Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (52 page)

Nikki tried to do the same, but she couldn't help casting uneasy glances back up toward the hog-tied guard. Sam wouldn't be happy if she broke silence this close to their target, but having an enemy at her back was driving Nikki crazy.
 

When she couldn't stand it anymore, she leaned over to put her mouth against Sam's ear and breathed a whisper so soft even she could barely hear it. "Won't somebody find that guy if he starts making noise?"

Sam's shoulder tensed under her arm at the first word, but he didn't pull away. He waited until she finished then slowly leaned back to return the favor. His whisper tickled Nikki's ear, sending a shiver from her neck all the way down, but she held still and kept her eyes on the clearing.

"He's the only sentry on this side. We'll be in and out before his next check-in."

Nikki met Sam's eyes when he pulled away and nodded her understanding. She felt a little better, but not completely mollified. Everything about this situation was making her jumpy. The sooner they got inside and found out what was going on the better.
 

"Ready," Sam whispered into the com.

After another few seconds, Sam looked back and made a gesture Nikki was pretty sure meant to stay put, but she looked at him blankly, mostly out of a futile hope he'd change his mind. He leaned over to whisper again, causing another tingle, and confirmed he wanted her to stay in hiding until he called for her.

Nikki nodded and eased down to the cool ground to wait. She wanted to argue, something fierce, but she'd made a deal with Elias. She either did what Sam said when he said it, or she sat this one out in the transport with Cole and Impact, who was nursing a cut back and a crippled attitude. That's the last place she wanted to be.
 

"Move in," Elias commanded through the com.

Sam stood and crossed the open ground in a casual stroll, his rifle held propped across the crook of one arm like he was…like he was on patrol. Nikki smiled as she watched him pay attention to everything except the building he was approaching.
 

He was good. He was Corso good, not that she'd ever say so out loud. Neither Sam nor Corso would be happy about that observation.

Sam walked straight toward the door, and Nikki held her breath. The red eye of the chip scanner winked from a small dome beside the handle. No amount of confidence or subterfuge would fool that thing. Which meant it was go time. Sam was about to break into action.
 

Nikki tensed and glanced at the windows on either side of the door. It was dark inside, but that could be just a ruse. If this place had automated defenses, those windows could be covering any kind of—

The scanner flashed green and the door popped open before Sam reached it. He stepped inside, stooping as he crossed the threshold to leave a rock in the jamb to keep the door from sealing.

"How the hell?" Nikki breathed to herself.

Kate. Maybe she'd hacked the place remotely somehow. Or…Nikki glanced back up the dark hill toward the tied guard, smiling again. Sam must have taken the guard's ID card without Nikki seeing. So the ninja.
 

She turned back to watch the building, but nothing was happening. No alarms. No gun fire. Nothing. The com was silent as well, which was her only comfort. If something had gone wrong, surely someone would have said so. Someone would have called the retreat or warned Nikki. Surely.
 

She considered asking Kate, who had to be watching through some satellite or another, but Nikki held her tongue. She breathed through her anxiety, willing her heart to slow.

She watched and waited, for an alarm, an explosion of gunfire, a regular explosion. She didn't know what she'd expected, but dark silence wasn't it.

After an eternity of nothing, the door swung open and Sam waved Nikki inside.
 

That was it?
Nikki thought but got no response. Michael hadn't made an appearance since morning PT, not even during the creatures' attack on the cabin. She repeated the question to Sam when she slipped past him into a dim hallway.
 

"So far," he said quietly. "No resistance to speak of."
 

He didn't look happy about it. In fact, he looked more concerned than when they'd arrived. Apparently he didn't believe in easy any more than Michael did.

They made a couple of turns through the featureless hall, walking past open rooms Sam ignored, which had to mean he'd cleared them already. Their last turn led them into the main area of the building, the giant, wide-open main area. The entire front third of the building was one open atrium with a glass-domed third-floor skylight as the focal point. Balconies ran around the open area on three sides on the second and third floors, but the workstations dotting them had glass walls and frosted glass floors to not obstruct the view of the skylight and the solid wall of windows facing the front lawn.
 

The only furniture on the ground floor was a single round reception kiosk. Coop was leaned over the console of the kiosk, his weapon slung on his back, the single bound and gagged security guard face down on the floor behind him.

At the back of the room the clear cylinder of an elevator shaft stretched to the roof, the curved balconies on each level meeting up with it to form horizontal arches.
 

Gideon stood under the lower arch, staring up at the levels above, his expression fixed and unreadable. Elias stood nearby examining the scan screen on the elevator.

"Clear as well," Ace said, walking out of the hallway near Gideon, a mirror image of the one Nikki and Sam were leaving.
 

"Coop?" Elias asked.

"We oughta have a connection in a sec," Coop replied without looking up. "Kate honey, give a shout when you're in."

"Efficient," another voice said, but it wasn't Kate, and it wasn't over the com. It came from speakers somewhere in the room. Nikki's breath caught at the voice. She hadn't heard it in months, but she'd never forget it.

The reaction from the soldiers around Nikki was quick and consistent. Hands tightened on weapons. Eyes darted around to every window and doorway. All but one went on full alert and started backing toward the center of the room. All except Gideon. He simply blinked slowly and lowered his gaze from the roof to Elias. They shared a look, then Gideon looked at Nikki, his expression still wooden.

"And punctual as ever," Savior's voice said over the speakers.
 

The lights in the room came up to full level. Nikki saw Ace glance a question at Coop, but he was already stepping away from the kiosk, his rifle ready, shaking his head.

The elevator, which had been parked on the top level, started to lower toward the main floor.
 

Sam stepped in front of Nikki, gently but firmly pushing her back against the wall beside the door they'd entered. The others took up what defensive positions they could in the open room, training their weapons on the elevator.
 

All except Gideon. He just watched, motionless.

Nikki tensed when the elevator stopped, but the door slid open to reveal an empty car.

"Join me," Savior said. "Sub-level three. Please."

Gideon

Gideon stepped out of the elevator into a memory. A memory carefully constructed of steel, concrete, and thermal tile. A memory populated with spartan workstations, spotless precision tools, and holographic displays. A memory tied to emotional responses he'd worked hard to purge decades before. A memory that served only to reinforce his instinct to take Nikki and flee this place.

In the subterranean levels of an unassuming building in remote Canada, Savior had rebuilt the lab he and Gideon had shared in the years following the Event. Though windowless and surrounded by mountain bedrock instead of perched on a hillside overlooking a shattered city, the lab before Gideon was in every other way a perfect tribute to a moment in time when he and Savior had shared a common goal. A time when they'd been allies. A time when they'd been friends. A time that could not be resurrected.
 

Savior stood near the center of the hexagonal room across a long exam table, his youthful face completing the illusion. Savior's appearance hadn't aged a day since the Event. Like Gideon, the energy he'd absorbed in the explosion gifted him with cellular regeneration that showed no sign of slowing more than half a century later. Unlike Gideon, his seemingly unchanged appearance was a blessing, not a curse.

Gideon's gaze dropped to the exam table, to the carcass in mid vivisection, with its unmistakable black chitinous skin and hooked talons. From this angle, split as the carcass was from groin to throat, Gideon could see only the right half of the creature, the two limbs nearly identical to his own, like this vision from the past was what could have been, what Savior might have done to him given time.

He looked up to find Savior watching him like he knew the path Gideon's thoughts were traveling. There had been a time when words had been unnecessary for them as they worked together. They'd known each other so well. They'd been like brothers.
 

Savior's gaze shifted as the others filed out of the elevator behind Gideon. His eyes greeted each of them with a look of cool familiarity. He weighed, analyzed, and dismissed each with a second's glance. Until his gaze found Nikki.
 

He maintained his mask of detachment with Nikki, his veneer of nonchalance, but his gaze lingered on her a second longer, his blink came a heartbeat too late. Savior was a manipulator of the highest caliber with decades spent perfecting his art. He was master of his every gesture and expression. If the slightest emotion were allowed to reveal itself, you could be assured it was borne of calculated intent.
 

Gideon knew the man beneath the legend well enough to feel a splinter of hope, however. If Savior did feel something genuine for Nikki, Gideon might be able to use that connection, to exploit that weakness.

Gideon needed a lifeline. He was stumbling blindly in the face of Savior's latest assault, which could have been exactly his enemy's intent. The presence of the creatures prevented Gideon from indulging his visions, his strongest weapon. When the creatures were close, his alien side took over, a shift of consciousness he was powerless to stop.
 

Blessedly for all, his creature's rage was directed at its own kind. Its fury was for the other creatures alone until they were dead or out of range of its senses. Once they were gone, Gideon knew from experience the creature would turn on anyone nearby. Therefore, when the alien forced the shift, throwing him to the other side, Gideon couldn't afford to seek answers in the smoky eddies, as he had before. Instead he was forced to focus all his will on regaining control, so the second the other creatures were gone, he could take over and stop his rampage.
 

He'd seen nothing in the visions for weeks, nothing to give him a clue about what Savior was planning, no hint of why he'd grown these clones of the alien the creature and turned them loose, aside from their obvious effect on Gideon. He'd seen nothing about this day, this meeting. He was completely unprepared and at another's mercy, a feeling he didn't relish.

Savior's gaze returned to Gideon. "I've been expecting you, Marcus. You look…well." The pause was slight but pointed. "You can put away your weapons," he said to the others, clasping his hands behind him and standing at ease. "My men will stand down unless you attempt something…ill-advised."

Elias took a step closer, staring Savior down, the firm clench of his jaw the only outward sign of the turmoil Gideon knew he must be feeling. Otherwise, no one moved or holstered a weapon.

"You've seen how light the defenses are at this facility," Savior said, his gaze on Elias. "You have nothing to fear."

Ace cleared her throat pointedly. Beside her, Padre pointed to three recesses spaced along the multi-faceted ceiling. Gideon could see faint movement through the opening in the back of one of them.

Savior smiled and nodded to Padre and Ace as if conceding a point. "As I said, I was expecting you. And as I said, as long as you attempt nothing ill-advised, you have nothing to fear. You are free to leave at any time, if that is your wish." His eyes shifted to Nikki for that last.

Nikki again. She was the key. She was Savior's goal. But if luring her to him was all he wanted, why concoct such an unpredictable scheme?
 

Reproducing the alien creatures, no doubt from the corrupted DNA he'd collected from Gideon decades ago, sending them to track her down—yes, it worked. But what was to stop them from killing her when they found her? How could Savior know Nikki would come to him after she escaped from them? If she escaped. How could he know Gideon would bring her to him?

Something was wrong. This wasn't like Savior. A scheme this desultory was uncharacteristic. It smacked of desperation. The man before Gideon was far from desperate. He had been in control of this situation since the day he captured Nikki.

Gideon, however, had been scrambling for years, struggling to find the best course of action despite having a window into the future. Had he been able to separate himself from the situation, and had the stakes been less dear, the irony might have amused him. Instead, it was salt in the wound.

"What happened?" Elias asked, stepping closer to the table, his gaze dipping briefly to the splayed creature. "Have you lost control of your new soldiers?"

Elias held his assault rifle angled across his chest in a relaxed attitude, the bulk of its weight on the sling, but his eyes said he was ready to bring it to bear in a heartbeat if needed. The quick, amused twitch to Savior's lips said he knew as much.

Savior cocked his head. "Interesting choice of words," he said. He watched Elias for a second as his hint of a smile slowly flattened. "Unless, that is—" He looked at Gideon. "You haven't told them."

It was Gideon's turn to school his expression. Whatever game Savior was playing, Gideon refused to participate. He retreated behind the emotional barrier, turning his face to unreadable stone while he turned Savior's words in his mind.