York felt her uncertainty. He pushed a remote control to start the fireplace to take the chill out of the room. The hotel room was old-fashioned or he would have commanded the increased temperature by computer. The fake, manufactured wood logs came to life. The room warmed in minutes. He placed an order for two of Prime Rib, mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus, and more wine with the InstaCafé and waited.
“It will get warm in a few minutes. The room is small enough that the fireplace will heat it quickly.”
When York turned, Kindra hadn’t moved. She stared into the fire, appearing to be deep in thought. Her eyebrows were pinched together. Whatever she was thinking didn’t make her happy.
“Is there anything else I can do?”
Her tongue slipped quickly over her lips to moisten them. She glanced at him. “I just want this to be over.”
He met her gaze, hoping she would repeat the action, but it didn’t happen. He wanted to capture her mouth with his and play a dangerous duel with her pink tongue. And keep her safe. And perhaps deepen whatever was happening between them. Yes, he’d like that. But first, they needed to put this case behind them.
He moved closer to her, and she retreated. The corner of his mouth edged up. “There’s no need to race away, Kindra. We have hours before our flight home. And that’s if we don’t have to reschedule.”
She moved a chair closer to the fireplace and stood beside it. Her chin lifted. “What I want and what will transpire are not necessarily the same.”
“Have a seat. I’ll bring dinner to you,” he said.
He fixed an end table next to her so she would be comfortable and set her plate and wine there. An aching silence filled the room as they ate.
When they had finished eating, he handed her a second glass of wine, then lightly trailed his fingers over her cheek. “There is no reason to rush the feelings between us.”
She moved away from his touch. “I’m glad you see it that way.”
He frowned. “Let’s go find your father and get this finished, rescue the children, and put the suspect behind bars.”
* * *
Kindra found her father in his office, pacing. “Anything?” she asked.
“I’ve never seen it take so long,” he said with a shake of his head.
“All this waiting makes me feel so helpless.” She came up to him, and he draped an arm around her shoulder.
“Patience, Muffin. The computer will find a match. All other viruses have been cured. This one will be, too.”
York shoved his hands into his pockets. Her father took the same stance. Kindra glanced from one man to the other, noticing their contrasts and similarities. Where her dad was refined, York was rough, yet they both seemed to have a passion for life. And she cared for them both.
The computer began a chant. “Checkmate. Checkmate.”
She grinned. It was the saying her dad had programmed in to signal a match.
A whoosh of air escaped her lungs. “We’ve found it! HERO has the answer. Now all we have to do is convert the genetic formula into a vaccine. That’s the easy part.”
* * *
York and Kindra took the underground spinner directly from the airport to the Seville Center.
York stepped out below Seville. The place smelled like burned metal and plastic. It was a sickening odor. After living through the explosion, just walking these halls screamed of danger. He put his hand on the small of her back. “Be careful.”
“The vaccine has to work. It has to.” She swallowed, hard.
“We’ll need to get the director to issue the order.”
“Comp Nine,” Kindra said, intending to instruct it to locate Director Isaac.
“No,” York interrupted. “We need to do this on our own. There is too much unrest here. Trust me.”
She looked into his eyes as she rested her hand on his arm. A smile curved her lips. “I do trust you.”
“What do you require?” Comp Nine asked.
“We need to create a vaccine. Is there any problem doing that, Comp Nine?”
“Anything for you, Kindra. I’ve missed you.”
Kindra fed the dot with the formula into the lab computer. “While HERO has to do the computations,” she explained to York, “Nine is fully equipped to produce the vaccine.”
“Thank you for your confidence, Kindra,” the machine chimed in.
“You’re welcome. And would you also apprise us if someone should come our way, please? Advance notice would be helpful.”
“I always strive to be helpful,” was Nine’s only reply.
York sat while Kindra paced. She made geometric shapes with her footsteps—first a triangle, then a square, then a diamond, then a circle.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I have a lot of nervous energy.”
“I can see that.”
“I’m trying not to think of the explosion.”
“Oh.” He waved his hand, drawing her closer. When she inched over, he placed his arm around her and drew her down onto his lap. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe.”
Oh, she did feel safe with him—that, among other feelings, he’d awakened within her. She kissed his brow. “I know.”
Voices came from down the hall. York wheeled the chair closer to the wall so that if someone peered in, they wouldn’t see them unless they entered the room. The voices grew louder. She recognized one as Chairman B-Cobb’s. Her gaze met York’s. She held her breath.
Please don’t come in. Please don’t come in. Walk on by.
After what seemed like hours, the voices and footsteps trailed off.
Nine sounded a chime, and a green light flashed on the screen.
“The vaccine is complete,” Kindra announced. “Good work, Nine.”
She took the sample from the development rack and placed it in the duplicator, where it would be synthesized, replicated, and then produced in dosage vials. “It will only take about fifteen minutes to make enough vaccine to inoculate the children in the major cryo facility. Twice that for all of them.”
Harry B-Watson walked in through the far door. Kindra froze.
Chapter Twenty-five
“Oh, shit,” she whispered.
“You shouldn’t be here,” B-Watson said.
“Take a hike,” York said in a threatening tone.
B-Watson seemed to shake where he stood. Kindra knew he’d go tattle like a schoolboy to Director Isaac or whomever he could find. He stared at them, fury in his eyes, then turned and fled.
Ten minutes seemed like a million. Thirty a bazillion. York drew Kindra into his arms. They had a brief time before all hell broke loose, and she allowed his embrace to calm her for what was to come. York grew silent. Focus on saving Brianna and the children. They were almost there.
The control beeped on the machine. They had the vaccine.
Just in time, too, because footfalls echoed in the hall.
Kindra grabbed the vaccine and inoculation guns and shoved them into a case.
York clutched her hand and dragged her into a laser-fast run.
* * *
An arm snaked out as she rounded a corner, ripping her from York’s grasp. She yelped as she slammed into the wall and a forearm cut across her throat, holding her in place. Someone shoved the business end of a laser gun inches from her face. She glared at it. She was tired of being walked all over.
Her eyes slipped up, following the length of the hairless arm. She met Director A-Isaac’s eyes.
He sneered.
York stepped forward.
“Back it up,” A-Isaac said. “Or she dies.”
York retreated a step. “Let her go. We can fix this. We have the vaccine. You can just disappear to an outpost.”
Isaac gave a sick laugh. “I don’t want to disappear. This genetic selection will stop. A bomb is set to take out the cryo center.”
Kindra felt lightheaded with horror. She squirmed wildly in an attempt to get free. “No.”
Her resist
ance was enough of a surprise to allow her to slip beneath A-Isaac’s arm. She ran two steps, but then fell. He bent and grabbed her ankle. She kicked. Thankfully, with another hard kick, she broke free, staggered to her feet, and ran.
She peered over her shoulder while she moved farther away. York, teeth bared, had A-Isaac in his clutches.
“I’ll contain A-Isaac and see to the bombs,” he told Kindra. “You get the children out of the cryo building.”
“But how? How can I get there?” she said, her voice shook as panic set in. In the most critical moment of her life, she couldn’t think. Should she take the air-tran, or flag down a police officer?
“Take my air-car.”
“But what about you?”
“I’ll get there. Don’t worry.”
She didn’t wait. She sprinted for the exit.
* * *
The air-car doors descended and latched with a soft click. Kindra’s heart beat like a herd of stampeding elephants. She was going to have to drive if she was going to save her daughter at the cryo center. She could do this, dammit.
She jabbed a finger at the ignition. Nothing happened.
“Shit, she couldn’t even start the thing.”
“I’m sorry,” the car computer said. “Your fingerprint isn’t on the driving list. Do you have the access code?”
Oh, fooltar. York had told her that. She swallowed. Think. And then she remembered. “Doll-baby. The override code is doll-baby,” she said in a rush.
The engine whirred to life. There was no time for second thoughts. Like a robot, she went through the motions she’d seen York do every time they drove, except she engaged the autopilot, selecting the Urgent mode. The onboard computer did the rest as the vehicle took off, pushed into traffic, and raced toward the cryo center.
Guilt wove a web inside her. She should have been quicker with the vaccine. She should have returned from London sooner. She should not have spent so much time savoring her moments with York. He’d somehow become one of the most important people in her life, second only to Brianna. Nothing could break the bond between mother and child.
Still, there was a huge gash in her heart knowing she’d left him behind to deal with a crazed A-Isaac, even if it was what he’d told her to do. She had to trust he would get to the cryo center and find the bombs as he’d promised. For all of them. She prayed he’d discover them before they all blew up. Then she wondered about the kids at the ice rink. Were they at risk, also?
Amazingly, her mind was too filled with concern to worry much about the air-car as it flew high above the skyscrapers. Either that or she’d just gotten used to flying.
The last few miles seemed to take a millennium, but the instant the transporter landed, she sprang from the vehicle. Clutching the vaccine case, she sprinted for the building.
The place was absurdly calm. A-Isaac clearly hadn’t arrived. Maybe that meant York had truly stopped him. At the entrance, she scanned her ID with exaggerated care. The door allowed her entrance.
A few minutes later, she was in the main cryo chamber.
She set the green case on the table and opened it. “Start the thaw,” she told the few employees monitoring the computer-controlled cryo units. “And I need every staff member in here. Now.”
A man with a shock of red hair combed neatly to one side looked at her with a pinched brow. “Why the rush?”
She didn’t have time for questions. “Because a bomb could blow us to the stars any minute.”
Red took a step back. “Fuck.”
“Just do your job. I promised I wouldn’t let these children die.” She piled vials and injection guns beside her for easy accessibility. “How long before they come around?”
“Using a warming flush, twenty minutes.”
She gave a sharp nod. “Okay.”
Two dozen or so men and women dressed in violet suits streamed into the room.
As the group neared the table, her determination grew. “Today we’re going to see what you’re made of, ladies and gents,” she said, her voice potent with challenge. “When the children wake, you need to give them an inoculation immediately, then escort them three blocks down the street to the post office. It should be safe there. We don’t stop until every last person is out of the building. Two children per person each trip. You’ll have to make many trips.” She peered at the tired faces in front of her. “Four of you need to remain with the children at the post office until help arrives.”
“I can get a bus,” a worker said.
She nodded. “Great.”
Kindra grabbed her materials from the table. Stunned into silence, each staff member followed her instructions, taking a vial of vaccine and an inoculation gun. They each manned a post between a pair of incubators. Kindra walked the center aisle. The children moaned as they came awake and the vaccinations began. This is not how she would have had them wake. Their parents should have been there to comfort them.
When she reached the back of the room, she paused, looking over her shoulder. Workers carried a child on each hip, making a beeline out the door. She turned and entered the adjacent room where Brianna and the other children in the obsolete cryo pods slept.
Since the unit was old, it took Brianna longer to wake. Kindra no longer heard the whimpers and shuffling of feet from the main chamber.
Brianna’s pod stood open. Kindra hesitated, waiting for some movement. Her daughter opened her blue eyes. “Mommy,” Brianna whispered.
With a sigh of relief, she gave Brianna the life-saving vaccine. then lifted her into her arms, hugging her close.
She paused looking around at the opened pods. But there were a several units still sealed. They were the ones frozen for reasons other than the virus. And they couldn’t be opened or moved. Her eyes settled on Danny’s pod. She drew a heavy breath.
She’d been wrong. She couldn’t get everyone out. If they couldn’t find the bombs…
Brianna moaned, and Kindra’s heart skipped. Then the door to her right slammed open.
A-Isaac held an inoculation gun pointed at her.
She wondered numbly what was in it. Not the vaccine. She was the only one who had that. Then what? Poison? Certainly something bad, she thought.
He burst in, eyes flashing. “You’re going to pay for this.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “Where’s York?”
“Dead,” he spat. “You’ve ruined everything.”
Kindra’s knees started to buckle, but she moved toward the exit door and released Brianna, saying, “Run, ladybug.”
Then she forced her body to back away from her daughter, hoping to draw A-Isaac away. She’d taken only a few steps when he lunged at her, grabbing hold of her wrist. She tried to pull away. He held the inoculation gun to her cheek and sneered. “All those perfect genes are about to change.”
From out of nowhere, a thick arm lashed out and a familiar fist smashed into A-Isaac’s jaw.
York. A wave of relief swept through her.
York struck A-Isaac again, knocking the inoculation gun from his hand. A-Isaac was quick to recover, though, and pulled a laser from his hip. He fired at York, striking him in the shoulder, knocking him back.
Both A-Isaac and York scrambled for the gun on the floor. They wrestled for control of the weapon.
Kindra jumped forward and seized the inoculation gun just as York knocked the man aside.
“Mommy!” Brianna cried.
Without thinking, she lunged at Isaac, releasing the serum in the gun into his back.
His eyes went wide and round. “You fucking bitch.” He stumbled and hit the floor.
There was no helping him, even if she wanted to. The mutation serum took hold quickly. The skin above his brow blistered and bubbled.
Brianna screamed. Kindra ran to her daughter and picked her up, turning Brianna’s face away from the dying man.
Cal and Shishido burst into the room. York came to his knees, holding his shoulder. “He said there were bombs. Check it out.” The
detectives unclipped a sensor and started to sweep the room. Cal called in more bomb support.
A-Isaac’s neck contorted. A basketball-sized lump formed on his abdomen. His face swelled and contorted, tumors forming grotesque bumps. He howled in pain, withered, then died with a few wheezing breaths.
York joined her and wrapped his arms around them both, hugging them tightly. He pulled back slightly to look into Kindra’s eyes.
“I love you,” he said softly.
Her lips parted in surprise. Before she could speak, he kissed her. “Let’s get you two out of here.”
Epilogue
York put a fatherly peck on Brianna’s cheek as he seated her at brunch late on one September morning. Kindra couldn’t help but grin. He’d persuaded her to spend a few days doing nothing but play.
“How are the waffles?” he asked.
“Delicious,” Kindra answered. Another tug at her heart reminded her how wrong she’d been about Coders. She and York had bonded in a way she’d never imagined.
When it got quiet at the table, she peered at York. She glanced between Brianna and York as he handed her a small, gold velvet bag. Brianna’s face lit with a silly smile. She opened the bag and withdrew a jeweled, ladybug pendant on a gold chain just the right length for a little girl.
“For you,” he said to her daughter. Then he eased a small jewelry box from a matching pouch.
Kindra’s eyes narrowed. Something was up.
He held the box between them—his eyes searching hers. Kindra’s heart began hammering in her chest. She suddenly felt giddy.
He dropped to one knee and opened the box to expose an exquisite, antique two-carat diamond ring.
“This belonged to my great-grandmother. I’ve always cherished it because she and my great-grandfather shared the kind of love that would last through eternity. I honestly never thought I’d find someone I wanted to give this to. But you’ve changed me, made me see things in a new light. I love you, Kindra. I want to spend my days with you through all time. Will you marry me?”
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