“Gene replication,” the sergeant explained. “It slows the growth of inoperable tumors. Lori has responded well to it. LH-11 is a product of years of research. We are hoping it’s the answer.”
I didn’t know what to say as my gaze moved across the room. “The cure to cancer?”
“And many, many more diseases, Katy. This is what Daedalus is about, and you can help make this possible.”
Leaning against the wall, I flattened my palms. Part of me wanted to believe what I was hearing and seeing—that Daedalus was only trying to find the cure for diseases—but I knew better. Believing that was like believing in Santa. “And that’s all? You’re just trying to make the world a better place?”
“Yes. But there are different ways, outside of the scope of medicine, to make the world a better place. Ways that you can help make the world a better place.”
I felt like I was getting a sales pitch, but even in the position I was in, I could recognize how powerful a cure for such deadly diseases could be, how much it would change the world for the better. Closing my eyes, I drew in a deep breath. “How so?”
“Come.” Dasher cupped my elbow, not giving me much of a choice. He led me to the opposite end of the lab, where a section of the wall appeared to be a shuttered window. He knocked on the wall. The shutters rolled up, making a series of mechanical clicks. “What do you see?”
The air went out of my lungs. “Luxen,” I whispered.
There was no doubt in my mind that the people sitting in matching recliners on the other side of the window, letting doctors take their blood, were not from around here. Their beauty was a dead giveaway. So was the fact that a lot of them were in their true form. Their soft glow filled the room.
“Do any of them look like they don’t want to be here?” he asked quietly.
Placing my hands on the window, I leaned in. The ones who didn’t look like a human lightbulb were smiling and laughing. Some were snacking on food, and others were chatting. Most of them were older, in their twenties or thirties, I guessed.
None of them looked like hostages.
“Do they, Katy?” he prodded.
I shook my head, thoroughly confused. Were they here of their own volition? I couldn’t understand how.
“They want to help. No one is forcing them.”
“But you’re forcing me,” I told him, aware that Archer was now behind us. “You forced Bethany and Dawson.”
Sergeant Dasher cocked his head to the side. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“So you don’t deny it?”
“There are three kinds of Luxen, Miss Swartz. There are those who are like the ones on the other side of this window, Luxen who understand how their biology can greatly improve our lives. Then there are those who have assimilated into society and who pose little to no risk.”
“And the third group?”
He was silent for a moment. “The third group is the one that generations before us had feared upon the arrival of the Luxen. There are those who wish to take control of Earth and subjugate mankind.”
My head swung toward him. “What the what?”
His eyes met mine. “How many Luxen do you think there are, Miss Swartz?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.” Daemon had once mentioned how many he thought were here, but I couldn’t recall the amount. “Thousands?”
Dasher spoke with authority. “There are roughly forty-five thousand inhabiting Earth.”
Whoa, that was a lot.
“About seventy percent of that forty-five thousand have been assimilated. Another ten percent can be trusted completely, like those in the other room. And the last twenty percent? There are nine thousand Luxen who want to see mankind under their thumbs—nine thousand beings who can wield as much destruction as a small warhead. We barely keep them under control as it is, and all it would take for a complete upheaval of our society is for them to sway more Luxen to their side. But want to know another startling number?”
Staring at him, I had no idea what to say.
“Let me ask you a question, Ms. Swartz. Where exactly do you think Daemon Black, his family, and his friends fall?”
“They aren’t interested in subjugating a house fly!” I barked out a harsh laugh. “Insinuating that is just ridiculous.”
“Is it?” He paused. “You can never really, truly know someone. And I am sure when you first met Daemon and his family, you never would’ve assumed what they are, correct?”
He had me there.
“You have to admit that if they were so good at hiding the fact they weren’t even human, how good they must be at hiding something as invisible as their allegiance,” he said. “You forget that they are not human, and they are not, I can assure you, a part of the ten percent that we trust.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I didn’t—couldn’t—believe what he said, but he had said all of this without an ounce of scorn. As if he were just stating facts, like a doctor would when telling a patient he had terminal cancer.
He turned back to the window, lifting his chin. “It is speculated that there are hundreds of thousands of Luxen out there, in space, who traveled to other points in the universe. What do you think would happen if they came here? Remember, these are Luxen who have had little to no contact with mankind.”
“I…” A shiver of unease traveled up my spine and across my shoulders. Turning my attention to the window, I watched a Luxen flicker into his true form. When I spoke, I didn’t recognize my own voice. “I don’t know.”
“They would obliterate us.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, still not wanting to believe what he was saying. “That sounds a little extreme.”
“Does it?” He paused, sounding curious. “Look at our own history. One stronger nation takes over another. The Luxen’s and even the Arum’s mentalities are no different from ours. Basic Darwinism.”
“Survival of the fittest,” I murmured, and for a moment I could almost see it. An invasion of Hollywood proportions, and I knew enough about the Luxen to know that if that many came here, and they wanted to take over, they would.
Closing my eyes, I shook my head again. He was mind-screwing me. There wasn’t an army of Luxen about to invade. “What does any of this have to do with me?”
“Besides the fact that you are strong, as is the Luxen who mutated you, and your blood could possibly help us come one step closer to a successful batch of LH-11? We would love to study the connection between you and the one who mutated you. Very few have been able to do it successfully, and it would be a great achievement to have another Luxen who could successfully mutate other humans and create hybrids who are stable.”
I thought of all those humans Dawson had been forced to mutate and watch die. I couldn’t bear it if Daemon had to go through that, creating humans that would only…
I took a deep breath. “Is that what happened to Carissa?”
“Who?”
“You know who,” I said tiredly. “She was mutated, but she was unstable. She came after me and self-destructed. She was a…” Good person. But I stopped, because I realized that if the sergeant knew anything about Carissa, he either wasn’t talking or he simply didn’t care.
A few moments passed before he continued. “But that’s not the only thing Daedalus is concerned with. Having the Luxen here who mutated you would be great, but that’s not what we’re focused on.”
I looked at him sharply, and my heart rate picked up. Surprise shuttled through me. They weren’t focused on luring Daemon in?
“We wanted you,” Sergeant Dasher said.
It felt like the floor moved under my feet. “What?”
His expression was neither cold nor warm. “See, Miss Swartz, there’re those nine thousand Luxen we need help dealing with. And when the rest of the Luxen come to Earth—and they will—we will need everything in our arsenal to save mankind. That means hybrids like you, and hopefully many more, who can fight.”