Josh gasped and jumped to his feet when something cold and metal pressed into the back of his neck.
“Before I kill you,” Solomon Cord said, “I want you to tell me who you were talking to. If you won’t talk, I’ll kill you and find out the hard way. Now turn around slowly and keep your hands where I can see them.”
Josh raised his hands and turned around. “What are you doing, Sol?”
“Who were you just talking to?”
“When?”
“Just now! On the phone!”
Josh frowned. “You’re losing it, Sol. I wasn’t on the phone.”
“I saw you. I heard you.” He pressed the muzzle of the gun against Josh’s forehead. “You have three seconds.”
“Sol, I wasn’t using the phone!”
“Three.”
“Are you crazy? I just came in here because…because…”
“Two.”
Joshua Dalton looked around wildly. “What am I doing in here?”
“Don’t try to play that game with me, Dalton! One!”
“No! Don’t! I swear to God, Sol! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Solomon Cord frowned. “Look at your monitor.”
“Why?”
“Just look.”
Josh glanced at the computer screen. “What the hell is this?”
“That’s what you were doing when I stopped you.”
“These are the instructions to erase a phone call from the system log! Sol, I don’t even remember coming in here!”
“Have the instructions been executed yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“Good. Find the last number called from that phone. And don’t try anything stupid.”
Josh tapped away at the keyboard. “It’s a cell phone.”
“Call it.”
Josh dialed the number, then Solomon pulled the phone away from him. The phone rang once, then was answered. “Victor Cross. Talk to me.”
Solomon paused for a second then slammed the phone down.
“This is impossible,” Joshua Dalton said. “I don’t have any memory of this! Who was that?”
“Victor Cross.”
Josh frowned. “I know that name from somewhere…”
“He was one of your brother’s top scientists,” Solomon Cord said.
“Yes…,” Josh said, nodding. “Yes, Victor Cross. He disappeared. We couldn’t find him. Then we stopped looking.” Again, he frowned. “Why did we stop? We forgot all about him! How is that even possible?”
Then Josh went pale and collapsed back into his chair. “Oh God. Cord, I don’t think this was the first time. I thought I was just overworked—I mean, I haven’t slept properly in weeks. I keep finding these gaps in my memory. Usually it happens only every couple of months, but lately it’s been more and more often.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“When I was a kid, it used to happen all the time, but that was Max, using his mind-control powers to make me do things and not remember.”
“When did the lapses start again?”
“I’m not sure. That’s the thing about memory; you can’t remember what you can’t remember. I started noticing it a couple of years ago, shortly after I came here.”
“Either you’re lying to me or someone has been controlling your mind.”
“Mind-control…” Josh shook his head. “Impossible. Max was the only superhuman we ever heard of who could do that…What if he’s doing this? What if my brother never lost his powers? No, no. That can’t be it. If he could still control people then he’d never have allowed himself to be arrested. It has to be someone else. One of the kids. Butler. We don’t know all of his abilities yet. It has to be him.”
“No,” Cord said. “He’s been here only a few months. It has to be either Mina or Yvonne.”
“Well, it’s not Yvonne. It must be Mina.”
“Why not Yvonne?”
“Because it’s not.”
“Why are you so sure it’s not her?”
“Because it isn’t.”
Solomon Cord swore. “If she can control minds, how the hell are we going to stop her?”
“She can’t control people’s minds!”
Cord said, “Josh…Listen to me, OK? Yvonne has used her mind-control power to convince you that she hasn’t got mind-control power! She’s the traitor!”
“She can’t be the traitor. She told me she wasn’t.”
“Damn it! Josh, stay right here! I don’t have time to deal with you right now. I’ve got to find her. Touch nothing! Do you understand me?”
He ran from the room.
“Mina? Are you there?”
Mina was lying on her bed. She glanced up to see Yvonne standing in the doorway. “Go away!”
“I just want to know that you’re all right.” Yvonne walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. She reached out and stroked her sister’s hair. “Everything will be OK.”
Mina sobbed. “Colin…He was younger than us and he’s dead! And I didn’t do anything! I should have been able to help him!”
“You’re certain that he’s dead?”
She nodded. “His aura vanished when everything exploded. It was like…closing your eyes. All of a sudden it was gone.” She shuddered as she remembered the sensation. One second she was reading Colin’s aura—bright and strong, burning with anger and determination—and Dioxin’s aura, which was also bright, but sharp, flecked with evil. Then the forest erupted and there was nothing. Not even Dioxin’s aura. Dioxin’s aura vanished too, she realized. And Mr. Wagner’s. Even my own! The heat from the explosion! It must have been masking their auras! Colin could still be alive! She sat up suddenly. “I have to tell them!”
Then Yvonne, her voice cold and hard, said, “Sleep.”
Instantly, Mina felt drained of energy. “Got to…” Her eyes closed momentarily and she forced them open. “I have to tell them…”
Again, Yvonne said, “Sleep.”
Mina closed her eyes.
“Sleep and don’t wake up.”
25
SOLOMON CORD RACED THROUGH THE corridors of Sakkara. He found Yvonne’s bedroom and kicked open the door. Not here…Mina’s room!
He stepped back out into the corridor and found himself face-to-face with Yvonne. The dark-haired girl was staring at him, eyes blazing. “Drop the gun.”
Solomon opened his hand and the pistol fell to the floor.
“I knew it would be you,” Yvonne said. “And I knew you’d come this way. You people keep forgetting how smart I am.”
“What have you done, Yvonne?”
“You can’t talk anymore.”
Solomon tried to speak, but no words came out.
Yvonne smiled. “I wasn’t sure whether that would work on you. It doesn’t work on everyone.”
He leaped forward, his hands grabbing for her throat. Yvonne stepped aside and smashed him in the head with her fist, knocking him to the floor. “And you seem to have forgotten that I’m strong too.”
Solomon rolled away from her, scrambled to his feet and pressed his fingers into his ears.
“Clever,” Yvonne said. “If you can’t hear me, I can’t give you orders.” She smiled again. “But then if you can’t hear me, why am I telling you any of this?”
She suddenly charged at him and plowed her left fist into his stomach.
Solomon instinctively dropped his arms to block the punch and Yvonne yelled, “Stop!”
He froze.
“You will not harm me. You will not seek help. You will obey my commands.”
Yvonne stepped around him and walked in the direction of the machine room. “Follow me.”
Unable to do anything but obey, Solomon followed the girl. She entered the machine room and looked down from the platform at the people working below. “Everyone!” she shouted. “Can I have your attention please?”
The labcoats below looked up.
“Sleep.”
On
e by one, they all dropped to the floor.
Yvonne led Cord down the stairway and into a small storage room. She closed the door behind her. “Now we wait.”
Dioxin leaned out of the copter’s open doorway, looking toward the pyramid ahead.
“Sixty seconds!” the pilot called.
Behind Dioxin, the eight mercenaries stood waiting, ready to jump into action.
“What’s the status from our man on the inside?” Dioxin said into the radio.
“No word,” Victor Cross replied. “But…”
“But what?”
“He may have been compromised. Someone else called the number a few minutes ago.”
“Damn. You want to abort?”
“No!” Cross said. “We still have to get the girl out of there! Proceed as planned!”
“Copy that.” Dioxin switched off the radio. “We’ve got a green light, men! Make me proud!” He jumped from the copter and immediately activated his jetpack.
As the copter hovered over Sakkara, the eight men clipped their descent-ropes on to the rails and jumped out, sliding quickly and silently down to the roof. Dioxin touched down next to them.
“Good…no alarms,” Dioxin said. He pointed to the StratoTruck. “Destroy their craft!”
One of the men unclipped a hand grenade from his belt. “Take cover!” He pulled the pin and threw the grenade into the StratoTruck’s open hatch. The explosion shook the entire roof.
Dioxin followed his men down the stairway to the heavy steel door.
“Locked!” one of them said. “I don’t think we can bypass it!”
“Damn it…these doors should have been open! Everyone get back!”
As the mercenaries raced for cover, Dioxin raised his arm and fired two missiles at the doors.
When the smoke cleared, the doors were still intact.
Dioxin swore. “There’s no other way in!”
Razor lay on the floor of the machine room. He opened his eyes and risked a quick glance. Around him, his colleagues appeared to be fast asleep.
What was all that about? he asked himself. He had been testing the prototype of the hushbomb and hadn’t heard anything. It was only when everyone else in the room had started to fall to the ground that he’d glanced up toward the door and seen Yvonne standing there, with Solomon behind her.
Unseen by Yvonne, Solomon had mouthed the words, “Lie down!” and gestured with his hands for Razor to fake being asleep.
Razor hadn’t known what was going on, but he trusted Solomon Cord with his life: he’d dropped to the ground and lain still.
Now the door to the storeroom opened again and Yvonne led Cord out. She was talking on a cell phone. “Cord interrupted him before he could give the order to disable the defenses,” Yvonne was saying. “We’re going to the roof. Anyone tries to stop us and I’ll order Cord to deal with them.”
Razor waited until they had left, then he jumped to his feet. So she’s the traitor…working with Josh maybe.
“Anyone else awake?” Razor asked quietly.
One of the labcoats, a middle-aged woman, raised her head. “What’s going on, Razor?”
“You tell me! What did she do?”
“She ordered everyone to sleep, and…they all did! When I saw Solomon signaling to you, I figured I’d better lie down with the others.”
“I think we’re about to be invaded,” Razor said. He looked around. “Start dragging the others toward the back of the room. We’ll need to set up a barricade.”
Moving quickly, Razor began to gather up some of the equipment from his workbench. Then he ran over to the wall, to a red alarm button. He hesitated for a moment, then slammed his fist on to the button.
Dioxin stepped back as sirens suddenly began to wail through the building. “Aw hell…They just can’t make it easy for us, can they?”
Then the huge steel doors unlocked and slid open. He looked at the dark-haired girl. “You Yvonne?”
“I am. Tell your pilot to land and take me out of here! I’ll get Cross to send another helicopter for you.”
“What about him?” Dioxin asked, looking toward Solomon Cord.
“I could order him to die…But no. I’m taking him with me. He could be useful.”
As the copter descended once more, Dioxin led his men through the doors.
Yvonne called, “Dioxin? I don’t want my sister to die. Do not let any harm come to her!”
Dioxin nodded, then turned to his men. “You three get to the computer lab and start downloading the data. The rest of you work your way down to the basement. I want every room checked. Shoot to kill. Just because they look like kids doesn’t mean that they’re not dangerous. And you’d better make damn sure they’re dead!” He pointed to Cord. “That man somehow survived a ten-thousand-foot drop from the copter—and he’s not even a superhuman.”
Consulting the map on the handheld computer, Dioxin made his way toward the living quarters.
In his office, Joshua Dalton was racked with fear and guilt: the revelation that Yvonne had been controlling him had broken through the barriers she had imposed on his memory.
He reached under his desk. There was a nine-millimeter automatic hidden there, for just this sort of emergency. He pulled the gun loose and checked that it was loaded.
They played me. Victor Cross…The one outstanding link to Max’s operation. We never even looked for him! Why not?
Then he remembered. She told me not to look for him.
Josh felt his skin begin to crawl. What else did she make me do?
The memories started to come back. Phone calls and e-mails to Victor Cross, sending him detailed plans of the building, telling him about Paragon’s armor and how to disable it. Telling Cross how to find Colin Wagner and Danny Cooper: Leaking information on the real identities of Titan, Energy and Quantum to the press.
And he remembered, finally, where Yvonne and Mina came from.
My God, how could I have forgotten that? Every one of us who knew—we all forgot! How many minds has she altered?
He jumped at a noise outside in the corridor and crouched low, gun at the ready.
Cross knows everything about us. He knows where the safe houses are!
And my money! She made me give him almost all of my money and I didn’t even realize. I’ve been funding our enemy’s operation and giving him all the help he needs!
The door to Josh’s office was kicked open and an armed man burst in. Without pausing, Josh aimed the gun at the man’s head and pulled the trigger.
The man staggered backward and collapsed.
Josh reached out and pulled the machine gun from the dead soldier’s hands, dragged the body into the room and quickly searched it. My brother did what he thought he had to do, to save the world. He believed that superhumans were a threat.
He was right.
Josh pulled the clip from the machine gun and examined the bullets. They were black, with a slight shine. Teflon-coated ceramic shells. The only bullets that can penetrate the kids’ new uniforms. His stomach churned.
Josh checked that the corridor was clear and ran, talking into his headset. “This is Dalton, coming down from level six. Caroline, the building has been breached! Took out one member of their advance party. Looks like a merc. No ID, no insignia. What’s the ETA on the air force?”
Caroline Wagner replied, “Nothing, Josh. No response yet.”
“Damn. They’ve got to be jamming our signals somehow!” Josh charged down a flight of stairs. “Warren? You there?”
“I’m here, Josh. No sign of Yvonne. Mina’s asleep…we can’t seem to wake her.”
“Take her with you and get to the machine room. There’s a better chance of holding them off there until help arrives.”
“Help?” Warren said. “Josh, we’re on our own here! There’s no one left who can help us!”
As Josh reached the door to the machine room he was spotted by two of the mercenaries, who immediately opened fire. He dived through the door and
raced backward down the stairs, keeping his machine gun trained on the door.
“Over here!” a voice called.
Josh turned to see Razor and Butler in one corner of the room. They’d erected a makeshift barricade from the heavy steel workbenches. Some of Sakkara’s other technicians were with them, quickly dragging the labcoats behind the barriers.
Josh ran over. “My God…You do a body count?”
“They’re not dead,” Razor said. “Yvonne ordered them to sleep and they did. How she did that, I don’t know. Josh, the only way into this room is through those doors. We should be safe here for a while. But…there’s a few people missing, including Mina and the Wagners.”
“I know. Butler, how’s that force field of yours? You think you can protect this room?”
“I don’t know, I—”
At that moment, the doors above were blasted apart. Everyone ducked down behind the benches just as four of the mercenaries charged into the room, guns firing.
Josh checked the cartridge on the machine gun, then passed his handgun to Razor. “You know how to use that?”
“I’ve seen a few movies,” Razor said. “I know the principle.”
“You need to conserve your fire,” Butler said. “And just squeeze the trigger: don’t pull it.”
Razor said, “When I need the advice of a military-school dropout, I’ll ask for it.”
“They won’t keep this up for long,” Josh whispered. “They’ll just lob a grenade at us.”
“Not if they can’t see us.” Razor held up one of the blackout bombs. He handed it to Butler. “You’ll have to do it. It’s way too heavy for me to throw far enough.”
Butler shook his head. “No, they’ll see me!”
“Use that force field of yours. It’s bulletproof, right?”
“I don’t know.”
“Only one way to find out.”
Again, Butler shook his head. “No. If I have the force field up, I won’t be able to throw the bomb out through it!”
“To hell with you then,” Razor muttered. He pulled on a pair of thick, odd-looking goggles, then looked around on the floor. He spotted something and grabbed it. “Josh, cover me.”
Josh popped up from behind the bench and began firing. Keeping low, Razor dashed across the room. When he found a clear area on the floor, he activated the heavy blackout bomb and rolled it toward the doorway.
The Gathering Page 18