Page 68 of The Program

‘That’s it,’ I cooed. ‘You can do it. Focus on me just for a little longer, sweetheart.’

With a herculean effort she was finally able to keep them open and vaguely pointed in my direction. ‘Well done. You’re doing so well. Now, I know this isn’t what you want to do, but I need you to tell me what they did to you. Anything you can remember. Can you do that?’

She whimpered again, her entire body shaking as the fresh memories bombarded her. I hated to do it, but I needed to know what I was working with so I could get her out of here safely. So, I told her as much.

Her mouth opened slightly, then closed again without a single sound released.

I tried a different tactic. ‘Okay, that’s fine. I’m going to ask you some questions, and I just want you to tell me if I’m right or not. Does that sound a bit better?’

‘Y-yes,’ she croaked.

‘Okay. I can see that they cut you. This is a horrible question, but were you awake when they did that?’

A single tear trickled out of her eye, dropping down her head to tangle in her hair. ‘Y-‘ she started, but a sob cut her off.

‘Yes? Okay, you’re doing so good, sweetheart. Just a little longer. Did you see what they put inside you?’

‘Sil-ver…’

‘A silver substance? Okay. Was it solid or liquid?’

‘Li-quid. S-syri-nge.’

‘Well done, Addy. Do you know where they injected you?’

‘B-bo-nes.’ The effort it took for her to talk caused her to cough and red blood with a silvery shimmer splattered over her chin. Shit.

‘Okay. It’s okay. Just a little more. Did they do anything else?’

‘M-made us… w-watch.’

I already knew thatthatwould leave some serious mental and emotional scars, but there wasn’t anything to be done for it now. ‘You’ve done amazing, Addy. That’s all I need. You can rest now. We’ll be watching over you, okay? You’re safe now.’

She was unconscious before I’d even finished speaking, but I kept going anyway for my own sake. Seeing her this way shook me more than I wanted to admit. She was too kind and wonderful to be tortured like this. I never wanted this for any of them, and a part of me felt responsible even though I knew, logically, that my presence in their lives had nothing to do with The Program’s actions. They’d been planning on obtaining Nova Station for a while, that much was obvious, but the guilt persisted, nonetheless.

A deep breath later and my emotions were securely locked away, my mask firmly back in place. Double-checking that Addy was still breathing before I left her, I made my way over to where the others were hovering over Reece, unsure what to do. Even Henrik with his ever-present medical knowledge and caretaking personality didn’t dare touch him.

I scooted between them to examine him for myself. The first thing I checked was that he was still alive – he was, thank the stars. Then I examined his wounds. They were almost an exact replica of the ones Adara bore, but that didn’t necessarily mean they’d performed the same procedure. For all Iknew, they’d injected her with the nanites but attempted to graft them the old-fashioned way into him.

I did the only thing I could think of to check. Gently prying open one of the cuts, I stuck my finger inside for a moment before removing it, ignoring the men’s sounds of protest and revulsion around me. Then I held it up under the light to examine it.

And there it was. That silvery shimmer I’d seen in Addy’s blood. The very same shimmer that could be found in my own, and Libby’s.

Both of them had been injected with nanites, straight into their bone marrow. More than likely directly into their bloodstream as well, if it was already presenting there.

‘So we’ve got good news and we’ve got bad news. Which would you like first?’ I asked the room.

‘Bad. Just get it out of the way,’ said Cadmus. No one disputed him.

‘Okay, so they’ve been injected with nanotechnology. I don’t know what their nanites have been programmed to do, exactly. It’s different each time, and they can be reprogrammed if done so regularly. The bad news is that they’re in a lot of pain right now and it will last for quite some time.’

‘You…?’ Dorian asked tentatively. He didn’t need to finish his question for me to understand, and I nodded grimly.

‘The good news?’ asked Urman, staring at Adara across the room with an expression of pure horror. I guessed he was the one who had dry-heaved at the sight of them, his sickly, pale green pallor giving him away.

‘The good news is that the nanites have most likely been programmed to heal their hosts. It will be a long process for the nanites to settle into their roles, but both Reece and Adara will begin to heal soon. Andfast.’

‘What does that mean, exactly?’ asked Henrik, the prospect of advanced healing capabilities bringing forth his curiosity.

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