CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE #3
He raised his hands. ‘I didn’t want to assume.
But yeah, there’s a conspiracy here that needs to be taken down.
Brenson’s trying the legal route. I’m rallying the masses.
We need to expose Dominion and their fake tolerance metrics.
Then maybe we can find a way to prove there’s a cure.
They’re going down, one way or another.’ He looked back at me.
‘It’s wild you were that close to one of them, Nova.
Castor’s entire family is corrupt. Albert Fox is the worst of them all. ’
I sucked in a ragged breath. Cas couldn’t have known this.
If there was a cure, he would’ve taken it.
He almost died trying to carry the pain himself.
I shook my head. He can’t know. He wouldn’t be part of this.
‘There’s something off about this. Cas had helical disease.
The only reason I’m his Carrier is because he almost drowned and his family was desperate for a match.
Why would they risk his life like that?’
Apollo shrugged. ‘I’m not going to try to understand what goes through Albert Fox’s mind.
’ He walked over to his command center and tapped a few keys.
‘In the meantime, I’m happy to set you up in our movement, unless you’re here for chip removal.
I’m not going to lie; it isn’t a risk-free process.
I’m still working on a way to do it safely without serious injury. ’
‘We aren’t here for chip removal,’ I replied quickly.
Estelle shifted in her seat. ‘What happens after it’s removed?’
I cursed. There was a hunger in her eyes. ‘It’s not safe, Estelle. He just said that.’
‘It’s not, but no one has ever regretted it,’ Apollo answered.
‘Most enjoy the consequence – return to sender. The pain goes back to the Pain Giver, the disease becoming unstable and the pain more excruciating than before. Dominion gets an alert and mobilizes its investigative team to make sure the Carrier hasn’t removed the chip illegally, hoping the Pain Carrier is simply dead from an overdose.
That’s why anyone who goes through this process with me needs to disappear before Dominion can catch them.
They don’t look too hard, though. They know a percentage of Pain Carriers will dig out their chip.
Their goal is to control their image. They put their efforts into keeping the internet clean of any chatter and making sure the Pain Carriers who disappear stay missing.
It’s probably by design that the CEO of Solis Technologies sits on Dominion’s board of directors.
If you do this, going underground is your only option for survival.
You can’t contact your family; you can’t swing back by to say your farewells. Dominion will be watching.’
Estelle wouldn’t look at me. I tensed. We’d agreed not to remove our chips.
We couldn’t leave our families. Leo could follow us, but Skye needed access to hospitals and care.
And I wasn’t leaving Daddy. Estelle’s parents were older – she was their rainbow baby after years of trying.
They couldn’t be on the move for the rest of their lives.
Apollo opened a drawer, then peered over at me. ‘You really think Castor doesn’t know about any of this?’
‘I really don’t.’ Cas spoke of his grandfather with such pride. He touted his family’s philanthropic efforts and had spoken with genuine appreciation for Lucille B. Anarcha. This wasn’t the Dominion he knew. ‘He wouldn’t stand for any of this.’
‘Let’s hope so. If my mom is right about the cure and Dominion hiding it, Cas is in the best position to uncover their lies.
My mom wrote about Albert Fox in one of her journals.
He keeps his more sensitive research in his home office to avoid leaks.
He’s old-school like that. If my mom’s research is anywhere, it’s there.
’ Apollo held up a small device. ‘It’s a bugging kit.
The network uses them to track medical shipments. If Cas could plant it for us …’
I nodded, taking the device. ‘He’ll do it.’ I had to believe he would. He wasn’t a part of this, I was sure. I wouldn’t have fallen for someone capable of this.
‘He needs to find the reports from Dr Anand. That’s my mom.’
Estelle had got up from the sofa and was pacing, her gaze fixed on the sterile room and the scalpels.
She scratched at the site of her Pain Carrier chip.
Blue light flickered beneath her skin and her eyes widened.
‘No, not now. I can’t take another multi-one now.
I need it out.’ She spoke softly at first, then louder.
‘I need my chip out now. Maybe there isn’t a cure, or Castor doesn’t help us. ’
I sighed, knowing there was nothing I could say to change her mind.
I’d felt it in my bones since we’d arrived at the warehouse.
There had been so much hope in her eyes last night when she told me about the black market and its doctors.
Then there was the way she’d been in awe of how I handled my hellflares, and how embarrassed she was about hers.
Now she was about to have a pain crisis in front of us.
‘Please don’t try to talk me out of it.’ She wiped her eyes with her palms. ‘You don’t know what my pain is like. I can’t do this. This flare isn’t like yours –’ Her voice cracked and she fell into my arms with a muffled scream.
Her body burned in my embrace. Heat rolled off her and she trembled, the helical disease making her glow. Stars. I almost dropped her from how hot she was to the touch.
Leo stepped forward. ‘What do you need? Did you bring any meds, Nova?’
‘I used up my last this morning.’
I held my best friend as best I could. She writhed in my arms, struggling to breathe through her sobs.
She was right – I didn’t know her pain. It crackled, wave after wave, without letting up.
She forced out her words. ‘If you all don’t let me do this, I’ll cut it out myself.
It’s the nicest gift my Pain Giver could hope to receive from me. You already know what I want to do.’
I closed my eyes, helpless for her. I tried to whisper reassurances to calm her, but I doubted she could hear me through her agony. She stifled another scream.
‘Apollo, please,’ I said. ‘There has to be something here. Do you have any perceta? Maybe hydromorphone. Just this once – for her.’
‘Forget that,’ said Leo. ‘Cut it out of her now. We can figure everything else out la–’
He froze, staring at the monitors. Two police cars sat parked in front of the warehouse. A door slammed somewhere else in the building.
‘Did you tell anyone you were here? Did anyone see you?’ asked Apollo.
Leo stumbled over his words. ‘N-no – no one saw us.’
‘You guys need to go.’ Apollo typed a few lines of code and all his monitors powered down. ‘Back door!’
‘No!’ Estelle’s scream rasped. ‘I need it out. I need –’ She didn’t have time to finish her sentence. Leo snatched her up. She yelled for him to take her back, her hellflare quaking through her. I rushed after them to the far end of the floor as Estelle screamed and screamed.
‘You have to stop shouting,’ I pleaded. ‘We can come back.’
She quieted to a whimper, but there was something broken behind her stare.
We came out at the rear of the warehouse, the police cars on the opposite side, oblivious to three people escaping. Dad’s truck sat in front of us – the perfect parking spot.