The Scorch Trials - James Dashner [59]
“WICKED—same as you. Only we’re not special like you say you are. WICKED was set up by the surviving governments to fight the disease, and they claim that this city has something to do with it. Don’t know much else.”
Thomas felt a mixture of surprise and confusion, then a hope for answers. “Who is WICKED? What is WICKED?”
Jorge looked just about as confused as Thomas felt. “I told you all I know. Why’re you asking me that, anyway? I thought the whole point here was that you were special to them, that they were behind this whole story you told me.”
“Look, everything I told you is the honest truth. We’ve been promised things, but we still don’t know much about them. They don’t give us any details. Like they’re testing us to see if we can make it through all this klunk even though we have no idea what’s happening.”
“And what makes you think they have a cure?”
Now Thomas had to keep his voice steady, think back to what he’d heard from the Rat Man. “The guy in the white suit I told you about. He told us it’s why we have to make it to the safe haven.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Jorge said, one of those noises that sounded like a yes but meant exactly the opposite. “And what in the world makes you think they’ll let us just ride in on a horse with you and get the cure, too?”
Thomas had to keep playing it nice and calm. “Obviously I don’t know that at all. But why not at least try? If you help us get there, you have a small chance. If you kill us, you have zero chance. Only a full-gone Crank would choose the second option.”
Jorge gave that pathetic smile again, then let out a small bark of a laugh. “There’s something about you, Thomas. Few minutes ago I wanted to stab your friend in the eyeballs and then do the same to the rest of ya. But I’ll be licked if you haven’t half convinced me.”
Thomas shrugged, trying to keep his face calm. “All I care about is surviving one more day. All I want is to make it through this city, and then I’ll worry about what comes next. And you know what else?” He braced himself to act tougher than he felt.
Jorge raised his eyebrows. “What’s that?”
“If stabbing you in the eyeballs could get me to tomorrow, I’d do it right now. But I need you. We all need you.” Thomas wondered if he could ever actually do such a thing even as he said it.
But it worked.
The Crank eyed Thomas for a drawn-out moment, then stuck out a hand across the table. “I believe we have ourselves a deal, hermano. For many reasons.”
Thomas reached out and shook. And even though he was filled with relief, it took everything he had not to show it.
But then Jorge brought it all crashing down. “I just have one condition. That ratty kid who junked me on the ground? Think I heard you call him Minho?”
“Yeah?” Thomas asked in a weak voice, his heart thumping all over again.
“He dies.”
CHAPTER 28
“No.”
Thomas said it with every ounce of finality and firmness he could muster.
“No?” Jorge repeated with a look of surprise. “I offer you a chance to make it through a city full of vicious Cranks ready to eat you alive, and you say no? To my one little itsy-bitsy request? That does not make me happy.”
“It wouldn’t be smart,” Thomas said. He had no idea how he was able to maintain his calm expression, where this bravery was coming from. But something told him it was the only way he could survive with this Crank.
Jorge leaned forward again, placed his elbows on the table. But this time he didn’t clasp his hands; instead, he balled them into fists. His knuckles cracked. “Is it your goal in life to piss me off until I cut your arteries open one by one?”
“You saw what he did to you,” Thomas countered. “You know the guts that took. If you kill him, you lose the skills he brings. He’s our best fighter, and he’s not scared of anything. Maybe he’s crazy, but we need him.”
Thomas was trying to sound so practical. Pragmatic. But if there was a person other than Teresa on the planet he could truly call a friend, it was Minho. And he couldn’t handle losing him, too.
“But he made me angry,” Jorge said tightly; his