Why did I think I could protect all of them? I couldn't even protect one kid, not when it mattered most.”
-- Ruby (chapter 2)

Importance: Ruby has learned that the adult agents are planning to turn the children over to officials in order to get the reward money, and she knows she could not have stopped it if she hadn't read minds to learn the plan. The “one kid” is Jude, a member of her team who died during the previous novel of the series. Ruby cannot accept failure, and she continues to believe she is responsible for everyone else.

For better or worse, most of our decisions had been gut reactions, and I wasn't about to pretend we hadn't made some questionable choices, but it was the only way we knew how to live and survive – it was how all of us freak kids had to scrape by, whether it was to avoid...
-- Ruby (chapter 3)