After Life (Power Reads Book 2)

by Dean Crawford

  Lee peered at Han with interest.

  ‘You’re convinced that she’s behind all of this, even though Alexei Volkov himself said that she could not have killed him?’

  ‘She didn’t have to pull the trigger to be involved, sir. Maybe she clocked the tail we put on her and decided to call in some help. So far she looks guilty of something, I’m just not sure what.’

  It was a weak line and Han knew it. Just as likely, Arianna was grabbed and dragged into a vehicle before being spirited away across the Thames. Maybe people were already interrogating her.

  ‘She could have run after the blast or after the murder,’ Lee mused out loud, ‘if she were indeed guilty of either. Yesterday, she was almost blown up and saw her adoptive father’s charred remains lying in his bed. It seems unlikely that she would endure questions and accusations here, then just go home upon release and get a good night’s sleep before heading to work as usual the following morning if she were guilty, don’t you think?’

  Han raised his chin, looking over Lee’s head.

  ‘It would stretch credibility a touch,’ he conceded, ‘although it could also be a remarkably astute bluff.’

  ‘Bull crap,’ Lee uttered. ‘We work on the assumption that she has been abducted by persons unknown, for reasons unknown, and that she is in considerable danger if not dead already. Get on it, the both of you, and let me know as soon as you learn anything. Have you got her colleague in here yet?’

  ‘Larry Wilkes,’ Han Reeves said. ‘He’s waiting in my office right now.’

  ‘Fine,’ Forrester replied, ‘pressure him but don’t get carried away, understand? He could be as much of an innocent bystander in all of this as the Volkovs.’

  Han spun on his heel and strolled out of the office with Myles right behind him. They walked down a corridor to the interview rooms and strode into one. Larry Wilkes sat behind a bare desk, a Styrofoam cup in his hand and a worried expression on his features. Han rested his hands on the table before Wilkes and glowered down at him as Myles closed the door.

  ‘So, Larry,’ he began, ‘how about coming clean?’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘Re–Volution have not released any interior footage of the blast,’ Han explained. ‘They’re hiding something, aren’t they?’

  ‘I wouldn’t know.’

  ‘You worked at Re–Volution on the second floor, right above the blast,’ Myles Bourne snapped. ‘You told Arianna that you came straight down afterward and saw the damage. Did you see anything else?’

  Wilkes shook his head, his jowls trembling with the motion. ‘No, I don’t know. There was so much confusion, blood and bodies. I don’t know what you want me to say?’

  Han leaned in closer to Wilkes. ‘Arianna Volkov, she’s your friend, right?’

  ‘Yes, she’s…’ Wilkes hesitated. ‘She’s a friend.’

  Han smiled grimly. ‘Got a fancy for the priest, have we Wilkes?’

  ‘What do you want from me?’

  ‘Arianna’s whereabouts,’ Myles said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Arianna was abducted this morning from a train platform near her home,’ Han said, ‘and last seen near the Thames. It’s believed she’s been taken south of the river.’

  Wilkes’s face collapsed. ‘Oh no, my God, she could die.’

  ‘Very likely,’ Han agreed, ‘so right now we need to know what Re–Volution isn’t telling us.’

  Larry Wilkes clasped his hands together, his jowls trembling.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he replied, ‘for sure.’

  ‘Don’t know what for sure?’ Han demanded.

  Wilkes dragged a hand down his face. ‘I didn’t see anything.’

  ‘We both know that’s not true,’ Han insisted. ‘You were there and…’

  ‘That’s not what I mean!’ Wilkes snapped. ‘I mean I didn’t see anything. No attackers, no terrorists, nothing. Just victims.’ He sighed. ‘Nobody saw anybody associated with anti–saps or other groups who have threatened us in the past. The only person who was in the lobby right before the blast was…’

  ‘Arianna,’ Han said as he glanced at his partner. ‘She says she wasn’t responsible for the blast.’

  ‘She wouldn’t do something like that,’ Wilkes insisted. ‘She doesn’t like holosaps, granted, but then who does? But she’s just not the sort to kill, even holosaps and especially not human beings caught in the blast. I don’t know why she was there, but she couldn’t have taken anything into the building and then walked out.’

  Han leaned closer to Wilkes. ‘Re–Volution said that terrorists caused the blast, that they had bodies. They’re in the coroner’s office right now awaiting autopsy.’

  ‘I know,’ Wilkes replied. ‘That’s what they’re hiding. All employees are signed to non–disclosure agreements so we cannot say anything.’

  Han nodded. ‘But if I was to ask you a question?’

  ‘I could answer yes or no,’ Wilkes replied.

  ‘Were any terrorist bodies found at the source of the blast or within its radius?’

  ‘None,’ Wilkes said, ‘that I saw.’

  ‘Were any terrorists found in the quantum–storage server rooms?’

  ‘None, that I saw. But I did see Kieran Beck and his entourage leave the building this morning in a convoy of vehicles. Word is that they’re going underground until the security around the headquarters building is improved.’

  ‘Did they head south?’

  ‘They did.’

  Han looked at Wilkes for a long moment, and then he turned and motioned Myles to follow him out of the room.

  ‘So, now what?’ Myles asked as he closed the office door behind them and followed Han to the offices.

  Han stopped beside his desk and looked down a deep pile of cases awaiting attention. The city was becoming ever more violent as people struggled to feed, clothe and protect themselves. Electricity was in short supply and outages were commonplace, with the only secure supplies of energy reserved for the power stations themselves, services like the police and fire–rescue, and the holosap community. Black market smuggling, boot–legging and other crimes were on a rapid rise.

  Han glanced out of the station windows toward the south, where the city was illuminated in patched by drifting beams of sunlight scything down from the turbulent clouds.

  ‘They took her south of the water,’ he said. ‘They must have had a plan, somewhere to go.’

  ‘Plenty of criminals operating in places most ordinary people wouldn’t dare to go,’ Myles replied. ‘But what the hell would they want with Arianna Volkov? She’s just a priest.’

  ‘So we assume,’ Han mused out loud. ‘But she’s got motive to hate Re–Volution, a means of access, everything she needed to hit the building. And now Re–Volution aren’t talking about what happened. They haven’t even released camera footage for us to review, which in itself might get Volkov off the hook.’

  ‘That’s Re–Volution for you,’ Myles said as he rifled through papers on his desk. ‘Money, power, influence, it gets them what they want. It’s bad enough that we can’t even speak to the board of directors about all of this. My guess is they’re hanging Arianna Volkov out to dry.’

  Han kept his gaze on the far side of the river.

  ‘Don’t even think about it.’ Myles’s warning broke Han’s reverie and he glanced across at his partner. ‘We cross the river we could be infected. That means we don’t get back into the city again.’

  Han nodded. Biometric sensors on gates at all access points to the river scanned anybody who tried to enter the city. Shortly before the implant chips detected the fungus responsible for The Falling, Apocalypses or whatever the hell it was called showed up under ultra–violet light as a sort of pale discolouring of the whites of the eyes, like jaundice but more creamy. So it was said. Turn up at the gates with that look about you and the guards gave you a choice: head back across the water and take your chances in the wilderness or be shot and bagged there and then.
<
br />   Most took the river back to the south side. None had ever been seen again.

  ‘Maybe they’ve got a decent bolt hole down there somewhere,’ Han said. ‘C’mon, we’ve got respirators, body armour and motorcycles, it’ll be a walk in the park.’

  Myles almost laughed. ‘That’s the line somebody always uses in a movie, right before everything goes to hell.’

  ‘We’ve got to solve this,’ Han reasoned. ‘I can’t let another damned case go cold and neither can you. We can’t send uniforms because they’re already stretched to the limit.’

  ‘You want to go now?’ Myles gasped.

  ‘I don’t want to go at all,’ Han replied. ‘But our chief suspect is on the other side of that river and we need to go get her back and figure out what’s going on. Either she planted a bomb in that building or she’s being framed for it and for the murder of Alexei Volkov. You want to sit here with your thumb up your arse hoping the next break lands in your lap then you go ahead. Me, I’m going to try to fix this.’

  Han grabbed his jacket and his sidearm and turned to storm out of the office.

  He only just managed to suppress a smile as he heard Myles swear under his breath and grab his own coat and weapon.

  ***

  18

  Bayou La Tour, Louisiana

  Gulf of Mexico

  ‘Anything yet?’

  Kerry Hussein was leaning over a cage, her eyes shielded with lab glasses and a breathing mask over her face as Marcus walked into the laboratory. His arm throbbed from the snake bite, but the antivenin had done its work and his fever was long gone. Kerry shook her head as Marcus approached, her long black pony tail swinging with the motion.

  ‘Not a sign, still as healthy as though he were born yesterday.’

  Some of the excitement was gone now from Kerry’s voice to be replaced with a professional urgency. Marcus knew that they could be on the verge of a major breakthrough, that they could save the entire world just like in those old Hollywood blockbuster movies. Except that this was real and conducted in a tiny laboratory perched on the edge of a stinking bayou deep in the Louisiana wilderness.

  Not exactly a crowd pleaser, he figured.

  ‘What about the samples?’ he asked.

  Kerry replaced the lid on the cage and pulled off her mask. To his surprise she was wearing a little make up. It brought out the edges of her already exotic eyes and the finely sculptured lines of her lips and immediately made him want her. The fact that she had insisted they get a good night’s rest only inflamed his desire.

  ‘What?’ she asked, looking at him as a smile spread on her face. Her teeth looked bright and white against her olive skin.

  ‘Nothing,’ he replied, and forced himself to turn to the samples.

  ‘The cultures are almost complete,’ she said, the smile still touching the edges of her lips. ‘One control, one infected, one not. We should have the results in a couple of hours. I’m going to send them to the other labs, see if they get the same results.’

  ‘We’re not ready yet,’ Marcus said.

  ‘Damn it, how ready do we have to be?’

  ‘Ready,’ he insisted.

  Fact was, countless premature announcements of new discoveries, including cures for The Falling, had collapsed mired in shame after results were not replicated by other labs or turned out to be false alarms. The researchers in question had always been forced to retire from their work by the government and even accused of falsifying evidence, stripped of their qualifications for breeding hope in an increasingly desperate populace. Marcus was determined not to fall into the same trap. They would confirm the results themselves and ensure that they were replicable before sharing them with the wider scientific community for peer review and hopefully a global immunity program. That was how science worked and how it had achieved so much over the past few centuries.

  ‘We have an immune specimen,’ Kerry complained, ‘that’s been alive for forty eight hours now, an isolated gene and samples almost cultured. The antibodies will be isolated a lot faster if other labs around the world are working on this too.’

  ‘Do we have to go over this again?’ Marcus sighed. ‘The specimen is a rodent, forty eight hours isn’t sufficient to be certain and breeding antibodies that are compatible with humans will take a long time. This isn’t going to happen overnight so why the hell rush it?’

  ‘Because it’s important. People are dying. The sooner we announce this the sooner we can get something out into the field.’

  ‘And what if somebody else rushes and releases a serum that doesn’t work, or has horrific side effects or even kills?’ Marcus challenged. ‘What then?’

  Kerry stared at Marcus for a long beat. ‘This isn’t about confirmation trials, is it? This is about keeping the glory, right?’

  Marcus gaped at her. ‘That’s not true. If we get this right millions of people’s lives will be saved. Get it wrong and we’re canned, perhaps even tried for incompetence.’

  ‘That’s such crap,’ she snapped and stormed past him.

  Marcus felt a flood of remorse wash through him as he turned to follow her.

  ‘Oh come on, Kerry. You know as well as I do what’s happened to other people who have released early results that looked promising only to see their programs shut down because…’

  ‘Because what?’ Kerry challenged as she whirled to face him. ‘Because they tried to save lives? Because they sat in shitty little compounds for months on end with people who annoyed the crap out of them in order to maybe, someday, heal a pandemic for people that they will never even meet? The government shuts them down because it doesn’t understand that science like this takes time, effort and often repeated failure before an answer is found.’

  Marcus didn’t hear the last few lines of her tirade.

  ‘People who annoy the crap out of them?’ he uttered. ‘Is that how you see me?’

  Kerry waved him away as she turned to leave. ‘Oh my God, even now when we’re on the verge of a breakthrough discovery you’re still a narcissist. It’s all about you, Marcus, right?’

  Marcus took a pace in pursuit. ‘But all of the times we’ve…’

  ‘We’ve what?’ she asked coolly as she turned to him at the laboratory door. ‘Had sex? Get over yourself Marcus. It’s not like I’ve made you breakfast in bed is it? Six months stuck here without access to other men, what did you expect?’

  Marcus swallowed, tried not to let his face flush red in shame or let Kerry see the disappointment that seemed to tug down on every muscle in his face.

  ‘I didn’t know,’ was all he could think of to say.

  Some of Kerry’s anger melted and she sighed.

  ‘You’re a great guy when you forget about yourself Marcus,’ she said finally. ‘When we’ve had sex it’s been good, but if it wasn’t for The Falling we wouldn’t even be in the same city let alone the same bed.’

  Kerry pulled off her latex gloves and dumped them in the trash before she turned and marched out of the laboratory. Marcus stared at her rolling butt and long legs as she walked and then cursed himself as anger seethed through his veins. You bitch.

  ‘It happens all the time,’ came a voice from behind him. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it.’

  Marcus whirled to see Dr Reed appear behind him.

  ‘Don’t you goddamn holosaps ever knock?’ he snapped as he stormed across to the specimen cages for no real reason that he could think of.

  ‘We can’t,’ Dr Reed pointed out.

  ‘Then we should get you all fitted with alarms or something.’

  Dr Reed smiled as he joined Marcus in a flicker of light beside the cages.

  ‘You’re doing the right thing, Marcus,’ he said. ‘Rushing this and failing would be far worse than taking your time and getting it right.’

  Marcus sighed and shrugged.

  ‘Kerry’s got a point though,’ he said. ‘People are dying, every single day, because of The Falling. The sooner we can get this out for peer review t
he better.’

  ‘Another day or two,’ Dr Reed urged. ‘That’s all it takes, and then you’ll be certain of success and Dr Hussein will be satisfied too.’

  ‘I doubt Dr frickin’ Hussein is ever satisfied with anything.’

  ‘No woman ever is,’ Dr Reed lamented. ‘All we men can ever hope to achieve with them is damage limitation. Go to her, and apologise.’

  ‘Apologise for what?’ Marcus asked. ‘She’s just ignored every good point I’ve made, accused me of glory seeking and then told me she never really wanted to sleep with me. What the hell should I be apologising for?’

  ‘For being a man,’ Dr Reed chuckled. ‘You want the glory. I know I would, and in that Kerry is right isn’t she?’

  Marcus fumed on the spot.

  ‘Of course I want the glory!’ he snapped. ‘But not at the expense of other people’s lives, if we’ve got it wrong.’

  ‘Precisely,’ Dr Reed said. ‘Go to her, apologise, and then explain to her what you’ve just said to me. I’m sure she will understand.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Marcus moaned, ‘she still won’t be interested in me.’

  Dr Reed rolled his eyes.

  ‘I think that there are bigger issues at stake than your pride here, is what I’m trying to tell you,’ he said. ‘You need Kerry on your side to complete the work here, and she’s done just as much as you to earn her place in history if this cure works. Now get over yourself and go talk to her. I’d put my boot up your backside to make you, if I could, but I can’t so just get on with it.’

  Marcus sighed and turned for the laboratory door.

  ‘And don’t come back until she’s happy!’ Dr Reed added.

  Marcus crossed the laboratory and shut the door behind him. He was trying to think of what to say to Kerry when he heard a sudden and loud thumping noise that shook the entire compound. Marcus turned and saw Dr Reed watching him from within.

  ‘What the hell is that?’ Marcus asked.

  Dr Reed’s features creased with what might have been regret. ‘I’m sorry, Marcus, truly I am.’

  Marcus was about to ask why when he heard the sound of a woman’s scream.