“No,” Jess replied. “Despite what you’ve done.”
Silence hung in the air and I tried to clear my mind and figure out why they laughed at my words, whilst listening to the stilted conversation.
“It worked,” Toni said.
Then I saw Jess look back to Doctor Lytham and with the slight rise in the corner of her mouth, I got it. Everything became clear and I realised I’d been so blind to what was going on around me.
She’d called the cure the last piece of the system.
Jess spoke, pulling me away from the thought. “If you meant to turn me into a cold-blooded killer with superhuman strength and a thirst for human flesh, then yes it worked.”
“But you have control?” Toni asked, looking back to Thompson for a second time.
I went to turn, but I held still with the jab of the muzzle in my back.
The rise in the corner of Toni’s mouth confirmed she’d got the answer she wanted.
“Yes. I’ve turned into your soldier. I can control it at will,” Jess replied, still with a vicious edge to her voice.
Doctor Lytham turned my way, to Thompson at least, and I chanced a twist and saw him nod as if corroborating her story. I twisted back, hoping he hadn’t noticed.
“I just need you to show me how I can live without doing those terrible things,” Jess added, and the room’s attention came her way.
“Cassie,” I said, barely able to make the word come out.
“We still have some things to work out, but with what you’ve just told us about B23A, I think we have what we need to finish the work,” Toni said, her words calm and soft as if she was explaining what she’d be cooking for breakfast. She glanced to the curtains pulled across the bays.
“Like not needing to feed on human flesh?” Jess asked, and her expression hardened, but when Toni slowly nodded, I saw a tear falling down Jess’s cheek to glint in the orange light.
Jess nodded. “If that’s the way it needs to be, then you’ve got me and you can let the children go.”
Toni looked to Doctor Lytham and the old woman replied with a shake of her head.
“Where are they?” Jess asked, looking at the curtains on the other side of the room.
“That doesn’t matter,” Doctor Lytham replied. “What matters for you is if that woman is cured, then we’ve got what you need. She is what will stop you from needing to do those things.” She looked to Toni, but Toni turned away.
“Well done, Major, for thinking on your feet. Now where is B23A?”
Doctor Lytham stared at Jess, then to Alex and my way when no one replied.
“Do you want to stop the hunger? Where is Cassie?”
Jess blinked just as Shadow’s bark echoed from the outside of the room, resounding as if it came from each of the entrances at the same time.
Doctor Lytham raised a brow as if remembering the one kindness I’d seen her show. A loud gunshot ripped through the air, but Alex and I were the only ones to flinch.
Realising the sound wasn’t loud enough to have come from inside the room, I listened, eager to hear Shadow’s call again. Only silence replied.
“Quick now,” Doctor Lytham said, and Toni hurried to the nearest table, pulling up a paper towel resting on the side to reveal a syringe in a kidney bowl. She picked it up, but the doctor called out.
“Antonia,” she said, nodding back to the table.
Toni glanced her way and then to Jess. Placing the bowl back to the stainless-steel table, she pulled up a surgical mask before wrapping its mint-green material around her mouth and hooking the elastic over each ear.
Jess did her best to shake her head, and I thought about doing something rather than just standing by useless. Feeling the pressure of the muzzle in my back, it was as if Thompson guessed my thoughts. Still, I considered rushing forward.
I didn’t move; instead, I watched as Toni stepped up to Jess who barely flinched when Toni pushed the needle into her forearm to draw blood. My gaze fixed to the bright red liquid, marvelling at how normal it looked.
“Cassie,” Doctor Lytham called. “You can come out now,” she said in a sing-song call.
For a disconcerting moment I thought Cassie would come through the doorway with a smile as if she’d been involved all along. But she didn’t.
“Cassie,” the doctor’s call snapped again.
Like Alex said on the boat, they couldn’t have soldiers rampaging on the enemy and not be able to turn them off when they’d completed their objectives. They had to have a cure for their hunger for the concept to work.
“You need her, don’t you,” I shouted. “You need her to complete your plan. You need her to make this work.”
I looked to Jess, then twisted away, turning instead to Alex. “Cassie is the cure. Cassie is the way they can fix the problem of the hunger.” I watched as Alex’s brows raised, then she turned to Jess as if longing for it to be true. “When they have her, that’s it. They’ve finished and there’s nothing that will stop them.”
“And no reason to keep us alive,” Alex added, shaking her head as she looked up at Jess.
I couldn’t look at her bound to the wall; instead, I called out. “Run, Cassie. Stay away. You’re the answer to their problems.” I didn’t get any more words out before pain flashed across the back of my head to the sound of gasps from around the room as I fell to my knees.
“Keep him quiet,” I heard Doctor Lytham say as the darkness at the edge of my vision
