Chapter Eighteen
I try to wait for Jacks to return, but after a few minutes of pacing I decide to go find him. I double-check my weapons and am about to leave when Jacks appears.
“Hey, I just came to see if you needed anything.” He looks me over. “Are you okay?”
I cross my arms and try to rub the cold from them. “No.”
He doesn’t say anything, just waits for me to go on.
“Baby . . . uh, my sister. She’s really in trouble.”
“How could you know that?”
“I . . .” I close my eyes, trying to think. “I didn’t tell you everything. I wanted to, but I wasn’t sure I could trust you.”
Jacks puts his arms on my shoulders and makes me sit on the bottom bunk. I think he’s going to sit next to me, but instead he pulls up a chair.
“Tell me.”
And so I tell him everything. About Dr. Reynolds and my mother. About how I found out about the Floraes and how New Hope doesn’t want anyone to know they were the ones who created them. How I was put in the Ward, and Kay helped me escape. I tell him about my earpiece and what Kay told me. I tell him about Ken and how he worked for Hutsen-Prime. How he might be able to access information about Baby—
“Wait. Hutsen-Prime?” Jacks cuts in.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Amy, Doc has Hutsen-Prime boxes in his office. I thought they were a chemical company or something. It’s where the flu shots come from.”
It takes a minute for it to sink in. “They have to be from New Hope. And if Doc is working with New Hope, he’s probably working with Dr. Reynolds. . . . But that also means he’ll know where Ken is.” I look up at Jacks. “We have to go see Doc.”
“You think Doc is . . . what, like a spy or something?” He looks incredulous.
“I don’t know what Doc is, but if he’s injecting people with something from New Hope, I doubt it’s a flu shot. If Ken is working on a vaccine, maybe Doc is testing it.” I look down and see I’m clenching and unclenching my fists. Anger, fear, hope, love—all tossing around inside of me. I try to calm myself. Doc isn’t Dr. Reynolds, but my rage flares when I think of all the damage Dr. Reynolds has done. If Doc is helping him, he’s just as guilty. “I need to find out what Doc knows.”
“How?” Jacks asks, his voice heavy with concern. “How are you going to find that out?”
I stand, my hand going to the Guardian gun at my hip. “Any way I have to.”
“Whoa, Amy. Let’s take this down a notch. I’m sure Doc will tell us if we just ask him. You need a second to calm down.”
“Jacks, every second could count.”
“I get that. Just”—he takes a breath—“just don’t hurt Doc.”
I stare at him for a moment, remembering that Doc is Jacks’s father. “Fine,” I say, nodding once.
I spring into action, and we’re out of the cell, Jacks hurrying to catch up with me. But as we rush down the stairs and out of the cellblock, something’s bothering me.
“Your father really didn’t tell you anything about New Hope or Hutsen-Prime?” I whisper.
He shakes his head as we enter the exercise yard and make our way through the makeshift shelters. “Amy, as far as I know, my father was a second-rate doctor who blew his career and his marriage because he couldn’t stop popping pills. The only one who would give him a job was my uncle.”
We’re at the front wall now. Jacks grabs my arm and looks into my eyes. “He’s a loser, Amy. He can barely keep his shit together. I doubt he’s part of some crazy conspiracy.”
I think about my mother, her part in New Hope and creating the bacteria that caused the Florae infection. I think about Rice, all his secrets, many I still didn’t know. “You can’t know someone completely,” I say. “Not truly.”
He takes a deep breath, steeling himself, then leads me through a side door and straight to Doc’s office.
Doc’s sitting at his desk, looking over papers while chewing on a pen. When he hears us, he looks up.
“Jacks,” he says, pleased. His eyes flick to me, and his expression changes from genuine happiness to feigned delight. “Amy. Hi there. Have you changed your mind about the flu shot?”
That’s all it takes. His phony smile, his false upbeat voice. For a second I see Dr. Reynolds, not Doc, sitting in his chair. I walk over to him, spin his chair around, and pull out my knife.
“I know you’re working with New Hope.” I push the blade to his neck. “And you are going to tell me everything that I want to know.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Amy!” Jacks screams, his hand gripping my shoulder. “Amy. Let me ask him,” he says firmly.
“Jacks, I have to know.”
“Okay. But you need to calm down.”
I back off slowly, dropping my knife to my side, and step away.