“So maybe he won’t,” Maude says, inserting some cool logic into the conversation. “He could be bluffing. He’s got the upper hand, of course, because we have no way of proving that this stealth virus isn’t real.”

“But he also has no way of proving that it is, does he?” I ask. “Why should we even believe him?”

“Because,” answers Levi. “You’ve already seen the stealth virus at work. And though I wasn’t here for it, I’m quite sure it wasn’t pretty.”

“What are you talking about?” Jago asks.

It hits me with the force of a truck. “Ransom,” I say softly. “It was the stealth virus that nearly killed him. Wasn’t it?”

Levi meets my eyes again, and this time, as I notice the rush I get from his gaze, I also think I see approval written there. “Exactly.”

Maude stops her pacing to stare at Levi. “You’re saying that when Headmaster Ransom injected our plasma into his system…”

“Plasma containing DNA that was tweaked by Gravelle eighteen years ago,” Pru adds.

“He was also injecting the dormant virus?” Maude pauses, looking at Levi for confirmation.

“More or less, yes,” Levi says. “When Ransom injected our plasma, the stealth virus went into his system too. Gravelle was expecting this to happen. Obviously he knew about Ransom’s plan; after all, he signed off on the ‘research’ and signed the waiver himself. He must have had someone on the ground to confirm that Ransom had gone through with it, because then he activated the code to trigger the virus.”

“But if the virus was built specifically to react in our bodies…” Maude says, trying to work it out.

“How did it also take out Ransom?” Levi finishes her thought. “The quick answer is that the reaction Ransom had wouldn’t manifest itself in the same way for us, not exactly. Still, you had a front-row seat to all the evidence you need that Gravelle is not playing around. The stealth virus exists. Ransom’s collapse proved it.”

“So this is why Gravelle didn’t interfere with Ransom’s experiments,” I conclude. It’s all making sense now.

“I couldn’t get him to admit it outright,” Levi answers me. “But yes, I believe he wanted Ransom to exploit us for that plasma cocktail, so that eventually Ransom would inject it into himself and show us all how big a threat the virus really is. How deadly,” he adds.

There’s silence as that sinks in. If the Similars refuse to act on their new task, they risk their own lives. But if they do what Gravelle wants, who knows what they’ll end up doing to hurt their DNA families?

“How did you find out about this?” Pru asks Levi. “The stealth virus…and what happened to Ransom?”