I completely understood and took the terms in stride. Essentially, I was on parole, but I’d be working with Davin again and sharing my findings with the rest of the Compounds. With any luck, in a few months, we’d be on our way toward a vaccine.
When he left, I bounced around my apartment in absolute glee. Come tomorrow, I’d see Davin again.
“MEGHAN!” AMY GRINNED when I strode into the lab the next morning. Mitch and Charlie flanked her sides. All of them came forward.
“What have you been up to, troublemaker?” Mitch lifted me into a hug. “This place has been insane since you left.”
I smiled, hugging him back.
“No suit for your first day back?” Charlie assessed my blouse and slacks before giving me a quick squeeze.
“I’ll admit I have a suit jacket in my office. I’ll wear it at the conference.” I was amazed at how far I’d come. Just three months ago, I would have been a nervous wreck at the attention, but now I felt confident and sure. Amy was right. I’d come a long way.
“The conference, about time,” Amy muttered. “I’m glad Dr. Sadowsky is a reasonable man. Dr. Roberts certainly isn’t.”
At the mention of my boss, I tightened. I had yet to see him.
“Have you seen Davin yet?” Mitch asked.
“No. I’m going to the Inner Sanctum now before I go up to the auditorium.”
“I’m guessing you want to see him in private and have us meet you there?” Amy asked.
“If you don’t mind.”
They all nodded and gathered their things.
I walked to the Sanctum alone. It was the longest walk of my life.
WHEN I ROUNDED the corner into Davin’s hall, he stood waiting. He had to know I was coming. Sara had probably told him.
When we finally saw each other, we both stopped, frozen in time, staring at one another. He looked exactly as I remembered. Tall, strong, and ready to conquer the entire world.
It was what I admired most about him, loved about him. Davin was a warrior. Those warrior traits ran in his blood and could never be banished. Hundreds of years ago, he would have been astride a stallion, galloping across the plains, fearlessly hunting the wild buffalo. Now, he stood ramrod straight. Proud, distinct, the last Sioux warrior to roam the land.
Sergeant Rose helped me suit up. Never had I felt so much anxiety at seeing Davin again. When I was finally ready to go in, my heart raced, and my breath came in short gasps.
The door opened to his cell.
He stood waiting, his blue eyes shining.
Grasping my hand, he led me to his chair. I sat while he perched on his bed. A few feet separated us, yet I’d never felt so close to another human being in my life.
“Did you and Sara really hatch out that plan to get you back in here?” he finally asked, his voice husky.
I nodded. “We needed to do something to get the Director’s attention. Otherwise, he may have never let me back in.”
He clasped my hand. Heat seared through my gloves. I looked down, wishing so much that I could feel his skin. Touch him. Love him.
“I’m going to get you out of here, Davin. If it’s the last thing I do on earth, that will be it.”
“I know you will.”
WHEN I FIRST saw Davin, he’d been a blur of a human being. Whizzing, throwing, and fighting too quickly for me to see him. How little I had known when I entered the Compound on my first day. I would have never guessed what was to come, or how much this Kazzie would affect me.
Davin’s soul was as strong and unyielding as the Makanza strain within him. He had a heart filled with goodness and honesty, but a backbone made of brick and mortar. His touch and laughter sang to my soul, and just a glance from him sent shivers to my toes. I had no idea what was to come when I first laid eyes on him. Not only would he capture my heart, but he’d be the breakthrough for the vaccine to come.
As he held my hand, I explained my theory to him, a variation of Dr. Hutchinson’s theory on mind-body genomics. I told him that we needed to bring families and spouses of the Kazzies into the Compounds. If we wanted to collect samples that were stable enough to synthesize into a vaccine, we needed to fill the cells with love. The uniqueness of Makanza was that it was tied to a Kazzie’s DNA, similar to the way an unborn child was tied to his mother.
They were one.
Breathing, feeding, and growing together. One could not be detached from the other unless the body was ready. Just the way an unborn child, forced from the womb, came into the world with an abundance of complications, so was the way of Makanza. However, when love and acceptance filled the environment, when the virus was coaxed and not forced, when it was caressed and not beaten, it was stable.
The conference that afternoon opened the door to the next phase of ending Makanza. In a few short months, we’d have our vaccine. We would have the beginnings of the path to recovery, to healing, to making us a global community once again.
I held Davin’s hands and gazed into his bright blue eyes as I explained what we endeavored to overcome. I felt his awe, fear, and hope. He knew just like I did that a vaccine was only the beginning. It wasn’t a guarantee, but it was a start.
For with a vaccine, only then would the real work begin.
CONTINUE THE STORY
Reservation 1, book two in The Makanza Series
Available on Amazon
AUTHOR’S NOTE
If you’re reading this, you probably just finished the entire first book in The Makanza Series and you stuck around long enough to read this too. Wow, thank you! :)
I hope that you enjoyed Compound 26. It was a book that I began writing a number of years ago, but then I put it on hold to finish The Lost Children Trilogy. I came back to it in 2017, finished it, and also began writing the rest of the series. The entire four-book Makanza Series will be available in 2018. I hope you enjoy it!
Something else I’d like to share with you – I’m an indie author. As for what that means… I don’t have a publishing house backing me. In other words, the only people I communicate with about my books are those that I hire to do my artwork and editing, and of course you, my reader. If you’d like to contact me, feel free. My social media links are below.
Lastly, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave a review on Compound 26. Goodreads is great, but a review on Amazon is even better. Amazon has a ranking system for its authors – the higher you rank, the more visibility you get. And guess what helps ranking? Reviews. So if you enjoyed Compound 26, please consider swiping to the end of this book and filling out Amazon’s review form. It will only take a minute or two of your time to delegate a star rating and write a sentence or two about what you thought. Leaving a review is the best way to help me keep writing books.
If you want to stay up-to-date on my new releases, consider joining my newsletter (on my website), or follow me on Bookbub, or follow me on my Amazon author page. You’ll get notices about my new releases.
Anyway, that’s all from me! Thanks for reading my work, and until we connect again, happy reading! K-
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are many people I need to thank. To Bruce Eckloff for giving me a tour of your lab and explaining genetic basics to me. Seeing the insides of a lab, hearing its sounds, and smelling its scents gave me great material to work with.
To my editor, Mike Kalmbach – thank you for not only editing this book but for sharing your scientific knowledge. Any misrepresentations about genetic science in this novel are my mistakes and mine alone.
To Jesikah, Mark, Charis, and Jaime Lea for beta reading and proofreading. Thank you all for your time and help wit
h this novel.
My cover artist, Deranged Doctor Design. You’ve once again blown me away with your amazing talent and artwork.
And of course, thank you, my reader. Without you, I’d have no reason to publish. Thank you for reading my work!
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