Again the little nod. The confident, dry governor had been replaced by a man in fear of his life.
LCorp is the enemy. Do not move against them. Contact WPatt. McBride. We must unite to survive.
"Well, Governor, I guess we should be on our way. I wouldn't want to disturb what is obviously a well-run community. I wish you every success."
"Thank you, Solomon. I hope to meet again in the future and you will see how we've progressed."
They got up and left the room together. The guard who'd stopped them at the bridge was waiting and Weinstein called him across.
"Escort Mr. Masters and his party to their destination please, Conrad. He will advise you."
Solly shook the little man's hand with more warmth than he'd imagined he would when they'd met. He saw the fear in Weinstein's eyes, but also a determination to do the right thing by the people who relied on him. A good man, Solly concluded. A rare breed.
The PNC Tower was a couple of blocks across from the hotel that was Weinstein's base.
"Here it is," Conrad said, getting out of the Humvee and gesturing up at the skyscraper, a rising pillar of black metal and glass that looked disconcertingly similar to the Lee Corporation building in New York, except many times taller. "Be careful, mind. The building ain't occupied, 'sfar as I know, but there could be any number of folks hidin' up there and we wouldn't be none the wiser. You take care now."
Solly thanked their guide then, once he was out of earshot, turned to Ross.
"It's alright, Solly," the young man said. "I know I can't come with you. How many floors do you think it's got?"
Solly smiled sadly. "Forty? Fifty? Sorry, son, but I think the elevators are out of order. Now, listen to me. I'm going to give you a walkie-talkie, but if there's trouble and you're in any doubt, drive away and circle back if you can. Warn us if it's safe to do so. Got that?"
"Sure," Ross said as they embraced.
It was nothing short of a miracle that he could tell Ross to drive away. After all, it had only been a few days since the young man had reported tingling in his right leg. Solly had responded with encouraging words, but privately believed these were likely phantom sensations and meant nothing. He'd been wrong because, since then, Ross had finally been able to straighten the leg without touching it and had proved that he could push with enough pressure to handle the gas and brake pedals in an emergency.
"I suppose I gotta come, have I?" Vivian said, a wide grin brightening her dark face.
Solly helped her out onto the sidewalk before waving to Ross and shutting the door. He went around the back, opened up the rear doors and pulled out the transmitter along with its solar power source. "Come on," he said. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get out of here."
"Yeah, this place gives me the creeps, you know?"
Solly checked his weapon and stowed it in a jacket pocket as he approached the entrance of the building. The door had been wrenched off its hinges and much of the glass on the first floor was shattered, but enough remained for Solly to catch his reflection just before they went inside. He paused for a moment, transfixed by this alien version of himself. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen himself in a mirror recently, but that had revealed only his head and neck. The whole package was something quite different.
The Solly Masters that looked back at him from the black glossy panes was almost unrecognizable. There was little sign of the flaccid, downtrodden man he'd been. Instead, a leaner, seemingly taller, figure peered out from behind a thick beard that was at least a quarter gray. His camouflaged baseball cap was stained by weather and sweat, and his olive coat and jeans had seen better days. He wouldn't have looked out of place on Duck Dynasty, except that his beard was about a foot too short.
They picked their way over broken glass across a black marble floor that was covered in a layer of dust and wind-borne detritus that crunched beneath their feet. The first floor smelled of nothing other than the city, open as it was to the elements, but the higher they climbed, the more the air was laden with the heavy scent of decay.
Focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, Solly didn't allow his mind to think about what might be beyond the doors on each landing, though he knew that many people had died here at their desks. Had the dying begun during the working day, it would have been far worse, but still the Long Night took its toll of cleaners, security guards and late-night workers.
The lower levels of the stairwell had been used by at least some people in the months since the dying had happened, but as they passed the tenth floor, the discarded trash and signs of forced entry grew rarer until, once they were halfway up, there was no evidence that another human soul had climbed these stairs.
Solly's thighs and calves were burning and he was forced to swallow his pride and call a brief halt. It gave him some satisfaction to see that Vivian, who was little more than half his age, was almost as exhausted as he was. But they didn't dare wait for more than a few minutes. Solly's mind flitted to Ross on the street below and he grabbed the transmitter electronics and panels, and trudged on.
Finally, they reached the top and Solly stood with his back to the access door, trying to catch his breath.
"The air's a bit thin up here, isn't it?" he said with a smile as Vivian bent with her hands on her knees, heaving in deep lungfuls of oxygen. "I see why soldiers say you should never volunteer for anything, now."
"Let's get this over with, Sol. We got a long road back. Forty floors."
"But we'll have gravity on our side. Come on then," he said, putting his shoulder against the door and turning the handle. "Give me a hand. I think the wind's pushing it closed."
Vivian joined him and together, inch by inch, they widened the gap as what felt like a gale whipped by them to whistle down the stairwell. Solly pushed it back against the wall and engaged the catch. He didn't relish the prospect of trying to open it from the outside if it slammed shut.
"Don't go near the edge!" he called. It felt as though the words were being torn out of his mouth and carried off in the wind.
"Do I look stupid?" Vivian shouted back.
"We'll put it there." Solly pointed at a row of three glass structures that stood proud of the surface, presumably providing natural daylight to the offices directly below. They struggled across and found that between them, the wind dropped and they could safely lash the transmitter base to the superstructure.
"Hurry, it's so cold!" Vivian said, hugging herself against the bitter wind.
Solly unfolded the solar panels and used the bonding compound supplied to stick them to the windows. They were so thin, there was no way for the wind to get under them.
"Ready!" Solly called as he flicked the activation switch. Lights appeared on the control panel and he checked that the batteries were being fed by the panels. "Yep. Diagnostics check out. We can do the rest from street level!"
He stood up, and Vivian grabbed him as he almost overbalanced. She looked beyond him and her mouth dropped. "Look!"
Solly turned around. There, in the space between the other two glass structures stood a squat black antenna emerging from a rectangular control box. On the side of the box was a logo.
The Lee Corporation.
Chapter 12
Paulie flung herself to the floor as the rat-at-at of gunfire echoed around the entrance lobby of the department store. The last time they'd been here, there had been five of them and they'd taken infinite care. Now only Paulie and Tucker remained—unless Petrov had somehow escaped the Reaper—and they were focused entirely on getting to Room 5 where they expected to find Liang.
"Where did that come from?" Marvin whispered as they sheltered behind an upturned plinth.
"Dunno. Pretty close. Didn't sound like the Reaper's weapons, though."
Marvin looked doubtfully at her. "Really? You reckon someone's fightin' back?"
"Yeah. Maybe we're not the only idiots around here. Come on."
She crawled out on hands and knees, her ears strainin
g for any sign of the Reaper's distinctive hum. She'd never be able to hear another refrigerator without diving for cover. Assuming reliable power could be restored in the foreseeable future. Paulie would give anything right now for decent lighting. She'd been frightened enough of the Reaper in the broad daylight of the riverside cottages where Bobby had died, but creeping around in the half light trying to avoid a floating black lozenge of death was another level of terror entirely.
She got to her feet as she reached the entrance of the main hall.
"Can't hear nothin'" Marvin said.
"Let's go for it. And remember, we have to get to the control board and shut down the drone. Do that first, then we can worry about Liang."
Tucker nodded grimly and they headed out over the marble floor, dodging fallen shelves and boxes, trying desperately to make no noise.
"What the hell?" Paulie stopped and pointed to the left. There, against the far wall, lay the crumpled form of a human body.
"Leave it!" Marvin hissed as she went to investigate. "Shut down the Reaper, that's what you said!"
But she ignored him and ran across the floor, all caution forgotten, her instincts driving her.
It was a soldier in a blood-drenched Chinese uniform who was half-sitting against the base of a counter as if he was a leaf blown into a corner by the wind. He lay opposite an open door that led to a smaller department.
"Sheriff! Come on. We gotta move before it comes back!"
"Why did it shoot a Chinese soldier?" Paulie muttered to herself as she crouched beside the body. "What does this mean?"
She let out a cry of shock as, with a sudden convulsion, the corpse fell forward onto its face. "What the h— "
"Help…me…"
Tucker, who'd caught Paulie as she stumbled, pointed down at a space between the bottom of the counter and the floor. "Petrov!"
Paulie pushed the body of the Chinese soldier to one side and took hold of Petrov's trembling hand.
"What are you doing under there?" she asked as she and Marvin pulled him out. "You've been shot!" Fresh blood coated Petrov's shirt and his face, always pale and owl like, was as white as a sheet.
"Chang…him," he muttered, pointing at the corpse. "He caught me, was taking me to Liang…Reaper found us…he ordered it away. It shot him."
Marvin glanced through the door as if expecting to see it floating there, listening. "So, it was aimin' for you and got him? Poor sap."
"I don't buy that," Paulie said as she pulled open Petrov's shirt and examined the wound. "I mean, it's not yet the perfect killing machine, but I can't believe it's programmed to ignore the uniforms of its makers."
"I thought you said Lee Corp made the Reapers?"
Paulie nodded. "Didn't you know Annabel Lee was half Chinese?"
"Oh my G…"
"Yeah. As soon as we got here and found the Reaper, it seemed so obvious. We thought we were up against the Lee Corporation, but it turns out we're also fighting the entire Chinese nation."
Tucker's face darkened. "Oh man," he said, as he watched Paulie cleaning Petrov's wound. "Are you sayin' the Commies survived? All of 'em?"
"I don't know for sure, Marvin, but it looks pretty likely to me. I mean, if the Chinese government is behind the Lee Corporation, they wouldn't kill their own, would they?"
"Honestly, Sheriff, none o'this makes sense to me. Seems as though we'd best tackle the job in front of us and worry about everythin' else later."
Paulie nodded, then turned back to Petrov. "Looks as though you've been lucky. I think the bullet that got you had passed through him first." She gestured at the body of the Chinese soldier. "He took the brunt of it and it missed your vital organs. I'll bind it as best I can, but we'll have to get you some medical attention."
"Thank you, Sheriff."
"You wait here while Marvin and I deal with Liang."
Petrov shook his head vigorously. "No! I'm not staying here with…him…"
"Don't be an idiot, Custer. You might bleed to death!"
But there was no arguing with him, and Paulie could see the terror of being left on his own written in his eyes. "If you slow us down, Petrov, we'll leave you behind, I swear!"
Tucker helped Paulie drag the man to his feet, then, just as they were about to head back along the shopping hall to the door that led to Room 5, they all stopped and listened.
"It's coming!" Petrov cried out, jabbing his arm beyond the Chinese soldier's body and through the open door to the smaller room beyond.
There floated the Reaper. A black, lozenge-shaped drone, its four rotors humming as it observed them before, suddenly, it dipped its nose, the noise from the rotors peaked and it headed toward them.
"Run!" Paulie said, pulling on Petrov's arm. He didn't move. "Come on, Custer! Run!"
Marvin grabbed his other arm and, as if he'd been freed from a spell, the Russian came to life and his legs began moving so they could let him go. They'd just reached the exit door when it turned the corner into the main hall and, with an ear-splitting crack-crack-crack, the door frame exploded.
Not looking to see whether anyone lay beyond, they’d flung themselves into the corridor and ran for the entrance to Room 5.
Marvin kicked the door open and they saw the table the Reaper had been sitting on when they'd first stumbled across it. There were doors to left and right. Paulie made for one and flung it open.
"Put down your weapons."
Liang stood there with two other guards. His handgun was pointing directly at Paulie, giving her no time to react.
"Go ahead," he said softly. "Give me an excuse. There is information inside that pretty head I could make use of, but I am just as content to blow it off its shoulders should you insist."
Paulie's gun dropped to the floor, followed by the metallic thunk of Tucker's rifle and whatever Custer had been carrying.
Behind them, they could hear the hum getting louder. They were surrounded by death.
Liang nodded to his subordinates and they moved out from behind the desk, pulling thick black zip ties from their pockets. One went to Custer and secured his unresisting hands behind his back. Tucker pushed back against the guard that tried to do the same with him, but Liang pointed his weapon at him and, finally, he was forced to give in.
Paulie could hear the Reaper behind her and imagined she could feel the breeze from its rotors like the breath of the Grim Reaper on the nape of her neck. "Did you know it shot one of your soldiers?" she said.
"Do not be foolish," Liang responded.
Did she see doubt in his eyes?
"Go look in the main hall. You'll find…what was his name, Custer?"
"Ch…chang. It's true, Major. He was bringing me to you, and he ordered the drone to go, but it shot him."
Liang's eyes flicked to Petrov. "It was an error, then. This is a prototype unit. New units are being shipped from China. They will not have these…faults."
Behind her, Paulie could hear the drone's barrel spinning up.
"You will stand down!" Liang barked at a point above Paulie's left shoulder. "Do you understand me? Return to your charging station."
She heard the hum of the rotors altering slightly, terror turning her blood to ice as she waited for the machine guns to cut them down.
Liang's face went red with mixed anger and fear. "You are malfunctioning!" Then, quite suddenly, he reached to the left.
"Get down!!" Paulie yelled as the machine guns spoke, throwing Liang against the wall in a scarlet spray.
She rolled over to see the guards who'd been standing behind her running past the Reaper which swung easily in its axis and, with another terrible roar of gunfire, brought them down.
Paulie and Tucker scrambled around the desk to take shelter beside the body of Liang. Petrov, however, had tried to climb underneath and he cried out as another burst of gunfire hit his legs.
The drone turned to face Paulie and Tucker as they waited for it to spit death at them. Then there was movement from beneath the table. Paulie
didn't dare look, but Custer Petrov was dragging himself along the floor, leaving a bloody trail behind him.
As it watched Paulie and Tucker, Petrov peered over the edge of the desk to where the control panel lay. As the drone's barrels began whirring, he hauled himself up and reached for a button. The Reaper swung again, blowing Custer into the air to land beside Liang.
It was now or never. Paulie had an instant to look at the controls. There was a joystick built into the console, and above it a monitor that should have shown a view from the drone's camera, but was, in fact, black. At the instant the gunfire halted, she threw herself horizontally aiming for the only button Liang could have meant to press. She heard the metallic staccato of the gun platform moving and the accelerating whine as it prepared to fire. She braced herself for death, as she stabbed down.
A deafening bang. A searing pain. And then nothing. She fell beneath the desk.
"She's comin' round."
"Oh, thank God."
"She was very fortunate."
Paulie wanted to sleep. So, she did.
She was alone when she awoke. Paulie felt the soft yielding of a mattress and her hands whipped onto her body. She was clothed, but not in her sheriff's uniform. It was a loose-fitting gown. A hospital gown.
She sat up, allowing her eyes time to focus. How long had she been asleep? She knew where she was. This was the makeshift hospital in Alldays Department Store. But who was in charge? Was she a prisoner of the Chinese?
"Enjoy your vacation, Sheriff?"
Well, that answered the question. She rolled her head to the left to see Marvin Tucker sitting there. "What are you doing here?"
"That's nice," he said with a grin. "It was my turn to watch, that's all. I'll go get the doctor."
She put out an arm to stop him. It felt as though it was made of iron and flopped down beside the bed. "Hold on. What happened?"
"The drone clipped you as you hit the button then, cool as you like, it spun around and took itself off to the charging station. I carried you into the hospital. They were locked in, you know. Pretty terrible conditions. But Doc Ashmal—you remember him?—he patched you up."
Betrayed: Book 5 in the Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival series: (The Long Night - Book 5) Page 10