Free Inhuman by Kat Falls Page B

which has a symptomatic stage that can last decades before dementia finally sets in.”
    After a moment of scrounging through boxes on the shelves, he found an inhaler and gave it a dreamy smile. “Anyway, Mack tells me that in the past year, no one in Moline has progressed to the final stage. I’d like to think it’s because of the inhibitor he’s been taking them, but who knows?” Squeezing the inhaler, the doctor sucked in the Lull and, surprisingly, he seemed to straighten up. Guess the drug didn’t work very well on him. “You needn’t worry, Delaney. Your father will lie low for a while and then come back to check that the coast is clear, which it is.”
    “It isn’t,” I said, feeling a throb in my temples. “The biohazard agents are after him. They recorded him breaking quarantine.”
    Dr. Solis’s gaze sharpened despite the Lull in his system.
    “Have you seen the recording?” he asked. “You know for a fact that it exists?”
    I nodded. “Where is Moline?” What I really wanted to know was just how far my father had ventured into the Feral Zone. Stuffing the cap into my back pocket, I took out my dad’s map and spread it across the desk. “Show me?”
    Why was I bothering with this? Spurling’s orders were to come right back if I couldn’t find my dad. Still, I watched as Dr. Solis pointed to a spot on the map — a city, which had been circled in dark ink.
    “It’s directly across the river,” he said. “Just off the northeastern tip of the island. There used to be a bridge there, back in the day, but not now.”
    I touched the tiny line that was the last and only bridge across the Mississippi. Like the bridge that I’d crossed to get from the west bank onto Arsenal, the last bridge to the Feral Zone was on the south end of the island. “How big is Arsenal?”
    “A thousand acres.”
    “I mean from end to end.”
    “A little over three miles.” He sank into the chair behind his desk. “Are they threatening execution?”
    “Yes,” I said softly.
    The doctor dragged his hand down his face. “Mack knew that it might come to this — that something could happen, making it impossible for him to return west.”
    “Why didn’t he warn me about that possibility or tell me that he’s a fetch or mention anything about any of this ever ?” It came out harsher than I’d intended.
    “If it helps, Mack goes around that issue all the time. It always comes down to the lie detector test.”
    “What?”
    “The one they’ll give you if he’s caught. They’re very good now, those tests. Accurate ninety-nine percent of the time. A person’s body gives him away with the tiniest release of chemicals. If that test revealed that you knew your father was crossing the quarantine line, you’d be condemned as a traitor and executed alongside him.”
    “Oh.” The vision I had of my dad being shot by a firing squad … He must have had a similar one of me — one that had played in his mind for years. For the first time since the jumpsuits had hauled me out of Orlando’s party, I felt my guts unknot a bit. Now my father’s silence made sense. If I only could talk to him and tell him about Director Spurling’s offer, then he could put aside that worry.
    “How can I get a message to him?” I asked Dr. Solis.
    “You can’t. All we can do is wait for Mack to come out of hiding.”
    “Wait?” I didn’t have time for that. Correction, my dad didn’t.
    “You’re welcome to stay, like Everson, like me,” the doctor murmured. “Stay because of a parent.”
    What was he talking about?
    “Like you, I’m here for my father.”
    Dr. Solis looked old enough to be my grandfather. Could his father even be alive? “Is he living in the Feral Zone?”
    “No, no, he died many years ago. He was a doctor too.” Dr. Solis sank lower in his chair. “He left Cuba the year he finished medical school. He had to go; to stay meant death. But for the rest of his life, my father thought about his