The Unfinished World (The Armor of God Book 2) by Diego Valenzuela Page A

noticed their presence, were: “ And what about our kid ?”
     
    ф
     
    It was another uncomfortable lunch for Vivian.
    It wasn’t just the fact that Rebecca had disappeared, or the fact that she had uncovered the truth about the explosion: someone had really sabotaged their tests, killing four people.
    It was Tessa’s eyes. She looked way too calm for everything that was happening. “The voting for Proposition Tomorrow is, uh, tomorrow,” said Tessa, casually putting half a meatball in her mouth.
    “Are we going to be allowed to vote? If we don’t have a White Card?”
    “Of course we are,” she replied. “Our Army ID identifies us as adults. Besides, I think we’re the ones who have most at stake, aren’t we? We should be able to vote twice .”
    “Yes,” Vivian said, not laughing at what might have been a joke. “I know. So does that mean we’re going to go back to the city tomorrow?”
    “That’s right,” she said. “We take a train there tomorrow morning to get to the ballots like everyone else in Roue. I don’t think it will be a lot of fun, considering how things are going out there. I’m going as a civilian; you should do the same.”
    “What’s happening?”
    “Heath. He has something planned,” Tessa said and ate the last of her meal. They had always said Vivian was stoic, way too calm when talking about things that should ruffle feathers, but Tessa had become almost robotic since the incident with Kat. “He’s doing some kind of conference later, or an address. He’s going to try to change a few undecided minds just before the vote.”
    “Do you think there’s any chance we’ll win?”
    “ We ?” she asked.
    “Zenith.”
    Tessa laughed at this, and Vivian could not understand why.
    Her food had gone cold, something that rarely ever happened to her. Vivian considered finishing it anyway, but her appetite was all but gone. Suddenly she didn’t care about being strong enough, because the reasons to be were disappearing one by one.
    It occurred to her that she might be having one of her last meals in Zenith. She might have to leave this place, which once held so much hope for her, and return to a defenseless Roue, maybe as soon as the end of the week, where nothing was waiting for her.
    She’d just wait for the Laani to take over at some point in her lifetime, and life to be extinguished.
    Well, human life.
    “What—what do you suppose Heath plans to say tonight? What happened with Kat?”
    “He knows about that,” said Tessa. “But he has some bigger guns. I know you don’t like to admit it, but there’s a lot of shady stuff going on in Zenith—things the general public wouldn’t approve of.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like Subject Edward?” she said, as though it was too obvious to even need mentioning.
    “Subject Edward?” Vivian asked. She remembered the first time Dr. Yuri took her to the hidden laboratories beneath the central wing, where a massive Trooper-type Laani was kept for study. It had been just a few days after she discovered the truth Zenith was keeping from new recruits: the fact that the Laani they were fighting once used to be human beings; the fact that they had never been in control of a microscopic weapon, but quite the opposite. “Why would they oppose studying the Laani?”
    The look of amusement that formed in Tessa’s face was easy to read; she had seen it before in others, and it was always the face of someone who was keeping a secret. “Don’t you know—where Subject Edward comes from?”
    “Tell me,” she said.
    Tessa looked at her, considering, but then shook her head. “I’m sorry. If Dr. Yuri didn’t tell you, you probably aren’t supposed to know yet. I thought you did.”
    “Don’t do that, don’t act like a kid in school, keeping secrets. This is important, and we’re friends,” she said, and the word was alien in her tongue. “Where does Subject Edward come from?”
    “Hey, why are you insulting me? None of this is my