Why steel? Jericho wondered.
“This is where the magic happens,” Marlowe said, leading Jericho to the first door on the right. Inside was a shining, white-tiled laboratory that seemed as if it had sprung forth from the pages of Jules Verne. Elaborate contraptions and strange equipment filled the cavernous space. One half of the room had been set up as an operating theater. A sheet-covered hydraulic table sat in the center of the room beneath a spiderlike array of strong lights. Beside it, a smaller metal table held a collection of syringes and vials on a tray, as well as a glass-fronted cabinet that Jericho thought might be an autoclave for sterilizing equipment. The whole arrangement made him very nervous.
“This is the birthplace of the future,” Marlowe said, barely able to contain his pride. “It’s also where you’ll be spending most of your time over the next few weeks as we ready you for your victory lap at the Future of America Exhibition. But there’s time for this later. Come. You must be famished.”
Back in the lift, Jericho pointed to the buttons. “What is the S for?”
“Solarium. There’s one on the roof.”
When Jericho had lived with Will at the Bennington, he’d often escape to the roof to think and to read and to feed the pigeons. From there, he could see the great steel backbone of the city and feel that he was joined to it. He wondered what he could see from the top of Marlowe’s estate.
“Could we see it?” Jericho said.
“I’m afraid the solarium is off-limits,” Marlowe said in a tone that did not invite further questioning.
Jericho and Marlowe sat in the heated sunroom eating their ham sandwiches with tall glasses of cold milk. The sandwiches, smeared with mayonnaise and sweet pickle relish, were delicious, and Jericho ate two.
“Good appetite.” Marlowe grinned. “That’s good. Healthy.” He trained his blue-eyed gaze on Jericho. “What do you remember about the Daedalus program?”
“It cured me. It cured a lot of us. Made us all stronger, faster. And then it reversed. Drove most of the men mad. Made them violent or catatonic. It killed many of them.” Jericho paused. “Or it drove them to kill themselves.”
Jericho slugged back some of his milk. He kept his eyes on Marlowe.
“Like your friend Sergeant Leonard.” Marlowe nodded. He looked sad. “It was one of the darkest moments of my life. All those men. I wanted so much to save them. To make them whole. When it reversed, I was devastated. I felt personally responsible.”
“Perhaps because you were personally responsible.”
Marlowe winced. “Still want to punish me?”
“No. I just want you to take accountability.”
“It was my fault,” Marlowe said. “And I’ve never stopped regretting it. I’ve spent the past decade trying to fix my mistakes.”
Jericho softened. “And have you fixed them?”
Marlowe’s eyes gleamed. “I think so. I’m much closer to a cure. Which is why I wanted your help, Jericho. You are the lone survivor of the Daedalus program. You can be the key to a cure for so many diseases.”
“You blackmailed me into it.”
“Yes. And I’m sorry. I want you to know now that it’s your choice. You can leave at any time. I am not telling you what to do. I’m asking for your help—not just for me and Marlowe Industries, of course, but for the country. You’d be helping everyone.” Marlowe leaned forward, his eyes glowing with some inner light. “You’re some sort of evolutionary jump! You are, quite literally, the übermensch. That gunshot wound you took to your chest, it should’ve killed you. Instead, the wound healed in record time. Imagine: Superior strength and mental fitness. No illness! You’ll age more slowly. When your friends are suffering the aches and pains of forty-five, you’ll still look and feel like a man in his prime.”
“That sounds lonely,” Jericho said.
“Well. If I can isolate the cause, that serum will be available to more than just you.”
“What do I have to do?”
“First, there’s the new and improved serum. I’ve been perfecting it for years. All it needs to be perfect is a few drops of your blood mixed in and put through my patented purification system.”
Jericho winced. “How much of my blood?”
Marlowe pushed the concern away with a wave of his hand. “Oh, not much at all. A few vials should suffice until I figure out how to duplicate it. Then there’ll be physical endurance tests, of course. And mental tests as well, to see if we can push past normal human limits into superhuman strengths, into areas of the mind where we’ve never been able to reach before. It’s a new frontier! And you and I are the pioneers staking our claim. In a few weeks’ time, everyone will know your name, Jericho.”
Jericho drank his milk. “What if people find out about…” He pounded his chest.
Marlowe looked around. He lowered his voice. “They won’t if you don’t say anything. The machinery inside you saved your life, Jericho. It didn’t change who you are.”
And that, more than anything, was what Jericho needed to hear.
“Is there anything you need to make your life here more comfortable? Anything at all. Name it,” Marlowe said, and Jericho had to smile. Everything Marlowe did was big. Even his promises. Especially his promises.
“I’d like to be able to write to Evie.”
“The Diviner niece of my long-lost enemy,” Marlowe said coolly as he cut a second sandwich in two with an engraved silver butter knife that mostly mangled the job of it. “All right, then. I’ll have Ames bring around stationery and a typewriter. But the testing that happens here is strictly confidential, Jericho. I’m afraid all of your correspondence must be reviewed first. Part of Marlowe Industries policy.”
Jericho hadn’t counted on that. His letters to Evie and the others would need to be coded in some way.
“For the next few weeks, this”—Marlowe gestured to the room with the butter knife—“the house, the grounds, the woods—is your whole world. You’ll not be permitted to leave. You are our prize, and we have to keep you pure.” Marlowe beamed and bit into his sandwich.
Jericho settled into his room. It was grand, with a four-poster bed worthy of a king. He spread his long body out on it diagonally, taking up as much of the bed as possible. He scissored his arms and legs, laughing. So much space!
Do not stay.…
Startled, Jericho jolted upright and leaped to his feet.
“Hello?” he called to the empty room. It had been a woman’s voice, whispery and urgent. He opened the door and stuck his head out, peering left and right down the wing’s long, deserted hallway.