Jonah laughed. It hurt, but feeling pain was to be alive. ‘You make it sound so noble!’ he said.
‘Isn’t it? You’ve seen only a fraction of the castings. Most places we look, we see death and pain, and those furies waiting for any hint of life to return. We need a cure, yes, but part of that must be taking the fight to them.’
‘Help me up,’ Jonah said at last. ‘You know what, Drake? I’m an old man. I’ve got a dodgy ticker, which I’m surprised is still ticking after whatever the hell you’ve done to it. If you’d only asked, I’d probably have gone anyway.’
‘I had to make sure,’ Drake said softly. Jonah could see the obsession there. Perhaps part of it was revenge, but mostly it was a desire to make things right. Drake had been born after his world’s worst suffering, but he had witnessed that of so many others.
‘But I want to travel,’ Jonah said. ‘Through the breach where the disease entered your world.’
‘Why?’ Drake asked, surprised.
‘Because I want to see. Take it as . . . a dying man’s wish. And the Inquisitor will follow me.’
Frowning, Drake nodded.
‘So how does all this work?’ Jonah said, touching his bare chest. As Drake began to explain, Jonah watched the shadows.
The Gaians of Coldbrook looked at Jonah as if he was some kind of Messiah, an irony that did not escape him. I’ve come to save everything, he could have said, and the crazy bastards might even have bowed down before him.
As he and Drake walked, Jonah thought about those he was leaving behind, Holly most of all. A precious friend, almost a daughter. She deserved an explanation and a goodbye, but he could give her neither. That made him sad. Soon he would exist only in Holly’s memories, as Wendy did in his own.
They approached the final door that Jonah knew led to the outside, and he grabbed Drake’s arm. The other man turned quickly, startled, ready for an attack. Jonah smiled and held up his hands.
‘You’ve already killed me, Drake,’ he said. ‘I just want to say something.’
‘Say it quickly,’ Drake said. He was looking behind Jonah, nervous and unsettled, and Jonah knew what he was looking for. He’ll be here soon, he thought, but not just yet. The Inquisitor needs me on my own. Because Jonah had plans beyond those that Drake had made for him.
‘I’ll do my best to carry this through, even though you took the choice from me. But you have to promise to help my friends. They’ll need access to Mannan and they might need protection. And they’ll do their best to come up with a vaccine.’
‘Of course,’ Drake said. ‘A cure is something I can never give up on.’
‘Holly will make sure –’ Jonah began. Then a look that that chilled him crossed Drake’s face.
Jonah shoved him against the door. Drake grunted, wincing when his head was bashed back against the metal. ‘What have you done to Holly?’
‘Stopped her following you through. I didn’t want her involved, seeing what I had to do to you.’
‘Stopped her how?’
‘Moira stayed behind to tie her up.’
Jonah sighed, missing Holly even more. ‘Tell her . . . tell her you asked me, and I agreed to all this,’ he said.
Drake nodded, and Jonah felt the respect between them growing again. Drake was a scientist and a ruthless man, ready to compromise his own morals for the greater good. Was that reprehensible or admirable? Jonah couldn’t decide. He didn’t have forty years of living as a survivor to influence his choices.
Drake opened the door, and cool night air sighed in.