“Private, what the hell are you doing? Drop your weapon now! Are you trying to get me killed?”
“No, sir.”
Javier stretched up, glaring at the guard. “Put the gun on the ground. Slowly.” He hoped he sounded more authoritative than he felt.
The guard set the weapon on the floor against the wall.
“That’s better. Now open the other doors. We’re all leaving. Charlie, pick up the gun.”
“Captain,” the guard stared at Kyle, “you know we can’t let them leave.”
“We have to. I don’t feel like catching the virus. Do you?”
Raising his eyebrows, Javier angled the syringe upward. “I’ll get his carotid. He’ll be infecting all of you by morning. Open the doors.”
“Okay. Relax.” The guard held his badge up to a reader next to one of the closed dorm doors. It clicked, and he stuck his head inside. “Get your stuff. You’re leaving.”
As he went to the next door, Jonah and Mattson emerged. Both of their jaws dropped.
“Come here.” Javier pulled Kyle down the hall, meeting them halfway. “Just do what I say.”
Jonah’s eyes shifted, but he nodded.
Sam and Liz joined them from a room several doors down.
“Oh my God!” Liz jogged to Kyle and glared at Javier. “What the hell are you doing?”
Ignoring Liz, Javier addressed the guard. “Now, get on your knees and face the wall. Stay there for ten minutes.”
The guard didn’t move.
Kyle tilted his head as if exasperated. “Private, do not make me repeat everything he says.”
Javier suppressed a laugh.
The guard faced the wall and fell to his knees. Keeping his grip on Kyle, Javier shuffled past them and into the stairwell.
****
Liz’s mind raced as she followed Javier and Kyle down the stairs. Whatever they had planned, it appeared to be working. But who fired a gun?
“Head for the big garage door. It’s a faster escape,” Kyle said. “Then straight for the car. Did he shoot you?”
“No,” Javier said. “Brushed by my pants.”
“Aren’t you coming with us, Kyle?” Liz asked.
“No. If he takes me as a hostage, they’ll hunt you down. That’s less likely if it’s just you guys and the virus. They’ll call local authorities for assistance. I’ll say you’re headed to Nevada so they’ll look the wrong way. When I can get away, I’ll meet up with you guys in Virginia with the Grays. Jonah told me where to go.”
Liz’s eyes connected with Jonah’s. Was that smart? Kyle was helping them escape, but he could still be setting them up for a betrayal. He worked for LifeFarm, after all, and until yesterday he was dead to everyone outside these walls.
Jonah offered a subtle nod, as if that were helpful.
They reached the base of the stairs, and Kyle pushed open the door. Javier picked up his pace, nearly running with a syringe held near Kyle’s neck.
Soldiers approached with weapons as they left the building and headed across the mostly-dark compound. In every case, Kyle called them off.
When they reached the garage door, a woman with a semi-automatic rifle slung over her shoulder emerged from a neighboring shack that was connected to a watchtower. “Captain, I can’t let them leave.”
“Yes, you can.” Kyle pointed to the syringe. “Unless you want the virus infecting this whole place.”
“Three of these people have warrants.” She gripped the weapon in both hands.
“I understand that. Let the feds handle it. We can’t invite a party here.”
She drummed her fingers on the gun, studying the group.
“Open the door!” Javier pulled Kyle’s arm, jerking him towards the needle.
“Ow!” Kyle brought his hand to his neck. “Watch it.”
“Relax. That was a warning poke. Next time I push the plunger.” Javier tilted his chin up. “Ma’am?”
Kyle looked at his fingers, smearing the blood. “Do it, Lieutenant. That’s an order.”
She stared at them. “I can’t do that, Sir.”
Liz’s breath caught. This isn’t working.
Noise came from behind her, and she stole a quick peek. Soldiers approached from three directions.
“Lieutenant!” Kyle straightened up. “If I’m infected, then—”
“Then you all are!” Javier lifted his chin. “One sick person can infect hundreds. You’ll all have it within twenty-four hours.”
“We can quarantine him.” The lieutenant’s eyes shifted.
“I know you’re not considering letting him infect me,” Kyle said. “The feds will get them. Now open the door.”
After a moment of hesitation, she returned to the shack, and a snap came from the garage door as it lifted.
Liz’s pulse ramped up. They were really getting out.
When the door was half-open, Javier twisted his head around. “You guys go first.”
Liz and the others did as instructed, though she lingered just outside, watching. Javier released Kyle, holding up the syringe. “I can fix this virus problem if you guys leave me alone.”
“We’ll give you a day’s head start. Get the hell out of here.” Kyle went to the shack, and the door rattled again.
Javier ducked under it and joined the others.
As they jogged towards the car, a shot sounded from behind them. Mattson yelled and fell forward.
“No!” Charlie dropped the cooler and rushed to his nephew. He helped the teenager sit up. “It hit your shoulder.”
Mattson squeezed his eyes closed.
“I can’t see anything out here. Let’s get to the car.” Charlie picked Mattson up, and limping on his injured hip, led the group into the dark night.
Chapter Twenty-One
Charlie helped Mattson climb into the third row in the SUV. Once there, he snapped on the dome light and maneuvered the kid out of his T-shirt. Javier and Sam twisted around in the second row, watching. Liz plopped into the passenger seat, holding the cooler in her lap.
God, I dropped it! Charlie winced at the thought of what would have happened if no one had noticed. Maybe Javier wouldn’t be able to create a vaccine from the guinea pig, but he definitely couldn’t if he didn’t have the thing.
Jonah wasted no time in pushing the ignition and performing a tight U-turn, heading back to the highway.
Steadying himself as the car bounced on the dirt road, Charlie pressed the skin around the dime-sized wound in Mattson’s shoulder, just above his right armpit.
Between the car’s motion and the fact that his nephew had been shot, Charlie’s stomach rolled. He forced himself to concentrate on his task to avoid throwing up.
“Ow! Quit it!” Mattson arched away.
“I need to make sure you’re not gonna bleed to death.” Charlie leaned closer. The wound bled less than he expected. “Can you move your arm?”
“Kinda, but it hurts a lot.”
Javier leaned over the back of his seat, straining to get a better look. “The bullet probably broke a bone.”
“Yeah, I figured that.” Charlie shoved Javier back into his seat. “We’ll have to fashion a sling or something. Mattson, turn around.”
He did, and Charlie checked the front of his shoulder. “No exit wound. So it looks like you’ll be leaving with a souvenir.”
“Goodie.” Wincing, Mattson grabbed the shirt, balling it up to create a cushion for his injury. “Any idea who shot me?”
“The woman lieutenant is my guess,” Sam said.
“A shot from her weapon would have been much worse.” Charlie replayed the escape in his mind—the only guard with a pistol by the exit was Kyle. But would he shoot at them?
“You think it was Kyle,” Liz said from the front seat. She kept her gaze out the windshield.
Unwilling to respond, Charlie had Mattson lean forward, examining the wound again. “Jonah, the first aid kit is in the back, right? Can I get to it from here?”
“
No. We’ll get it after we get some miles between us and the compound.”
Liz twisted around. “Kyle wouldn’t do that.”
“How do you know?” Charlie asked. “You haven’t been around him much the past ten years.”
“Yeah, no thanks to your bosses!”
“Why would he let us escape and then shoot us?” Sam asked.
“Maybe he didn’t have a choice,” Javier said.
“Maybe, if he had to save face.” Charlie recalled their position from the compound. “He would have known a shot with his gun from that distance wouldn’t likely be fatal. He might have tried to miss and Mattson got in the way.”
“He was on the edge of the group,” Sam added. “Might have just been bad luck.”
After setting the balled shirt behind Mattson again, Charlie rubbed the sore spot on his hand, where his chip used to be. Maybe it was bad luck. But why did Kyle—or whoever—only fire one shot? They would have seen Mattson collapse. “Or they might assume we’ll take him to a hospital where the feds can intercept us.”
“Okay.” Sam put her arm on the back of her seat, leaning into it. “But that brings us back to the original question. Why would Kyle help us escape and then shoot us? He’d want us to get away, right?”
Charlie pursed his lips.
****
Javier weaved his fingers between Sam’s, moving his gaze from her smile to the rising sun. Jonah had said they would be on the road most of the day, arriving in Virginia early that evening. That gave Javier a whole day to just be. He hadn’t done that in so long he’d forgotten what it was like.
He gave Sam’s hand a gentle squeeze, and she stroked his thumb with hers. The only sound came from the steady hum of the car moving over the pavement, with everyone besides the two of them and Jonah having fallen asleep. Javier let his eyes linger on hers until she looked away, usually after blushing or a quiet giggle.
For the day, they were normal teenagers, something Javier hadn’t experienced. He’d jumped from precocious nerd to college student before he’d had the chance to consider being normal. He always had a job to do or someone’s expectation to meet, and while that was still technically the case—defeating LifeFarm was no small task—for now, he could pretend that his only job was enjoying his time with Sam.
A wave of euphoria coursed through him. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, opening them again when Sam rested her head on his shoulder and took a long breath. He wrapped his arm around her, allowing her to snuggle up against him.
What would happen to them after this big plan Robert and Jonah had? If they succeeded in taking LifeFarm out of power, they’d likely have to find somewhere off the grid to settle until anyone wanting revenge or to restore the status quo gave up on them. If they failed . . .
Javier’s stomach knotted. If they failed, they would all be imprisoned or killed.
He brought his other arm up and wrapped Sam in a full embrace.
****
Liz stretched her back in the passenger seat. These long road trips were wearing on her. “How much longer is it, Jonah?” The only detail he’d revealed about their destination was it was in Virginia, and the state line was less than ten miles away. He’d exited the highway hours ago.
“About an hour.” He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “I just hope it’s in good shape.”
“You hope what’s in good shape? The town we’re going to?”
“It’s not a town. Not exactly.”
“So what is it?”
Jonah offered a quick glance in her direction. “It’s a remote cabin. There’s no road going to it. I haven’t been there in twenty-five years.”
“Wait a second.” Liz twisted her body, leaning against the locked door. “All of the Seeds and Kyle’s people are supposed to meet in one cabin?”
“Not in. At. Around. I told Kyle to take a few of his best soldiers and meet us at the cabin. The rest of his people will wait in surrounding towns. We can’t all crowd one place or we’ll sound all kinds of alarms. Robert, Kyle, and the Seed leaders will go over the plan and pass the information to their respective groups. We won’t all come together until D.C. or New York.”
Liz blinked rapidly. “But everyone in this car is going to the cabin?”
“Yes.”
Sighing, she settled back into the seat. Kyle will be there. She squelched the anticipation, feeling she should still be angry with him for abandoning her and their son for a decade, even if it wasn’t his fault. He could have fought for them. She forced herself to remember that and focused on something else. “What do you mean D.C. or New York? Where is LifeFarm’s headquarters?”
“That’s the thing. We have to go after more entities than just LifeFarm.”
“What other entities?”
“Congress.”
“Oh.” How was that supposed to work? She stared out the windshield. “So we have to split up.”
Jonah nodded.
Liz picked at her nail as she played scenarios out in her head—a challenge, since she had no idea how many fighters there would be with the Seeds and Kyle’s people combined. It could be hundreds or several thousand. And at least two buildings in two cities—one being the Capitol Building—would have to be confronted simultaneously. Successfully confronted. If one operation failed, they all failed. They’d all be tried as traitors—or killed on the spot.
Sniffling, she stared out the side window at the forested landscape racing by.
She would ask to be on Kyle’s side. If they couldn’t grow old together, they could at least die together doing something noble.
****
Shortly after sunrise, Jonah pulled into a dirt parking lot adjacent to what looked like an abandoned café. Besides Trent’s parked car, theirs was the only vehicle in sight. The café’s windows were shattered and the door boarded shut. That seemed an unlikely place for the others to wait. “Where is everybody?”
A rumbling engine sounded from a distance before Jonah answered. A motorcycle approached from the forest and over the short grass, driven by Robert.
Javier laughed. Robert didn’t seem like the motorcycle type.
They all climbed out of the car as Robert stopped the bike near them. “The cabin is inaccessible by car. I’ll take you each back one at a time on this. Who would like to go first?”
Javier raised his hand. “I will.”
Robert patted the seat behind him.
All right. Putting his hands on Robert’s shoulders, Javier swung a leg over the seat and settled. He moved his hands. Where do I hold on?
The engine roared and Javier lurched back when Robert accelerated. He grabbed Robert’s shirt, gripping tighter as the bike bounced over the grass-covered earth.
In a few minutes, a small, solitary cabin came into view. It sat on the edge of a clearing, across from a slow-moving river. The morning sun glinted off the windows. Trent stood on the porch with a few people Javier didn’t recognize.
Robert stopped the bike in front of the cabin, and Javier climbed off. A second later, Robert was heading back to the car.
“Javier.” Smiling, Trent shook his hand. Javier had never seen the man in such a good mood. “Glad you guys made it.”
“How long have you been here?”
“We got here yesterday.” He gestured to the woman and two men leaning on the rail. “This is Cassandra, David, and Lamar. They’re from the Fifth.”
“The Fifth?” Javier greeted the strangers.
“The Fifth Seed,” Trent said. “It’s outside Baton Rouge. Cassandra is the lead in that one. David and Lamar worked at her lab.”
“Are you from Hayes?” Cassandra asked. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, with her dirty-blonde hair pulled into a tight ponytail and no discernible wrinkles on her face. Of course, if she took the drug, she could be much older.
Javier shook his head and explained how he came to work with Trent.
“You were working on a vaccine?”
“Yeah. Brenda, the
virologist, and I were close to having one before the lab was destroyed.”
“We heard about that.” Lamar lifted off the rail, causing it to wobble.
Cassandra grabbed on, laughing. This cabin showed some obvious wear. How long had it been here?
“Sorry.” Lamar headed for the front door, eyeing Javier on the way. “You want something to drink?”
Javier nodded and followed Lamar inside, pausing in shock two steps inside the door. The interior looked nothing like the outside—it was kept up. Modern. There was even a holographic display for video calls on a desk in the living room, a luxury few outside the government could afford. A middle-aged, Asian man sat at the desk, reading something from a laptop screen. Strangers, likely from the other Seeds, filled every available seat, with the exception of Damien in one of the recliners.
Javier made his way into the kitchen, where Lamar put a glass of ice water into his hand. “Pretty nice, huh?”
Nodding, Javier took a sip. “It’s not at all what I was expecting.” Though he hadn’t thought to expect anything before he’d arrived.
Over the next hour, the other members of Javier’s group arrived, introducing themselves to some of the strangers and expressing the same shock Javier had upon entering the cabin. When Robert arrived with Jonah, the last in his group, he brought everyone together in the living room. Javier found a spot on the floor next to the wood-burning stove.
Robert stood by the coffee table. His smile grew, even as he twisted around to see those behind him. “I must say part of me thought this day would never come, but now that we’re all here, it feels quite surreal.”
The Asian man at the desk laughed. He’d spun the chair around to face everyone.
Did these men have any idea what they were getting into? They were about to plan how to attack LifeFarm, and they acted as though they were planning a party.
Javier hugged his knees.
Robert held his arm out to the Asian man. “For those of you who haven’t met him yet, this is Gao. He and I started the Seed project twenty-five years ago, just after the corporation that became LifeFarm stole Deinix and developed it. He’s been living here and maintaining the property for us, preparing for this day.”
The Seventh Seed Page 17