“She was a volunteer? Really?”
“Yes. I was here the day she was brought in. They’d had to override her system to get her in here. I guess she put up quite a fight when they came for her.”
Kai frowned. “Why would a volunteer put up a fight?”
“I’m using volunteer in the official sense. I believe her legal guardian recommended her for the testing.” She swiped her wrist over an ID scanner, then ushered them into Lab 6D. The room smelled of bleach and peroxide and every surface glistened to a perfect shine. A counter along the far wall was set before a window overlooking a quarantine room. Kai grimaced, reminded of his father’s last days spent in a room not entirely unlike that one, although his had been equipped with blankets and pillows, his favorite music, a tranquil water fountain. The patients who came to these labs would not have received the same luxuries.
Fateen paced to the adjoining wall. “Screen, on,” she said, tapping something into her portscreen. “I do believe these records were a part of the investigation following her jailbreak, Your Majesty. Do you think the detectives may have missed something?”
He threaded his fingers through his hair. “No. I’m just trying to answer some of my own questions.”
The lab’s log-in screen faded, replaced with a patient profile. Her profile.
LINH CINDER, LICENSED MECHANIC
ID #0097917305
BORN 29 NOV 109 T.E.
RESIDENT OF NEW BEIJING, EASTERN COMMONWEALTH. WARD OF LINH ADRI.
CYBORG RATIO: 36.28%
“Is there something specific you’re looking for?” Fateen asked, sliding her fingers along the screen so that the profile trekked down into blood type (A), allergies (none), and medications (unknown).
Then the plague test. Kai stepped closer. “What’s this?”
“The doctor’s notes from when we injected her with the letumosis microbe solution. How much we gave her and, subsequently, how long it took her body to rid itself of the disease.”
At the end of the study, the simple words.
CONCLUSION: LETUMOSIS IMMUNITY CONFIRMED
“Immunity,” said Torin, coming to stand beside them. “Did we know about this?”
“Perhaps the detectives didn’t think it was relevant to their search? But it’s common knowledge here in the labs. Many of us have theorized it’s a result of her Lunar immune system. There’s a long-held theory that letumosis was brought here by migrating Lunars, who are unaffected carriers of the disease.”
Kai fidgeted with his shirt’s collar. How many Lunars would have had to come to Earth to create such a widespread epidemic? If this theory was correct, they could have a lot more fugitives on the planet than he’d realized. He groaned at the thought—the mere idea of having to deal with more Lunars made him want to beat his head against a wall.
“What does this mean?” asked Torin, pointing to a box at the bottom of the profile.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: FINALLY. I’VE FOUND HER.
The words gave Kai a chill, but he wasn’t sure why.
Fateen shook her head. “Nobody knows. Dr. Erland entered it, but he gave no indication of what it meant. Probably it refers to her immunity—he finally found what he was looking for when she was brought in.” Her tone became bitter. “Though lots of good that did us when both of them decided to skip town.”
Fateen’s port pinged and she glanced down on it. “I’m so sorry, Your Majesty. It seems today’s draft subject has just arrived.”
Kai ripped his attention away from those haunting words. “The draft is still in effect?”
“Of course,” Fateen said with a smile, and Kai realized what a stupid question it was. Here he was, the emperor, and he had no idea what was going on in his own country. In his own research labs.
“With Dr. Erland gone, I just thought maybe it was over,” he explained.
“Dr. Erland may be a traitor, but there are still a lot of people here who believe in what we’re doing. We won’t quit until we’ve found a cure.”
“You’re doing great work here,” said Torin. “The crown appreciates all the advances that have been made already in these labs.”
Fateen tucked her port back into her pocket. “We’ve all lost someone to this disease.”
Kai’s tongue grew heavy. “Fateen-jiĕ, did Dr. Erland ever inform you that Queen Levana has developed an antidote?”
She blinked at him, confused. “Queen Levana?”
He glanced at Cinder’s chart, evidence of her immunity—and her Lunar biology. “A part of our marriage alliance will include the manufacturing and distribution of this antidote.”
Torin’s voice was terse. “Though His Majesty will require that this information remain confidential until the crown issues an official statement.”
“I see,” she said slowly, still watching Kai. “That would change everything.”
“It would.”
Her comm pinged again. Shaking off her surprise, Fateen bowed to Kai. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. If you would excuse me?”
“Of course.” Torin gestured toward the hall. “Thank you for your assistance.”
“My pleasure. Take all the time you need.”
She bowed and left the lab with her braid swinging. The moment the door closed behind her, Torin scowled at the emperor. “What reason did you have for giving her that information? Until the antidote is confirmed as both effective, harmless, and capable of reproduction, it’s foolhardy to spread such rumors.”
“I know,” said Kai. “It just seemed like she should know. She mentioned the draft and I realized how many people are still dying. Not just being killed by the disease, but being killed by us while we try to find a cure, and all the while an antidote is out there, just out of…” His eyes widened. Immunity confirmed. “Stars. The queen’s antidote!”
“Pardon me?”
“Cinder was here the day I gave the antidote to Dr. Erland. He must have given it to her, and she went straight to the quarantines, knowing that she was immune. She was taking it to her sister, trying to save her. But she must have been too late, so she gave the antidote to that little boy instead, Chang Sunto.” He shook his head, surprised at how light this realization made him. He found himself smiling. “Her guardian is wrong. Cinder didn’t take her sister’s ID chip because she was jealous or she wanted to steal her identity or anything like that. She took it because she loved her.”
“And you believe that cutting out a loved one’s ID chip is a healthy response?”
“Maybe she’d somehow figured out that the androids were harvesting them and giving them to Lunars. Or maybe she was just in shock. But I don’t think it was out of malice.”
He collapsed against the wall, feeling as if he’d just discovered an important clue in the mystery that was Linh Cinder. “We should let Fateen-jiĕ and the others know that Chang Sunto wasn’t a miraculous recovery. This confirms that the queen’s antidote is real, and maybe they can use that information in their research. It might be useful, or—”
His elbow bumped the netscreen and an image shimmered beside him. Kai jumped away as the holograph projected out of the screen, rotating within arm’s reach.
It was a girl, life-size, her different layers flickering and folding into one another. Skin and scar tissue melded with a steel hand and leg. Wires merged with her nervous system. Blue blood pumped through silicon heart chambers. All the inorganic tissue had a faint glow, as the holograph pinpointed what wasn’t natural about her so that even the untrained eye could comprehend.
Cyborg.
Kai backed away, feeling disoriented as he gaped at her. Even her eyes had that faint glow to them, along with the optic nerves that stretched to the back of her brain, where there was a metal plate fitted with ports and cables and wires and an access hatch that opened in the back of her skull.
He remembered her guardian saying that Cinder was unable to cry, but he’d never thought … never expected this. Her eyes, her brain …
He looked away and dragged a palm down his face. This was an invasion, a terrible kind of voyeurism, and the sudden guilt made him wish he could erase the sight from his mind forever. “Screen, off.”
A silence engulfed them, and he wondered if Torin felt the same guilt he did, or if he’d even been caught by the same morbid curiosity.