Chapter 9: Breaking the Glass

The transport’s observation room was too narrow to pace in. Gabriel stood beside the glass, watching Ava track the camera whenever its lens moved. She had chosen the corner farthest from the chamber door.

“I’m going in,” Jenna announced, breaking the tense silence.

Gabriel straightened, his brow furrowing. “What do you mean, you’re going in?”

Jenna adjusted the straps on her hazmat suit, her movements brisk and methodical. “We’ve gotten as much as we can from external scans. If she’s carrying anything infectious—or if there’s something unique about her biology—we won’t know unless I run a few tests directly.”

Gabriel looked at her sealed gloves. “She flinches when someone opens a medical kit. What do you think that suit will do?”

Jenna sighed, her hands pausing over the clasps of her suit. “I know it’s risky, but we don’t have time to wait until the checkpoint. If she’s dangerous—or worse, if she’s contagious—we need to know now. The safety of everyone else on this transport depends on it.”

“She’s terrified, Jenna,” Gabriel said, gesturing toward the window. “You saw what happened back at the tent. If you go in there looking like that, you’re just going to make things worse.”

“What do you suggest? That we just wait and hope for the best?” Jenna snapped.

Gabriel looked at Ava, then at the scanner. “Ask her before you get close.”

Jenna finished sealing her suit. “I’ll keep my distance. If it gets dangerous, I’ll pull out.”

Gabriel checked the chamber’s emergency release. “I’ll be here.”

Through the glass, Gabriel watched Jenna step inside, the door hissing shut behind her. The intercom picked up the rasp of her respirator and the crinkle of the suit.

Ava’s head came up. She looked at the visor, then the gloves. Her heels scraped against the floor as she pushed farther into the corner, although there was no room left behind her.

“No,” she whispered. Gabriel had to lean toward the speaker to hear it.

Jenna raised her hands, palms outward in a careful, deliberate motion. “Ava, it’s okay,” she assured her, her voice measured yet tinged with an edge of urgency. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just need to take a quick look—”

“No!” Ava scrambled farther into the corner. “No needles. Don’t touch me. Please, just leave me alone!”

Jenna hesitated, glancing down at the medical scanner in her hand. “Ava, I promise, this will only take a minute. You’re safe—”

The words barely left her mouth before Ava let out a strangled scream. The sound was raw and primal, reverberating off the walls. Her body convulsed, and before Jenna could react, Ava lunged.

Jenna stumbled backward, her scanner clattering to the floor. Ava’s movements were unnaturally fast, her glowing eyes filled with terror and something darker. Jenna raised her arms to shield herself, but it was like trying to stop a tidal wave.

“Jenna!” Gabriel’s shout thundered through the intercom, urgent and commanding, reverberating off the sterile walls of the quarantine chamber.

Ava caught Jenna’s suit at the chest. Reinforced fabric drew tight between her fists. Jenna’s boots slid forward across the floor; she could not break the grip.

Her face was inches away, her features twisted with fear and fury, her glowing veins pulsing beneath her skin like embers beneath cracked glass.

“Please,” Ava whispered. “I said no. Why won’t anyone hear me?”

“I’m not—I swear,” Jenna stammered, but her words were drowned out by the sound of the door slamming open.

Gabriel pulled his mask into place and hit the release. He rushed in, he grabbed Jenna by the arm and pulled her out of Ava’s grasp. The motion startled Ava, who stumbled back, her glowing eyes flickering.

The door hissed shut behind them, leaving Ava alone.

Hours later, Jenna’s discarded suit lay on a chair between them. Ava had stretched the chest seam until pale threads showed through. Gabriel kept looking at it. Another pull might have opened the suit, or broken the ribs beneath it.

Inside the chamber, Ava stared at her hands. He had heard her begging Jenna not to hurt her while she nearly crushed her. He did not know how to put both facts in the same report.

She rubbed her palms on her knees, then stopped to examine them. Gabriel had seen people do that after pulling someone from wreckage: searching for the moment when a useful movement had become an injury. He could not know what she remembered. The intercom gave him only the small drag of fabric and, once, a word too low to distinguish.

He leaned toward the speaker.

“Sorry,” she said again.

Jenna looked up. Ava was facing the empty place where the scanner had fallen, apparently unaware they could hear her.

Gabriel took his hand off the volume control. He had wanted her to explain, to say something that would make the torn suit easier to look at. Now he felt he had opened a door she had tried to close. He turned the speaker down far enough to leave her whisper alone.

“She almost killed me, Gabe,” Jenna murmured, her tone unsteady, the weight of the moment pressing down on her. She hugged her arms around herself as if trying to shake off the lingering fear.

“She stopped,” he said. Then, looking at the seam again, “When I pulled you away.”

“She could have,” Jenna insisted. “You saw what she did. She’s not in control, and if she snaps again—”

“I know,” Gabriel said, cutting her off. He stood abruptly, pacing the room. “But she’s not some monster. She’s terrified, and we’re treating her like a ticking time bomb.”

“She is a ticking time bomb,” Jenna shot back.

Gabriel didn’t respond. His gaze drifted back to Ava, who sat huddled in the corner of the chamber. The young woman’s body convulsed, a violent tremor rolling through her as if something beneath her skin was fighting to break free. Faint ridges pushed outward along her arms and face, shifting unnaturally before receding just as quickly. Each breath came in shallow gasps, her expression twisted in agony as beads of sweat formed along her temple.

“She’s changing,” Jenna breathed, her words barely more than a ghost of sound, tinged with apprehension.

Gabriel put his mask back on. The ridges beneath Ava’s skin pushed up again; she pressed both palms over them as if she could force them down. He checked that Jenna could still reach the emergency release, then moved toward the door.

“Gabe, don’t,” Jenna said sharply.

“She’s in pain,” he said, his voice firm.

“She’s dangerous,” Jenna snapped. “You go in there, and she’ll tear you apart.”

He turned to her, his expression hard. “If we keep treating her like she’s some kind of monster, we’ll lose her. I’m not going to let that happen.”

Ignoring Jenna’s protests, Gabriel opened the door and stepped inside.