Tethered Souls | Books 1, 2, and 3

{Book Two} 80 | Indicator

∞ The Tethered Ones ∞

Chapter 10

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• Liberty •

Looking at Max, Liberty cleared her throat. "How are they creating Tethered Souls?"

"The scientists withdraw a Tethered One's DNA from their bone marrow to formulate a serum with the DNA of a non-tethered soul," he said, leaning against the wall. "After testing, they put it in a sick patient." He paused and then went on. "The candidate continues testing for months. They'll show signs of having power. Telepathy mostly."

No one in the room made a sound.

There wasn't any movement coming from the outside, and it was almost like they were far away from the battlefield happening in the distance. The room fell into complete silence for several minutes.

"I was in charge of a group that collected samples from any DNA we could find," he continued. "Patients from hospitals. Senior homes. Morgues. The organization that hired me was covering up what they were doing, and they also hired lawyers to do whatever they could to get the rights to those samples. Men and women on death row were the first in line for these experiments."

Liberty wondered what was going through the house's mind. She could tell each of them was frightened more than ever, and the organization they were dealing with was sick. They could create another species, and that scared her.

Cassie spoke with folded hands. "So the scientists who extracted DNA performed experiments giving ordinary humans superhuman abilities?"

"It's a little deeper than that," he replied as Vikram circled his arms around Liberty. "None of the staff knew what was going on. Myself included. We didn't know what we were up against. They had us believing we were looking for ways to cure diseases, which was true, but it was much more than they let on." He sniffed. "I watched them do horrible things to people, and I can't believe I played a part in it."

"It's not your fault," Cami and Cassie whispered in unison.

"They misled you, Max," Cassie continued, meeting his gaze.

"But it is my fault. I could have stopped, but I didn't," he replied. "I could've walked away at any moment. But then they would've thrown me into a cell because I resisted. That was their punishment for anyone who resisted them."

"The way I see it," Vikram said as he let go of his fiancee and moved his elbows to his knees, "it's your mistake that people had damaged souls and their superhuman skills went wrong after they took that serum. They failed."

Max just shook his head and looked at him. "Maybe. It doesn't change the fact that some people are now using their hands to hurt others. I found Tethered Souls and gave them to BARDA. I created hunters."

"They misled you and many other employees into believing differently," Vikram countered, pleading with him. "Don't do this to yourself, brother. You're a different person, and you are helping us."

"Vikram is right," Liberty said. "Don't let this get to you."

"Why shouldn't I? Drugs that did not work were given to people."

"You weren't told the truth," she explained.

"There are some conniving and sadistic snakes in this world," said Fe'ya, tightening her white hijab around her head. "We know who most of them are, and they caused this chaos. Not Tethered Souls. Not the destructive ones or the engineered ones. BARDA is responsible for it all."