Courage (Mark of Nexus) (24 page)

Wallace took a steadying breath before he rolled off me. “You couldn't knock?”

“Waiting makes me sad.” Cole set the bag on Wallace's desk and went back to reset the lock. The scent of smoke and Chinese food mingled in his wake, and I quirked an eyebrow. “Don't worry, Sis. Nobody saw me.”

“What's that?” I asked, nodding toward the bag.

“Dinner. I figured you'd high-tail it back here after your botched field trip.”

I pushed myself into a sitting position and glared. “It wasn't totally botched.”

“You could've sent me.” He shut the door, pulled Wallace's desk chair over to the bed, and started passing around Styrofoam boxes. “I'm there all the time.”

I took what smelled like stir-fry and opened the top. “Yeah, but don't you work on Saturdays?”

“When I feel like it. My boss doesn’t care what I do.”

“Why?” I peered inside the box and suppressed a satisfied moan. It
was
stir-fry.

He shrugged and tossed a packet of chopsticks at my head. “Banged her, threatened to tell her husband, blah, blah, blah. I come and go as I please.”

“Eww.”

“How'd you find out about Aiden?” Wallace cut in, used to ignoring his brother's eccentric behavior. He bent to dig a few waters out of his mini-fridge and brought them over. “Were you following us?”

“Nah, Corynn texted me from work.”

“Why
you
?”

“Because I'm discreet.” Cole leaned back and kicked his boots up on the bed beside me. Dried mud came off in flakes on Wallace's comforter. “And she’d left breadcrumbs for me to find a couple of files.”

Wallace sat down and shoved his brother's feet off before passing the bottles out. “What kind of files?”

“Henry's notes.” Cole reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “I didn't have much time, so I took pictures of everything. Let's see…”

I broke my chopsticks apart and crammed some chicken into my mouth. For being a greasy, Americanized attempt at another country's cuisine, it was pretty damn good. Maybe if I focused on the meal, I wouldn’t get worked up again.

His eyes darted back and forth as he scanned the screen. “Sounds like there could be some negative side effects, depending on how things went. Egocentricity, over-aggression, irritability…uh, loss of personal insight, changes in sexual behaviors…the inability to judge which behaviors are socially appropriate. And it's likely to block his pain receptors, so he'll just keep going and going until he's finished the task at hand. The sens—”

“Okay.” I cut him off, squeezing the splintered wood in my fist. His words were provoking scenarios I couldn't stand to think about. Especially right now. “What kind of outcome are they hoping for?”

Cole slid his thumb across the screen and squinted. “Uh, improved motor functions, heightened senses, increased strength and speed…”

“Great.”

'They're prepping him for something,” Wallace commented, digging into something that smelled way too spicy for my taste. “Him and everyone else they get their hands on. The question is, what would ERA need superhumans for?”

Cole shook his head. “The abilities are the incentive. They just want everyone to be equal. I heard they’re going to neutralize aggression next, though I don’t see why it matters if humans fight. They have at least four Dynari on their side. Why not just rule with fear?”

Wait. Four? I ticked them off on my fingers.
Faye, Elise, Gail…

“Jackie,” Cole finished, as if reading my mind. “You're guessing where I got four, right? I noticed an entry had changed on their roster. Something about atmospheric conditions. Anyway, she’s in their employ now.”

Shit.
I'd forgotten about the roster. “So, she's related?”

“Supposedly.” Cole tapped a few things into his phone and turned it around for us to see. “I've been putting it all into a family tree app.”

If this thing was right, we were totally screwed. There were more Dynari out there than we'd originally thought. People Faye could turn against us, if we didn't get to them first. I shoveled rice into my mouth to derail the thought.

“Let me get this straight,” Wallace put his container down and leaned forward. “Adelyn is the woman from the journal, right? Our great-great-grandmother. She's at the top.”

Cole nodded.

“She had two kids. Edwin and his now-deceased sister, Flo.”

Again, Cole nodded.

Wallace rubbed his chin. “We know Edwin's line, but Flo had a family of her own. Her son, Conrad, passed the line on to his daughter Jackie. She's our turncoat.”

“Right.”

“And I'm guessing she's near Elise's age, since they're in the same generation. Probably early forties.” His gaze was intense. So intense, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of it. “What about the rest of these people?”

“My guess is ERA hasn't had time to pay them a visit yet. You know, what with the experiments and shit. They probably just nabbed the most convenient.”

“Starting with Edwin,” I said. “Right? They used him to find Corynn.”

“And everyone else.” Cole crammed his phone back in his pocket. “Don't forget. Augari are going to be a hot commodity if it comes down to one side out-powering the other. Or
over-powering
the other. Am I right?”

Well, shit.

“But don't worry about that yet.” He popped the top on his box and leaned back. “We have too many other things to deal with right now.”

“Easy for you to say,” I grumbled.

We ate in silence for a few minutes, and his last statement played over and over again in my mind. We had so many things to deal with—why? Who deemed us the world's clean-up crew? I laid my chopsticks down. “You guys ever think we should just…step back?”

Wallace turned to face me, his gaze snapping to attention as if suddenly pulled from a daydream. “From what?”

“This.” I gestured around us. “The so-called prophecy, us having to organize some kind of counter faction, trying to stay one step ahead of ERA. I mean, when did this become our fight? What's stopping us from keeping Aiden away from them, doing whatever it takes to get him back to normal, and then just laying low?”

“You wanna puss out?” Cole's brows drew together. “Don't get me wrong. I'm all for slackin' off. I just don't like the thought of hiding.”

“We wouldn't be hiding,” I insisted. “We'd just be adopting the
laissez-faire
approach. Let them do what they will. No interference from us.”

When neither brother replied and all I could hear was the mini-fridge in the background, my stomach lurched. “It's just…it's just that we could stand to lose a lot from fighting them.”

Wallace rubbed my back in what he must have assumed to be a gentle, comforting gesture. I tried hard not to arch at the pressure.

“Baby,” he said, bending to meet my eyes. “If you don't want to deal with this, you don't have to. Cole and I will figure something out. I know this Aiden thing has been hard on you. The thing with Gabby, too.”

Ugh.
“That wasn't what I'd meant. We're on a team. I want us all safe together.”

His lips curved, but the smile wasn't there. “Let's just continue to deal with things one step at a time. If it gets too rough, we'll pull back and do what we need to. Okay?”

I leaned over and pressed my forehead against his arm, defeated before we ever stepped foot on the battlefield. “Okay.”

“And on that happy note.” Cole stood up. “I'm out of here. Got a hot date with a leggy redhead. You might know her.”

Wallace scrunched up his features, as if trying to process his brother's words. “What?”

“You know, knock-out body, angel eyes…” Cole grinned and goaded his brother on. “Goes to church with you…”

Foreign irritation surged through my veins, and I grabbed Wallace's arm. He could get up and toss me across the room without thinking, but I hoped the gesture would sedate him. “Wait!”

What could I say? Whatever qualms he had about the two of them dating, I probably agreed with. But I
had
given Cole my blessing.

“Anyway, I gotta go get ready,” Cole announced, jerking the door open. “Don't worry. I'll have her home by midnight.”

And with that, he was gone—a blurred afterimage in the doorway.

“What the hell?” Wallace stood, and I jumped up alongside him.

“Just hold on a second. Do you remember the festival?”

He gave a stiff nod.

“Well, Cole met Rachel, and they hit it off. I tried to stop it, but stuff got in the way. Cole declared his intentions, I ended up conceding, and he decided to call her.” One breath explanation. “I forgot to tell you.”

He eyed me, but didn't pull away from my grasp. “You honestly think she'll be okay? Or should we go after him?”

Great. Put the responsibility on me.
“Well, he said he'd never hurt someone without provocation or necessity, and he does seem to be really interested in her…”

“Fine.”

That was it? I stole a look up at him, and he shrugged. “You're probably right.”

Whoa. Wallace was going to trust his brother?
And
he gave up the chance to bicker with me? Either we were in for off-season snow, or the world was about to end. I had a bad feeling about the latter…

“So suspicious.” He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “I'm trying the
laissez-faire
thing. Hands-off, right?”

“Right.” A blush fought its way across my cheeks.
Three months in and still catching me off-guard.
“But maybe your hands”—I grabbed his, and he let me guide them around my waist—”should stay on.”

He grinned. “No objections there.” 

When I moved to the States, I never thought I’d be living out of a rucksack.

Back and forth. Wilcox to the labs. Classes to work. After a month, it was starting to get old. I rounded the corner to ERA’s residential quarters and headed for my assigned room.
Gotta love Sundays. Time to pack it up and head back to campus…again.

It’d been a tough weekend. Rena’s friend Aiden had managed to get himself caught in ERA’s web, and they didn’t waste time enlisting him in the SAGE program. On the plus side, he hadn’t died; on the negative side…well, here’s to hoping he’d been an insufferable asshole
before
this.

I spent my lab hours helping with the Catalyst vaccine, and during my breaks, I texted Cole coded directions to Dr. Lawrence’s office. Having this many balls in the air was panic inducing, and I wasn’t foolish enough to believe they couldn’t drop, but I had to try. Survival wasn’t a promise anyone had made me.

The biometrics system scanned my retina, and my door opened with a hiss.

“S'about time.” Maverick rolled over on my bed. “I thought you got off work at six?”

He can’t even let me get in the damn door first?
I crossed the room and plopped down on my desk chair. “I stayed after to ask a few questions. Sue me.”

He snorted and shook his head. “Whatever floats your boat. Bring up that app I put on your phone.”

“When did you put an app on my phone?” I frowned, tugging it out of my pocket. Sure enough, there was an unfamiliar icon on the front screen. “What is it?”

“Just open it,” he told me, rolling off the mattress in an effort to stand. “I need to give you a few things.”

I tapped the box and waited, setting my mouth in a tight line. “Okay?”

He meandered over, held his own phone up, and tapped a few things before he thumped them together. “There.”

“There what?”

“There are the things I needed to give you,” he explained, his voice dripping with impatience. “See 'em?”

A little bubble popped up and informed me I had received three files. “Ah, yeah. What am I supposed to do with these?”

He crammed his phone into his pocket, gave me a queasy smile, and collapsed onto my bed. “They're to help with Phase II. Actually, you're pretty lucky. Faye's giving you a big part in this mission.”

I hated to ask, but I knew he was waiting. “How so?”

“You're takin' ol' Wally to the prom, right?” He leaned in, lids half-lowered as always.

“It's a fundraiser dance, but sure.”

“Then, we're going to need you to step out a few minutes before eleven. Just tell him you have to take a piss or somethin'.”

As all classy women do.
“

But instead, you'll head down the hall. Since it'll be afterhours, nothing will be open past the lobby. Everything should be pretty dark. So, make your way down there and have a gander in the trashcan beside Starbucks.”

I must've made a face, because he waved me off. “Custodians will have the place swept by eight. It'll be a fresh bag. Anyway, reach in there, carefully retrieve our little care package, and make your way to the end of the hall.”

“And that'll be the virus?” I guessed, wrapping my arms around my stomach.

“Yeah.”

My God. Were we really going to do this on campus, of all places?

“Just chill,” he insisted. “It's a little bug. People aren't going to keel over and die or anything.”

I nodded, trying to keep a calm façade.

“So, like I said, you'll head over to the vents where I'll oh-so-conveniently stash a ladder. Then you just hurry your tight little ass up the rungs, undo the grate, and climb on up.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I blurted out. “Since when am I this hands-on? I thought I was just going to be the distraction or the go-between. I didn't know I'd be goin' all James Bond.”

He held up his hand. “Two-fold reasoning. One, it proves your allegiance to the cause. And two, you're the only one who can pull it off that won't be busy.”

“Why?”

I got another idiot stare for that one, but I didn't care.

“The virus was engineered to affect humans. There's a minute difference between your DNA and mine that should act as a deterrent. Same with Gail and Rena. All you weirdos.” He winked. “Naturally, I’ll be elsewhere.”

Great. “So, I'm supposed to crawl around, wander until I find the ballroom, and then sprinkle my fairy dust into the air?”

“Not quite.” He laughed and waited a beat. “You'll need to pipe that bad boy into the basement.”

Okay, now he'd totally lost me.

Maverick scooted to the edge of the mattress and stood, straightening his clothes. “Just let us worry about getting people down there. Faye and Jackie will be in place. They'll make sure everything goes off without a hitch. And Elise is gonna stay behind to watch the fort.”

I wanted to ask more, but I was too afraid of what I might find out. Not only would I be condemning myself to the fourth ring of hell with this stunt, I’d probably be breaking every American law known to man. Within a week, I'd be shipped back to England in a splintered crate. Did he honestly expect me to go through with this?

“So, that's that.” He sauntered toward the door, unbothered by the orders we were to execute. “In case you need 'em, there are blueprints of the Student Union on your phone. And there's a little motivational clip, too.”

“What kind of motivational clip?” I asked, but he was already pushing the door release.

His free hand lifted in a half-assed wave as the door slid back. “Meet me out front in ten. I don’t want to wait around all night to play chauffeur.”

“Wait. What is th—”

He disappeared around the corner.

I made an obscene gesture, wishing it'd shoot through the wall and strike him dead in the hall.
Arrogant bastard.

“Fine. Let's see this clip, then,” I grumbled at my phone, having a swipe at the screen. It was a video file. Probably Faye doing creepy shit with her bad eye. I hit play and waited.

A grainy street came into view. Maybe a residential area. Small gardens, smaller cars, and terraced houses stretching in a tight line. Wait. Was this
my
neighborhood? I squinted as the camera turned the corner, gaining a wider perspective of the surrounding area.

And my heart stopped.

The person holding the camera sped up, bouncing the image with each hurried step, until they were right behind a bus. A loud hiss sounded as the doors opened and a half dozen people piled off onto the pavement, the younger ones horsing around and shouting at each other. The camera held back and focused on one child in particular—my brother.

Teddy…

Before I realized it, my lungs were struggling to find air. Sweat dampened my hairline as I gripped the phone, trying to reach him through the screen. He didn't realize someone was trailing behind him as he separated from the other fourteen-year-olds, his blazer a stark contrast to the dull scenery. No, he just went home like he always did.

Our house came into view a minute later. Same scraggly bushes, same crooked fence. Whoever was at the camera had taken to breathing hard by the time he reached Mum's car. “You see that?” a man whispered, zooming in on my brother at the door. “There isn’t a place in this world out of ERA’s reach. Faye’s got people everywhere—in high
and
low places.”

A dog started barking in the background, the camera whirled around, and everything blurred. “Remember that,” he huffed, on the move again.

And then the video cut out.

“What have I gotten us into?” I whispered, tracing my fingertips over the rounded plastic of my phone.

There was no way I could warn my family. Not only would they not believe any of this supernatural shit, but Faye would intercept it. I knew she would. What seemed like a hard decision minutes ago had been boiled down to one, potentially dangerous option—I had to plant the virus.

But maybe it'd be okay. Like Maverick said, it was just a bug. So there are a few more spores in the air; people contract viruses every day. And these were college kids. Young, healthy immune systems. It wasn’t like ERA had asked me to bomb the place.

With shaking hands, I set my phone on the desk. I would just have to do it, get the whole thing over with, and then ask to be relieved of my position. Faye couldn't get mad if I fulfilled my obligations first, right?

Right?

I ducked my head down and cradled my neck. “Oh God. What am I supposed to do?”