Project 731 (11 page)

15

The three of us act in unison, but uncoordinated. I take a swing at the man’s head. Collins punches low, going for his gut. And Alessi brings the tech, a crackle of electricity revealing a stun gun thrust at the man’s chest. Each response is justified, I think. If the man sounded the alarm, we’d have to fight our way out of here, and there’s a good chance we’d lose that fight. But all three of us connect at the same time, and the man crumples to the elevator floor like Peter Griffin after falling down the stairs, arms askew, legs twisted. It’s a pitiful sight.

We quickly step inside the elevator, and I jam down the ‘close doors’ button several times, hoping no one will notice the man lying at our feet. The doors slide shut, and I relax, looking down at the sprawled man. “Okay, can we all agree that this guy got a raw deal, even if he works for GOD?”

“Is he alive?” Collins asks.

I check for a pulse, watching a wash of purple spread over his swelling cheek. “He’s going to wish he wasn’t when he wakes up.”

The man suddenly groans, giving me a start. Driven by self-preservation instincts, I nearly punch him again.

The man cradles his face, then his gut. “W—what did you do to me?”

“I believe the scientific term would be, put the smack down.” I take the man’s white lab coat in one hand and let him see my other, clenched in a fist. “Who are you?”

He raises his hand in defeat. “What do you want?”

“Pretty sure I asked for your name,” I say.

“Brice.”

Alessi glowers at the man. “Alicio Brice?”

He looks up at her, surprised. Confirmation enough.

“This is who we want,” she says.

Collins hoists the man up so I can get in his face properly. “Take us to...” I look at Alessi. “Where do we want to go?”

“His office.”

I look back at Brice. “...your office. Now.”

“Fifth floor,” he says, and I punch in the number. “But...you don’t want to do this. Not now.”

“Because you’re dangerous?” I ask, my tone mocking. “Because you’ll hunt us down? I wouldn’t make threats if I were you.”

“You don’t understand. A Tsuchi is loose. I have to—”

“We know,” I say.

He squints one eye at me. The other is starting to swell shut. “You didn’t...”

“Let it out?” I say. “We’re not crazy. That’s your department.”

“You know nothing about what we do,” he says.

The elevator stops and the doors open, but I don’t step out. There are, no doubt, security cameras in the hallway. I was concerned the elevator would have them, too, but since no alarm has been sounded, I don’t think that’s true. I put my foot in front of the door to keep it from closing or returning to another floor. Alessi draws her sidearm and peeks into the hallway. Since she doesn’t start shooting, I assume we’re in the clear.

I probably shouldn’t, but I decide to blow Brice’s mind. “You work for GOD, but I doubt the Good Lord looks highly upon what the Genetic Offense Directive actually does, which is basically playing god, coming up with new and horrible chimeras. Weaponized biology. Like Kaiju, capital K, who died on Island 731. Or the Tsuchi, which killed so many of your men on the island that you had to fire bomb it, a tactic you repeated in Oregon because your men, the BlackGuard, did a shitty job. You should really have a talk with that Silhouette guy. He tends to let targets slip through the cracks. And yeah, I’m supposed to be dead, too, which is the real reason you’re so surprised to see me, not because you admire my awesomeness and envy my kaiju,
lowercase K
, mojo, but that’s probably also true. And to top all that off, you’ve got Nemesis’s body stashed inside your hangar outside, and if that’s true, you’re really screwed.”

Brice looks equal parts confused and surprised. I’ve hit the nail on the head and didn’t even know the hammer existed. Or something. To his credit, he doesn’t try to deny anything. “Why...would we be screwed if Nemesis’s corpse were in the warehouse?”

“And here I thought you were a smarty pants.” I can’t help but grin. “Because she’s not dead, and she
really
doesn’t like bad men who do bad things. Maybe you noticed that when she destroyed half the East Coast to take vengeance on a single man.”

“I can assure you, she is quite dead.”

I was just guessing that Nemesis was in the hangar, but he’s just confirmed it, and despite his insistence that she is deceased, I know what Maigo and I felt. I turn to Alessi. “We need to do this fast.” Then to Brice. “Lead the way, mon capitan. I don’t think I need to tell you what will happen if you give us a hard time. You’ve already had a taste of the triple threat.”

Brice sneers. “I have always loathed your sense of humor.”

I’m not sure if he’s talking about my few appearances on national news, or footage they have from spying on us, but I don’t ask. The more it seems like I’m in control of the situation, the better. I wipe the smile from my face. “I think you’d prefer me funny, than not. Now lead the way.”

We enter the hallway doing our best to look casual. Alessi has the taser positioned behind her back, and I’m standing behind her to block the view of it, but any keen-eyed observer will see the fresh shiner around Brice’s eye. But even if they do, security has their hands full with the loose Tsuchi.

There’s three doors on the left side of the hallway. Brice heads for the one in the middle. When he reaches it, he swipes his keycard and the door pops open. We step inside and stop, shocked by what’s on the other side. The first thing that surprises me is the scope of the place. The bright white room stretches from one side of the building to the other. But I quickly forget the size when I see the line of clear domes, each containing a horrible creature, the likes of which I’ve never seen, or at least, never seen in this combination. But I do recognize the creature closest to us, not from personal experience, but from Hawkins’s description. The crocodile spins toward us, moving fluidly in two feet of water. As we walk past, its mouth opens, unfurling two long tentacles that slap against the curved glass. Had there been no partition between us, it could have snatched me and yanked me into its gaping mouth.

“This place is a freak show,” Collins says, mirroring my thoughts.

Brice leads us to a lone desk at the center of the room, holding a single, thin laptop. All of it white, like the room.

“A little too space-age hipster in here for my taste,” I say, but I’m ignored.

Brice stops beside the desk, probes his swelling eye with his fingers and asks, “What now?”

“Log in,” Alessi says.

Brice starts tapping keys. “Even if I log in, the system is text based. You’re not going to find what you’re looking for.”

I glance at the screen and see something like a DOS prompt appear, but nothing really familiar. They’ve got their own operating system. Of course they have their own operating system.

“Are you saying you’re not going to comply?” I ask, the threat in my tone says the rest.

“I’m saying you don’t have time.”

I’m not entirely sure what he’s talking about. Security, in theory, could already be on their way, but how would he know that? I draw my handgun from behind my back and aim it at his head. “The remaining Tsuchi. Where are they?”

He points to the left, and I see them, lying on their backs inside a dome, legs curled up. “They look dead.”

“They’re pretending,” he says.

“Destroy them.”

His eyes widen a touch. “They’re priceless specimens.”

“Do it.”

“Do you have any idea how many people lost their lives to—”

I chamber a round. “It’s you or them.”

“You’re no killer,” Brice says.

“Not of men,” I say. “But I make exceptions for monsters, and I think you qualify.”

I mean what I’m saying, and I’m pretty sure he can see that, because he starts tapping keys, bringing up a diagram of the room. He taps the screen, highlighting the dome containing the Tsuchi and then taps a red icon. When a warning message pops up, he taps Continue. A moment later, the glass dome is awash in flames. The Tsuchi bound into the air, slamming against the glass and writhing until they fall back into their faux death poses, no longer acting.

A sound like distant gunshots tickles my ears, barely audible, but a constant stream. Somewhere, a battle is being fought. Sounds like a lot for one Tsuchi.

Brice glances toward the sound, but hides any concern it might give him. “What now?”

“Now,” Alessi says, “You can step back.”

She pulls a USB flashdrive from her pocket and plugs it into the laptop. The screen immediately fills with preprogrammed commands. Software opens and closes faster than I can see. Databases scroll past. Diagrams. Case files.

Brice looks horrified. “You’re with
them
, aren’t you?”

“Them, who?” I ask.

He looks at me, a wild look in his eyes. “Zoomb. They have been trying to infiltrate our operation for months. You should be careful who you get into bed with, Hudson.”

“What are you doing?” I ask Alessi.

“Erasing their database,” she says. “Everything they have ever researched, created or stolen is being erased. Including everything they have about the FC-P, and your friends.”

“No!” Brice says, and tries to grab the laptop. Collins holds him back. He struggles for a moment, but realizes Collins is more than a match for him and gives up. “Can’t you see? She’s not simply erasing the data, she is copying it! You are helping a corporation perform espionage on a government agency. This is treason!”

Despite the despicable nature of what they do here, he’s technically right, especially if Alessi is indeed copying their data with the intention of handing it over to her employers. The good news is that GOD could never publicly tell anyone what they really do here, and if I need him to, the President would have my back. The bad news is that data or no data, the FC-P will be dead center in GOD’s crosshairs. Not that we weren’t already, but they’re not going to simply come looking for Lilly. They’re going to come for vengeance.

That is, if they know we did this. Which brings me to the dilemma at hand.

Brice.

If I let the man walk, I’ll be starting a war. But the alternative... Could I really kill the man?
No
, I decide, but I suspect Alessi might, and I’m not sure if I’ll try to stop her.

A vibration shakes the floor beneath us.

“What was that?” Collins asks.

“Time’s up,” Brice says.

The laptop screen goes black, leaving only a blinking red cursor. I snap my hand out and pluck the flashdrive out before Alessi can. She glowers at me for a moment, but says nothing.

A second vibration rattles the building.

“What’s happening?” I ask Brice.

“The Tsuchi. It multiplied.” A grin spreads across his lips. “With Nemesis’s corpse.”

Well, fuck.

That’s horrible news. But Brice has missed the obvious. “The Tsuchi only implant
living
hosts.”

Brice is about to argue, but is cut off by irrefutable evidence in support of my claim. The building shakes, as a roar, so loud and familiar, tears through the air.