Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
I stare at him, not breathing. It’s not true. My mother was a good person. She never would have been part of the experiments on this island.
“No.” Tears fill my eyes.
“You have to understand,” McClain says softly, “that we didn’t know what aromium would become. None of us had any idea. There were two teams, and I led the aromium one. We were told our work was for the betterment of humanity. We were in the dark, as was the other team. Most of the scientists on the other team had no idea they were actually creating the virus that would wipe out billions of people.”
My jaw drops, and I look at Marcus. His expression is stoic, unreadable. But his eyes swim with sympathy.
“The virus?” I can hardly even take a full breath. “You guys created it?”
“The other team did. But we all worked under the same roof. The team I assembled thought we were working for a billionaire who wanted to use his vast resources to genetically engineer cures for diseases.”
“But then ... how am I able to control vines just because my mother worked on the project?”
A second passes before he responds. “Because the team I assembled used their own DNA to create aromium. They, and their blood relatives, can do things no one else can with aromium.”
I have to put my feelings about this in an invisible box for now. I can’t break. After a deep breath, I steel myself.
“It’s started happening even when the aromium is off.”
He shakes his head. “That’s not possible.”
“It happens. Marcus has seen it.”
McClain looks at Marcus, who gives him a tight nod.
Rubbing his forehead, McClain slumps in his chair. “We unleashed hell on this island. A hell that can’t be undone.”
44
Dr. Malcolm Lowe was attacked by people at the Rising Tide camp today. His injuries are significant. It’s no longer safe for us to enter the camp for monitoring. As the number of soldiers grows, our control over these experiments diminishes.
- Excerpt from the journal of Dr. Randall McClain
“Briar.”
“Hmm?” I turn my face toward Amira.
“Did you hear any of that?”
My gaze shifts to Niran, then Marcus. We’re at the switch point, the four of us about to go search for the flower after having our aromium switched back on by Nova. It was supposed to be just me and Marcus, but I asked him if we could bring extra help.
He was quick to agree, probably because things are so tense between us. I had to suddenly leave our conversation with McClain yesterday because I got sick. Learning that not only was my mom involved in creating aromium, but that her DNA is part of it, made me physically ill.
I stumbled to the housing block, holding back tears, until I made it to the bathroom and threw up. Then I sat on the bathroom floor and cried until my head ached.
It’s not really a betrayal, but it feels like it. My mom had government security clearance and she consulted on top-secret research that she couldn’t discuss with anyone. I understand why she didn’t tell us what she was working on.
But I can’t stop thinking about all the times I’ve yearned for her since getting here, wishing I could tell her about aromium. Knowing she’d be blown away. The joke’s on me, though, because not only did she know, she helped make it. She helped create the compound that turns women into breeding machines and children into mindless soldiers.
I stayed in the bathroom for more than an hour before dragging myself to the garden to work. I pulled weeds and divided plants, no one questioning what I was doing.
At dinner, I couldn’t tell Amira about my mom. It was still too raw. And though I’d planned to stay in her room, I found myself drawn to Marcus. I’m so angry at him, but I also see him more clearly than I did before. This is why he’s so cold and bitter toward McClain. McClain sparked a fire that became an inferno and then turned his back on it, washing his hands. I’d be just as furious with him as Marcus is.
I couldn’t talk to him last night, but I still curled into his side and cried, his hand smoothing down my hair and his arms wrapped around me. Eventually, I fell asleep.
It’s time to return to our search for the flower. But at least Amira and Niran are with us, so we won’t be able to argue or rage fuck when we’re supposed to be in stealth mode.
“No, I missed it,” I say absently.
“We’re heading to the volcano,” Marcus says, his steely gaze locked onto me. “We’re going to climb it again and check for cracks where something could grow.”
“Yeah, okay.”
After all the crying yesterday, I’m numb today. I want to know everything McClain knows about my mother and her involvement in aromium, but not until the shock of her involvement has worn off.