“And the GIN Project?” I asked. “The early test subjects?”
Sanaa spread her hands. “He’ll find more pure blood. He already did in that lot we pulled off the Ewelock DWALSH.”
“Has he had time to use it? Make more enhancers?” I panicked. I might have given the rebellion super soldiers, but the Overseer would have Sanaa Mwendes. That wasn’t a fair fight.
“We don’t think so. We didn’t know about the GIN Project or the early testing. The Overseer did that all by himself. He’s still analyzing, as far as your father can tell. Figuring out the variations in the blood samples and seeing how the differences interact with his formula. They weren’t all pures. Most of them weren’t. And now, he’s lost his supply again.”
Well, thank the Powers for that. Turning to pace, I scraped my hands through my hair and pulled it back. “The wider GIN Project is still coming. We have to stop it.”
“One thing at a time. Let’s worry about Starbase 12 next.” Sanaa held up the bag in her hand.
Curiosity about what my father—shit, eventhinkingthat was weird—had left us warred with pulse-spiking anxiety over the GIN Project. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was my fault.
The expensive hardwood floor creaked under my feet, like new and unused things did. “The early testing started right after I stole the lab, didn’t it? I took the Overseer’s whole stash of enhancers, and he realized he’d fucked himself by ‘killing’ me when I was eight.”
“Something like that.”
I stabbed a prickly look at Sanaa as I stalked past. “You meanexactlylike that.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Daraja. The Overseer is the one dragging people off to laboratory prisons.”
I expelled a bitter huff. It felt a little like flying apart at the seams—except everything was finally knitting together. “The lab or me. That was what Bridgebane said on Starway 8. He didn’t get either, so he threatened the orphanage and forced the blood exchange on me instead. He knew he had to scramble to appease that monster with something,anything, before the Overseer set something terrible into motion to look for more A1 blood.”
But he’d already been too late. He just didn’t know it. And the Overseer had tried to capture me even while launching a backup plan. There’d still been time to stop the GIN Project. No public announcement yet. If either of them had caught me or taken the lab back, none of this would be happening right now.
“He’ll do it every time, won’t he? Sacrifice me for the greater good? I’m expendable to my own father.” That hurt so much more now that I knew who my real father was.
At the same time, what was he supposed to do? Sacrifice everyone else?
Sanaa flicked an impatient hand through the air. “You’re too smart to say stupid things.”
“Okay. Then why this sudden concern for me? After all this time without a word? After being ready to hand me over as a blood dispenser, even if he didn’t want to?”
“My opinion?” She lifted her brows.
“Yeah.” I was pretty sure it would be spot on.
“The general could live without you before. He was used to it. The longer you’re back in his life, the closer he gets to choosingyou. No matter the cost.”
I sat abruptly on the bright berry-red bed again, my legs suddenly weak. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. It filled my chest with hope, and yet… What would choosing me mean? Leaving the galaxy solely in the hands of the Overseer? How could I ever want that?
There were probably days when my father found a way to save hundreds of lives and make it look like some rebel scum had messed with the Dark Watch, just like he had on the Ewelock hub. Nathaniel Bridgebane was essential to the resistance. He had been from the start. “I can’t let him do that. He has to stay strong.”
And despite my railing at him, hehadput me in the best possible place. I loved the orphanage. Starway 8 was my dream, past, present, and future.
But did that erase abandonment? And believing the only real family I had left would slit my throat if I ever showed up on his doorstep? Bridgebane wasconvincing. He had to be. How else could he walk this…bridge for decades?
“Yes,” Sanaa agreed. “He has to stay strong.”
And right then, I saw the dead eyes in her also. Cold and ruthless couldn’t always be an act. It had to be real, along with real atrocities, or it wouldn’t fool the Overseer.
What an awful burden, pretending all the time, doing things you hated. Kill ten to save twenty. Those were the kind of choices they made, Sanaa and my father. Maybe his lies had spared me that.
I swallowed, a dry bob of muscle that hurt my throat. “All right, then. On to the next step.” They didn’t know it yet, but Shiori and Reena Ahern were waiting for a jailbreak.
Without a word, Sanaa led the way out, locking up behind us. I didn’t take anything with me. Unless I was dead, I’d be back.
Chapter 19
