2026-08-13 20:30:34
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Chapter 207
Ray did not stop to rest. He left Miami with thirty fighters and drove straight for Kansas, with Jane in the passenger seat and the First's note folded in his pocket.On the second night, they hit a roadblock. Wolfe's men had set it up near a river crossing. Twelve soldiers, two trucks, one mounted gun."Stay low," Ray said. "I'll take the gunner."He reached out and touched the man's mind, just enough to make his hands slip. The gun swung wildly into the trucks. In the confusion, Jane's team went in and finished it in under four minutes.Nobody on Ray's side was hurt. Jane looked at him strangely as she wiped her knife."That is the fourth fight in a row we won without losses," she said. "People are starting to talk.""Let them talk," Ray said. "Drive."They reached Kansas at dawn on the third day. Ray had expected the worst. He had pictured burning walls and bodies in the road.What he found was worse. Nothing was wrong at all.The gates were closed. The walls were manned. Smoke
Chapter 206 - Fire Turned Around
Ray left Kansas an hour after Ruiz's call. He took forty of his best fighters, Jane, Corran, Nichole, and Mara's portable radio kit. His father stayed behind to guard the camp and the two hundred sleeping bodies in the big tent."Three days," his father said at the gate. "The First gave you three days.""I know," Ray said. "Wolfe gave me less."They drove through the night and reached Miami at noon. The city looked tired. Every street had a barricade, and every barricade had a nervous face behind it. Ruiz met them at the stadium gates with dark circles under his eyes."They're still out," he said. "Nine hundred people, lying on the grass. Doctors say they're fine. They just won't wake up."Ray looked through the gate at the rows of sleeping bodies. He felt the First's cold will sitting inside every one of them, quiet but alive, like a coal under ash."How far is Wolfe's army?" Ray asked."Two days. The trucks are slow, and they keep stopping to burn farms along the way. They want us
Chapter 205 - The Signal
Ray did not wait for the radio to finish crackling. He grabbed Priya by the arm and pulled her toward the door."How many people in Kansas took the new batch?""I don't know," Priya said. "Wilson handled the Miami shipment himself. But we gave doses here too. Maybe two hundred in the last nine days.""Get me the list. Everyone. Now."Jane was already at the gate, shouting for the guards to seal it. Mara ran up with a clipboard, her hair wild."I have the names," she said. "Priya's logs, plus the intake sheets. Two hundred and eleven."Ray scanned the page. Some names he knew well. Teo was on it. So was Osei's sister's guardian. So were four of the guards standing at the wall right now."Don't let anyone panic," Ray said. "Quietly pull each one aside. Say it's a routine check. Keep them separate from the others.""And if the signal comes?" Jane asked.Ray looked at the page again. "Then we find out what it does."It came twenty minutes later.Ray felt it before anyone saw it. Across th
Chapter 204 - The Mother Who Fought Back
Ray reached the research tent in under a minute. The lantern inside was still burning, and Alex Wilson's chair was pushed back from the table as if he had left in a hurry."Priya!" Ray shouted.She came running from the clinic with Jane behind her. Ray pointed at the empty chair."Where is he?""He was here an hour ago," Priya said. "He said he wanted to double-check the new batch for Miami."Ray's stomach dropped. "What batch?"Priya ran to the cold storage crate and threw the lid open. Rows of vials sat in neat lines, all labeled in Wilson's careful handwriting. She pulled one out and held it to the lantern."The color is wrong," she said. "It's too dark.""Can you test it?""Not fast enough." Her hands began to shake. "Ray, these were packed for Ruiz this morning. The truck left at noon."Jane swore. "Then Wilson's been in here for weeks, doing whatever he wanted.""Find him," Ray said. "Now."*****He closed his eyes and reached out with his awareness. Camp after camp of faces mov
Chapter 203 - The Other Mother
Ray threw himself sideways as the stage eleven swung. Its fist hit the stair rail and tore it off the wall. Wood and metal flew everywhere."Back! Back down!" Jane shouted, firing into the dust.Four Zeds walked out of the smoke in a slow line, all with the same face and the same calm smile. One of them raised a pistol and shot the fighter next to Corran. The man dropped without a sound."Fall back to the tunnel!" Corran yelled.Ray did not move. The woman in the dark uniform was still standing at the top of the stairs, and the stage eleven had turned toward her. She stood in front of it without fear."Stop," she said.The huge infected froze, one fist raised.All four Zeds stopped smiling."What are you doing?" they said together."Something I should have done in Kansas," she said. She looked down at Ray. "Do you still want the name? Then take my hand."Ray did not stop to think. He ran up the broken stairs, grabbed her wrist, and pulled. She came with him easily, as if she had been
Chapter 202 - The Copy
Ray did not sleep. By dawn he had a plan, and by noon he had told only three people: Jane, his father, and Corran."The clone is in Washington," Ray said. "She stood right behind Wolfe. That means she's close to him and she's valuable. If we take her, we learn how the cloning works. Maybe we learn how to stop it.""It's a suicide run," Jane said. "Washington is full of stage nines and tens.""Not all of it," Corran said. "The White House has a service tunnel. I used it twice when I worked for Wolfe."They left that night with eight fighters. Ray's mother begged to come, but Priya refused to let her out of bed. Before he left, she grabbed Ray's wrist."She has my face, but she isn't me," she said. "Don't hesitate. She won't.""I know," Ray said.Eli stood at the gate in a blanket, watching them go. Ray crouched in front of him."Stay close to Dani. Don't talk to anyone you don't know."Eli nodded. "Be careful."The trip east took three days. They traveled by night, avoiding roads, pass
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