Doc shook his head, wiping at his eyes. “I need to think about this, Wanda.”
“We don’t have long. They won’t wait forever before they kill the Seeker.”
“I don’t mean about that part. I agree to those terms. But I don’t think I can kill you.”
“It’s all or none, Doc. You have to decide right now. And…” I realized I had one more demand. “And you can’t tell anyone else about the last part of our agreement. No one. Those are my terms, take them or leave them. Do you want to know how to remove a soul from a human body?”
Doc shook his head again. “Let me think.”
“You already know the answer, Doc. This is what you’ve been searching for.”
He just kept shaking his head slowly back and forth.
I ignored that symbol of denial because we both knew his choice was made.
“I’ll get Jared,” I said. “We’ll make a quick raid for cryotanks. Hold off the others. Tell them… tell them the truth. Tell them I’m going to help you get the Seeker out of that body.”
CHAPTER 51
Prepared
I found Jared and Jamie in our room, waiting for me, worry on both their faces. Jared must have talked to Jeb.
“Are you all right?” Jared asked me, while Jamie jumped up and threw his arms around my waist.
I wasn’t sure how to answer his question. I didn’t know the answer. “Jared, I need your help.”
Jared was on his feet as soon as I was done speaking. Jamie leaned back to look at my face. I didn’t meet Jamie’s gaze. I wasn’t sure how much I could bear right now.
“What do you need me to do?” Jared asked.
“I’m making a raid. I could use some… extra muscle.”
“What are we after?” He was intense, already shifting into his mission mode.
“I’ll explain on the way. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Can I come?” Jamie said.
“No!” Jared and I said together.
Jamie frowned and let me go, sinking down onto the mattress and crossing his legs. He put his face in his hands and sulked. I couldn’t look directly at him before I ducked out of the room. I was already yearning to sit beside him, to hold him tight and forget this whole mess.
Jared followed as I retraced my path through the south tunnel.
“Why this way?” he asked.
“I…” He would know if I tried to lie or evade. “I don’t want to run into anyone. Jeb, Aaron, or Brandt, particularly.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to have to explain myself to them. Not yet.”
He was quiet, trying to make sense of my answer.
I changed the subject. “Do you know where Lily is? I don’t think she should be alone. She seems…”
“Ian’s with her.”
“That’s good. He’s the kindest.”
Ian would help Lily—he was exactly what she needed now. Who would help Ian when… ? I shook my head, shaking the thought away.
“What are we in such a hurry to get?” Jared asked me.
I took a deep breath before I answered him. “Cryotanks.”
The south tunnel was black. I could not see his face. His footsteps did not falter beside me, and he didn’t say anything for several minutes. When he spoke again, I could hear that he was focusing on the raid—single-minded, setting aside whatever curiosity he felt until after the mission was planned to his satisfaction.
“Where do we get them?”
“Empty cryotanks are stored outside Healing facilities until they’re needed. With more souls coming in than leaving, there will be a surplus. No one will guard them; no one will notice if some go missing.”
“Are you sure? Where did you get this information?”
“I saw them in Chicago, piles and piles of them. Even the little facility we went to in Tucson had a small store of them, crated outside the delivery bay.”
“If they were crated, then how can you be sure —”
“Haven’t you noticed our fondness for labels?”
“I’m not doubting you,” he said. “I just want to make sure that you’ve thought this through.”
I heard the double meaning in his words.
“I have.”
“Let’s get it done, then.”
Doc was already gone—already with Jeb, as we hadn’t passed him on the way. He must have left right behind me. I wondered how his news was being taken. I hoped they weren’t stupid enough to discuss it in front of the Seeker. Would she shred her human host’s brain if she guessed what I was doing? Would she assume I’d turned traitor entirely? That I would give the humans what they needed with no restrictions?
Wasn’t that what I was about to do, though? When I was gone, would Doc bother to keep his word?
Yes, he would try. I believed that. I had to believe that. But he couldn’t do it alone. And who would help him?