Paul and several other survivors were hidden in the back of the school. We brought them back to the Vaccine Center and he recovered but turned into something more. I eye Cole. Something exactly like the man standing before me now.
“You and Paul were given the same doses, which caused a result Jane wasn’t prepared to deal with. Which is why they tried to destroy it,” I say, the pieces clicking together. “Jane accidentally made a scenario with a Hybrid more powerful and independent minded than what she wanted.”
“Yep,” Cole says. “A free-thinking, ethical being with the body composition of a super solider.”
“Holy shit.” I hold his eye. “So you asked for it. You wanted this.”
“At the time I thought I would help me stop Jane. But now that she’s no longer in control of The Fort—”
I grip his arm. “Wait…what?”
“You don’t know?” He frowns and studies my face. “After all this time? I’ve followed you up and down the state. Watching you watch us, but you never realized what happened at The Fort last fall?”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about. The furthest we got was the outer gates before winter. We went to—”
“To what?”
I struggle to find the words, particularly with him. Alexandra’s relationship with Cole was definitely more defined than whatever she and I shared. If anyone had the right to chase her down it was Cole, but that
nervous feeling I had earlier spreads.
“You know, track down Alex. Make sure she got inside. But the outer gate was stacked with Hybrids. After a week of looking for way in, we gave up. She’d made her intentions clear when she went up there. As much as it hurt to give up on her, we figured she was either dead or prisoner.”
The worry lines on Cole’s face deepen and I fight the wave of grief I’d suppressed for so long. But talking about this with Cole—her actual boyfriend--my feelings are real even if inappropriate. I grab onto the metal guardrails and stare into the night. God, this was shitty.
“Wyatt,” he says. “Alex isn’t dead.”
His words land like a punch and I take several steps back. “Is Jane—no, you said Jane was no longer in control, which means…” Again the picture comes into a sharper image and I straighten up. “Is Chloe holding her captive?”
“No, she’s not a captive. Not as far as I know.”
“Is she okay? Or did she…did she take the second vaccine like you?” I can see her making the same choice as Cole if she was given the chance. When she left that day she was determined to stop her sister by any means necessary. Cole had finally found the way.
“Wyatt, my sister held a coup on the Fort before winter and won. She’s the one driving the Hybrids deeper and deeper south. She’s the one hunting Erwin’s army.” He looks at me. “Alex and her sister escaped as the regime changed. They escaped.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. I helped them get away.”
I’m overwhelmed with relief and it takes me a minute to speak again. “Okay good. Good. That’s all I wanted to know. Her whole goal was to stop Jane. It sounds like Chloe inadvertently helped her succeed in her mission. At least one of us got out of this God-forsaken war, right?”
“Right,” he says, his voice hesitant. “Although, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“The God-forsaken war? Yeah, I don’t see much way out of it. I’m committed to stopping your sister.”
“Me too,” he agrees. “That’s my primary goal, which is why I need you to do something—for the greater cause.”
I’m not ready to make any deals with him. Not yet. Not without talking to my team about it and reporting back to Erwin. We knew the Hybrids had a different sort of power lately. What Cole told me explains why. Even though I’m hesitant, my job is to get as much information as possible so I lean back on my heels and say, “What do you need me to do?”
Another owl hoots deep in the trees, the only witness to our conversation. I should be surprised when he asks me, but if I think on it, there’s no other reason for him to drag me out here in the middle of the night.
No other person that warrants both of our concern.
He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks every bit the human I first met on the trail a year ago when he says, “I need you to find Alex.”
Chapter 9
The main intersection of historic Dublin looks every bit like a ghost town when Paul and I enter just before dawn. They’re subtle, but I see the hints that the rest of our team is here, waiting in position. They came early, before nightfall, to avoid any roaming Eaters on the streets. The infected are left for the Hybrids to deal with.