"You're really going to do this without Sasha or Amari?" Ryan asks as I slip my boots on.

"Without anyone," I say, as Augustus is sinking deeper into my mind. I'd hoped they'd stay until I reached the warehouse again, but they don't want to risk it.

Ryan wrings his hands together. "What if something goes wrong? Even if Singh did move her troops from the warehouse, it won't take her long to figure out what's going on."

"I'll be in and out before she even knows what's happened. I'll find Dion and his daughter before anyone knows I'm even there."

He grabs my shoulder and I look up at him. His eyes are wide and round. "How are you so sure nothing is going to happen? I can't stop thinking she's going to know what happened. Maybe you shouldn't go."

"How would she know?" I stand, inches from him. "You're the only one I've told about this." He doesn't need to know I told Tarak too.

Ryan gulps. "The... the only one? Surely, that's not true. What if you need backup?"

"I won't," I assure him. I open the window and sling my leg out.

"Mason," Ryan cries. He grabs my upper arm, each finger digging in hard to my skin. "Don't do this. Don't go. Please. I don't want to lose another Hunter."

I grab his wrist and force his hand off my arm. "Your Hunter died for noble reasons and if I die, it'll be for the same reasons. Singh must be stopped. I made a promise to Dion and his daughter that they would be safe again. You have to understand."

"No, I don't," he whispers. "I don't understand why I have to lose everything for the world to be safe."

In my mind, I see an image of his large family and wonder what he's lost other than one Hunter. But then I feel guilty for thinking it and wish August was here to berate me. Losing my parents doesn't mean Ryan's had it any better than me. My grip loosens on his wrist and I force my expression to soften. "I'll be alright, Ryan. But I'll lose myself if I sit by and do nothing."

He lets out a sigh that's almost as exhausted as one of Augustus's. "I guess I do understand," he rasps. He steps toward me and presses his lips to my cheek. His eyes are sealed tight when he pulls away. "Come back safe. For me."

"I promise," I say, a lump forming in my throat. I'm out of the window before he can say anything else.

It's not like I did anything wrong, so I don't know why a guilt is spreading through me like wildfire. I just imagine Tarak looking at me and the aftermath of Ryan's lips lighting up like a beacon on my cheek. I imagine Tarak hurt and jealous. Even if we've never been together, I'd never even looked at someone else before Tarak. No one else ever made me feel the way he has.

After being discarded by his family for so long, I can't imagine how he'd feel if he thought I cared for someone over him. Once again, I wish Augustus would surface in my mind, if only to tell me I'm being silly.

But Augustus stays burrowed deep in the recesses of my mind as a bus carries me across town.

The bus driver, who had been watching me in the mirror the whole time, scans the dark streets when I pull the cord. "Here, kid? You sure?"

A simple, 'Hunter business' could get him off my back if I had a Protector with me. But I'm alone, which would only raise suspicion.

I offer a small smile. "Thanks for the concern, but I'm meeting a friend."

His expression says he wasn't concerned for me.

I slip off the bus without another word.

The warehouse looks much more foreboding at night. It sends shivers down my spine and I nearly call on Augustus before I steady myself. I have to remember how disoriented they felt in my mind when we were here before. I have to do this on my own.

As I imagined, all the doors I find are locked and I have to dart away several times to avoid patrols. There hadn't been patrols when I came here in the daytime and I try not to let my anxiety get the best of me. Maybe they heighten security at nighttime. Maybe... Maybe they got a high-priority target here that they're protecting now. There are a million reasons security would be higher now than it was.

Ryan had insisted on meeting with Singh in person, so he could gauge if she believed him or not.

I'd been wary about it, but I'd let myself trust him, if only for a moment. I try to imagine what Augustus would say in this moment. With panic crawling up our throat and dark clouds rolling into our mind. But I'm too caught up trying to stay in the shadows to think clearly enough.

First, they might tell me to take a breath.

I get my back against a brick wall, listening for footsteps as I inhale deeply. Even if Ryan betrayed me... My mission hasn't changed. Dion and Daisy are still inside. Singh wouldn't have had time to move them since Ryan ratted me out. I can still make this work.

The next patrol that comes my way I knock out in seconds.

I slip into the taller one's uniform and grab the keys out of the other's pocket. After that, getting inside is as easy as finding the right key and slipping into the first door I find. There's no one in the halls and the room I enter is a small storage closet with a vent. The horrible image of me crashing out of an air duct plays across my eyelids, but I take the risk.

I lose track of how far I crawl before I hear the first signs of life. A small groan and a harsh laugh. I crawl to a vent peering down into a room with a glass door – like a zoo's cage, but smaller.

The one who laughed is a man in a white lab coat squatting next to a little girl.

Half her dark hair is in a braid, while the other half is loose, partially shaved to accommodate something pierced into her skin near the temple. She whimpers again, reaching for it.

The man in the lab coat slaps her hand away with a snort. "She never learns, does she?"

A woman peers over a clip board, almost like she's bored. "Are you done playing around yet? We've got ten more rooms to get through before we leave and unlike you, I have a life."

The man rolls his eyes and stands to his full height. "A life? What, drinking wine with your three cats?"

"Two cats," she says, dryly. "Have you even checked her vitals yet?"

"You do it. I'll get started on the next guy and we'll be out of here twice as fast."

She catches his arm before he can leave the room. "As if. Last time, you went to bum a smoke and left me with everything. You're staying right where I can see you." She kneels at the little girl's side and reaches for her. "I need you to lay still, sweetie. This'll be over before you know it."

The girl cringes away from the woman's hand, baring her teeth. "No more," she pleads. "I want to go home."

The man snorts, "kid thinks she's got a home."

The woman seizes the girl's wrist. "Once we're done with you... you'll get to rest," she promises.

"NO!" the girl wails, jerking against the woman's tight grasp. "Leave me alone!"

"I can't do that," says the woman, through gritted teeth. "Lay still!"

The girl's brown eyes flare golden-yellow with slitted pupils like a cat's. She hisses and slams her hand towards the woman's chest.

The woman jerks back, four slash marks bleeding through her lab coat. She inhales sharply and reaches for the blood.

"We've got another rabid one!" the man shouts and hits the plexiglass. "You alright?" he asks, reaching for the woman. "Don't worry, the guards will put her in her place."

My heart leaps into my throat and I nearly slam my head into the top of the air shaft trying to get up so quick.

Instead of answering, the woman jolts and jerks, slamming into the wall.

"Shit!" the man shouts, reaching for a gun. He points it at the woman. "C'mon, you can fight it."

Her eyes roll up in her head and she collapses to the floor, white foam dripping out of her mouth.

The guards that come bursting in hesitate when they see her body.

"Get her to a medic," the man in the lab coat snarls. "I'll handle our little friend."

The guards only hesitate for a second longer before snatching the woman off the floor and disappearing.

The man seizes the little girl by the front of her hospital gown and drags her up and off her feet. "Look what you did!"

Her head slumps forward and her shoulders tremble. "I'm sorry," she sobs. "I just want to go home."

The man brings his gun out and presses it to her chin. "This is your home now."

I slam the vent open and throw myself from it.

The man shouts, drops the girl to her feet, and swivels his gun towards me.

I catch his wrist, punch him in the nose hard enough to send him to the ground. I'm still trying to keep an air of secrecy, so I pass his gun and slam my foot into his throat. "Where are Dion and Daisy?"

"Who?"

"One more chance, then you're dead," I snarl, my hands balled into fists.

"Eat a dick."

His neck snaps under my boot.

The girl is staring at him with wide eyes when I turn on her.

"Sorry," I tell her.

She swallows, hard. "You're looking for Daisy?"

I nod.

She forces herself onto shaking legs and points into the hall. "If you can get that open, I know where she is."

"Why would you help me?"

Her arms fold, one over the other, embracing herself as her eyes go to the man – nothing more than a corpse, now. "I owe you one."

I feel like I should ask, but those yellow eyes warn me not to. Instead, I make my way to the door. Even with a Hunter's strength, it doesn't want to budge.

We could get back in the vents, but with the way I burst through it, I doubt it'll close. It'll only be a matter of time before the guards return and find the man's body. There's not that much time to waste.

The girl's shoulders slump. "You can't do it."

I hold up a finger. "Don't doubt me so fast." I back up to the wall.

"You're not the first to try that," she says, gently, like she doesn't want to hurt my feelings.

"That's not going to stop me." I lean down, bracing against the wall. I barrel forward and slam into the door with as much force as I can muster. The door groans, but doesn't open. The wall around it, however, cracks and dust rains down from the ceiling.

I back up again and, this time, the wall crumbles, taking the door with it as it falls into the hallway.

The girl takes me in like I'm weirder than she is. "Did they experiment on you too?"

"I'm sure they'd like to."

"That's not really an answer."

"Not yet, then," I say instead. "C'mon. Take me to Daisy."

The girl pops her head into the hall, then walks over the door I knocked out. "This way," she says, guiding me to the left. "She's been here only a short time, so she's in the newbie wing."

"What's this wing?"

She swallows. "Six months. Or more."

"So, you're infected?" I ask her.

Her eyes slip to the gun I'd taken from the man, situated in my waist band. "No," she says, her voice hard.

"I'm not going to kill you. Even if you are infected."

"Isn't that your job, Hunter?"

"Not tonight."

We nearly walk straight into two other guards before the girl dashes back into my stomach, shoving me back into the hall. She seizes my wrist and I frown at her until my hand turns transparent.

The two guards walk past us without saying anything or even looking in our direction.

When they're gone, she releases me and staggers. She falls to her knees, panting.

"You're a Protector," I tell her.

Her glare threatens to slice me to ribbons. "Maybe once. Until they changed me." She examines her claws with her yellow eyes. "Now, I'm a rabid animal."

"Rabid animals can't reason."

"Helping you isn't reason. It's survival."

I don't tell her I'm not certain of anyone's survival tonight. Instead, I let her continue guiding me through halls until we reach what she deems the "newbie" wing.

There's a lot more crying here than there had been in the girl's wing, almost like the people here still think it means something. It's a lot fuller too.

At my questioning eyes, she explains, "not many survive the change. They just get sick and die. Others..." she gestures at her eyes.

We pass one room that has a person lying on the floor. Blood dribbles down his mouth and onto the floor around him.

I stop, reaching for the door.

The girl catches my wrist. "He'll be up in a few hours... They'll take care of him."

"He's infected?"

"They all are." Her yellow eyes scan the halls. "If you want to get rid of this Daisy soon, we should find her before patrols come. I'm not sure I can make you invisible again."

I yank my hand from hers. "I'm not here to get rid of Daisy or Dion."

"But... they're infected."

"So?"

Her eyes study mine. At least, I think. It's hard to tell where she's looking since her irises fill her entire eyes. She guides me down two more rooms, then freezes. "She's gone."

My eyes snap to the empty room. "What?" I surge towards it, hitting the glass. "You're sure this was her room?"

"The guards walk me past here every day. Your girl Daisy used to be right here."

"Mason?"

My head whips around. Across the hall, Dion is pushing to his feet.

"You came," he wheezes, looking pale and unsteady.

"Don't move," I tell him. "I'm going to get you out of there."

While I set to work on the lock, Dion searches the hall.

"Where's Daisy?" his voice is two words from shattering.

"What's it to you?" the little girl asks.

"She's my daughter. Who are you?"

"I'm Nobody. Don't worry about it."

"Mason, you told me you'd find my daughter. Where is my daughter?" His eyes are looking at me with such hope, I almost throw up.

"Why would someone get moved from here?" I ask the girl.

"Other than being here six months?"

"She hasn't been, so yes."

"Either she's dead or their experiments worked."

"Okay, let's say their experiments worked. Where would they take her?"

She shrugs. "Depends how their experiments worked. We change in different ways. They took me to their lab for further tests."

Dion's door swings open and he steps out.

"Where's the lab?" I ask.

"You want me to take you there?"

"Or give me directions."

She huffs, "it'd be easier for me to tell you to piss off if you were a douche. C'mon. I'll show you."

"I'm not asking you to do that, kiddo."

"Call me kiddo and I'll break your fingers. Just c'mon. The longer we dilly-dally the more likely we are to get caught."

"Where'd you pick this one up?" Dion grumbles as he staggers against me. His skin is warm and lighter than usual.

I drag his arm over my shoulders and we hobble after the girl. "Are you infected?" I ask him.

"I don't know," he admits, in a small voice. "I-I was sedated. Or... I lost time. I'm not sure."

"We'll figure that out later," I assure.

The girl eyes me. "What's there to figure out? Either you shoot him in the head or he eats you. If he's in one of these rooms, he's infected."

"What about you? Are you going to eat me?"

She lifts her chin. "I'm different. I survived the change. I'm not infected."

"He might survive too."

She looks him over like she's seriously doubting that.

I rest Dion against a wall as I peer around a corner. "How far are we from the lab?"

"Not far. Close enough that I'm not going any further."

I nod to her and pass her the keys I'd taken from the first guard I'd knocked out. "If you need somewhere to go once you're out, look for Mason Crane."

Her expression riots as she looks at me again. "Crane?"

"C'mon, Dion." I sling him back onto my shoulder and shuffle us in the direction the girl indicated. When I glance back at her, she's peering around the corner at me, but hasn't moved, her face ashy.

"She's close," Dion grunts, grabbing at his skull.

"Daisy?"

His eyes find mine. "Singh. I can feel her trying to get in my head."

I rest him back against a wall and slip my gun into his hands.

"What are you doing?" he rasps.

I smirk at him. "Exactly what I told you. Getting your daughter and you out of here. Defend yourself if necessary. I'll get Daisy back."

"You can't be serious," he rasps.

"You know how to use a gun," I answer.

"I can't ask you to-."

"She's your daughter," I cut him off. "You don't even have to ask."

He closes his eyes and his grip tightens on the gun as I continue on.

I know where I'm going when I get close, because there's four guards in front of the door.

They don't look surprised to see me and the feeling that had started outside comes back. Ryan betrayed me.

The first two come at me fast, not even hesitating.

I intercept the first, ducking under her fist and tackling her into her partner, who grunts.

They swing at me, but miss as I reel back and they're left scrambling to get their partner's feet under her.

The other guards are watching the fight calmly, as if they don't expect me to win.

I almost roll my eyes. Either they don't know me or Singh is underestimating me.

They'll regret that.

The first two guards recover and come at me again, in sync this time. The woman draws a baton and snaps it at my stomach.

I lurch backwards, avoiding the blow. I draw them back far enough that their fellow guards start bouncing from foot to foot, wondering if they should get closer or not.

"Stop moving!" the woman orders and swings her baton at my face.

My hand jolts up to meet it and I yank her close. I slam my knee into her gut. Twice, in quick succession.

She grunts and sags into me, her face twisting.

"Hey!" the other guard lurches at me, unholstering a taser.

I almost wish they had guns.

They lift the taser, aiming directly for my chest.

I shove the woman away, get a good grip on her arm, and yank her close, her back to mine, just as they fire.

Their face twists and turns purple as their partner spasms and falls to the ground in front of my feet. "No!" As if I don't exist, they dash forward.

I should hesitate before I kick them in the face, but I don't.

They land in a heap next to the woman.

As I step over them, the other two guards are approaching, hands on their weapons. This is a trap. I know that now, but I still intercept the guards halfway. I punch one in the ribs. Sweep my leg under the other's feet. Slam my boot into their head until their eyes roll up. Kick the other in the stomach and bash my head into theirs until their knees give out.

When the door opens into the lab, the place is deserted. All that remains is a bed in the center of the room with a girl on it. At her bedside is a metal table with nothing on top of it but a knife.

Her veins are black and she's thrashing against the restraints holding her down. She screams, but all that comes out are little hisses. When her eyes find me, she bites at the air and lets out a gasping howl.

I become painfully aware of the mirror off to my left and the eyes behind it. Locking my jaw, I approach the girl and the knife.

She's nothing like the girl from the transportation center video or Dion's grainy photos. Her dark, curled hair is matted and coated in blood. Her eyes are bloodshot, sunk deep into her face. She shakes, even when she's not fighting her restraints. The only yellow on her are the bruises up and down her arms and neck.

My fingers are coiling around the knife hilt before I've even decided what I'm going to do.

The girl, Daisy, Dion's daughter; she's looking at me like she's hungrier than anyone has ever been before. As if she's somehow survived a year without food and wants nothing more than to strip the meat from my bones inch by inch.

In my weakness, I start to reach for Augustus, as if we'll be able to make sense of this together. I want them here to tell me what I'm supposed to do. But they fight me and I remember the pain they felt, so I release them to the depths of my mind.

This time, I'll have to decide for myself.

Singh wants me to kill the girl. It's what I'm supposed to do.

It's protocol.

But my hand coils around Daisy's ankle, above the strap, and I force her foot into the bed.

She wails, almost making a real noise, and tries to fight me, but I'm stronger.

I slice the strap with the knife and something slams into the mirror.

Once I release her ankle, Daisy stills for a long moment, as if she's been dunked underwater and is trying to figure out how to breathe. Then she screeches so loud, it makes my ears pop.

I grimace, but grab onto her other ankle.

Her foot twists and slams into my chest with enough force to make me stagger back a step.

I grit my teeth and come back faster and more determined. I seize the still bound ankle and slash the strap.

"Enough!" The door to the lab slams open and Ishani Singh strides in with a battalion of guards filing in around her.

I lunge for Daisy's wrist and poise the knife under the strap there.

Daisy lies still, her fist clenched, and I wonder how conscious she is of what's going on. Her eyes take in Singh and I'm not sure if she's afraid or pissed.

Singh smiles at me, lips curling over her teeth in a grimace. "What do you plan to do, Mason? Free an Infected into the streets of the city? You'll get people killed."

I lift my chin, staring her down. "Where would you prefer? The sewers?

She sneers. "You're surrounded. The girl is done for already. Give up."

"Why should I? To make your life easier? So that you can say I got myself killed being a traitor to placate the masses? I came here alone so someone could tell the truth if you killed me. If I die here, you lose, Singh."

She crosses her arms, staring me down as her guards share looks. "And you think you win if you walk out of here? The girl is already dead, Crane. You can't do anything for her."

"I can give her a respectful death," I snarl. "I can bury her instead of dumping her in the sewers for someone else to deal with. I can make sure nothing like this happens to anyone ever again."

Her smirk sets me on fire. "How do you plan to do that?"

I lift my knife towards her. "Maybe I should kill you and put an end to this right now."

"You won't do that," she tells me.

"Don't be so sure," I snarl. "I'm not my parents."

"No. Your parents were smart enough not to trust the enemy."

I spit, "who? Ryan? I never trusted him. So, he ratted me out. I never planned to get out of here alive. I just planned to raise hell and expose you for the scum you are."

She laughs and all the tension melts from her shoulders, as if she's realized I'm not actually a threat.

I growl into my teeth and tighten my grip on the knife handle.

Daisy starts getting agitated again, gnashing her teeth at Singh and her guards, flailing her freed legs in the air, hissing as loud as she can.

"Poor Ryan," Singh laments. "After everything he did for you, you immediately turn your back on him. When he's going to be killed for lying to me."

I shake my head. "What are you-?"

Two guards step in the room with Tarak seized between them.

My fingers grow numb and I nearly drop my knife.

He has his eyes closed and his head twisted down and away, as if he's trying not to be recognized.

Singh snatches one of his arms and hauls him in front of her. She grips her hands into his shoulders, gouging her fingers into his collarbones in the way I know he hates.

A poison is sinking into me, spreading through my veins as fast as the Infection in Daisy's.

The farther my face falls, the brighter Singh's gets.

"Did she force you?" My voice is low, feral.

Tarak finally meets my gaze, but instead of responding, he peers up at his mother. "You've made your point, Janani. You got what you wanted. Let me go."

Singh digs her fingers in deeper, making him flinch.

Heat is spreading in the pit of my stomach, threatening to evaporate me into steam.

"Tarak," I snarl.

Daisy howls in response, kicking her feet flat against the mattress and arching her back like a wild animal.

He holds my gaze now, skin ashy and his lip bloody between his teeth.

"Did she force you?" I ask again, my voice steadier than I imagined it would be in this situation.

"No," he whispers, bowing his head.

"You're a son of a bitch," I snarl.

"There's no need for name calling," Singh tsks her tongue.

I hadn't had a plan to get out of here in the first place, but now, I want Singh to kill me. If only so Tarak will see me die. But when I look down, Daisy's eyes are rolled back so she can peer at me. Her bare feet are still dug into the mattress and she's got her left hand coiled up in the strap. I grab her right wrist and expect her sharp nails to reach for me, to try to infect me too.

But her wrist remains lax in my hand and her eyes watch me with interest as I slip the knife back into the strap.

Everyone in the room tenses, including Singh, which fills me with a sick satisfaction.

When I look around, the guards surrounding us aren't Hunters or even Protectors. They're human, working for money and nothing else. Looking them over, it's easy to tell they've never fought an Infected before. And no matter how much their training insisted they know how to, no amount of training would ever feel the same as a real fight against an Infected.

"Now, Mason," Singh reasons.

I slash the strap.