Chapter 10
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Proof."
I couldn't speak.
"Jonah and Blythe were supposed to prove the receptor technology worked.
If they survived childhood without blood malignancies, Valez could use their case to attract private military and pharmaceutical contracts."
"And when they became sick?"
"He needed the evidence erased."
The room turned cold.
"Genevieve discovered everything."
Miriam nodded.
"She started collecting proof.
Hale found out."
"Prescott killed her."
"I don't know."
"You know enough."
"I know Prescott transferred a large payment through three shell companies forty eight hours before her crash."
My phone rang.
Dr.
Yates.
I answered immediately.
"Lawson, get here."
"What happened?"
"Someone entered the children's room."
I was already moving.
"Who?"
"Security says Elena."
I stopped.
"What?"
"Elena disappeared twenty minutes ago."
I drove faster than I had in years.
When I reached the hospital, alarms were sounding.
Jonah and Blythe were unconscious.
A nurse was crying.
Elena was gone.
Prescott stood near the elevator.
"I told you we couldn't trust her."
I looked at him.
For the first time in fourteen years, I saw him differently.
Not as my protector.
As a man who always stood close enough to know where I was vulnerable.
"What happened?"
"She entered through the service corridor."
"How?"
"Stolen badge."
"What did she do?"
"Yates thinks she tampered with the infusion."
Dr.
Yates emerged.
"They're stable for the moment."
"Was anything injected?"
"We don't know."
Prescott stepped closer.
"We need to find Elena."
I watched him.
Then I said, "Yes."
He looked relieved.
"Bring her to me alive."
Prescott left.
Yates waited until the elevator doors closed.
Then he whispered, "She didn't poison them."
I looked at him.
"Elena found contamination in the infusion bag."
"What?"
"She stopped it."
"Where is she?"
"Genevieve told her about an emergency location years ago.
Elena believed Hale was coming for her."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
Yates looked ashamed.
"She doesn't know who to trust."
I understood.
Neither did I.
Then Blythe crashed.
The monitors screamed.
Nurses rushed in.
Her blood pressure collapsed.
Jonah began seizing seconds later.
For twenty minutes, there was no world outside that room.
Doctors moved around my children.
Commands.
Medication.
Numbers.
Machines.
I stood against the wall because there was nowhere else to stand.
And for once, Lawson Mercer could do absolutely nothing.
Then Yates shouted for the experimental infusion.
Elena's cells.
The treatment wasn't ready.
Not officially.
Not safely.
Not according to any protocol.