Huh.
They walked into the one-room shack, Kay a little warily. The place smelled of abandonment, and where there was abandonment there could be rats, or worse. Spiders. She hated spiders.
Nick stopped her by simply tightening his hold on her arm. Okay. She stood still, taking in the sad shack. A hot plate on a counter where there was also a sink, which meant there must be some form of electricity, probably an outdoor generator. A single light bulb hanging from a wire in the middle of the ceiling. Two sagging armchairs, a rickety table with four mismatched wooden chairs, which looked like they’d barely support her weight, let alone Nick’s.
Oh, and a steel frame cot in a corner with a bare mattress that looked stained.
The flooring was splintered hardwood, except for just inside the entrance. They were standing on a steel plate.
The whole place reeked of mold and looked so desolate it hurt the heart.
She could do this. She could. So what if the place gave her the creeps? It sure beat being dead.
Nick was still holding her arm. Well, she’d seen what was here. Not much. So—what were they waiting for?
He pulled something out of his jacket pocket. A weird-looking pair of goggles. He handed them over. “Put them on,” he said quietly.
She did—and recoiled. “Whoa.”
The entire shack was crisscrossed with laser beams, invisible to the eye and visible only through the goggles, which must have been IR-enabled. The beams covered almost the entire area, from the floor up to a height of about six feet.
Suddenly, she realized what she was looking at. A very effective security measure. No one could enter without triggering the beams. An interruption in the light would doubtless be signaled to some control area.
Kay lifted her foot and put it back down. That steel plate felt very solid.
“This is a trigger plate, am I right?”
“Bingo. Give the lady a brass ring.” Nick slanted a glance at her, one corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile.
“So I guess this place isn’t quite as desolate as it looks?”
“Hmm. Yeah.” Nick reached to the side and pressed something and the laser lights blinked out. “There are a few surprises.”
Kay handed him back the goggles and they walked across the shabby, dusty floorboards to the opposite wall, where an unpainted wooden door led to another room.
Or so she thought.
When Nick opened the door, there was a stainless-steel panel behind it. A beeping sound came from his jacket pocket and the panel slid open to reveal a space the size of a small bathroom. They walked in, the panel slid shut and the ground fell beneath her feet.
An elevator.
They fell fast, but came to a surprisingly gentle halt. Kay estimated that they had fallen perhaps four or five stories. The panel slid back open and she walked out into…wow.
Nick dropped his arm as Kay turned in a full circle, trying to take everything in. It was one of the most amazing spaces she’d ever seen.
She met Nick’s amused eyes. He winked at her. “Like the Time Lord says, it’s bigger on the inside than on the outside.”
“A Mount Hood Tardis.” Kay smiled. “I see Felicity’s rubbing off on you.”
He gave a mock frown. “I liked Dr. Who before I met Felicity. I just wasn’t a nerd about it the way she is. So—what do you think about the Grange?”
“It’s—it’s amazing.”
And it was. They were in a huge open-air plaza with circular balconies connected by four transparent external elevators. The ground floor—the floor they were on—was paved with slabs of limestone, interspersed with rectangles of earth filled with thriving plants. Kay had no idea how it worked because outside it had seemed that the shack was surrounded by dense forest, but down here, there was a huge circular space seemingly open to the sky, flooding the space with light. Looking closely, she could faintly see a covering over the open area. Nothing material, more like a shimmer.
The materials were rustic-chic, in earth-tone colors. Limestone, wood, brass. Plexiglas benches everywhere giving a feeling of lightness. Across the plaza, she could see other areas clearly designated as areas for social groupings, work spaces, eating spaces. They were under the ring of balconies but somehow the place was very well lit.
“Suzanne designed the look of the place. She said she refused to have a bolt hole that technically was designed to help us survive a nuclear holocaust and have it be ugly.”
“Quite right.” Kay nodded. Suzanne Huntington’s ability to infuse beauty into everything she touched was amazing. “If you’re going to survive, you should survive in style.”
“What she said, more or less. This is also a server farm. ASI has opened a new business, keeping corporate data secure for companies. We can barely keep up with demand. I think it represents about a quarter of our revenue now.”
She smiled. Nick talked easily of “our” company, after working only a short time there. It was something she’d noted in the others, that they identified with their company. John and Douglas were excellent employers who treated everyone who worked at the company as a partner. Everyone who worked there was very well paid, very well treated and very well respected. Everyone who worked there loved it.
Her heart gave a hard, painful pulse in her chest, breaking a little. She’d loved her job, too. Going to work at the CDC every morning, she’d felt a burst of energy and, yes, even love. Everyone there was a good guy. A white hat. Everyone there had one goal—to stop disease. To heal, to cure. To make life better. To help mankind break the terrible chains that had held it in its iron grip since the dawn of time. People crippled, blinded, brought low by devastating pain, children dying young before their potential could be realized—all of these things the researchers at the CDC fought against with every ounce of energy in their bodies.
Like the FBI and CIA fought terrorists, the CDC fought disease. With no quarter and no rest. They fought the good fight.
Or so she’d thought.
Such pride she’d felt, entering the building, making the world a better place, striking a blow against evil, every single day. It hadn’t even occurred to her that evil might be right there.
She missed her job, missed it fiercely, wondered if she’d ever be able to go back. Probably not.
Nick was watching her with a frown. For such a tough guy, a guy’s guy, he was disconcertingly sensitive to moods. Damn him. “Is something wrong?” he asked. “You look—”
“Tired,” she replied quickly. Her sorrow at losing a big chunk of herself and of her reason for living wasn’t really helpful right now. Pointless burdening Nick with it. She said something that would make sense to him. “Tired and hungry.”
Nick was Italian. Italians hated the thought of someone going hungry.
“Oh yeah.” His face smoothed out. There we go. He had something concrete he could do for her. “Wait till you see the food stocks. Let’s get you settled and you can take a shower while I prepare lunch.” He checked his watch. “Early dinner.”
“I like that division of labor,” Kay replied. “Food stocks? Are you guys preparing for the zombie apocalypse up here?”
They were crossing that big open-air plaza. The air smelled glorious, as it had on the gravel apron outside the deceptively forlorn shack. Outside it had smelled of pine, but in here it smelled of exotic flowers and plants. Looking up again, she could barely see whatever it was that covered the roof. Whatever it was, it let in sunshine and fresh air but wasn’t cold. It was definitely warm inside.
Nick guided her around various plantings on a zigzagging route across the plaza. He kept a hand on her at all times and it felt wonderful. He kept her close enough so that his broad shoulders brushed hers as they walked and it almost felt like a transfer of strength and energy with each touch.
He looked up at the strange sky then over at her. “I personally believe the zombie apocalypse is coming, though sadly I seem to be alone in that. But a lot of us feel that if things ever
go south, they’ll go south fast, and it’ll take time for things to get back to normal. Maybe even a generation. The place is organized to shelter at least two hundred people for a long time. It is almost completely self-sufficient in terms of energy and there are plans for growing food. Right now, it’s a useful profit center with the server farm and it’s a place where we can all celebrate holidays together. And at the moment,” he said, with a sweep of his arm, “it’s your new home.”
Her new home.
They were in an area that was meant to be communal. Various beautiful sofa and armchair groupings, cozy and inviting. A huge sofa in front of a massive horizontal gas fireplace at least fifty feet long. A billiard table, a grand piano, a bank of foosball tables. Against one wall, a 100-inch plasma curved TV that looked almost large enough for a commercial movie theater.
They might have to stay a generation but they wouldn’t be bored. If Felicity was in any way involved, there’d be ebooks, streaming movies, TV series and, above all, video games on tap, and as much music as anyone could want.
To the right was a huge kitchen and a long table that could sit the entire staff of ASI. Or the court of Henry VIII. But smaller tables were scattered around and the kitchen had a cozy breakfast nook.
They entered a long, wide corridor with pretty wrought metal sconces and plants in huge enameled pots. Even here, in the bowels of the earth, the air smelled fresh and clean.
Halfway down the corridor, Nick stopped and placed his palm against the wall to the side of a door. “My room,” he said. There was a metallic click and he pushed the door open for her, gesturing with his hand. Go on in.
Kay walked through a corridor and into a large living room area. She turned around, taking it all in. This space, too, was beautiful. Flagstone tiles, a dusky eggplant-colored couch with light gray armchairs, a fully equipped kitchenette, framed black-and-white photographs along the way. The impression was of comfort and elegance.
“Wow.” She turned back to Nick with one eyebrow raised. “I didn’t know you had a hidden talent for interior decorating.”
He lifted his hands. “Hey, I’m not responsible for the décor. My apartment in Portland was decorated in one very painful afternoon at Ikea and looks it. This is all Suzanne’s doing. Don’t ask me how but she decorated every single person’s room in a different way and we’re all delighted with what we got. I couldn’t have done this in a million years.”
She smiled. She didn’t know Suzanne Huntington well, but what she knew of her she liked. A lot. One of the country’s top decorators, she was totally unpretentious and down to earth, with a wild sense of humor. Word had it that she had her husband—a true badass tough guy, a former SEAL like Nick—totally wrapped around her little finger.
Nick’s cell pinged. “Yeah,” he answered. “She’s right here.” He held the phone out to her, switching to speakerphone. “It’s Felicity.”
Kay snatched the cell. The video function was on and she stared at her friend’s face, tears coming to her eyes. “Felicity! Oh, it’s so good to see you!”
Felicity looked tired. “Hey, Kay.” Felicity ran a finger down her screen as if touching Kay’s face. “I wish these were better circumstances.”
A deadly bio-weapon in play. Her best friend, dead. Priyanka’s colleague, dead. Mike Hammer, dead. “Yeah. I think some very bad things are happening, Felicity. I hate to say it, but I’m really scared.”
“You’re right to be scared, girlfriend, just not right now. Right this minute, you’re super secure at the Grange, or the Batcave, as the girls call it. And you have Nick. He’s not going to let anything happen to you.”
Nick gave out a low guttural sound.
“Was that a growl, Nick?” Felicity’s tinny voice asked from the speaker. “Being in the Batcave doesn’t mean you get to revert to a primitive state.”
Kay sat down, the cell cradled in her hand. “Did you get the flash drive?” she asked.
Felicity bit her lips and looked worried, which blew Kay’s mind. Felicity never looked worried. She was always serenely confident in her own abilities, and rightly so.
“Yeah, Metal got it to me right away, and I’ve been working on it ever since. It’s got some serious encryption, Kay. And a couple of traps. I’m making my way through the firewalls slowly, so I don’t accidentally trigger data destruction. Someone who knows what they’re doing encrypted this.”
Kay nodded.
“By the way, if you come across a password-based hurdle, try ‘naanisbetterthanwonderbread’. All lower case. It was our password for our secret email system.”
Felicity smiled. “Will do, great password. So…” She disappeared from the small screen for a second. She lived in her wheeled ergonomic chair, zipping from screen to screen. Her pretty face popped back up. “I’m back. My systems tell me it will be another four hours. I’ll send you the files as soon as they’re decrypted.”
“I hate to ask, honey, but are the communications systems here secure?”
Felicity cocked her head. “I really like you, Kay, and I know your head’s on the line here, so I’ll forgive you. Yes, everything is very secure there. As a matter of fact, security there is a 10-million-dollar business at the moment. Growing as we speak.”
That’s right, she’d forgotten. This place was not just a coolly elegant zombie apocalypse bug-out place, it was a cyber security business. God only knew how many Fortune 500 companies had their files backed up here. Probably billions of dollars’ worth of info. So yeah, it should be secure.
“I’ll contact you the second the files are available. Rest a little bit, though, because the data files are enormous and you have a lot of work to do. And none of us can help you, since no one here has a PhD in biochemistry or virology or genetics. You’ll have your hands full.”
Kay nodded. “I think I’ll know what to look for. But you’re right. I’ll rest. What—what happened to the drone?”
Felicity blinked. “Pass that over to the master. Metal?”
A jumble of images, and then Metal’s solid Irish face showed on the small screen. “Let’s go to the big screen,” he said, and the cell connection closed.
Nick helped her out of the armchair and they walked over to a work desk set up with a huge screen. Nick touched the top corners of the screen and two other screens popped out laterally, making for one continuous two-foot screen. He switched the system on and Metal’s face appeared, so clear she forgot for a second he was miles away. Felicity’s face appeared in a small square screen on the lower right-hand side. The screen was so wide she could see the great room at ASI behind them. One of the most impressive tech offices she’d ever seen. There too, elegance was married to efficiency.
Her own face was in a little square on the lower left-hand side. Nick appeared behind her, one big hand on her shoulder.
“Kay. Nick.” Metal nodded at them. It felt so much like he was in the room.
“Where’s the drone?” Nick asked.
“Disappeared an hour ago.” Metal’s mouth tightened. “Dipped under a covered passageway and must have had a pre-mapped route of covered exits. Or maybe went to ground. We don’t know. We were going to take it down just after nightfall, in about half an hour. Jacko was going to go up on a rooftop in stealth clothing and aim a DroneDefender. He wouldn’t have shown up on FLIR.”
“God, it could have fallen on someone’s head,” Kay said, alarmed.
“No, Jacko would have made sure it was right over Conrad’s rooftop and he’d have been able to see if anyone was there. But now that’s not gonna happen.”
Kay shuddered. She remembered all too well the mechanical creature swooping down with a faint buzzing sound, Mike collapsing to the ground, the insectoid camera lenses. She shook her head. “The drone might have photos of me. I can’t guarantee that it doesn’t. Mike tried to shield my face but it all happened so fast…” She stopped and bit her lips.
Nick’s hand tightened on her shoulder and she looked up at him in gratitude.
“The drone would have been sending intel constantly.” Felicity frowned. “We’ll look at the drone if we ever catch it, but any photos would have been sent at the time.”
“Do drones have IDs?” Kay knew next to nothing about the things. They had never caught her attention except for the large ones that sent missiles into deserts and small ones that took amazing landscape photos. “If we had caught it could we have figured out who sent the drone by looking at its innards? Like that Roman priest…”
For a second, she flashed on a book of Roman history she’d read as a child. It had been lavishly illustrated. One of the illustrations had been of a group of men in togas carefully watching one man pulling out the entrails of a sheep. The divination centered on the lobes of the liver. She’d been creeped out by liver ever since. What was the name of the guy who’d carried out the divination? Something beginning with an “h”…
“Like a haruspex,” Felicity said with a slight smile. “No liver in the drone and I suspect any identifying marks would have been eliminated.” She looked around. “What?”
“We’re all really impressed that you knew the word,” Kay answered. Metal, Jacko and the other boss, Douglas, were all looking at her.
Felicity sighed and rolled her eyes. “I guess no one here has played The Ancient Gods Return. Listen, Kay. You get some rest and I promise to send the files as soon as they’re ready. I think Metal’s got something to say.”
Metal’s sober face took center screen. “Mike Hammer’s body was autopsied. Bud said the autopsy results could not be disseminated but that he knew Felicity would just hack the coroner’s office and leave no trace, so he gave us the results anyway. He said that Hammer died of suffocation.”
Poor Mike. Kay still had the wheezing sounds he made as he’d tried to drag oxygen into his lungs in her ears. “His lungs were filled with fluid,” she said.
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