This Vicious Cure

by Emily Suvada

  “I don’t think so,” Anna says, jerking the wheel. “They were probably coming through here anyway and just shot us when they saw the truck’s headlights. A better question is why they aren’t attacking each other.”

  “That… is a better question,” I say, staring back through the darkness. Anna’s right. The Lurkers aren’t turning on one another. They’ve always traveled in small packs, hunting together like wolves, but that isn’t what’s happening now. A group this size should be a chaotic, bloody mess. Instead, they’re running together like a herd. Or an army.

  The thought sends a shiver across my skin. If someone’s turning people into Lurkers, then maybe they’re controlling them too. Maybe they’re forcing them into a massive group and keeping them from attacking one another. A force like that could be devastating if you sent them to a bunker or town. They’d overrun it, killing everyone in sight. And right now, they’re heading straight for Entropia.

  “This could be a coordinated attack,” I say. “I told you I think someone’s triggering the Lurkers. What if they’ve turned them into a weapon, and they’re sending them to destroy the city?”

  “Then we’re sure as hell not going to the city,” Anna says. She swings the truck around and away from Entropia, cutting diagonally across the path of the horde.

  “How would someone be controlling them?” Cole asks. His eyes are still half-lidded, his veins standing out black against his skin, but he’s fighting against the anesthetic to stay alert.

  “I don’t know,” I say. “It could be a satellite signal, or something local.” I look down at the black glass cuff on my forearm. If I were physically here, I’d send a pulse from it to scan the Lurkers’ panels, but I’m not really sitting in this truck and there’s no transmitter on my arm to scan the desert. But I was able to use my cuff when I was at Cartaxus with Dax.

  I look up from my cuff to the Lurkers, focusing in the same way I did when I was trying to see them through the cloud of dust. A pulse rolls out from my arm, my vision growing dim. Blazing white light glows on the truck’s dashboard and along Cole and Anna’s panels. In the distance, the mass of running, snarling Lurkers becomes a cloud of light.

  It worked.

  “I can… I can scan their panels,” I say, frowning. A wave of readings blurs across my vision—panel IDs, network configurations. It’s one thing to be able to see the Lurkers from a mile away—I know Veritas is hooked into people’s ocular tech, so it’s not hard to pull up an image from another part of the simulation—but this is more than that. I’m able to see the Lurkers’ transmitters, their apps, and details on their tech. Since I’m not physically sending a pulse across the desert to them, it means that information was already in Veritas, waiting for me to access it.

  It means that Veritas isn’t just accessing everyone’s eyes. It has access to everyone’s panels, too.

  “So you can see if they’re being controlled?” Anna asks, wrenching the wheel, veering us around an outcrop of boulders.

  “Maybe…,” I murmur, my head spinning. If Veritas is accessing everyone’s panels, that means Cartaxus can too. If the genehackers found out about this, there’d be riots. People would be cutting out their panels. But I don’t understand how Cartaxus kept it a secret for so long—and why they haven’t used it. Cartaxus sent out the vaccine using the trapdoor—the tiny, hidden weakness in the heart of every panel. But Veritas has far more access. It’s almost like Cartaxus doesn’t know how powerful their own simulation is.

  “So?” Anna snaps. “What’s happening to the Lurkers, Agatta?”

  I blink, my focus snapping back to the readings from my scan. “I’m checking.” I scroll through the network connections, searching for a signal that might be controlling the Lurkers remotely. There are comm connections, software update channels, and thousands of strange, encrypted signals that I don’t recognize.…

  But that’s not true. Goose bumps prickle across my skin. I’ve seen these before. The exact same signals were pulsing from the panels of the glowing flocks of pigeons—the ones carrying the mutated strain of the virus. And now they’re pulsing from the panels of the horde of Lurkers. Ziana’s letter circles through my mind. She said none of this was happening by accident. Not the vaccine’s failure, not the pigeons, and not the Lurkers. She said someone was behind all of it.

  It looks like she was right.

  “There’s definitely something going on with their panels,” I say. The Lurker attacks aren’t just a glitch, and they’re not random. This signal is proof—and whoever’s behind it is the same person who created the pigeons. They tried to start a war and almost succeeded, and now they’re trying again. I set off a trace on the signal, but it’s like following a wisp of smoke.

  Whoever’s behind this is covering their tracks.

  “This is a signal I’ve seen before,” I say. “It must be what’s stopping the Lurkers from attacking each other.” I used this signal in Entropia to control the pigeons—to turn them into a whirling cloud of beaks and feathers. If it’s being used to control the Lurkers, there’s a chance I can use it too.

  A puff of smoke belches from the truck’s damaged hood, and the engine lets out a screech. “Dammit!” Anna snaps, shifting gears. The truck keeps rolling, but we’re still in the Lurkers’ path, and there’s no way we’ll be able to drive to safety. “We need a new plan.” Anna looks back over her shoulder. “This truck might only have a few miles left in it. If it breaks down, we’ll be screwed when those freaks hit us.”

  “I might have an idea,” I say, scanning the desert. There’s an outcrop of rocks sprawled beside the road ahead of us. There are boulders and crevices big enough to make the horde split to run around them, and we might be able to hide there. That isn’t the real cover I’m hoping for, though. I draw up the strange, encrypted signal in my mind. I think I can mock up a harmless clone of it and send it to Cole and Anna. It shouldn’t turn either of them into Lurkers, but it might make the horde ignore them like they’re ignoring one another.

  I don’t know if it’s going to work, though. It’s practically a hunch. If it fails, Cole and Anna will be defenseless. But it’s the only plan I have.

  Cole blinks, fighting to stay alert. “What’s your plan?”

  “Do you trust me?” I ask.

  “No,” Anna snaps. “I don’t have time for stupid questions. I’m trying to save our asses here.”

  “I think I can save you and Cole. The truck isn’t going to make it.”

  “Yeah, no shit,” Anna says. “There has to be a weak spot in the stampede that we can punch through.”

  “We aren’t going to make it through them, Anna,” Cole says. “There are too many of them. They’re armed.”

  “Well, there’s nowhere to hide,” Anna says. “We can’t just hang out in the desert.”

  I look back at the dark, billowing clouds, at the horde pounding across the desert plains. “They’re not attacking each other, like you said, and I think I know why. I can do the same thing to your panels. It won’t affect you, but it’ll make them ignore you. If you two hide in those rocks, I think the Lurkers might pass us by.”

  Anna’s eyes cut to me. “That’s ridiculous. We’ll be stranded.”

  “We’ll be stranded anyway when the engine gives out,” I say. “They might have more missiles. The truck is a target, but you and Cole don’t need to be.”

  Anna’s jaw clenches. She looks over her shoulder at the horde. “I say we take our chances with the truck.”

  I grit my teeth. The rocky outcrop we’re driving past doesn’t stretch much farther, and when we’re past it, we’ll be driving into open plains with nowhere to hide.

  Cole looks back at the horde. “We aren’t going to make it much further, Anna,” he says. “Maybe we should do what Catarina says.”

  “We’ll be defenseless,” Anna snaps. “The engine is still holding. We could make it if we drive.”

  “But we’re going into an open plain with no cover,” I say. “Ev
en if I can hide you with this signal, you’ll get trampled. Please, trust me.”

  Cole frowns, his ice-blue eyes searching mine. “I do,” he says, and for a heartbeat, I see something in his face. Something that’s almost like the way he used to look at me. It’s fleeting, but it’s there, and it sends a jolt through me.

  I look back at the Lurkers, then out the window at the fast-receding rocks. “You need to go now.”

  “You need to shut up,” Anna says.

  Cole looks between the two of us, then grabs the duffel bag at his feet. He flings his door open, loops his hand around Anna’s waist, and drags her out into the night.

  CHAPTER 19 JUN BEI

  MATO STRIDES ACROSS THE ROOM, his coding mask flickering with light. His dark hair is back in a low ponytail, a smile curved across his lips. The soldiers slumped on the floor aren’t moving—I don’t think they’re breathing. I stare at them, stunned, the glittering blue liquid in the tank lapping at my chest.

  Mato must have a copy of the scythe. The thought makes my stomach lurch. He just used it on those troops, which means there’s a chance that Cartaxus has it now. But Mato clearly doesn’t care about that risk. He doesn’t look like he cares about anything. He just killed a dozen people without even thinking about it. Who the hell have I set loose?

  “Mato, what have you done?” Dax breathes, staring at the guards.

  “What I had to,” Mato says, pushing back a lock of hair from his face. Something moves in me at the sight of him. It’s not as strong as the reaction I felt seeing Cole, but it’s not far from it. Whatever the feeling, I don’t have long to analyze it. The tank’s liquid is rising to my neck.

  “Mato!” I yell, slamming on the side of the tank.

  He looks over, his eyes glazing, and a click sounds beneath me. The liquid spirals down, dragging me with it. The cables in my head and the small of my back hiss as they eject. The liquid reaches knee level, sloshing against the walls as it drains, and the glass door set into the side of the tank slides open. I grab the edges and haul myself out, sending pools of the glistening blue fluid spilling across the floor.

  “Are you okay to walk?” Mato asks me.

  I nod, swallowing. There’s a fuzziness to my thoughts from whatever drug the cables in the tank were giving me, but it’s clearing fast now that I’m out.

  Dax backs against the closest counter. “Mato—think this through.”

  Mato’s eyes cut to him, narrowing. “This is all I’ve been thinking of for the last three weeks. You kept me locked up in a cell. What did you think was going to happen?”

  “I’ve been trying to protect you,” Dax says. He gestures to the soldiers on the floor. “I can’t protect you after this.”

  “I don’t need your protection anymore. And you don’t need mine, either.”

  I slide on the tiles, grabbing the closest lab bench to keep myself upright. I look between Mato and Dax. They don’t just seem like colleagues—they’re closer than that. There’s something in the way they’re fighting that makes them seem like family. But Mato was raised in Entropia. That doesn’t make any sense.

  “Mato, we need to get out now,” I say, shoving the sopping hair back from my face. Pain shoots through my side as I lift my arm. The plastic bullets broke at least one rib, maybe two. My healing tech is going to be straining, but I have enough strength to run. We need to get out of here before Cartaxus sends reinforcements. I step between the counters, staggering toward the door, but pause as footsteps echo in the hallway.

  Mato turns, his mask glowing. I tense, waiting for more soldiers to burst in, for Mato to use the scythe again and kill them. Something twists in me at the thought, but when the doors fly open, it isn’t more soldiers who run in. It’s Ruse.

  “Jun Bei,” he says, gasping for air. His left arm is streaked with blood, his rifle gripped in his hands. He looks down at the dead soldiers on the floor, then back up at me. “They shot down the Comox. Some of Rhine’s team were taken, and we don’t have Lachlan. We’ve got our people, but we can’t fix the vaccine alone. We’ve failed.”

  “This isn’t over,” I say. “There’s another way—trust me. We need to get out of here now.”

  “You don’t have to leave,” Dax blurts out. “None of you need to go anywhere. The offer to work together still stands.”

  Ruse spins around, his eyes narrowed. “You expect me to believe that, Crick? You have our people held at gunpoint right now.”

  “And I’ll have my soldiers stand down if you agree to a truce,” Dax says. “I’m willing to forget this ever happened if you’ll look past the mistakes Cartaxus has made. We can’t keep fighting. If you leave now, you’ll be starting a war. We need to work together.”

  Ruse’s eyes are still narrowed, but he isn’t saying no.

  “Don’t listen to him,” I say, yanking the dampener off my panel and hurling it to the floor. My senses crackle, the open connections around me bursting into my vision. “He brought me here to experiment on me.”

  “Yes, I did,” Dax says. “Lachlan needs you to fix the vaccine. It’s our only chance. Like Ruse said, you can’t do it without Lachlan, and you don’t have him. This is over, Jun Bei. Let’s work together to stop this war.”

  Ruse doesn’t look convinced, but he isn’t moving for the door anymore. “How can I be sure that our people won’t be hurt?”

  “You’re considering this?” I spit. “Ruse, I told you. I have another way. We can get out of here now—”

  “And do what?” Ruse asks. “We can’t fix the code ourselves.”

  “But I can,” I say, kneeling to grab a handgun from the holster of one of the fallen guards. It’s one of the orange-striped models. The tranquilizer guns. I flick the safety off, standing up slowly. “I don’t need Lachlan’s help. I’m getting someone else out of the lab whose DNA I can use to finish the Panacea. This is better than taking Lachlan. We just need to get out of here and finish this like we planned.”

  Ruse blinks. I just told him that this mission isn’t a failure and that we can finish this on our own. We don’t need to ally with the people who bombed Entropia and locked its citizens away. We don’t need to rely on the man who put us in this mess in the first place. We can go back to Novak’s base and study Leoben right now.

  Ruse should be overjoyed, but instead, he looks furious.

  “You did what?” He stalks toward me. “You got someone else out? What happened to the plan? Is that why Cartaxus was able to take Rhine’s team?”

  I swallow. “Sometimes things go wrong.”

  His eyes flare. “How could you do that? This mission was your idea. You screwed us all.”

  “I’m saving us,” I snap. “You have to trust me, Ruse. You’ve never trusted me—”

  “And clearly, I shouldn’t have,” he says. “What about Rhine? Her people? We’re just going to leave them behind?”

  My hands tighten on the gun. “I told you—sometimes things go wrong.”

  He shakes his head. “No, this is madness. This isn’t what we agreed to. We’ll take the truce, Crick. This mission is over.”

  I lift the gun in my hands, aiming it at his chest. It’s just loaded with tranquilizers, so it won’t kill him, but the threat is clear. “We’re not taking the truce. We’re leaving, now, and I’m going to finish the Panacea. You’ll thank me for this, Ruse.”

  He shakes his head, stunned. “This is madness, Jun Bei.”

  “It isn’t personal.” I step to Mato’s side, the gun still aimed at Ruse’s chest. “I need to finish the Panacea. You’ve never understood how important it is, but that isn’t going to stop me. You can stay behind with Cartaxus—it’s up to you. I’m leaving, though, and I’m finishing this mission.”

  His eyes grow cold. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. There’s more than just the code at stake here. How are you going to prevent this war?”

  A flicker of doubt runs through me. That’s the part of the plan I haven’t solved yet. All my energy so far has bee
n focused on finishing the Panacea.

  “I don’t know,” I murmur. “I’ll figure it out.”

  Ruse shakes his head. “This isn’t you, Jun Bei. You want to help people—I know you do. We can help them together, and we can avoid this war. You don’t need to do this.”

  “Of course she doesn’t need to do this,” Mato says, grabbing the gun from my hands. He fires a dart into Ruse’s chest, then turns, firing another at Dax in a blur. “But she can.”

  A jolt runs through me. Ruse and Dax slump to the floor. I stare down at them, blinking, my hand still outstretched from holding the gun. I turn to Mato, not knowing what to say. He just killed a troop of guards and shot the leaders of Cartaxus and Entropia within a few minutes of being freed.

  A smile curves across his lips. “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you again.” He hands the tranquilizer gun back to me.

  “The door to Leoben’s quarters was blown open. Is he the person whose DNA you need?”

  The tension in my chest eases. Leoben is loose. If my plan worked, he’ll have followed the directions I sent from Dax’s panel and will be waiting with the rest of the team.

  “He is,” I say.

  Mato nods. “What now?”

  “Eastern loading bay,” I say, sliding the gun into the empty holster under my jacket.

  His eyes light up. “I know where that is. Let’s get out of here.” He shoulders his way through the doors and jogs down the hallway.

  I follow him, my boots soaked with the tank’s liquid, squelching as I break into a run. I can’t stop seeing the look of horror on Ruse’s face when Mato shot him.

  A shiver creeps across my skin. Mato is clearly dangerous, but he’s my closest ally now.

  We head back through the maze of hallways, but not to the landing pad where we came from. That’s swarming with guards now, and the Comox we flew in on has a harpoon in its side. That’s okay, though. We have another ride coming our way.