He forced himself to speak past the tumult of emotion threatening to choke him. “Why is that such a big deal?”
Thanh’s eyes positively gleamed. “Because all attempts to deactivate the Beta and Gamma strains so that we can use them to make a vaccine have failed. Once the virus mutates to Beta, it becomes too unstable. Alpha, however, is a very stable virus.” She began speaking faster, the way Xolani sometimes did when she was excited by some theory and her brain was working too fast for her mouth to keep up. Like she couldn’t contain it all and she had to get it out now. “If we can keep it from mutating, we can eventually find a way to render it inert and engineer a vaccine that will also protect against Beta and Gamma.”
Rhys wasn’t sure what he thought about her enthusiasm. It was almost creepy, like she wasn’t seeing him when she looked at him, but instead all she saw was the virus in his blood. But then, if she was here unwillingly, the prospect of being a step closer to returning to her family probably accounted for a lot of that eagerness.
“Why not just kidnap a Jug, then?” he asked. “Or better yet, ask one to help you out. They want everyone to be safe. They would have volunteered.”
Thanh’s eyes slid over to Logan, who grimaced. “We’re the people who did this to them. To the world,” he explained. “They have no reason to trust us. And trying to take one by force, well . . . that would be foolhardy, wouldn’t it?”
“You’ve got one now.” Rhys lifted his chin. “What’s going to happen to her?”
“She’ll be fine,” Thanh answered decisively. “But considering the circumstances that led to her being here, it wouldn’t be prudent to try to take any samples or conduct any tests. Especially not when she can weaponize even her own blood against us. When she fought Littlewood’s people to defend you, she went straight for their masks. You’re the much safer option. It would really be best for all of us if we had your cooperation.”
He studied the carpeted floor for a long moment, considering. “What do you need from me?” he asked again.
“We need a semen sample.” Dr. Thanh didn’t even blink when Rhys’s head came up and he stared at her in astonishment. “We need access to the Alpha strain without danger of it mutating.”
Oh Jesus. Two years among the Jugs, and after all he’d done since he’d been with them, and he could still blush like this? “Now I see why you need me to cooperate.”
She nodded soberly. “There are ways to obtain a sample without your consent, of course, but I don’t want to be a party to that. Secretary Littlewood, however, might order it, and I’d really rather avoid that situation.”
“Fine,” he muttered in disgust. “Are you sure it won’t mutate? Xolani said she wasn’t sure what would happen if it was exposed to air. That’s why the Jugs had to—” he cleared his throat “—infect me directly.”
“Given the uncontrolled environment out in the field, that was a good call on her part.” Thanh fell silent, looking thoughtful. “However, we’re confident that there are no environmental factors here in the lab that will trigger mutations, and we’ll be in protective gear while working with the sample, just in case.” She offered him another attempt at a smile and started to turn away. “You’ll find everything you need in the trunk at the foot of the bed.”
“Wait. I want some things in return,” Rhys said.
Thanh paused mid-motion, her brows coming up in surprise, though he couldn’t quite tell if Logan had any reaction or not. Rhys couldn’t even be sure what the man’s role here was.
“I want to have access to see Schuyler whenever I need to,” he continued. “If she’s not safe, I’m not giving you shit. And I want to be able to talk to other people around here, see if what they have to say is the same as the story you’re feeding me.”
Finally, a reaction from Logan. He looked amused. “What do you think you’re going to accomplish even if you don’t like what you hear, Mr. Cooper?” His voice had a firm, no-nonsense note of authority he sometimes heard from Darius and Luis. If Rhys had to guess, he’d say Logan was a man used to being in charge. Right now, though, he sounded just a little too smug and complacent, like he thought Rhys was being silly.
“You may have transported me by air, but that doesn’t mean the Jugs won’t come looking for me. Especially considering you also have one of their own. It might take them a while to find me, but they are coming.” Rhys smiled tightly. “That means you’ve only got so much time to either complete your research or impress me with the reasons why I should talk them out of tearing this whole facility down when they find it.”
Schuyler had obviously been tased or gassed into unconsciousness again by the time they let Rhys see her. Looking around the cell where she was being kept, it was obvious why: the walls were pockmarked by her kicks and blows, and her knuckles were bloody.
Rhys sat with her until she awoke. She moaned and rubbed her head, then blinked up at him.
“Huh. Wouldn’t have thought they’d let you in.”
“I think I’m the only one they believe is safe to be near you.” He rose from where he knelt next to her bunk and crossed to the sink, wetting a cloth to clean her knuckles. Schuyler was too disoriented still to do more than grunt a token protest. Rhys worked in silence as she gathered her thoughts, then murmured, “Please don’t give them an excuse to kill you.”
“Maybe you should tell me why we’re here in the first place.”
She wasn’t asking about whatever the people here had told him. She was asking him why Rhys had intended to allow himself to be taken.
“I’m not sure I can.” He looked conspicuously up at the edges of the ceiling, hoping that she would catch on to his intimation that they might be under surveillance.
Schuyler hesitated a moment, clearly choosing her words carefully. “Wonder if it has anything to do with all those people the guards mentioned had gone missing from the Clean Zone.”
“Probably.” Rhys gave her the slightest nod he could manage. He knew she’d caught on when she nodded back.
“Did anyone tell you anything?” she asked.
“They seem to think I’m infected with the Alpha strain, though I don’t have any symptoms.” He didn’t have to feign his confusion over that. “But Zach told me I’m immune.”
Schuyler grimaced. “Gee. A civvie lied. Who woulda thought?”
“Okay, what is it with you and civvies?” Rhys shoved himself away from her bunk and tossed the damp cloth back at the basin. “I always thought it was me you hated, because of Kaleo, but you really just hate me for being one of them.”
“No, I hate you because of Kaleo, too.” From her flat tone, Rhys decided he could give up on any hope that the understanding that he was here trying to help people might have softened her opinion of him. “But you’re right. You’re a civvie. I don’t trust you.”
“But why?”
She snorted a bitter laugh. “I’m sure you know how they exiled us, right?” Rhys nodded once. “Did anyone ever tell you what we did for them before that?”
“No.” Rhys frowned. “Well, I mean, you got them out from under the military government. I know that.”
“Oh, we did a lot more than that.” Schuyler rolled off her cot and began crossing the cell in violent strides. “We built their damn Clean Zone for them, practically from the ground up. We dug their perimeter trenches. We tore down buildings so they could have farmland inside the Clean Zone. We rebuilt their housing when they had to burn down the residences with infected bodies in them. We were the only ones who could safely venture away from the Clean Zone, so we scavenged and hauled in clothing and construction and medical supplies from all over three or four states.” The look she turned on him was raw, and for the first time Rhys thought he saw the grief that fueled all her rage. “And the only fucking thing we asked for was to make a home there, try to rebuild our lives after the Army fucked us all over. They let us do all that for them, knowing they would drive us out in the end.”
Rhys’s eyes burned at the be
trayal that clung to the underbelly of her anger, the pain that she couldn’t quite manage to get rid of, even ten years later.
“That’s why you think I’m using Darius?” he asked softly.
“Aren’t you?” She leaned against the wall, beside one of the craters her fist had made, and leveled him with a glare. “You’ve been with us two years, Rhys, and I’m damned if I know of any other reason why you might be, except that you need a protector and he’s the biggest, baddest badass among us.”
“Oh, fuck you,” he sneered. “You barely knew me before Kaleo died, and afterward, your mind was made up.”
“You think it’s just me?” She arched an eyebrow. “Darius fucking dotes on you, and there’s not one of us, maybe not even Xolani, who has any clue whether he’s anything more than convenient for you.”
“No one thinks that.” He wished he could say that with more conviction.
“You’d be surprised.” Her posture softened slightly, and she ran a hand through her unruly curls. “Look, not many people would blame you. You had it rough before you came to us. You want to feel safe. They get that. But sooner or later, when something or someone else offers more security than Darius, what happens to him?” She looked down at the floor, nudging a loose piece of plaster around with her toe. “We’re family. He’s a good man. We don’t want to see him hurt.”
Rhys tried to answer, but his throat was too tight. Was that honestly how it looked when he was with Darius? Did Darius think that? “I’ve got to go,” he muttered, rising and brushing plaster dust off his fatigues.
She caught his arm as he passed. “Come back and talk to me again when you know more about what’s happening here. About when they might let us go.” Her eyes met his so directly that there was no mistaking that she meant for her words to be interpreted differently. Let me know when it’s time for us to try to make our move and bust out of here.
“I will,” he promised and rapped on the door for the guard to let him out.
There was a man waiting outside his cell. Rhys didn’t need to be told it was Secretary Littlewood. Not only did he lack the presence that indicated a military background that most of the guards had, but Rhys’s skin began to crawl almost immediately upon seeing him. Some gut-deep, animal instinct told him that this man was dangerous.
“Mr. Cooper.” His smile was warm and welcoming, as if he was genuinely delighted to be meeting him. He suspected that people usually found the guy charming. Not what Rhys had been expecting at all. “I’m Stephen Littlewood, Secretary of the Department of Pandemic Research and Prevention. I’m told you’ve agreed to help us find a way to eradicate Bane.”
Sweet and innocent. His mind replayed Zach’s words. He wants someone sweet and innocent.
Rhys tried to find his most trusting, unsuspicious smile. Since he wasn’t sure it would be enough, he bowed his head and hoped he conveyed shyness, instead. “Well, sir, I’m not sure I have much of a choice.”
“Ah, yes.” Littlewood actually opened the door of Rhys’s cell for him and gestured him inside. “I regret the circumstances under which we brought you here. Our people in the Clean Zone suspected the Juggernaut troops you were traveling with wouldn’t be willing to let you leave their company if we asked you to come voluntarily. After that business in Texas, it didn’t seem unreasonable to suspect that you were being held against your will and that was why they wouldn’t leave you unsupervised.”
“So you were rescuing me?” It took all Rhys’s self-discipline not to gawk at the man in astonishment. Littlewood delivered the lie as though he expected Rhys to believe it just because he’d said it, as if it were unthinkable that his version of events could be perceived as anything other than absolute gospel.
It reminded Rhys of the way Jacob used to lie: with complete confidence that if he repeated the tale his way enough times, he could convince even the people who knew whatever he was saying was false that it was the truth. Rhys tried not to shudder at the uncomfortable memory.
He was still trying to figure out how to react to that knowledge when Littlewood’s hand settled on his upper arm, and he had to steel himself not to flinch away.
“You’re an attractive young man, Mr. Cooper. I can see why those brutes in Delta Company would be reluctant to let you go.” Rhys met his eyes then, hoping he looked more confused than appalled. Was this a seduction?
“Thank you,” he whispered, unable to control his shudder this time.
“You’ll have to tell me what all they did to you sometime,” Littlewood said warmly, stroking his hand along Rhys’s arm. “If you would like to, of course. I’d be glad to be your confidant.”
“He wants a victim,” Zach had said. Rhys’s stomach twisted. Was the secretary getting off on imagining what the Jugs might have done to him?
No. He was getting off on imagining that they had forced it all upon Rhys. That he had been brutalized.
“Reading the reports, imagining what they must have put you through . . .” Littlewood’s voice had gone a little husky. “It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so moved. I knew I had to find a way to help you. I want you to trust me, Rhys.”
So it will hurt that much more when you turn cruel. Rhys bit his lip against the urge to blurt out the words. Littlewood wanted to win his confidence so that he could relish Rhys’s feelings of betrayal and confusion when he showed his true colors. That was why he was bothering with the whole seduction routine.
God, Zach, I’m sorry. I don’t know if I can do this.
Wait . . . Why was he still worrying about Zach’s agenda? Assuming Zach had ever told him the truth about anything? That begged the question of whether or not all these reactions Rhys was having to Littlewood were valid at all. Were they simply a result of what Zach had claimed? Was there any truth to anything Zach had said, or had he lied about everything?
Rhys’s skin crawled where Littlewood’s hand rested on his biceps. He couldn’t quite manage to convince himself it was only Zach’s assertions responsible for that reaction. His instincts were screaming a full-throated alert.
“I, um, I appreciate that.” He lowered his lashes, because there was no way he could hide his instinctive revulsion if he made eye contact with Littlewood.
“Have dinner with me tonight,” Littlewood said graciously. “It’s your first night here. It would be miserable to eat alone, I would think.”
He flicked a glance at the door. “I thought I was supposed to be locked in.”
“I don’t see any need for that. You’ve volunteered to help. You won’t run away, will you?”
“Even if I wanted to, where would I go?” That much wasn’t a lie. It was nearly summer in the Nevada desert. Without shelter or supplies, he’d be dead within days. Unless Darius came to rescue him—or Rhys and Schuyler found a way to provision themselves and break out—he was stuck here, where the massive solar array they’d flown over en route kept the climate regulated.
“Excellent.” Littlewood beamed and finally removed the hand from Rhys’s arm. It took everything Rhys had not to rub away the sensation of being touched there. “I’ll send someone to bring you to my quarters at suppertime.”
Rhys managed to wait until he’d left the room before he rushed to the toilet basin to vomit.
The Jugs of Delta Company pushed their pace as hard as they could manage without leaving Zach behind. Nico watched him struggle to keep up on his bike all day, getting wearier by the minute but never saying a word. Finally, Nico fell into step beside him and put a hand on the small of Zach’s back to help propel him forward without making him pedal so hard.
“Thanks,” Zach panted, giving Nico a nod.
Nico returned it and fought very hard to forget about the fact that this was the first time he’d willingly laid a hand on Zach in ten years. He’d kept his distance when they had checked in with each other periodically, discussing what they had learned about Littlewood’s operations from a safe distance. After six years, it had almost begun to feel normal.
At least until last night, when Zach had finally stopped ignoring the issue.
“You think Joe is going to stop and wait for us, or try to trace the skimmer until it lands?” Xolani asked Toby, who snorted and shook his head.
“Knowing how Joe is about Cooper, he’s probably not going to stop until he has to. I suspect provisions will become a problem. That’s when we’ll catch up to him.”
Darius, who was leading the group and looking as though he wanted to press them to go faster, spoke over his shoulder. “Toby, when we find Joe, I want the two of you to break off and head north to Seattle. Get Bailey, Gina, Jamie, and anyone else who wants to come along and bring them back with you. We don’t know how fortified this research facility is, and I don’t want to have any issues tearing it apart to find Rhys.”
“Let me take Titus, instead,” Toby argued. “We’ll head out next time we come across a road that seems to be heading north. That way we’re off to Seattle that much sooner, and Joe can be there when you recover Cooper, which you know he’ll want.”
“Fine.” Nico didn’t know Darius, but he suspected the man didn’t normally speak to his people in that short tone. But then, if what Zach had said about him and Cooper was true, he supposed he couldn’t blame Darius for being ready to tear people’s heads off.
The rest of the day passed in grim silence, broken only by farewells as Toby and Titus broke off to head north. They stopped long enough to eat and then went right back to double-timing it across Colorado and into Utah.
Zach didn’t dismount his bicycle so much as collapse off it at the end of the day. While the rest of them briskly built a fire and laid out bedrolls, he sat on the ground where his shaking legs had dropped him, his chin tucked to his chest.
“You’re going to have to leave me behind,” he said when Nico dug his rations out of Zach’s pack for him. “I can’t keep up, and you can’t slow down.”
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