Page 84 of Hollow State

"I don't care." Darwin held Gideon's stare. "I'm sure Finch knows Hyperion was breached, which means he knows you and I were behind it. And that could be the reason he showed up with that caravan of cars."

"He sees you, he'll kill you," Gus said.

"He's too arrogant to do it before crowing about how he beat me." Darwin picked up a syringe and needle from the tray. "And he won't ever expect me to inject myself with my own creation while I'm healthy."

"That's so very Frankenstein," Gideon said.

"Maybe." Darwin turned the syringe, so the light caught it. "But I've watched Finch's ego grow over the years."

"So have I." Gideon inched closer. "But I'm more concerned about his anger right now."

"His arrogance would prefer to watch me suffer," Darwin said. "Sure, he's pissed we've gotten in his way, but he's going to think he's got home-field advantage. He'll enjoy standing there, telling me how he's going to put us in the ground. Meanwhile, we'll beat him at his own game. We'll have Quinn and his boss, Henry, on the outside listening. And you and the team will manage to get what we need from ORACLE while he's too busy blustering to notice."

"That's a pretty big gamble you're taking with your life," Gus said. "If it were me, I'd just put a bullet in your head the second you came strolling in my direction."

"That's because you never underestimate your enemy," Gideon said. "Darwin's right. Finch might have respected our work. He certainly trusted and believed we could deliver what he needed. But he never valued us as capable men, even though we both served."

"That's certainly a mistake," Gus said.

"Finch also won't ever believe I injected myself." Darwin held up the syringe.

"You're injecting both of us," Gideon said. "We're a team. Besides, Finch will enjoy telling us both we're losers."

"That's fair." Darwin wanted to argue, but he knew better. He couldn't be a martyr. Not with this team. Not with Gideon. "Gus, we're gonna need you to stay here and monitor all our biometrics, but especially Wynn's."

"Oh, I was planning on running mission control," Gus said. "You'll just need to tell me what to look for when it comes to the medical stuff."

"Everything you need is on this page." His pen dug into the paper. "We're going to need to get Wynn to a hospital sooner rather than later." Darwin rubbed the back of his neck. "I need you to call my friend Liam. Quinn knows how to reach him. We'll need transport on standby. Once this goes down, we'll need an evac for her first, anyone who's injured, and the rest after that."

"Looks like your military training hasn't left you." Gus took a few steps forward and rested his hand on Darwin's shoulder. "I've got your back."

"Thank you," Darwin said. "For everything." He picked up the needed supplies and rolled up his sleeve.

Time to give Wynn a house full of windows.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Darwin had administered VKR-1 to hundreds of test samples, dozens of animals, and enough human patients under controlled medical conditions to understand how the compound moved through the body.

Injecting it into himself, he honestly expected it would be some momentous event. Instead, the moment he’d felt the liquid hit his system had been humblingly anticlimactic. Sure, things snapped into sharper focus. As if someone had adjusted the world by half a degree, and everything had suddenly appeared clearer. More defined.

But he also felt like he'd taken an amphetamine.

He and Gideon crouched behind a line of bushes across from the main building near a maintenance shed where the rest of the team had hidden.

"We're good to go on three," Gideon said. "Three, two…go."

Darwin took off toward the door, arms pumping, legs taking him as fast as they could. Before he carried out the rest of this mission, before he faced Finch, he needed to see—to hold—Wynn.

Her panel concerned him. He'd had the team give her an additional KTH-1 flush. That compound wouldn't hurt her, even if she’d been given more than she needed. However, Darwin had no idea if her organs were still holding onto the VKR-1 or if the cells were releasing the toxins. There were other drugs she could be given, but they weren’t things carried in a combat medic's medical kit. They could only be administered in a hospital setting.

And only under specific circumstances.

He eased his body against the shed and barely felt the cold of the metal, or the hardness of it against his back.

Gideon came up behind him and carefully opened the door. "It's us, don't shoot," Gideon said as he stepped inside. Over comms, he'd told the team they were coming in. But it was always a good idea to announce oneself in these situations.

Darwin stepped inside, sucked in a breath, and scanned the room. Scout, Neve, Coulter…all standing at the ready… and then his gaze landed on Wynn. She sat on a workbench, her body leaning forward, her fingers curled around the edges of her weapon.