by Jenna Black
The gasps that echoed around the room were gratifying enough that Nate couldn’t help smiling, feeling like he’d pulled off a particularly clever magic trick.
Belinski was still staring across the table at Dorothy, who was looking back and forth between Nate and Nadia with openmouthed shock.
“Nathaniel Hayes and Nadia Lake have a very interesting story to tell,” Belinski said.
“Guards!” Dorothy shouted. “Arrest them!”
Everyone was standing now, talking at once. Dorothy’s security squad started forward, but the room was too crowded for them to move easily to where Nate and Nadia stood, and Belinski’s own squad had positioned themselves to block the way.
“According to these young people,” Belinski shouted over the noise, “you, Miss Hayes, are some kind of Replica, controlled remotely by an artificial intelligence named Thea.”
The plan had been for Nate and Nadia to tell their whole story to the board, but no one had anticipated the level of chaos that would ensue as soon as the masks came off. Dorothy’s security squad were drawing their weapons—something they should never have done in such a crowded room—shoving hapless aides and secretaries out of their way to get at Nate and Nadia.
Several of the board members who had so far been quiet were now clamoring for order—and shouting that they wanted to hear more.
And the other board members, the ones who’d been in such perfect agreement with Dorothy beyond all reason, were reaching into the pockets of the jackets they’d never removed despite the heat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
With an almost dreamlike sense of disbelief, Nadia saw Dorothy’s security team drawing their guns. No one had imagined Dorothy would take Chairman Belinski’s accusations gracefully, but in all the scenarios they’d hashed out in preparation for today’s meeting, they hadn’t discussed the possibility of a shoot-out in a conference room that was so overcrowded it was hard to move.
Everyone was shouting at once, and there were a few screams. The people closest to the door tried to open it and bolt, but the door opened inward, and the advancing security squad forced people to press their backs against the wall—and the door—to avoid being trampled.
Several of the board members did a quick risk assessment and then wisely ducked under the table, choosing its dubious protection over trying to force their way to the door.
There was empty space at the head of the table around Dorothy as her security squad forced everyone back from her, and she stood there rigidly, watching the chaos as if it were only marginally interesting to her. She didn’t seem inclined to try to impose order.
The board members who’d been most vocal in their blind support of Dorothy all stood calmly in their places, none looking the least bit alarmed despite the drawn weapons and the panicking bystanders. Nadia’s jaw dropped open when she saw all eight of them reach into their jacket pockets at exactly the same time, their synchronization too perfect to be coincidence.
“They’re Replicas!” Nadia shouted, but her words were drowned out by more screams.
The Replicas, still moving in perfect unison, pulled guns from their pockets, each turning to the closest human board member—even if that board member was hiding under the table. Nadia’s heart seized in terror as she realized that Thea was through with her charade of humanity. She had already replaced eight of the twenty board members with her special remote-controlled Replicas, and she was about to kill the rest. It was possible, even likely, that she had Replicas of them already prepared and ready to take their places. But no matter what, there was no way she was planning to leave surviving witnesses.
Nadia wanted to run to Belinski, to warn him what was happening, but his bodyguards had him surrounded, and one of the other members of his detail grabbed hold of her arm and yanked her backward so that she and Nate and Belinski were in a circle of heavily armed guards who had drawn their own weapons. The rest of his entourage, left outside the circle, joined the crowd fighting toward the exit.
But Chairman Belinski was far from an idiot, and even over the screams of the crowd Nadia heard him bellow, “Now!”
She held her breath, knowing that if their jamming device failed, every real human being in this room was going to die. Belinski’s bodyguards were no doubt good, but between Dorothy’s guards and the Replicas, they were badly outnumbered.
For a moment, nothing happened. The Replicas aimed at their targets, some of whom hadn’t even noticed the threat yet because they were so stunned by everything that was happening. The ones who had noticed were frantically trying to scramble away, adding to the chaos.
And then suddenly, Dorothy and her eight Replica board members went down.
Most of the panicking people didn’t notice, too frantic to reach the doors to see clearly or think rationally. A couple of the board members who’d been under the table popped up in the clear area where Dorothy had been standing and made for the door she had entered through. Her security guards were all well past them by now, so they made it to the door, yanking it open and bolting through. Those who weren’t too panicked to think noticed the new exit and made for it, ducking under the table to crawl, or climbing on top of it.
Dorothy’s security team did notice the board members and Dorothy going down. Some raced to her side, and others stopped in their tracks, looking confused. Alarms started blaring, adding to the noise and confusion.
With people finally exiting through Dorothy’s entrance, the crowd in front of the main conference room entrance managed to get the door open and began streaming out. People trampled the bodies of the fallen Replicas with complete disregard, not noticing them unless they tripped. And even then, not caring, just struggling to their feet and continuing on their way.
“There are a lot more security officers in this building,” Nate yelled at Belinski. “They won’t know what’s going on and will probably try to arrest everyone.”
Which was not going to go over well when people were still in the grip of mindless panic. Nadia suspected the blaring alarms were making the situation worse, though at least the conference room was clearing out.
Several members of Dorothy’s security team had made it to the head of the table. One of them scooped Dorothy’s limp body into his arms, while the others stood in a protective circle, guns pointing outward. They might be confused about what was going on, but they weren’t confused about their duty, which was to protect the Chairman. Nadia couldn’t blame them for falling back on that duty when they didn’t know what else to do.
“All I did was jam the radio frequencies so that Thea can’t control her Replicas,” Belinski shouted across the room at the confused guards. Despite the pandemonium around them, he remained calm and unruffled. “Dorothy is not a human being,” he continued. “Your true Chairman is here with me.” He nodded toward Nate.
Nadia thought they might buy it. After all, they had seen with their own eyes how Dorothy and the board members had mysteriously collapsed all at the same time. But Dorothy had gone on the offensive before Nate and Nadia had been able to recount the details of everything that had happened, details that would have helped their wild-sounding accusations make sense.
The rest of Dorothy’s security team found purpose in protecting their fallen “leader,” one of them carrying her out through the doorway while the others formed a human shield. There was no one left in the conference room except for them and Belinski’s people, although there were plenty of shouts and screams still sounding from the hallway outside and the alarms were still filling the air with their earsplitting shrieks.
“Hand over the traitors!” one of Dorothy’s security officers shouted over the background noise. Even from across the room, Nadia could see the man’s eyes showed too much white, that he was overwhelmed and falling back on the only thing that made sense to him. Dorothy’s last order had been to arrest Nate and Nadia, so that was what he was determined to do.
All of the guards who remained raised their guns, prompting Belinski’s s
ecurity team to do the same.
“Let’s all try to calm down now,” Belinski tried, though it was hard to be very calming when shouting over an alarm. “The crisis is over, and we can handle this like rational human beings.”
But the leader of the security team had found his purpose, and he was sticking to it. He ignored Belinski and fixed his stare on Nate. “The building is in lock-down! There is no escape. Come out, get down on your knees, and put your hands behind your head!” He flicked a glance Nadia’s way. “You, too!”
“Maybe we should just humor him,” Nadia suggested, though the idea of letting Dorothy’s people get their hands on her for even a minute made her quail. “We’ve proven our point, and the board members will back us up.”
Belinski shook his head. “We’d be dead before the dust cleared. And for all we know, Thea’s replacing the surviving board members as we speak. The jammer is too localized to reach throughout the building.”
“I’m not asking again!” the officer yelled, his eyes blazing with fanaticism. “Hand them over, or I will shoot.”
Under ordinary circumstances, that would no doubt have been an empty threat. Chairman Belinski was a foreign head of state, after all, and shooting at his people would be an act of war. But circumstances were far from ordinary.
Belinski took a step backward and went down to the floor, dragging Nate and Nadia with him. Nadia wasn’t sure who fired first, but the room was soon filled with the roar of gunfire and more screams. Nadia covered her ringing ears and huddled on the floor with Nate and Belinski.
Two of Belinski’s guards went down, the man with a hole in the middle of his forehead, the woman clasping her hands to her throat and making horrible choking sounds as she tried futilely to stanch the blood that poured from between her fingers.
There were a couple more shots, but then the room went quiet except for the constant blare of the alarm.
The woman who’d been shot in the throat bled out before anyone could even reach her. Shaking, Nadia uncurled from her protective ball and saw that all five of Dorothy’s guards were down. The three surviving members of Belinski’s team helped Nate, Nadia, and Belinski back up to their feet.
“What now, sir?” one of them asked. Unlike Dorothy’s men, Belinski’s team showed no sign of being rattled, each changing clips with cool aplomb.
It was a good question. The original plan to storm the subbasement to destroy Thea and the Replication tanks had been predicated on the idea that the board meeting finished in an orderly way, with the board recognizing Nate as the rightful Chairman. Under those circumstances, he could have used his authority to get to the subbasement with a small army of security officers to help him get through whatever obstacles Thea tried to put in his way.
Even if things had gone according to plan, the results would have been very much in question. But without any acknowledged authority—and without the aid of a rocket launcher—there was no way they could fight their way down to Thea.
“We need to find a way out of the building,” Belinski said.
Nate shook his head. “If it’s in lock-down, then there’s no way we’re getting out. This place isn’t called the Fortress for nothing.”
“Well, we’re going to have to find a way out anyway,” Belinski said grimly, and his tone sent a chill down Nadia’s spine.
“Why is that, sir?” she asked, dreading the answer.
“Because I had a contingency plan I didn’t tell you about,” he replied. “I needed concrete proof before I could proceed, and you’ve given it to me. Thea cannot be allowed to survive, and if we can’t get to her ourselves, then we have to find another way.
“The commander of my air force is awaiting my command to fire a barrage of missiles at this building.”
“Thea’s deep underground in the subbasement,” Nate said doubtfully. “She should be protected even against an air strike when she’s down that deep.”
“In theory,” Belinski agreed as he tapped a password into his phone. “But our military technology is the reason your father wanted to create an alliance between our states in the first place. I’m confident our missiles will reach all the way down to Thea’s lair. But once they’re fired, there’s no calling them back.” Belinski held his thumb hovering over one of the buttons on his phone as he looked back and forth between Nate and Nadia. “I can wait until we get out of the building before I make the call…” He let his voice trail off.
Nate grimaced. “But it’s possible we won’t be able to get out, and if we don’t, you won’t be able to order the missile strike.”
Belinski nodded.
“How long will it take the missiles to get here?” Nadia asked.
“About twenty minutes.”
She and Nate shared a long glance of silent communication.
“If we’re not out of here in twenty minutes,” Nate said, “then we’re not getting out anyway.”
Nadia swallowed hard and nodded her agreement. Belinski turned to Marco, who said, “I concur.”
“Very well, then,” Belinski said. “We’ll have to turn the jammer off to get the signal.”
Belinski gestured at the downed Replicas. Nadia didn’t immediately recognize the order for what it was. Not until the three surviving members of Belinski’s security team started shooting the Replicas in the head.
She put her hands over her mouth to stifle a scream, and beside her, Nate’s face took on a sickly greenish color as the air filled with the scents of smoke and blood.
“They aren’t people,” Belinski reminded them. “No matter how much they may look like people, they’re just empty shells.”
Nadia took a shaky breath. She knew Belinski was right. These Replicas were nothing but empty shells with no sentience at all without Thea’s input. But if they were to start receiving Thea’s signal again, they would be an immediate threat. They had to die, no matter how wrong it seemed.
When the last Replica was shot, Marco turned off the jammer, and Belinski raised the phone to his ear.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Nate’s pulse was hammering and his palms were clammy as he watched Belinski raise the phone to his ear. He had been in mortal danger more times than he could count over the past couple of months, had even experienced the terror of Dorothy’s air strikes against the Basement, but that wasn’t quite the same as ordering a missile strike on a building you were currently trapped in.
Despite his fear, Nate felt no temptation to ask Belinski to wait. The building was in lock-down, and two of Belinski’s bodyguards were already dead. Missiles or not, there was a good chance they were all going to die soon. He didn’t know how many armed security personnel were in the building, except that it was more than enough to leave Belinski’s three surviving guards hopelessly outnumbered.
Belinski lowered the phone, shaking his head. “It appears Thea is blocking the phone signal.”
Nate supposed it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It wasn’t like Thea hadn’t done it before. But if Nate had to die here in the Fortress, he much preferred to do it while taking Thea with him, rather than being gunned down by a bunch of security officers who didn’t even know what they were fighting for.
“Apparently, we’re going to have to get out of here after all,” Belinski said.
Marco nodded and gestured for the two other guards to take the point as they headed for the conference room door.
“Do you know how to shoot that thing, son?” Belinski asked Nate, indicating the gun tucked in his shoulder holster.
Nate shook his head. “Not really.”
Belinski held out his hand, and Nate handed over the gun with something akin to relief. He’d probably have shot his own foot off if he’d tried to fire the gun, and it hadn’t been doing anyone any good in its holster.
“Coast is clear,” one of the bodyguards said. He and his partner stepped out into the hallway back to back, guns at the ready.
“Which way?” Belinski asked Nate, the only one of them who knew th
e building well.
Nate glanced to the right, toward the central atrium where there were sets of stairs as well as the main bank of elevators. The usually bright atrium was dim, its windows and skylight no doubt covered by the sliding metal plates that came into play during lock-down. “Left,” Nate said with feigned confidence. “There’s a set of fire stairs at the end of the next hallway.” In a normal building, the fire stairs would always be accessible, no matter what, but he suspected here in the Fortress, they would be locked. However, the elevators and the main stairs were out of the question.
With Marco taking the rear and the other two bodyguards moving forward, Nate, Nadia, and Belinski stepped into the hallway and started to the left.
“I’m not stupid,” a disembodied female voice said, freezing them all in their tracks. “I have locked all doors, including the fire doors.”
Belinski and his team looked around in frantic search of the body that went with the voice, but Nate and Nadia knew better.
“You will not escape this building,” Thea’s voice continued from whatever unseen speaker she was using.
“We have more chance of escaping it than you!” Nate taunted. “At least we have legs.”
Belinski made an angry cutting motion across his throat—the universal sign for “shut up”—while glaring at Nate.
“I’m sure Thea was listening to us all along,” Nadia said to Belinski, and Nate realized that Belinski still hadn’t thoroughly grasped the scope of Thea’s reach. He had thought Nate was giving away secrets with his taunt.
“Indeed,” Thea confirmed. “It’s very noble of you to be willing to sacrifice yourselves for what you see as the greater good. It is one of my goals to instill that spirit of self-sacrifice in my children. All of my children, not the few select noble ones.”
Children? What the hell was Thea talking about? Nate had a feeling he really didn’t want to know.