“Sit,” he offered, gesturing to the chair across from his desk.
Gemma didn’t move. “Why am I here, Rami?”
He sighed. “Because we need to talk about your condition.”
“I thought the implant was working.”
“It is. But only technically.”
She furrowed her brow.
He rubbed his forehead. “Look, I’ve spoken with your medical team, and they’re in agreement that your device will eventually fail. It’s the only one of its kind and hasn’t been studied or tested. All it does is slow the electrical impulses from your brain to your body. It’s not a cure.”
“We know that already. But I’m fine. I’ve been training with Christian. I’ve been able to calm any impulses. We can worry about the implant after we find my sister and put an end to this blasted Dissent thing.”
Rami’s face fell into a frown before he tapped the electroglass screen on his desk. The display lit the space between them. Data flickered across and down the screen in shades of blue and white.
Rami enlarged one section and pointed. “This is your latest spinal readout. The implant is suppressing the foreign neural signals from your brain to your extremities, as it should. But according to Doctor Manae”—he tapped a section of data glowing with an unsettling red—“the Revarian cells are, in a sense, outmaneuvering the implant.”
Gemma narrowed her gaze at the screen. Even with the implant, the foreign cells were continuing to multiply quicker than they’d hoped.
Her breath hitched. “Like a virus evolving past a vaccine?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“Exactly.”
She sank into the chair, a deep chill in her bones. The implant was her safeguard. If it no longer worked, what did that make her—a time bomb?
Her eyes burned. Images from the battle in Zion flashed through her mind: the daggers in her hands as she sawed through flesh and sinew; the smell of gunpowder and blood; the shrieks and screams of victim after victim . . .
“After a lot of debate,” Rami said, “we’ve decided the best course of action is to take you back to that temple. We have a Revarian lore specialist meeting us there in a couple of days who can offer insight about what that orb may have contained. Until we know that, we don’t truly understand what we’re up against. The more it grows, the harder it’ll be to suppress. Which means”—he frowned—“we don’t know how to save you.”
If the device failed, she’d lose complete control over her abilities. They’d consume her, destroying her from the inside out. Not too long ago, she wouldn’t have cared if she lived or died. But now, she had friends and a man she loved and a future . . .
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “And what about Nadine? I wanted to be the one to find my sister and bring her in.”
Rami shut off the electroglass screen, his face softening. “I know. But this is a bit more important, don’t you think?”
Gemma reluctantly nodded. It wasn’t like she had any other choice.
“There’s a small team leaving for Perileos tomorrow to look for Nadine, but there’s a strong chance she won’t be found before you come back. And even if she is, I will not sign off on her transfer to Capital City until you’ve had a chance to speak with her, okay? You have my word.”
Her vision blurred. This was so not the way things were supposed to go. The implant had saved her life. It was supposed to give her time.
A sharp pain pierced her chest as silence punctuated the air. She couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Am I dying?”
“We don’t know that.”
“Without the implant, I would have.”
Rami stared at her, lips pursed as if weighing his words. At last, he spoke. “I’m not going to lie to you, Gemma, and say for certain that it won’t happen. But I can promise you: We will do everything in our power to make sure it doesn’t. Once we get further information from the temple’s excavation team, we will better understand what is happening and how to best help you. Hang in there.”
Gemma’s shoulders sank. He hadn’t given her a straight answer, but her heart knew the truth.
The moment her implant failed, she’d be dead.
Hawk and Imara stood outside the war room, deep in conversation with a man Christian instantly recognized as Hawk’s father. They were so similar in appearance that the older man could’ve been Hawk’s brother, if time and politics hadn’t sculpted his features into something sharper. The beard helped to set them apart. So did the air of authority that clung to Hawk’s father like a tailored suit. The man practically ruled over the Oranos Space Stationandthe planet of Reva, including Zion and Reva’s city of Perileos. Hawk’s dad answered only to the president herself.
Hawk spotted Christian over Imara’s shoulder. His eye not covered by a patch was watery, and both cheeks were flushed. He motioned for Christian to join and introduced them.
