His chin lowered, and his gaze remained hard. “You committed treasonagain.”
“Yeah,” she said softly. There was no way he’d forgive her.
“The experiments—did they lead to a cure for Scorpius?” Lynne asked, her face pale.
“I don’t know,” Sami said, her stomach churning. “All research from all over the world was centralized there in the LA Bunker, so if a cure was discovered, they’d have it.”
“Why didn’t they come forward then?” Jax asked. “I mean the doctors or scientists or whoever.”
“They didn’t have a cure when I escaped,” Sami said. “Maybe they have one now, but there’s no way to get the word out. Or maybe they’re waiting for most of the world to die off and then plan on taking over. I truly have no clue.”
“So you lied to me about being a cop,” Jax said quietly.
“There were rumors about you, Jax. That you were put in place here by the leaders of the Bunker.” Now she could see they had been untrue, but it had kept people in the Bunker from reaching out to Mercury for help. “I figured if you thought I was LAPD, you’d let me into the inner circle, and I could see how dangerous you were.”
“Have you?” Jax asked quietly.
She shivered at the low tone. “Yes.” The man was beyond dangerous, but he wasn’t part of the Bunker. “I know you don’t work for them.”
“What about me?” Tace asked. “You said you knew what was happening to me earlier when I went into convulsions.”
She nodded, her throat closing. “Yeah. I compiled the data on one subset of the vitamin B concoction, and there’s a very small percentage of Scorpius survivors, incredibly small, actually, who reject the B therapy after a couple of weeks. The seizures, rash, and numbness are indicators.”
“So what happened to them?” Tace asked.
“The first dozen died, but then they discovered a cure. Some enzyme that allowed the recipient to accept the B concoction,” she said, grinding her palm into her eye. “I just did data input and didn’t pay attention to the actual cure. I’m sorry.”
Lynne turned to Jax. “We have to get the data. Not only for Tace, but if the researchers were on top of Scorpius, maybe they’ve found a cure. Or at least a way for women to reach full-term pregnancies.”
Sami shook her head. “The soldiers at the Bunker are armed and fanatical—they definitely are not the Brigade soldiers. I’m sorry. Infiltrating the Bunker would be nearly impossible.”
Jax pushed away from the table and dragged over a whiteboard. “Then I guess you’d better get busy giving us the layout of the entire facility, Sami. Afterward we’ll decide what to do with you.”
Sami blinked, and her stomach cramped. Would Jax kick her out of Vanguard? While that should be her foremost concern, she couldn’t help but concentrate on the silent Texan next to her.
Would Tace ever forgive her?
Chapter Eighteen
One little lie, and I felt the monster inside me breakhis chains.
—Tace Justice
Sami curled into her side, facing her window. She wanted to sleep, but memories kept attacking her. With a sigh, she forced herself to count sheep, and soon she was dreaming again.
The nightmare, inevitable as it was, slid right into another dream.
Two months after being taken to the Bunker in California, she continued fighting Spiral’s computer virus, which had taken longer than he’d no doubt planned to infiltrate so much software. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stop the shutdown, but she had to try. And all the while, the files she’d found earlier were burning through her brain.
Just what was this place?
Dr. Ramirez stalked into the room, his eyes tired, a white lab coat over his thinning frame. “Anything?”
She shook her head. “No. The Internet will go down.” She cleared her throat and concentrated on the man in charge of the Los Angeles facility. “I did find a couple of files on the laboratory area.”
His thin lips pursed. “None of your business.”
Her stomach ached. “The bodies you’ve burned . . . there are so many. How can—”
