As we crossed paths with them, the little boy lifted his head and looked straight at me. The moment our gazes collided, a sharp tingle of awareness traveled up my spine and exploded along the back of my skull. Dizziness swept through me, and I stopped again, feeling strange. I wondered if the kid was doing some kind of weird Jedi mind trick on me.
The kid’s eyes widened.
My fingers started to tingle.
My mouth dropped open. I didn’t—I couldn’t. My brain stopped working, and the words repeated themselves. The kid broke contact, and then they were behind us, and I was standing there, quaking with adrenaline and confusion.
Archer’s face came into view, eyes narrowed. “He said something to you.”
I snapped out of it and immediately went on guard. “Why would you think that?”
“Because you have a freaked-out look on your face.” Dropping his hand on my shoulder, he spun me around and gave a little push toward the elevator. As the doors slid shut, he hit the stop button. “There are no cameras in the elevators, Katy. Besides the bathrooms, it’s the only area in the building free from watchful eyes.”
Having no idea where he was going with that and still mind-blown from everything, I took a step back, hitting the wall. “Okay.”
“The origins are able to pick up thoughts. It’s one thing that Nancy didn’t tell you. They can read thoughts. So you better be very careful what you’re thinking when you’re around one of them.”
I gaped. “They can read minds? Wait, that means you can do it, too!”
He gave a noncommittal shrug. “I try not to. Hearing other people’s thoughts is really annoying more than anything else, but when you’re young, you really don’t think about it. You just do it. And they do it all the time.”
“I… This is insane. They can read minds, too? What else can they do?” I felt like I’d fallen through a rabbit hole and woken up in an X-Men comic. And all of the things I’ve thought about around Archer? I was sure at some point I had thought about escaping here and—
“I’ve never told anyone anything I’ve picked up from you,” he said.
“Oh my God…you’re doing it right now.” My heart pounded. “And why should I trust that?”
“Probably because I’ve never asked you to trust me.”
I blinked. Hadn’t Luc said something like that? “Why wouldn’t you tell Nancy?”
He shrugged again. “That doesn’t matter.”
“Yes. It totally—”
“No. It doesn’t. Not right now. Look, we don’t have a lot of time. Be careful when you’re around the origins. I picked up on what he said to you. Have you seen the movie
“Uh, yeah.” What an odd question.
A wry smile appeared. “Remember the raptors? Letting the origins out would be like unlocking the gates on the raptor cages. You get what I’m saying? These origins, the newest batch, are nothing like what Daedalus has had in the past. They’re evolving and adapting in ways no one can control. They can do things I cannot even think of. Daedalus already has problems keeping them in line.”
I struggled to process all of this. Strangely, common sense kept spewing out denials, when in reality I knew anything was possible. I was an alien/human hybrid, after all. “Why are these origins different?”
“They were given Prometheus to help accelerate their learning and abilities.” Archer snorted. “Like they needed it. But unlike poor Largent, it worked with them.”
Largent’s mangled body flashed before me, and I winced. “What is the Prometheus serum?”
He looked at me skeptically. “You know what Prometheus was in Greek mythology. I can’t believe you haven’t figured it out yet.”
Gee, way to make me feel stupid.
He laughed.
I glared at him. “You’re reading my thoughts, aren’t you?”
“Sorry.” He didn’t look sorry at all. “You said it yourself. Prometheus was credited with creating mankind. Think about it. What is Daedalus doing?”
“Trying to create the perfect species, but that really doesn’t tell me anything.”
He shook his head as he reached over and tapped a finger along the fleshy part of my elbow. “When you first mutated, you were given a serum. It was the first serum that Daedalus created, but they want something better, something faster. Prometheus is what’s being tested now, and not just on humans healed by Luxen.”
“I…” I didn’t get it at first, and then I thought about those bags in the room where the sick patients were receiving Daedalus’s own breed of medication. “They’re giving it to humans who are sick, aren’t they?”
He nodded.
“Then that means Prometheus is LH-11?” When he nodded again, I forced myself not to go any further with the realization, lest Archer was being nosy. “Why are you telling me this?”
He pivoted slightly and restarted the elevator. Casting me a long look, he simply said, “We have a mutual friend, Katy.”
Chapter 17
I could barely contain myself waiting for a few moments alone with Daemon. We hadn’t been abusing the bathroom privileges, knowing that’s what they wanted us to do. It took forever before I felt the familiar tingle along my neck. Holding off a couple of minutes, I then bum-rushed the bathroom and knocked softly on the door to his cell.
He was there within a second. “Miss me?”
“Do your Lite-Brite thing.” I moved from one foot to the other. “Come on.”
He looked at me strangely, but a second later he was a glowing comet.
In a rush, I told him everything about the creepy kid in the hallway, what Archer had said about them, what Prometheus really was, and what Archer had said about us sharing a mutual friend.
Daemon’s light pulsed.
One light-encased arm stretched out. Warm fingers brushed my cheek.
We talked a couple more minutes about Archer. Both of us agreed that there was a good chance he was Luc’s inside guy, but it didn’t make sense. Archer obviously had access to the LH-11 and could’ve gotten it for Luc. We couldn’t trust him—we weren’t going to make the mistake of trusting anyone again.
But I did have an idea. One that Daemon was also interested in. Once we got our hands on the LH-11, we had only one chance to escape. And if the origins really were like raptors, then they could become the perfect distraction, allowing us a small shot to bust out of there.
No matter what we did, it would be risky, with about a 99 percent fail rate. But both Daemon and I felt more
