Storm (Swipe Series)

you?”
    And one by one, the rest of Peck’s Dust joined in. Blake. Joanne. Meg. Rusty. Shawn. The team of them pushed their way through the crowd, approaching the base of the Capitol steps. They’d done some research of their own, they said. And if anyone could be blamed for the Project Trumpet plague, it was DOME. It was Cylis. It was Advocate Lily Langly herself. It was they who designed Trumpet, they who had vaccinated the Marked, they who had decided to activate that vaccine . . .
    Sure, the Dust acknowledged, Logan was the one who pulled the trigger. But only because he’d been tricked! Who among them would have done any different, under the circumstances? Who among them could have known any better?
    When the Dust was finished, Lily propped Logan up once more. “Beacon!” she called. “You have heard both sides of the matter; Isurrender Logan now to your will. The chancellor intends the death penalty. But it is you Logan’s actions have hurt. Your lives are the ones that have been halted by this plague. You are the true plaintiffs of this case—not Cylis, not Parliament, not anyone else. And so, by the power vested in me . . .” She hesitated now, briefly calculating the consequences of her next few words. But the risk was worth it, she knew. This was her brother. What choice did she have? “By the power vested in me, I have decided to allow the pardon of Logan here and now— if the people of Beacon will it .”
    Lily pulled Logan higher as she made her offer. She called out at the top of her lungs.
    “If any among you object to the punishment of Logan Paul Langly, the accused, then his crimes will be forgiven.” She paused and waited. “Speak now, Beacon! Or forever hold your peace!”
    For a moment, there was quiet. The Dust called out for support. Lily appealed to the crowd again. “You alone must decide if this boy’s actions deserve death. I am innocent of his blood. It is your responsibility!”
    Lily held him there until her arms were tired. She held him as long as she could. Finally, Logan collapsed onto the stairs.
    For a third time, Lily made her offer. She was practically pleading now.
    She couldn’t believe it. But it was so:
    The crowd remained silent.

TWELVE
    ULTRANET
    1
    T HE SUN ROSE BRIGHT OVER THE SCIENCE Center in Sierra, its morning rays shining through the blue tarp walls. Dr. Rhyne was gentle about waking Erin up, but she wasted no time with it.
    “Hey, you,” she said, patting Erin’s arm. “Wake up. Look. Look what I have.” She held a tin watering can in front of Erin’s face, shaking it a bit until the liquid inside sloshed and splashed.
    Erin opened her eyes, trying to focus them on the doctor. “Did I turn into a plant?” she asked, still groggy from her sleep and heavily medicated.
    Now Arianna was gathering her assistants too. They’d been sleeping in chairs beside Erin’s bed, some just keeping watch, but many of them hooked up to their own annexed IV drips—by this point the Marked scientists in Sierra weren’t any better off than the rest of the country.
    “Come on, everyone, wake up! It’s a new day. A new month !”
    “April showers bring May flowers . . . ” Erin said as Sam ran around poking everyone awake.
    “Erin, that’s exactly right.”
    Soon the whole floor was up and stretching and giving the doctor the attention she felt she deserved.
    “Good,” she said. “Well. Now that we’re all vertical . . . may I begin?”
    “Begin what?” an assistant asked.
    Dr. Rhyne raised an eyebrow and shook her watering can once more.
    “It’s a free country.” Erin shrugged.
    “No, it isn’t,” Arianna said. But she took that as a yes. So for the next few minutes, Dr. Rhyne strolled through the Sierra Science Center, whistling a happy tune and pouring the contents of her watering can over the heads of every last person inside.
    “Are you hoping we’ll sprout?” Erin asked.
    “No,” the doctor said, drenching Erin in particular, and carelessly shorting out a few pieces of her medical equipment in the process. “I’m hoping you’ll live.”
    “You didn’t . . . ” Erin said, springing up in her bed.
    Arianna smiled. “The Dust’s sample was the key. Once we knew the structure of the modified activation protein, engineering an antidote wasn’t so impossible after all.”
    “And it really works?” Erin asked, her soaking hair clinging to her forehead and cheeks.
    “I’m not sure,” Arianna said. “But we’re about to find