Chapter 9
Holy shit.
The flat, emotionless voice that answered the question is so unexpected, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who jumps when Delilah—complete with another slicked-back bun and impenetrable sunglasses—appears at the edge of the picnic table.
It’s even worse when she finishes her tale, and it hits me: Winston or someone like him fed Delilah’s lover to a lurker all because of their precious project and their goddamn experiments.
And she still worked for them.
What did that do to her… staying behind at the NRI to serve as a double agent for her twin after knowing her bosses sacrificed Julian… and what will happen to her now that she’s finally quit?
What will happen to any of us?
Veronica turns toward her twin. “Dee… I thought you were catching up on your rest.”
“I was. But I had to come get you. I didn’t think you’d want me to wait.” A small quirk of her lips before they fall into a soft frown again. “Kristian got through the line. I have an update about the situation at the NRI.”
I’m suddenly very interested in what Delilah has to say.
Not that I wasn’t morbidly intrigued as she spoke about the death of her partner.
I was, and I hate that I was. I know how cruel the Men in Black are.
What the Doctor did to me… they’re almost as big of monsters as the lurkers are.
No. They’re worse because they probably are convinced they’re right in what they’re doing instead of being so lost to the Injection that hunger is their only driving force.
But it’s been about twenty hours since we escaped.
I know that the NRI team of goons have at least one SUV.
If they wanted to, they could probably come after us.
I know Veronica wants to believe that Camp Sunnyside is perfectly positioned, easily defended, and hidden from those who don’t know it exists, but I wouldn’t put it past Project Phoenix to hunt us down for daring to escape their rotten grasps.
“Winston locked down the entire facility as soon as he learned that we were gone. No one is allowed in or out. Kristian didn’t dare try to call while Winston’s top squad was searching every inch of the NRI, especially once they went through the list of personnel and realized I was gone.
He’s not happy, but no operatives have been dispatched outside of the NRI as of an hour ago. ”
That’s a good thing. Right? They let us go.
I look at Chase. He’s frowning. A peek at Mav. His expression is a lot more speculative.
If I didn’t know better, he’s already plotting how to take down the NRI again.
Oh. Wait. I do know, and I bet that’s exactly what he’s doing.
Meanwhile, Veronica accepts her twin’s report with a slow nod that sends her curls bouncing softly.
“Yeah. Okay. That’s good news. We’re prepared if those dickheads try to breach our camp, but it’s good that they decided to let you three go.
I’ll take that. Anything else? What about Gwen? Any news on her?”
Gwen? Who the hell is Gwen?
Delilah nods. “He finally got confirmation that she’s alive.”
Veronica slaps the table with the flat of her palm. “Fucking finally. Yes! Now that’s what I wanted to hear.”
“She’s not at the NRI.”
Veronica waves her hand as though that’s not something to be concerned about. “We already knew that, Dee. If she was, you would’ve known her location. What about Kristian? He get the deets?”
Delilah shakes her head. “Not yet. He warned me he’ll have to lay low so that Winston doesn’t discover he’s been feeding you intel.
With me gone… Winston will want to blame someone, and we can’t let it be Kris.
But he was there when the Doctor ordered that Gwen be brought to him for further treatment, so she’s alive.
Whether she’ll help us, I don’t know. But she’s alive. ”
“Oh. She’ll help us. Next time you get Kristian on the line, tell him our focus is back on Gwen. I keep thinking she’s the key to all of us. We get Gwen, fuck Project Phoenix. We’ll survive no matter what.”
Okay. I’ve sat here watching this exchange long enough. Clearing my throat to get their attention, I wait until the McLean twins both glance my way before I ask, “Who is Gwen?”
“Gwen Martin.” Mav speaks up. “She’s one of the brightest minds at the NRI.”
“Was,” murmurs Delilah.
“She’s got the formula for the antidote in her head.
You ever wonder why there was an initial delivery all over the country, then never again?
It’s because of Gwen Martin. After the Turning…
after she saw what happened when they rushed through the science and the second batch of the Injection was tainted…
she deleted every record of how to make the antidote, wiped the whole damn system clean, then refused to show anyone how to make it. ”
“Why?” asks Chase. I want to echo the question. “Why would she keep anyone from making the one thing that can save the rest of us from Turning?”
The twins glance at each other.
Veronica shrugs. “The only one who knows that for sure is Gwen, but Winston has kept her under lock and key for the last nine months. No one knows where she is or if she was alive… but if she is? Our aim is to retrieve Gwen, bring her back to Sunnyside.”
“What about taking out the lurker nest in Manhattan?” I ask.
“And the NRI?” says Maverick. “You told me you’ll help me destroy the building.”
“I will,” promises Veronica. “But we need Gwen first. We just have to find out where they’re keeping her, and then we make our move.”
That sounds like a plan to me. And I need one.
I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.
I spent the entire journey Outside with a goal: get to Manhattan and exterminate lurkers.
In a way, I did just that. We killed a lot of lurkers.
But the biggest lurker nest on the East Coast is still sitting pretty in Manhattan.
If I can’t kill them all, I want to at least make a dent in their number.
Going after those responsible for Project Phoenix… that worked, too.
After we failed, I had no idea what was going to happen next. Knowing that there’s something to work toward… I need the distraction. I need to forget the shitshow that’s my life in favor of doing something for the greater good.
But Chase… not so much.
“That sounds all well and good, and I wish you all the luck in the world, but I hope you know that when you say ‘our’ like that…” He gestures at me and him. “We’re not going back there.”
We’re not?
I turn toward him. “Chase?”
“We’re going home.” He reaches out, taking my hand. “Holden… I did what you wanted us to do. It’s time to go back to the Grave.”
That’s what he thinks.
Me? I’m not ready to return to the Grave yet.
I can think of a couple of main reasons right off the bat.
I followed Maverick to the Outside because he promised I could help eliminate the largest nest of the lurkers on the East Coast. Chase might be surprised, but his sweet “fiancée” still wants to do that.
I think I’ve always wanted to hunt, but it was his overprotective nature and how Dad wanted to keep one of their handful of sensors safe that meant I was usually left behind when there was a lurker to kill.
More than that, I’ve only just realized that everyone I know and love kept the truth of my identity from me.
To return to the Grave is to walk into my old life.
Simple as that. I won’t be able to go there and explain to Jack—to Dad—that I remember I’m Hallie, but that I just can’t be the daughter he lost. I know they meant well, but the wound is way too fucking fresh.
Give it a few weeks, let me figure out what it’ll take to heal, and then, yes, I’ll go back to the Grave.
But since I can’t return just yet, and there’s a chance I can do something… anything… that could help all survivors, why not stick around Camp Sunnyside with Maverick and Veronica and her rebels with a cause?
I tug my hand out of Chase’s.
And then, just like that fateful day in the auditorium of Madison High, I volunteer to what inevitably be a suicide mission.
“I’m in.”
Xandra always got a kick out of referring to Chase Knight as her twin’s lapdog. He was perfectly obedient, trotting after me everywhere. If I gave a command, he’d pant, then do whatever he could to follow it.
She wasn’t wrong, even if she could’ve been nicer about it when she teased my boyfriend.
Chase was content to let me take the lead in our relationship.
He was just happy to call me his, and that meant he was willing to do anything to keep it that way.
Though we didn’t often argue, I don’t think there was a single one he didn’t let me win.
It must’ve killed him to let me walk out of the Grave with a stranger.
It didn’t matter that he got Dad’s permission and chased right after me.
He let me go, and as much as I feel like a shit person using his love for me against him, I’m one hundred percent sure that he’ll let me stay if that’s what I want.
Does that mean he’s going to do so without a fight? Of course not. Just like how he slept on the porch, waylaying me before I met up with Maverick the morning I left the Grave, he’s going to at least try—and that’s why I’m not surprised he’s quiet the entire walk back to our cabin.
Once he holds the door open for me and walks in after me?
Yeah. All bets are off.
“Give me one reason… one good reason… why we’re not packing up tonight and starting the trek back home.
Okay, Holden? I’m listening. Because I could’ve sworn I heard you tell a woman we’ve met twice that you’re going along with this insane plan to steal a scientist from the same facility that had a doctor that fucking tortured you. ”
Chase doesn’t know. I refuse to tell him what happened in that room. It was torture, though, and the way I shuffled into that cell… of course he figured it out. He doesn’t need the details to guess how badly they hurt me.