The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (41 page)

“It makes sense,” Hector said, surprising us
all. “Fuller never had long term plans. He said we had to live each
day in the moment, see what it brings. His views made sense then
but now…I don’t know.”

“He didn’t leave us very prepared,” Brock
said. “If he wanted us to go into the government’s safe house you’d
think he would have left us instructions.”

“Maybe he did,” my grandpa said, excitement
rising. “Where’s that letter? It might be coded.”

Hayden’s eyes flicked to mine. We both knew
the letter wasn’t coded. I moved my head up and down in a small
nod. Hayden unlocked the desk and got out the letter, giving it to
my grandpa, who stood.

“I’ll get to work on this, right away.” Then
he left, presumably going to his room. He had moved into Fuller’s
old room, which turned out to be the largest bedroom in the whole
compound. It worked out well in my grandpa’s favor.

“I think this is enough for today,” Hayden
said, putting his arms on the desk. Raeya and I stood.

“I got lists to make,” she told me and left.
Hector went to check on Gabby and Padraic needed sleep since he had
been on duty all night. Ivan, Brock, Jason, Hayden, and I stayed,
not quite done with the meeting just yet.

* * *

“We can’t just charge into New York City. We
have no idea what it’s like or how secure their perimeters are. We
could get shot on sight.” Hayden put his hand on his back, pressing
between his shoulders, and rolled his neck.

I pulled on my braid and looked at the map of
New York City. I had always wanted to go and see it. But not
anymore. Not like this.

“Can’t we scope it out from a distance?”
Jason asked.

“Ideally, yes,” Brock answered. “But who
knows what it’s like? Measures have been taken to ensure the safety
of everyone there.”

Jason nodded. “I’m imagining a giant wall,
like the Wall of Berlin.”

Brock tipped his head. “Could be for all we
know.”

Hayden picked up his coffee cup, realized it
was empty and set it back on the desk with a sigh. “We need to
question somebody from the inside, see how they operate like what
we did with Jon and Eastmoore…though it didn’t work out exactly as
planned. And we aren’t going to get lucky enough to find an
abandoned greenhouse to stash our vehicles and supplies in.” He
shook his head. “For all we know, there is one way in and out of
the city. We’d never get through unseen.”

Ivan crossed his arms. “I’m not seeing a way
to win this one, guys.”

Something clicked into place in my head.
“Wait.” I held up my hand and looked at Hayden. “What did you just
say?”

“There might only be one way into the
city.”

I shook my head. “No, before that.”

“Uh…we won’t be able to get inside
information or hide out in—”

“Greenhouses,” I interrupted, mouth opening
in a broad smile.

Hayden’s eyes narrowed in question. “Riss,
what are you—oh. Oh! You’re right. And brilliant!”

“Did I miss something?” Jason asked, leaning
forward in his chair.

I spun around to face the guys. “We found
those greenhouses, real working greenhouses, remember? Someone was
running them, obviously. Who else would have the resources to do
that?”

Ivan’s lips pulled up in a devious smile.
“You are a smart one, Penwell.”

Jason bit his lip, still not completely
understanding. “Someone from the government has been going there,
daily, weekly…I don’t know. But they’re there, taking care of the
crops and taking them back to the city,” I explained.

Jason’s jaw fell open when it clicked. Brock
said, “It makes perfect sense, and now I know why Fuller never sent
us back.”

“We go,” Hayden said. “Camp out for a few
days until the groundskeeper comes and question him, feel things
out before we make the next move.” His eyes went to mine, almost
sparkling with excitement. “We’re doing this.”

His words sent a chill through me. It was
what I wanted, what we needed. But it terrified me.

It was the most dangerous mission we would
ever attempt.

A month had passed since we had made our
decision to go to New York. We had spent the time getting the
compound ready for winter as well as an extended time without some
of its best protectors. We made sure Hannah had her medicine, too.
Three cabins were complete without electricity. Their construction
had been put on hold—again. Getting enough food, medicine, and
supplies became our priority.

Having my grandpa, however crazy, had proved
to be more helpful than anyone could have imagined. Anyone but me
and Raeya, since we knew him and his crazy ways. He worked closely
with Hector, making the tough decisions when Hector was unable.

We kept the truth about the virus from the
others. Hayden thought it would be best to not get anyone’s hopes
up…or make anyone so mad they would do something crazy. We could
very easily trek halfway across the country for nothing and come
back empty handed.

Our plan was being executed tomorrow. Since
we were driving to the greenhouses, we might as well make the most
of it. Brian and Bryan—the two new A1s in my group, were driving
with Brock, following us to the greenhouses. As long as we were
able, we planned to take as much fresh produce as possible, load it
up in a truck and then turn around and have them drive it back
home.

Ivan, Jason, Hayden, and I were going to
continue on to New York. It was a battle to get my grandpa to agree
to stay behind. He wanted to go, to fight, to tell the president he
was onto him the whole time. Finally he agreed to stay after we
told him that we needed him to take over Hayden’s role as leader of
the compound. In all actuality, my grandpa and Hector balanced each
other well. Plus, Raeya and Padraic were on board for making any
big decisions.

Everything we needed was loaded into our
cars, ready and waiting for us to leave the compound for what could
be the final time. It was getting late but none of us could sleep.
The guys crammed into Ivan and Brock’s room to play video games,
trying their best to act as if tomorrow would be an easy
mission.

I had already said my goodbyes to Raeya, my
grandpa, and Olivia. Sonja had spent the night crying, not wanting
her brother to leave. In all honesty, I didn’t want him to go
either. I had grown to care about him as if he was my own brother.
He should stay here, where it was safe.

I stood, weaving through the guys, saying I
had to go to the bathroom. Hayden looked at me as I left Ivan and
Brock’s room. He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly in an unspoken
question. I nodded and gave him a small smile, letting him know I
was ok. I love how he can read me like that: one quick look and he
knew exactly how I was feeling.

I twisted my engagement ring around my finger
and walked into my room. My heart was beating faster and faster the
more I thought about going to New York. I had a bad feeling about
it…a feeling worse than my normal bad feelings about missions. I
tried to convince myself it was because I had spent several hours
alone with my grandpa last night, listening to him spit out
theories in a paranoid haze. He was convinced whoever was in New
York was alive and well, completely prepared to ride out this
shitstorm.

I stopped in the middle of the room and put
my hands over my head, letting out my breath before I bent over and
touched the floor. My grandpa’s words replayed in my mind.

He’ll
be
there
…
that
conniving
joke
of
a
president
.
Samael
will
be
there
.
And
when
you
see
him
…
stick
an
arrow
through
his
eye
.

I knew it wouldn’t be that easy. Certainly
the president would have some sort of protection around him. Let’s
just say we were able to get inside this safe house. It’s not like
I could bring my bow and arrows. A pistol…maybe. I needed something
smaller, something lethal that could be concealed.

I walked my hands up on the floor, stretching
out my back. I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing. I
didn’t want to go in without a backup plan, without some sort of
weapon I could keep on me at all times. The thought made my stomach
turn to the point of feeling sick.

I opened my eyes. “Holy shit,” I whispered
and popped up. I left my room, padding down the hall and down the
stairs, not stopping until I was in the hospital ward.

“Is Dr. Cara working tonight?” I asked the B3
at the desk.

“Yes, she’s in the lab is everything
alright?”

I just nodded and breezed past, needing to
get to Dr. Cara. I pushed open the lab door without knocking. Dr.
Cara was sitting at a microscope when I came in. She jumped,
knocking into the table.

“Do you still have the isolated virus?” I
asked, getting right to the point.

“Of course,” she said, blinking. Then she
turned back to the microscope.

“Can I have it?”

That got her attention. She flicked the light
off to the microscope and turned around. “Why?”

“I want to use it as a weapon.”

Her eyes might have lit up just a bit. She
gave me a rare smile and got up. I followed her to the back of the
lab. She put on gloves and opened a mini fridge and pulled out a
baby food jar filled with a nectar-thick, translucent green
liquid.

“Does it have to be refrigerated?” I
asked.

“Not at all.” She set the jar on a plastic
plate. “The cold slows the virus down. It does best at body
temperature. That’s why when a body reaches the S3 stage—”

“Give me details later. Do you have any
smaller jars?”

“Of course I do. Hang on.” She turned,
opening a cabinet above us. “Will this do?”

I nodded, looking at the little vials. “It’ll
be perfect.”

“How many do you want? Just a few drops of
this stuff is enough to infect someone with the Contagium
Virus.”

I had forgotten Padraic had haphazardly come
up with that name. “Then just one will do.”

“I’ve never been inside one of these,” Jason
said, his voice echoing throughout the large pole barn. He took a
deep breath. “It smells so…so…fake.”

I nodded. “Exactly my thoughts. You can taste
the chemicals in the air.” I propped the door of the green house
open behind us. We drove straight through, not stopping until we
arrived at the greenhouse. Hayden, Jason, Brock and I were going to
New York. Ivan, and the two new A1s, Bryan and Brian, were taking
the food back to the compound.

“But the strawberries taste good,” I
said.

Everything looked the same as it did the last
time we were here, which was unnerving. Months had passed…the
plants should be in a different phase in their growth cycle now. I
reached out, touched a bright red strawberry, so large it bent the
plant down.

Jason and I walked through the greenhouse,
finding wheelbarrows at the end. I tipped one up and shook it,
sending dried leaves and shriveled strawberries to the ground. I
wiped my forehead, sweaty already from the humidity in this
building. We went right to work, picking strawberries and tossing
them in the wheelbarrow, eating a few along the way.

When that wheelbarrow was full, I took it
outside where Ivan and Bryan stood, keeping watch. They dumped the
strawberries into boxes and loaded them into the truck. I went back
in, getting another load before moving on to the next greenhouse.
We worked feverishly, afraid someone would come back and catch us
in the act. It would mess up our current plans, through not enough
to keep us from following through with going to New York.

Several hours later, we were done. My back
hurt from bending over and the tips of my fingers were stained from
twisting fruit and vegetables off their steams. Everything was
loaded in the armored car, ready to go. Hayden filled a bag with
fresh produce for us to take with us on the rest of our
mission.

Ivan hugged me goodbye, making me promise to
come back in one piece. I made him promise to look after Raeya and
my grandpa in case I didn’t. He got in the car with Brian and
Bryan, turned around, and headed for home.

Brock, Jason, Hayden, and I feasted on fruit,
sitting in the bed of the truck.

“I don’t think anyone’s coming,” Hayden said,
looking at the sinking sun. “Not this late.” He should his head.
“Though it really wouldn’t matter, right?”

“Not really,” I answered.

“They have to drive in the dark at some
point,” Brock said. “Unless they stopped along the way. But I could
see waiting to harvest until daylight.”

“How many people do you think will be here?”
Jason asked, tossing a pear core on the ground.

“Hopefully no more than four,” Hayden said
wryly. “And they won’t be as armed as we are.”

“Hah, yeah,” I agreed. I peeled a banana and
took a bite. “They have to know, right?” I looked at the
greenhouses. “They have to know that not everyone is dead. Think
about it.” I bent my legs up under me, shifting uncomfortably in
the truck bed. “They drive here all the way from New York. I know
it’s not super far, but it’s a long enough drive to have seen
something.”

Hayden said, “I’m assuming whoever takes care
of this is in on the whole thing.”

Brock nodded. “They’d have to know. Why else
would everything be set up?”

“What if they’re not from New York?” Jason
asked, eyes widening. “What if it’s just a bunch of random people,
kinda like us?”

I took a deep breath. “I suppose it’s
possible.”

We continued to come up with theories, some
of them so out there my grandpa could have thought them up. When
the sun was almost done, we moved into the strawberry greenhouse
for the night.