Storm (Swipe Series)

supposed to do anything,” Lily said. “You were supposed to get Marked and lead a happy life.”
    “And what were you supposed to do?”
    Lily stared at him with a look Logan barely recognized. “I was supposed to overthrow the Union. When the time was right.”
    “Well,” Logan said. “Sorry for incorrectly assuming that my sister wasn’t an insane renegade double-agent revolutionary. What, you intend to kill me for it?” Logan looked at the water lapping against the POD’s fishbowl glass. “I’ve certainly made that easy for you, it seems.”
    “Oh, give me a break,” Lily said. “I’m not trying to drown you. You’re barely out from shore. That POD’ll wash up any minute now.”
    “And then what?” Logan asked.
    Lily frowned. “And then we play defense.”
    “Defense against who?”
    Off a ways on the shore, two shadows closed in. Lily couldn’t have seen them, of course. But she didn’t imagine they were very far away either.
    She smiled over the video. “Our own best friends.”
    2
    When Logan’s POD reached the shore, Peck and Hailey waded out and grabbed at it, rolling it onto the junkyard beach and tugging hard at the emergency latch by the door.
    Logan braced himself. Hailey climbed into the POD and glared at Lily’s projection. She looked ready for a fight; sad, even, that there was no one physically there to push around.
    “What’s your game?” Peck demanded as he poked his own head into the broken POD’s door.
    “No game,” Lily said. “I’m here to warn you—that’s all.”
    Peck narrowed his eyes. “Then how’d you find us? How much do you know?”
    “I know last DOME could tell, you guys were out here. I know you bought nanomeds at a corner store a while back. So I figure most likely you’re looking to cure Trumpet.”
    “Smart,” Peck said.
    “Well,” Lily said somberly. “You are looking at America’s expert in stopping Trumpet outbreaks so far. Guess you could say I still have it on my mind.”
    And a cold shiver went down Logan’s back.
    “Anyway,” Lily continued. “DOME figures they lost you. But I thought either way this was as good a place to start looking as any.”
    Hailey glanced nervously between Peck and Logan. “But you aren’t with DOME,” she told Lily. “So how’d you get DOME’s records?”
    “I’m well connected,” Lily said simply.
    “Okay, fine,” Peck said. “So what, then? You trying to stop us?”
    “It wouldn’t be worth my time to stop you, Daniel. Looking for a cure to Project Trumpet . . . it’s a fool’s errand. Wasted effort.”
    “The doctor thinks it’s possible.”
    “I didn’t say it wasn’t possible. I said it was a waste of time.”
    For a moment, Peck listened without disputing.
    “Come on, Peck. You’re not uninformed. You’re no idiot. Project Trumpet is over. I erased it myself, last summer! You know as well as I do that there hasn’t been an outbreak ever since. So spending your time out here, with everything else that’s going on, with all the other good you could be doing . . . it isn’t helping anyone.”
    “It’s helping Erin,” Hailey said. “It could save her life.”
    “Fine.” Lily waved her hand dismissively. “Save Erin’s life, what do I care? But you don’t all need to be in Sierra for that, and deep down, I think you all know it. Right now, we have bigger problems to solve.”
    “Even if that’s true,” Peck said, “we can’t work with you. I don’t trust you enough for that.”
    Now Logan chimed in. “It’s okay, Peck. She’s on our side.”
    “Was she on our side when she betrayed us three months ago? Was she on our side when she left you for dead? Eddie’s an IMP because of her!”
    Lily rolled her eyes. “Oh, give me a break—Eddie’s fine.”
    “Fine? Fine ? You’ve Revised him! He’s your prisoner !”
    Lily shrugged. “I’d say he’s better off than you are, actually.”
    Peck shook his head. “What happened to you? What did they do to you?”
    “It’s not what they’ve done, it’s what I’ve done. You aren’t seeing the bigger picture here, Peck. This isn’t Slog Row anymore. These aren’t simple street cleanings. You need to start thinking more broadly.”
    “Okay, that’s enough,” Logan said. “Peck, calm down and give Lily a chance. She didn’t want to set us up back in Acheron. She didn’t want to turn us in. She had no choice. It was that or blow her cover.”
    “ What cover ?” Peck demanded. “ Look at her