Thallium.” Loudin’s voice is in my pocket—my communications pad. I push the listening device deeper into my ear canal, and I pull my earlobe so James, Alex, and Berk can hear Loudin.
“Dr. Loudin.” I pull the communications pad up to eye level, ignoring the tones from the elevator telling me I have reached the top floor.
Rhen is on the screen, fear filling her eyes. Loudin is behind her, bony hands wrapped around Rhen’s neck.
“What are you doing?” I ram my finger into the panel on the elevator, willing the cube to move faster to the bottom floor—Loudin’s laboratory.
“I could ask you the same thing.” His eyes are bloodshot.
“What’s happening?” Alex is in my ear.
I swallow hard. “Why do you have Rhen?”
“I will ask the questions.” Loudin’s voice is hard. “Who sedated me?”
I hold my breath. Berk sedated Loudin, but I cannot say that.
“I did.” Rhen speaks, and I am once again grateful for her intelligence, her quick thinking.
“And what did you do during the time I was out?” Loudin glares at me.
The elevator tone announces that I have finally reached the bottom level. An eerie tone, adding to the mood of this floor.
“I am coming to your laboratory.”
“Don’t.” Rhen squirms in Loudin’s hold.
Ignoring Rhen, I race down the hallway and open the door to Loudin’s laboratory. He is near the back wall, and Monitors grab me as soon as I enter.
I try to shake them off, but they are too strong. “Get off of me.”
“Thalli.” Alex’s voice is so loud in my ear, I worry that the Monitors will hear him. “What’s wrong? Do I need to come there?”
“No.” I speak without thinking. Loudin jerks his head up. I struggle again, addressing the Monitors. “I said no. Let me go. I won’t leave. Not without Rhen.”
The Monitors drag me to Loudin and force me against the wall. It holds me, like the chair Loudin had me in before we left for New Hope. My arms and legs are attached to the wall. I do not even have time to try to fight them.
Rhen is placed in a chair against the wall across from me so I can see her. Her neck is red from where Loudin was gripping her. Loudin stands so his gaze is on both of us, his weapon back in his pocket.
“Did you really need to restrain us?” This is more for Alex’s benefit than mine. I know the answer.
“Did you really need to sedate me?” Loudin raises his eyebrows.
“As long as you plan to destroy the world, we are enemies.” Adrenaline rushes through my body and I lean forward, trying to release myself from the magnetic grip of this wall. But it is useless.
“I do not have enemies.” Loudin laughs. “Enemies are for the primitive world. Our world is united in mind and in purpose. If you cannot determine to share that mind and that purpose, then you are not an enemy. You are dead.”
The words hang in the air. I know they are true. I have seen him kill those who oppose him, those who are of no value to him.
“You have more power over him than you think.” James’s voice is soft in my ear, but it fills me with confidence. I think of the Designer, of music. I refuse to allow fear to overwhelm me.
“Then kill me,” I say. “Because I will never share your purpose.”
Loudin walks toward me, standing so close I can see the thin blue veins that line his temples. “Oh, believe me, I will kill you. But you will watch your friend die first. And then you’ll watch this world you love destroyed, along with the people you love.”
Everything in me wants to give up, to give him anything he wants to save the people I love. But I cannot give up. I pray for strength as I face Loudin, my gaze never leaving his. “Fine.”
“Good girl.” I can picture James clapping, and I stifle a smile.
Loudin steps away, a hand on his lower back, reminding me that despite all the medical advancements, he is still old, still human. “You are more like me than you realize.”
The fact that this man is my father disgusts me. But it may very well be what has kept me alive. James says Loudin sees my anomalies as proof that his DNA is powerful. He wants me to be like him, to carry on his legacy. “I know how like you I am.”
Loudin’s nostrils flare. “Kristie told you.”
“If I am different, it is because the Designer—God himself—made me different. To accomplish his purposes.”
“There is no room for me and your God in this State.” Loudin puts a hand in his pocket.
“Then we do agree on something.”
Loudin pulls the weapon out and lays it on Rhen’s neck. She convulses against the wall.
“No.” I am screaming, pushing myself forward, but frozen in place.
Alex’s and James’s voices shout in my earpiece. Then Berk’s. They are discussing whether or not to come here. “No. Don’t.” They will be too late to save Rhen, and then they will be here, in the same position.
Rhen slumps down in her chair, her head on her chest. I blink back tears. I cannot do this. I am not strong enough to be God’s remnant. I am not John.
Loudin’s hand is on Rhen’s neck.
“Don’t touch her.” I speak past the lump in my throat. I will not let him see me cry.
“I was checking her pulse.” Loudin pulls his hand away. “She is alive.”
I release the breath I was holding.
“For now.” Loudin replaces the weapon in his pocket. “But this is a warning. She is your weakness. We both know it. Those people out there are your weakness.”
“You and I have very different definitions of what weakness is.” I spit the words out.
“Perhaps.” He takes a step back and looks at me—like he would look at a project or a specimen under the microscope. “But I am willing to give you more time to change your definition. You would be useful, powerful. I believe in you, Thalli.”
Loudin’s voice is soft, almost fatherly. I am reminded how much he truly believes what he is doing is right. As much as he wants to change me to be more like him, I want to see him change to be more like the Designer. But that won’t happen if I continue to argue with him.
“All right.” I sigh. “What do you want me to do?”