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Two lab stations showed evidence of recent work--spotlights blaring on petri dishes and tools abandoned on the desks

"Spread out," said Cinder

Iko took the cabinets on the far side of the roo; Jacin started in on the nearest workstation, scanning the labeled drawers In the top drawer he found an outdated portscreen, a label printer, a scanner, and a set of ees and petri dishes and

He moved on to the second station

"Is this it?"

Jacin’s attention snapped to Iko, as standing in front of a set of floor-to-ceiling cabinets with their doors thrown open, revealing row upon row and stack upon stack of small vials, each filled with a clear liquid

Jacin joined her in front of the cabinets and lifted one vial from its tray The label read EU1 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA--"LETUMOSIS" STRAIN B--POLYVALENT VACCINE It was identical to the lid on the next vial, and the next

Jacin’s gaze traveled over the hundreds of trays "Let’s get a rolling cart from maintenance and fill it up with as many trays as we can We probably won’t need all this for one sector, but I’d rather it be in our possession than Levana’s"

"I’ll get the cart," said Iko, rushing for the door

Cinder ran a finger across a row of vials, listening to theht here is half the reason Kai is going through with this," she whispered, then clenched her jaw "This could have saved Peony"

"This is going to save Winter" When he heard the cart in the hallway, Jacin started pulling trays off the shelves, and together they loaded the cart as high as they could, stacking tray upon tray of antidote His pulse was racing Every ti to survival How long would the iht a heavy drop cloth from the maintenance closet too, and they draped it over the cart, tucking it around the edges of the trays to stabilize the the cart toward the door when they heard the ding of the elevator They froze Jacin planted his hands across the covered vials to keep the

"You don’t seem to understand the predicauards returned to active duty immediately I don’t care if they’re fully healed or not"

"Thaue," Cinder whispered Her eyes were closed, her face tense with concentration "And two … I’uess, servants y Possibly a guard"

"No offense taken," Jacin muttered

"These orders have come from the queen herself, and we have no ti excuses and do your jobs"

Not trusting his own body if there was a thauun and pushed it into Cinder’s hand

She looked confused at first, but cohtened

Footsteps approached and Jacin wondered if the thau inside this laboratory Maybe she thought they were just researchers

That ruse would be up as soon as she saw the to this lab

But, no, a door opened down the hallway He didn’t hear it shut again, and there were no other exits To get to either the stairs or the elevator, they’d have to go back the way they’d coested Iko "They have to leave eventually"

He scowled Eventually wasn’t soon enough

"I’ll take control of the guard and the other two," said Cinder, knuckles whitening "I’ll kill the thaue, and wait until you’re all clear before I follow you"