The Mirror Cracks (The Human-Hybrid Project Book 3)
Page 9
“Stop, Julia.” Joanie held up a hand. “Unimportant. Software update. Locked in.”
“Or out,” Leigh said. “I can guide someone manually if anyone is willing to try to pick it.”
“Or slice it,” Alyna muttered, her claws on one hand already out and ready.
“Or pick it,” Joanie reiterated, and she motioned with a hand for Alyna to be patient. “No alarm. Jantzen and Justin?”
“With us? Sort of, well, yes.” Leigh wasn’t saying everything.
“Okay. Understood. Marco, lock.” Joanie’s words were fully detailed to the people around her. Marco—part lemur adapted—had the smallest fingers in the group, and Leigh’s ultrasound adaptation, allowing her to see what others couldn’t, including the inner gearing of the gate’s locking mechanism, were needed to get through the locked gate.
“Heh, heh, finally! Something I’m good at!” Marco scrambled over, wrapped his hands around the locking mechanism, sniffed of it, and smacked his lips. “Ready.”
“Let me focus—”
As Leigh and Marco worked their magic, Joanie directed the others to gather their things. She pulled Garik aside, “Water?”
“In the backpack, sure. Do you need it?”
“Unsure. Be prepared.” Joanie patted him on the shoulder and turned to see how the progress was going on the lock.
“It’s hanging, Leigh. I am pulling. Can you get Paolo here? Hot water might work to expand parts of the metal.” Marco growled at the lock.
“I can lubricate it, if you think that will help.” Giselle offered her hand, her fingers already dripping.
“Try it,” Leigh called. “It’s almost there.” The lock attached to a rotating assembly that interlocked in the center. It wasn’t releasing enough to allow the gate to move.
Garik scanned the interlinked rods and the way they twisted together. He pictured his Street Strider and the gearing inside. He had rebuilt it on the side of the road enough times that he understood how to relieve the pressure on troublesome gears that liked to jump restrictive linkages.
“Here,” he said. “Keep pulling that, Marco. I’ll lift this here, and you, John, when I tell you, pull this rod towards you.”
“That will help how?”
“Just do it!” Garik groaned in frustration. This was something he understood. They explained nothing to him. Then they expected him to explain everything to them. Sometimes things just needed done.
“Okay.” John stepped to the gate, grabbed the rod, and said, “Ready.”
Garik pulled, the rotating assembly moved, and he hissed, “Now, John.”
With a snapping rotation that threw Hector backwards and startled Leigh, the locking mechanism released.
“We’re through.” Laura hefted a pack onto her shoulder just as alarms sounded, and strobe lights across the parking area flooded the space with midday brilliance.
Alyna groaned, “I could have done that,” as she wrapped her arms around a box to carry to the other side.
“Now. Move.” Joanie tugged on one gate, creating enough room for them to squeeze through. They were almost there. Just a little way to go.
JOHN SLIPPED through with a backpack on his shoulders, leading Laura. She held a zippered bag by the straps, and once through the gate, she took off running.
Marco squeezed past John, now in full run. He was on two feet this time, using his tail to balance the speed of his feet.
Leigh stood on the opposite side of the gate, helping people work their things through the tight opening. Amy, tiny Amy, had a backpack nearly her size. Her strength seemed inordinate to her stature, but she seemed to have no trouble.
Alyna had taken Garik’s backpack of water bottles while he was helping with the gate, and she carried it and the box from earlier. He followed her through, both cutting into a run at the first opportunity.
Giselle’s rolling case hung for a moment on the gate’s tracks. Julia had one of Laura’s bags in one hand, and she worked Giselle’s case free with the other, helping her to get it rolling before they disappeared into the upper level.
Joanie was last, as any good leader should be, waiting on Leigh before putting her hand on the strap holding her backpack over one shoulder and making her way skyward.
At the van, they found Paolo hunched over Justin, who seemed a pale imitation of himself. Paolo looked overhead at the red lights flashing on the ceiling, running his eyes back and forth. Outside the garage, the night was black.
“Did anyone bring a key?”
“Where’s Jantzen?” Joanie forced out two words, a good semblance of a complete sentence, revealing her desperation and determination to be understood.
“That’s my sort of.” Leigh knelt by the two men, and she asked Justin, “Can you hold on?”
“To you? Of course.” He chuckled, laughed, and coughed blood.
Garik saw the complete picture. They were here. Jantzen was not. Whatever had happened to Justin, he needed to be someplace besides here. Alarms were going off, and there was no way they weren’t going to be surrounded by the military in about two minutes. He was surprised they weren’t already here.
They needed in the van, and he could get it started, even without a key.
Garik took Giselle’s rolling case, and he said, “Excuse me, Giselle. Thank you.” Lifting it, he smashed the bottom against the side glass. One wheel flew off, but when it came away, it left a crack. He smashed it again and again. “I’m sorry, Kevin,” he said, as he hit it the fourth time, shattering the glass and sending the case tumbling inside. He reached through the door, felt for the lock, and slid the door open. He stood back and motioned for everyone to climb in.
“We still don’t have the key,” Paolo reminded him, as he stood and helped Justin stand.
“Leave that to me.” As everyone began climbing into the van, Garik went around and opened the driver’s door. He leaned under the dash and grabbed underneath the plastic housing enclosing the steering wheel and pulled until it broke free. “Sorry, again, Kevin,” he said, and he tossed the plastic to the side. It clattered on the concrete floor of the garage. He began feeling for wires, certain he could bypass the ignition switch. He knew machines, had seen this done over and over in movies. How hard could it be?
“How long, Garik?” From Paolo. “We might need to make our exit.”
“It should have an ignition lock switch I can bypass. I can’t find it.”
Something hit the outside of the van beside Garik’s door, and he looked up to see Jantzen, bare-chested, standing over him, panting with exhaustion.
“What are you doing?”
“Hotwiring it, of course.” Garik thought that was obvious. No key!
“And you broke the window for what reason?” Jantzen shook his head. “Giselle, I need some clothes out of that case.”
She clicked it open, to the complaints of several others crowded in with her, and she handed him a set.
He began pulling on a pair of pants, and he called, “Giselle, the keys are in there, also. Hand them to me.”
They appeared over the seat, and she dropped them into Jantzen’s hand. He pulled his shirt on and motioned for Garik to get out of the way. He climbed in, started the van, and shifted it into gear.
“I told Kevin we wouldn’t damage the van. He’s not going to be happy. You should have used the key.”
“I did.”
Jantzen looked at him skeptically as he pulled the loaded van out of the parking garage and turned right onto Stamford. To the left, the serene residential lighting of the upscale properties in Overlook Estates seemed incongruous with the desperate escape happening in the van. Cold air poured in through the broken window.
“I did, I did,” Garik insisted, turning to look at the faces behind him catching the lights along the street, flashing them into alternating patterns of light and dark. He grinned. “They just happened to still be in the case when I unlocked it.”
They were barely more than a block away from Corona Mall, h
aving just turned west on Corona and south on McKinley, when Corona Tower erupted with military vehicles streaming into the streets.
“I thought I could hold them longer.” Jantzen put his foot to the floor, the engine in the transport van downshifted and began to roar, and it picked up speed. The passengers held on as Jantzen turned left on Paintbrush, then right on Park Avenue. With his foot planted, the van’s speed soon surpassed anything the speed limit signs suggested as safe and legal.
Garik looked to the right as they passed the police station, lighted against the dark of night, and then it was gone.
Jantzen thought he could hold them longer. Garik was sure he understood. The man had escaped his captors by evaporating into purple mist, and he had spent his time before arriving at the van jimmying all the exits to the building. He had bought them time for their escape.
They were on the run, and Garik didn’t know exactly what that might involve, but if Jantzen was leading them, he had no doubts they would survive just fine.
“Jantzen, can we risk Bay City Medical?” Paolo’s laidback voice filtered over the seat, only now, not so laid back.
“We are being pursued, Paolo.” Very matter of fact.
“Just so you know, we’re losing Justin.”
Garik turned. Paolo held his hand on the man’s chest. Blood seeped from between his fingers.
“John has a watch.” Giselle pulled several items of cloth from the rolling bag, and she handed them to Paolo, saying, “Here, this should help temporarily.”
“I’ve a better idea.” Jantzen slammed the brakes and forced the van west, taking a hard right on Summit Court West. At the entrance to the Ransom Communications Building, he took a sudden left, skidding the tires just in front of a metal roll-up door.
“I’ll be right back. Garik, can you pull us inside?”
“I can drive.”
“Better than you can unlock a car?”
“Jantzen!” Garik wilted. “I didn’t know the keys were inside.”
“I’ll need my clothes.” Jantzen grinned, balled a fist, and punched Garik on the arm. Then, he evaporated, leaving his clothes floating down to land on the seat.
“Move, boy,” Joanie said, giving him a push on the shoulder.
As Garik shifted behind the wheel, purple smoke gathered around the roll-up door and disappeared through the gaps and cracks around the edges. Ten seconds later, the massive door began to roll upward.
Garik shifted into gear, and he eased the van forward.
He had no idea what he would find inside.
Arriving October 2021
In Book Four, Garik reunites with his girlfriend, Marisa, and he learns the secret of the Silverback.
The Secret of the Silverback
Book Four
The Human-Hybrid Project
Garik Shayk is on the run from both the Human-Hybrid Project in the secretive sub-basements of the Corona Tower and the Tower’s recovery teams determined to bring him back. Garik reunites with his girlfriend, Marisa Bruni, only to lose her once again when the Tower outwits and recaptures him. Does Garik decide to cooperate to regain his freedom, or does learning the secret of the Silverback convince him that cooperation is never an option?
Coming October 2021
The Human-Hybrid Project
Addictive!
A 10-book series you won’t be able to forget. Explore each upcoming book, the characters, and more at www.thehumanhybridproject.com.
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