Taken (Erin Bowman)

interrogation center.”
    Something in this revelation has caught Ryder’s attention and he nods at Xavier to continue.
    “It’s the new prisoner, the one Fallyn’s team brought in the other day.”
    “What of him?” Ryder asks.
    “Luke cracked him. We know how the Order plans to infiltrate Crevice Valley. It’s a virus, sir. They’ve engineered a virus.”

THIRTY-ONE
    IT’S QUIET, BUT ONLY FOR a second.
    Fallyn throws her hands up first, and Elijah moans in defeat. The others begin talking frantically among themselves, wondering how Frank has confirmed our location, worrying about the threat of the virus. Xavier stands there helplessly, eyeing the group for some plan of action, until finally Ryder raises a hand and the room falls silent.
    “You have more details, I assume?” he asks. His voice is still calm and steady, but his hands twist in small knots before him.
    “They engineered it in the labs. The prisoner said it’s airborne. It’s apparently a mutated version of the original virus AmWest dropped on the East back during the war. Once we’ve been exposed, people will be sick within a day or two. He said we’d all be dead in a matter of weeks.”
    Fallyn frowns. “How can they be sure they won’t infect themselves?”
    “Vaccines,” Xavier explains. “It’s been mandatory for all serving in the Order and anyone wanting to stay within city limits. And it’s being supplied to all Taem’s domed sister cities across AmEast as well.”
    “And outlying towns?” Ryder prompts.
    “I don’t think Frank cares much. He doesn’t need everyone to survive, just himself, the Order, and Harvey. Luke thinks the release of the virus depends on the success of this approaching Order team. Their mission is still Harvey, so they can’t release it before they are in a position to retrieve him, otherwise they’ll be risking the health of their target.”
    “Wait a minute,” my father interjects. “How do they even know where we are? Sure, Mount Martyr’s a well-known landmark, but we’ve been careful about our activity during daylight hours. They shouldn’t know we are operating out of here, not unless . . . Do we have a leak?”
    Raid shakes his head. “No one has been taken captive in recent weeks. I don’t think information was snitched. But we need a plan, and we need it fast.”
    “Frank might have his suspicions about our location,” Ryder says calmly, “but I doubt he truly knows where we are. If he did, a virus would not be necessary. He’d simply fly over and drop bombs.
    “So this can mean only one thing: The virus is coming on foot. I believe the Order will look to capture one of our soldiers in the field. Since they don’t know how to find us, they will simply infect that prisoner and let him wander home. They’ll want us to infect ourselves.”
    Ryder’s logic makes perfect sense, and it sends another wave of panic through the room. I look at Bree, but her face is stern, her eyes focused.
    “So we need the vaccine,” she says to the worried captains.
    Ryder nods in agreement. “Yes. The vaccine is the fail-safe. We barricade our entrances, tighten security, and we do all we can to keep the virus from ever finding us. But if it does, we need the vaccine as a backup.”
    “Hold on,” Fallyn says. “We’re really going on the words of this one prisoner?”
    “Fallyn, if you could see what Luke’s done to him, you’d believe him,” Xavier says. “He only wants the pain to stop. And you know how Luke is, the kind of agony he can inflict.”
    Elijah sighs. “It’s a lost cause. The spies we have in Taem didn’t see this coming, and if they are out of the loop, there’s no way they can get us the vaccine in time. They probably don’t even know where to start looking.”
    “I do,” Harvey chimes in. It’s the first words he’s spoken since the meeting began.
    “Out of the question,” Ryder states. “They want you too badly.”
    “Clearly not badly enough to keep me alive,” he counters. “They are risking my death by sending a virus our way. I can die here with you, or we can attempt to get our hands on this fail-safe.”
    Ryder rubs his thumb and forefinger together. “You know where to look?”
    “I spent countless days in both the technology wing and medical research center when I worked there. If the virus was born in those labs, so was the vaccine.”
    “There’s no way they’ll let you waltz back in,” Elijah says.
    And then I see it, a path