Farrow frowned deeply. “I was made ‘for war,’ remember, Alik? I’ve been damned from the start. But if helping you makes up for my life even a little, it would be well worth it to me.”
“Please stop talking like that about yourself, Farrow. Don’t you know how precious you are to Him? How precious you are to me?”
Farrow only scowled. A look of resolve and determination etched across her beautiful freckled face.
“Do you care about me?” He asked her point blank.
“Yes,” she said with no hesitation.
“I care about you deeply,” his eyes never left the road, but he had memorized every facial expression his little sparrow ever made. He knew she would be blushing and feeling genuinely unworthy right now. Her eyes would be darting around nervously and her beautiful white teeth would have caught her bottom lip to gnaw on it, almost as punishment for the kindness she was aching to receive.
“Every time you say something negative about yourself, it’s like you’re saying something negative about me. Every time you cut yourself down, you cut me. When you chastise yourself, you chastise me. Do you understand?”
“No.” Farrow was being stubborn. She knew exactly what he was trying to say to her. “I would never do those things to you.”
“But don’t you see? I’ve chosen you. I want to wrap my arms around you and hold you close, safely with me, so when you take out your whip and move to strike yourself, you can’t do it without striking me, too.”
Farrow looked over at Alik and saw his eyes tearing up. His beautiful indigo eyes that saw hours in the past shined even brighter when his rims were painted red with the unshed sadness he felt for his broken sparrow.
“I understand,” she finally said, her voice soft and full of emotion. “And just so you know, I’ve chosen you, too.” The little girl deep inside Farrow wanted to dance for joy at finally finding someone who loved her no matter what, but maybe she felt the surge of joy just as much because that someone was teaching her how to love herself.
“We’re here,” Alik said solemnly.
Chapter 60 Moments of Reckoning
“You will not be able to help one another without risking the detonation of nanoweapons with the triggers in your hearts. That has already been established.”
Dr. Bjorn walked up to Meg with what looked like a silver gun in one hand and a swatch of gauze soaked in rubbing alcohol. Unceremoniously, and without a word, he pulled up the sleeve of her bloody T-shirt, rubbed a site with the gauze then brought the gun to her shoulder and shot her with something that burned as it went into her skin. Meg’s eyes watered, but she still refused to cry—even when a Monarch wheeled her badly injured coyote into the room, locked in a too-small crate. Maze was positioned at least ten feet from everyone else.
“Now, the part of the story you haven’t heard: I have achieved a technique called ‘The Perfect Concussion.’ Meg will be one of the first candidates to be affected by the newest nanoprogramming. Trauma-based mind control, while loads of fun to execute, is time consuming and doesn’t always give me, the investor, the best return for my time and money. So, I’ve been having my engineers work on a way to bypass the time-consuming tasks of sleep, food, sensory deprivation, skinning, mind-altering drugs, and so on.
“Now, with The Perfect Concussion, we can expedite the process. Allow me to demonstrate—on your sister,” Arkdone spun on his heels and looked directly at Evan. He and Sloan were the only two captives capable of grasping the gravity of their situation with their scientific backgrounds.
“Use me instead! I have been told I was given the most advanced of the original Infinite serum. I would be a better choice!”
“How noble of you, young man. Yes, you will be next—however, ladies first.”
Dr. Bjorn shuffled toward Meg holding a helmet in his gloved hands. Wires similar in appearance to Medusa’s snakes hung off the back connecting it to a large machine. He slipped the helmet over her head and secured the chinstraps.
“What is this, Arkdone?” Meg was only able to speak through partially gritted teeth due to the tight strap under her jaw.
“Please hold all questions until the end of the demonstration,” he said smiling at his joke.
“Now, without further ado, Dr. Bjorn please proceed.”
The doctor nodded once and flipped a series of switches before hesitating over one more. His eyes locked onto the profile of the metahuman he was about to destroy and a quiver of a smile danced across his lips.
“No! STOP!” Cole yelled. “This is freakin’ messed up! Let her go!”
“Oh, good. Finally awake, Mr. Andrews? Just in time.”
Arkdone held up one finger to Bjorn who paused and awaited further orders.
“Forgive the melodrama, Meg,” Arkdone knelt in front of her strapped down body. “I only want to watch the old Meg disappear. I am honored to be the one to watch your eyes as she dies and the new you comes to life.”