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person’s RNA it’s not possible to change it back. At least not easily. We’re years away from that kind

of medicine.

Every single one of the Way Leadership has been infected with this horrible disease my father and

I created.

This was how we planned on taking them down for good.

Poof. Wipe them all out in one go.

Well, several months. But still, that’s pretty effective.

All these years we’ve been biding our time. Waiting for the perfect moment to unleash our plan.

I never really understood why we waited.

Until now.

He knew. He knew they infected the kids. And yeah, sure. He is the Mad Scientist of Osprey Cay,

but even my father’s evil has limits it seems.

I bought into this plan because I never forgot that day when my father shook me by the shoulders

and said they would hurt me one day if I did something wrong.

I didn’t want to be one of the people who disappeared.

And besides, we were only going to kill the leadership, right? They deserved it. That’s what they

would tell me if I ever stepped out of line. That I deserved it.

They deserved it.

I still believe that.

But the kids… the kids don’t deserve it. And if I had known that the leaders who were taking our

drug were giving it to the kids, then I would’ve said no.

Johnny and I are alike in that respect. He thinks, given the chance, he’d have chosen to be the good

guy.

Me too. I want to think that.

And that’s why I’m going to offer myself up to the Way today.

They take me to keep my father in line. Keep the treatment drug flowing so no one dies a horrible

death, but they let him go. That’s my deal. They let him go and maybe—just maybe— my mad

scientist of a father can find a way to fix this.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - JOHNNY

I take Megan’s hand as we walk up the beach. Just staring at the woman sitting under the tent.