“No,” he answers quickly.
“He’s lying,” Jacks tells me. I wish Jacks knew sign language. I wish I could take his hand again and have him sign to me, like Rice could. I’d ask him if he really knew Doc was lying or if he was just bluffing again.
“You lied to us for years, Dad,” he spits out the last word. “About the drugs, about your downward spiral of a career.”
“I haven’t lied to you about any of this, Jacks. I just didn’t tell you. I thought it would be better for you if you didn’t know.”
It stings, knowing Jacks used this exact excuse for not telling me Doc was his father. Like father, like son. Jacks just shakes his head though, and I realize it’s not really the same at all.
“That’s the bullshit you used to give Mom. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry. No, it’s better to have reality come crashing down all at once. It’s better to find out from a random nurse that Mom ran into in the grocery store that your father lost his medical license for stealing drugs. It’s better to find out that we have no money when the car is being repossessed and the house is being foreclosed on. It’s better to find out that your father has been playing mad scientist with people’s lives, years after the fact.”
Doc considers this for a moment, then looks past Jacks at me. “Amy, are you sure you want to dig any deeper?” he pleads. “You have many valuable skills. You could make a good life for yourself in Fort Black.”
“You’re insane,” I whisper.
But he goes on. “Don’t you want to just go back home with Jacks and forget all this? I was going to contact New Hope when you first arrived; I had been told to look out for you. But I saw you two together, and I talked it over with my brother. We knew you and Jacks would get along. We thought it would be better for you both.”
“My uncle . . . he knows about all this?” Jacks asks. He shakes his head. “Of course he does.”
Doc nods, his jaw tight. “The testing has been going on for a long time,” he continues. “My brother sold Fort Black out long before the infection broke. Hutsen-Prime had been using the prisoners as test subjects and paying the Warden a fair price.”
“When he hired you, I actually thought he was trying to help you,” Jacks says. “He even convinced me and Layla to come here to talk to you. To forgive you. That’s why we were here when the infection broke out. I thought he wanted to help us patch things up.”
“Don’t act so naive, Jacks. You know what kind of man your uncle is. But we’re looking out for you.” Doc turns to me. “I was told if you came here to report it immediately to New Hope and we didn’t. If you back down now, you can live here. You’ll be safe with Jacks. Why get involved?”
“I’m already involved,” I tell him. Even if I wanted to forget New Hope, I couldn’t. Not with all I left behind there. I hold up the sketch. “Do. You. Know. Him?”
Doc doesn’t look at it again. Instead he looks at me, his eyes cold. “You’re talking about Ken Oh. He’s a researcher for New Hope. He works on the vaccines and brings them to me when they’re modified.”
I let out a long breath. Finally I’m getting somewhere. “And where can I find him?”
“I’ve already let him know that you’re looking for him.” He taps his ear with a sad smile.
“How . . . ?” I start, but then I realize. He contacted Ken the same way Kay contacted me. Through an earpiece. I can just see it glinting in his ear.
“Ken’s been listening in the whole time,” he says. “He says he doesn’t know what you want with him, but if you’re this determined, he’ll send for you when he has a free moment.” Doc’s eyes narrow as he listens. He looks back up at me. “Go to Jacks’s cell and wait for him.”
I just stare at him, my head spinning. I’ve gotten to Ken? Finally?
“Amy, let’s go,” Jacks says, glaring at Doc. “We got what we came for.”
I turn to Jacks. “How do we know he’s telling the truth? He’s lied to you for years—”
“I didn’t lie. I just kept information from you that was best withheld,” Doc tells Jacks. “Calling the vaccine a flu shot made things simpler.”
I whirl around, my voice shaking with rage. “Do you think people are too stupid to decide for themselves if they want to be tested on, or do you just not care?”
“Amy, relax.” Jacks pulls me from the room and hurries me down the hall.
“Relax?” I ask, my voice a thin screech.
“Don’t be stupid,” he says through clenched teeth. He looks at me with urgency, and I understand: If I want to keep going, I need to stop making trouble. I look at the pain on his face. He’s just gotten a shock as well.
“Okay,” I say softly. “Are you . . . ?”