Again I glance around the room. That’s the connector. Everyone in this room, including Cole, is someone I trust, particularly if I’m going up against Chloe. They’re really the only people I trust. We’ve been through it together. Each of us have had direct interaction with Chloe.
I grip Paul’s arm and ask, “Do you know why we’re all here?”
“Erwin thought you were a liability.”
“Did he think you were a liability in the fight, too? Because you’re one of the strongest men he has. You trained those Mutts. What are you doing here?”
“Someone had to keep an eye on him.” He nods at Cole who is watching us intently, no doubt trying to use his super hearing to eavesdrop.
I shake my head. “That doesn’t make sense. There’s no way he’d leave a skilled leader out of the action. Not today. Look around the room. Tell me what you see.”
His eyes scan the room, stopping on each person. “Besides you—her original foe, there’s Jude, who abandoned his position as a Fighter in Jane’s army.” He moves on. “Jane, who she overthrew. Finn and Mary Ellen, who were captives at her headquarters, and Cole, who betrayed her.”
I look at Paul. “And then there’s you.”
“Me?”
“You never were supposed to live. If we hadn’t found you that day we never would have had the upper hand on the Hybrids. There would be no Mutts. I mean, even now Jane has the next injections ready for us to—”
“To what?” he asks, forehead creased.
“Listen, Erwin didn’t send us out here because we’re a liability. He sent us out here so we would be alone—isolated. Jude and I are pretty sure that Eater attack earlier was a set up. Maybe for her or maybe for us. I don’t know, but Chloe will find us easily now. Which is exactly what he wanted.” I take a deep breath and realize the whole room is watching us now, tuned into our conversation. “Jane has created a new injection. The EVI-3.”
Jude speaks first. Well, not so much speaking as a string of curses that ends with him declaring, “No way. No more monkeying with science.”
“This one is different,” I say but that argument sounds exceedingly lame even to me. “Jane, tell them.”
“It’s a temporary transition, giving the person Mutt-like qualities for a short period of time. Enhanced speed, strength, and thinking skills.”
“Enough to get through a battle and come out alive,” I point out. “Then everything should go back to normal.”
“Should,” Jude says. “So you don’t know for sure.”
Jane answers for me. “It’s experimental.”
He rubs his hands over his face and groans before asking me, “How do
es Wyatt feel about this?”
I hold his gaze. “Wyatt isn’t here.”
“I’ll take it,” Mary Ellen says suddenly. “I want to fight.”
“Mary,” Finn says, clutching at her arm. “That’s crazy.”
“No, what’s crazy is sitting here like ducks waiting to get taken out one at a time. I didn’t survive the last year and a half to go down in some kind of set-up.” She holds her shoulders back and Finn stares at her with a look of awe.
“So you’re doing this?” Paul asks me.
“Yes.”
“And then what?”
I glance around the room. “We leave this underground hole and kick Chloe’s ass.”
“The good news is that you won’t have to wait long,” Cole says. He’s been silent this whole time, watching our exchange with little interest.
I roll my eyes and ask, “Why do you say that?”