Kathy Reichs - Code

Ben.

Nope. Not ready for that .

“How’d Goodwin get a job on Loggerhead, anyway?” Hi asked.

“LIRI hired—” I used air quotes, “—‘Simon Rome’ as an assistant mechanic four months ago, during the period last summer when the institute had no director. Kit said he didn’t know much about it. I guess they didn’t run a background check.”

“Goodwin was probably using a stolen social security number. If so, he’d have passed the basic check for a mechanic’s job. I bet Goodwin had a whole set of false Simon Rome papers.”

“Isn’t that hard to pull off?”

“Naw. Don’t you watch Cops ? Faking an identity is easier than you think.”

“Still, Kit’s having Hudson revamp the institute’s screening procedures.”

“Security Chief Hudson.” Hi made a face. “What a douche.”

“Kit admitted having Hudson spy on us. He suspected we were up to something when we asked for a lab. I tried to get all indignant, but it didn’t fly. Since we really were up to something.”

Hi snorted. “Future trips to Loggerhead should be a joy.”

“At least the animals are okay. Kit said every monkey is accounted for, and someone saw Whisper’s pack this morning, sniffing through trash washed up on Turtle Beach.”

The sliding door opened and Shelton stepped out. Coop padded over and offered the slobber-stick. Shelton grimaced, but took the branch and flung it toward the tree line.

“What’d you learn?” I held my breath, afraid of Shelton’s answer.

“Ben isn’t going to be charged.”

I exhaled slowly. “Thank God.”

Shelton plopped down in the last open chair. “The cops believe that he didn’t know about the Gamemaster’s crimes.”

“Of course he didn’t!” Hi said at once.

I looked away.

Shelton and Hi had already forgiven Ben. So far, I couldn’t.

He should have told us .

“Ben’s testimony will be key to the prosecution’s case,” Shelton continued. “He can establish how Goodwin planned The Game, and link him to the original Loggerhead cache. Add in our testimony, plus the evidence we collected along the way, and there’s no way Goodwin walks.”

“No charges for Ben,” Hi said. “That’s the important thing.”

Shelton’s eyes dropped. “It’s not all good news.”

“What?” Again the fear.

“I heard my parents talking. Ben’s getting expelled.”

“From Bolton?” Not at all what I’d expected. “That makes no sense.”

“The school’s already contacted Kit, since he manages our scholarships. It’s a done deal.”

“But Ben is cooperating!” I couldn’t believe it. “How can they expel him if he isn’t been charged with a crime?”

“You know the administration,” Shelton said. “Blueblood prigs with giant rods up their butts. They don’t want scandal anywhere close to their pristine academy.”

“It’s a private school,” Hi said glumly. “They can do what they want.”

“Kit will fight this.” I’d make him.

“My dad said he already tried. Kit even offered a sizable donation, but Bolton turned it down. Ben’s as good as gone.”

We sat silently, digesting the terrible news.

“So what do we do?” Hi finally asked.

I had no answer.

Ferry rides. Classes. Lunches. I couldn’t imagine them without Ben.

My mind leaped back to the hospital. Our confrontation.

Ben’s brokenhearted confession.

I’d resisted every impulse to consider his words. Or how they made me feel.

Nope .

Nope nope nope .

Not yet.

Now that I was safe, Kit was furious with me. All my worldly possessions might be drenched in seawater. Chance and Jason had seen way too much, and could cause trouble. I’d have to testify at the trial of our insane tormentor, an event sure to trigger a media frenzy.

I had enough problems.

Affairs of the heart would have to wait.

So I leaned back and let the silence linger. The slobber-stick made several more flights.

Then it started again.

Something had changed since Marion Square. It’d taken days for me to notice. I didn’t think the boys were aware, though I suspected Coop might be. When the wolfdog looked at me now I could almost hear his thoughts.

Nothing I could point to. Just a knowing. An instinctive understanding. Unlike anything I recalled feeling before.

Was I more sensitive than the rest of my pack? Why?

Because I was Alpha? Was I Alpha?

My powers were dormant, tucked away inside my DNA. Still, I felt a … connection. Some lingering remnant of the pure union we’d experienced while fighting the Gamemaster.

I sensed the bond to my pack, even now, without a flare.

Hi. Shelton. Coop. Even Ben, somewhere to the southeast.

We’d never be apart again, even when we were. Not anymore.

The realization warmed me.

As I shifted my weight something jabbed me in the leg. I fished in my pocket. Pulled out a red plastic bar.

“Karsten’s flash drive.” Hi shot a quick glance at Tempe’s sliding door. “You keep it on you?”

“Of course. It might have the answers we need. I can’t risk losing it.”

I studied the slim drive lying on my palm. Wondered what secrets it held.

Mapped DNA? The metabolic truth of our mutations? A cure?

“You asked what next, Hi?” I placed the drive on the patio table.

Shelton and Hi turned to face me.

Coop trotted over and sat at my feet.

“We find out what happened to us.” I scratched behind my wolfdog’s ears. “The whole story. Then we figure out what comes next.”

I probed the new awareness swirling in recesses of my mind. Felt tantalizingly close to understanding. Then the feeling slipped away.

“It’s time to discover what makes us Viral.”

EPILOGUE

CHANCE CLAYBOURNE GLARED AT the man standing before him.

He was sitting at the desk in his study. The colossus reminded him of his father, and he loathed using it, but the gleaming mahogany had a certain intimidation value he found useful.

Right then, he wanted to intimidate.

“Nothing else?” Chance spoke loud enough to be heard over the hammering in the courtyard below.

Claybourne Manor had weathered yet another hurricane. Though Katelyn had not left the property unscathed. Broken windows. Uprooted trees. An outbuilding reduced to a pile of rubble.

But the main house stood, strong as ever. Chance scoffed at the idea of evacuation. He’d lounged in his wine cellar, reading his Kindle, insulated from even the noise of the storm. The whole thing had been much to-do about nothing.

Chance reflected on a prior trip down those steps.

Tory Brennan. I was shot in that cellar, for God’s sake .

The man before him shifted. Chance didn’t offer a seat.

He needed this worm, but didn’t like him.

“They should not have been up there,” Mike Iglehart said. “The only person to ever work upstairs in Building Six was our former director, Marcus Karsten.”

Chance kept his face blank. “Karsten?”

Iglehart nodded. “He’s gone now. Murdered. It was awful.”

Chance regarded the devious scientist with distaste. He was the perfect mole, his allegiance purchased for next to nothing. It still surprised him. Iglehart obviously had some personal grudge against his employer.

“Why is that relevant?” Chance asked.

“I think those brats stole something,” Iglehart answered. “I’m certain the girl was hiding her hands. It might relate to the research Karsten was doing.”

Chance’s pulse quickened, but his tone remained flat. “Research?”

“No one knows. Karsten destroyed all the files.”