Benito heard helicopter blades and looked up. Four of them.
‘What do we do now?’ he said.
Nasira opened the driver’s door to a Land Cruiser and hauled herself inside. ‘Get in.’
***
Damien stepped into Security Control. A silent army of computer screens flashed angrily at him over crumpled bodies. He looked down to see sixteen operators lying curled into themselves on the gray PVC floor. He checked a pulse. Nothing.
Denton pushed past him, a mix of sweat and blood covering his bare arms. He was still carrying the General’s finger, which he’d used to gain access to the Security Control room. ‘They weren’t shot,’ he said.
He stopped at a workstation, his attention flickering between the fifteen-foot wide screen and Damien. ‘You look like a stunned mullet,’ he said. ‘Are you feeling off?’
Damien noticed Denton slip his UFO-shaped grenade into his hip pocket. He made a point to keep an eye on that grenade.
‘Oh, I’m fine,’ he said. ‘Except for the fact I volunteered to kill my parents, thanks to your programming. Everything’s good.’
Denton looked as if he was about to roll his eyes but couldn’t be bothered. ‘You can keep blaming everyone else for what happened,’ he said. ‘Or you can take responsibility and actually do something.’
Damien squared off against him. ‘Why should I take responsibility? It’s not my responsibility to take.’ He kept his voice low. ‘Don’t try to manipulate me. We’re done here.’
Denton didn’t even blink. ‘I’m just trying to help you.’
‘Here’s hoping we don’t cross paths again,’ Damien said.
‘What the hell is that?’ Jay said.
He was pointing to a large screen tiled with live camera feeds. There was one part of the level that had caught his attention. Damien noticed it too. Among all the dead bodies, someone was still alive.
‘There! Again!’ Jay thrust a finger towards it, but as soon as he did, another feed replaced it.
With a few keystrokes, Denton brought the feed back for him, making it full-screen. ‘This one?’
Jay nodded, but didn’t say a word.
Damien stepped closer to check it out. It looked like some sort of solitary confinement chamber. Inside, there was a restroom and a bench with a finger-thin mattress. Sitting against the wall was a young woman in gray pajamas with a black hood over her head. Her chest rose and fell slowly. She was alive. Barely. There was a fresh dressing wrapped tightly over her left shoulder.
Denton shrugged. ‘I guess Sophia wasn’t so lucky.’
Jay sneezed, almost blasting Damien’s eardrums.
Denton glared at him. ‘That is not normal.’
‘That cell,’ Damien said. ‘Where is it?’
‘High-level containment.’ Denton leaned against a body slumped over an office chair. ‘It’s a short-term prison, mostly for interrogations.’
‘You mean torture,’ Damien said.
‘No, we outsource that.’ Denton pulled an old tooth from his mouth. ‘Hey, look at that. New tooth.’
‘How do I get to that cell?’ Damien asked.
Sophia was now crawling to her knees.
Denton seized Damien’s shoulder. His grip almost made Damien shiver. ‘You can’t. Use your head, Damien. It’s a trap.’
‘Bullshit,’ Jay said. ‘You just don’t want us to rescue her.’
‘No,’ Denton said. ‘You don’t get to where I am without developing an incredible sense of self-preservation. And a fuck-load of paranoia.’
‘I don’t care. I’m going to get her,’ Damien said. ‘You can do what you like.’
Denton stood in front of him. ‘I don’t like the sound of this. It has to be some kind of trap.’
‘What if Denton’s right?’ Jay said. ‘Not trying to play Devil’s advocate or anything.’
‘Think about it,’ Denton said.
‘I have,’ Damien said.
Denton spoke through clenched teeth. ‘She doesn’t care about you, Damien.’
‘You’re not exactly the world’s biggest expert on caring!’ Damien walked past him, for the door. ‘I’ll find my own way there. Jay?’
‘Sophia was using you, Jay. To get what she wanted,’ Denton said. ‘What did she ever do to help you?’
Damien paused in the doorway, waiting for Jay’s response.
‘She saved Damien’s life,’ he said.
‘Fine.’ Denton wagged the severed finger as though it were his own. ‘I suppose I’ll have to take you there.’
Chapter 52
Jay hadn’t said a word since leaving Security Control. Damien was a few paces ahead, following Denton, with his damp undershirt and sweat-beaded arms, across the polished concrete floor of the strangely donut-shaped corridor. He was starting to realize how unfulfilling it was to know the truth about his past. It didn’t fill any magic gap. It seemed like nothing could fill that gap now. Nasira was right. This changed nothing. He would be empty forever.
He stumbled; shot a hand out against a cell door, leaned against it. He’d killed Nasira. She’d let him live, helped him stay alive, and he’d just killed her. It wasn’t poetic or heartbreaking or devastating or any of that shit. He’d fucked up and she’d wound up dead.
Peering through the tiny square window in the cell door, Jay saw a prisoner curled up on his bed. He wasn’t breathing. They were all dead here too.
Jay pulled away. He looked ahead to find Denton had drawn to a halt. He ran to catch up.
They were standing before a cell door made of extremely thick metal. It reminded him of the blast doors at the Desecheo Island facility. Denton pressed the pad of the General’s severed finger against the fingerprint scanner on the control panel mounted on the door.
‘What a pleasant surprise,’ a woman said.
Jay turned to find Cecilia McLoughlin standing twenty meters behind him, at the west end of the donut-shaped corridor. On either side of her, a dozen armed Elohim adorned with pale blue UN helmets. They advanced towards Jay’s trio; aimed their PEP rifles at Denton.
‘We’re not loyal to the Fifth Column any longer,’ Damien said.
McLoughlin shrugged. ‘That’s inconsequential.’
‘How did you get in here?’ Jay asked.
‘Security personnel are dead. And I bypassed the electronic security using the same computer virus I gave you for Desecheo Island.’
‘You came to rescue Sophia?’ Damien said.
McLoughlin smiled. ‘Actually, I’m the reason she’s here to begin with.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Damien said. ‘How did that happen?’
‘Ring a ring o’roses, a pocketful of posies,’ McLoughlin said. ‘A-tishoo, a-tishoo—’
‘We all fall down,’ Denton said.
Jay looked at Denton. ‘What does that mean?’
The ceiling lights cast shards of darkness over Denton’s face. ‘It’s a nursery rhyme. I believe it’s a reference to the Black Death.’
‘Most probably,’ McLoughlin said. ‘One of the most devastating pandemics in human history. Wiped out around 75 million. Which, at the time, was about half the population of Europe.’
‘That’s the one carried by fleas on rats, right?’ Jay said. ‘The bubonic plague?’
‘Officially,’ McLoughlin said. ‘But evidence suggests the Black Death was not the bubonic plague. It was a virus. And it disappeared right around the time smallpox hit.’
‘Sounds like the Black Death mutated
into
smallpox,’ Denton said.
‘You would be correct,’ McLoughlin said. ‘Have you heard of the panspermia theory?’
‘Hold up,’ Damien said. ‘Are you saying Sophia has smallpox?’
Cecilia shook her head. ‘Sophia is carrying a genetically modified strain of the swine flu created at our very own Desecheo Island facility. I left her in Belize to be picked up by the Blue Berets.’
Denton frowned. ‘Protocol dictates that, with the Desecheo Island facility destroyed and my loyalty in question, Sophia should be taken directly to the General.’ He shook his head. It looked more like admiration than disappointment, Jay thought. ‘Which is exactly what you wanted.’
McLoughlin smiled, but only slightly. ‘Actually, I wanted her taken to the OpCenter, not UN headquarters. Nevertheless, she has infected all the personnel here. Some of them will visit the OpCenter.’
‘And then everyone starts dropping like flies,’ Denton said.
‘What about Sophia?’ Damien asked. ‘Will she die as well?’
‘She’s a Typhoid Mary,’ McLoughlin said. ‘An immune carrier.’
‘What about us? Are we infected?’ Jay asked.
McLoughlin laughed. ‘No, no, give yourself some credit. All Project GATE staff and operatives are inoculated.’
Denton’s hand disappeared into his hip pocket. ‘Why are you here?’
McLoughlin clasped her hands behind her back. ‘The panspermia theory proposes that viruses travel from planet to planet. They hitch rides on asteroids and comets. They survive atmospheric re-entry and combine with bacteria and DNA. They mutate.’
‘You’re saying the Black Death was an alien virus,’ Denton said.
‘In a manner of speaking. But good things can come of this too. A jump-start in evolution.
The psychopath
, as you call it.’
‘You’re saying psychopaths came from a virus?’ Damien said.
‘That’s fitting,’ Jay said.
‘No, I’m saying the mutation came from a virus,’ McLoughlin said. ‘The Black Death killed off the weak. And it made the strong
stronger
. It made them psychopaths. Survival of the fittest. And it’s because of this the Fifth Column will be undergoing some restructuring.’
‘That makes us at the forefront of human evolution,’ Denton said. ‘I like that. Has a nice ring to it.’
McLoughlin eyed him carefully. ‘You’re presuming that you’re included in this.’
‘I know I am,’ Denton said. ‘You see it in me. I see it in you. You’d be a fool to exile me. We’re stronger together.’
McLoughlin’s expression didn’t shift. ‘What I see is that you don’t carry the genetic flaws present in most people. That makes you different from them. But not different from the paranoid, power-hungry, sub-standard psychopaths. Like the General.’
‘We’ve taken care of the General,’ Denton said. ‘He was insane, Cecilia. He ran this planet without any regard for the consequences. He was digging us into a hole that would lead to the extinction of . . . of everything. Even us.’
‘I won’t disagree with you on that,’ McLoughlin said. ‘And that’s why I’ve decided to change our arrangement. The Fifth Column do not need a ruthless, impulsive leader at their helm. They need someone who can guide them with vision. Someone much smarter. So I’m afraid that your services in their current capacity are no longer required. You will be replacing Sophia in confinement.’
Denton inhaled sharply. ‘My skills are far more valuable to you outside of confinement. I’d suggest you consider a smarter alternative.’
‘I’ve considered everything. That’s why I’m the one screwing you over and not the other way around. I’ve known you long enough to know that if I give you an inch, you will take it all. And I’ll wind up just like the General. Dead. A victim of your purposeless pursuit of power.’
‘As opposed to me being a victim of
your
purposeless pursuit of power?’ Denton said.
McLoughlin smiled. ‘Exactly. I knew you’d understand.’
‘What about the Chimera vector?’ Damien said. ‘That pretty much screws up your whole plan. You won’t be able to reproduce.’
‘That’s inconsequential,’ McLoughlin said. ‘Only the finest of the foxes will survive. And the fewer the foxes, the more rabbits to feed them.’
‘Feed?’ Jay said. ‘What, you’re vampires now?’
‘I’d like to think the vampire myth was based upon us, but no, Jay, I don’t mean it literally. In many cultures, blood is symbolic for life. Your emotions are our sustenance, not your actual blood. It’s one of the reasons we need you. Also, it’s highly enjoyable.’
‘Every parasite needs a host,’ Jay said.
‘Every queen needs an empire,’ McLoughlin said.
‘So you’re the future of evolution . . . and you just happen to be sadistic?’ Damien said.
‘Something like that. Plus, the Chimera vector isn’t the all-catching net you were led to believe.’ She turned to her Elohim. ‘Remove Sophia from her cell.’
Jay watched as two pairs of Elohim entered the high-containment cell. Sophia was propped up on her knees, the black hood still over her head. The first pair remained at the entrance, their PEP rifles aimed, while the second pair slung their rifles over their backs and pulled Sophia onto her feet. They led her out of the cell and dropped her at McLoughlin’s feet. Kneeling and hunched over, Sophia was unnervingly still.
Jay swallowed. ‘What are you going to do with her?’
McLoughlin shrugged. ‘Well, the Fifth Column’s taken care of. All that’s left is the Akhana. Which shouldn’t be too hard since I know the location of every base.’
Jay felt ill. She was going to take Sophia to every base and kill every last member of the resistance. He shook his head. ‘You bitch.’
McLoughlin smiled. ‘And a good one, too.’
She pulled the hood from Sophia’s head. Sophia looked exhausted, defeated.
Four Elohim approached Jay, Damien and Denton, two on either side, keeping a safe distance. They gestured with their rifles for the trio to step into Sophia’s cell. Jay could hardly object. What good would it do anyone if he were lying paralyzed on the floor?
The cell door began to close. McLoughlin turned to leave.
Denton’s hand moved slightly. It was barely noticeable, but Jay caught it at the corner of his vision. He was holding his UFO-shaped grenade behind his back. Whatever he was planning, Jay hoped it would work.
Through the swiftly closing gap of the cell door, Jay watched the Elohim move away after McLoughlin. A pair of them moved to pick Sophia up. The gap in the blast door was no longer wide enough for anyone to slip through. Already, they had been forgotten.
Denton’s hand shot forward, his finger pressed down on the grenade, arming it. It left his grasp and skittered across the cell floor, just making it through the five-inch gap in the closing blast doors. It slid directly towards Sophia as the two Elohim bent down to grab her arms.
Nothing else existed right now. Nothing but the grenade and Sophia.
The grenade skimmed past her. Jay watched through the now three-inch gap, surprised as Sophia sprang into action. She pivoted on her knees and stretched one leg out. Her right boot clamped down over the grenade as though it was a hockey puck. She moved her leg in a wide arc, taking the grenade with it and shooting it in the direction of McLoughlin.