Don't Let Go (24 page)

“According to you, we are,” Peter said. “But feel free to let me know if you’ve changed your mind. After all, it is Pike & Dolan ground zero.”

Noa’s throat went the kind of dry no amount of water could fix. Still, she said firmly, “No more running. We have to confront him.” She didn’t add that unless they hurried, she might not make it, judging by how fast she was deteriorating. And she didn’t want to die without looking Pike in the eye.

“Well, I’ve got some good news.” Despite the circumstances, there was enthusiasm in his voice. “Back at the house, right before maidzilla came in, I found proof in one of the files. Enough to put Pike away for life. Definitely enough to blackmail him.”

“What proof?” Noa asked wearily. Keeping her eyes open took too much effort, so she closed them.

“Everything.” Sounding downright gleeful, he continued, “Forms he signed off on, approving the experiments. Emails where he and Mason discussed targeting more ‘test subjects.’ Even messages between him and some senators where they talk about huge campaign contributions. Crazy stuff. Man, if we could put this out there, we’d bury him and about half of Congress!”

“So that’s how he keeps getting the cops to cover for him,” she said, hating how weak her voice sounded.

Peter nodded. “Someone high up in the FBI must be in his pocket; bet we find out who, if we keep looking. Plus it sounds like a lot of his buddies in Washington have sick kids.”

“And he promised them a PEMA cure,” Noa said slowly.

“Not just PEMA,” Peter said. “He’s claiming to be able to fix pretty much everything, maybe even cancer.”

“And all he needs is me,” Noa concluded. She was so tired. She knew that what they were talking about was important, but she was having a hard time focusing. Her mind kept wanting to drift off.

“Yeah, but don’t you see?” Peter said urgently. “We’ve finally got him. I’ve already spread copies of the most damaging stuff across a bunch of different servers, and put in fail-safes so that if I don’t check in regularly, it posts everywhere. Pike will never risk this getting released to the public.”

“Maybe,” she acknowledged. “Or he could just torture you for the codes. Then he’ll kill you.”

“There’s a happy thought,” Peter said, sounding nonplussed. “I thought you’d be pumped. This is exactly what we’ve been looking for.”

Noa sighed. She locked eyes with him and said, “Peter, listen to me. I know you’re trying to do the right thing. But honestly, I’m beyond helping at this point.”

“No, you’re not,” he said forcefully.

“I am,” she insisted. “Blackmailing him is too risky. Just release the files.”

Peter shook his head. “No way. This plan will work.”

“I’m not letting him kill you, too.” It was frustrating that he didn’t seem to grasp how sick she was. He was still convinced there was a way out that didn’t involve her dying.
But that’s Peter all over
, she thought.
Mr. Glass Half-Full
.

If it hadn’t been for him, she probably would have given up a long time ago. After the others were taken, and Zeke died, she hadn’t really seen the point in going on. But she’d felt responsible for Daisy and Teo. Peter joined them, and he wanted so badly to make everything better . . . and she was persuaded to let him try.

He couldn’t wrap his mind around a world without happy endings. But that’s all she’d grown up with.

“I don’t want you to risk your life anymore.” It was taking an enormous amount of energy just to form the words. “I’m pretty sure I’m dying anyway. I might not survive long enough to get to Boston.”

Peter’s jaw was set obstinately; she could tell he didn’t want to acknowledge the truth in what she was saying. He glared past her, as if Pike himself was standing there. Finally, in a low, fierce voice he said, “This bastard ruined my life. He turned my parents against me. He infected Amanda, killed Cody, and hurt you. Yeah, it would be great to see him go down for all of that. But not if it means you and Amanda die. Those files are going to make him fix you.”

Noa closed her eyes. She was too weak to keep arguing. “I’m so damn tired.”

“You just need to hold on.” Peter gripped her hand. “I’m going to get us through this. I promise.”

Pike led the way from the room. Teo was developing a rough sense of the house’s layout, which was the main reason he was going along with this weird charade. The more they knew, the better their chances of escaping. Noa had taught him that.

They hadn’t passed any outside doors yet, which was a bummer. And all of the downstairs windows were shut. Not that that would stop him. If there was a chance to flee, he had no problem hurling a priceless heirloom through the glass.

But only if they had a real opportunity.

As Pike glanced back, Teo pasted a look of studied nonchalance on his face. They approached the study. Instead of entering, though, Pike kept walking. Teo and Daisy followed in silence, clutching each other’s hands.

Pike stopped at the end of the hallway and opened a door. Stepping inside, Teo found himself in a giant media room. A flat-screen TV took up one entire wall.

Pike gestured toward the plush couch facing the screen and said, “Please, have a seat.”

He and Daisy settled on the couch. “What, no popcorn?”

Daisy giggled again, and Pike frowned. He picked up a remote and pointed it toward the screen. “This is the recording of a Skype conversation I had last August,” Pike said. “Dr. Johnson is the head of Project Persephone.”

That explained the grainy quality, Teo thought as the video started to play; clearly this wasn’t meant to be blown up to more than life-size. A dumpy middle-aged man in a white lab coat stared back at them. Wisps of reddish hair barely covered his scalp, and the overhead light gleamed off his pate. Occasionally, he blotted sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

“Gross,” Daisy commented. “He’s like my old gym teacher. I wonder if he likes to keep girls after school for ‘extra credit.’”

Pike glared at her, but didn’t say anything. Suddenly, his voice blared out from the speakers. “I understand your enthusiasm, Ron, but we’ve been here before.”

“It’s different this time, sir.” The scientist leaned in close enough for Teo to discern individual pores on his nose. “I believe we’re ready to move on to phase two.”

“Phase two,” Teo snorted. “Let me guess. That’s the part where you start kidnapping kids and operating on them?”

Pike looked uncomfortable, but he hit the pause button and said, “I received reports like these regularly; mainly, my researchers only told me that the experiments had failed. I assumed they were doing animal testing; I wasn’t involved in the day-to-day process. And when I found out what had been going on, entirely by accident, I shut it down immediately.”

“So you never visited one of your own labs?” Teo demanded.

Pike squared his jaw. “Of course I did. But the lab I visited—this one, in fact—only used mice and rats as test subjects. I assumed that phase two meant they would be moving up to larger animals.”

“They did that all right,” Daisy muttered.

“So when did you find out, exactly?” Teo asked. “And how?”

“A few months ago, I was frustrated by the lack of progress.” Pike started to pace. “So I decided to review all of the files associated with Persephone, not just the ones passed along to me. When I discovered what had been done, in all those labs I was funding . . . I was horrified.” The remorse in his voice sounded genuine as he continued, “I’m a parent myself. I never would have agreed to experimenting on children.”

“Not even if it might save your daughter?” Daisy demanded.

“Not even then,” Pike said firmly. “Unfortunately, I had established a bonus program; the first researcher to hit certain benchmarks would receive an enormous amount of money. Because as you saw last night”—he gestured toward the door—“Ella doesn’t have much time left. The thought that we might discover a cure, but too late to save her, haunted me. In retrospect, that might have been a mistake. In order to receive the bonuses, Dr. Johnson flagrantly violated dozens of international laws. So yes, to some degree, I suppose I am to blame. But he was not following my orders.”

Teo stared at Pike, trying to figure out if he was for real. He’d spent so long despising this guy; the way Noa and Peter had described him, he’d pictured some sort of arch-villain, complete with a cat and an evil laugh.

Instead, it sounded like Pike hadn’t meant for anyone to get hurt.
Is that possible?
Noa and Peter had never met Pike. In fact, they had no hard proof of his involvement; that’s why they’d been so desperate to get the information off those hard drives.

What if they’d been wrong about him all along?

“We’ve been chased for months,” Daisy interrupted. “By guys with guns. Are you going to lie and say you didn’t know about that, either?”

“Those were my men,” Pike said earnestly. “But my orders were clear; none of you were to be harmed, under any circumstances. And you weren’t, were you?”

Teo looked at Daisy. There was uncertainty in her eyes, and he could tell she was thinking the same thing he was. Everything Pike was saying made a kind of crazy sense.

“So you’re the good guy,” Daisy snorted. “But everyone who works for you is an asshole.”

“I know it’s difficult to believe. But if we’d gotten to you sooner, you would have been brought here completely unscathed.” Pike opened his arms wide. “I would have showed you this video, and explained everything, just the way I’m doing now.”

“So no operating tables?” Teo asked dubiously.

“Of course not.”

“Friends of ours were taken,” Daisy interjected. “By your men in Santa Cruz. What happened to them?”

“That was . . . regrettable.” Pike appeared genuinely downcast. “But all of those teenagers have been released, and given enough cash for a fresh start.”

Teo frowned. Pike sounded sincere; but Remo, Janiqua, or any of the others would have tried to get in touch with them. There was no way they would have just taken the cash and left.

Unless they thought that Noa had been killed at the compound in Santa Cruz. And maybe after what happened there, they decided to steer clear of the other units. Given the circumstances, he might have done the same thing.

“Please, can we continue?” Pike said pleadingly. “There’s not much more.”

“I don’t understand a word coming out of this guy’s mouth,” Teo complained. The way he’d learned to view the world was being turned upside down, and listening to a bunch of science jabber was only making it worse. “What’s the point?”

“You’ll see,” Pike said. “Just watch.”

The image of the researcher abruptly vanished, replaced by a close-up of three mice in a cage. One was tearing around like he’d been given uppers. Another sucked at the water bottle like its life depended on it, and the third was chowing down on a bowl of food in the far corner. The scientist droned on about senescent cells and spontaneous healing. Daisy rolled her eyes and said, “Seriously? You know I dropped out of school in eighth grade, right?”

Pike dialed down the volume. “Maybe I should explain it. These mice”—he pointed at the screen—“were part of an experiment to use thymuses to boost t-cells.”

“Yeah, that’s not any clearer,” Teo said sardonically.

Pike cleared his throat, then said, “Basically, they were given a section of a human organ—a thymus. The thymus produces cells that keep you from getting sick. Does that make sense?”

“Sure,” Teo said.

“We’re not idiots,” Daisy grumbled, glaring at him.

“All right then.” Pike ran a hand over his jaw, then continued, “The thymus stops working when you’re a teenager. Basically, after that, you have a limited number of cells to fight infections. That’s why people get sicker as they get older. When you’re young, your body is even strong enough to fight off cancer cells.”

“So you gave these mice a new thymus,” Teo said, suddenly understanding, “because you thought it might make more of those good cells. And that would stop people from dying from something like PEMA.”

“More or less.” Pike nodded. “At least, that was Dr. Johnson’s theory. Initially, he was simply trying to slow the progression of the illness. But these results got him very excited. The mice were infected with a variety of different diseases, any of which should have killed them. And yet they remained extraordinarily healthy. Even their cuts healed at several times the normal rate.”

Teo stared at the screen, focusing on a mouse that was frantically stuffing its mouth with food. He swallowed hard. He’d seen Noa eat like that, when she thought no one was looking.

“But here’s what I really wanted you to see.” Pike pressed another button, and the image whirred forward at several times the normal speed. The screen went black, then snapped back to the mouse cage. “This was taken three months after the initial surgery.”

Teo stared at the screen. One of the mice was lying on its side, struggling to breathe. “Where are the other two?” he asked, dreading the answer.

“Dead,” Pike said curtly. “The healing process reversed itself. Their bodies started to attack the thymus, and their systems shut down. And this,” he said, fixing them both with a grave expression, “is exactly what’s going to happen to your friend Noa if you don’t help me find her. Unless we remove that thymus, it will kill her.”

“Man,” the motel desk clerk said, holding the bill up to the light and squinting at it. “Is this thing real?”

“Nope, made it in my basement,” Peter replied with a nervous laugh, silently cursing Mr. Shapiro. The emergency cash fund had been a roll of hundred-dollar bills, which unfortunately attracted a lot of attention in a small town like this one. “Figured I’d better not put it in the vending machine.”

The guy laughed. “Hell, it probably wouldn’t work anyway. Damn thing barely takes a single.”

“I’ll bet,” Peter said with a grin. He was sweating bullets; hopefully the guy would chalk it up to the humidity. “Can you break it for me?”

“Sure.” The guy wasn’t much older than Peter, pimply faced and dressed in a Metallica T-shirt and jeans. “I’ll try to find some crisp ones for you, so you don’t have to iron them out first.”