Specimen

“He’s not,” Riley says. “He’s just…protective.”

Her voice trails off as she looks at me. My stomach knots up like it did when I attacked Dr. McCall for insulting Riley. Cross is being obnoxious, and I don’t understand why I’m considered the aggressive one.

“He needs that drug,” Anna says. “The problem is, we’ll have to get into Mills territory to get it.”

“Do we have any intelligence operatives in that area?” Merle asks.

“Two,” Cross replies. “Neither of them have direct access to Mills Pharmco though.”

“I do,” Riley says.

“Your access has presumably been revoked since you left,” Merle replies.

“If she has her access card,” Errol says, “I should be able to hack it and come up with a working alternative.”

“If I have a sample of the drug itself, I may be able to break it down into its simpler components,” Riley says. “If you have someone with the right background, they should be able to make more. We just need enough to keep Galen going until we can start processing it ourselves.”

“We still have to get in there.”

“We take a small team,” Cross says. “Four soldiers to help get everyone over the border and to the pharmaceutical lab, and two with Errol’s hacked IDs. One of those has to be someone with enough medical knowledge to retrieve the proper drug.”

As they continue to talk about the appropriate route to get into Mills Pharmco and who should be on the team, I process their plan in my head. I go over the route in my internal map, see the hidden dangers, calculate risk, recalculate, and adjust the route. I see the facility in question in my mind—the entrances and exits. I process it all and realize a fatal flaw.

“They’re going to figure it out,” I say quietly.

Everyone stops talking and looks at me for a moment.

“Why do you say that?” Merle looks from me to Cross.

“They’ll know what we need, and they’ll be waiting for us.”

“I’m not sure we have a choice, Galen.” Riley shakes her head. “We need that medication to complete the formula.”

“We’ll be ambushed. They’ll know exactly what route we’ll take and how to counter it.”

“Galen, why do you say that?” Riley places her hand on my arm, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Because the other specimens think like I do,” I say. “They’ll know exactly what route I will take. I can counter for that, but they’ll know I’m going to counter. I can adjust for that as well, but the facility itself is the problem. They’ll know we’re coming, and they’ll be waiting.”

“So what do we do?” She looks from me to Merle.

“Let me go alone,” I say, and Riley turns her head quickly to look at me, her eyes wide.

“Out of the question.” Riley smacks her hand on the table. “Do you realize what they’ll do if they catch you?”

“And the alternative is what? Wait until I go berserk?”

“You are not going alone!”

“It’s exactly the kind of thing you designed me for.” She doesn’t seem to appreciate my reminder. “You know I’m right.”

“He does have a point, Dr. Grace.”

“No!”

“I don’t think he should go alone the whole way,” Merle says. “There should be a group up until they reach the facility, but you know Galen needs to lead the team. He should be the one who enters the building and retrieves what is needed.”

“He won’t be able to locate the right drug.”