Star-Crossed

Part 30

"Karina, you okay?" asks Moxie.

I open my eyes and nod, a few stray tears trickling down my face. "It's just a lot," I finally manage to say.

"Yes," agrees Moxie. "It is."

"So, do you know where my dad is now?" I ask.

"I'm not sure," answers Moxie. "But we suspect that he's working alongside the terrorists to try and overthrow the Lords of Shinar."

"What makes you so sure of that?" I ask, a bit aggressively.

"Well," Moxie begins. "Xeno and Kromo parted on very bad terms. Your dad's loyalty to the Squad has been unclear for years now. Much of the technology that the terrorists have  used to harm the Squad at various points in the past couldn't have been developed by anyone other than your father. At least, I'd be very surprised if that were the case."

"But how are you so sure he's doing anything now?" I ask, still skeptical.

"We can't be sure of anything...yet," Moxie answers. "But, recently, there's been an unusual number of cases admitted to hospitals all over Shinar. Patients have the most bizarre symptoms - first they get these green splotches all over their skin. Then, the splotches start to ooze a thick, black liquid from them. Then, the patients become very gaunt and turn almost yellow in color - their skin, hair, nails - and then, they die."

I think back to that old woman I saw outside the corner store who was yelling at me, just before heading to the Iggy concert. She had green splotches all over her skin.

"That sounds terrible," I say. "But what does this have to do with my dad?"

"Like I said, Karina," Moxie says. "We aren't sure of anything yet, but we are curious if these hospital cases are being caused by something that the terrorists are doing and, if your dad is somehow involved."

"What about Element X?" I ask. "Isn't that supposed to be some sort of miracle drug that cures everything?"

"Yes, that's what we had been hearing," says Moxie. "And that's why we so desperately wanted to get our hands on some of it - to see if it would help cure these patients' symptoms. Their cases are just so unusual. We've never seen anything like them before."

"But unfortunately," she adds. "Sonya and Daqu - the neurobiologists who were on the ship with you before you landed on Mimba - have run dozens and dozens of tests, and they've found that Element X isn't working."

For a moment, I wonder if Sonya and Daqu had their baby. I remember them saying that they were growing it in a lab - that these days, everyone does that if they can afford to do so. It's hard for me to imagine what that process even looks like.

"On the one hand," continues Moxie. "It's great that Element X is not as powerful as it had originally been rumored to be. The terrorists don't own a magical panacea, after all - at least for now. But on the other hand, there is potentially an epidemic happening that we have no cure for at the moment. And we have no idea what's even causing it in the first place."

I wonder whether or not I should tell her what I saw in the park before I came to see her. For now, I decide to hold my tongue, because I'm not sure if it's even relevant, but I do pull out the piece of paper I found next to the bench.

"I found this scrap of paper in the park earlier today," I say.

"And?" asks Moxie, confused.

"Oh, well...um," I stammer. "I recently learned about invisible ink, and I was wondering how you can tell if something's been written on with it."

"There's no real way to tell," answers Moxie, a bit suspicious as to why I'm bringing this up so randomly. "Unless you have one of these," she says, as she pulls out a pen exactly like the one Pikar used last night.