Page 472 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘No. No. Seven years? She…’

‘It’s all right.’

‘Seven years. Oh, my babygirl,’ he sobs.

Riley puts a hand on his shoulder.

Lachlan looks up at Savannah through tears.

‘Where is she now?’

‘Four months ago, she escaped with the help of her companion. This, I believe, marks the turning point of the Resets’ attention swivelling onto your Tower.’

‘They thought she was here?’

‘I believe Alistair thought it was a possibility. He needs her back.’

‘Why?’

‘Her blood, of course. It’s the reason why Roman is alive and the reason why you mustn’t burn Julian. Her blood is regenerative, but only selectively. She has to choose to allow it to heal and, in extreme circumstances, recall a body from death. I now know that Roman’s body was kept in stasis, the same kind Alistair had used for his co-body until your upgrade,’ she says to Lee, ‘and that the transfusion taken from Mimi in the days before the staged attack was used to revive him. Alistair would never just burn a body. Anyone who ever died in the Estate was, in some way, put to use. Blood, bone marrow, all kinds were taken from the bodies once transferred to Helixx.’

‘No, I saw the bodies burn,’ Lachlan croaks.

‘You saw what the morgue released wrapped in a sheet. My intelligence told me that he kept Clara Barnes alive in stasis for almost a year. The same with Mason Fenwick. Their experiments are notoriously thorough and Mimi, for the last seven years, was a part of Helixx’s infrastructure until she broke free.’

‘Are you saying… we can bring Jules back?’ Riley asks, hardly daring to believe because believing is lethal, and hope is dangerous.

‘I know we can. Roman was dead for months.’

Lachlan pushes to stand. ‘Her blood brought him back?’

‘Yes. He was moved to the sub-levels of the Estate once Alistair made it secure. Transported within the old suspension technology.’

Lachlan utters, ‘Roman was down there?’

‘Still medically dead until her transfusion, but yes. When the dome expelled Alistair from Varrow City, he had to rely on his newest experiment, improved all the more by Julian’s blood.’

‘Resonyx.’

‘He needed the mental connection and he needed total control.’

‘Julian’s blood created Resonyx?’

‘It was the model from which the synthetic compound was crafted. He could no longer come into Helixx to monitor her, nor could he oversee the search for his son who he knew was still alive but could not pin down because the dome scrambles all drone imagery and even now, the Tower’s location above ground is very hard to find without invitation. Believe it or not, Alistair did not know Julian was here until recently.’ She looks at Riley. ‘You hid him very well.’

‘The PMCs found us just fine.’

‘Even a ley line anomaly cannot disguise a tracking beacon. One of your people broadcast the location from within last night.’

‘Same fucker who blew the tunnels, I bet,’ Riley mutters darkly. ‘So let’s be really clear.’ He walks back around. ‘If we find Mimi, and get her to give blood to Jules… he’ll come back?’

‘Roman was dead for months, and he is human.’

‘Fuck.’ He looks at Vasily, then Lee, then Lachlan.

How can they not?

How can they not try, at least to do what he knows Kade would?