Officer Ben swiftly organizes a team at the Showbox and designates it a crime scene. He interviews me, Justus and Kat, but there's not much we can tell him other than our guesses about who might have done this.
"No matter how good these people think they are, there is always evidence," Officer Ben assures me. "If they truly activated the virus in a room full of innocent people, they will pay the price."
"The punishment for an Evolved 'retiring' a Throwback is a fine. No jail time. No justice," I say, my voice flat.
Officer Ben looks at the ground, knowing that I'm right. "We'll find a way to charge them. Breaking and entering. Public destruction of property. The Governor will back us."
I nod, too tired to argue. Kat has summoned our van, and it takes us back to the Chrysalis. Harriet, Sun and Marie texted to tell us that they are already there with Flo, being tested to see if the H2IV virus is active in their blood.
We find them in the breakroom, and when my eyes meet Harriet's, there's a familiar resignation in them that tells me everything I need to know.
"We're going down together after all," she says. "Every last one of us tested positive.
"No. Marie, no," Kat whispers, her voice shaking.
Tears spill from my eyes. I want to curl up in a ball, or scream from the rooftops. Rage and grief press against my heart with such ferocity that black spots dance in my vision.
Next to Harriet, Mason moans on the couch. He's curled around Harriet, his hands fisted in her shirt. He wasn't inside the Showbox tonight, so he escaped being gassed with the rest of us. He was working outside managing crowd control. And now the love of his life is doomed to die a terrible, bloody, painful death while he watches.
My phone vibrates with text messages from Wilde, Alison and the other students at Seattle Secondary who attended the event. Everyone has H2IV. What use are these visions of the future, if I never saw this coming? What is the point of all our effort and struggle? The show that we created to save us has doomed us instead.
A choked noise escapes Sun's throat, drawing everyone's attention. He's staring at his phone with an expression of shock that looks foreign on the face of a man who's always one step ahead.
"Strand issued a press release," he says. "Consoling the Throwbacks at the Showbox for having to go through such a harrowing experience, condemning the prejudiced Evolved who perpetrated the attack, and...and...promising to provide 1,000 free doses of an antidote for the victims."
My brain is so fuzzy after the events of the day that his words take a moment to register.
"They're going public with the antidote? Why?" Kat asks, her face filled with hope and fear.
"Positive press?" Justus says, gripping my hand and pulling me closer to him.
Harriet slowly shakes her head. "They're promising 1,000 'free' doses of the antidote. After that, anyone who wants one will have to pay. They're turning a tragedy into a business opportunity."
"No," Sun says. "They created a tragedy for the sake of a new business opportunity."
"There will be no way to prove it," Marie says.
"Think of what people will pay for this. Anything, everything they have. It's life or death," Justus says, almost choking on the words.
"In one brilliant move, they have demoralized the Throwback population, taken the moral high ground, and robbed us of every piece of leverage we have," Sun says.
YOU ARE READING
Joan Ascends
Science FictionSeason 3 of The Throwbacks The outlook for Throwbacks in Seattle - and across America - has never been bleaker. If Joan and her friends want to have any chance at building a more just future, they will have to expose the inhumanity of their enemies...
