Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Gretchen, Evie, and I watch him warily.
He sighs, the closest thing to emotion I’ve seen from him. “I swear on my oath to the Constitution. All right?”
“Seems legit.” I stand, the nervous energy from Gretchen’s findings quickening my steps. “What’s the problem?” I follow the major out into the antechamber, warm spring sunlight falling through the high windows in neat stripes.
“Nothing yet.” He draws me away from the lab doors and closer to the windows. “But the Saints are mobilizing.”
“Saints?” I ask.
“The ones who destroyed the lab. The ones who—” His gaze is piercing. “The ones you claimed you weren’t there to witness, yet described their patch perfectly.”
“I didn’t say I never saw. I said—” Wait, what lie did I tell? That’s the problem with lying when you aren’t used to it. You can’t remember what you lied about and then you’re being grilled by a no-nonsense Army asshole who sees right through you.
“It doesn’t matter.” He cuts through my inner turmoil with a sharp tone. “What matters is that their numbers are growing, and they have a very clear set of goals.”
“Which are?”
“Destroying the blood centers is high priority, but razing this lab to the ground is at the top of their list.”
“You’re the Army.” I shake my head. “There’s no way you can’t take them.”
He grimaces. “Maybe you’ve been shut up in here too long, Dr. Clark, but the Army isn’t what it used to be. The plague killed off a high percentage of our boots on the ground. Civil unrest has killed more. Even with that said, we’re still the strongest military in the world. We have the firepower. But when I ask my soldiers to turn that firepower on their fellow Americans, how long before the chain of command breaks down?”
Shit, he’s right. I rub my eyes. Maybe I have been in here too long, in this microcosm where things are a certain shade of normal. Three meals a day, a nice place to stay, friends. But out there, it’s bleak. Out there, it’s the underpass in Austin everywhere. People dying. Fear and paranoia growing. No wonder the Saints have risen up. And they aren’t entirely wrong. The blood camps—we still don’t know the full truth about them. Not on paper. But I know in my gut. The Saints probably feel it, too, even if they don’t have the particulars.
“So what are you saying?”
“I think it would be safer if you all moved your operation to Atlanta. I’ve already spoken with Director Hamberg and the president. Both are in favor, though the president did insist on you signing off on the plan.”
“I can’t leave.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Does it matter? Everything is here. My work.” My sister. Valen.
“We can recreate it in Atlanta, the director assured me of it.”
“Of course he did,” I say bitterly. “He’s been trying to hijack our research from day one.”
“I’m not following, Dr. Clark. We’re all on the same team here.”
No, I’m on the team that knows vampires walk among us and are looking to take over. Everyone outside of my lab is existing in blissful ignorance of those facts. Not to mention Gregor’s deadline is still bearing down on me. I have a little less than two weeks to meet his demand for a cure. After that, I don’t know what he’ll do. But I’m certain that simply running away to Atlanta won’t be enough to stop him from getting to me.
“You all right?” His face softens the slightest bit, concern creasing the skin next to his eyes. “You went pale.”
“I’m fine.” I wave away his question. “We can’t move to Atlanta. We’re right on the edge of something.” I chew my lip. “How long do you think we have?”
“Chatter suggests they’re planning an attack five days from now. But keep in mind they could be planning for sooner. We can’t be sure they aren’t feeding us disinformation to catch us unawares.”
I blink, unsure if I heard him correctly. “Five days or less? But they just lost so many people here. Why would they try again so soon?”
“Like I said, they have the numbers and enough anger to make a dent in my forces. They lost some lives, sure, but they have plenty more who want to stop the work you’re doing, who’ll gladly sacrifice their own lives to ensure this place is obliterated.”
“Can’t we make them understand? We’re trying to help them. That’s all we’ve been trying to do from the moment we got here. Working to find a cure to save them all.”
“We can tell them that, sure. But they won’t believe it.” He shakes his head. “They say they’ve taken the red pill, whatever that means. They aren’t going to listen.”
Time is slipping away. The humans and the vampires have whittled down the narrow chances we had to find a cure with their demands, their paranoia. “What about Juno? Surely, they’re coming for her, too?”