"This isn't going to do anything, the battery was taken out when it was given to me, there is no power, nothing, it was a way to help me cope, a way to keep me comfortable, it doesn't actually work so I don't know what you're trying to achieve!" Robyn was growing frustrated. There were tears in her eyes as she watched Professor Johann Schneider slowly set up the laptop that had been prepared by Conner and Jason, and attach the wires with help from Ollie. Penelope sat across the table without saying a word, just watching Johann and Ollie with cold eyes. "It's not going to work, it can't work, it won't work, so just stop it!" From his position next to her, Noah reached up and gently touched Robyn's elbow. Robyn looked down at him desperately. "Please, Noah, please… tell them to stop… nothing is going to happen, nothing is… is going to happen… right? Right?"
Noah simply shrugged. He understood exactly where Robyn was coming from. If the implications Conner suggested that the camera was actually working, then it made everything about Penelope having the camera back in the library make all the sense in the world. And if that implication was true, then the guilt that Robyn would harvest would be immense. "Let's just see what happens."
"Noah…" Robyn was actively wringing her hands like a nervous schoolchild. The wires had been attached. The camcorder stood resolute on the middle of the table, with no lights, and no evidence that it had any life in it. For a moment Johann and Ollie were quiet, with Penelope finally turning away from the laptop and closing her eyes.
"I'm sorry, my dear," Johann said quietly as he spun the laptop to face Robyn and Noah.
"No…" Robyn collapsed back into her seat. "No, no… No, no, no, no!" Her tears were running freely down her cheeks now, her face scrunched up in misery.
The laptop was playing a video, a first-person view, completely steady. It took Noah a moment to recognise that it was a scene from not too long ago, just before the explosion at the front of the administration building. The camera was pointing at the memorial outside in the main Hearthome square, with Penelope and Ollie sitting facing the camera.
"Robyn…" Noah heard his own voice and heard his own sigh. "Don't just agree with something just because they're insisting. Whatever charade she is playing, she is keeping it up."
"She is right in front of you, and I would appreciate if you spoke to me properly," Penelope said from her position sitting next to Ollie. "It's a shame. I thought we were getting along relatively well. I've got no desire to be at odds with you while we sort through this List."
Ollie nodded from beside Penelope. "She's right. We have to work together. We have to try and save ourselves. Not end up like them-" Ollie nodded behind him to the memorial. "…or Oscar…"
The camera view suddenly turned and Noah could remember Robyn absently turning it with her pinky finger. It spun a full clockwise circle, passing by Noah's darkened face and Robyn's bemused one.
"Stop it!" Robyn yelled, pushing away from the table. She was staring at the camera like it was some kind of disgusting thing one would find in the deepest, darkest crevices. "Turn it off, turn it off now, turn it off!"
Ollie was quick to close the lid on the laptop. His face was set and grim. It seemed as if he had also realised the implications now. Penelope was still turned away and Noah was surprised to see something like sadness upon her face.
"Robyn," Johann said delicately. "If you would like to come with me and talk about this—"
"I don't want to come with you! I don't want to talk about it! I just… I… don't you see what this means!?" Robyn's eyes were wide and wet now. "There's more on there, right? Ollie? There's more on there?"
"…It's a large video file," Ollie nodded.
"So everytime I held that camera and I used it like I was recording with it… because it made me feel better to be able to record something, even if I knew it wasn't real… everytime I was pretending… I wasn't? I was actually filming? And recording? The private conversations and the things that were supposed to be hidden and… everything?" Robyn's lips were trembling. Her mouth dropped slightly open. "Orderlies kept knocking into me. Clumsy but always catching my camera. Paulie did it back when I was researching in the library. It's happened before. Don't you get it? They must have been switching the cards and making sure it was on and making sure I was doing their dirty work for them, I was their spy and I didn't even realise it!" Robyn's hands went to her face. She was starting to hyperventilate, her shoulders raising and falling sharply.
Johann gently stood up and walked over to her, placing the palm of his hand on the middle of her back and gently rubbing. "Robyn, it is not your fault. Just breathe."
Robyn grew silent, simply trying to control her seizing breaths. Noah could understand what Robyn was going through. The idea that everything you thought you knew was turned upside its head. Of reality being shunted to the side. It wasn't something that a rub on the back and soft words could solve.
"They used me…" Robyn muttered as her breathing grew gentler. "Those masked people… your sister… and we haven't even touched that, I can't even touch that right now, because you… used me… used my camera… used my… my… condition…" Robyn said the word almost imperceptibly. "…They used me to work out their plans. They would have seen the conversation Jason had with us about the List in the rooms. They would have known the order of the List. They would have known who was next. They would have known everything. When Conner was running, they would have known he was with me and… and the way he looked at me when he ran from the medical bay, as if he couldn't trust me, as if he thought I was working with the enemy… and no wonder he thought that, I was, I was working for the enemy, I provided them their information, I'm just as guilty, I'm just as…"
"No."
The single word was not said particularly loud, but it was said with enough strength that it stopped Robyn in her tracks. Penelope turned her head to look up at Robyn and Noah could see the sadness strong over Penelope's face now, not hidden.
"No," Penelope repeated. "You are not guilty, Robyn. A tool is not guilty for being used. Paulie was the one who had the idea, he knew you well, knew your relationship with that camera. One night he took the camera away and took it apart, piece by piece, before putting it back together again so that the screen and the battery lights simply wouldn't work. Of course the battery had to stay in, but as you thought there was not a battery, you would never check. Then from there all we had to do was find moments to switch the cards out and get the information. All of that was on us, not you. Do not feel guilty."
Robyn's face slowly twisted into one of such hate that it looked foreign upon her face. Noah was surprised. Robyn was often so optimistic, so bubbly, so happy, that seeing that face on her made her look like a stranger. Robyn slowly pulled away from Johann around the table, passed behind Noah, and stood in front of Penelope. For a moment it seemed like Robyn was about to speak, or yell, or scream.
Instead Robyn swung her fist in a solid arc that caught Penelope just above the eye. The force of the punch and the surprise of it sent Penelope tumbling sideways off her chair. Robyn instantly recoiled, clutching her hand, tears streaming down her face. Noah instantly jumped up to grab her in case she was going to attack again but it seemed Robyn had struck her only blow. Robyn looked down at Penelope, who was still on the floor, staring shocked up at Robyn, a small cut opened above her eye.
"You're a monster!" Robyn sobbed. "You manipulated us, and used us, and I even tried to defend you! Not only did you use us, but you used our conditions against us, you used the reason why we're in Hearthome against us. We're all patients and yet you attacked our mentality, you used what was already fragile and shattered it like it was a toy for you to throw against the floor!" Robyn motioned to Noah. "You hid the truth from someone who struggles so hard to know truth from reality!" She motioned to Ollie. "You were part of the group who used Oscar's fear against him, and used Owen's friendship, and twisted it for your own ends!"
Robyn reached across the table and picked up her camera. She stared at it in the palm of her hand. "…This camera… was given to me by my brother. You knew that. I've told you that. I spent my childhood filming him. And I was filming when he… when he… you know what this camera means to me, you know that it is a part of me and you poisoned that and you and your awful group used me to gather information for you and… and…" Robyn's fingers squeezed around the camera. She stared at it long and hard, before finally spinning on her heel and throwing the camera with all of her might.
The camera spun multiple times through the air before hitting the corner of one of the bookshelves. The force of the throw shattered the plastic casing, tore off the foldable screen, and smashed the lens. The parts skittered across the floor of the library, laying like the torn-off limbs of a corpse.
Robyn led out a mournful, wracking sob, and fell to the floor as all strength left her legs. There she lay, sobbing into her hands, having cast aside the one thing that had kept her going throughout her tenure in Hearthome.
The gloved hands pulled the two legs of the bipod to the side and placed it carefully on the edge of the wall. He repositioned the scope atop the rifle, tweaked the sights in front of it, and double-checked the ammo.
"Are you ready?"
Avaritia looked behind him to the heavy-set Irae, who was leaning against the door that led down the top of the gatetower. Both voices were modulated by the masks that they wore. "Everything is set." Avaritia replied. "May I remove my mask? It will impact my aim."
"Of course, by all means. How long do you suspect this will take? The DHP are already gathering outside of Hearthome as we speak. Word of Pigritia's capture has spread quickly. As soon as Jason Ryan sounds the word, then they will open it up and come on in."
Avaritia slowly peeled off his mask, quickly sweeping a hand over his brown hair to keep the loose strands from getting in the way. He positioned himself expertly behind the scope of the eleven-round 11mm calibre rifle and peered through with steely blue eyes.
"Let me double-check the positions. I'd be willing to wager perhaps fifteen minutes at most."
"You have ten from the first shot." Irae said firmly.
Avaritia shrugged. "Aye aye."
The scope was looking straight at the main grounds of Hearthome. Avaritia gently moved the rifle until it landed on the library. From his position and with his scope, he could easily see through the windows to see the group in the middle of the library. This was the location of Penelope Hayes, who appeared to be on the floor. Avaritia did not care for whatever drama may have been happening there. He moved his scope across the administration building, taking a moment to look at the destruction at the front of the building caused by the car-bomb. He then moved to one of the far windows, where he could easily see the figures of Derrick Wright with his height, David Chetton with his girth, Rebecca Cox with her small frame, and Marcus Morris with his large one. There was a guard at the door. Berlin. The warden of Hearthome was also there, Theodore Hearthome himself.
Avaritia sighed for a moment and swung his scope across the many windows to another, where from his eagle's perch he could see another table, where Connor Shepherd was face-to-face with Charlotte Hayes, otherwise known as Pigritia. He could see via the windows that Wasp was guarding the door. Avaritia moved his scope very slightly to let it focus on the face of Jason Ryan, before slowly moving down to aim at Jason's chest.
"Sorry, boss," The Sin known as Avaritia, and presumed dead by his colleagues, muttered from his position behind his trusty rifle. "This'll sting only a little."
Gareth Griffiths pulled the trigger.