Page 20 of Perfection

“Nice images,” York said, but he was eyeing her, not the hologram.

“Look. There’s a lounge right around the corner with coffee, drinks, and food. Why don’t you take a break? I’ll come get you when I have the results.”

His dark gaze searched her face. “I should make some calls. You want anything?”

She glanced away. “No, thanks.”

When he left the room, it was as though she could breathe for the first time in hours. The air was lighter, and after a few minutes, she even turned on music to listen to while she worked. She sent a message to Nanny Sally, letting the robotic caregiver know she would be home late and to put Brianna to bed at her usual time. Kindra sighed. There would be no sunflower this evening as she had promised.

A couple of hours later, she peered at the computer screen and felt as if her brother Kyle’s icky bugs had scattered and were crawling up her neck.

Virus scrolled repeatedly across the screen.

She drummed keys in an effort to isolate the strain.

Unknown.

Kindra’s palms grew moist. “What do you mean,unknown?”

She reentered the salient details, hoping she’d been so distracted by York that she’d overlooked something.

Unknown.

With a groan, she laced her fingers together and touched a knuckle to her upper lip. Her heart thumped against her breastbone.

“May I assist you?” Comp Nine said.

“Yeah. Talk to this damned thing. See if you can figure out more about this virus.”

“Give me a zeta hertz.”

Comp Nine and the diagnostic computer were separate units but shared data symbiosis. Kindra collapsed against the back of her seat, exhausted and terrified, and waited while the two computers interfaced. The muscles in her neck tightened with each quiet moment. She flicked through multiple screens, trying to quell her panic. Was Isabelle’s vulnerability to a virus somehow Kindra’s fault? And what did that mean for the other D Generation children?

“Kindra, there is little to advise,” Comp Nine noted. “Genome analysis points to a foreign virus that attacks the brain. There is no cure at this time.”

“Thank you, Nine. Continue probing. We need characteristics, transmission info, a point of origin. We need…something.”

Dread swelled inside her. How had Isabelle D-Gastion come to be infected with a deadly virus? Was this something that all the D Generation children could be susceptible to? Her thoughts spun to Brianna, and her stomach tightened around a sick ball of terror.

Stop. Stop.

She leaned her hands on the desk and breathed deeply. She forced herself to mentally take a step back and stay objective, because the idea of a runaway virus, something that had never existed in her lifetime, was far too scary to consider.

* * *

With his back to the room and facing a stark gray wall, the man set about the task of preserving his deception. There were moments of true brilliance when events changed history. The world was about to experience one of those times. And, someday, humankind would thank him.

He plucked the infusion syringe from the counter, measured the precise amount of fluid from a vial, then proceeded to inject the serum into the fleshy crease under his arm.

He’d known the right combination would come to him eventually, for he was as brilliant and talented as his most distinguished colleagues. Plus, he’d been practicing for a very long time. The improvements he’d made to the genetic serum had enabled him to move undetected among the GEI elite.

No one had ever challenged him. And no one ever would.