Page 62 of Captured Immune

Because I fucking was.

Katie’s words are making my knees weak. I’m not sure if I should believe her or demand proof. We don’t have time for that though. Also, something she said is rubbing me the wrong way.

“What do you mean by ‘Victor’s infatuation theory’?”

“You really haven’t figured it out yet?” Katie pauses to look at me. I make my fireball bigger just so she can see myI don’t have a cluelook. She rolls her eyes at me like I’m an idiot. I feel like one. “Many, many years ago, ZIRDA discovered that some rare Ordinaries are immune to our gifts. As a research and development agency, naturally, they brought in these Immunes to analyze. The Immunes were told they were part of a top-secret medical study led by the government, and they were even paid for their services. Ya know, normal ZIRDA stuff.”

This is information I’ve known. I let Katie continue anyway.

“Eventually, the Royals found out about the Immunes too. They began kidnapping the Immunes from ZIRDA to try to weaponize them. I’ve estimated that at least five have died from Victor’s brutal tests over the last nineteen years. With the last three Immunes he found, yours included, he’s been trying out hisloveorinfatuationtheory. He thinks with the right stakes on the line, he can get an Immune to project their immunity onto someone else.

“Since kidnapping Immunes and torturing their families in front of them would give away his cover, he came up with this plan to plant a Royal into the Immunes’ lives. The Royal would get the Immune to fall in love with them. Then Victor would arrange their kidnappings to make the Immune think they were both in danger.

“Once here, he’d have some agents torture the Royals the way he did with you. The rest of ZIRDA wouldn’t think it’s suspicious because it’s one of our agents getting hurt. Because you know, it’s okay to torture our own people if it’s for the greater good.” Katie rolls her eyes and huffs.

“Anyway, Victor’s plan failed. The two previous Immunes he tried the love theory on never developed strong enough feelings. The last Immune got close, but once he found out the woman he loved never loved him back, he could no longer project his immunity onto her.

“So, Victor needed someone to play the lover part who didn’t know his end game. He needed someone who could take on this mission and develop the feelings back to make the infatuation stronger.”

I blow out a breath as the weight of the world comes crashing onto my shoulders. “And that’s where I come in.”

“Yep. You were the perfect guy for Victor to use. Single, good-looking, around the same age as the Immune, and you even live in the same area. Over the last few weeks, he’s been running tests on you to see if you’ve developed the infatuation he wanted you to. I process most of the mission notes that Victor receives from our field agents. One of the notes came from an agent Victor has stationed at a hospital in LA named David Jordan.”

That’s the zoctor I spoke to after Arella was in the car accident Victor caused. Is that doctor actually a ZIRDA agent or is he a Royal?

Katie continues, “David Jordan’s note included some MRI results and a paragraph about your reaction to finding out that she’d been hurt. Once Victor knew that you were ‘visibly distraught,’ he was ready to move on to the next phase of his plan: getting you here with her. That’s when Victor assigned me my first on-base mission. He said that she’d arrive within the week, but she never did.

“For the next month, Victor had plans to send agents out to nab her three times. Each time, you must have said something to make him put it off, which only excited him more. It further confirmed that you had real feelings for her. I think he allowed you to put it off because he wanted you to continue falling for her, with hopes that a deeper connection would yield better results. Something must have happened between you and the Immune last week, because all of a sudden, Victor wrote up mission plans to get you here immediately.”

I know exactly what happened. Victor must have found out that Arella and I broke up, and decided he needed to get us here before our feelings faded. But how did he know? Did he have someone watching us?

“I hate to say it,” Katie says, “but Victor’s infatuation theory worked. He’s had the most success getting your Immune to project onto?—”

I slap a hand over Katie’s mouth, then I squeeze my fireball out. She doesn’t protest. A few seconds later, the two people I sensed coming down the hall stroll past our supply closet.

“You wanna join me in the Artificial Sunlight room tonight?” a woman asks.

“Ya know,” a man says, “I’ve worked here for almost ten years, and I’ve never been in that room. What’s it like?”

“Seriously, Mark? It’s like a beach vacation in there. And if you’ve got the room to yourself, it’s like you’re on your own private island where the sun is always shining.”

The rest of their conversation trails off as they turn the corner toward the elevators. I take my hand off Katie’s mouth, and she breathes again. My fireball returns to my hand with a burst of heat and light.

I speak first. “How can I get Arella outta here safely?”

“You must have had some type of plan already cooking in your head. What was it?”

I scratch the back of my neck. “Um, I was just gonna sneak her out of her room.”

“How were you going to unlock her handcuffs?”

“Easy. I’m a Kinetic. I can wave at almost any lock to open it.”

“Okay. How were you going to get past the Hulk?”

“Um, I dunno. Maybe I’d tell him that Victor sent me to take her down to the battle box alone.”

Katie narrows her eyes at me and cocks her head to the side. “What if I was in the room?”

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