Blood Ties (28 page)

Elijah’s eyes narrowed. ‘You’ve been looking through my files?’ His voice was low and threatening.

‘Only because you wouldn’t tell me anything.’ I strode over to the desk, more to keep his eyes off the bedroom than for any other reason. I grabbed the leather diary and opened it at this week’s page. An entry for yesterday caught my eye.

Dr M. Results.

What was that about?

Elijah strode up behind me and slammed the diary shut.

‘Well, I have something to tell you now, Theodore,’ he said. ‘There’s been a change of plan.’

We were driving through the streets of Washington. Houses had given way to big office blocks and shops. We passed through a very smart area with wide streets, then into a dingier, more built-up neighbourhood.

Lewis was making that hissing sound under his breath again. My heart was thumping so hard, I thought for sure he would hear it.

He glanced at me as we turned a corner, then drew a tiny, folded piece of paper out of his pocket. He laid it on the dashboard and pushed it towards me. He put his finger to his lips. I remembered the microphone in his ear and how Simpson could hear everything we said.

I nodded to show I understood, then unfolded the paper.

If anything goes wrong, just get out of the building. Head for the Jefferson Memorial. I’ll find you there.

I gave Lewis a thumbs up, trying to ignore the churning, sick feeling in my stomach.

Lewis blew out his breath. ‘We’re here.’

I looked around. I could see nothing that remotely resembled a scientific compound. Just some boarded-up buildings and a disused car park with a notice in front:
KEEP OUT. THIS BUILDING IS UNSAFE. Dept. of Public Works.

Lewis turned into the car park. He drove over a series of speed humps.

One. Two. Three.

I wondered how being bumped like that felt for the men hidden under the van.

Lewis turned through an archway down a long, dimly-lit tunnel. Shadows from the van played against the concrete walls. In the distance I could see a tall steel gate that spanned the whole width of the tunnel. It didn’t appear to be manned, though what looked like some kind of intercom screen was on the wall this side of the gate.

Lewis slowed the van slightly, then pulled up beside the screen.

He reached out and pressed his hand against the glass. ‘Lewis Michael,’ he said, ‘to see Elijah Lazio.’

‘What change of plan?’ I said. ‘What do you mean?’

Elijah hesitated. ‘Nothing. It’s not important.’

He was lying again. I could feel it. And it was something to do with the Hermes Project, I was sure.

‘You told me there were no more clones,’ I said.

‘I had to.’ Elijah stared at the floor. ‘Only three people know about Hermes. Four now, including you. Not even RAGE.’ He paused.

‘Go on,’ I said. ‘What were you going to tell me about?’

He ran his hand through his hair. He looked tired. But also irritatingly reluctant to speak. In fact he looked torn – uncertain what to do. I’d never seen him look so . . . so weak.

‘Well?’ I said.

‘I haven’t been fair on you, Theodore.’ Elijah met my eyes at last. ‘I thought if you spent enough time here you would begin to see how important my work is, maybe want to emulate me, even.’ He looked away. ‘But I was wrong. And I’m ready to let you go. There’s something. . . I need to have an operation. Soon – within the next few weeks. I won’t be able to spend as much time with you as I’d have liked for a while. I need you to trust me though, trust that once I’m better we will begin our work together in earnest.’

I stared at him. ‘
What
work together?’

Elijah walked across the room. ‘Just let me change my shirt and I’ll explain . . .’

‘No.’ I couldn’t let him go into the bedroom. Couldn’t let him find Mel. ‘No. Stop.’

He turned and frowned at me. He looked more tired than I’d ever seen him. ‘Theodore, I thought—’

A shrill ringtone cut through Elijah’s words. He frowned and pulled the tiniest of mobile phones from his pocket. No. Not a mobile. Some kind of walkie-talkie.

He flipped it open. ‘What?’ he barked.

‘Sorry to disturb you, sir,’ said a fuzzy male voice. ‘You’re needed at the front gate. Code seven.’

Elijah flicked his fingers impatiently. He motioned me towards the door. I had no choice but to follow him through it. At least he hadn’t seen Mel.

We walked down the corridor, Elijah still talking into the hand set.

‘Who is it?’ he barked.

‘Lewis Michael,’ the fuzzy voice said.

I stopped in my tracks. Elijah stopped too.

‘Are you sure?’ he said.

‘Yes, sir,’ the voice continued. ‘With a girl. Wouldn’t give her name but told me to tell you: Artemis. Is that some kind of pass—’

‘Quiet.’ Elijah glanced sideways at me.

My stomach knotted. Lewis was here? With Rachel? But Lewis was dead. I’d heard Elijah shoot him. And Rachel was supposed to be somewhere safe with her parents.

Elijah raised the receiver to his mouth again. ‘What does he want?’ he said.

‘To bring the girl inside, sir,’ the male voice said.

‘Make sure they’re alone and unarmed, then let them through, but only to the front gate,’ Elijah said, shortly. ‘I’m on my way.’

He snapped the walkie-talkie shut, then beckoned me towards him.

‘Come with me,’ he said. ‘We’ll carry on our discussion in a minute.’

Together we headed for the main entrance.

The steel gates opened and we drove slowly through. Two men appeared, long guns slung casually round their necks.

We were still inside the tunnel; another identical steel gate a few metres up ahead. Lewis stopped the van and switched off the engine.

‘They’ll search the van here,’ he said. ‘Before they let us through to the front of the building.’ He glanced at me. ‘How you doing?’ he mouthed.

‘Fine,’ I lied. I sat on my hands so he wouldn’t see they were shaking.

The door beside me opened. One of the gate guards jerked his head at me.

‘Out,’ he commanded. I got down from the van. The guard patted up and down the sides of my body and legs. I could see Lewis on the other side of the van submitting to a similar examination.

‘Wait here.’

I nodded, then held my breath as both guards marched to the back of the van and opened up the doors. If they found Simpson and his men now . . . I shuddered, imagining the gunfight that would take place. We were virtually trapped here, between the two gates. It was not a big space and, apart from the van itself, there was nowhere to hide. On top of that, Lewis and I had no weapon. I couldn’t imagine surviving any battle that took place here.

The guards stamped about inside. Then they got out and waved some sort of metal baton and then a hand-held device, like a BlackBerry, along the van’s underside. Lewis walked round to where I was standing. His posture was still relaxed, but his breathing was tense and shallow.

‘Heat sensors,’ he whispered. ‘And state-of-the-art technology for picking up traces of explosives and stuff. The van’s designed to block all of them.’ He squeezed my arm, then mouthed. ‘Stay low. Find Mel. Okay?’

One of the guards strode up. ‘You can go through,’ he said.

I scrambled up into my seat and watched as the big steel doors in front of us swung open. Lewis started the engine and drove slowly forward.

Through the gates, I could see the concrete and steel frame of the compound. As Lewis stopped the van again, the doors behind us closed.

Oh my God.
We were here. We were finally, actually here.

Elijah walked fast through the corridors. I had to take extra steps to keep up with his long legs. He started coughing as we went through the acclimatisation shed that led into the Outdoor Room.

As we stood inside, waiting for one set of doors to close and the other to open, I noticed beads of sweat standing out on his forehead. He leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.

‘It’s rude to stare, Theodore.’

I carried on staring as he looked up. Again, I saw the weakness in his eyes. I took a deep breath.

‘As I’ve already told you,’ I said. ‘It’s
Theo
. And I wouldn’t want to work with you if you were the last man on earth. You’re a bully and a coward.’

Elijah’s eyes pierced through me, then he smiled. ‘Fine.’ He coughed and pressed his hand against his chest.

‘What’s the matter?’ I said, as aggressively as I could. ‘Indigestion?’

The door in front of us slid open.

As we crossed the open space of the Outdoor Room I marvelled again at the smell of fresh air, the way clouds scudded on their holographic loop across the sky and at the distant bird sound.

‘How can Lewis be here?’

‘Smoke and mirrors,’ Elijah said.

I stared at him. He didn’t appear in the slightest bit shocked to find Lewis was actually alive. Which meant he must already know.

Still. I got the distinct impression he had no idea why Lewis had turned up at the compound. With Rachel. My chest tightened. I couldn’t see beyond the hologram walls of the Outdoor Room, but she must be out there.

As we reached the front gate, this strange fluttering feeling started up in my stomach. I realised that I was nervous about seeing her. Maybe I was just picking up on Elijah’s nerves. He was sweating worse now and frowning as he muttered to the security guard on the door. He peered at the intercom screen.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he barked.

He was standing in front of the screen so I couldn’t see Lewis’s face, but I could hear his voice.

‘The relocation was compromised. RAGE have been on our tail since Scotland,’ he said. ‘I had to bring Artemis here.’

Elijah said something in Spanish. It sounded like he was swearing.

He stood in front of the eye scanner. The door opened. Lewis appeared on the other side, his lips pressed together. He looked worried.

And then Rachel stepped out from behind him. She looked completely different from the last time I’d seen her. Strong and determined. Not all bowed over herself, like she used to be, apologising for existing. And her hair was tied back off her face.

Her very pretty face.

She met my eye for just a second, then looked at Lewis.

‘Well, come on,’ Elijah said impatiently. He stepped away from the door so that Lewis and Rachel had room to walk inside.

They stepped inside. Lewis raised his hand with the palm flat, the fingers together. He held it steady for split second, then dipped the fingers downwards.

And then several things happened at once.

Rachel dived forwards and grabbed me, pulling me down beside her onto the floor.

Elijah yelled out – an incoherent roar of frustration.

A gun fired behind Lewis. Then another.

One of the security guards rushed past me to the door. I turned my head in time to see Lewis twisting the man’s arm behind his back, forcing him to the ground.

‘Run,’ he hissed.

More gunfire. Elijah was trying to shut the main gate. Rachel was dragging me across the ground – half crawling like a snake.

‘What’s happening?’ I yelled. Gunshots were ringing out, deafeningly loud in the enclosed concrete passage outside. Then a huge explosion.

I froze. ‘What the—?’

‘RAGE.’ Rachel tugged at my arm. ‘They’ve bombed the gate. The second car’ll be coming through. Come on.’ She scrambled to her feet and rushed into the Outdoor Room.

An alarm screeched out all around us, piercing through the gunshots.

Security guards flooded past us. There was no sign of either Elijah or Lewis.

I raced beside Rachel through the Outdoor Room. Her eyes were wide, staring all around her as she ran.

More security guards were rushing towards us. RAGE’s gunfire boomed behind.

‘Oh, God,’ Rachel said. ‘We’re right in the middle.’

I grabbed her hand. ‘This way.’ I ducked sideways into a clump of trees, then wove my way right round to the stream. The shooting sounded close. Screams and yells echoed all around us.

The shed that led back to the main part of the compound was open – more security guards hurtling through it.

We reached it. I pulled Rachel after me. In one side. Out the other. Even in the corridor you could still hear the fighting.

‘Lewis said we should go to Mel’s room,’ Rachel said urgently. ‘He told me where . . .’

‘She’s not there.’ I pelted down the corridor towards the lab areas. We had to get back to Elijah’s room. Mel was there. Daniel was there. And neither RAGE nor Elijah’s security guards would be able to follow us.

The alarm blared out as we swerved round the corner.
No
. Ahead the lab area was blocked off with a large corrugated-iron shutter from floor to ceiling.

We skidded to a halt.

‘Is there another way?’

I nodded, then sprinted back down the corridor, trying to remember the other – longer – way round towards the living quarters. The sound of the fighting grew closer again. I sped up. Left round the corner. Right down another corridor.

Left. Left again. Blood pounded in my ears. A final right turn. Rachel ran lightly beside me, her trainers sounding a tapping beat on the vinyl floor.

‘You came here with RAGE?’ I panted.

‘To rescue you.’

What?
I stopped. ‘But RAGE want me dead.’

‘I’ll explain later,’ Rachel gasped. ‘How much further?’

‘We’re here.’ I pointed to Elijah’s private door. I stood in front of the eye scanner. The bar of light flashed down my face. The door opened.

I knew as soon as I walked inside that Mel had gone. The logic of it hit me like a brick round the head. Of course she’d gone. Why would she hang around here waiting for Elijah to come back and find her? I strode across the main room, flinging open the doors to the bedroom and bathroom. Then I crossed over to the holographic panel, squatted down and punched in the access code. The panel slid back. The room inside was empty too. I strode across and through the door leading out into the rest of the private apartment.