“Now tell me the time,” I said.
He gave his head a shake, then glanced toward the timer. “You have four minutes.”
Four minutes, and I hadn’t heard from West in over ten. How was I going to get out of this lab without West giving us an escape route?
Remembering to keep it simple, I mixed plain saline solution with the powder from the bloodstone. Now I was ready to add the last ingredient to the vials. I carefully removed the lids from each of the six vials with the older antibodies.
“I hope this works.” Using a dropper, I added equal amounts of the bloodstone mixture to all six vials.
Then I quickly replaced the lids, and I packed up everything I wanted to take with me in the same dry ice containers I’d brought from Boone Blackston’s hospital. I also snatched a couple of vials from Dr. Hempel’s collection—the ones containing the chemical he’d shown me yesterday. He’d said that that chemical might repair the antibodies running through my blood; maybe Caine could learn something from it.
“How are we going to get out of here?” Dax asked. “Do you plan on West coming to our rescue?”
I hadn’t really been planning on West’s help since the minute he’d allowed Justin to lock me up. “No. But I do have a plan.”
I used my PulsePoint to scan and unlock the refrigerator marked with the biohazard symbol—where live viruses were stored. I grabbed the vials of Bad Sam I had brought with me and placed them in their proper cases. After pouring dry ice over the vials, I closed them up. But I kept one vial out, enclosing it safely in my hand.
Then I led Dax through the decontamination chambers. After we had sufficiently rid ourselves of any virus we may have been exposed to inside the lab, we quickly suited back up in dark gray hazmat suits.
When we faced the exit, I cast a worried look at Dax.
“I’m not one to usually panic,” he said. “But we’re trapped in here.”
“Stay close to me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You expected me to stray?” He glanced down at my hand. “What are you holding, anyway?”
I started to answer when the outer doors clicked. They had broken through the lock codes. “Here we go.”
I shoved through the door and came face to face with several men and one girl—Shiloh—in red. Was she there to help? It didn’t matter.
I stepped in front of Dax and held out my hand. “Don’t come any closer. This vial contains live Samael Strain.”
Shiloh’s eyes widened, and her hands went out to her side. They all started to back up.
Everyone except for Justin. “You are resourceful, aren’t you?”
“You left me no choice. Do your people even know what you and your government have done?”
“You couldn’t possibly know anything about our government.”
“I know plenty. Now back up.” I shook the vial for effect, and they did as I ordered, including Justin. “Your people should know that you deliberately infected members of your own community with Bad Sam and then sent them out into the settlements. That’s the only reason the outside is plagued with illness. Is anyone here missing their friend Garrett?”
Everything in the lab went deathly quiet. Then the rustling of a hazmat suit got my attention. A girl who had to be about my age stepped forward. “My brother has been missing for seven days.”
“Your brother is Garrett?”
She nodded, fear etched into the lines around her eyes.
“I’m so very sorry, but guards in red hazmat gear killed your brother and his friend when they returned from a scouting mission infected with Bad Sam.” I studied the faces of each of the people in front of me through their masks. I then raised my voice to drive the point home. “Scouts from your city were deliberately infected with Bad Sam while still inside this city.”
“Why should we believe you?” someone yelled.
“You don’t have to believe me. But eventually, more evidence of what I’m telling you will come to light. For now, all I need is for you to back away, because I will have no problem whatsoever dropping this vial of virus against the floor. And when I do, Bad Sam will be inside your city, and there will be no stopping its spread.”
Shiloh typed something on her PulsePoint. Justin’s face reddened. His hands hung to his sides, helpless.
Dax and I reached the outer door and pushed through it. When a guard appeared, I held the vial out in front of me. “Step back and let us pass.”
“Do as she says,” Justin ordered in frustration. “I never should have let you and West back inside this city.”
Several of the guards’ heads whipped around in Justin’s direction. That’s when I knew I had them. Though they weren’t quite ready to believe their government was corrupt, they were West’s supporters.
“West is the one person in leadership right now who is thinking clearly,” I said. “West has the people of New Caelum’s best interests at heart and on his mind. He has been willing to sacrifice his own needs to lead you.” I glanced at Shiloh. A smile played at the corners of her lips. I was pretty sure she was here to help me, but I didn’t need her. There was no sense risking her life with what I had to do next. “If anyone follows us, I will throw this vial like a grenade.”
And with that, we reach the staircase door. We darted inside and disappeared.
chapter forty
West
I’d always wondered if a person actually saw stars when he took a hit to the head. I could now definitely say “yes”—as I saw plenty of them after one of Justin’s guards landed a solid left hook to my jaw.
“How did she get into the lab, West? Who helped Christina and her friend escape the holding room?”
I remained silent. My hands were tied behind my back behind a wooden chair. Where the hell were my reinforcements? They should have been here already. And where was Mother?
The door slid open, and another guard entered. “They should be inside the lab in less than two minutes,” he said. “Justin said to just hold West here until he could get up here.”
“You both realize what Christina Black is doing, right?” I asked.
The second guard—who was even larger than the one that clocked me—leaned in close to my face. I held my breath when the rotten egg smell of his breath hit me. “We don’t care. Our orders are to keep you busy and use whatever force we deem necessary.”
The other asshole joined in. “And no one needed to tell us twice. We’re delighted to have the opportunity to take the prince of New Caelum down a notch.”
I smiled. “You’re making a big mistake.”
“Oh yeah?” the first guard asked. “Why do you say that?”
“You’re fighting on the wrong team.”
They both laughed.
“I’m not kidding. The council is dead. Soon there will be a new vice president, maybe even a new president, and you, my friends, will find yourselves on the losing team.”
The first guard marched over and lifted me to my feet by my hair. Then he slammed a fist into my gut. I fell to my knees and came close to falling on my face. Instead I lowered my forehead slowly to the ground while coughing.
“Marc, man, be careful. Justin said not to hurt him.”
The door slid open, and in walked my mother. It was about freaking time. After a quick glance at me, she faced the two guards, who stood at attention. “What have you discovered?” she asked them.
“Nothing, ma’am.” The guards exchanged a sideways glance.
“Justin will not be pleased.” She turned to me, reached down, squeezed my jaw with her hand, and forced me to look at her—all a part of the act she and I had discussed. “Who is working with you to help Christina?”
I smiled, knowing full well my mouth was bleeding. She cringed. “No one,” I said. “Christina has always been a rebellious one. She has a mind of her own.”
“That much is true. Well, we’ll have to tame her soon enough.” She sighed and turned back to the guards. “Jacob, Marcus, you will report back to your superiors at
once. There will be a city-wide meeting this afternoon, and we need every guard and emergency worker to be prepared.”
“What about Mr. Layne, ma’am?”
“My own guards will place my son into custody. Now go.”
The guards turned and left without another word. When they were gone, I quickly turned. As soon as Mother had my hands untied, I scrambled over to my PulsePoint. “Took you long enough,” I said, while typing a message to Shiloh.
“Sorry. Wasn’t easy to round up enough of my trusted guards to change the course of command on a moment’s notice.”
“But no problems? Who’s guarding Willow?”
“If Christina comes up with a treatment and can make it to the floor where Willow is quarantined without getting caught, she’ll have no problem getting into the iso unit.” I heard the doubt in Mother’s voice.
My own PulsePoint pinged: The guards are in. Cricket and Dax will be caught, but I’ll be close.
“What’s the status of the computer virus?” Mother asked.
“IT is still working on it. Right now I have to find Councilman Gatewood.” Mr. Gatewood was the one councilman Mother insisted we could trust.
“We better get going then. It won’t take long before Justin starts putting things together and locks us both up.”
My PulsePoint pinged with another message from Shiloh: There’s a problem.
What? I asked.
Cricket and Dax have disappeared. They’re in dark gray hazmats, so they could be anywhere.
chapter forty-one
Cricket
“Do you know where we’re going?”
“Kind of. Just try to blend in and act like you’re somebody.” My hand with the virus shook. I was holding a hugely lethal weapon, and I couldn’t take the time to stop and secure it inside my pack.
The halls were busy with people in red and charcoal-colored hazmat suits. But no one was even looking our way, which felt slightly eerie. One floor up and a long, colorful curve of a hallway later, we approached a double set of doors with leadership guards standing outside. I slowed. Dax was on my heels.
The guards didn’t even ask us any questions; they simply held the doors open for us. “Has to be West,” I said. “He must be here.”
Dax and I darted by the guards.
Just like the last time I’d been inside the isolation suite, we found several nurses monitoring Willow. I walked up to the glass to stare at her. She looked terrible. One nurse blotted Willow’s neck with white gauze.
“She’s bleeding from her pores,” I said, mostly to myself.
“Hello, Christina.”
I spun around. It was West’s mother, wearing black protective gear. “Hi, President Layne.”
“Please, call me Ginger. You did once upon a time.”
“That was a long time ago.”
Dax remained motionless beside me.
“It wasn’t that long ago. I remember it like it was yesterday.”
“President Layne, I have a treatment. I don’t know if it will help Willow, but I’m afraid it’s our last chance. I think it’s as good of a chance as we’ve had.”
If I hadn’t been watching her closely, I would have missed the glimmer of hope that flashed in the president’s eye. But she crossed her arms across her stomach and looked away, as if she was trying to hide her emotions. “I’m afraid it might be too late for Willow.”
I turned my head toward Willow. Nothing but the blinking lights on the machines beside her showed any sign of life. When I turned back, I caught President Layne blinking back tears. She was losing her daughter.
I reached out a hand, but stopped short of touching President Layne. “Ginger, if everyone thinks it’s too late, what do we have to lose by trying?”
A doctor and a nurse hovered nearby, awaiting some command from their president—the mother of their patient. She turned her head and gave them a slight nod. “Let the girl administer her treatment.”
The doctor gestured for me to head down the short hallway and into the room that would lead through the decontamination chambers. Just before I entered the room, I looked back at Dax. “Wait out here for me, okay?”
He didn’t respond, but his face tightened, and deep trenches formed across his forehead.
“Miss Black, would you mind decontaminating, then changing into another set of protective gear before you enter Willow’s room?”
I did as the doctor asked. After decontamination, I placed the vial of the Samael Strain into the container with the other vials. After I’d re-suited up in a charcoal hazmat, I pulled out a vial of my cure. Or what I hoped might be a successful treatment.
Inside Willow’s room, my heart constricted into a tight ball when I heard the labored sound of her breathing. Every time she inhaled, it was like she had been held underwater and was just coming up for that first breath of air.
I held the vial out to the doctor. “Here’s the treatment that I hope will help Willow. The dosing instructions are written on the side of the vials.” Thank goodness Caine had been so meticulous with his written instructions.
He stared at the vial for a few seconds before taking it from me. “Don’t get your hopes up. Her heart is weak. Her kidneys have shut down.”
“Try it, please.”
He took the vial from me and handed it to the nurse. I watched as she extracted the liquid from the vial into a syringe and then pushed the liquid directly into the IV line already in place.
It would take a miracle for this drug to work, and though I thought I didn’t believe in miracles, West was right: I was somewhat of a living miracle myself. And who was to say that my parents hadn’t left me with those beads so that we would one day discover their use?
“Do you have any idea how quickly this medicine might work?” the doctor asked me.
I hadn’t thought about that. With the rats, it had taken… “A day or two?”
The doctor looked solemn. “I hope she has that long.”
The nurses in the room continued to monitor fluid levels, Willow’s heart rate and blood pressure, and all the other machines. I wanted to wait with Willow, to see if she showed improvement, but I couldn’t afford to stay. The clock was ticking.
I stood up to leave, but before I did, I walked over and touched Willow’s hand. “I’ve missed you, my friend.”
As I stared at her—studying her pale face, the beads of sweat that formed along her hairline, and the open sores along her neck—I remembered clearly the pain and discomfort I had felt six years ago, when I was fighting for my life. I thought about how many times I had begged for God to just take my life, to rid me of the suffering, like he had done for so many before me.
On the other side of the decontamination chamber, I began to strip out of the protective gear. As I removed it, I noticed a small slice in the back of my suit and an area of wetness on my clothes where the disinfectant substance had seeped through. Had the slice been there all along? I hadn’t really had a chance to look at the suit when I put it on, because the doctor had helped me suit up.
I lifted my head, and right in front of me was the doctor, still protected inside a hazmat suit.
“That suit was left here especially for you by Justin,” the doctor said. “He said to tell you that he was sorry to hear about the waning immunity of your blood against the Samael Strain. Apparently Dr. Pooley overheard Dr. Hempel telling you this.”
Then the doctor turned and walked out of the room, and I stared open-mouthed at his retreating back. My hand shook as I just stood there. I couldn’t move. I was scared to.
A knock at the window alerted me to Dax standing just outside the room where I was changing. I swallowed hard and scrambled to slip into another charcoal hazmat, the only color in that room besides white and pale blue.
From inside my pack, I removed a second vial of the treatment. I opened the small refrigerator in the room and tucked the vial in a corner in the back.
When I exited the room, President Layne was waiting with Dax.
“Thank you, Christina. You have shown my daughter great compassion. I only wish you two could have spent more time together.”
“She was my friend.”
“Cricket, we really need to get out of here.” Dax touched my arm, and I flinched, making him draw his fingers back. “You’ve got what you came for, and the president has promised us safe passage out.”
I turned to the president. “You have?”
“I was trying to think of a way to repay your kindness, and I’ve decided the best thing I could do for you at this moment is to show you a way out of New Caelum.”
“Thank you.” I had been wanting to leave New Caelum since the moment I’d arrived. But was I really going to leave without seeing West again?
“Cricket, come on. Let’s go.”
Just before leaving the isolation suite, I quickly sent West a note:
I left something for Dr. Hempel and the other sick child in the back of a refrigerator in the chamber outside of Willow’s room. Please tell Dr. Hempel thank you. Though I didn’t use his work, he did teach me what our medications had been missing. And West, I’m sorry our timing was so bad. I will miss you. I’m glad you found me, even if it was only for a brief time.
Love, C
The president and two of her guards personally led us down a back stairwell of the leadership wing to the ground floor. With each step I took, it became more difficult to breathe. I massaged what felt like a huge weight on my chest, trying to calm the panic I knew I was feeling both because I was leaving West…
… And because I’d just been exposed to the Samael Strain.
“Christina,” President Layne said when we reached the door that would take Dax and me back out into our world. “I am sorry for how our city has treated you.”
She had no idea just how badly her city—in the form of Justin Rhodes—had treated me.
“I so badly want to encourage you to stay here with us, but I promised West I would carry out your wishes.”
I drew back as if I’d been slapped. “West asked you to send me away?”
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