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The boy lunges for the case, but I push him back down, straddling him until I have him pinned and he’s squirming beneath me. What if it’s all connected to the same virus that Digory and I were infected with during the Trials? What if Digory’s in this facility, in cryo, and whatever’s in this case is a cure for the virus?

Running feet approach. There’s no time to speculate.

The only thing I know is that if the Establishment wants the contents of this case, this GX07, I mustn’t let them have it, even if it means giving it up myself.

I pull the boy to his feet and thrust the container back at him. “I’m on your side. I’m the one that shut down the Emporiums. Now go on! Get out of here!”

He stares at me for a split second with a mixture of suspicion and confusion. Then he grabs the case and flees.

As fast as I can, I backtrack the way I came, through the maze of blinking emergency lights and dimly lit passages, darting into the elevator just as the others round the corner and dash inside with me.

“Spark!” Leander shouts. “We didn’t find it. Get us the hell topside now before this bitch blows!”

Behind him, Leander, Dahlia, Rodrigo, and Arrah form a grim tableaux, breathless.

I release the elevator brake and jam my fist against the button that will take us to the roof. We brace ourselves as the car begins zooming up at a breakneck speed.

Rodrigo shoves me. “Where the hell were you coming from? You were supposed to stay put!”

“I heard some shots. Thought you guys might need backup.”

Arrah stares me down. “I tracked movement coming from Medical Records. Two heat signatures.”

I shrug. “Instead of you guys, I found one of this station’s personnel. But he’d been mortally wounded and died pretty quickly before he could tell me what happened. Then I hightailed it back here.”

“This is Flame Squad,” Dahlia barks into her wrist-com, mercifully interrupting. “We’re on our way topside to the rendezvous point. Requesting confirmation. Over.”

A burst of static. “Affirmative Flame Squad,” Valerian responds. “On the way. We’re not sure we’re going to be able to recover you in time. Requesting confirmation that you retrieved the biological agent. Over.”

Leander and Rodrigo look at each other and sigh, all trace of bravado gone. Arrah’s face looks grim. Before Dahlia can answer, I grip her wrist-com and smash it against the railing.

She glares at me. “What the hell did you do that for?”

I shake my head. “Do you want out of here or not?”

The car lurches to a halt and the elevator doors burst open. Then we’re all scrambling outside and grabbing onto the transport harnesses dangling from the Vulture that’s hovering above us. As soon as we’ve all grabbed on, the aircraft zooms us away—just as the research facility disappears in a deafening roar and a blinding ball of fire that singes through our suits.

If Digory’s body was in cryo in that facility, it’s gone now. Forever.

Once we’ve been hauled back on board, we’re greeted by Valerian’s anxious face. “Where is it? Did you get the case?”

Dahlia shakes her head. “That’s a negative, Sir. By the time we got to Med Lab 10, it was already gone. We searched a few of the surrounding labs but found nothing.”

Valerian looks like she’s been physically struck. No doubt her superiors won’t be happy either.

I clear my throat. “I’m sorry we failed, Sir. At least it’s nice to know you would have come back for us no matter what.”

Valerian surveys the room, then pins me with a glare. “Quite right, Spark. The important thing is that the station and the insurrectionists who attacked it have been destroyed.” Her words drip with disdain. “How fortunate for us all.”

My gaze wanders to the others, then out the cabin windows to the destroyed facility, then back to Valerian.

“They don’t call me Lucky for nothing.”

<p>FIVE</p>

Along with my fellow trainees, I spend the next few days back home in the Parish under quarantine at Imposer headquarters. We’re confined to the stark medical ward of CKT, the centralized knowledge tower located in the Citadel of Truth. I lie flat on my back, tethered to a series of IVs that burrow into my skin like icy worms. Although Valerian and the medical staff assure us it’s just a precaution, since the infection that contaminated the research facility isn’t communicable except through direct contact with the bloodstream, the concern chiseled into the stone of their expressions doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence. Nor does the fact that every time I ask just what disease, exactly, was set loose in Asclepius Valley, all I get is some mumbled gibberish about viral anomalies.

If anything, everyone—ranging from Valerian and the other Imposers to the doctors to my fellow trainees—seems more concerned about what I was doing in Medical Records and what exactly I saw there.

“So when you found the body of the med tech,” Valerian asks for the umpteenth time after the incident, “you were never exposed to any viral agents, Spark? Nor did you see any evidence that any data was compromised, correct?”

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