Genesis (23 page)

But greed begat greed, and even the huge sums Umbrella paid him didn't satisfy him.

The quality of the pussy increased tremendously, though. Hell, living in a big mansion for free, getting to have sex with Alice pretty much any time he wanted—this was the life.

It wasn't enough, though. Not when he knew what he could get for the T-virus.

He thought dozens of times about letting Alice in on his little plan. They could split the money, run off to some tropical island without an extradition treaty, and have sex under the sun for the rest of their lives.

Or, more realistically, until they got tired of each other and moved on. But whatever—the plan was sound.

However, she was also good enough that he had to be careful.

So he kept an eye on her.

Out of the blue, Alice asked some woman from the Hive out to lunch, which aroused Spence's suspicions.
Those suspicions had orgasms when Spence learned that the woman was Lisa Broward, the person who handled the security for the Red Queen.

By the time the lunch rolled around and Alice had the Town Car drop them off a fair distance from the mansion, the suspicions were already smoking their post-coital cigarettes.

Luckily, the mansion was well appointed with top surveillance equipment. Spence pointed a distance microphone at the area where Alice and the Broward woman were talking, put on the headset, and started recording.

It took a while before they were in range of the microphone. He caught bits and pieces here and there.

Alice:
“It took a while, but it wasn't too hard to figure out once I knew what I was looking for.”

Broward:
“What's going on, Alice?”

Alice:
“It's a T-virus, and you're right, it's not at all natural.”

Broward:
“So they've created a killer that turns you into a zombie?”

Then nothing for a bit. Spence listened to static until he heard Alice's voice again.

“I may look like a Bond girl, Lisa, but I'm not a Bond villain. I didn't bring you here to kill you. I brought you here to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“I thought that was obvious. After all, Mahmoud al-Rashan was your friend—and I can't imagine that the settlement Umbrella gave his wife did much to alleviate
her grief. It took a lot of guts to do what you did. You want the virus?”

“I might.”

“I can help you
get
the virus. I have access to security plans, surveillance codes, the works.”

“But—?”

“But there's going to be a price.”

“Name it.”

“You have to guarantee me that you'll bring this corporation down.”

“What makes you think I want to bring anyone down? Maybe I just want to use the virus to kill the people who killed Mahmoud.”

“You're not that type, Lisa. Trust me, I know killers. I've spent all my adult life surrounded by them, on both sides of the law. You don't have it in you. What you do have is outrage, and that's what I need.”

“Why can't you do this yourself?”

“I'm too far inside. There are ways they can shut me down. You're still pretty clean, though. You've only been here a couple of months, they haven't been able to sink their claws all the way into you yet. If I try it won't work. To be honest, it may not work for you, either. These people are good.”

“And if I screw it up, you're still clear.”

“You're not nearly as stupid as Spence looks. This is a dangerous game, Lisa. You sure you want to play it?”

“Completely sure.”

Spence heard enough.

He turned off the recorder.

So much for the tropical island.

Spence kept a low profile for the next few days. Eventually, his buyer alerted him that he was ready.

He and Alice had particularly good sex that morning. Maybe the best ever.

Ironic, really.

She slept while he got dressed, her glorious naked body sprawled out on the incredibly comfortable mattress.

He was definitely going to miss the sex.

On a whim, he wrote
TODAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE
on the pad of paper on the desk in the bedroom.

Then he proceeded into the Hive.

He entered the proper security codes to get in, he put on the Hazmat suit, then went through the titanium-reinforced door to the temperature-regulated room that housed the T-virus, again entering the proper security code. The little-kid computer was none the wiser.

Walking over to one of the utility closets, Spence removed a hypo-gun and a metal case. The gun fit neatly into one of the case's slots. All the other slots were intended to house small cylindrical tubes.

He walked over to the far wall, which included a PlastiGlas window, and a horizontal slot under it. Spence opened the slot by activating a control. It slid downward, allowing him to slide the case into the small chamber.

Smoky condensation puffed out through the slot, as the temperature inside the chamber was quite low, and
only the Hazmat suit kept him from feeling the overwhelming cold that issued forth.

The slot closed once the case was ensconced within. Spence activated several other controls, one of which unfurled the two waldoes from sides of the window, another of which caused the bottom of the chamber to slide open to reveal fourteen vials.

Manipulating the waldoes, Spence placed each of the vials into the slots—half the T-virus, half the anti-virus.

Once all fourteen vials were in place, the case shut automatically, and sealed itself. With the tray cleared of the vials and the case sealed, the computer would allow the slot to open once again. When it did, Spence grabbed the case and brought it out of the temperature-controlled room and into the adjacent laboratory.

He removed the Hazmat suit, put on a pair of rubber gloves, and entered the keycode. The case obligingly opened, an action that served two functions: to verify that the keycode worked and to allow Spence access to one of the vials containing the blue liquid.

Pulling out the vial with a protected hand, he sealed the case once again, placed it in a duffel bag, zipped the bag up, and hoisted it onto one shoulder.

Before departing the lab, he tossed the vial toward the center of the room, then turned, exited, and closed and locked the door.

He had to move quickly now—he had maybe five minutes before the Queen would lock down the place. It took two minutes to make it to the train station level.
Moving so fast, he collided with one of the corporate twits—resulting in spilled coffee and a sarcastic “Thank you!” from the victim, but Spence didn't bother to even acknowledge him—he made his way to the train.

As one of the two people from Security assigned to the mansion, it was easy enough to commandeer the train from the engineeer on duty. After placing the case in the storage closet, he drove the train up to the mansion, then opened the trapdoor to the undercarriage. He unplugged the connections and disconnected the train from the third rail, then went into the storage compartment to retrieve his prize.

The next thing he knew, he woke up on the train, surrounded by Alice, One, One's goons, and some other guy he didn't know, heading
back
to the Hive—only he didn't remember who he was.

Fucking computer, she moved too quickly. And why did she gas the house and the train station, anyhow?

But it didn't matter.

Spence remembered everything now.

“Spence?”

He turned to look at Alice.

Then he looked over at the table where she'd left Melendez's Colt.

Did Alice remember everything?

Did it matter?

They both went for the pistol at the same time.

Spence was just a bit faster.

“Tsk tsk tsk,” he said, pointing the weapon at Alice
as she got up from the flooded floor, having fallen in her abortive attempt to retrieve the Colt Spence was now holding. Then he pointed the gun at Addison to make sure he didn't try anything, then back at Alice. He didn't bother pointing it at Melendez. She wasn't a factor anymore.

“We can still make it out of here,” he said. “Come with me. We can have everything we ever wanted. The money's just out there waiting—you wouldn't
believe
how much.”

Alice gave him a look that he knew all too well. Even if she didn't have all her memory yet, her personality was
definitely
coming back to the fore.

Under other circumstances, Spence might've found it arousing.

“Was that how you thought all my dreams were gonna come true?”

Spence would have laughed, except Addison chose that moment to run down the stairs trying to make some kind of stupid hero play. That lasted right up until Spence shoved the Colt into his face.

“Please—I wouldn't want to shoot you.” Spence smiled. “I might need the bullets.” The smile fell. “Back off.”

Addison backed off.

In a quiet voice, Alice said, “I won't take any part of this.”

Spence had expected as much. “Okay. But you can't just wash your hands of everything. We work for the same company.”

“
I
was trying to stop them.”

So she
did
remember. Bully for her. “You really think people like him,” he indicated Addison with the pistol, “will ever change anything? You're wrong. Nothing
ever
changes.”

Her voice ragged, Melendez asked, “Where's the anti-virus?” Spence had to give her credit—she should've been long gone by now, but she was holding on for dear life. Literally.

Her question provoked another chuckle. More irony. “It's on the train, where you found me. You couldn't have been standing more than three feet from it. I so nearly made it out. Didn't realize that bitch of a computer had defense systems outside the Hive.” He turned to Alice. “In or out?”

She said nothing.

He repeated the query. “In or out?”

“I don't know what we had,” she finally said, “but it's over.”

All they had was great sex. And, great as great sex was, it was easy enough to find elsewhere.

Then he felt a body on his back and pain slicing into his left shoulder.

Pointing the gun behind him, he took three shots at the zombie in the gut. That knocked the figure off. Turning around, splashing water as he did so, he then shot the zombie—whom he recognized as Dr. Bolt, one of the people developing the virus—in the head.

Addison, being just that kind of asshole, decided to try to take advantage. He jumped Spence from behind,
but Spence elbowed him in the head, and he fell down into the water.

Before Alice could try something similar, he raised the Colt again.

“Back! Back the fuck off.”

He moved slowly backwards up the stairs. Alice moved right with him, staring at him with those fucking blue eyes of hers.

Those same eyes that he looked into when they took their “wedding picture,” and thought that she'd be fantastic in bed.

Those same eyes that gazed longingly up at him—or down at him, depending—when he finally did get her in the sack.

Now, those eyes only held a promise that, given half a chance, she'd kick his ass instead of compliment him on it.

Well, her tough shit. He had the gun.

“I'm missin' you already.”

He moved back through the door and shut it.

Then he shot out the locking mechanism.

With any luck, Melendez would die and eat the other two alive. Then it'd all be cleaned up. No witnesses, no trace of what happened to the virus.

And Spence home free to sell his newfound acquisition.

First, though, he needed to inject some of the green stuff into his own bloodstream, now that he was infected. But that would be a simple matter—and he could spare it. After all, because he broke one of the virus
vials when he infected the Hive, he had an uneven number, so using the anti-virus on himself wasn't much of a big deal.

For the second time that day, he ran toward the upper levels of the Hive to make his escape.

MATT SUPPOSED HE SHOULD'VE BEEN RElieved that Alice wasn't the bad guy here, that Lisa's instincts had been correct to trust her, but finding out that it was Spence who was singlehandedly responsible for this entire nightmare made him sick to his stomach.

Or, rather, sicker.

Alice threw off her jacket. Matt remembered that it was actually Spence's jacket, given to her outside this very lab to keep her warm.

He went over to the door and tried to pull the handle so it would open. It didn't work.

“Your boyfriend's a real asshole,” Rain muttered.

“He shot the locking mechanism out.” Matt gave up on the door and turned to face the two women. “I can't believe that son of a bitch is gonna get away with this.”

“I don't think so.”

All three of them turned to look at the monitor that was now lit up with the Umbrella logo. A speaker near the monitor sounded with the child voice of the Red Queen.

“I've been a bad bad girl.”

Matt watched as the monitor provided a view of Spence running up the stairs to the train station.

The view switched to that of an overhead security camera located right by the train itself, which was right where they'd left it several lifetimes ago. Spence went to the train, opened the outer door to the same closet J.D. had found him in. He pulled out a duffel bag, unzipped it, then removed a shiny metal case that had four circles in the four corners and a codepad.

Entering a code into the pad, the four circles all turned, and then the top slid open.

A smile of relief spread over Spence's face. Matt wished he could say the same for himself. That was the case Alice had been planning to steal and give to Lisa—and which Lisa was going to give to him.