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Cash removed the tray, and I leaned even closer to the p-screen. “Upon application, the embryos are warmed in an accelerator for three minutes and fifteen seconds. If life is sustainable, the blue dye will be purple, and physical evidence of life will be visible to the naked eye.” Cash removed the lid.

He gasped.

I yelled.

Pace stumbled backward.

Gunner swore.

There, on the projection screen, purple overwhelmed every other color. The embryos had already begun to grow, the rectangles I’d seen before rounding into fetuses, pushing against each other and the edges of their containers.

Cash Whiting’s face filled the screen. Fear lined his eyes. “This experiment is a success. Subject 261 will be brought in for DNA donation. The army will be grown in thirty days.”

He glanced over his shoulder, and I saw the movement in his throat as he swallowed. When Cash turned back, he set his mouth in a thin line of determination. “I will destroy them, and all my notes. Starr, get this out to the right people. If They can replicate my procedures, the Resistance will never stand a chance.”

The screen went dark, leaving only silence hanging over everything.

“Dammit,” I said. I paced away from the e-board and rubbed my hand along the back of my head. Starr spoke again, drawing me back to the p-screen.

“He destroyed them all, as well as his notes. He died for his actions. Hightower has doubled the personnel in the Evolutionary Rise. We don’t have much time.”

“No kidding,” Gunner said, his voice haunted and hollow.

“I will be available to cache with you, Gunn, beyond the wall,” Starr continued. “Trek will send Pace the coordinates and times. We’ll keep you updated on any news from inside the Rises, especially the Evolutionary Rise.” She looked down for a moment. When she met the camera again, her eyes sparked with power. “We can still win this. Do not lose hope.”

Then the screen went black. I blinked, and a violent shade of purple imprinted on the backs of my eyelids.

“Destroy it,” I whispered.

“Jag—” Pace said.

“Destroy it,” I repeated. I stood up straighter and pinned Gunner and Pace with a glare. “The three of us know. No one else needs to be burdened. We’ll use this knowledge and Starr’s intel to our advantage, but we don’t need to freak people out.”

“They’ll quit,” Gunner said, leaning against the stone wall. “Won’t they? They’ll just quit if they think we can’t win. If they know how close They are to successful cloning.”

“Yes,” I said. “No one breathes a word of this to anyone. Am I clear?”

“You got it, bro,” Pace said. He snapped the chip out of the port and brought a rock down on it. The shards flipped through the air.

“I want Raine out of that city,” Gunn said.

“It’s one of my top priorities,” I said. “But let’s wait for Indy to come in before we go storming Freedom.”

* * *

My jaw hurt. Indy packed a mean punch. I totally deserved it, but ow. I wanted to throw a wicked jab at her like I used to when we were younger. Then we’d end up wrestling and laughing like we used to, and she’d forget why she wanted to murder me.

Like she used to.

None of that happened. Number one, we were too old for that now. Number two, I left her behind without instructions for the Resistance, and then I got myself thrown into prison in the Goodgrounds. Number three, I’d taken her brother—not her—with me, and neither of us had seen him since. Number four, when I’d returned to the Badlands seven weeks later, I had a new girlfriend. Number five, the cavern was now filled with people, and Indy and I needed privacy to say all that needed to be said.

And then there was the whole her-being-in-love-with-me thing. I certainly couldn’t encourage that.

Especially because of the whole Vi-glowering-in-the-doorway-with-her-arms-crossed thing.

So I’d taken my punch like a man.

That had happened a half hour ago. While I was bleeding, I had called an emergency meeting with my most trusted. Indy and her team were now resting in the infirmary—which was really just a tiny cave with two cots shoved against the wall. Our techs worked miracles in there, using whatever supplies they could find to make sure we all didn’t die.

And, damn, Indy looked terrible. Her dark skin appeared bleached and her hair did not. The truth? The pink was totally faded. And she obviously hadn’t been sleeping much.

Not that I could blame her for that. There isn’t time for sleeping.

“So,” Vi said, snapping me out of my Indy-focused thoughts. She was scowling. I kept forgetting that she can see just about all my thoughts, including the ones about Indy.

But if Indy’s gorgeous—and she is—she still had nothin’ on Vi. I tried to arrange my mouth into a smile when Vi dialed her glowering down to a glare, but it hurt my throbbing jaw.

“So, Indy says Thane wasn’t in the farmhouse.” I punctuated the news with a deep sigh. “Which isn’t good.”

“Where is he?” Zenn rubbed his eyes and blinked real fast.

I’d woken everyone up in the middle of the night, but Zenn had come off his watch. He looked pretty bad too. Some things couldn’t be helped. Gunn yawned, and his eyes were bleary with exhaustion.

I’d never actually gone to bed last night, so yeah. I didn’t feel sorry about waking them up.

My brother folded himself into a chair next to me at the rickety table. “Is he dead?”

Vi stiffened at the mention of her possibly deceased dad, and I threw Pace a shut-the-hell-up look. “Way to be sensitive, bro,” I said. “We don’t think Thane is dead. Indy says there was plenty of blood in the farmhouse, footprints and such, like someone carried him out. Just no body.”

“Director Hightower got him,” Gunn said, real quiet-like, the same way he says everything.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “No doubt he ordered Thane to be collected, but the better bet is the Director in the Goodgrounds sent a crew.”

“Who’s there now?” Zenn asked, sliding me a paper across the table. I didn’t even look at it. I couldn’t stomach the sight of his neat handwriting, detailing the fifteen billion things I had to do in the next hour. Sure, he’d immediately taken his place as my second-in-command, but come on. A list every time I saw him? So unnecessary.

“Director Shumway,” Pace said. “A real piece of work.”

“No wonder Indy and her team were all busted up,” I said, more to myself than anyone else. I’d heard of Shumway, which meant he wasn’t exactly on my side. Or even close to crossing over.

“We’ll need the whole group for this,” Gunn said, pushing himself away from the table.

“Probably. But we can spare a few hours, I think.” My jaw popped with every word. I rubbed it but still heard the clicking when I said, “Let ’em sleep till five.”

“You got me up to say let’s wait until five?” Pace grumbled as he stood to leave. I should’ve felt annoyed, but all I could muster was a yawn.

I should’ve been more concerned, probably. The fact that Thane was MIA was about as bad as bad can get. Without him, all we had was Starr, and she spent most of her time in the Education Rise trying to gather intel without proper codes and clearances.

I thought briefly that losing Thane might actually be a good thing. I wasn’t even sure he was who Gunn said he was, and twelve years of hating someone doesn’t just evaporate. I’d ordered his location and pickup. That had to count for something. Too bad the bleeder wasn’t even there.

I cradled my head in my hands as Zenn left, huddled close with Gunn. My to-do list stared back at me from the table. The top item? Assign interrogators for Indy’s team.