, I'm not!" My voice became a higher pitch. Damn. I was a terrible liar.

"Lavinia, a person working in my position has a small array of carefully sharpened skills.." she said. "Spotting a liar is one of them."

"What are the others?" I said.

"Don't change the subject." she snapped. "What did your father say to you?"

"Nothing."

"What did he say?"

The tone in her voice struck me like a blow. She sounded exactly like the Peacekeepers. She was interrogating me just like the men did to my father.

My resolve hardened. She would get nothing from me.

"Lavinia, you have to tell me."

I said nothing.

"What is it? A place? A district?" she said, "A name?"

There must have been something in my face that gave me away because she immediately pounced. "Who is it? Who?" she said.

I said nothing.

"This isn't a game, Lavinia!" her voice rising in anger. "This isn't something to mess with. This is life-or-death."

I said nothing.

"This is important." she said. "Those men, the ones that planted that bomb, they're not caught yet. They can do it again. They will do it again. Unless we stop them."

I took a deep breath. Grayson was different now. Instead of understand and kindness in her eyes she had anger. Grayson wasn't on my side, maybe she never was.

I suddenly felt an urge to leave the room.

"I want to see my brother." I announced, hoping to get away from her .

"That's not going to happen." she said coldly.

My mouth went agape. "You promised!"

"Yes, I did. And you promised to cooperate Lavinia." she said.

Grayson just sat there, staring at me. Not one muscle twitched. Her eyes were focused only on me, penetrating deep.

I looked away when I said, "I want to leave."

She smiled and gestured to the door."Go on then."

I stood up, the chair scraping on the floor making a loud noise in the small room. She was still staring at me as I walked over to the door and tried the handle.

It was locked.

"Unlock it." I said.

"No."

"Unlock it!" I screamed.

She said nothing.

I started slamming my hands at the door. I jimmied the door handle and pounded at the frame. It wouldn't open. I knew it wouldn't work, the door was solid steel and closed with an electric lock.

"Now Lavinia, I am going to give you one last chance to tell me who it is. If you do that, you can see your brother and leave." Agent Grayson said calmly.

I turned to face her, fear and anger making me bold. With as much spite I could muster, I gritted my teeth and spat out at her, "Go to hell."

"I was afraid it would come to this." she murmured under her breath.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

She pulled out a small rod. It was just a plain gray steel cylinder, less than the size of her forearm. She placed it on the table in front of her. "Do you know what this is?" she asked innocently.

I shook my head no.

Graysons started talking, "This is commonly called a shocker. Peacekeepers use it to subdue crowds in the districts. It is very, very effective. Want to know why? See, when I press this button, electric sparks come out of this end. They are very painful, often to the point of loss of consciousness. Death is even recorded from prolonged exposure."

Agent Grayson reached out one small dainty finger and touched the button. Once she made contact, blue sparks began to fly from the tip of the device.

I backed away in fear.

"Oops." she said sadistically. "Looks like I've touched it."

She took the weapon in her hand and approached me. The electricity surged through the device, more and more sparks flying from the end. I knew exactly what she planned to do.

I turned around and started to bang on the door. I hoped someone, anyone would hear me. My palms became raw and numb but I kept going.

"HELP!" I screamed. "PLEASE!"
I started to kick the door out of desperation. I heard behind me, "No one can hear you."

Grayson was right behind me. She took her time, knowing there's nowhere I can run. She enjoyed watching me squirm in fear.

"PLEASE HELP ME!" I screamed.

I felt her hand on my shoulder and braced myself for the agony that was sure to follow. I heard the malignant sparks, only inches away from my neck...

That's when the lights went out.

NEXT CHAPTER: Lavinia tries to find her brother in the ensuing chaos and seeks a new ally.