My fingers trembled as I opened it.
Inside was a letter.
My dearest Sadie,
If you are reading this, then I failed to keep the truth buried long enough for you to live freely.
The treatment did not merely heal damaged tissue. It taught the body how to repair itself.
Virex wanted to use it to create soldiers who could survive injuries, children designed before birth, and patients permanently dependent on their company.
I refused.
You, Melanie, and Wyatt are not experiments. You are proof that healing should never belong to the highest bidder.
At the bottom, one final sentence had been underlined.
The formula was never stored in the laboratory. It was stored in you.
I looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Walter answered.
“Your blood contains the stabilized genetic marker.”
Melanie touched her arm.
“All of us?”
“No,” Walter said.
“Only Sadie.”
The hangar doors suddenly began to close.
A man stepped out from behind the jet.
Tall. Gray-haired. Expensively dressed.
I recognized him from television.
Dr. Adrian Vale, chief executive of Virex Medical.
Armed men appeared behind him.
He smiled.
“Thank you for bringing me the final piece.”
Wyatt moved in front of me.
Vale sighed.
“You were always sentimental, Wyatt.”
“You’re not touching her.”
“On the contrary,” Vale replied. “Sadie has belonged to Virex since infancy.”
I stepped beside Wyatt.
“No one owns me.”
Vale’s smile widened.
“Your grandfather said the same thing.”
Then Margaret raised a gun and pointed it at us.
I stared at her in disbelief.
Wyatt whispered, “Mom?”
Her hand did not shake.
“I’m sorry.”
Dr. Vale extended his hand.
“The girl, Margaret.”
She looked at me.
Tears filled her eyes.
Then she turned the gun—
and shot Dr. Vale in the chest.
—
PART 7
THE BETRAYAL THAT SAVED US ALL
For one suspended second, no one moved.
Dr. Vale looked down at the blood spreading across his white shirt.
Then chaos erupted.
Margaret fired again, striking one of the armed men in the shoulder. Walter dragged Melanie behind a fuel truck. Wyatt pushed me toward the jet stairs.
“Go!”
Gunfire thundered through the hangar.
