“And having me killed . . . Who was that helping, exactly?”
His head snaps up, and he looks at me sharply. For a moment I see Jacks in him, his expression. The resemblance fades when he begins to speak. “I wanted to report you from the beginning, but my brother thought we could use you. He also thought you’d be good for Jacks, but I knew you’d be trouble. The Warden is always pulling stunts like that. Good old Johnny. Skirts the law and never gets punished for it.
“Not me. I always get caught. I always get punished. I made one little mistake when I was a doctor. I wasn’t even supposed to be on call, but . . . What was I going to do? The man was dying anyway. He was a goner; it wouldn’t have mattered if I was stone-cold sober. I did my best. One of the nurses reported me, said I was acting strangely, and a drug test later I was done. They searched my office, found some wayward pills. Lawsuits and divorce, and the only place I could get a job was as an orderly at the prison my brother ran. And he only hired me because he knew I would help with the late-night experiments. He knew I wouldn’t tell anyone. . . . Who would believe a washed-up drug addict? He also knew I didn’t have anywhere else to go.
“Well, they sure needed me, in the end. When the infection broke out and there weren’t any ‘real’ doctors around, you bet your ass they wanted me to practice medicine then. And so what if we still help New Hope out with their experiments? So what if a few people die? People die every day for no reason. At least here, I can collect data and make their deaths worth something.”
I’ve heard it all before, this rationalization. “You don’t have to be their puppet,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Do you think I can just ignore orders from New Hope? Not with my track record, not after the debacle of the fertility study last year. I’m already in enough trouble as it is. And now you’re here. You’re supposed to be dead. If Dr. Reynolds knew you were still alive—”
“What? What would he do?”
He looks at me, his mouth open to answer, but then Jacks returns to the room with a clipboard. “Brenna just received a shot,” he says, breathless from running, “last week.”
Doc grins maniacally. “That’s the latest formula. I knew it. It worked!”
“That’s just one possible explanation,” I say. “Maybe the most recent vaccine worked, maybe Brenna is immune, maybe cutting off her fingers stopped the spread and kept her alive, but . . .” He doesn’t let me finish with my second theory. The one that involves Brenna being part of the original test group . . . the one that sounds crazy, even to me.
“After all this time, we’ve gotten it right!” He puts the blood samples on the metal tray. He reaches over and hugs Jacks. “This is my chance, my boy.”
Jacks gives Doc an uncomfortable half hug. “Chance for what?”
“Vindication! I’m going to run some tests. There must be more tests, life tests, but I know what they’ll show. I knew it!” he says again, heading for the door.
What is a life test? How can Doc be so convinced the vaccine was effective? It’s just what he wants to hear. “What about Ken?” Ken will listen to me.
“What about him?” He’s looking at me, but it’s as if he can barely see me.
“He needs to examine Brenna.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll tell him to come see her,” Doc says, brushing me off as he disappears through the door.
“I don’t trust him,” I tell Jacks as I return to sit at Brenna’s side. Already the color is returning to her face. I wonder briefly what, exactly, is in that IV.
“He’s just excited there’s a vaccine that works.”
“But there isn’t,” I say. “Or, at least, he can’t know that it works. I don’t think that’s what’s going on with Brenna at all.” I fill him in on all the medical testing Hutsen-Prime had been performing on children before the outbreak. I explain my theory that Brenna was part of the original test group. That she, because she was bitten more recently, could be the key to finding a cure. “I don’t know the science, but I think there was something special about that first batch of vaccine. Something that Baby and Brenna got, that they haven’t been able to reproduce since. If they have Brenna, they won’t need Baby anymore!”
“But won’t they just torture Brenna instead?”
“It won’t come to that, not if she’s the answer. They’ll be able to develop a vaccine quickly, maybe even a cure. Brenna was bitten more recently than Baby; her body has combated the mutated strain of bacteria. Besides, Brenna is strong. Baby is just a child.”
I know I’m trying to convince myself as much as I am him. The fact is, I know in my heart I would trade Brenna for Baby. I would sacrifice anyone, including myself, if it meant that Baby was safe.
“Why were you even out there?” Jacks asks.