Avenged (Altered #2)(15)

The older man made the place small, both physically and emotionally.

Not that Luke didn’t like Parker well enough. He was a smart guy, and like Luke and Jack, he’d lived though Dr. Fields’s experiments in their hometown of Glory. They were connected, bonded over a shared experience of shit.

But Parker’s philosophies… They could be eccentric. Like, conspiracy theory eccentric.

Oh, well. It wasn’t as if they would turn him out. They were in this together.

Outside the window, the moon had risen over the Mexican coast, shining off the water and making the white sands glow. It had to be nearly midnight, and Luke should be in bed. Instead, he stared at the computer screen.

The chemical components of Solvimine twisted on the screen in front of him.

God, if he’d only studied chemistry or biochemistry in school. Or really any kind of science other than computer science. It would have saved him the past few months of intensive chemistry study. Instead, he’d had to give himself a crash course in it, reading everything he could download, including a virtual stack of college-level textbooks on his Kindle.

Apparently, along with his ability to move things with his mind, he’d also gained the ability to speed-read. He could consume a four-hundred page paperback in less than an hour. Another perk of being special around here.

Whatever. If it helped him do what needed to be done, then he’d accept this bonus gift happily. Because as far as he knew, he was the only one outside of Dr. Fields’s research group that had access to Solvimine.

It was up to him to find a cure.

Except, there was no cure, as far as he could tell. The drug caused irreversible changes to the brain, the creation of extensive neural pathways where they hadn’t been before. From his extensive reading into electrophysiology, once the body knew how to create new pathways, it had a hard time unlearning the ability.

Sort of like riding a bicycle.

If his conclusions were correct, it wouldn’t matter if he figured out the entire makeup of the drug. What had been done couldn’t be undone.

At least, it couldn’t be undone through further study of Solvimine. They would need a new drug. Something to block pathways…or destroy them. While he had a huge intellect and the ability to read and decipher material in an instant, he didn’t know much yet about drug synthesis.

Seemed he had a new path of study to trip down. Yippee.

He pushed back from the desk and ran his hands over his face. He’d need another run tonight, it seemed, if he intended to sleep.

He’d started running soon after he and Jack had arrived in Mexico. He’d had to. He hadn’t been able to sleep. The soldier he’d killed in La Junta haunted him. Every time he closed his eyes, Luke saw him, hanging outside that hotel window, his face full of horror and confusion.

So he’d jogged, hoping he could outrun the images. Or, if that didn’t work, at least his body would be so tired that he’d have to sleep.

At first, the short jogs worked. But before long, he’d had to go farther, faster, longer if he wanted any reprieve at night.

Now he’d moved to taking two runs a day.

It was during one of those first jogs that he’d decided that he needed to work with Solvimine. If he could find a cure, maybe he could undo some of the damage that had been done since Dr. Fields decided to turn them into case studies.

Parker had a couple of vials of the drug. He’d overheard him talking to Jack about it, saying he got them from spending some time with Fields. But when Luke pressed him about it, Parker had closed off, only smiling. All he said was, “Brilliant man, Fields. We only differ on the ultimate goal.”

Luke had no idea what the hell that meant, but it creeped him out.

When he’d asked to study the drug, Parker had agreed, saying that the amount wasn’t enough for his plan anyway. Luke didn’t know what Parker’s plans were, exactly, but if they involved large quantities of Solvimine, they probably weren’t going to be good for anyone. Luckily, Parker didn’t have large quantities of Solvimine. But if Luke knew anything about the old man, he’d bet he was working out a plan to rectify that.

“Yes. I am.”

Luke closed his eyes. Parker. He’d overheard him. That hearing people’s thoughts gift must be useful sometimes.

“It is.” Parker joined him, leaning on the desk beside him, his arms folded over his chest. “You’re trying to find a ‘cure’”—he made air quotes—“for Solvimine.” He shook his gray head. “But there is no cure, Luke. Can’t you see? This isn’t a disease. It isn’t something that we’ve ‘caught.’” Again with the quotations. “We’ve become our best selves. The selves we are meant to be.”

Luke gritted his teeth. He’d heard some variation of this argument many times over the past weeks. It had become Parker’s gospel. “No, Parker. If this was who we were meant to be, we wouldn’t have needed a drug to make us this way. We’ve been…modified. Like GMOs.”

“No. We’ve been improved. We’ve been given the gift of our full potential. This isn’t a problem, Luke. It’s a solution.”

“It doesn’t feel like a solution.” Luke leaned back in his chair. He glanced around the dingy two-bedroom apartment they were renting. “Look around you. This apartment, this life. This is no solution. We’re in hiding. We can’t return to the United States because we’re afraid we’ll be captured and poked at like lab rats. Like they’re probably doing to Kitty now.” Blue had emailed him after she and Seth had left San Antonio, explaining that Kitty had been taken by Goldstone and they couldn’t find her.