LENNON WENT WITH Hadley to Maisie’s apartment. He sat on the couch while Hadley paced back and forth in front of the door.
Hadley’s phone dinged, and he watched her expression change as she read something there. It was bad news.
“We’re fucked,” she breathed.
Very bad news.
“Is…everything okay?” he asked hesitantly.
“Uncle Franco is dead.” She covered her mouth with her hand, turning her face away from him.
Dr. Lopez was dead. The leader of the south, the genius who was responsible for keeping so many people in the Q alive. Dead.
This was bad on so many levels.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
She sniffed, then checked her phone again. “Maisie’s on her way over. Wait here, okay? We’ll be right outside.”
He nodded and watched as she hurried out the door. She was gone for a long time, and when she walked back in, her eyes were red and she had Maisie in tow. Maisie pushed the door shut and locked it behind her. Lennon stood.
“You were right,” Maisie said to him. “It was Declan. All of it. He’s the one who shot Lopez.”
“Bastard,” Hadley muttered, even though she clearly already knew this information.
“He told you?” Lennon asked Maisie, surprised.
“Yeah, he told me.” Maisie crossed the room and leaned against the wall near the kitchen, chewing her lip.
“You think he’d at least be ashamed,” Hadley spat. “He must know you’re going to tell everyone. He just let you leave?”
“You know what Declan thinks of me.”
Hadley rolled her eyes, but Lennon just looked at her in confusion.
“He thinks I’m harmless,” Maisie explained. “It doesn’t matter if I know, because there’s nothing I can do about it anyway.” She scrunched up her face. “Also, I think he may be under the impression I still have feelings for him.”
“Ew,” Hadley said.
“So, what now?” Lennon asked.
“Now I need to find out who Declan has brought over to his side, because there is no way that he did this without recruiting some of the family in addition to the Reapers. He’d need both.” Maisie looked at Hadley. “Everyone at the family meeting couldn’t have been in on it. Or else they wouldn’t have come.”
“Or at least they would have stepped out before people started firing. Did anyone step out?” Hadley asked.
Maisie considered, and then made a face. “Shit. I don’t know. I was focused on Beto.”
“Well, at least we know he’s not in on it.”
Lennon pushed a hand nervously through his hair. There hadn’t been any talk about him, and the clock was ticking. It was too rude to ask, when Dr. Lopez had just died.
But he really needed to get out of here. He’d thought the situation was bad before, but it was downright dire now. He did not want to be here if Dr. Lopez was dead and Mr. Musclehead was ready to start a turf war.
“If he goes up there and takes the shipments by force, even more Lopezes might want to join him,” Hadley said. “They’re pissed about the situation.”
“I know.” Maisie turned her attention to Lennon. “Declan asked about you. I told him you took off and I didn’t know where you were.”
“What’d he say?” Lennon asked.
“To lock you up when I found you. Listen.” She sighed. “You’re not going to make it to the northern gate.”
His stomach fell to his feet. He’d been expecting it, but still, the words hit him like a smack to the face.
“There’s no one who can take you. We actually talked about it at the meeting—”
“Before the shooting,” Hadley added.
“—and Beto said there was no team to send. You’re welcome to go by yourself, but I don’t recommend it.”
Relief coursed through his veins. At least she wasn’t going to lock him up, like Declan wanted. He still had a chance. “I can go by myself.”
“When Maisie says she doesn’t recommend it, she means you will definitely die if you go by yourself,” Hadley clarified.
He gave Hadley an exasperated look. “Contrary to what you both seem to think, I am fully capable of taking care of myself.”
“Yeah, you haven’t even fainted once today,” Maisie said dryly.
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“Nope. And seems like you’re going to be here for the next several decades, so I have plenty of time to give you shit about it.”
“One, I’m going to that gate, so, no, you don’t; and two, if I stay, isn’t it certain that I’ll get sick? And possibly die?”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Maisie said. “You’re not going to die. Do you have any serious health conditions?”
“No.”
“You are probably going to get sick, yes,” she said. “The virus will likely shut down an organ or two, and you’ll get new ones like the rest of us. Half of my organs are artificial, and look at me. I’m doing great.”
“Same,” Hadley said.
He swallowed. He couldn’t really argue with that. It was common knowledge that the residents of the quarantine zone had adapted to live with the virus. Their technology kept them alive. But they couldn’t be released into the general population because they were still contagious and millions of people would die when exposed to the virus for the first time. And there was no way to know how the virus would mutate again once it had the chance to infect millions of new people.
But he was young and healthy, and Maisie was right.
“We actually don’t know how long your immunity will last,” Maisie said. “Maybe you won’t catch it at all. I have badass antibodies.”
“Those were your antibodies that they gave me?” he asked, surprised. She nodded.
“Of course they were.” Hadley said it like he should have already known this. She opened her mouth to say more, but Maisie shot her a look and she closed it.
“Anyway, my point is, you may be helpful in developing a vaccine,” Maisie continued. “You’re the first person to receive temporary immunity. There’s a possibility that your immunity could last even longer than a few days. Maybe Lo—the medical teams—can use you to finally make some progress on a real vaccine.”
“There are people in the US working on vaccines. I’d be happy to help them.”
“Wow, you really don’t want to stay in here,” Hadley said.
“I didn’t mean—” He took a deep breath. “I don’t belong here. My family is on the other side of the wall. My parents. My sisters. All my friends. My entire life. I’m just going to never see any of them again?”
Hadley gave him a baffled look. “Isn’t your dad running on a platform that advocates for finding a vaccine and tearing down the walls in the next ten years?”
Shit.
“Do you not believe him, or is that just a load of crap?” she continued. Maisie seemed amused suddenly.
“It’s not a load of crap….” He’d never really considered whether he believed it could be done. Democrats always ran on a platform of liberating the quarantine zone. It was just a given.
He’d listened to a host of doctors and scientists on the issue, and they’d certainly been hopeful, but also cautious. There wasn’t enough funding. There wasn’t enough help from inside the zone.
It’s become a war zone in there, one had said to him. They rarely send out samples anymore. They rarely communicate with us at all, and when they do, we’re not sure if they’re even telling us the truth. It’s hard to fix a situation that we can’t even fully understand.
“I believe that he wants to,” he finally said. Maisie cocked an eyebrow. “But there are challenges. Most of all that you guys don’t communicate with us.”
Hadley and Maisie glanced at each other.
“What?” Lennon asked.
“Well, all the communication has to go through Lopez. We can’t talk to anyone out there now, even if we wanted to.”
“I know,” Lennon said. “But you have to understand, people are scared of you guys in here.”
“We understand that fine,” Maisie said with a frown.
“We can fix that, though. If I get out, then this isn’t just some terrifying place that no one’s seen. I will have been in here and come out the other side. I can tell people what you’re like. How you helped me. People won’t be as likely to—” He cut himself off abruptly.
“As likely to what?” Hadley asked.
He hesitated. Lopez had told him not to say anything, but Lopez was dead now.
He took a breath. “I just want to apologize in advance.”
“Well, that sounds bad,” Maisie said.
“There are some…people who…think we should just bomb the whole quarantine zone.”
They both stared at him. Hadley’s lips parted.
“They want to bomb us?” Maisie repeated.
“What did we ever do to them?” Hadley exclaimed.
“It’s a fringe idea. Or it was.” He winced. “It’s starting to go mainstream lately. There are some people who think that if the Howard family gets elected again, they may be able to get Congress to support it.”
“Can they just do that?” Maisie asked. “Just kill us all?”
“I mean, we do have US history books in here,” Hadley said. “They’ve bombed a lot of people throughout the years.”
“Crap, that’s a good point,” Maisie said.
“My dad would never, if he won the election,” Lennon said quickly.
“Oh, his dad would never,” Maisie said dryly. “I feel so much better about everyone wanting to murder us now.”
“But, listen. Here’s the thing. They’re going to have satellite photos of what just happened in here. The US government, I mean. They will know that someone just bombed the south.”
“So?” Maisie asked.
“So it will strengthen their argument that this is a dangerous war zone that needs to be controlled. Especially now that Dr. Lopez has died. They don’t usually release information to the general public about what goes on in here, but if President Howard wants support to bomb you guys, he will do it this time. I need you to understand how truly screwed you might be now.”
He saw Maisie draw in a slow breath.
“I get dropped in here, then there’s a bloody turf war, and the world-famous doctor everyone is counting on for the cure is killed? The people who want to bomb the zone have worked themselves into a frenzy out there, I can guarantee it, and they only know about the first thing so far.”
“I mean…” Maisie threw her hands up. “Frankly, Lennon, we have no idea if you’re full of shit or just exaggerating to get us to help you. We have no way to confirm this.”
“Actually…” Hadley bit her lip. “I think maybe we do.”