The Complication (The Program #6)(96)

Sloane and I help Realm out of the back, while James rests his palm against the SUV, gathering his strength. I’m alarmed at how quickly he’s deteriorating. This is faster than how it happens to returners. It’s not the typical crashback—this is a system-wide shutdown.

We all get to the porch, and Realm rests against the railing with James, Wes standing with them, a little helpless in his sling. Sloane and I wait together at the screen door, and Sloane rings the doorbell.

There’s no immediate response, and Sloane and I turn to each other before she sighs. In the humid night, her hair has become unruly, wild and curly with a layer of frizz. She pulls it over one shoulder, twisting it to keep it out of her face, and then takes a step back to glance up at the second-story window, where a light is burning.

“James,” Sloane asks. “Any chance you’re up for scaling a wall?”

“Anything for you, baby,” he responds easily, although he doesn’t move. Sloane smiles, then opens the screen door and begins to knock loudly on the wood, eventually closing her fist and pounding.

There is a click of an inside light, and then the quiet padding of feet on stairs. Sloane lowers her arm, and I move closer to her, both of us prepared to confront Marie and beg for her help.

The handle turns, and the door opens. Marie is haggard, her face devoid of makeup, her sweatshirt stretched out at the collar. I’ve never seen her disheveled like this. Sloane sweeps her eyes over Marie and then nods to her. I’m not sure how well they know each other.

Marie smiles weakly at me and then takes a step onto the porch and looks sideways to where Realm and James are against the house. Realm holds up his hand in a wave, pathetic.

“I figured,” Marie says to him. “The Treatment is speeding up your decline.”

She moves back and holds open the door, telling us to come inside. We all file in and start up the stairs toward her apartment. When Marie closes and locks the door behind us, she says in an exhausted voice, “I’m not alone.”

Wes is beside me as Sloane and James help Realm up the stairs. We don’t make it to the top before the door opens. I nearly trip when I find the monitor, Dr. Wyatt, standing there, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Holy shit,” Wes says, moving in front of me protectively. “What the hell’s going on, Marie?” he calls back to her.

Sloane doesn’t stop moving, though. She continues to work Realm up the stairs, pushing past Dr. Wyatt to get him inside, James following behind them. The monitor watches them but then turns back to Wes.

“Nice to see you again, Mr. Ambrose,” she says coldly. “Seems you know more than you let on.”

“Let them pass, Angela,” Marie asserts from the door. Dr. Wyatt stares down at her and eventually steps aside.

Dr. Wyatt studies us, studies Wes’s shoulder like it’s evidence of our recklessness. Yeah, well—adults did this damage.

Sloane dumps Realm into an oversize chair in the corner of the room and then goes to join James on the couch. I pause in the doorway with Wes, exhausted, scared, and hungry. But judging by the room, I’m better off than most.

James leans to whisper something into Sloane’s ear, and she looks worriedly over at Realm. For his part, James seems unfazed. Strong. If I hadn’t seen his actual concern earlier, I wouldn’t think he had any. He’s a skilled liar, and I suddenly understand how he and Realm are such good friends.

Marie and Dr. Wyatt both come into the room, and Wes and I move to the side. My heart is racing. I have no idea how these two ended up here together. I’m not the only one.

“Well?” Wes demands, glaring at Marie. “I’ll be honest and say I don’t know you, but I know her.” He motions to Dr. Wyatt. “She’s not on our side.”

Dr. Wyatt’s normally stoic expression falters. “You’re wrong,” she says. “We’re fighting for the same thing. I’m just not as irresponsible as you.”

“Oh, come on—” Wes is getting angry, but when he moves, it must tug on his shoulder and he winces. He looks away as if to disguise the pain, but Dr. Wyatt smiles like he proved her point.

“Why are you here?” I ask her. “Why can’t you just leave us alone?”

“Angela is here to shut down the Adjustment. For good,” Marie says. “She’s against memory manipulation, but she’s proposing a new system, one that will put you back into a facility for returners. She deems all returners a danger to society. So despite her beliefs, she’s decided a complete reset is the only option left. It’s the only one that’s worked. She wants to save your lives, but she plans to do it by erasing them.”

“Over my dead body,” James says. “Because no offense, Angela, or whoever the fuck you are, but none of us are going back to The Program.”

He sounds so sure of this that it actually gives me a ray of hope. James may be heading toward a crashback, but he shows no signs of it when we’re all being threatened.

“It’s not The Program,” Dr. Wyatt says. “It’s to save your lives.”

“And I told you,” Marie replies tersely. “I have the cure.”

Dr. Wyatt exhales heavily. “You’ve said that before, and it’s never worked, Marie. Why now? And how without McKee?”

“Because Marie has always been the brains,” Realm says, his head back against the seat, his face slack and tired. Unlike James, he can’t hide how sick he is. “She’s done more to find this cure than anyone. More than you, or The Program, or any other doctor. If she says she has the cure, then I believe her,” he says. “And excuse me for saying this, Angela, but if your daughter were alive today, you’d want it for her, too. You wouldn’t want her reset.”