Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“I can’t make any promises.” I lean against her, thankful for her in a million different ways.
“Fair enough, I guess.” She sighs. “God, how are we already in a mess? You just got here, and we’re already up to our eyebrows in trouble.”
Wyatt chuckles ruefully. “That’s how we know we’re on the right track—if we’re in trouble. Hey, you know we won’t let them take you, right?”
“I know, but it won’t come to that. Don’t worry about what the general said.”
“Umm, I think we have to worry. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to just say shit.”
“No, but his threats are just threats. I’m not worried about them, so you shouldn’t be either.”
“Why?” he asks. “Why aren’t you worried?”
Because Valen would turn this place into a bloodbath and pull General Lopez’s spleen out through his nose if he tried it. Instead of that, I opt for, “I’ll play along well enough that he doesn’t do anything he said, all right?”
He doesn’t look convinced as he leans against the table. “But seriously though, did you mean all that about the poison?”
“The part about not wiping out an entire species?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes. You don’t agree?” I brace myself for their answer.
“It’s complicated,” Evie says softly. “What they did to Gretchen, to Aang, to you—it makes me hate all of them. But then there’s Valen, which is even more complicated. He’s done horrible things, so many horrible things, but he’s also done good things. The general said it himself—he’s been helping us. He’s saved people. He saved everyone in this room.” She groans. “Like I said, it’s a mess.”
Wyatt flips a pen into the air and catches it. “I will say that they have a million ways to kill us, weapons galore. Like, we’re sort of easy to kill. It wouldn’t be so terrible if we were more equal on that front. But your point about genocide stands. It’s not black and white.”
“Exactly.” I nod. “They’re like us. Shades of gray. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a reckoning. We’re at war. I’m not naïve, not anymore. I know this is going to end with bloodshed. Gregor has to die. Plenty of those loyal to him are a threat, too. But wiping them all out isn’t the answer, and until I’m certain General Lopez agrees with me, I can’t give him what he wants. I won’t.”
“Okay, so now what?” Wyatt asks.
“We focus on the vaccine and—” I take a deep breath and drop my voice to a whisper, “—we create the poison, but only enough for me to smuggle out.”
14
Aguard appeared at our door not five minutes after the general stormed out. Gage never returned, but maybe that’s for the best. Anyone who refers to me as “Valen’s human whore” isn’t particularly welcome in our lab.
“We got your blood worked up, looking good. White blood cells are in that bizarro symbiotic relationship with the vampire cells. Supercharged with fibrin. Ready to rock.” Wyatt stares at the computer next to the HCL. “We’ll start trialing it.”
“What do we have on the menu?” I’m thumbing through a catalog of everything stored in the deep freeze and refrigeration units on the lower levels.
“Not much, to be honest.” He hunts and pecks on the keyboard with one hand. “Mostly virus stock.”
Watching him, it really hits me how much he’s lost. “You haven’t complained once.” I think it out loud.
“What?” he asks.
“Sorry. I was just saying you’re pretty damn tough.” I shrug. “That’s all.”
He waggles his severed forearm. “Oh, I belly-ached plenty the first few days after.” He stares at the wrapped end. “Especially when they stopped giving me the good meds. Bummer. The weirdest thing is the phantom of it. Still feel it there even though it’s gone. It even itches, like a very specific spot on the back of my wrist driving me crazy with an itch, but there’s nothing there to scratch.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too. It is what it is. I can still spin a record. They salvaged a few from the wreckage, if you can believe it. Most of them are history, but I still have some tunes. And there’s still a world out there. It’ll still be there when this war is over, when the plague is history, and I’ll be stockpiling fresh beats all over again. Gotta keep moving, you know?”
“I do.” I nod and go back to my catalog. “I think we all do.”
“Check it. Here it is.” He leans forward and taps on his screen. “Partial manifest of what they salvaged from the CDC before it got rocked. We got SierraVirus aplenty, common cold strains, flu strains for what looks like the past decade, and a smattering of about a hundred or so other things. All of it in the cold storage a few levels down. Not much in the way of fungus or bacteria.”