Anjelica stepped around him so that she could meet Josiah’s gaze. “They were hit because they hold the location of the last batch of untainted human DNA, Joey.”
Josiah’s jaw dropped at her unexpected bombshell. Forget the Kevlar. He needed a stretcher. Had he heard that right? “Pardon?”
Leon nodded. “It’s true. There’s a DNA repository outside of Phoenix where I’ve been working. We’re called Noah’s Ark.” He handed Josiah a slide of that appeared to be human tissue. “This is a sample of one of the specimens so that you can verify it. It’s a catalogue of every human race that ever existed. From the past, and at the time the Matens arrived. Complete and untainted. I’m from a small colony of survivors who guard it.”
“Relics, Joe.” Angie was practically dancing with her enthusiasm. “An entire colony of Relics, who have saved us!”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was it even possible?
Leon tightened his fist around Josiah’s hand. “We desperately need your wife’s research, Commander. Dr. Crow was the only one who had a vaccine for the toxin the Drabs released on us. We have to redevelop her inoculation before the Drabs or Remnants find the last Relics and destroy them. You’re our only hope. If we fail, the human race will die out.”
Now that had to be the most terrifying thought of all. That he was the only hope.
Shit.
He met Angie’s gaze and laughed. “Wow. My father’s rolling in his grave. The thought of the fate of mankind resting in my hands ...”
Sobering, Josiah sighed. “Sad to say, I can hand it over, but you’re still screwed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Meaning it’s coded. No one can read it without the key.”
Leon’s skin turned ashen. “You don’t have the key?”
“No. Only one person besides my wife had it.”
“Let me guess. They’re dead?”
Josiah shook his head. Then pointed to the razor-thin dark blond kid in a corner wearing an oversized Pokémon headset while he played Call of Duty oblivious to everyone and everything around him. Dressed in baggy clothes so that they wouldn’t bind him and set off one of his epic tantrums, he kept his hair shaggy on top, and cut short on the sides. “He’s not exactly communicative.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s Autistic. You can’t touch him. He mostly ignores everyone and everything. But occasionally when you ask him something, he’ll write an answer down and hand it to you.”
Leon’s gape widened. “You’re serious?”
Josiah let out a tired sigh. “Even though he was only fifteen at the time, Davy was my wife’s assistant. He can run calculations faster than most computers, and keep track of everything in his head. He was high-functioning—one of those brilliant minds that graduated college at age twelve—until the Matens shot Mohani in front of him. We haven’t gotten a word out of him since. Some days, we don’t even get a squeak.”
“Unless you touch him.” Lobo grimaced. “Then you get more than a squeak, and whole lot more than you bargained for. Personally, I’d rather fight a Remnant, butt-naked. And I mean me being butt-naked, not them.”
“Yeah,” Josiah concurred. “And he’d know. He’s Davy’s brother.”
“Which means, he actually likes me. Yah,” Lobo said sarcastically.
“So, it’s hopeless, then.” Leon winced. “We came all this way for nothing.”
“Maybe not.” Josiah raked his hand through his hair. “Mohani reached him, once. Surely, we can do it again.”
A tic worked in Leon’s jaw. “Yeah, but can we do it before the Remnants and Drabs get to the Relics or find the Ark and destroy it?”
Chapter 6
They got away, General Daniels.”
Cutter cursed his second-in-command as rage welled up inside him, and exploded in a wave so violent that it caused him to kick his attaché across the room. The power of his blow was such that it sent his man straight through the concrete block and steel rebar. It was never a good idea to deliver him bad news. He firmly believed in killing the messenger.
If nothing else, it made him feel better.
And given the fact that very few things did, it was just a bad idea to be a harbinger in his command.
“Jenny!” he roared.
His daughter was much more circumspect as she stepped over the puddle of blood that was seeping under the door and entered his office.
Ignoring the large, gaping hole in the side of the wall beside the double steel doors, she moved to stand in front of his industrial grade, crystal desk. Cocking her head, she glanced down at the newsfeed that played through the top of his desk, then up to meet his gaze. “Yes, Papa?”
He paused at the sight of her, and lowered the volume of the speakers. That right there was why he carried the banner of pain so close to his heart. Not just for his people who had been betrayed, but for the damage done to his beloved only child. Her face should have been flawless and beautiful.
Like her mother’s.
Instead, she bore hateful scars across her left cheek, from the corner of her mouth to her eye, from the claws of other Remnants who’d tried in desperation to feed from her. And a knife wound down the length of her right cheek from a Scrap who’d tried to stop her eating his heart. That attack had also left her blind in that eye and turned it white. A stark contrast from her left eye that was still its natural dark brown, like her skin and hair she wore in Nubian spirals.
Damn them all for what they’d done to them.
He would see them in hell before this was through. “How’s the trace coming?”
“Slow, but we should be able to find Crow and his crew the next time he posts something. We just need one more act of stupidity.”
“Then let us hope he makes one soon.” He jerked him chin toward the body. “And speaking of stupid, find me a new assistant.”
She glanced over her shoulder and sighed. “I’ll try, but it’s getting harder to do so with every one you kill. Really, Papa. Help me out, and cut down on the bloodstains.”
He swiped his hand over the desk to change the channel to a new feed. “I’ll cut down on the bloodstains when our enemies are removed from power and we are in charge again. The earth was made for humanity.”
“Then wouldn’t that be the Relics?”
He chose to ignore her impertinence. “If my plan works, our humanity will be restored, and we’ll be cured. We’ll be the Relics, then.”
“Do you really believe that?”
He had to. The alternative was unacceptable to him. He’d seen too many of them die. Horribly.
Too many of them go mad.
The Drabs thought they were animals. The Scraps thought them monsters.
Sadly, the truth was far worse. They were cursed and damned.
He glanced up at Jennifer and sighed. “Mohani Crow wasn’t just working on a vaccine. She was working on a cure. I saw her research. With our abilities, I know we can complete her formulas. We just have to get to it.”
“They’re never going to let us have her work. You know that.”
“Then I will kill every one of them.”
Josiah pulled up short as he saw Daria waiting for him. The hopeful look in her eyes made his stomach draw tight. He hated that he had to crush her with the latest new, but he had no choice.