Hidden (Book 3 of the Immune Series)

Weak Point

Sakir

The speed at which Lexi lashes out at President Ashford reminds me of a snake. She jabs the gun forward and nails him right between the eyes. The man reels backwards, stumbles over his feet, and lands on the floor.

"Oh, I'll find something to threaten you with," Lexi whispers, shoving her gun at the nearest Compound 5 guard and launching herself at the president.

Isaac and I rush forward at the same time, but it's Quinn that grabs her by the arm and jerks her backwards.

"Cut it out, Lex," he snaps, and she glares at him. After a moment, her face softens, and she lets out a long slow breath.

"Fine," she huffs, "but you need to figure something out. Or I really will kill him."

Everyone in the room knows she means the threat, but Quinn clings to her arm. With every passing second, she shrinks down a little more until her face returns to its normal shade of white. Finally, he lets her go, turning instead to Ashford.

"Let's talk like adults for a minute," he says, kneeling down beside the president.

"You're not an adult, kid," Ashford reminds him with a smirk.

"Well, you're not a very good one so let's just both keep pretending, okay?"

Ashford turns his nose up at him but doesn't look away.

"You want us to threaten you with something a little more important? How about your life? How much does that mean to you?"

Ashford smirks but remains silent.

"Here's what we'll do. Athena will go prep a dosage of the third strand. You cooperate, and it'll never enter your bloodstream. Keep fighting us, and you'll be dead within hours."

Athena nods from where she stands and bustles into the other room.

"Sakir, go see if she needs some help," Papa says, nudging me with his elbow. I do as I'm told and stand behind Athena as she shuffles through the cabinets and drawers.

"Dr. Julien is messy," Athena mumbles.

"Was," I say. Athena cocks one eyebrow at me. "She was messy. She's dead now."

Athena sighs and continues looking for the solution. Within a minute, she finds the syringes labeled as the third strand and lays a few of them across the counter.

"It's strange," she whispers, her voice trailing off.

"What is?"

"They look exactly the same, but these are labeled differently."

She points at the needles and rolls them over so that I can see the labels. The left half of her stack says 'placebo', not 'third strand'.

"Why would Julien make vials of a fake virus?"

Athena shrugs.

"Beats me. Maybe she didn't intend to give the real one to Ashford."

"Wouldn't it be smarter not to label them this way? They're obvious fakes."

Athena snorts.

"She wasn't very smart, okay? I mean, it did take her almost ten years to make it in the first place."

Athena pockets both sets of syringes and heads back to the door.

"Wait," I say as an idea forms like a balloon in my head. "What if we take off the labels?"

Athena narrows her eyes at me as she pauses at the door.

"No one would know the difference."

"And if we gave the placebo instead of the virus to Ashford?"