“Da,” Minya replied. “But I wait for you to say something funny.”
The doctor smirked.
Kelly rolled his eyes. “Oh, I give you gold, and her line gets a laugh. Just take me to Freya.”
“Of course.”
Kelly and Minya followed the doctor to the farmhouse. The massive wooden doors were pulled back to reveal an elevator in the middle of the straw-strewn room.
“Of course, more secret bases. Where are we now?” sighed Kelly.
“Dulce Base,” the doctor answered.
“Great.”
The group stepped inside the cramped elevator and allowed the doors to slide shut behind them. Thankfully, the small tube descended quickly so the uncomfortable silence didn’t last long. When they arrived at the required level, the doctor side-stepped through the opening doors into the rock-hewn corridor, not wasting a second more in the claustrophobic box. Obviously, he was not a fan of small spaces. He drew a breath and beckoned his guests to follow.
Minya and Kelly cautiously stepped out and examined their surroundings, but nothing gave away what might lie ahead. The interior was simply a red-brown rock cave with evenly-spaced halogen lights hanging overhead. They followed the scientist down the poorly lit passageway until they reached a small, metallic door.
The doctor tapped at a flat-glass security pad embedded in the rock and waited for the door to pop open. “In here.” He waved his arm into the now-open doorway.
“Going for the dungeon look. Nice. Not very original, but I like it.”
The doctor ignored Kelly’s comment and ushered them through the portal.
The familiar white-walled and hermetically sealed room reminded him of his time at Paradise Ranch—the first time he had met K’in. Even the smell, clinical and sterile, was the same. “I stand corrected. Seems you guys have a standard creepy lab blueprint everybody follows.”
“Kelly?”
The voice was soft and alluring—and not to be trusted. He smiled in relief. That was just how he’d felt the first time he’d heard it.
Kelly side-stepped the doctor to see Freya standing in front of him. With no need for field gear, she was once again in business attire: a black pencil skirt, a high-collared white blouse, and fitted suit jacket. Her jet-black hair was pulled back into an efficient ponytail. He also noticed her right ankle was bound in a tight support.
“Kelly, it’s good to see you.” Freya smiled as she inspected him. “New haircut? You look ... grown up.”
He rubbed his newly shorn, crew-cut hair. One of the soldiers in the chopper had carried a set of clippers to keep his head efficiently shaved. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides, the wet mane constantly in his face was pissing him off. “Yeah, I was due.”
“The haircut or growing up?” She folded her arms and smirked.
“Probably both,” he replied. “So what’s the emergency? Why’d you drag me all the way out here? I’m sure the army isn’t in the business of letting you use their choppers to get me up here for a date.”
“No, Mr. Graham.”
Kelly didn’t know this woman’s voice. “And you are?”
Lucy stepped toward Kelly, moving a lock of blonde hair behind her ear before offering her hand for him to shake.
“I’m the Secretary of State, Lucy Taylor. I called you here.”
“No shit,” exclaimed Kelly, shaking her hand vigorously.
“You’ll forgive me. I don’t tend to follow politics. There’s no TV with cable where I hang out, ya know?”
“Of course, Mr. Graham, I understand. I apologize for bringing you here on short notice, but we do need your help.”
“Well, it was a sneaky move making me think Princess Freya was in trouble to get me up here.” He winked at her. “But now you have me here, what’s the emergency? Let me guess, you found aliens from Mars and thought it would be a great idea to give them CPR, and now they’re running around in giant tin cans with legs, blowing shit up?”
The group stared at him, perplexed.
“War of the Worlds? H.G. Wells? No?” Kelly sighed. “Forget it. So, what’s up? Why me?”
“It’s a little complicated, Mr. Graham. In the last year, I have been trying to uncover and close down any part of the program that was linked to the cloning of the creature you knew as K’in. I was appalled at how our government had behaved, causing war with the Chinese and exposing our citizens to the virus. Not to mention the ethical and moral implications of bringing an extinct intelligent species into the modern world and then trying to use it for our own ends.”
Kelly frowned and studied the woman. A politician with morals? Really? He indicated for her to continue.
“I have managed to shut down most of the program and exposed some pretty high-profile people in the senate. It’s all but discontinued—apart from this one piece.”
“Out with it, lady. What are you talking about?”
“The creature K’in was not the only clone.”
“Yeah, I know this. There were four before him. Professor Alexander told me. They didn’t work.”
Suddenly, Kelly became aware of his surroundings. He focused on the tall glass cylinders behind Freya and the Secretary. He stepped between the women and peered inside the tubes, examining each of the grotesque forms, gnarled and twisted. They looked like K’in—kind of. “Holy shit, is this them?” He studied the plaques. “One, two, three, four.”
“Yes, that’s them.” Freya put a hand on Kelly’s shoulder. “But ...”
“But? But what?”
“There was a sixth.”
Kelly took a deep breath and then sighed loudly. “Jesus, another poor, scared animal wondering what the hell is going on?”
“Not quite,” the doctor replied.
“Wait, are you talking about?” He cast his mind back to the discussion with Professor Alexander at Paradise Ranch more than a year before. He’d seen a file on the computer screen that had been quickly hidden from him. Even then, he’d known it contained something to do with military application. “The fusion folder.”
“Yes,” the Secretary replied.
“Oh shit, where is it?”
The doctor pointed beyond the cylinders to the large tank at the back of the room.
Kelly looked at each of the others’ faces in turn, his own furrowed with worry. Strangely, Minya appeared calm. She was quietly absorbing all the information.
Taking another deep breath, Kelly made his way to the aquarium at the back of the room. Inside, a dark shadow slowly swam up to the glass window and then stopped and hung there, staring at him. Kelly studied it, his eyes wide as he examined its sinewy flesh, huge blood-red eyes, and massive black gills. His stomach knotted and his concentration waned. It was horrible, like a demon from a childhood nightmare.
“That is not like K’in.”
“No, Mr. Graham. This is Wak.” The doctor was now standing beside him.
“Wak? Why does it look different—from K’in, I mean?”
“Wak is the result of combining the original animal’s DNA with human DNA. Fusion.”
“Fuck me. It looks pissed.” Kelly raised one eyebrow. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It has behavioral problems,” Freya said, who had now joined the two men.
Kelly scoffed. “No shit. Wait a minute, you want me to bond with this thing? Like I did with K’in? You’re outta your goddamn mind.”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Freya said, shaking her head.
“In fact, it’s already bonded with someone.”
Kelly span around and looked her straight in the eyes, his face pale. “Not you?”
“No, not me.”
He sighed in relief.
“This isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, but ...” Freya swallowed.
“But?”
“It bonded with Victoria.”
“Victoria? Victoria who?” he asked, puzzled.
Freya gave a weak nod as if to will him the answer.
<
br /> “Vicky? But she died. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“She was found in the wreckage of the truck in Las Vegas, dying. Our team picked her up. They had no idea who she was. There was no ID. All they knew was she wasn’t American. She was a perfect candidate.” Freya had her palms outward, trying to calm Kelly.
“Candidate for what?” Kelly’s voice grew louder with his frustration.
“She was near-dead and badly hurt. She’d lost one of her arms. The work with Wak had led to the possibility of limb regeneration. They saved her.”
“Where is she?”
Freya stepped to the side to reveal another tank in the corner of the room. Kelly ran past her and almost fell into the glass wall. He gazed at the woman suspended inside. She was wearing a short, black, neoprene wetsuit and a mask over her face that fed her oxygen. Her eyes were closed as if she were asleep, and her hair swirled about her head. Kelly searched for signs of injury to her arms but found none.
“Get her out of there.”
“We can’t,” the doctor replied. “She needs to spend a couple of hours in there every day. It calms her.”
“Calms her?” Kelly asked.
“Yes. Kelly, Victoria may not be like you remember her. She didn’t take the news of what happened to her lightly. Using the animal’s cells to save her ... you remember what happened at Paradise Ranch.”
Kelly thought back to the incident. Victoria had been so angry. Her beliefs torn apart in front of her. “Of course, I remember. She’s probably freaked out. These sick fuckers stuck cells in her from something she hated with every fiber of her being.”
“They didn’t know, Kelly. They just—”
“I know, they just saved her.”
“She didn’t remember anything for a long time—she was calm. But then, things started coming back to her. She started asking for you and Chris. When we didn’t bring you, she became angry. As she became angry, so did Wak. Eventually someone will get hurt.” Freya trailed off and swallowed nervously. “It’s why they brought me in. She asked for me, too. I told her everything that had happened, but she wouldn’t believe me. She just got angrier and angrier.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t just kill her and it. Isn’t that what you people do?” Kelly directed his question at the Secretary and the doctor.
“I am in charge of this now, Mr. Graham. And as I told you, I do not agree with the fundamental amorality of all this.” Lucy swept her arm around the room. “Wak is a living being, and Victoria is a woman with rights. I want to find a way to deal with this.”
“And what do you want from me?”
“Victoria’s been asking for you over and over. We’re hoping she will be more cooperative if you talk with her,” Freya replied.
Kelly turned back to the tank and placed his palm on it. For a few minutes, he said nothing, instead choosing to stare into the cold water. “I’ll talk to her—but on my own. I don’t want your lot freaking her out.”
“Thank you, Kelly.” Freya placed her hand on his shoulder again.
“Sure.”
“Just one thing. She has a bit of a temper, so be careful.”
Kelly laughed for a second but stopped when Freya didn’t reciprocate. “Really?”
Freya lifted her bandaged ankle a few inches to show Kelly. “Really.”
Location: Blagoveshchensk, Russia
Sasha sat in the waterfront bar, staring across the river at the Vegas-style lights. He’d been waiting for several hours for his contact to arrive. The whole feeling of this place was so un-Russian it hurt his sensibilities. While his uniform offered him some protection and even respect from his countrymen, the Chinese who lived here gave no such preferential treatment. Blagoveshchensk was reluctantly twinned with Heihe, and only the small Amur River separated them. These intrinsically linked cities sat on the border between Russia and China. And Sasha hated it.
Across the water in Heihe sat the Yuan Dun shopping center, its name written large enough to be seen clear across the river. The lights of downtown Heihe were reflected in ripples of the river’s surface. As far as Sasha was concerned, both cities were dirty and chaotic. Heihe was nothing more than a Potemkin village—a bauble the Chinese government lavished money on solely because of its location.
Here, perhaps worst of all, ordinary Russians and Chinese could cross the border, and foreigners freely moved in and out. It was an outrage.
He sipped the vodka in the shot glass and scanned the room. A mixture of Russians, Siberians, and Chinese filled the seats—yet never sat together. There may have been free movement, but no one nationality trusted another.
From within the crowd, a man approached the Polkovnik. Unlike everyone else in the bar, this man was Middle Eastern. His thinning hair revealed a shiny scalp, and his skinny build seemed almost inhuman. He hastened toward the Russian.
Two FSB agents stepped down off their stools and blocked the man’s way. Finishing his vodka, Sasha tapped his men on the shoulder, signaling they should let the sickly-looking man through. They grudgingly parted but stayed close.
“You have what I want?” Sasha asked.
The skinny man stared momentarily. The Russian’s accent was difficult to place. It almost had an American quality to it. But he ignored it and continued with his business. “You have what I want?”
“You have what I want?” replied the man.
“Do not test me. If you have what I came for, you will get paid. If you have wasted my time, I will kill you.”
A flash of realization passed across the Arab’s face. He was not in a position of power. He pulled an envelope from his jacket and handed it to the Polkovnik. “Here.”
Sasha ripped open the letter and slid out a small piece of paper. Unfolding it, he surveyed what was clearly a photo of a map of Western Russia covered in Cyrillic scrawling.
“On paper? Really?” the Polkovnik asked.
“Yes,” the man hissed. “You of all people should know the dangers of the digital age. Didn’t your government recall all the typewriters used during your wars to prevent tracking of certain documents? Sometimes the old ways are the best.”
“If it were the old days, you would not be paid in money, but in fewer internal injuries for cooperating.”
Color drained from the pathetic man’s face.
Sasha tapped the photograph. “And you are sure this is where I will find what I’m looking for?”
“Yes, of course. You doubt me?”
Sasha didn’t respond.
“Of course. You think I need you chasing me, KGB man?”
“FSB. And what about those it belongs to ... chasing you?”
“They have more morals than you. They would at least kill me quickly, Russian.”
Sasha narrowed his eyes. That was probably true. He gave the okay nod to the soldier on his left.
The skinny man was handed a small satchel, which he snatched away with his bony hands and duly inspected. Satisfied with his payment, he bowed sarcastically and scurried out of the bar.
The men stared at the Polkovnik in expectation.
Sasha downed his vodka in one and held the map so they could see.
“Yebat,” said one.
Sasha nodded. “Da. Yebat.”
Location: Dulce Base, New Mexico, USA
Kelly sat at her bedside, watching her sleep. The team at Dulce Base had removed Victoria from her aquatic prison more than an hour ago, but she hadn’t woken up yet. She was in a small space on the other side of the tank that held Wak. The aquarium was transparent on both sides, creating a water-filled window from the room they were in to the lab that contained the deformed, deceased clones.
Swirling in the cold water of the aquarium was the creature, Wak, its red eyes piercing the blackness that surrounded it—watching Kelly. Its movements were calculated and menacing like a jealous partner pacing a room. Kelly didn’t like this creature. It was nothing like K’in.
He turned his attention back to Victoria. Her
hair was drying in a matted mess, stuck to her forehead and shoulders. White sheets were wrapped around her body, leaving her arms free. Her breathing was shallow, punctuated by the occasional gasp and muscular spasm.
Kelly understood all too well the bond with the animal was powerful. He gently brushed the hair away from her face. At least K’in had been peaceful and childlike. This new thing seemed malevolent.
He thought back to the attack on Paradise Ranch and how Victoria had been so offended at the thought of a non-human species being intellectually more advanced than humans. She couldn’t believe a life form had possibly given humankind the ability to build great societies with morals and rules. The thought that God had not bestowed these gifts, but something else, had attacked the very core of her being. She’d flipped, stolen a gun, and raced to kill K’in. Only, she couldn’t do it. Yet, by some sick twist of fate, the Chinese had attacked the base, sending Victoria off-kilter so much so she’d accidentally pulled the trigger, sending a stray bullet bouncing around the hermetically sealed room—a bullet that had come to rest in the chest of Kelly’s best friend in the world, Chris.
Vicky hadn’t meant to kill Chris. It wasn’t her fault. Kelly knew that, but he couldn’t help resenting her for it. He swallowed the lump in his throat. She was just passionate about her religion.
Kelly paused on that thought. It was strange. He’d known her for several years and the topic of religion had never come up. Had she always been that fanatical? He couldn’t remember. If he was honest, he had been too busy grieving Izel and Carmen at the time to pay any attention to anyone else.
A light moaning broke his train of thought. He sat silently and watched Victoria stir and stretch her arms. The creature was now quite still, watching them.
Victoria blinked in the harsh light of the fluorescent tubing overhead. The synthetic yellow haze that lit the room made the intensity of her now-red eyes appear even greater.
Kelly took a short, sharp breath and quickly exhaled it away through pursed lips. He hadn’t seen her with her eyes open until now. No one had warned him. She looked so different. The warmth of her gaze was absent, replaced by a crimson stare.
“Kelly?” Her voice was weak and croaky but still carried that gentle English accent.
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