Joan Undone

Chapter 5

"What the hell happened?" Justus's eyes are wide as he takes in the disheveled appearance of our little group.

"We bumped into Crew and a few of his followers at school," Marie says, brushing dirt off of her skirt. "If he's to be believed, he wanted us to rejoin his rebellion."

"Though I suspect he had another motive," Sun says. "I think the only one he's interested in pursuing is Joan. Now that Jo is alive, he believes he can create a family. He appealed to the rest of us only to placate her."

"Crew gave you that bruise?" Nic asks me, stalking closer and taking my chin in his hand so that he can angle my face toward the light.

I jerk myself out of his grip. "Sal. But trust me, he got the worse end of our fight."

"I have no doubt," Justus says, concern and humor warring in his eyes.

"You need bruise cream," Nic insists.

Instead of ignoring his hovering, I allow him to pull me to his bed. He has a container of medical supplies which he rummages through.

"Want to tell me what you stole from Crew, Nic?" I ask, my tone casual.

Nic freezes, and his brown eyes meet mine, partially hidden by his shaggy hair. "I won't apologize. We need those funds more than he does."

"How much?"

"Enough to get us started."

"How much, Nic?" I ask, almost shouting now.

"Two hundred thousand," he says. "It paid for the tablets, carving out more rooms in the Bunker, and everything we're doing to save people from falling victim to Crew's terrorists. And it's spent. There's no giving it back."

I swallow and drop to my ass on his bed. "He wants it back."

"He's well-funded, Joan. Even I never knew how much he and the other leaders of his rebellion had piled away, but it was at least a billion dollars. This money was part of a slush fund he had for incidentals in maintaining the Chrysalis. The money is nothing to him."

My head snaps up to look at Nic, but now, he won't meet my eyes. "The money is nothing to him, but something else is. You took more than money."

Nic swallows. "Crew is a collector. One of the things he collected was rare DNA sequences from famous people from history. People that even Strand didn't have in their files."

"Give the information back."

"I didn't steal it, Joan. I deleted it. Permanently. There is no giving it back."

"Damn it, Nic! We have targets on our backs already. You should have consulted us."

"Ask me whose DNA he collected," Nic says, his hands balling into fists.

I suck in a breath. "Whose?"

"Adolf Hitler. Osama Bin Laden. Vlad the Impaler. Others too."

I shudder at his grim list.

"You did the right thing," I admit. "We'll face the fallout together."

Nic's sudden smile is more surprised than smug, and I find myself automatically returning it.

Kat's head pops into the room. "Joan, you need to get out here, now."

I hurry after her and find my team huddled around Dennis's laptop.

"This appeared on our server two minutes ago. It's a vid file," Dennis says.

"Play it," Harriet says.