Paragon
Page 19
Sometimes Nan acted as bad as the people she watched, weaving conspiracy theories from nothing. So was it so surprising that Selene sometimes questioned things or felt like running away?
Nan waited, eyebrows raised, and Selene leaned against the wall, resigned to her fate. Nan turned on the recorded cast, and a greasy-looking guy appeared. A piece of cloth masked the lower half of his face, and bulky headphones covered his ears. He appeared to be in a shed. Cracks of light slanted through his wooden box, illuminating the dirt floor behind him.
It was Scraggle. Not his real name, just the one Selene had given him. He raised scraggly gray eyebrows over light eyes and moved closer to the cam. Selene scooted further back against the wall.
“We got rumors from Florida, folks. I picked up a cast from a few counties over today. They just got word of a quarantine. Now, I don’t know how sick people are, or if this is somethin’ like the last bird flu, or what. But I think it has somethin’ to do with the Thrive bacteria.”
Scraggle bit down so hard on his Ts that Selene thought she could see spit soaking through his flimsy disguise. “I heard some chatter about Thrive a few weeks ago—that scientist-types had been called down to the factory farms where they grow quin. And now there’s a quarantine near the same counties but nothin’ on the public casts about it yet. Smells like a Corporate Coalition cover-up to me. Well, an Infinitek cover-up. Just like the chemical spill, just like the Seattle spaceport bribes, just like the Defective kids. I told you this was coming. You mess with nature, you face the consequences.”
His voice rose. “The Corporate Coalition may run almost every country on the planet. They may own our government and our media. But they don’t own us. When I have more on this Thrive story, I’ll broadcast again. Stay sustainable, off-gridders.” He held his hand up in a peace sign gesture.
The screen went blank, along with Selene’s expression. “Defective kids, huh. Like Eli and me.” The very word “Defective” made her sick, but she kept her roiling emotions from creeping into her voice.
Nan pressed a hand to her breastbone, blinked rapidly, then took a deep, slow breath. “Don’t listen to that. You are not Defective. You are Protected. Many parents would still take the gene therapy if it meant having children who could fight off every disease.”
Selene stared down at the quilt she clutched. She’d forced Nan to admit the truth three years ago, after she’d heard an off-gridder refer to Protecteds as Defectives for the fifth time. So she knew that when—if—she ever wanted to have kids of her own, she had a very high chance of having a child with fatal birth defects. That was the Defective part about being Protected.
She looked back up at Nan and swallowed. “Right. But my kids—”
“You’re too young to be worrying about that,” Nan said, her voice pained. She paced the tiny room. “Didn’t you hear what he said? They’re quarantining people and not telling anyone.”
“Since we’re so Protected, Eli and I don’t need to worry about some mutated bug, do we?”
Nan stopped pacing, and her eyes grew pleading. “I showed you this because people grow desperate when diseases spread. You weren’t alive during the pandemics. I’ve seen it before. We’re safe here. We’re prepared for anything. That’s why we have to stay here.”
The sick feeling in Selene’s stomach grew worse, and she forced herself to get up. Was Nan right? Or was she buying into conspiracies that had no basis in reality?
∞ ∞
DEFECT
Prequel to the Bestselling Legacy Code Series
Selene Hayes is a genetic experiment gone wrong.
Damaged.
Broken.
Defective.
World hunger has been vanquished, but drug-resistant diseases kill millions. The corporation that gave Selene superimmunity called her Protected… until they discovered the truth. Now they hunt her and those like her, and Selene’s been hiding off-grid for eight years to avoid capture.
But she can’t hide forever. Rumors of a new threat—and a mysterious quarantine—have reached her sanctuary. And if Selene has to fight, she’ll fight until she dies. The Corporate Coalition will never take her alive.
Read Defect now on Amazon.
Wanna stay here with my dreams
Don’t wanna face the day
’Cause this reality's my nightmare since you went away
And everywhere I see your face
In every song I hear your voice
Like a phantom melody
Why'd you make that choice?
I wanna believe I’ll see you again
I wanna believe that this isn’t the end
Wanna believe that there’s a better world,
A better world awaiting
Better world waiting
Waiting
Waiting
Wish I could find faith in what they call lies
Since the day we lost it all, and the old gods died
And everywhere I see your face
In every song I hear your voice
Never got the chance to say good-bye
Before you made that choice.
I wanna believe I’ll see you again
I wanna believe that this isn’t the end
Wanna believe that there’s a better world,
A better world awaiting
Better world waiting
Waiting
Waiting
Need hope the dead religions give me
Want a reason, not a chaos theory
Wanna believe
I’ll see you again
Wanna believe
That this isn’t the end
Wanna believe that there's a better world.
A better world waiting
Waiting
Waiting
Thanks to my dad, mom, step-dad, and sister, as well as all my family and friends, for your love and support. It means a lot to me that you’re right here with me, wanting to see the fleet get to its destination!
To Erynn Newman and Bethany Kaczmarek, I love working with you both! I’m so happy to have such wonderful editors.
Thanks to Jamie Blair and Freya Wolfe, for the many hours you spent helping me make this book what it is.
A special thanks to my beta readers: Alicia Porter, Emmanuelle Pensa, and Sita Payne Romero.
And, of course, I couldn’t have written this book without the unwavering love and support of my husband and daughter. I love you both, and you help keep me grounded lest I lose myself in my worlds.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Excerpt: Defect
Better World
Acknowledgments