The Burning Shadow (Origin 2)

Neither of them looked like it was something they could control, but they both fell silent.

I focused on Steven. “Tell us what that is.”

“The Poseidon Project was their longest program, nothing like what they’d worked on before. Hybrids? Origins?” He shook his head, wincing. “This, if successful, would make every creation that has come before it seem like child’s play.”

There was no question that Steven knew exactly what the Daedalus had been up to, but he wasn’t telling us anything, really.

“I’m getting bored,” Luc warned.

“Records indicate they’d been working on the Poseidon Project since the Luxen first arrived—since the Arum first came here. Yes,” he said when Dawson let out an expletive. “The project was fraught with so much failure we believed what they were attempting to be impossible—not even a concern. It had to be impossible—the blending of Luxen and Arum DNA.”

“What?” Daemon and Grayson thundered at the same time. It was Daemon who continued. “That’s impossible. Our DNA is not compatible.”

“Isn’t it?” Steven challenged. “Would it be impossible inside a human vessel?”

Luc unfolded his arms. “Nothing is impossible.”

“They succeeded. We didn’t realize until after the war, but they succeeded in ways we never imagined, long before we could’ve ever guessed. The things they’ve created—they’re unstoppable, wielding both Luxen and Arum abilities, more powerful than their strongest Origin.” His gaze flicked to Luc. “They’re not vulnerable to obsidian or the weaponized onyx.”

That was the stuff that sprayed into the air in an invisible mist. Like the Disabler, it caused the Luxen extreme pain.

“EMP-modified weapons do not harm them,” he continued, his chest rising and falling heavily. “Once their mutation is complete, only a shot to the head will put them down, but they are fast—faster than a damn bullet. I’ve seen it.”

“Holy crap,” murmured Zoe, her eyes wide. “You said when their mutation is complete? What does their mutation look like?”

“Like a horror show. It’s on a cellular level. Their bones break and reform, their blood vessels leak. Fever. Vomiting.” He closed his eyes. “Their entire bodies and minds change. They’re not like the hybrids. They aren’t the same afterward. They are programmed, unstoppable killers.”

“Sarah.” Zoe turned, thrusting her hand through her hair. “April. Possibly even Coop and…”

She didn’t need to say it.

Me.

“You’ve seen the news? About the outbreaks that the media is blaming the Luxen for?” Steven’s laugh was dry as old bones. “They weren’t sick people. They were humans mutating.”

“How?” I whispered, and Zoe whipped back around. “How are people mutating? Why?”

“Some of them were created in the labs. We’re pretty confident it took place at the compound in Frederick,” he said, referencing Fort Detrick, where my mom worked. “They were like the Origins. They created sleepers and called them Trojans, and just like their namesake, they have infiltrated every level of society. But others are … they were normal humans that were mutated.”

“How?” Daemon demanded. “How could normal humans mutate?”

“It’s a flu,” he said, throat working on a swallow. “The Daedalus mutated a strain of a common flu to carry this mutation, and they released it. We don’t know when, but that’s why some humans are beginning to mutate.”

Horror warred with disbelief inside me.

“This is impossible,” Zoe murmured.

“It’s not,” Steve insisted. “Weaponized biological agents aren’t anything new, and the Daedalus has had decades to perfect this.”

“If what you’re saying is true, how come we don’t have thousands of these … mutated humans running around?” I asked.

“Flu shots. People who got flu shots may still come down with the flu, but it weakens the mutated strain in the virus. They won’t mutate,” he explained, and it felt like the floor moved under me as I thought about how Mom had even mentioned the importance of flu shots. So much so that I often joked that she must be getting kickbacks from the makers. “Those who didn’t get the flu shot, they’re either going to die during the mutation, or they’ll mutate, and those who got the shot are going to have just about the worst flu in their life.”

Silence filled the room, and I thought of Ryan. With the normal flu, people died if they had undiagnosed health conditions like heart problems or autoimmune diseases. People whose bodies probably couldn’t withstand the mutation.

“We don’t think they’ve released the virus on a wide scale yet, but there’s no way of being sure. At least not yet,” Steven continued. “But it’s viral. It’ll only be a matter of time.”

I felt like I needed to sit down.

“No way.” Dawson breathed. “This is … this is too much to believe.”

Archer strode forward, coming to stand on the other side of Luc. “I’ve never heard or seen anything like this, not once during my entire time at the Daedalus.”

“You wouldn’t have.” Steven twisted his neck from side to side. “It was top secret. From what we could gather, only a very few had clearance to the project or to the key that created the mutation.”