Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (reading list txt) 📗

I bit my tongue to keep from glaring at him and nodded instead.

“I found your project with the printed tokens. Very nice touch. Let’s get this going, shall we?”

I nodded again and proceeded down the corridor towards my quarters. On the way, I asked if anyone would volunteer to read out the names of individuals and families. Yes, even children. Anyone over the age of twelve. Younger children couldn’t be counted on to understand what they were voting for. A young woman identified herself from the assembled and sat at the terminal. I excused myself then to wait until my own name was called. As I walked, I was dimly aware of Gabriel following me, but he never made a move to confront me again. Perhaps he was keeping an eye on me. For what? To ensure that I didn’t rush into the mess hall and discard all the tokens for his name? I ignored him and shut the door to my room.

I counted to five and slammed my fists into the wall. The concrete reflected the force back through my arms, but I held them still and let loose the rage and anguish that had been building inside of me. I didn’t care if Gabriel was listening outside; it didn’t matter anymore. There was nothing he could do to me that I hadn’t already done to myself. There was a perverse relief in knowing that just a few brief hours separated me from relinquishing this burden. When Gabriel was elected, I would be the first one walking into a hibernation pod. Gladly.

The minutes passed into hours. Finally, my name was called. I donned the gown and mask they had provided me. The mess was cleared out except for two people standing behind the rod and token system. I picked up the token indicating a vote for myself and placed it on the according rod. Neither attendant spoke a word to me, only nodding when I had placed my token. The piles were closely matched. Too closely matched for my comfort. I turned and returned to my quarters to wait for the final tally. I paced around the little square of space I had allotted to me, and the thoughts of the previous night returned. When Gabriel won, I was certain that I would suffer an unfortunate accident soon after. There was no place for me here, not after the upheaval I had caused.

A knock sounded on my door and I opened it, expecting to see one of the impartial people chosen to count the votes. Instead, I found Sophia Caruso.

“It’s Daisy. She lost consciousness while we were waiting for the call to vote. They’ve got her in the infirmary. Jacob, please. What’s going on?”

“It’s a respiratory virus. So far we’ve lost two. Neither of them were children.”

“Fuck Jacob, why the hell didn’t you come straight to me?”

“Sophia, I haven’t time to hit the bathroom since I found out.” I knew as the words left my mouth that I had just made a huge mistake.

“That’s cold, Jacob. Even from you.”

“Yes. I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now.”

Sophia didn’t reply. No one could ever fully comprehend the horror of a mother in danger of losing her children. The best I could do in the moment was to try to save everyone else. “We need to quarantine, Sophia.”

“If it’s airborne, you’re too late. You might as well triage the patients as they come in.”

“We don’t even know what it is yet. I’d rather quarantine and maybe save a few more people. I know this is too much to ask, but will you help me?”

She pursed her lips. “All right. But you need to let me fill in my family, first. Is the infirmary set up for a quarantine?”

“We don’t have the space.”

“Sounds like you had some warning after all.” I cringed at that. “What is your suggestion, then?”

“Keep everyone in their quarters. I’ve got a few days’ worth of camera footage to go through. In addition to quarantine, I think I should do as much contact tracing as possible. If we can get in front of this at all, it’ll help to preemptively identify and treat.”

“And the vote?” She had a point. The news of quarantine couldn’t arrive at a worse time. Any voting that had been done could well be thrown out the window if enough people blamed me.

“We still have to honor the results. If George won, this is all his problem.”

I bade her goodbye and ventured out of my room to assess the situation. I was met with a scene of chaos. Staying put temporarily had gone well enough, but with the news of the virus panic broke out. Crowds roamed the corridors, voices competing to be the loudest. It didn’t matter who spoke over the others; the questions were the same.

“What’s going on?”

“Are we all going to die?”

“Where the hell is Jacob Alvaro? Why weren’t we told about this before?”

I hid myself behind a corner before the crowds could spot me. Forget any notion of contact tracing. The entire shelter was now a hot zone. I turned to leave and smacked into a massive chest. Gabriel pushed me away by the shoulders and held me in place, an insane grin on his face.

“Well done, Jacob. I’ve got to hand it to you. You’ve taken the possibilities for fucking up and just taken them to a new level! The vote is almost superfluous now. There’s no way these people are going to trust you with their lives.” The tattoos on his neck danced as his smile grew. “Maybe I’ll just take care of it for them. After all, no one knows you’re out here, right?”

I was getting too predictable in my old age. “Sure, Gabriel. You can murder me if you’d like. God knows that in that body I don’t stand a chance against you. It’ll probably be like breaking a twig when you snap my neck. Two