Page 41 of Land of Shadow

“Whatever,” I grumble and turn from the window. Then, on a whim, I turn back.

A chill seeps into my bones when I realize the shadow is gone.

* * *

“We need the sample.You have to send what you have left to us.” Director Hamberg, the head of the CDC, sits at the front of an entire room of scientists, all their eyes intently on us through the video-conferencing app. “It’s simply ridiculous you haven’t done so, and even more ridiculous that I was only allowed to pick a small team for this process. It’s untenable. It’s-it’s?—”

“You’ll have to take that up with my sister.” I’ve spent the entire weekend working on a decaying sample, found nothing, and now I’m running on a little sleep and a lot of frustration. “We can’t send what we don’t have.”

A ripple goes through the crowd on the other end of the chat. Then the video goes still.

“This is going great,” Aang mutters from behind me.

“—promised a solution. Was it all a lie?” Director Hamberg unfreezes, his grumpy face set in an even deeper frown now. “I agreed to do as she asked,nepotismand all.”

Some of the people with him openly scoff.

Well, fuck y’all too.

“If Juno’s Miracle is real, she can’t keep this discovery away from the scientific community like this,” he continues. “We need the sample. Now.” A handful of heads nod behind him.

Director Hamberg strikes me as someone who isn’t used to being told no, especially not by a junior researcher like myself. But I’m in the same position he’s in. We’re caught in whatever tangled web Juno wove to have access to Valen’s blood—though that isn’t going as anyone expected, least of all me.

“We worked with what we were given. I expect a new sample tonight. If there’s enough to share, we will.” The Internet barely works for two hours straight these days, even when it’s all government-controlled. I find myself hoping a server blows somewhere to end this call.

“When you receive the sample, you will immediately send the entire thing to me via military courier. I expect it here within hours.” He says it with the finality of a king decreeing an execution. “I’m going to handle this myself. Putting you at the helm was a huge mistake, one I intend to rectify. I don’t care who your sister is.”

I glance at Gretchen. She’s looking at me with a curious expression, though her eyes are wide with apprehension, too. I look at the others, gauging their reactions. Wyatt is pensive, Evie’s shaking her head, and Aang is scowling at Director Hamberg.

I take a deep, shaky breath. “With all due respect, Director, we’ve got this. Every bit of data we discover, we’ll send directly to you, but we won’t be sending the entire sample. As I said, if we have any left, we?—”

He sputters, spittle flying as he looks for words. “Y-you can’t keep the greatest discovery of the—” He cuts off and the screen goes black.

“Asshole.” Aang’s finger is on the computer’s power button. “You know his mother was head of epidemiology at the CDC, right? And he’s got the nerve to talk about nepo babies?” He pulls his hand back.

I look at him with newfound appreciation.

He glowers back at me. “Don’t get any ideas. I still don’t like you. I was just tired of listening to him.”

A smile creeps its way onto my lips as Aang turns and strides off with the nonchalance of a villain walking away from an exploding building.

* * *

“The White House has roaches,you know.” Candice looks around the hotel’s atrium, the glass and chrome still gleaming despite its disuse. “I bet this place doesn’t.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I get visited by a certain pest every night.” I finish my ham and cheese sandwich and wash it down with water.

“Dragonis?” She wrinkles her nose. “The dark-haired one?”

“The devil. Yep.” I lean back in my chair. “He comes here wanting to know if I’ve cured the disease when he hasn’t given me what I need to do it.”

“I see him, too. Him and that white-haired monster.”

From her shiver, I immediately know who she’s talking about. “The one from the press conference?”

“Yeah. He’s a nasty piece of work, that one. Theo, they call him.” She looks like she wants to spit when she says his name.

“What are they doing there?” I’m desperate for news. When Candice showed up to have lunch with me, I was so happy to see her I almost bowled her over. Huffing and puffing, red-faced, she told me to get the hell off her and let her breathe. God, I miss her.

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