“Just you?”
“That’s right.”
Reed cursed inwardly. “You’re going to need at least five others, Major,” he taunted. “Any fewer, and the second you free my hands, I’ll escape and wipe out every last one of you. Just saying.”
“I see you’re trying to be entertaining, Commander,” said Hoyer. “I guess you figure if you can amuse me, I’ll let you live. Who knows, you might be right.”
Reed jerked his head back suddenly.
Hoyer grinned. “Ah, I see you’re feeling something touching your neck,” he said. “You’ve probably guessed what that is. Or should I say, what those are. I’m going to order them to slice through your neck if I think the trigger word ‘bite!’ And they’ll be cutting off your restraints, so there’s no need for me to get close. Finally,” he added, pulling out a gun, “I’ll have this pointed at your head while we walk to the bathroom. If you think you can win the day, unarmed, before I can think a single word, I urge you to try.”
Reed felt his restraints sever themselves and he rose slowly to stretch. He winced and made a show of massaging his right thigh as though he were cramping. “Give me one second,” he said. Hoyer had disarmed him, but the sonic generator in his front pocket, which he had taken from a fallen Chinese soldier, looked like a harmless pack of gum and hadn’t been removed. He felt its contours through the material of his pants and squeezed for all he was worth.
A shrill, penetrating shriek blasted through his pocket, stabbing at unprotected ears in the room like an ice pick. It didn’t kill like it had in Utah, but it was still plenty potent. While Reed’s comms made him immune, the three others in the room were knocked out instantly, as sure as if they had been hit in the skull with a hammer.
Reed closed his eyes for a brief moment, thanking God that his head was still attached to his shoulders. As he had hoped, Hoyer had been driven unconscious before he could think the magic word that would have ended Reed’s life. He only regretted not being able to get Hoyer to bring more of his men into the room for the sonic blast to take out.
The small generator had been in his pocket that first morning in Henderson when he had been digested, and the nanites had dutifully resurrected the device along with him. And he had kept it in his pocket when he changed clothes. It was his ace in the hole, perfect for his needs.
He quickly turned his attention to the large monitor on the wall. As expected, men were racing toward the study to investigate the shrill, biting burst of sound, which was worse than the most deafening smoke detector alarm. It hadn’t knocked them out, but it had still been ear-piercing enough to demand their instant attention.
Soon all nine hostiles arrived at the great room just outside the study, and paused to organize a plan of action, hampered by their inability to see inside the study after the major had killed the feed.
“Hoyer is unconscious!” Reed shouted through the door. “Try to enter and he dies! Fire this direction and he dies! A drone enters, same thing. And I’ll kill his prize, Bryce Aronson, too!”
He didn’t wait for a response. That should hold them back for at least a minute or two as they digested his threat, and discussed their next move. He unshackled the anti-telepathy helmet Aronson had been forced to wear and quickly installed it on Hoyer’s head. This done, he found a knife in the major’s pocket and cut Allie’s bonds, pulling her as far away from the door as he could and leaving her on the floor. Finally, he pulled Hoyer onto the chair Allie had vacated and bound him there.
Hoyer was now helpless, but killing him was out of the question. If Reed made this mistake, Hoyer would just be reborn somewhere distant, ready to fight again. Keep him alive and imprisoned, on the other hand, and he was nullified, since he only allowed one copy of himself to exist at a time.
Reed turned to Bryce Aronson and willed him to return to consciousness. His plan depended on it. The effect of a sonic blast like this usually rendered a victim unconscious for an hour or more, but he was counting on the nanites in Aronson’s bloodstream to find a way to ameliorate the effect in minutes. If he was wrong about that, things would get very ugly, very fast.
But Aronson showed no sign of stirring.
He needed to stall for time.
“I’m willing to talk!” he shouted at the door. “But only to Rico Gillespie.”
Several seconds passed. “Gillespie here!” boomed one of nine men outside in the great room, and Reed confirmed it was the same man they had captured in Henderson, who had pretended to be Aronson’s flunky. “You want to talk. Let’s talk.”
“Hello, Rico!” bellowed Reed, guessing Gillespie was the only hostile who knew about the nanites. “I see your suicide didn’t take.”
“My heart wasn’t in it.”
“You should know that Bryce Aronson is awake,” continued Reed. “Without a helmet. So he’s in full control of his nanites. They’ve formed a suit around me. You know that means I’m invincible.”
He paused to let Gillespie think about this. “I don’t want any more death,” he added. “So tell your men they have no chance. And if they leave now, I’ll spare their lives.”
“They won’t believe me!” shouted Gillespie. “You’ll have to come out and demonstrate.”
“You’ll just gas me like you did Aronson.”
“Should be a mask in there,” shouted Gillespie through the door.
“There is. But you’ll just shoot it off my face . . . and then gas me.”
“Surrender and you won’t be harmed. Otherwise, we’ll come in with guns blazing. You have sixty seconds.”
“I’ll kill Hoyer. And Aronson.”
“We both know that killing Tom would do him a favor,” said Gillespie calmly. “As to Aronson, I have to admit that if you kill him Tom will be pissed. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.”
Reed frowned and slid over to Aronson, still tied to the chair. He shook him roughly. “Come on, Bryce!” he whispered. “Wake up!”
Nothing. Reed shook him a second time. “Bryce, come on! We’re out of time!”
Aronson’s eyes fluttered open, but he looked punch drunk. “Where am I?” he whispered groggily.
“Forty seconds!” announced Gillespie from beyond the door.
Reed bent down until his face was inches away from Aronson’s and shook him hard for a third time. “Bryce,” he whispered frantically, “focus! Get your nanites in position to decapitate the man now speaking in the great room. If we don’t spook them, we’ll have to kill them all. Come on!”
Aronson nodded woodenly. “Okay,” he whispered, as if in a dream. “The nanites are on their way.” The physicist continued to recover quickly, gaining strength with each passing second. “I’m surprised you’re trying to spare them,” he added, his tone almost back to normal.
“I always try to avoid bloodshed,” replied Reed. “There’s been far too much already.”
“Twenty seconds!” shouted Gillespie.
“Listen up!” Reed shouted at the adjoining room. “All of you. Rico Gillespie is ordering you into a deathtrap! And he knows it. So keep an eye on him. I’m going to demonstrate my power so you’ll be able to see reason.”
He swiveled to face Aronson. “Now!” he barked.
In the great room, Rico Gillespie followed the fate of the four men that Hoyer had killed in Henderson. His severed head sat on his shoulders for several seconds, as if not realizing it had been cleanly cut, while blood began gushing from his neck. Finally, his pilotless body lost its balance and toppled to the floor, with his head landing several feet away.
Reed watched the remaining hostiles on the monitor. They reacted as if hit by a shock wave. They all began speaking at once and gawking at the separated body of their fallen leader in horror. Many held their necks in their hands and swiveled around in a blind panic, searching for invisible reapers with razor-edged scythes.
“Leave now!” shouted Reed to the remaining mercs. “Or your heads are next! Last time I make the offer.”
; He didn’t need the monitor to know the mercs had accepted his terms. There was a rumble in the next room like a rampaging herd of bison. The men dashed for the exits in a panic.
Reed wasted no time on celebration. Instead, he rushed over to where Hoyer had left the gas mask and canister and picked both up.
“Can you untie me now?” said Aronson.
“I will,” said Reed, lifting the mask to his face. “But first I need to make sure it’s truly clear out there.”
“The monitor shows it is.”
“The monitor can’t see everything,” lied Reed as he affixed the mask to his face.
But instead of rushing from the room, he triggered the gas canister and tossed it under Aronson’s chair. The gas billowed up like a lighted road flare around the great physicist, who gasped it in, his expression reflecting nothing but shock and betrayal as he fell unconscious once more.
Reed blew out a long, relieved breath. So far, so good. But he needed to fetch a second anti-telepathy helmet from those that Hoyer kept at each safe house.
And he needed to do it quickly.
Because Bryce Aronson, with the help of his microscopic nanite physicians, wouldn’t be unconscious for long.
PART 8
49
Allie Keane awoke, unencumbered, and her memories came flooding back to her. How many times could one person be knocked unconscious in the course of a few weeks? Surely she had set the record.
Reed noticed that she was coming to and knelt down beside her chair. He drew her to him gently, holding the embrace for more than ten seconds, and then kissing her on the lips.
“What a relief,” he said softly. “I was beginning to worry. How are you feeling?”
“Splitting headache,” she said. “But, you know . . . alive. Human. At least I hope I am.”
She looked past Reed and saw Bryce Aronson and Tom Hoyer bound securely to steel chairs. Both were conscious, wearing ridiculous helmets, and had their mouths duct taped shut. “What in the world?” she said.
“Remember that thing that looked like a pack of gum I put on the end table the night we first made love?”
She squinted in thought. “Not really. I mostly remember the gun and knife.”
“Well, it was there. It was in the pocket of my pants when Hoyer had me digested. So it was also in my pocket when I was reborn. I did change clothing since, but I kept it with me. I figured if any weapon could come in handy in a world with people who can control nanites telepathically, this was the one. Well, as long as you’re wearing advanced comms that make you immune from its effects.”
“What was it?”
“A sonic generator. I scooped it up during our escape from Utah. A truly nasty device. But one that couldn’t be more perfect for my needs. It didn’t look like a weapon so it didn’t get taken. And it’s able to knock out a roomful of people in an instant. Even before Hoyer could think the word bite.”
“Yeah, that would have been a real . . . problem,” said Allie, swallowing hard. “How did you know it would work fast enough?”
“I didn’t,” he said with grin. “But I sure as hell was hoping.”
Allie laughed. “Yeah, I can see that. Why did you wait so long to attempt an escape?”
“Wanted to keep these guys talking as long as I could. Learn as much as I could. And there was no guarantee it would work. Or, even if it did, that we could survive the mercs. So I was hoping other outs would present themselves.”
“Speaking of surviving the mercs, how did we?”
Reed told her.
“Amazing!” she said in admiration when he had finished.
“Thanks. I’m just relieved it worked.”
“Thank God,” said Allie.
“You might be right about that,” replied Reed with unexpected sincerity. “Maybe we do have God to thank. Or some other higher power. It sure felt like divine intervention to have the exact right weapon at the exact right time. One that looked innocent enough to avoid confiscation.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. Either that, or we were just that lucky.”
“Luck favors the prepared mind,” noted Allie. “You kept that device on you for a reason. Like you said, you knew it’d be ideal if you were blindsided in a world with nanites. And even then, I’ll bet you could put that generator inside the pocket of dozens of seasoned commandos, and only a few would be creative and decisive enough to leverage this chance into permanent freedom. If there’s any divine intervention, it’s that you were assigned to this case in the first place.”
Reed nodded, almost looking embarrassed. “Thanks, Allie. That means a lot to me.”
She gestured to Aronson, who was bound to a chair and listening intently. “But you couldn’t have done it without him,” she said. “So why is he being restrained? And how did you capture him? Based on what you just told me, your sonic device was out of juice, and Dr. Aronson was awake and wielding nanites.”
Reed described how he had donned a mask and used the gas canister to put Aronson out.
“As to the why of it,” he continued, “I did it because there’s still a lot going on that we don’t know about. And I’m not taking any more chances. We know for sure that Hoyer is a psychopathic monster. But that doesn’t mean Aronson isn’t one also. He just might be better at hiding it.
“The truth is that he is hoarding the nanites. That he’s keeping a miracle technology to himself. So I decided to give him the same deal I gave Hoyer. If he can convince me that he’s one of the good guys, I’ll let him go with my apologies. But he’d better be damned convincing.”
Allie glanced at Aronson, who didn’t seem troubled by this stipulation.
“I must have been out for a long time,” she said. “Are you telling me you haven’t talked to him yet?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up. So we could both hear what he has to say together.”
“You realize he convinced you he was the good guy the first time, right?”
“Not exactly. More like he convinced me that Hoyer was the bad guy. Mostly. But now I’m more wary than ever. And after the exchange we just had, I know a lot more than I did then. So let’s see if he can convince me again. Convince us.”
“He looks eager to give it a go.”
“Well, he has been awake for a while now. And it’s been a long day.”
“How long has Tom been awake?”
“About twenty-five minutes,” replied Reed.
“Why was I out so much longer? Aronson has nanites to help him recover. But Tom doesn’t.”
“That sonic generator really packs a punch. And you were the closest to it when it went off.”
“Well, glad I could finally join the party,” said Allie. “So what did you do to pass the time while everyone was unconscious?”
“Not much. First, I did something I don’t want Hoyer to overhear. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Why not just knock him unconscious again?”
“I want him to listen to our conversation with Aronson. So I can get his take on it afterward.”
“Okay, so after this secret thing, what then?”
“I straightened the place up. I gathered fallen drones, weapons, tranquilizer darts that bounced off of Aronson’s armor, and so on. And packed them into a rucksack.”
“How tidy of you,” said Allie with a smile. “Probably smart not to hire a maid service on this one.”
Reed laughed. “Thanks,” he said. “My thinking exactly.”
“Did you do anything else?”
“One final duty,” said Reed. “After they were both awake. I escorted them one at a time to the bathroom. It was quite the lengthy and involved process. I had to make sure they didn’t try to escape.”
“Like you did?”
“Well, yeah. But the truth is, I really did have to go.”
“Speaking of that,” said Allie, “I’m behind in that department, too. Can you wait another few minutes while I use the bathroom?”
“Of course,” said Ree
d with a smile. “Just promise you won’t try to escape.”
“From you?” she said, staring warmly into his eyes. “Never.”
50
“Purse your lips,” Reed instructed Aronson. “I’m going to pull off the duct tape.”
Seconds later Aronson’s mouth was freed, less quickly and painfully than the last time this had been done.
“Thank you,” he said, looking relieved, not only to be able to move his lips, but to finally be able to defend himself. “I know we’re all going to become good friends and allies. So call me Bryce. And I’m going to call you Zach and Allie.”
He frowned. “And no, this isn’t me being Casper the friendly psychopath. I’m just confident I can convince you to join me. For a second time.”
“You have the floor,” said Reed. “Tell us your story. We’ll interrupt when we have questions.”
“Sounds good,” said Aronson. He paused to gather his thoughts. “I’m aware of much of what Hoyer told you,” he began, “from the conversation I had with the . . . other version of you. What he said about ET Ops was largely true, for example. Although he wasn’t a newcomer. He was second-in-command. He fooled a lot of people to get there, and stabbed a lot of others in the back—although I only learned of that much later. One thing is certain, if you’re as talented as he is, and as ruthless, the sky’s the limit in terms of career advancement.”
He paused. “But I was one of the few scientists on the core team, like he said. And his description of my work on quantum entanglement and instantaneous communication was accurate as well.”
“Then congratulations are certainly in order,” said Allie. “No matter how this turns out, what you’ve accomplished is a stunning scientific triumph.”
“Thank you. I can’t wait to share the theoretical underpinnings with you. I consider it groundbreaking. But given your own groundbreaking work, I’m eager to hear your thoughts on—”
“Not to interrupt,” said Reed, “but don’t you think you should win us over before you start a scientific collaboration with Allie?”
The Immortality Code Page 30