My anger builds, and the words spit out. “What are you talking about, you sick fuck?”
“Language, Aiden. After you left me for dead on that bridge six months ago, you took the vials. If you’d simply left them, none of this would have happened. Marcus would be alive. You’d be with him right now.”
My pulse rises and anger takes over. “You had something to do with Marcus’s death?”
“The vials you stole from me. They contained the same thing you’re carrying now—the weaponized version of XT58. Of course, you were kind enough to spill some onto the road, a bit of which I was able to salvage. It wasn’t enough to accomplish my plans. But it was still enough to kill.”
Connor’s words hit me like a freight train. “You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t!”
“Like a good worker bee, you finished our mission and delivered the vials to DC while I went back to Boston. I got there at 3:00 a.m., when the whole bunker was asleep. I tried to synthesize more XT58 from what you left on the road, but the sample was too contaminated. That’s when Marcus ran into me. I guess he always had problems sleeping when you were away. I didn’t have anything against Marcus, honestly. He just walked up behind me. He was as good as dead the moment he entered the lab.”
My blood is boiling, and my pulse thuds in my head. “You fucker!”
“I guess it was poetic justice. You left me for dead on the side of that bridge and took the vials from me. So I took Marcus from you. Being presumed dead was too valuable to me, so I knocked him out with a sedative. By the time he’d wake up, his fever would be so bad that nobody would believe he saw me. Ravings of a fevered mind.”
“Why?” I cry out.
“We want the same thing, Aiden. To find the cure. But the Collective will never do it. They have to be stopped. You’ll never understand that. You’re too naïve. So I’ll do what I must. I’ll kill who I must.”
“You bastard!” That’s all I manage. The world is crumbling around me. Connor is the architect of all my misery. He wanted the weaponized Infection all along, from our first mission together. And he infected Marcus. HekilledMarcus. I want to strangle him with my bare hands. Now Marcus’s dying words finally make sense. He wasn’t accusing me of cheating on him with Connor. He waswarning meabout Connor.
“Now listen carefully. I need your handprint on that scanner.” Connor gestures to the control panel on the side of the container. “If I could, I’d just shoot you and drag your lifeless body to it. But it only works if they detect a pulse. If you try anything stupid, I’ll shoot Zach. First, set him down.”
I have no choice, so I do as he says. I lay Zach down, resting against the side of the container.
“Good. Now give me the vials.”
I take off my backpack, then fish for the aluminum box.
“Slide them over.” Connor gestures with the barrel of the gun.
I push the vials along the ground, but they only get halfway between us.
Connor rolls his eyes. “Just leave them. Come with me and open this door. Try anything stupid, and Zach dies.”
“Nobody in this bunker will help you while they are still breathing.” I spit the words out.
“Of course not. I don’t need them. Remember, I’ve recruited my own scientists. I just need to get into the lab so I can take their research. I’ll shoot anyone who gets in my way.”
Connor backs away, leaving lots of space between us. He gestures to the control panel on the container with its handprint scanner.
I walk up to the scanner and raise my hand. And I wait.
“Go on! What are you waiting for?” Connor yells.
This is my last chance. I’ll have to stop him or die trying. I draw in a deep breath as my training kicks in. My body winds up like a coil, ready to spring.
“Fine, I’ll shoot Zach instead.” Connor turns the gun away from me and aims at Zach.
His hand flexes, about to squeeze the trigger. I dive for the gun. A gunshot rings out, and a searing pain bursts into my side. I crumple in front of Connor. The pain is unimaginable, as if somebody ran me through with a molten hot knife, then twisted it. The sharp, searing pain fills all my consciousness.
Connor looks down at me, disgusted. “You had to be the fucking hero, didn’t you?” He grabs my palm and starts dragging me, streaking a trail of blood behind. I didn’t think the pain could get worse, but somehow it does.
“Well, I’m okay with doing this the hard way too,” Connor says as we reach the panel. He raises my hand to press it to the console. “Please, stay alive long enough to—”
The sound of a rifle shot rings out, and a bullet strikes Connor in the left shoulder. He howls in pain. The impact sends him staggering back, teetering toward the edge of the hundred-foot dry dock wall.
I turn my head. Zach is barely conscious but holds the rifle from my backpack next to him. Smoke rises out of the barrel. With one last burst of energy, I grab a metal cog from a scrap pile next to the container and throw it at Connor. It hits him squarely in the head.
