The Murder Complex by Cummings Lindsay

Author:Cummings, Lindsay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greenwillow Books

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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CHAPTER 43

MEADOW

My mother. Me.

They are talking about us.

My mind is racing. Lark Woodson was a nobody. An engineer who worked on the Initiative’s boats during the day and spent her nights locked in the bottom of our own. A woman who was murdered on the street, like so many others.

But my father said she was someone. Someone dangerous. Someone whose face is nearly identical to mine, whose blood runs in my veins, and because of her, I will never be completely safe. Because of my mother, I will always be watched. I shove my fist into my mouth and bite down so I don’t scream. So I don’t start banging on the sides of the crate.

It’s Patient Zero, sir. It . . . well . . . he hasn’t quite reached his daily goal yet. Daily goal. What is his daily goal? And the Commander’s voice. Urgent. Demanding. Who was the target? And who did he go after instead?

Lark Woodson’s daughter. Me. But I am a nobody. Just like my mother. Why would I be someone to be concerned about?

I heard his gasp when the tallies froze, saw his pad clatter to the ground when my mother’s name was mentioned. When I was mentioned.

I lean back to the hole now and press my eye to it. The pad still sits on the floor. On the screen, I see The Murder Complex. Patient Zero.

Six digits. There are other words and notations I don’t have time to read before the Commander bends down and scoops it up.

“Shut him down,” he says with a sigh. “He’s stronger than us now.”

“Sir?” the woman says, as if she did not hear his words right. “We could bring him back in for a routine check, I’m sure there’s a way to fix him— . . . ”

“Just do it!” He screams. “Take him out!” His voice echoes. He stomps away and the woman begins giving her shaky commands to the scientists.

“We’ll have to do it manually,” a man with glasses says. “The Creator won’t cooperate with us for an automatic shutdown. Especially not with him.”

“He won’t come easy,” says someone I can’t see. “He’s smarter than that. He may have figured it all out by now.”

“No one has figured anything out!” the woman says. She’s pacing. “Do whatever it takes. Bring Zero in, or kill him, whatever you want to do. He’s not fixable, not without the right codes. But the girl . . . bring her in. Alive. I want to know why that girl’s in our system. And how.”

And suddenly I realize why my heart has started to race and the sweat has begun to slip down my spine. I don’t know what I’d rather do: burst into tears or laugh. Because it all makes sense now.

Six digits. Patient Zero has the same Catalogue Number as Zephyr James.

Patient Zero is Zephyr James.

He went after me. I am the girl he should not have gone after, the girl somehow in their system, whatever that means.

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