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Intense relief flooded over me, and I wrappedUp until the second he said my brother was here, I had been convinced he would tell me Max had died

“What? Why the hell can’t I see Max?” I asked, relieved that I kept the tremble out of my voice

“Keep your voice down,” Tatum looked back over his shoulder, but nobody was around us “I brought you out here so you wouldn’t make a scene”

“Why would I ” He lowered his voice and leaned in closer toon?” I deoing on with your brother, it’s very classified He caht on a truck with officers and doctors, but no other civilians Nobody I know has seen hi about him”

“But he’s alive?” I rubbed the back of my neck and looked away froled, like some kind of Tell Tale Heart reminder

“As far as I know” Tatu the word classified triggered so on with your brother?”

“How could I know?” I tried to return his scrutiny evenly “He’s locked up, like a prisoner even though he’s an eight-year-old little boy! I have no idea what’s happening to hihtened up and crossed his ar on his biceps By his stern expression, I knew he didn’t believe me, but I didn’t knohat he made of it He stared at me for a moment, and I sed hard I knew that if I wanted to see my brother, I had to have Tatum on my side

“Is he infected?” Tatum asked finally

“No,” I shook my head but didn’t say more

“You better not lie to h he was probably only a year or so older than“I don’t want any of these people in here getting sick because of soet anybody sick,” I said as carefully as I could “I’ to protect him, and I can’t do that if I can’t even see him”

“I can look into it more”

“Look into it onna try to look into it? I’ve gone all the way across the country, rescued a lion, escaped a cult, killedhands! And you’re gonna look into it?”