My mother may have given him the weapon, but Dr. Reynolds is the one who pulled the trigger. It hits me like a gunshot. He killed everyone—my father, my friends, my neighbors. Everyone. Dr. Reynolds ended the world.
Rice keeps talking. If he’s as stunned by this as I am, he gives no sign. “So,” he says, “in that formulation, you would be . . . who? God?”
“And why not?” Dr. Reynolds says, beaming. “As if things were working so well before? At least now humanity can be controlled. I decide who lives, who breeds. I alone decide the future.”
My attention is brought back to Baby as Dr. Reynolds shifts her weight in his arms. I’m so in shock, only now do I see that Kay has been creeping closer to Dr. Reynolds as Rice talked, keeping his attention on him. In an instant, Kay rushes him, dropping low and driving at him. Without thinking, I join in.
Seeing our charge at the last second, Dr. Reynolds swings the gun wildly and knocks Kay against the wall. He aims wide, the pistol discharging. The bullet flies harmlessly past me as Baby drops to the floor. I’m on him, driving my fist into his neck before he can begin to turn back, ripping the gun away from him. Brenna is at my side. She’s grabbed one of the guns from the floor and now has it trained on him.
“Wow, what an asshole,” she says.
Kay joins us. “Kid, you have no idea.”
Kay hands me some cinch ties to bind Reynolds’s hands and feet, and I turn to check on Baby, who sits in a ball, arms wrapped around herself, staring across the room. I crawl to her to check her for any injury. She’s clear, though she may be badly bruised later on.
“Baby, are you okay?”
She doesn’t answer but looks past me, over my shoulder. I follow her gaze to Rice, slumped against the wall.
Blood seeps through his lab coat.
Chapter Forty-four
“Rice?”
I pat his cheek to wake him. I’ve already stanched the bleeding by bandaging his upper arm with ripped sheets from Baby’s bed. He opens his bright blue eyes, then squints, confused.
“I think I hit my head . . . on the wall,” he says. He lifts his arm and winces. “What happened?”
“Dr. Reynolds shot you,” Brenna calls from across the room. “You’re lucky he has sucky aim.”
“Where is he now?”
“We tied him up and stuck him in a broom closet,” I say. “I took away his earpiece, so he’s neutralized. I think now we should get back to my mother, and make sure she’s safe, ask her what we should do next.” We never got the research, but with Dr. Reynolds contained, we should be able to accomplish more. He can’t give orders from a broom closet.
“Can you stand?” I ask Rice. He tries, and I have to help him get to his feet. He’s still a bit wobbly.
“I’m going to scout the hall, make sure it’s clear.”
“It is,” Brenna tells us. “I can tell.”
“Brenna, can you help Rice while I carry Baby?” I ask.
Brenna takes Rice’s good arm, propping him up. I go to Baby where she sits, staring blankly at the wall, and I pick her up.
I cradle Baby close and whisper in her ear, “I know that you’re Hannah now. That this is your home. But you used to have a life with me. You used to be very good at keeping quiet, at avoiding the monsters. Do you remember?”
She doesn’t respond, but when I carry her to the door, she doesn’t scream, either. Maybe she can be Hannah, but still be Baby as well.
Despite Brenna’s assurances, Kay goes ahead to check that the hall is clear, then we make our way to my mother’s office. There are no other Floraes in sight—if the Guardians haven’t gotten them all, they’ve at least severely cut their number. Now, if we can just stay out of the way of those same Guardians, who’ll still be on the hunt for us in the absence of any orders to the contrary, we might be okay.
To my relief, my mother is safe in her office. She hugs me and Baby close before turning to her examination of Rice’s arm.
I sit in a chair with Baby in my lap, stroking her thinning hair. When I ask her if she’s okay, I get no response. I continue to pet her head, hoping at least the contact is comforting to her. Kay watches us for a while, but then stares at the floor, lost in her own grief.
“We didn’t get the research,” Rice tells my mother as she properly bandages his arm. “But Dr. Reynolds is detained for now, and we can probably break into the safe or pry the combination from him.” He pauses. “He admitted to us that he orchestrated the original outbreak. It wasn’t an accident.”
My mother gives him a long look, shaking her head, then sighs. “I’d begun to suspect as much. Everything awful began to feel possible over this past few weeks.” She rubs at her eyes then seems to gather herself. “I don’t know how many Floraes are left roaming the labs. I don’t know how many researchers died. But I do know I’ve finally chosen to do the right thing. We’ll get all the research and make it public. I know that New Hope will survive. There’s a lot here worth saving.”
Rice tells her about getting Ken’s notes before he died. “We have to look into it,” he says, “but I think he may have finally found it. A vaccine.”
My mother just nods, smiling tightly. “That would be wonderful. But when I think of the cost . . .” She shakes her head.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I say softly. I blamed her before, and the truth is that she is still partially to blame. She engineered the bacterium. But she had no idea that Dr. Reynolds would release it into the world.
She comes to me, hugs me and Baby. “I’m so sorry for everything you had to go through. We’ll get Baby some real help.”
Just then my mother’s office door flies open and a heavily muscled figure in a synth-suit fills the doorway, holding a gun. There’s no doubt who it is, and there’s nothing any of us can do. The guns sit uselessly on my mother’s desk. There is nothing for me to do but hand Baby to my mother and stand.
My mother moves closer to me and, clutching Baby to her, puts on her director’s voice. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Marcus pulls off his hood and stares her down. “Following my orders,” he says, “and they don’t come from you.”
“They certainly do,” she says. “Dr. Reynolds has gone entirely mad—”
“Shut up,” he says, pointing the gun directly at Baby, “and take a seat.” My mother does what she’s told, and Marcus swings the muzzle toward me.
I don’t have it in me to feel the fear I should. I don’t beg or plead. At least Baby is safe. At least my mother will take care of her.
Marcus raises his gun. “Sorry, kid,” he says, though he’s grinning as he says it. “Orders are orders.”
And then his head snaps to one side hard enough to slam against the doorframe, and he slumps to the floor.
Brenna walks to the doorway and peers out into the hall and gives a little wave to whoever she sees there. Then she steps aside, shaking her head. “I’ll never get used to the silent- gun thing.”
Another figure appears in the door beside Brenna, reaching up to pull off his hood. It’s Gareth, wearing a sad smile. “Glad to see you made it, honey.” He looks down at Marcus. “‘Orders are orders,’ huh? Bastard.”
“I’m Brenna,” Brenna says, sticking out her hand, “and that was awesome. Seriously. The way his head hit the door. Gruesome.”
Gareth considers her, then takes her hand and shakes it. “I’m Gareth, and we’ve met . . . but you were a bit unconscious.”
“Oh yeah . . . my abduction from Fort Black. I guess I shouldn’t complain. From what I heard, that place was going to shit. Still, I would have liked to have a choice about being a lab rat.”