The Lethal Agent (The Extraction Files Book 2) (26 page)

CPI CORRIDOR

SEPTEMBER 12, 2232

Osip, Jane, and Dasia stood with crossed arms along the corridor wall as three women from cleaning strapped Georgie to a gurney and walked him to the elevator. He’d never so much as twitched a finger, but they were all convinced he was still alive.

Dr. Arrenstein watched the women leave and, when they were gone, turned to his three silent recruits. He paced back and forth for a while, hands in his pockets as he liked. Finally, he said, “I don’t like to interfere with what goes on between you all. You’re all capable young adults who can make your own decisions, but when one of you almost kills the other, I need to know what’s going on.”

Dasia stepped forward. “We had an issue, and we handled it.”

“So you had your boyfriend attempt to murder one of my agents?”

“I attacked him. I take full responsibility. Osip pulled me back.”

Dr. Arrenstein looked at Osip, at the blood on his knuckles, at his ruined slacks and silk shirt. “I expect better from you. I didn’t reassign you to work with Georgie so you could attack him ten minutes later. I thought you were friends.”

Osip didn’t crack. He only replied, “We used to be friends.”

“What happened?”

“He hurt one of my friends. So I hurt him.” Osip stared up with full confidence. He was right, and they all knew it.

Dr. Arrenstein looked at Jane, who had yet to say a word.

“Why didn’t you just tell one of us? You know you can notify us if there’s a problem.”

Dasia answered. “Nick was notified of the problem several weeks ago. He didn’t take it seriously, so we handled it. Is that all?”

Dr. Arrenstein’s eyes widened as he learned Nick knew about it. He nodded and let them go.

Dasia headed back to Jane’s room but Osip caught her hand. “I’m going to go get cleaned up. I’ll be there in a few.”

She nodded and continued. By the time she got into Jane’s room, Jane was waiting with a damp washcloth in her hand. “You didn’t have to do that,” Jane said as she handed it over.

Dasia ran it over the splatters of blood on her forearms, the back of her hands, and between her fingers. “I know. But now he’ll never hurt you again.”

Dasia continued wiping until the futility was clear. She walked to the bathroom and rinsed most of Georgie’s blood down the sink. Then, she caught sight of her shirt.

When she turned around, Jane was waiting with a clean one.

Osip arrived a few minutes later, his hair fresh and his suit pressed. Aside from the few cuts on his knuckles, there was no indication of what had transpired that morning.

Dasia smiled at him in the doorway. He strode in with his tablet and set it on the desk. To Jane, he said, “I wish you would have told me. I’d have beat his sorry ass weeks ago. There’s no reason you had go through that.” He reached out for her hand and kissed the top of it. “Now, who’s ready to catch some bugs?”

Dasia saw a hint of familiarity she hadn’t noticed before, though it wasn’t as though she’d seen them together much. She pushed the thoughts away and concentrated on their work.

Osip and Dasia spent the day bringing Jane up to date on everything they knew about bugs and hosts. In the process, Dasia realized how much she’d learned. Bugs were no longer the scary monsters she’d thought them to be. Now, they were a challenge, a puzzle to solve. A puzzle without all the pieces.

By evening, they’d reviewed the files and made a few small changes to the chart, but otherwise, hadn’t accomplished much. Dasia, for one, had had enough for one day.

“I think that’s about it. When we get started tomorrow, we can work on expanding the matrix. Sound good?” Osip asked, clearly on the same page.

Jane and Dasia agreed. Before they could leave, Jane gave them each a hug. For Dasia, she nearly squeezed the air out of her.

“You let us know if you need anything,” Dasia said with a smile. Jane nodded and closed the door.

She knew that’s how Cole had done it, had such a deep impact and personal connection with each and every person he met. Cole had been doing his whole life what Dasia had only just now figured out.

It was enough to convince her to keep doing it, to keep being brave and strong and kind. Dasia didn’t want to go back.

Hands held, Osip tugged Dasia back to his room like he couldn’t wait to get there. Once inside, he engulfed her with his arms, his whole body wrapped around hers, holding her tight for several seconds.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I can’t believe you did that. Remind me not to piss you off,” he said with a laugh as he released her. “Mable taught you all that?” Osip rolled up the sleeves of his shirt so that they formed a cuff below his elbow.

Dasia laughed. “Yeah. She’s pretty brutal. You think I hit hard, you should see her. She’ll knock the air straight out of you.” If Mable had seen it, she’d no doubt tell Dasia all the times she dropped her block or missed a sweet shot. Anger had kept Dasia from her peak performance, but she’d gotten the job done.

A moment later, she asked, “Were you ever with Jane?”

Osip made no attempt to deny it. “Yeah, back when it was just the two of us. We got together a little. Does that bother you?”

Dasia thought maybe it should, but it didn’t. “No. Does it bother you that I’m with Mable?”

Osip smiled and shook his head. “No. I’m not dumb enough to try to catch the firefly.”

Dasia laughed and rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you stay with her?”

Osip sank to the bed and pulled her against him. She stood between his legs and looked down at his face, his hair falling easily to the side. In that moment, she felt the storm of his energy.

He looked up and smiled as he said, “Because of you.”

Dasia leaned her head back and laughed. “You can’t blame it on me. I wasn’t even here.”

“Yeah, but they sent me your file before I went to pick you up.”

Dasia froze. She soaked it in and let the words seep into her bones.

Osip continued as she gaped. “I saw your picture—your red hair and your curls. These big brown eyes you have.” He pulled at her hand and kissed her bruised and cut knuckles, a kiss lighter than air. “I was hooked before I even met you.”

LUNA COLONY

SEPTEMBER 12, 2232

Charlene had Renner in his bed in the boy’s room. If she hadn’t said a word, Abraham probably wouldn’t have noticed the slight paleness of his skin, the hint of sweat on his brow.

But now that she had pointed it out, the boy looked sick.

Abraham wanted to help, but he didn’t know the first thing about treating illnesses. “How are you doing, Ren?” he asked, kneeling next to the bed.

“I want to go play, but Charlie said I have to stay in bed,” he pouted. His dark hair stuck to his forehead.

“That’s okay, bud.” Abraham smiled. “We’ll get you a few toys to keep you busy until dinnertime, okay?” He patted Renner’s small arm and returned to Charlene and Siya in the corridor.

“He doesn’t look that bad,” Abraham told them.

Charlene crossed her arms. “That’s not the problem.”

“Then what?”

“It’s my fault,” Siya said.

“No, how could it be—” Abraham began. Before he finished, the realization set in.

Charlene nodded. “We were all inoculated. There was no way for us to infect each other. But if Renner is sick—”

“Then they’re all going to get sick,” Abraham finished for her.

The three moved to the kitchen to discuss the new development. “What do we have in the way of treatments? Antibiotics? Fever reducers?” Abraham asked.

Charlene shook her head and said, “We don’t have anything. We weren’t supposed to need anything. We have some basic first-aid equipment and a small amount of antibiotics for more serious injuries, but nothing that would last more than a few weeks.”

“Do we know what he has? Could we request something to be sent?” Even as he asked, Abraham knew. They were alone on Mars. No one would help them.

“It could be anything. Viral. Bacterial. Fungal. There are a few protists. You know, malaria type stuff. There’s no way to know until we can get a full list of symptoms.”

“What is there so far?”

“Mild fever, lethargy. He didn’t eat a great dinner last night, but that might be unrelated. He says his throat hurts.”

“Is there anything we can do?”

She shook her head in defeat.

“Hey, it’s okay. He’ll be fine. We’ll keep him isolated as much as possible. You just let us know what you need help with.”

“Can you get him something to eat? I’ll get him some books set up on the tablet.”

Abraham got Siya started on dinner while he made a plate of fruit and fresh vegetables for Renner. The boy was sleeping when he went in, so Abraham set the plate beside his bed and went back to the kitchen.

Dinner was noticeably quieter without Renner. He was just one child out of their dozen, but the others seemed affected by his absence. Noa, Posey, and Sander all picked at their dinners. Alana and Lorde fought over which was the best side dish, grilled asparagus or roasted tomatoes.

Siya kept most of them occupied with stories of Earth—of the school he attended where they would bring in animals sometimes. A frog, a worm, a mouse. Whatever they could find outside the dome.

Still, it wasn’t the same.

Charlene disappeared halfway through dinner to check on Renner while Siya and Abraham kept the others occupied. When she returned, she walked straight to the sink to wash her hands.

It was then Abraham knew it was bad.

He looked up at her, refusing to articulate his fears in front of the kids, but she only shook her head. “Posey, aren’t you hungry?” she asked instead.

“No, Ms. Charlie. I’m full.”

Abraham looked at her plate a noticed a mere two stalks of asparagus missing.

“You kids keep eating. I’m going to talk to Abraham and Siya in the corridor. We’ll be right back,” she announced. Charlene strode down toward the girl’s room without looking back.

Abraham pushed out of his chair and followed her, Siya right behind him.

“What’s wrong?” Abraham asked when he was out of ear shot of the kids.

“Renner threw up all over his bed and the floor. He has red patches on his neck. And his fever is up.”

“So maybe it’s time to give him the antibiotics?”

“It won’t help.” They both turned to stare at Siya.

“What do you mean?”

“The boy has red on his neck. It’s the laana.
The curse
.”

“You know what it is?” Charlene looked up at him with arms crossed. “So how do we cure it?”

“The laana is a virus. The stories say it started as the flu. The scientists, they play with it in the lab and make it into something else.”

Charlene shook her head. “Then why weren’t we vaccinated against it. If they knew what it was, we should have gotten the shots.”

“I’m telling you, it’s the laana. It puts the red on the neck, red with specks of white. It makes you hot, so hot you burn. It turns your stomach weak. I’ve seen strong men give in to the laana.”

Charlene’s face drained of color.

“Does he have white spots on the red patches?” Abraham asked.

She only nodded and hung her head low.

“So how can we help him? How long does it take to run its course?” Abraham hated asking Siya for information, but in this, he was the expert. They had no choice but to lean on his advice.

Siya lowered his voice. “It takes four days. Sometimes, the man would rise up on the fifth day, strong as an ox and ready to work. Sometimes, the man would never rise.”

“And you had this?”

Siya nodded. “A few years back. My whole crew got it.”

“How many survived?”

“Nine.”

“Out of?”

“Twenty.”

Abraham reeled. Half? Only half who got this would live? And those were men, fully grown and hardened to the world. Here in Luna, the victims would be children.