“Wow.” Taylor breathed right behind me.
“There you are.” The director strode over and held out his hand palm up like he expected me to give him my hand to kiss or something.
I didn’t know what to do, so I slightly extended my right hand. The director grabbed it but stopped short of kissing the back of my hand.
“Val, you look lovely. And Taylor, you clean up like a gentleman.” He released me and then waved his hand at the room and the massive table that dominated the space. “Please come in.”
The opulence of the room stole my gaze. The floor was an almost white hardwood, the walls were a silver color, and heavy black drapes lined windows that filled the circular room. The ceiling was painted black with small lights flickering amid the darkness adding a mystical quality. As regal as the outer part of the room looked, it was nothing compared to the round table in the center. The table was sleek black with intricate silver designs on the top and the legs. The twelve chairs that guarded the table were black velvet with silver flecks. The whole thing seemed like modern Arthurian, but maybe that was the point.
The room was so over-the-top that I missed the other person standing in the corner. Adam. He wore a dark blue suit and a light blue shirt the color of Taylor’s eyes. He walked to me.
“You look… nice.” A pink tinge colored Adam’s cheeks. “Your hair…”
I forced myself to not smile. I had never seen Adam at a loss for words. “Thanks. You too.”
He grabbed my hand and squeezed. I wanted to ask him why he hadn’t come back to the residential wing, but other people came into the room. Most of them I didn’t know, but of course, Dr. Morgenstern came in wearing a dress that most likely wasn’t on the order form. With the formfitting black silk wraparound dress and stilettos, she looked like she was on her way to a White House dinner rather than a pretentious party in the middle of a secret facility.
“Please be seated.” The director smiled a smile that was more political than anything. “Adam, here, on my right. Val and Taylor on my left please.”
Even though the table was round, it was clear the director sat at the head, and he put Adam at his right as some power symbol.
Once we were seated, the director introduced everyone, then pushed some button under the table. Robots glided in carrying trays and pushing carts. Before I knew it, chicken, mashed potatoes, a mix of veggies, and the softest roll I had ever touched sat on my plate. I had iced tea to drink, while all the adults had wine.
The food, while simple, tasted like it had been prepared by a master chef. After the plates were cleared, chocolate cake and coffee were served.
As I dug into the cake, my naiveté about the existence of facilities like this made me wonder what else was out there. I needed more information before I decided what I was going to do. “Director, what can you tell me about this facility?”
The director’s smile was genuine this time. “Please, call me Darren. Zigotgen is the leader in biotechnology. We started out small, continued to grow and eventually became a government contractor. Then we took over this place and turned it into our home.”
A home constructed into the shape of spider that had been hidden underwater. “What kind of work do you do?”
“Our primary focus is on soldier development. How to make our men and women healthier and happier while serving their country. Take a look.” He tapped the table next to his wineglass.
The middle of the table that seemed a darker black than the rest, like it should be a lazy Susan, glowed, then a 3D image of Zombie running on the treadmill with wires hooked around his chest appeared.
“We also focus on weapon development. How to create smaller, better weapons.”
I wished I was seeing Zombie in person so I could punch him, kick him, make him hurt. I had liked him the most, and he had betrayed me by bringing me here.
Taylor leaned close to me and barely spoke, but I caught every word. “He means they have been trying to create a super-soldier for years. Ones that don’t sleep and take pills or injections instead of eating food.”
Shit. That was exactly like the team of guys that had brought me here. I had stupidly thought they were an elite Special Forces team, not some lab creation.
“They’re human though?” I whispered back.
“Technically.” Taylor answered, then shut up as a robot glided closer. Taylor brought his index finger to his lips.
“Luckily, when the aliens attacked, everyone working at Zigotgen was already living here. We have enough supplies to outlast any invasion. And the intel on the aliens not being able to handle chlorine was pure genius.” The director raised his glass to me like I had planned to help him.
“What kind of resources do you have then?” Adam beat me to the question.
“Electricity, obviously, food, water, rooms.” The director tapped the table again, and Zombie disappeared.
For the next few minutes the scientists talked about the effect of chlorine. I focused on my cake but listened to everything they said.
A shrill alarm cut off all discussions and made almost everyone jump. The director tapped the table. The alarm silenced, but a pulsing red light bathed the room.
“What’s happening?” Adam leaned forward.
The 3D image appeared again. This time it was a night-vision look at the lake.
“Security breach. All around the lake’s perimeter,” one of the scientists said. He pushed something on the table, and a rectangle about a foot long flipped up to reveal a keyboard and what resembled a video game controller. He toggled the small directional stick, bringing the image in closer.
“How many?”
“Maybe twenty.”
They were Raspers. I knew it without seeing the color of their skin or their damn arrowhead fingernail.
“Do you think the new protocol will hold them?” Dr. Morgenstern asked another scientist.
“We’re going to find out,” the director answered for him.
None of the adults had the slightest interest in anything but the Raspers. Dr. Morgenstern scrunched her face, reminding me of the expression she had regarded the Bug specimen with. A couple of things struck me. One, I didn’t know where the Bug was now. Two, where was rheumy-eyed Dr. Collins? Had he come here with the she-bitch, or had the helicopter I had jumped from dropped him off somewhere else?
“Look.” One guy pointed at the screen.
The guy with the controller panned out, and the image enlarged to cover the room so we were a part of it. Like we were there. Standing in the water.
The Raspers all came to the water’s edge. In fact, they appeared to fill the entire visible shoreline. They all raised their heads in a gesture that made me think they were scenting the air like dogs.
“Help us.” The words slithered into my ears like wind cutting apart a dandelion.
My vision blurred, and I sank further into my chair to keep the others from noticing. I wasn’t watching the image anymore. I was enveloped in a pink dense liquid. It was everywhere. It swirled around me like I was inside a jellyfish. I couldn’t see anything else, but I could hear the same deep thrum I had heard outside of Zigotgen. It pounded like an over-tuned bass in my chest.
I turned my head, and something wispy floated next to me in the pink liquid. Then a sound like the screams of a thousand people caught in a natural disaster ripped through my head.
I came back to reality right before I face-planted into the table.
“One of them fell into the lake.”
11
Instead of my head hitting the table, it snapped up. I tilted it to the side, ignored Adam’s questioning gaze, and focused on the image like everyone else. The Rasper that fell in the water appeared to be right in front of us. His mouth was open in a silenced scream. He tried to swim back to the shore, but his skin bubbled and flaked off in sections. His eyeballs popped out of his face and floated. His hair slid from his skull, bobbed in the water, then sank. The Rasper flailed for a minute more, and then he too sli
pped under the inky depths.
“That was so disturbingly awesome.” The director pumped his fist in the air.
While I agreed it was great he died, it seemed so painful. Like the water was an acid bath.
“The rest are leaving,” Dr. Morgenstern pointed out even though we were all glued to the scene.
In a synchronized movement, the Raspers all turned away from the water, paused like they were awaiting instructions, and darted out of the camera’s view. The flashing red light signifying the alarm went dark.
The scientist flicked a switch, and the 3D image disappeared.
“The results of pumping chlorine into the lake are far better than I had hoped for,” the director said to no one in particular.
“Do you think they will come back?” Dr. Morgenstern asked.
“Most likely. But they can’t cross the water now.” The director smiled so wide his gums showed.
“It stopped the Raspers, but what about the Bugs? Have you seen the Bugs’ reaction to the chlorine water?” I said what was on my mind, forgetting it was best to keep my thoughts to myself.
Everyone turned to me.
“The what?” the director asked.
“The actual alien forms, Val creatively named them Bugs and the human hosts Raspers.” Dr. Morgenbitch said it in a way that conveyed she likened my names to a toddler naming their toys.
“That works. No. We only recently got the chlorine in the water. This was our first test.” The director stood, and the rest of us followed. I held on to the back of the chair to maintain my balance.
Between thank-yous and good-nights, the scientists left the room. Dr. Morgenstern gave me a dismissive glance as she left.
“Adam, please stay for a nightcap. Taylor, Val, thank you for coming to dinner,” the director said in a voice that didn’t sound genuine.
“Come on, Val.” Taylor cocked his head to the side.
“Carter, please take them back to the residential wing.”
I stared at Adam. He frowned.
“Val, come on.” Taylor indicated to the door, then he glanced over his shoulder. “Carter, we’ll be okay.”
“Sorry. I have my instructions.” Carter waved us out of the room, then took us back to the residential wing.
As soon as the door reappeared, I kicked off the heels. “Damn torture devices.”
We walked to the end of the corridor to the library. The room was lit in soft white lights. Two of the walls were covered with built-in bookshelves that were filled with books from all different genres. The other wall held a TV that had power even though no programming existed anymore.
“How is this place getting its electricity?”
“Solar and a combination of different alternate and artificial means. Like biofuels. Also, I think they might have created their own method. Wouldn’t put it past them.” He tossed his jacket on the chair. The tie followed seconds later.
“How do you remember everything about this place? Is there a map?” I wanted to know where all exits were.
“I have a photographic memory. I saw the blueprints for the building.”
“Where did you see blueprints? When can I get the door codes?” I hated being dependent on him to navigate us around.
Taylor smiled a conspiratorial grin. “Let’s say I acquired them when no one was paying me any attention. I’m pretty good with computers.”
“So you hacked their system?”
He put his hand over his heart. “You wound me. I would never do such a thing. I just searched for certain information.”
“You totally hacked them.” I laughed a small laugh. It made my face feel funny. Laughing wasn’t an expression it had been used to doing. “Can you teach me?”
Taylor grinned, making him look half his age, then he whispered, “We’ll see. How did you and Adam find this place? His uncle?”
“No. Kalis and his crew brought us here. I thought they were helping us, not making us prisoners. Again.” I couldn’t keep the anger out of my words.
“Where were you held prisoner?” Taylor sank into one of the chairs.
“Site R. It was supposed to be a safe haven, but it was anything but. That’s where I met Dr. Morgenstern. I’m sick of being a pawn in someone’s game. I want to find my friend Megan and go live somewhere without any damn doctors or soldiers.” I didn’t mean to tell him the last part.
“Were you and Megan friends before?” He crossed his ankle over his knee.
I shook my head. “No. Adam and I found her uncle’s cabin, and well, we went through a lot together. I feel like she’s the sister I never had. I didn’t realize how much she meant to me until she was gone.” I ran my hands through my hair, twisted it into a bun, then let it fall down over my shoulders. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No. I always wished I did though. Or a dog. I wanted a dog too, but my mom was allergic.” His face pinched, making him look so sad.
“I had a beagle, Barney. He passed before everything went to hell. I still miss him and his silky ears.” I sniffed back the tears welling in my eyes.
“I’m sorry.” Taylor stood up. “Hey, I want to show you something.”
“What?”
“It’s a surprise. It will blow your mind.”
“Sure, why not.” My whispered voice held no excitement, but Taylor let it go.
He knelt by the left wall of books. In groups he pulled the bottom four rows of books off the shelves, revealing a person-sized square cut into the wood. He removed the shelves, then he pulled a couple of paper clips from his pocket and used them to wiggle out the square.
I tried to bend down, but the skirt tightened and I had to do a legs-together almost squat. I stared into a dark tunnel. “Wow.”
“Someone at some point wanted out of this wing. This isn’t on the building plans. I don’t think anyone knows its here.” Taylor leaned back on his heels.
“Where does it go?” While I wanted to get out, the thought of crawling through a small tunnel underground and underwater made me want to change my clothes.
“You have to see it to believe it.” Taylor grinned like a kid on Christmas morning.
“Is it a way out?”
“No. It’s the brains of Zigotgen.”
“The brains of Zigotgen? What do you mean?”
Taylor pulled a small flashlight from his pocket. He was better prepared than a boy scout. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
“Let me change first.” I glanced down at the skirt.
“You’ll be fine.”
Before I could protest anymore, he crawled into the square just big enough for him to fit into.
I counted to five, swallowed down the anxiety climbing up my throat, and got to my knees. I had to pull the skirt up to move. Luckily, Taylor was in front or he’d be getting an unintentional show. Taylor moved much quicker than me since he wasn’t hampered by the skirt and the cold of the cement seeping into my knees. With the ease in which Taylor navigated the tunnel, it made me think he created it, but I had no idea how he would have done it.
Thanks to my enhanced vision, I was able to see Taylor’s outline ahead of me. We were in the tight space long enough for panic to grip my chest.
I took deep breaths of the cold air. It tasted damp, like a thick fog coated the tunnel. I was about to totally freak when we emerged into a space about the size of my bedroom at home. But this room held computers, unidentifiable equipment, and more wires than should be safe for fire reasons.
As I stood, I yanked down on the skirt.
“What is this room?” I walked around inspecting technology whose use eluded me.
Taylor spread his arms wide. “It’s the server room. All the information is backed up and held in here.” He tapped a black tower of blinking lights, knobs, dials. “Every piece of data. This is their physical cloud.”
“Seriously?”
“Yup. I can even see where everyone is at a given time.”
I stopped moving. “Can you show me?”
Taylor pulled out a drawer that held a keyboard. After pushing a few buttons, a screen whirred to life in front of him. Lights from the monitors bathed the room in a bluish haze. “Give me a minute.” He tapped away at the keyboard.
The quick movement of his fingers held my attention. I could type fast, but Taylor was like a machine.
“Let me make sure my spy-sight is not traceable and our location is disabled.” He typed more. “Okay. We are now invisible to the system.”
I let out a breath. “Can we stay that way?”
He shook his head. “No. The system does a sweep every day of who’s logged as being inside. If you’re not found when the sweep happens, the guys with guns come out.”
I scrunched my face until I was sure to resemble a one-eyed pirate. “Kalis and company.”
“They’re not the only soldiers here.” A map of the facility sprang to life on the monitor. Dots of different colors appeared all over.
“See, the director and your boyfriend are in the director’s office.”
I stared at their dots, wondering what they were keeping from me. “When does it do the attendance sweep?”
“It changes every day. Today it swept at seven p.m., so tomorrow, your guess is as good as mine. And to keep life interesting, after everyone is accounted for, the inner circles turn, making the doors to each corridor different. See, we should be showing here.” He tapped an empty hallway with empty rooms.
“What else can you find out?” I leaned closer to the screen. The scent of pine shampoo surrounded Taylor.
“Anything. Everything. They freaking catalogue everything. I haven’t found it yet, but I bet there’s a log of every time the director takes a dump.” Taylor brought up what appeared to be a master file list. “Oh, and this program. It’s the only one I can’t access. It’s driving me crazy. Firewall after firewall wrapped in other protection.”
He pointed to a file marked, Chimera Fence.
I scanned the screen. This was my chance to get some real information. Every file I saw I wanted to read. I spotted Omega Order and was about to ask Taylor to open that one when something else caught my attention. “What’s Seed Plot Project?”
The Hive (Rasper Book 2) Page 8