by Ramona Finn
“You should rest,” Syeth said. It had been his motto all week. I did appreciate the reminder, though. We had at least a day before we heard any news from the lab, too, but I wasn’t an ounce tired. I pulled the blanket from the top of the couch around my shoulders and curled my legs under me. My back was stiff from staying in one position too long on the couch while working; I needed a new position.
I would have liked to go for a walk, but we were careful only to move at night around the safehouse. After everything that’d happened at the warehouse, we were overly cautious of anyone finding our location.
“Do you want to play a game?” Jarid asked Syeth.
“After I get some coffee,” he said.
“Why don’t you get some rest?” I asked, half-teasing.
“I get my five hours a night and that’s all I need.”
“I need at least eight,” Jarid said, pulling the coffee table into the middle of the room. It was the right height for the brothers to sit on the floor facing each other. Syeth moved around in the kitchen while Jarid shuffled a deck of cards.
Syeth peeked his head into the room. “I suppose living in BioPure territory gave you that luxury.”
Jarid rolled his eyes. “I did good work. Even if I was screwed at the end there.”
“We’re all safe, that’s all that matters.” I smiled at him, which was the best I could offer in this situation. With the cure on the way to production, we were about to make up for that betrayal the best we could.
Syeth returned to the room with three mugs of instant coffee. After a week of it, I was used to the bland taste. It did offer an extra boost of caffeine, which was all I had needed. Especially because I wanted to be awake for when we heard if the cure worked.
Syeth sat across from Jarid, and Jarid offered to deal me in, but I declined. I wasn’t in the mood to use my brain more than I had to. They played a few games together, and I settled into the couch watching them. The conversation stayed on the game while we waited on word from Harper or Albrecht.
The longer I watched them, the more my mind wandered to the night I’d woken up from my breakdown. I had perfect clarity regarding that night, but without knowing who sat next to me, I still considered the fact that it could have been either of them.
The twins seemed more alike the more time they spent together. Their mannerisms and voice inflections were so similar that, if they’d dressed alike and worn their hair the same way, you wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart. They were equally competitive when it came to the games they played, each of them wanting to come out the victor, which was different than when they were with me. Both were gentler and more understanding when I was around. When it came to those they cared about, they had the same level of determination to keep them safe, yet Syeth was led by his instincts and heart while Jarid reacted to things more pragmatically.
Their game and conversation blurred as I dozed. I didn’t have any dreams of the laboratory this time.
The timeline of my memories shifted until I was back as a Level Three in New Manhattan. I walked onto the stage during the pairing ceremony. My principal handed me two certificates. The twins’ names were on them. I held them in front of me, considering my options against what I knew about both of them. The dream wasn’t real, and it started to fade fast the moment I realized it, but as I entered a more conscious state, I wondered if my life would have been different if I’d had a free choice.
That was the hope for after we’d finished taking down BioPure, for both myself and all future teenagers.
“Lora,” Syeth’s voice roused me out of my dream. Or was it Jarid?
My eyes opened, and I spotted Syeth at the edge of the couch. Jarid peered into the room from the kitchen. “What is it?” I asked.
“I got a text,” Syeth said, turning the screen to face me. It was from Harper.
It works.
Shoving the blanket off, I scrambled over to take the phone from his hands. I wasn’t quite sure if I was still dreaming or not. “It works?”
“Yes,” Syeth said. “All because of you.”
I wrapped my arms around Syeth and hugged him. His strong arms held me against him as voices filtered in from the others who had been on watch. They came into the room and we all hugged each other, and there were smiles all around. The same joyous feeling we’d all had at the lab was carried over to the safehouse now. We had the cure, so our plan was back on track.
I closed my eyes, silently thanking John and promising myself that his legacy would continue, and we would end this once and for all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“We need to celebrate,” Warren said, rushing into the kitchen. He returned with a bottle. There was no label, and he wiped a hand over the dusty cork. “This is homemade and delicious. I’ve been saving it for a perfect occasion. Here’s to Lora’s perfect brain!”
He popped the cork off the top and poured heaping cups of the dark red liquid for all of us.
“Also, to John,” Jarid said, lifting his glass to me. “Without him, none of this would have been possible.” He locked eyes with me, and I nodded my thanks for my father’s inclusion. He’d been paramount to the cause, and he finally had succeeded—even if he wasn’t around to see it save everyone.
“Hear, hear!” we all said.
The others gulped the liquid, but I took my time. It didn’t smell like anything I’d ever experienced before, but the taste was strong and dry, and it eased the tightness in my throat over recognizing John again for his work. He had been the orchestrator of this even from before I’d been born, and before he’d been aware of the impact it would have on our world. Almost immediately, my brain tingled from whatever I had drunk and my body instantly relaxed. This was strong stuff. I took another sip.
“The Unpaired will have to let us back in after this,” Yvette said, offering her cup to Warren for more.
“For sure,” Warren said. “I hate being in hiding. Once they realize we were able to get the cure and show our commitment to the rebel cause, there’s no way they can reject us.”
“They still need numbers, too,” Yvette said.
As they discussed their entry back into the Unpaired, Jarid slipped away from the team. Syeth and I were the only ones to notice. But for some reason, Syeth said to me, “You should go talk to him.”
“What about you?”
Syeth shrugged. “I think he’s tired of hearing from me. Because I was a part of the Unpaired, he doesn’t think my interests lie with his anymore. Or maybe he thinks that I’ll turn him in.”
“That’s not at all true!”
“That’s what I keep telling him.”
I shook my head and handed my cup to Syeth. He kissed me, and then I headed outside.
Jarid was on the porch, acting as a sentry for the safehouse.
I sat in the creaky wicker chair next to him, noting that his eyes were trained on the empty street. “What’s on your mind?” I asked.
He rubbed a hand over his face. I hadn’t noticed before how tired he looked. He had healed from the raid on the lab, but the stress from whatever he was thinking about tightened the corners of his eyes. “I’m wondering what to do next.”
“You can always come with us.”
He snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, right. Isra won’t even speak to me before shooting. She’s threatened my life so many times, it would be best if we kept our distance.”
“Jarid, we will always vouch for you. You’ve proved yourself to be on the rebel side at this point.”
He turned to me and smiled. “I appreciate that. But I don’t think it will matter. The Unpaired’s reputation for savagery is well known around BioPure. And I know Isra. I bet she’s already turned all the commanders against me. One look and I doubt they’ll ask any questions. There’s no place for me with the rebels anymore. As long as the Unpaired are in charge, there never will be.”
A chill moved down my spine. It wasn’t entirely from the cool air around us, either. He was so certa
in and fatalistic. It seemed Jarid already had a path in mind.
“What do you want to do then? Are you going to hide here forever?”
He shook his head slowly. “I have a plan. I want to continue to take down BioPure from the inside. Mia is gone, so there’s no one there eager to kill me as I walk in the door. I’m betting Sledge won’t even notice I’ve returned with everything going on.”
“You could be wrong. Is it worth risking your life?”
Jarid seemed to weigh his answer before speaking. “It is. It’s the only way, Lora. I still hold my position as manager, so I’ll have some sway if anyone says anything.”
“But what’s the plan? How are you going to help when we have the cure?”
“The hard drive from the lab isn’t as useless as everyone thinks. Maybe because I’ve been inside for so long, I knew what to look for.”
“What did you find?”
“While you were working on the cure, I found records of BioPure performing a shocking amount of illicit testing of biomods designed to increase obedience to authority and decrease individual or rebellious thoughts.”
“What?” John had never trusted what BioPure might have put inside the formula with their cure. These biomods must have been what he’d feared. It all made sense now. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I wanted to be sure. I’ve been in contact with my old department. I told them I was in hiding until I was sure I was safe. I’m going back, Lora.”
“So, it’s already a done deal?”
“On top of the support I already have, I know of several highly placed managers and other top people who’ll flip sides if they discover what’s in those files. A lot of them are at a tipping point, and this will seal the deal for them. They and their families were already given the treatment from BioPure. Once they know they were modified for BioPure’s benefit without their knowledge, they’ll be on the rebel side, for sure.”
“What if they don’t believe you?” I hated to think that, even with Jarid’s confidence, those in BioPure would already believe he was a defector after going missing for so long, but it certainly seemed possible.
“They can look for themselves in the BioPure research database. Once they see the proof, they’ll welcome me back into BioPure and we can still take down Sledge. It’s not too late, Lora. We can do this from both sides.”
His optimism might have fueled me when we were in Denver, but I was reluctant to believe him after Mia’s betrayal. She had convinced him to think that she was on his side. What was stopping these other people from doing the same? I couldn’t let him make the same mistake again.
“Do you have proof that these people will really help?”
“I know they will.”
“I know you believe that, but when you trusted Mia, she betrayed us all. And there were others in the lab who we had no idea were still working for BioPure. How do you know that the people you’re speaking of are truly willing to help?”
Jarid hesitated before answering. “I made a mistake with Mia. But I know this will turn out differently.”
“How?” My worry for him grew. He seemed to be holding back, and I wasn’t willing to let him leave our group to go back to BioPure without a better explanation of his plan.
“The differences between them and Mia is that I sought them out. Mia came to me, and I’ll forever regret the mistake I made in believing her.” He couldn’t quite meet my eyes. “Mia brought a plan to me, whereas these people listened to my plan and brought up their conditions surrounding any willingness to participate. They all want to help their families. Unlike Mia, who wanted to manipulate me. I was so stupid to allow my excitement to cloud my judgment. I should have known that nobody that close to Sledge would be operating without his blessing. But this is different, Lora. These are middle managers, and several people recently elevated in the company after New Zero took out many of Sledge’s loyalists. They’re people with track records of resisting Sledge’s worst directives. If we can’t trust them, we can’t trust anyone in BioPure.”
“I don’t trust anyone in BioPure,” I said.
“They’re not all bad people like Sledge and Mia. Many of them aren’t the open rebellion type, like me. If we want any chance of bringing down Sledge, we need people on the inside.”
“How much time before you go?”
“I’m leaving as soon as possible. I’m not sticking around the safehouse to hide away forever.”
“I’m assuming you can’t do this on your own. What do you need from us?”
Jarid smirked, as if he’d been waiting on me to ask just that. “I’ll need some help contacting them discretely, as well as help getting out to meet them so I can convince them to work together to plan the coup from inside BioPure.”
Jarid’s plan had a lot of risks, not the least of which was trusting more BioPure employees. We had to be cautious—it was the only way we’d survive.
“How can you be sure none of these people will turn you in to Sledge? It’s too risky, Jarid. Once you’re inside, we can’t protect you.”
Jarid began to pace. “Then, how else can the rebels win?” he asked. “The Unpaired force in Chicago has been decimated. It will be months, if not years, before they’ll be able to mount another offensive, and by that time, it will be too late. Sledge will have all the civilians under his control. I need to work from the inside.”
“Once the cure has been dispersed amongst the afflicted, we’ll rebuild. It will happen. Once our rebel force has grown, we can take the fight to BioPure and stop Sledge once and for all. We’ll come out on top, but it will take time.”
“You sound like Isra,” Jarid said, and my heart ached. “How many people will die if we do it that way? How many Unpaired and how many BioPure soldiers who are just trying to put food on their tables? How many civilians? This is a way to do it quickly, Lora. We can take out Sledge from the inside, take over the company. No drawn-out fight, no more cities turned into battlefields, no more years lost to war.”
It seemed like a good idea, if we could pull it off. Once Sledge was gone, there would be no more need for death or fearing a new iteration of Zero. I’d been so jaded by the soldiers and security I’d faced up against from BioPure, sometimes I forgot there were so many innocent people inside, as well, all of whom just wanted to survive, no matter what. Jarid was right…with people on the inside, we could attack from both sides. My gut warmed, and I knew he had the right idea. “No more families broken apart.”
“So, you’re in?”
“Yes,” I said.
Jarid reached over and hugged me. “Thank you. I promise I won’t let you down again.”
Jarid and I brought the plan to the others in the safehouse. Syeth seemed skeptical at first, and it took both Jarid and me to convince him to let Jarid return to BioPure.
This time around, I wasn’t putting my blind trust in Jarid. I had every intention of being with him when he first met with the BioPure employees he planned to bring over to our side. The plan was for him to seek out several of the middle, and some upper, managers and get them to meet with us. He would show them how Sledge had been manipulating them and then present the unmodified cure. Once those managers agreed to help, they would then come up with a plan to strike out and stop Sledge, internally. After explaining the larger goals, I showed the group that I was a part of this plan and would see it through to the end. As much as I wanted to go to the rebel camp and see my parents during their recovery, I had to be a part of the next steps. Knowing my parents were going to recover was enough to propel me into helping Jarid make contact.
Syeth and Yvette offered to stay with us while the rest needed to return to help at the rebel base, though they’d plan on keeping in touch with us through our burner phones.
They left the next day, and then we got to work.
Syeth helped Jarid send encrypted messages to his contacts in BioPure. Jarid had explained that half of them had been on the fence before—not wanting to lose their jobs
or risk their families— and had been buying Sledge’s insistence that only he could turn back New Zero and save the world.
After showing them what he had found, he laid out the plan and encouraged them to do their own research in the database. Then the waiting began. We played enough card games that I had paper cuts and callouses on the edges of my fingers from the games. After only a few days, though, all eight managers we had messaged agreed to help.
After verifying Jarid’s allegations against the files in BioPure’s research database, they were furious, based on the colorful remarks they made in their messages about the corporation. On top of that, they were eagerly looking forward to the distribution of the cure Jarid had promised them. Once we showed them that our cure worked, they’d flip sides to take Sledge down.
Jarid was relying on these managers to help from the inside, and I looked forward to seeing the faces of those whose lives we were going to change.
Our lab was working non-stop to produce the cure—having enlisted five more rebels to the cause in order to produce and distribute it as quickly as possible—and they promised to give us two doses to bring to our meeting.
Two days later, it was time for Jarid and me to go meet with the managers from BioPure. I wasn’t exactly sure how the day would go since Jarid was unclear on whether they’d be testing it that same day or bringing it into the BioPure-controlled area for their own trials. Jarid seemed confident that it would all work in our favor, though, while Syeth still wasn’t convinced.
“I’m coming with you,” Syeth said as Jarid and I headed out the door. We both turned to face him. He was supposed to stay at the safehouse. Jarid had promised the managers he’d only take one rebel with him—me.
“That wasn’t what we discussed,” Jarid said.
“Change of plans,” Syeth countered. He glanced at Yvette and Albrecht, who seemed content enough to stay out of the conversation.