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“You’ve found a cure for the Dredge?”

“No. I’ve found a means of reversing some of the tissue damage. Dredge is a prion fused with a virus. Its mode of destruction is misfolded proteins. I’ve designed a process of regenerating that damaged tissue, filling those spongy gaps in the brain. It’s had some success, though at a much slower rate than its destructive opponent.”

“So, why would they keep you down here?” I ask, following after them once more.

“Because no one is interested in the cure,” Titus answers for him.

Doctor Levin glances over his shoulder, lips flattened. “It’s true. At this point, I’m grateful they give me any equipment, at all. And I’ll happily take the dungeon lab, if it means I get to continue my work.” Attention switching to me, he gives a onceover that leaves me frowning. “You’re with these Alphas by choice?”

“Yes,” I say, without hesitation. “Completely.”

Nodding, he turns his attention back toward the path ahead. “You’re aware of the dangers of Alpha pregnancy?”

While I appreciate what I believe is just a friendly warning, it feels like the time my father tried to inquire about Will and I when we were teenagers. “Yes. I’m aware.”

“I don’t mean to pry. I used to work as a surgeon for the Alpha female project back at Calico.”

“Were you there when it shut down?”

“No,” he says over his shoulder. “I left long before then. Wasn’t cut out for destroying a woman’s body in the name of science. I’d been trained to heal. Doctor Ericsson, who led the study, was the prick of all pricks, and seeing those girls go through days, weeks, years of agonizing treatments was too much. There’ve been a number of advancements in this facility, but the end result is the same.”

“How did you know my father?” We pass a small, dark room on the left, flanked by a wall of glass that shows objects I’ve grown familiar with in an operating room. Much smaller than the OR’s at Szolen, where Nan sometimes had to deliver a baby due to complications.

The doctor’s chuckle reverberates off the walls. “We grew up together. Two of us joined the army around the same time. Different reasons, of course. Your father dreamed of a lifelong military career. I dreamed of cutting bodies open for a living.”

“That’s macabre.” Perhaps it’s the surrounding chill of the tunnel, but when we finally reach a door at the opposite end, I’m grateful for the exit sign overhead.

Hand on the door, he twists to face me and sets his hand on my shoulder. “Your father saved my ass a dozen times when this shit show went down. I’d have been roaming the desert in search of human brains, if not for him. Helping you is the least I can do to repay the favor. This door lets out to the northern end of the property, beneath the gate. It was designed as an escape route, at my request. The only ones aware of it are the architects who built the lab.”

“Thank you for this, Doctor Levins.”

“Godspeed.”

He swings open the door to a ladder, and hands off his flashlight to me.

Titus takes the lead this time, and at the first beams of light, when he opens the hatch, I give another sharp nod toward the doctor and follow after Titus, with Atticus bringing up the rear.

The hatch spits us out into the forest, as Doctor Levins said, where Legion hasn’t yet infiltrated. The four of us hustle through the woods, back toward the west entrance.

Congregated halfway to the vehicles is Lilith and a smaller group of the women.

Screams and the scent of smoke and fire draw my attention to flames beneath Mother Chilson’s feet, where she’s tied by her wrists to one of the tree branches overhead.

“You intend to leave her that way?” I ask, imagining the horrific pain of being burned alive.

“If she’s worthy, I’m certain her God will save her. If she’s not, then …” Lilith shrugs, the corner of her lips kicking up with a smile. “We have to hurry. They’ve dispatched more Legion officers. The smoke will draw them away from the other entrance.”

When her eyes fall on Atticus, they seem to light up with the same fascination she’s shown toward Titus. She jogs ahead of the group, taking the lead, and I keep the boy tucked close beside me, guiding him over the fallen branches and bracken, as we make our way to the other vehicles parked at the west end of the property. At the crest of a hill, Lilith lowers to her knee and signals all of us to stop. Taking careful steps, we kneel down beside her, to find a group of armed men wandering the woods below, on the other side of the hill. Only just beyond them, the trucks await for our escape from this place.

“I saw a few vehicles parked back at the convent. We could head back that way.”

“No.” Titus backs himself down the hill and pushes to his feet. “Legion has already arrived. I’ll lead these men toward the north end and circle back to the main road. Don’t wait for me, though.”

“No. No!” I keep my voice low, but stern enough for Titus to pick up on the frustration in my tone.

“We don’t have time.” He performs a quick check of his weapons, tugging the same blade he’s carried since we left Remus’s camp from a holster he must’ve found at the cabin. “This place will be crawling with Legion. Take the boy and Atticus.”

“I’m coming with you,” Atticus argues.