by Jess Keating
Grace cleared a spot on our table and set the bag down, carefully opening the flap to pull out the envelope.
“Should we really open that thing in here?” Charlie asked, edging away from her.
“It’s not radioactive,” Grace said. She pulled out the thick envelope and held it to the light. “But we need to be certain it’s the antidote before we find a way to get in touch with Martha again. With this as proof of what’s going on, she can explain why we were at the Tower and prove our innocence, and they’ll release her by the end of the day.” She gingerly lifted one end of the envelope and let the contents tip slowly out onto the table.
I don’t know what I was preparing to see. A bubbling vial of green potion? A metal canister with a high-tech dial lock? What did antidotes even look like?
It turns out they look a lot like candy.
Seriously. The envelope contained a transparent tube. But inside the tube, instead of the serum or liquid I was expecting to see, a row of multicolored tablets was stacked in the glass, with a black metal stopper on the top.
“Huh.” Grace frowned, touching the tube lightly with her finger to test for temperature before picking it up. She held it over the table for us to see. “Do we have any information about what type of antidote this is? I was expecting some sort of liquid. These look like … pills?”
Bert shrugged, still smiling. “So it’s an oral medication, then, like headache tablets or vitamins.” He glanced toward Arthur. “Chemists will have no problem breaking down the components. They could use this to manufacture enough for anyone infected by the Spark virus.”
“Can I see them?” Mary reached out her hand.
Grace passed her the tube while Charlie dragged her chair over to sit beside Mary.
“I don’t know,” Charlie said. “Looks like sweets to me.”
“Me too,” I admitted. A flash of inspiration made me sit up in my chair. “It’s camouflage!” I said. I grabbed the tube from Mary and grinned. “I bet they only look like candy to prevent rival manufacturers from stealing the formula. It’s the perfect disguise. There’s even little letters on them!”
As soon as the words escaped me, my throat clenched with panic.
Seven letters branded on the sides of the tablets, all in a row in the beaker.
“What?” Bert asked. “Tesla, what is it?”
Angry tears threatened to spill from my eyes. Arthur cleared his throat, and from the corner of my vision, he dropped his head in resignation.
“I tried to tell you all,” he said quietly. He pushed his chair out from the table and walked over to where I was sitting. Still in shock, I passed him the tube so he could break the news to everyone. I couldn’t bear to say it out loud.
He’d been right all along. He probably even knew what those tiny letters spelled out.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Charlie cried. “Is it not the antidote?! Did we do all of that for nothing?!”
Arthur glanced sadly at Mary before popping the stopper from the tube with his left hand.
“Whoa!” Grace yelped. “What are you doing?! Don’t contaminate them! We won’t know what they are until a lab runs some tests!”
He ignored her, pouring the tablets out onto the table in a long line. “I tried to tell you,” Arthur repeated. He spaced out each of the tablets so we could easily read the letter on each.
“N-I-C-E-T-R-Y.” Mary read aloud. Upon reading the Y, her hand flew to her mouth, like she could stop the words from being real.
But it was too late.
“They don’t look like candy,” Arthur explained. “They are candy. Watch.” Before we could stop him, he popped one into his mouth and began chewing loudly.
“Dude!” Mo shouted. “You can’t just eat it!” His face fell. “Wait. Is it really candy?”
Arthur reached down and picked up another piece, this time taking a small bite from it with his front teeth. He held up the remaining part so we could see the inside. “Chocolate-covered peanuts,” he said. “See?” Breaking the piece apart with his fingers, he scattered the messy bits on the table.
Grace buried her face in her hands.
“What does this mean?” Charlie asked. She twisted the tip of her ponytail with her fingers anxiously. “What do we do now?”
Nobody had the heart to say it. Charlie was a genius like the rest of us. She knew exactly what this meant.
We’d been set up again.
We’d wasted precious time tracking down a criminal and enacting a dangerous mission to extract chocolate-covered bleeping peanuts.
Bert was the first to speak. “It means we’re doomed, Charlie.” He glanced around the café and out the big bay window at the front of the room, with a flicker of newfound awe on his face. A little girl walked with her mother out on the street. Her tiny hand was stretched above her head, holding tight to her mom’s pinky finger.
It was easy to take life for granted when you didn’t know about the scary parts.
Bert set down his donut. “Deeply and utterly doomed.”
A deadened silence hung in the air as the pieces of the puzzle began to come together.
We’d been duped twice. First Victor had left us a note when he’d caused the explosion and diamond theft at the Tower of London. Now the candy was yet another taunting message.
He’d planned for us to track him down at the hospital and steal the fake antidote, just to rub it in our faces.
Why? Ordinary villains are cold. They like to show off their skills and genius, but they don’t create situations just to mess with their pursuers.
This felt different. Personal.
My thoughts returned to Arthur’s folder and the list of science organizations that Victor was stealing money from. What was the connection?
Charlie looked around at the others with huge, sad eyes. “How are we going to get Martha back now?”
“It’s not Martha we need to be worried about,” Mo whispered. “Without the antidote, we’re no closer to stopping the virus …” His eyes were wet.
“If I may,” Arthur said. “I’ve got to tell you—”
“Ugh,” Bert interrupted. “Not now, Arthur. We get it, okay? You were right! We made the wrong call, and you were right all along! The stupid”—he gestured madly, sputtering out the words—“stupid plastic tag was all the information you needed. Isn’t that right, oh, brilliant one?! We should have listened to you from the start!”
Arthur’s mouth clamped shut, looking hurt. “I’m not trying to rub it in, Bert. But I may have a solution to your problem.”
Bert sneered. “It’s going to be everyone’s problem pretty soon if Victor has his way. Unless you’ve got a way to get the antidote, maybe it’s best if we just accept the fact that we blew it.”
I wanted to jump in and defend Arthur. It wasn’t his fault we’d messed up. In fact, he’d tried his best to help us. But my mouth felt like cotton. I had no idea what to say or how to make anything right.
Arthur swept the candy on the table into a pile and sat down again. He reached into his pocket. “I don’t know how to find the antidote,” he said. “But we don’t need it.”
“And why’s that?” Grace asked, her shoulders sunk in resignation. Seeing her so defeated was almost as bad as feeling that way myself.
“What’s the one thing that would be even better than getting our hands on the antidote?” Arthur asked.
Bert lifted a finger, a wry expression on his face. “Going back in time to stop the virus from being invented. Don’t tell me you’ve got a time machine in that castle of yours.”
“Or getting a hold of the Spark virus itself, ” Arthur said. “All this time we’ve been trying to get the antidote. But if we could neutralize the virus—stop it from ever being released in the first place—we wouldn’t even need an antidote.”
The café seemed to grow silent, as though even the pastries and espresso machines were listening intently to Arthur’s idea.
“Sure,” Mo said. “That
would be great. But we’re not exactly any closer to the virus than we were to the antidote.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Arthur said. His face brightened. “While everyone was focusing on the man in the elevator, I paid attention to what was really happening,” he explained. “After what you told me went down at the Tower of London, it seemed like Victor would be the type to want to actually see you guys mess up. He’d want to watch it happen. So I threw on some bandages like Grace and kept my eyes peeled for anyone who could be watching us as we made all our mistakes.”
“Dude,” Leo said. “You were doing all that while we were running our mission?”
“I know,” Arthur said, looking down at his feet. “I should have told you all. But it was clear you weren’t going to believe me. And I don’t blame you. I’m not the best communicator. And all my tech failed you. So I thought it would be best to work by myself, in case I turned up empty-handed.”
I gaped at Arthur, completely overwhelmed by his admissions. We were supposed to be geniuses—people who didn’t miss anything. And somehow we’d been completely oblivious while one of our teammates carried out his own operation right under our noses.
Anger hit me first, but guilt and shame followed right at its heels.
“Oh, Arthur.” Mary spoke first, voicing exactly what I was feeling. “I’m sorry. We should have listened. We could have formed two teams, or backed you up so you weren’t trying to do it all on your own. That’s what Genius Academy does!”
His smile was sad. “You know I’m not part of Genius Academy,” he said quietly. “But either way, I think I have a way to get what we really need here. I grabbed something at the hospital. From the most suspicious person in that waiting room.”
Grace’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Victor?” she asked. “We were watching him the whole time.”
Arthur shook his head. He pulled a phone from his pocket and carefully punched in a four-digit code.
“I took this from a nurse at the hospital. Or someone dressed up as a nurse.” He held up the screen. “Look at the phone contacts. This is your Victor, right?”
“That’s him,” I confirmed, pacing at the table.
“But his name isn’t Victor,” Arthur said. “See? It’s Robert Walton. He’s not in charge of anything. He’s hired help. A diversion, in both the Tower and the hospital. The messages here confirm he was working for someone else. He was to appear as Victor and draw us in each time.”
“Wait a second,” Mary said. She wrapped her arms around her chest, like she was warding off a sudden chill. “Who did you take the phone from?” Her cheeks grew pale. “How on earth did you know the code?”
Bert scoffed. “That’s obvious, isn’t it? He deduced it.” A glimmer of admiration appeared on his face.
But Arthur refused to acknowledge the compliment. “I didn’t need to. The V from your original intelligence wasn’t for Victor. Neither was my bank robber named Victor—I was wrong, too. There was only one suspicious person at the hospital that made any sense as our villain. And I recognized her right away.”
“You’re lying,” Mary snapped. “It can’t be.”
Whatever she had sorted out in her mind was still a cloudy mess to the rest of us.
“What are you saying?” I asked. “Who are we dealing with?”
“Remember back in my lab?” he said, his eyes dark and unreadable. “You asked me what possible common thread there was between me and Genius Academy.”
“Okay …” I said. Something about the sad expression on his face made my stomach clench with fear.
He handed me the phone. I pressed a button to turn on the screen, but the lock screen appeared again. An alphabetical display stared up at me, teasing with its infinite possibilities.
“The code?” I asked.
“The common thread,” he said. “The thing connecting your mission—the reason you’re here—and the person I’ve been tracking. It’s M,” he started. “A-R-Y. ”
My hand hovered over the Y on the screen as I realized what I was typing. On my right, Charlie gasped.
“I pickpocketed the phone from her bag, Mary,” he said quickly. “I was right there, and I saw her.”
“Her? Victor is a woman?!” Mo said.
Arthur nodded, keeping his eyes locked on Mary. “Victor is Victoria.”
“Who is she, Mary?” I asked. “And why is your name the code to her phone?” Arthur’s words came back to haunt me. There are no coincidences.
She didn’t answer. And by the numb look on her face, I wasn’t sure that she’d even heard me.
“Are you going to tell them, Mary?” Arthur asked. “Or should I?”
Mary licked her lips, suddenly looking nervous. Pickles instinctively recognized her fear and raced over to her, attempting to snuggle with her fingertips.
“Victoria Wollstonecraft,” she said. “That’s who’s behind the Spark virus.”
“Wollstonecraft, as in …?” Bert’s mouth hung open at his words. “You’re related?”
Mary ran her fingers through the fur on Pickles’s neck absently, rocking ever so slightly back and forth in her chair. Her attention was fixed on something far away from any of us.
“As in … my mother’s sister,” she replied. “Victoria is my aunt.”
Up until this trip, I’d thought I knew everything about Mary.
I’d seen her happy, determined, annoyed, and even stubborn. But I’d never seen her truly terrified, not even when she’d been kidnapped by rogue mercenaries last year.
Today, that all changed.
Her chin trembled and her eyes glistened as she peered up at Arthur. I couldn’t stand the sight of her so fearful, and already my blood pressure was rising, causing a dull roar in the corners of my mind.
In a blink, the entire team crowded around her. Bert was closest, resting his hand protectively on her shoulder while Arthur and the others shifted, unconsciously forming a ring around her to shield her from the rest of the café.
“I can’t believe I missed it,” Mary said finally. “I thought I saw her at the Tower. But … it was so fast.” She licked her lips. “I didn’t think it was possible. How could I have been so stupid?!”
Arthur dipped his head, as though the mention of Mary’s aunt alone warranted a moment of grave silence.
I knew Mary had stayed with extended family when her parents had passed away all those years ago. I’d always wanted to ask her about it, but somehow, the moment never seemed right. She was always so sad when the topic of her parents came up, and what kind of a friend wants to make someone relive pain like that?
“Hey, maybe we should move this someplace else?” I urged, giving Grace a meaningful look. It was true that we needed answers, but there had to be a gentler way to get them.
But Mary held up her hand to cut me off. “No, it’s all right, Nikki. I’ve already wasted too much of everyone’s time with this.” Her sniffles became full-blown tears dripping down her face.
This, of course, made me leap to her side. “None of this is your fault! You had no idea that you knew this person! Remember when my father was behind our last mission, and I didn’t even know he was alive!” I kept my voice light and glared at Bert for help.
“Yeah,” Bert jumped in. “Remember that time I dropped plutonium in the lab, and the only reason we didn’t all die horrible deaths was because Leo caught it with his very weird but very useful catlike reflexes?!”
Leo nodded earnestly. “Or the time I set fire to the kitchen trying to figure out how to make a rocket thruster?”
“And let’s not forget the death ray I made that nearly destroyed the world,” I added with a grimace. “This was before you even knew me. And you were there for me right from the start.”
Arthur nudged me. “Jeez, has your team ever not nearly caused global catastrophes?”
“That’s totally beside the point, Artie,” Bert said.
“But this isn’t like that!” Mary sobbed. “I’m supposed to b
e the one who knows what’s going to happen! I’m supposed to be able to read people. What good am I if I can’t even see what’s right in front of me?! You all do your jobs, and I totally failed at mine. I can’t believe that people are going to die because I was too blind to see Aunt Victoria was to blame. I am never going to forgive myself!”
Grace’s tone was gentle but firm. “Do you want to tell us what you know about her, Mary? That’d help inform what we do next.”
I marveled at how Grace navigated such a sticky emotional situation, showing the perfect blend of caring and empathy for her friend while still remaining deeply logical. She knew we’d need answers, and soon, if we were going to stop Mary’s aunt. I’d never been happier to have Grace on our team.
Mary sniffled again as Bert offered the sleeve of his shirt for her to wipe her tears. “It all makes sense,” she said, throwing up her hands in frustration. “I should have seen it! She was a brilliant doctor when I knew her. And obsessed with mortality.”
I glanced nervously at Arthur.
“I was taken away from her because she got into trouble,” Mary continued. “Serious trouble. She was working on a way to …” Her voice choked.
“To what?” I urged her to go on. “It’s okay, Mary. We’ve heard it all, you know that. What was she trying to do?”
Mary wiped her nose again, and tears continued to stream down her cheeks. “She was working on a way to reanimate the dead.”
A hush fell over the group.
Maybe we hadn’t heard it all.
One look at Mary’s pained face and we all became desperate to make her feel better.
“That’s it?” Bert coughed loudly. His act fooled no one, but he was kind enough to try for Mary’s sake. “That’s not so bad!”