Page 26

“You say ‘unleashed’ as if you could’ve seen it coming,” I said conversationally. “As a former history teacher, my understanding was that its origin was never traced.”

Julius shrugged. “Nothing was ever confirmed. But the world was so unstable at the time…for those of us in the know, it wasn’t terribly shocking to think that someone developed a bioweapon that simply got out of control. No weapon with such high lethality and transmissibility, once unleashed, could be contained.”

A bioweapon. It was a theory I’d heard before, but it had always been considered a rather fringe viewpoint among the few historians that existed at the Cave. It wasn’t something I’d ever been authorized to even mention in my classes.

“Who would create such a weapon?” I asked.

He took a sip of his wine. “One of my competitors at the time, perhaps, or our counterparts overseas.”

“Competitors?”

Julius’s lips twisted into a small, sly smile, and I wondered if I’d pushed too hard. I immediately did damage control.

“It’s just that, if I’m going to fulfill my role as the Sole Survivor,” I rushed out, “I think it may help me to understand where it all started. What I’m fighting for—you know, before the Order destroyed it all for me. The loss of the Cave must’ve been terrible for you most of all, with it being your creation.”

“I understand what you’re doing, Claire.” He took another draw from his wine glass. “You’re hungry for answers. I can understand that. I will answer some of your questions now, on one condition.”

I swallowed hard, nervously brushing my hair behind my ear. “What condition?”

“You will fulfill the role I have created for you,” he continued, “and you will attend dinner with me every week for as long as this crisis at the Delta lasts. At each dinner, if you’ve been good and fulfilled your duties that week without making trouble, I’ll answer a few more of your questions. Tit for tat.”

“Even about my father?”

“Perhaps,” Julius purred, his blue eyes gleaming. “I think that one will require exceptionally good behaviour over time, however.”

My breath hitched. On the one hand, dinner with Julius every week sounded like actual torture, and becoming more and more entangled in his web was risky for so many reasons. On the other hand, everything I ever wanted to know could be within reach. But the cunning look in his eye made it seem like a Faustian bargain.

Still, what choice did I have?

“I’ll do what is required of me,” I confirmed with my heart in my throat. “It would be my honour.”

The words made me feel sick.

“Very good. You’re learning,” Julius said with an ironic smile. “Now, you asked about my competitors. I told you I founded the Omega Corporation in the Old World. It began as a biotechnology company in what was, back then, called Silicon Valley. A place where tech companies clustered, and wealth flowed like wine.”

“What did the company do?”

“At first, we merely specialized in creating human-integrated tech solutions,” he said. “Implantable microchips, scanners, and the like—technology that could be injected or surgically implanted into the human body to enhance its abilities.”

Makes sense, given our implants, I thought. I refilled Julius’s wine glass again as he continued talking.

“Naturally, certain people weren’t happy with some of the side-effects of the products. They weren’t as efficient as they are today, and they came with drawbacks that we eventually eliminated, though it took years. Years that various regulatory agencies did not want us to have, given how they attempted on more than one occasion to get us shut down. Fortunately, the government down south was as transactional as most people are, and we evaded regulation for a long time.”

“What made you move north, then?”

“I purchased a Canadian business that specialized in high-tech construction,” he replied with a small smirk. “A very odd decision at the time in the eyes of most people, but I had a vision: gated, self-sufficient communities where the best of society could live away from the masses and have access to the latest in biotechnology innovation. Ontario was a natural choice as the climate turned, and natural disasters rendered many places down south unlivable.”

“So, you started building the compounds before the virus?” I asked, an eyebrow raised. “I didn’t know that.”

He chuckled. “Silly girl, most people don’t. It took many years to build them, with billions of dollars of investment from a variety of sources. They were nearly ready for their first residents when the virus first appeared.”

“But what changed, then? Not everyone in the compound was wealthy.”

“No, that came out of necessity when it became clear that this was an apocalyptic event,” Julius said, swirling the wine in his glass. “We made a deal with the sitting governments: surrender all resources and sovereignty to us, and they would secure a place in one of our compounds as an elite political class with access to everything we had to offer.”

His demeanour was still so calm, so unbothered. He smirked again and it turned my stomach. “I believe they called it Operation Abandon Ship in their official documents as they debated what to do. In the end, they had no choice, however. Not if they and their families wanted to live, and they did. Far more than they cared about their citizens living. So, you see, Claire, I understand what most people know but are too spineless to say: that people are ultimately driven by their greed, and they’ll pay any price to survive. Even you.”

“Me?” I asked with a frown. “But I—”