Present

"I killed my brother." Ciara said. I shook my head and had to sit down. Fuck. That means the information got leaked. It means it got handed into Queen's hands. My guess was right. MI6 is corrupt.

"You didn't kill him, Queen did." Max said, walking over to Ciara and holding her in a hug once more. I saw Ciara's body shaking as she cried, and I was glad that the room didn't have any windows. It would make people ask questions.

"But it's what I theorised, it's exactly what was on those papers." Ciara spoke through her tears. She had been preparing for this since she saw the video. We both had.

"You didn't get it produced, and you didn't force-feed it to people, to Jake."

Nothing I could say would help the situation. I never thought it would be true, so I hadn't prepared for it.

"Who saw it?" I asked. Ciara looked at me with bloodshot eyes.

"Only me and the Director. You were the only other person who knew. I gave her a paper copy of my report. She was supposed to destroy it after she was done with it."

"Okay, digital copies?" Ciara pulled herself away from Max.

"Only digital copy left is on my encrypted hard drive, which is in a safe which only opens with my handprint and iris scan. If someone tries to break into it, it initiates burn protocol, so I know no one has gotten to it."

"Burn protocol?" Max asked.

"Whole lab has it. If someone breaks in, tries to steal information, the door deadlocks. Whoever is inside gets trapped, then the burning starts. It destroys the entire lab, everything in here. Nothing can leave or land in the wrong hands. We are always so careful..." Ciara said.

"Whole compound has it. Too much that happens here. Identities that need to be hidden, sensitive information, synthetic diseases. The lab's burn protocol instigates burn protocol for the entire building with a ninety-second countdown for personnel to get out." I said, and the colour drained from Max's face. I turned back to Ciara. "You swear that's the only copy you have?"

"Who the fuck do you think I am?" Ciara's sadness was turning into anger. I knew the anger was because of the situation, not me. She was angry at the person who leaked it. That leak had now cost her brother's life and could destroy the entire human population. "I know what I made, I know the dangers of it and so I didn't take it off the compound. I changed my name to get away from crime; I wanted to solve it, not be a part of the Simmons bullshit. Ciara Smith was supposed to fix everything and instead I've made the most sadistic fucking virus to exist on the face of the planet. It could be the last Christmas ever in two days. All because of me." I needed to get her back on track. I needed her to refocus because when she didn't have a target, a goal, she lost sight of everything.

"Ciara, this isn't your fault. This is on the Director." I said. She shook her head. "We'll sort that out later. First, we need to stop Queen. Is there a cure for your virus?"

"The Director didn't ask me to make a cure. She asked me to destroy humanity. I succeeded."

I stood up and walked over to her, holding her shoulders.

"You are the most talented bio-chemist on the planet. You somehow created a virus that zombifies people. If anyone can reverse that and make a cure, it's you." I said. She took a slow breath.

"Obviously." She sounded exhausted, not that I was surprised. I assumed she had barely slept since Jake, especially with not knowing if it was her virus that killed him or not.

"Ciara, you went to uni at thirteen years old. Had a PhD by eighteen." I heard Max say, so I let go of Ciara, who turned to look at Max. "I only knew you for two years before you left. You ran from the Simmons family, the biggest crime group in England, by yourself at thirteen." Max walked between Ciara and I. She was better at pep talks than I was, I would admit that. "Who the fuck does that? Leave the Simmons family to start with, but to add on how young you were?"

"I couldn't stay, Si. I knew what they were doing, and I didn't want to be involved." Ciara said, using the nickname she must have come up with all those years ago for Max. For Sierra Hyde, as she would have been back then.

"You are so strong, and all we need is for you to do what you always wanted to..."

"Reverse engineer a bio-weapon. Cure disease." Ciara said, realising where Max was going. I watched as Ciara looked up at the ceiling.

"It doesn't matter that you theorised this virus, what matters is that you have that inside information. Queen is going to destroy humanity with these drugs in just over a week."

"It takes months to do what you're asking me to do."

"You're telling me you theorised a bio-weapon without having any thoughts on how to counter it?" I saw the spark in Ciara's eyes when Max asked.

"No, I'm not saying that because that would be a lie." Ciara stretched her neck. "I'm going to need you two out of my lab now. I have work to do."

"Keep us posted." I said as Max and I headed towards the door.

"I will, and I won't be leaving this compound until I figure this out. Before you talk about sleeping, neither of you know where my blowup mattress is." Ciara said as she pulled her tight curls into a ponytail. She didn't have a smile on her face, but she had determination. She would work this out.

Max and I left the lab without wasting another second.

"I don't understand how you can talk people up like that..." I said as we walked back to my office.

"It's a practiced skill." She said, a little less angry than when we had come down.

"Look. I'm sorry. About not telling you everything. I didn't know where to start." I held her arm to stop her walking while we were in a quiet hallway and could talk.

"Is there anything else?"

"I want to get out of MI6, and get Ciara out too, but we need the tech to stop Queen." An ache in my chest was trying to make me say the other thing. The thing that wouldn't help any of it.

"Okay, call it Phase Two then. Phase One, destroy Queen and her plan. Phase Two, destroy MI6 because that's a sentence I thought I would hear myself say in my lifetime." A small smile appeared on her face as she spoke.

"Max, you don't have to help me do that. You should have your freedom when... if we stop Queen." She shook her head.

"Es, you and I know you have no chance without me. And what is this pessimism? It will be when we stop Queen. We fail and humanity is fucked, so we can't fail."

"But I left it too late to get you-"

"We still have time, not a lot, but with you and I working together, we'll figure it out. There's a reason we worked well as a couple, even if you were faking it." That ache in my chest couldn't be held in anymore. Not after that.

"Why do you keep thinking that I faked it?" She shook her head at my question.

"Es, now is not the time."

"No, but we have little time left. So fuck it, let's clear this shit up. Let's get Jacques, go back to my apartment and kick her out for a while so we can fucking work this out because it is killing me that you think I faked it."