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“Have they ever gotten out before and killed anyone?” Harrington said.
It took Reese a moment to realize what the man had asked. “They aren’t inherently violent. These are people, Colonel, not mindless animals. Many of the betas were well-trained military men.”
Harrington’s expression hardened. “Excuse me?”
Phillips watched Reese with raised eyebrows.
“The bodies were legally donated.” His voice cracked.
“I can guarantee you they were not legally donated for your science experiment.”
“All the cadavers we used had a donor card on record and no family or at least no one who would claim them. We followed any and all laws regarding the use of human remains.”
“That’s still no excuse.”
“We had to. After the first few failures….” Not failures—tragedies. “Enlisted people aren’t perfect, they have their downfalls, and they have their weaknesses, but they adapt better than the average citizen because of their training. We needed people who weren’t prone to criminal behavior, no mental illness, and could pass a psyche evaluation. You can’t evaluate dead people, but military personnel, law enforcement, people in those careers have psych evals on file.”
Harrington stood. “I need to make a phone call.” He walked away, leaving Reese alone with Phillips who still watched him as if waiting for something interesting to happen.
Reese scrubbed a hand over his mouth. “He’s pissed, isn’t he?”
“Definitely not happy.”
“It wasn’t like it was my decision.”
“But you worked on the project.”
Reese had. And while he might not have killed those people, he’d used them. He’d brought them back. He’d stood by while Echols and the others poked, prodded, and cut them up.
Phillips emptied her glass and set it in one of the cup holders molded into the narrow table between the chairs. “You address all the betas and Alphas as male. Why no women?”
“It’s not a sexist thing, I can assure you.”
“Okay.” Her expression didn’t change, but the weight of her stare pressed on Reese.
“We resurrected the dead. Biologically, their bodies worked like they had when they were alive. We didn’t want to risk…” Reese took a breath. “We didn’t know if the women could get pregnant, and because we couldn’t keep them apart, we didn’t want to take the chance.”
“Understandable.”
That was not the response Reese expected, but he wasn’t going to complain.
Muffled laughter came from the front of the plane where the attendants socialized. Then white noise from the engines filled in the quiet.
“Do you know if Dr. Markus believed what was written on those walls?” Phillips said.
“He was a very religious man until after he and Dr. Echols realized the writings on the walls weren’t written by people using magic to explain the world around them.” The personality change in Dr. Markus had been disturbing. “Whoever wrote the Book of Anubis used words that don’t even exist today but in a context that made the definition possible to understand.”
“You’re saying they were advanced.”
Reese nodded. “Advanced enough that at the time, they might as well have been gods.”
*****
Luca only meant to close his eyes for a minute, but the next thing he knew, Nox shook him awake.
“We’re here.”
And where was here? The O of a neon vacancy sign flickered on and off under the weathered wooden cutout of a crescent moon.
