The Cure (31 page)

The scientist nodded and reached for a beaker.

I tore my eyes away from the pathetic sight. First they frighten the poor doctor nearly to death and then they overdose him on Justine. He didn’t stand a chance. “Why didn’t you do what I told you to?” I asked Benito. “If you’d left the first time, it’d only be me stuck here.”

He shrugged. “It’s a jungle. I don’t like snakes.”

But I knew he’d stayed out of loyalty, and that meant I was once again responsible for whatever happened to him. Better that I’d given him my wallet and Mari’s ring back in Portland.

If only there was a way to warn Ritter. I had to try. Dropping my mental shield, I reached out past the scientist’s eager flurry, searching the surrounding area. Maybe if they were close enough, I could reach my brother, Jace. Searching . . . harder . . . reaching. A dull throb began in my temples and at the base of my head. Nothing, but the whisper of the native life, blending in with the jungle around us.

Frowning, I’d begun pulling in my thoughts when my mind stumbled on something. Mari. Her fear and eagerness burst through my mind. I stiffened. Had she shifted back here? That was the only explanation for why I felt her so close.

Jonny stretched and walked toward the door. “Going to look around,” he called to Justine. “If those guys spring that trap right, it shouldn’t be long before they’re here.” Without waiting for her agreement, he strode outside.

I waited for the shout of discovery or the sound of a bullet shattering the peace of the village, but nothing happened. I closed my eyes and concentrated on Mari, but she was gone—if she’d ever been here at all. Was I imagining things? Or had she popped in while trying to get away from Tom?

I hadn’t felt so helpless in a long time, but there didn’t seem to be any way to get free, so I let myself slip back into worrying about Jace and the others. Would Cort die without knowing Tom was his brother? Would I forever mourn the fact that I’d never be able to clear the air with Dimitri?

I felt most stupid about not working things out with Ritter. I’d been so busy trying to punish him for lost time that I may have squandered all the time we’d had left.

M
INUTES TICKED INTO ONE HOUR
, and then two. After three hours my position on the hammock had become torture. Above me, Benito snored, apparently undisturbed by his tied hands. The scientist, his fear allayed by Justine’s pheromones, worked feverishly, eager to please, looking every so often at a laptop screen where Jonny had plugged in his thumb drive.

Edgel had mostly recovered and now shot me black stares with his undamaged eye whenever I shifted position. When he wasn’t glaring at me, he was walking to the door and peering out, seemingly as worried as I was when no one else appeared. I imagined Jace fighting in the jungle. I should never have left him. And Ritter. I couldn’t even go there.

Finally, the scientist sighed. “Okay, now we just have to wait.”

“That’s it?” Justine asked. “It’s not sensitive to movement anymore?”

He grinned. “We don’t have to worry about that now. But these two mixtures must sit separately for three hours by themselves.”

“Exactly three?”

“Doesn’t really matter. But at least three before they’re mixed. Not more than ten. The real trick is that this frozen mixture”—he motioned to a test tube in a case of dry ice—“must stay frozen until it goes in with the others, and it must be in at least fifty-five minutes before it is injected into the subject.”

“In with the mixture? Or after it’s thawed and mixed?” She caressed the upper part of his arm, rubbing up and down.

He leaned into her hand. “Oh, you add it in frozen. Mix only after it dissolves. That takes about twenty minutes. Mix by swirling together in the test tube. No spoon or anything needed. The three mixtures stay together fifty-five minutes from the time it thaws. It’ll stay good for about twenty-four hours, but after that it degrades. We never tested stabilizers or anything. It’s all written in my notes.”

“You’re certain it will work?”

“We tried it out on our test subjects.” He frowned when she took her hand away. “Fortunately, it was in a controlled environment, and we were able to sedate them until it wore off. The effect on their immune system was remarkable, though, and it pointed us in the right direction for our main objective. We had to remove all the negative aspects, of course.”

“Negative meaning that your subjects will do anything suggested to them.”

“Or any thought that crosses their mind.” His brow furrowed. “Violent things, that is. To themselves, others, anyone. We didn’t test exactly why. We thought it best not to . . .” He shook his head. “After a few hours there’s no trace of the drug in their bodies—or at least nothing that doesn’t look like it should already be there. You’re not really going to use this, are you?”

Justine’s eyes met mine. “Oh, yes. We are. But don’t worry. It’s for a very good cause, and you won’t be blamed.” She broke eye contact with me and waved at Edgel. “The doctor here needs to go for a walk. Take care of him would you? We don’t need his services any longer.”

“No!” I sat up, straining against my bonds. Apart from the fact that he was an innocent here, I needed him for Stella and Bronson. If I didn’t manage to get that thumb drive, he’d be their only hope.

“I do need to see a man about a dog,” the scientist said, winking at me. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sure you will.” Justine kissed her finger and placed it on the man’s lips. “Goodbye, uh, Mr. Scientist.” She didn’t even know his name.

He laughed. “You’d better be here when I get back. I don’t like these other guys so well.”

“Come on.” Edgel put a hand on his shoulder.

“No! Please, Justine,” I said. “It’s for a friend.”

Justine sauntered in my direction. “What friend?”

Edgel paused at the door, and I was sensing something from him now. Something about his daughter. But it vanished as he pulled the door open.

“Don’t do it!” I called after him, but already he was taking out his gun. My stomach churned.

“You know I can’t let him live.” Justine’s voice came from so close it startled me. “We have too much invested in autoimmune medicines to allow a cure.”

I searched her face. “I just need it for a friend.”

She sat down in the hammock beside me. “I’m sorry. I really am.” She sighed deeply. “You know sometimes I really hate all this. One of the best times of my life was when Tom and I met you and we were all just ordinary people. I loved all the things we did together.”

“It was all a lie.”

She gave a soft groan. “It still meant something. I miss those days.”

I believed her. Not only because she wasn’t emitting pheromones, but because of the emotions peeling off her. Not a glimpse into her mind exactly, but like Edgel earlier, a loosening of control. Even so, I would not be moved. She didn’t deserve forgiveness, and I wouldn’t give it to her.

“You’ve never told him you’re his mother,” I said.

She started at that, an involuntary jerk that told me she’d thought her secret safe. “I don’t plan to. Yet.”

“Does Tihalt know he has another son?”

“Oh.” She waved that aside. “Everyone is required to participate in the genetic experiments, even Tihalt, and I simply used my ability to exchange a few tubes. He doesn’t know—yet.” She smiled. “But he will. I’ve been planning this a long time.”

“This? You mean taking control of the Triad.”

She shrugged. “Delia’s ruled it for long enough.”

“Stefan is no pansy.”

Justine laughed. “Oh, no. That he is not. But him I can work with. He is a man after all.”

“I think you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.”

“Perhaps.” She sighed. “See? Isn’t this nice? All this exchange of information? If we worked together, there’s no end to what we could do.”

“Until I wanted to do something you didn’t approve of.” Why was I sitting here chatting with her when so many lives hung in the balance? But there didn’t seem to be another option. Even if I attacked her now, and managed to knock her out somehow, my hands were still tied so tight they were numb, the two ends of the rope firmly knotted on the opposite sides of the hammock out of my reach.

“Something I don’t approve of? You mean like that delicious Renegade you had with you in New York?” She licked her lips, and I caught a subtle shift in my emotions that told me she’d resorted to pheromones again. She should realize by now that though I wasn’t immune, I was able to resist. “I don’t blame you for the attraction,” she added. “But Tom really is better for you.”

“I don’t love Tom.”

“So you’re with that Renegade now?” Justine’s expression was calm, but her eyes glittered dangerously.

I stared right back. She didn’t deserve an answer. “You helped murder his family.”

“I was protecting the Emporium.
My
family. That we missed him was unfortunate. Apparently more unfortunate than I knew at the time, if he’s influencing you. Did you tell him it was me who was there that day when his family died? Tom said he told you. I bet him you wouldn’t say anything.” She laughed at my grimace. “I’ll have to tell Tom I was right. That should tell you something, Erin. Think about it.”

Edgel returned to the hut alone. He dug into a box and pulled out a couple of bullets, refilling those missing from his magazine. Pushing out with my mind, I searched for the life force that had been the scientist. It was gone.

I swallowed bile, feeling completely and utterly useless. “Go away, Justine,” I told her. “Leave me alone. And quit it with the pheromones.”

“Fine.” Justine bounced from the hammock, but she didn’t leave. Instead, she leaned over to whisper. “Do you know about his son?”

I froze. “What do you know about it?”

“There’s a facility in London. A hospital for the very wealthy. Place is like Fort Knox. Not even we can penetrate it. We’ve tailed Ritter there several times there over the years.”

“So?”

“The hospital deals only with addiction.”

I considered for a moment. Her comments told me Ritter’s foster son was Unbounded, something I hadn’t realized during my discussion with him in the forest. I’d figured he was a mortal, probably still fairly young, but his being Unbounded changed my perception about what kind of worry Ritter had endured. Alcohol didn’t stay in our systems long, and for recreational drugs—or any drug—to work for more than a few hours, an Unbounded had to ingest it in extremely concentrated quantities, like the drug we used to keep Emporium Unbounded unconscious during transport. The only exception was curequick. That also didn’t stay in the system long, but it was potent enough in its regular form to cause addiction in even a short time, and it was easily available among Unbounded, so the dosage could be repeated often. I’d heard enough horror stories about curequick addiction to make me shun it for everything but emergencies.

Justine laughed. “We all have our dirty little secrets.”

I knew she’d kill Ritter as readily as he’d kill her, given the chance, and his foster son might be that chance. I’d have to warn Ritter.

“Was he one of the Renegades following my people in the jungle?” Justine asked, sympathy oozing from her voice. “Poor, Erin. For what it’s worth, I’m very sorry. But believe me, you’re better off without him.”

Without waiting for an answer, she strode over to Edgel. “Let’s get this ready to go. Jonny hasn’t returned from his little scouting tour, and I don’t like that we can’t contact them and that someone’s messing with the satellites. They should have arrived hours ago. Make sure we keep everything just as our dearly departed doctor set it up. Leave all the equipment. Like him, it’s no longer necessary. There won’t be time for a second batch.”

If the drug didn’t work, would they resort to their original plan, or take out the senator later? Or was there some added angle we weren’t seeing, as Keene suspected? Justine’s emotions had gone completely dark again, another indication of her worry.

Edgel got down to work. I’d heard of people cutting off their own limbs to escape a difficult situation, and if I had something sharp, I’d be tempted to cut off my hand to free it from the rope. At least my limb would regrow. Sitting there doing nothing was driving me insane.

There wasn’t much to pack. Justine and Edgel carried the necessary items out to her SUV and were back within minutes, but this time Jonny was with them, and he was breathing hard. “You’re sure?” Justine was saying to him.

Jonny nodded. “I can only assume things didn’t go exactly as planned.”

Yes!
Hope changed everything.

“Get them.” Justine gestured toward Benito and me, pulling out my machete and handing it to Jonny. “We’re leaving now. Hurry!”

“We aren’t staying to help?” Edgel beat Jonny to the hammock and cut Benito’s rope with his own knife, tossing the man over his shoulder.

“I can’t risk them getting back the drug or the information.” She hesitated, gauging Edgel’s reaction before adding. “You can stick around, if you must, but stay out of sight until our guys arrive. Surround the Renegades. But make sure you don’t get caught. I’ll need you later.”