Two years.”
“He had the children watched.”
“You let them think you were dead.”
“I thought it kept them alive.”
“They’re dying.”
Her face collapsed.
“I know.”
A door opened behind us.
Adrian Valez entered.
He was seventy three.
Tall.
Silver haired.
Perfectly dressed.
A scientist who had spent his life believing intelligence made morality optional.
“Lawson Mercer,” he said.
I wanted to kill him.
He smiled faintly.
“You’re more impressive in person.”
“You experimented on my children.”
“I saved them.”
“They have leukemia.”
“An unforeseen failure.”
“They’re six.”
“Science doesn’t care about age.”
I moved toward him.
Miriam caught my arm.
Valez didn’t flinch.
“If you kill me, your children die.”
I stopped.
He smiled again.
“I developed the correction sequence.”
Genevieve looked at me through the glass.
“He’s lying.”
“No,” Valez said.
“I’m bargaining.”
He held up a drive.
“Everything required to stabilize the receptor permanently.”
“What do
