by Vanessa Muir
The inside of the office was dark. Light leaked from behind the door, which was ever so slightly ajar. Alarms didn’t wail, not one she could hear, at least. Charlie moved fast. She was out of the room and down the hall, following the blueprint overlay.
She darted from office to office, listening for guards or the approach of boot heels.
Nothing.
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end.
Keep moving, Spade. This isn’t over yet.
Had she known what the damn plan was back when they’d been captured, she’d have taken what she needed on her way out. But that was the past, this was now, and if she wasn’t careful, all they’d worked for—the freedom of the people of Corden—would be lost.
And Nathaniel would remain in control.
Her father’s name sent anger spiraling through her. She hadn’t chosen to be his child, but she was stuck with the burden.
Charlie reached the glass wall that separated the rest of the facility from the laboratory. Once again, she lifted the silver cylinder. It emitted its cord. This time, Charlie let go of the end. The tube smacked against the thick glass, and cracks spread across its surface.
She removed the cylinder, then stepped back and took a breath.
“Here we go.” She kicked the glass in.
The alarms started above her head. The klaxon wail brought back flashes of her initial experience in this place. The running, helping Levi along, the sense of absolute power in her muscles. Charlie slipped into the laboratory and ran for it.
She busted doors open, drawing her gun free from its hip holster as she went, pointing it into each room, sweeping for guards, civilians. It was quiet.
“What the hell?” She didn’t slow to dwell on it.
Charlie continued, lower and lower, deeper into the belly of the laboratory, her throat closing as she rounded every corner.
She was lost. Of course she was, and she had no idea where she’d find what she needed to prove the state of Corden Prime.
“There’s got to be something.”
A flutter of white at the corner of her eye. Charlie turned her head.
A lab technician stood in the center of the hallway, staring at her, open-mouthed. She was young, pretty, her hands shaking as she raised them.
“Don’t shoot,” she squeaked. “I’m not… I don’t have weapons. I just work here.” The name tag on her chest read Henrietta.
“You work here?” Charlie said and stepped forward, raising the gun. Hope resurged inside her. “Take me to your archives. I want to know everything.”
7
“I don’t know anything,” Henrietta the lab assistant said, lifting her hands higher. “Don’t shoot me, but I can’t help.”
“I don’t care if you don’t know anything,” Charlie said stiffly, as the alarm whooped through the facility. “Take me to the main lab where you do the experiments, or to the archive where you keep all the information.”
Henrietta licked her lips, slowly, her blond hair sticking flat against her forehead. “But I, uh, don’t have the clearance.”
“Guess I’ll kill you then,” Charlie said and clicked off the safety on her gun.
It was a feint, but she was sure that the assistant would fall for it. Did the woman really believe she’d buy that Henrietta didn’t have clearance when she was working on the… God, whatever the hell level of the lab this was? One close to the cells where Charlie and Levi had been held, she was sure.
“No. No, look. OK, I’ll take you where you want to go.” Henrietta licked her lips again. “I just, I’m—not sure you’ll find what you’re looking for.”
“That’s up to me to decide. Get moving.” Charlie jerked the gun to one side.
Henrietta led her down the hallways, taking lefts and rights Charlie would never have known to take. They moved deeper into the facility, even going so far as to take an elevator at one point. They saw no one else, and, once again, the skin on the back of Charlie’s neck prickled.
How close were they? How much longer until the guards who were supposedly watching over this place came down to see what the problem was?
“Where is everyone?” Charlie asked.
“Evacuated,” Henrietta replied, her kitten heels clicking on the white tiles. “We don’t have many people working the late shift, and if they heard the alarm, they would have assumed that there had been a break-in from… the Delirious.”
“The Delirious?”
“The citizens. That’s their official name. You’re going to find it out anyway, so better to tell you now.” Henrietta shrugged, and her walk had grown easier, now, as if Charlie didn’t have the upper hand.
They took another corner and came to a halt in front of a set of glistening silver double doors. No glass here. Whatever was beyond the doors had been blocked from view.
Henrietta pressed her thumb to a scanning pad, then presented her eye. Tubed lights around the door flickered to green, and a blip preceded the opening of those doors.
They entered the room beyond. It was huge, a maze of counters spreading throughout the space. Some held equipment, others computers, all unmanned. A machine bleeped and clicked in the corner, producing a steady stream of liquid that was decanted into tubes below. Those tubes were then lifted and placed in a circular container. That, in turn, slid into a gap in the wall.
“Where does that go?” Charlie asked.
“Into storage,” Henrietta replied.
“What’s it making?”
The assistant hesitated, and Charlie pursed her lips, pressed the barrel of the gun to her neck.
“It’s making Serum mX.”
“What is that?”
“Look, all the information you need is on those computers. You can find out everything you need to know there. I—shouldn’t be talking about this.”
Perhaps, Henrietta had realized that Charlie wouldn’t kill her. After all, she’d need help getting out of the facility. Charlie wouldn’t find that path on her own. There had been too many sharp turns and corners. Perhaps, the assistant had taken her that route on purpose—to guarantee her survival.
Charlie tucked the gun into her holster, clicking the safety back on. She headed for the computers, then removed the drive she’d brought with her and inserted it into one of the ports.
“I need entry.”
Henrietta came forward and swiped her thumb over the screen built into the counter.
And there it was. All the information Charlie needed. Files upon files, folders labeled with the serum’s name, test results, case studies, and experimental reports. She selected everything she could and set it to transfer to the drive.
She walked over to the machine that produced the serum.
“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” Henrietta said behind her. “It’s still in the process of being trialed.”
“Yeah, I’m familiar with the process.” She’d been injected with the stuff, after all. “I think I’ll be OK.” Charlie collected one of the circular containers, filled with eight of the Serum mX tubes, and attached it to her belt. She checked that the tie holding it in place was stable, then returned to the computer bank.
The download had finished. She removed the drive, pocketed that, then turned to Henrietta. “All right,” she said. “Take me back up. Fast.”
The assistant bit down on her lip. “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she said. “My orders were to bring you down here, not to take you back up.”
“Your orders?”
“That’s right.” The woman removed a gun from the back of her skirt—God knew where she’d hidden it—and pointed it at Charlie. “Absalon Shamood wants you dealt with, Spade.”
Charlie didn’t have time to reach for her gun. The shot rang out.
8
Charlie expected pain in her chest or her side. Maybe, a complete blackness to envelop her if the bullet struck her in the center of her forehead. But none of that came.
Henrietta froze, her gun still in hand, h
er eyes widening. “How?” she asked.
And then she dropped to her knees, red blooming against her white lab coat bearing the insignia of the Mem Store Facility. She keeled over to the side, the gun fell from her fingers and clattered to the floor. She made horrible noises. Death rattles as she struggled to draw in breath and her lungs filled with blood.
If not for the shock, and the fact that Henrietta had been on the brink of killing Charlie herself, she would have run over and lifted the woman’s head.
A pool of blood spread beneath her and stained the woman’s hair pink. She drew still.
Charlie lifted her gaze.
She’d seen worse, but there was a stark difference between arriving at a crime scene after a murder had been committed and witnessing it firsthand.
An SSG operative stepped into the room, one she recognized. He held a gun in his sweaty, shaking hand. “All right, love?” Jayce, the same man who they’d seen arrested last night, gave her a cocky grin.
Cocky in its façade but paled by fear. Jayce’s lips were dry, and his yellow-blond hair was curled and thick with sweat.
“How did you get here?”
“Does it matter now? I’ve come to get you out.”
“But you were arrested,” Charlie said, narrowing her eyes. “I saw you arrested. Levi did too.”
“Shit changes, sweetheart. You got to roll with the punches, know what I’m saying?”
“Not at all.” Charlie had the urge to touch her fingers to the pocket where she’d hidden the drive. Her shirt didn’t quite cover the bulge that was the serum container attached to her belt. “I’ve got to get out of here.”
“I can’t let you leave just yet.” Silence followed his words.
It hit her. The alarm had stopped in the interim.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve got to get approval, first. From the top.”
“Which top? Who?” But her gut already told her the truth, and she hated it.
“Nathaniel, of course.” Jayce flashed her another smile. “He’s been keeping his eye on you, see? Didn’t want anything bad to happen to his daughter.”
“That must be the reason why he used me as a human guinea pig.”
“Water under the bridge, I’d say. All we’ve got to do now is deal with, well, the here and now.” Jayce kept the gun aimed at her while touching a finger to his temple. “Yeah?”
“You tell him to go fuck himself,” Charlie said. “Whatever he wants, whatever game he’s playing, tell him I don’t want any part of it.”
Because that had to be what her father wanted. He knew that she had the power of Black Mars behind her, and his faction was split.
Absalon wanted violence, Nathaniel wanted mind control, and the two of them had caused an internal war that had spread to the streets. Levi had postulated that Absalon had been the one to release the “weaponized MemXor” first. To turn the citizens to aggression and crime, though they weren’t sure why, just yet.
“Yes, sir. Roger that.” Jayce removed his finger from his temple and lowered his gun, tucked it into his holster. “See, all it takes is a bit of patience.”
“I’m not doing it.”
“Doing what?”
“Whatever it is he wants me to do. I’m not doing it.”
“Relax,” Jayce said and stepped to one side of the door, behind Henrietta’s cooling body. “It’s all good, girl. You can go. Nathaniel doesn’t want anything from you at the moment. I can’t say that won’t change, but it is what it is, right?”
“I can leave? I can walk out of here? You’re not going to take anything from me?” That didn’t make any sense. Why would Nathaniel allow this?
He wants something from me. He can’t take it now, but he will take it when he gets the chance.
“Sure, you can leave. But if you’re gonna do it, you gotta do it quick, girlie. Because Absalon’s boys are going to come in here in a minute. They’ll want to know why that girl there is dead.”
Charlie strode past him. She didn’t know her way out. She’d get lost on her own, but she wouldn’t ask for help from her father’s lackey.
And I was right about him. Cole, you fucking idiot. You really thought he was clean?
“That’s the wrong way, love.” Jayce’s voice stalled her steps. “Come on, I’ll take you out. It’s this way.” He didn’t touch her, but his tone made it clear that she didn’t have much choice in the matter. Apparently, Nathaniel wasn’t done with her yet.
Probably, he’d rather see her dead than working with Absalon.
Charlie didn’t say a word, but she followed Jayce from the facility, her lack of control over the situation becoming increasingly clear with every step. Her father would get what he wanted in the end, and he would use her to get it.
I won’t be used.
Jayce led her back to the office where she’d entered, even as boots thudded down the hallways and rough cries rang out.
“Absalon’s men,” Jayce said. “Keep your head down out there. They’ll be looking. Good luck, love.” And then he slipped out of sight, through the office door, shutting it behind him.
Charlie brought the device Levi had given her out of her pocket and aimed it at the opening in the street below, the grate halfway across it. She had her escape. Her evidence.
And more questions than answers.
9
“You’re sure about that?” Cole asked.
They had gathered in Levi’s personal quarters, as there were new techs working at the computer banks. The influx of people from Corden Prime and the other affected regions had brought more skilled workers. Both a blessing and a curse—it drained on the resources they did have.
Levi sat at his desk—an antique wooden affair, the likes of which Charlie hadn’t seen before. It was a rich brown, polished and impressive beneath the single lightbulb that hung from the ceiling. The leader of the resistance sat with his head in his hand, eyes closed.
“I’m positive. He’s working both sides. He exposed that to me, quite readily.” Charlie had already given the serum samples to the makeshift Black Mars laboratory for examination. The drive had been given to Cole to analyze the minute she’d returned to the underground headquarters.
That had been six hours ago.
“Do you have anything for me?” she asked. “For us, I mean. What did the drive say?”
Cole sucked his cheek between his teeth and chewed. “I find it real difficult to believe that he’s dirty. He’s one of ours through and through. He was in Black Mars before he was in SSG.”
“How does that matter now?” Charlie asked. “We have the information we need, hopefully, and that means we can move ahead with our plans.”
“Assuming he gave us the right information,” Levi said, lifting his head at last, and sending his gaze her way. It was sharp, blue-eyed. “If he’s dirty, then why would he?”
Everything was up in the air. Confusing. The investigative part of Charlie’s mind skipped from lead to possibility, searching for an answer. She had none.
She offered advice, what she would work on next if this was her case back when she was an agent. “Let’s focus on what information we have now. What did you find on that drive?”
“Experimental results.”
“And those reports contained…”
Cole clicked his tongue, slowly, not in a derogatory manner, but as if he’d been given too much to think about, or he wanted to bide his time.
“Cole.” That from Levi. He was low on patience too.
The entire nation was low on patience, State members excluded. And the Delirious, of course. Couldn’t forget about them.
“The serum is… interesting. It’s as we suspected—an attempt at creating a weaponized force. Human. Strong and aggressive, but they’re struggling to come up with methods for controlling the aggression. As far as I can tell, they injected you, Spade, with the closest version they’ve got to the ‘weapon.’ The problem being that it wears off relatively quickly.”
“If that’s the case, why are the people on the street still on the attack?” Charlie asked.
“It was another trial serum. The limited information given shows that there were earlier versions of Serum mX, and that those earlier versions caused instability. From what I can guess, Absalon or Nathaniel used it, vaporized it on the public in Corden Prime when you were underground. You’re just lucky you weren’t exposed.”
“Or that I was exposed to a later version that wears off. Does this serum, the one that’s caused unrest… what’s it’s half-life?”
“There’s no information on that,” Cole said and ruffled his hair. “For all I know, it could last until the subject dies.”
“Subject.” Charlie pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes and rubbed.
“That’s not all,” Cole said.
She dropped her hands and looked at him. Levi straightened.
“What else?” he asked.
“I haven’t analyzed everything yet, but there are hints of what… was intended. Like the factions themselves and their goals were present in the facilities before either one knew what the other planned. The Memory Machines…”
“What about them?”
“They’re not just for extracting memories, well, they were, but not anymore. Nathaniel and the scientists on his side were working on… inserting memories, as well.”
“Explain that to me,” Charlie said, folding her arms.
“It’s a straightforward concept, but it requires actually wiping the memories that are being copied, removing them completely and replacing them with falsehoods, or manufactured memories. Memories pieced together from others. Like editing a video.”
“Oh, God.”
“Yeah, exactly. That’s their proposed method of mind control. And anyone who’d gone to one of these facilities and had the memory extraction procedure has been… exposed to it, potentially. It’s my theory that they’ve probably used this on the inner circle of scientists there.”