“Celiac causes the body to damage itself in the presence of gluten,” said Lyle. “ReBirth will undo the damage. She’ll destroy herself and heal herself at the same time—she’ll still get sick when she eats it, but she won’t die from it.” He cleared his throat. “And you and I keep the secret, and nobody ever knows. If she doesn’t get injured, Lilly won’t even know.”
“Wait,” said Cynthia. “Lilly doesn’t know?”
“I … thought that was obvious.”
“Of course it wasn’t obvious,” Cynthia sneered. “But.” She nodded. “I can see why you thought it was. Because you’re the great Lyle Fontanelle.”
“I’m not great.”
“You were always the smart one—always the self-righteous one. That’s all you ever wanted, isn’t it? To make other people’s decisions for them. You didn’t just tell us how to use your products, you told us the morally correct way to use them. The correct way to run the company. To use ReBirth. To save the world. Even in the UN you treated everyone like foolish children, because you were always right, and if only the whole world would stop arguing and listen to you, then all our problems would be solved.”
She stared at him, and he stared back in silence.
“You were always spineless, Lyle, but that was never your biggest problem, and now that you’ve learned to stand up for yourself your biggest problem is bigger than ever: you want to make the choices for everyone else. The only difference now is that you’re brave enough to go through with it.”
“I’m trying to save her life,” said Lyle.
“And what will she think of you when she figures that out? When Lilly cuts her finger or breaks her leg or never ages—what will she think of you when the secret is finally out? The others will lose their trust in you, but Lilly—oh my. Lilly will hate you. You’ll be the monster who corrupted her, who made the biggest decision of her life without even asking her permission. Knowing exactly what she wanted for herself, and denying it to her forever.”
“Maybe she’ll come around,” he said, trying to convince himself as much as her. “Forever is a long time.”
“Then why not wait until she does?”
“Because it has to be—”
He stopped himself, but it was too late.
“It has to be what?” The sneer was gone from her voice, and that ice-cold analysis was back in its place. She was putting together the pieces.
Lyle didn’t dare to answer.
Cynthia’s words slithered out like a snake. “You’re leaving.”
“No.”
“You’re leaving,” she said again. “It has to be tonight, because you won’t be here anymore.”
“Just give me the lotion,” Lyle growled.
“Never.”
He stared at her, and at her gun. There was nothing he could do.
Cynthia stared back, and after a moment she smiled at him, cruel and cold. “Do you see what I mean about power? Do what I tell you to, support me in our meetings, and someday I’ll give you what you want. Oppose me, and I tell everyone what you tried to do here tonight. I tell Lilly.” She spread her arms wide, as if embracing the entire island. “I have ReBirth, which means I have ev—”
Lyle lunged forward, and she couldn’t bring the gun back to bear on him in time; he caught her arm mid-swing, and when she pulled the trigger the shot went wide. He shoved her backward, knocking her off her chair, and as she fell she grabbed the edge of the table. It fell with her, and Lyle’s heart leaped into his throat as he watched the glass vial of ReBirth arc through the air in a terrifying parabola, up and over and down to the hard floor.
The sound of it shattering rang louder in his ears than the gunshot.
Cynthia screamed.
Lyle unscrewed the cap on the water bottle in one frenzied twist, and dipped the lip of it in the pale white smear on the floor. Some of the water spilled out, mixing with the lotion, but he ignored it and slammed the cap back on. Cynthia fired her gun again, and he ran.
“Help!” Cynthia shouted. Her voice echoed down the hall. “Lyle attacked me! He’s stealing the lotion!” The doors that flew immediately open proved that very few people were actually asleep. The general stepped halfway into the hall, frowning at the noise, and Lyle shouted as he dodged around him.
“Cynthia’s gone crazy. I went for a drink and she started shooting.” He didn’t wait to see how the general would react, for now Lilly’s door was open, too, and she stood wide-eyed in the doorway. “Grab your coat,” he shouted. “We’re going!”
“Going where?”
“Away!” He bolted past her into the room, shoved her coat into her hands, and found her shoes. “You can put these on in the car.”
She stood in the room uncertainly, but another gunshot from the kitchen made her flinch in fear, and after a moment’s hesitation she started pulling on her shoes. “What’s going on?”
“They’ve gone crazy,” said Lyle, “we’re going to take the boat and go.”
“Where?”
“We’ll figure that out when we’re safe, let’s go!”
Another gunshot. Lyle didn’t know if the others had tried to calm Cynthia and she was defending herself, or if they were fighting over the ReBirth on the floor. He stepped back toward the hall door, then thought better of it and simply went to the window, unlocking it and shoving it open. The air outside was bitter cold, and he shivered as he leaped through. Lilly threw her room’s wool blanket out after him, which he wrapped around his shoulders while she crawled out behind him. They ran to the trucks, praying that the keys were still in them; the gunshots had turned now to shouting, and Lyle ran from vehicle to vehicle. The front door flew open. Lyle found keys in the fourth vehicle, a fat white van, and yelled for Lilly. He turned the key—the engine revved once, twice, three times in the cold before finally turning over—and then Lilly was in and he peeled out, ignoring the shouts behind them.
“What’s going on?” Lilly demanded.
“Do you trust me?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
“I tried to get a drink of water from the kitchen,” he said, using the same lie he’d given the general. “Cynthia was in there, and she thought I’d come to steal the ReBirth, and she shot me.”
