Everyone turned. Braken stood with his arms crossed tightly, half in shadow, jaw tense. “Why did you keep going with the research? After all of that—after everything failed. After the entire sector was sealed, why bother?”
Klare didn’t look up from her work. “Because someone had to. And if I left it to Haarken… he would’ve gone straight back to using the Lowers.”
Braken stepped forward, eyes burning. “You still tested on them. You knew what was happening down here.”
“I didn’t infect anyone,” Klare snapped, finally meeting his gaze. “I used what was already infected. The ones who survived stage two—the ones locked in the Agri-sector. I had to try. I wasn’t killing them, I was trying to cure them.”
Braken’s jaw flexed. “The ones who attacked us… in the tunnels. Were those them?”
Klare g
