Zocopalypse (Death Fields 1)

I snap my head. “What did you say?”

“Isn’t that where you’re going? Who you’re really looking for? Jane?”

Bile along with fury rises in my throat. “You knew all along?”

He leans back on the car. “Alexandra Ramsey, age 18, class Valedictorian, 1580 on her SATs. Early acceptance to Duke University, class of 2020. Pre-med with a focus on research. Runs a ten minute mile. Best friend, Liza—”

That’s when I haul off and punch him in the jaw, then again in the stomach. I reach for the hatchet, hanging in my belt loop but he grabs both of my wrists before I work it free.

>

“That’s enough,” he says close to my face.

“You knew the whole time—everything.”

“Yes,” he says.

“How long were you following me? Us?”

“Since before you left Raleigh,” he says this without a glimpse of remorse.

“The whole time? When we stayed at the apartment and met Paul? And then later, when those crazy people chased us down with their psycho trucks?”

“Who do you think took them out?” His cool eyes hold mine.

“That was you?”

“Part of the team, yes.”

“Holy crap, Wyatt.” My mind spins. “What…why didn’t you just take us at the beginning? Get it over with?”

“Those weren’t my orders, Alex.”

A sick feeling spreads through my stomach and I wrestle away from him. “Did you know Cole was following us too?”

“No, but I recognized him from the dossier of information I’d been given about your father and decided it was better to keep him close.” His jaw tenses. “Plus you like having him around.”

I scoff and cross my arms over my chest. “Sure, because this is all about what I want.”

We stand across from one another, quiet. I have no idea where to go from here. Running doesn’t seem like an option. And run where? To Jane? Even I have to admit it’s unlikely she’s anywhere I will find her on my own. My first priority has to be the information left to me by my dad. The only person who can take me to it is standing in front of me in a tight, muscle molding, light blue t-shirt. Dammit.

“If I ask you something will you tell me the truth?”

Wyatt considers this for a moment and then says, “If I can, yes.”

“What happens to me at PharmaCorp?”

“Give them what they want and you become a hero.”

“My blood?”

He shakes his head. “This isn’t about your blood, Alex, even though it may have initiated your father’s work. Erwin is batshit crazy and was never going to find that antidote without the information your father left you and your sister.”

“You know about that?” I ask. Of course he does.

“In theory everyone involved knows about it. That is what everyone wants, the two pieces of the puzzle. Erwin thought he could torture it out of you and when that didn’t work he thought he could torture me to get it out of you. Erwin just never realized how far reaching PharmaCorp is. They have fighters everywhere.”

“Who is PharmaCorp working for? Why did they unleash this on everyone?”