‘You’re very clever.’
‘I know. Then I made the assumption that if they are holding the girls it will be in a location outside the city.’
‘That’s a terrible assumption; there are plenty of deserted areas in the city itself.’
‘I know. It didn’t help.’
‘So what did?’
‘The explosion in Stockport.’
Mitchell frowned. ‘What explosion?’
‘Quite a big one around lunchtime.’
‘I hadn’t heard.’
‘It wasn’t that big.’
‘Very funny.’
‘Thank you,’ said Lament. ‘Someone is suppressing the news of it.’
‘Xec?’
‘No, someone else and I can’t get round it. If I try to make it widely known my communication just vanishes.’
‘That sounds like government-level interference.’
‘I can’t deny it,’ said Lament. ‘But they can’t stop me knowing about it, at least its location, and that was the real giveaway.’
He stopped and Mitchell realised he was supposed to ask why. ‘Why?’
‘Before the plague it was the city office of a private IVF clinic.’
‘IVF?’
‘It’s—’
‘I know what it is, why is it important?’
‘Because if you were going to mess with someone’s DNA, what better time than when they are single-celled gametes.’
‘Gametes?’
‘Oh, you don’t know that one? The male sperm and the female egg, they’re gametes. When they join together they’re called a zygote.’
‘Is that important?’
‘No. But the main centre for this IVF clinic was located at Alderley Edge.’
‘And that property is currently owned by Utopia Genetics?’
‘Exactly,’ said Lament.
Mitchell noted Lament didn’t sound disappointed that Mitchell had said it and not him. ‘And what else?’
‘The place is using a lot of power. It’s a veritable hive of activity.’
‘Not proof.’
‘Apart from the signal.’
‘Signal?’
Mitchell imagined Lament grinning very widely, this was clearly the clincher. ‘Something is affecting the power lines and it’s sending out Morse code.’
‘S.O.S?’
‘Yes!’
Mitchell fell silent. How in the world could one of those girls be causing the electricity cables to send a message? Then he remembered.
‘Melinda Vogler. The electrical burns in the road.’
‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘That,’ said Mitchell, ‘is why you are the rookie and I’m the Detective Inspector.’ He paused as the rest fell into place.
‘What do we now do, sir?’
‘We’ll raid them,’ he said. ‘I have Dix’s agreement to do what we must. You need to pull in as many men as you can. We’ll need to get a warrant as well.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘And you need to do it without alerting Special Agent Graham.’
‘He’s going to find out.’
‘He is, and I want to be the one to tell him, but when we’re already on the way and everything is organised. I don’t want some half-baked operation like his one.’
‘How are you going to justify not telling him?’
‘Need to know. And Lament?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Don’t screw it up.’
‘No, sir.’
Chapter 24
Mercedes
From her vantage point half a mile from the IVF clinic, Mercedes had watched the explosion. And got very angry.
‘What the hell is going on?’
‘The removal of Chloe Dark from the scene,’ said Xec smoothly.
‘And nobody’s going to notice?’
‘They may notice,’ said Xec. ‘But I am assured no one will be talking about it.’
‘They were soldiers.’
‘I really couldn’t say. Plausible deniability, Mercedes. If the police come knocking you don’t want to know what happened, and you don’t know who did it. This car was never here.’
She watched the plume of black smoke rising from the white of the snow. So many people were dying and it was all Chloe Dark’s fault. It was just as well she was dead herself. They could go back to the way things were, tracing Dr Newman’s freaks and finding out what made them function when everything they had ever tried had failed.
There was a problem though. These most recent ones might be the last. She did not know how many freaks Dr Newman had produced, but they had usually appeared at this age and the plague had stopped him from being able to do anymore of his work. His death had finished it completely.
And the Utopia Genetics scientists still hadn’t been able to figure it out.
Xec had driven her back to the tower. The other members of the board wanted a meeting. She didn’t. All she wanted was some peace and quiet.
So she had a quiet lunch and watched the clouds scudding across the sky. It was going to be a clear night and the temperature would drop lower than it had so far this year.
Which was when Xec dropped his own bombshell.
‘Mercedes?’
His voice sounded uncertain and a wave of panic went through her.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I think the police have found the lab.’
‘You don’t know?’
‘I’m only getting fragmentary information. There seems to be something big going on tonight and there is some hint about it being to the south of the city.’
‘Nothing from the Purity?’
‘Either they don’t know, or my contacts don’t have access.’
‘It could be anything,’ she said. The last thing she needed now was even more trouble.
‘If it were anything else, I would know what it was!’
Mercedes glanced up in surprise. Xec had never shouted before, and as far as she knew he never got angry.
‘I’ve been blinded. The information coming in from my worms tells me nothing is happening. But the amount of activity is unquestionably building.’
‘Have you been compromised?’
‘I don’t think so, but how would I know?’
Now he sounded scared. How could a wirehead be scared?
‘What can you actually tell me, Xec?’ she said carefully, trying not to cause him more stress.
The pause was much longer than she had ever waited. For the first time she wished he used a visual representation of himself on the screen. It had always seemed somehow magical to have a disembodied voice to do her bidding. Now she needed to see a face so that she could somehow empathise with him.
‘I am trying to contact someone in the police force,’ he said. ‘I used to get information from them, but they were moved to a non-active role after an accident.’
‘How long?’
‘I don’t know.’
How did you get a wirehead to calm down? She didn’t even know where his physical body was kept, not that she wanted to see it. She had learned enough about the process, before the plague, to know more of their bodies were on the outside than in. The companies that provided biocyst computers did not advertise their locations for obvious reasons.
She made herself another cup of coffee and waited.
There were two simple possibilities: if the lab had not been found then there was nothing that needed to be done. If it had, they were in trouble. She needed to think of something.
‘Given the travel time required then it is.’
Mercedes tried to parse Xec’s comment and failed. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘What?’
‘You said something. It was meaningless.’
‘I ... yes, sorry,’ he said. ‘Thinking aloud.’
Since he did not actually speak out loud anyway that was redundant. ‘Have you found something?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I mean, I think so. My con
tact has noted that all the off-duty men in the residence he helps to supervise have indicated they will be out this evening. He has heard them talking among themselves about a big raid related to cracking the kidnapping case.’
Mercedes put down her coffee mug.
‘Shit,’ she said. ‘How much time have we got?’
‘Vehicles will be arriving to collect them at nine in the evening.’
‘Eleven at the earliest then.’
‘I would think so.’
‘Giving us a few hours,’ said Mercedes.
‘What’s the emergency protocol for the site?’
‘The usual: evacuation of non-critical personnel, specific destruction of all on-site files, incineration of all samples and assets. Dispersal of critical personnel with special treatment in some cases.’
Mercedes went into the lounge and looked up at the grey clouds. ‘Still nothing from the Purity?’
‘I don’t think they know.’
‘That’s naughty,’ said Mercedes, ‘since their agent is supposed to be leading the kidnappings case.’
‘It seems the police have chosen not to alert him.’
Mercedes smiled.
‘All right, I want you to instigate the protocols. However, about the incineration of major assets, let’s not do that just yet.’
‘Mercedes?’
‘We need them. There might not be any more.’
Chapter 25
Melinda
The air filled with a persistent and repetitive beep. It wasn’t loud but the fact that it was some sort of alarm was obvious. Melinda looked at Lucy across the table.
‘I’ve not heard that one before.’
The sound of a gun being cocked behind her made Melinda turn in her chair. The burner was holstered and her guard held a real gun. Although he held it on the two of them—Melinda wondered whether it would have any effect on Lucy—this did not stop him from looking around as if for help.
‘What’s going on?’ she said, trying to keep her nervousness under control. Over the last few days the immediate threat she had felt had receded into the background. The agreement that if she cooperated everything would be okay had been honoured on both sides.
‘Stay where you are!’ he said. He seemed to be as nervous as she was. Lucy’s hand landed on hers.
‘It’ll be fine,’ said Lucy. ‘Probably just a drill. They have had a couple.’
‘But not this one.’
‘Not this one.’
Another guard appeared; he too was holding his real gun. In the background two of the science staff were hurrying from somewhere to somewhere else. Melinda noticed an increase in the electrical activity, not that she had any idea what that meant.
The new guard muttered to the other one—Melinda wished Vanessa hadn’t gone so soon as she could have heard what they were saying. Then she laughed at herself. At the time she had been grateful the girl had decided to leave.
‘Move,’ said the new guard. The other one deferred to his instructions and stood back so that he could cover them as they left the room. Too far away for Melinda to do anything.
They had discussed breaking out but had not counted on this. Was it a good thing or a bad one? She had no idea.
The alarm did not stop. Its persistence was unnerving. The volume just enough to be irritating. If only they had some clue as to what it was.
They went through a pair of double doors into the final corridor, the passages to the cells led off this one. If they were going to take advantage, this was the time. She had no opportunity to talk to Lucy, and even if Vanessa knew something, they couldn’t ask her snice she was behind her own door. And Lucy’s cell had been reinforced to hold her.
If it was just a drill they would be up against the entire security team. On the other hand, she could not stand this waiting any longer.
They stopped at the first passage. Lucy’s room was at the end. The guards stood so that one of them could keep both of them covered while the other one went to open the door.
Melinda relaxed and closed her eyes. She opened her electrical sense to the surroundings. She needed something metal she could use as a conductor to put her pulse through. The only thing she could feel was the cable lighting above her. It was not in a conduit but it was insulated. And over three feet above her head.
She stared at Lucy, willing her to look in her direction, but Lucy was staring at the guard. Was she thinking she could take him? Perhaps she could, the bullets might bounce off her skin.
Then there was an ear-piercing shriek that was a bit like a bark that reverberated up from Vanessa’s room. The guard jerked his head in that direction. The pitch altered upwards and somehow intensified. A look of pain went across the guard’s face. She couldn’t agree more, the sound tore into her ears.
But with his attention distracted Lucy closed on him. She didn’t hit him, she just kept moving. It was as if he weighed nothing. She swept him off his feet and slammed him into the wall. He slumped with a strained groan as the air was forced from his body. The gun went off. Vanessa’s scream shut off.
There was only the alarm beep in the sudden quiet.
Melinda moved. She ran at Lucy and pointed at the cables. ‘Get me up there!’
A bullet hit Lucy in the shoulder just as the blast of the shot echoed through the corridors. Melinda could see the impact that tore through the hospital gown. She expected to see blood, but there was no time and Lucy did not appear to have noticed she had been hit. Instead, she pulled back from the guard she’d crushed, turned toward Melinda, crouched and made her hands into a cradle.
Melinda stepped on to Lucy’s hands and, almost before she had transferred her weight, Lucy stood up straight and flung her upwards. Another shot rang out. Melinda had no idea where it went; she was concentrating on the wires coming at her too fast. Her head struck the ceiling. She reached out and caught hold, one hand each side of a light fitting.
The wires were ripped from the ceiling as she came back down. Her arms felt as if they were being pulled from their sockets. Her feet touched the ground and then Lucy hit her like a train, knocking the wind from her. Two more shots ricocheted from the walls as she fell to the ground further along the corridor.
One of the cables was ripped from her hand but she maintained her grip on the other. The lights further down the corridor had gone out abruptly. The ones back the way they had come were still alight and she could see the wire dangling.
‘Do it!’ said Lucy.
‘I need that one.’ Melinda pointed at the other cable.
‘Typical.’ With that Lucy jumped up. Holding her forearm across her eyes, she barrelled into the passage where the other guard fired off half a dozen shots at her. There was a thud and it went quiet.
There were shadows moving behind the double doors. Melinda got the terrible sense of déjà vu. This was where they applied enough fire power to stop them. But that was before she really knew what she could do—and she knew her batteries had been storing increasing amounts of power.
She grabbed the dangling cable; the wire-ends were bare where they had been ripped from the light fitting. She took one end in each hand and pulled them apart a little further. She could feel the electrical energy trying to push through her, somehow she could protect herself—the same way the burners didn’t work.
Lucy appeared at a run. ‘Get on with it!’ Then she was past and heading down the next passage to Vanessa’s cell.
Melinda relaxed. She summoned her power and let it go.
The electromagnetic pulse she generated made every metal object shine. The lights exploded. The guard’s burner melted with an intense flash and he moaned in unconscious pain. The other guard’s weapon went as well. Everything went dark.
There were repeated crashes behind her as Lucy smashed through Vanessa’s door.
There were groans from the other side of the double doors, but she had no idea how many of them had been really incapacitated. They might still be dangerous and there would be
others further on.
One thing she did know: she had blown the power throughout the base. The background sensation of electrical currents was gone. She had not even known she was aware of it before, but she recognised its absence.
She felt the electrical impulses of Vanessa come up behind her, followed by Lucy. She smiled to herself. She could tell the difference by the overall shape and it meant she could see people in the dark.
‘Come on,’ said Vanessa and ran past. Melinda stepped to the side so Lucy didn’t run straight into her—she probably couldn’t see a thing. They needed light.
Chapter 26
Mitchell
He knew something was wrong the moment Graham appeared at the back of the briefing room. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Mitchell finished the briefing, indicating the time of departure as being nine. The team leaders climbed to their feet.
‘Wait,’ said Graham from the back.
They turned to look, then back at Mitchell who gave them a nod and they sat back down.
‘Special Agent?’
‘We go now.’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘We do not wait until nine. We go right now.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It’s four-thirty. We will go now otherwise we will almost certainly lose our prize.’
‘You have something to add to the briefing?’
‘This rogue element of Utopia Genetics—an entirely unsanctioned unit run by their board member Alistair McCormack—is aware of the raid and even now is attempting to escape.’
‘And you know this because...?’
‘My sources are my own, DI Mitchell,’ he said. ‘I know you understand how important it is to protect one’s sources.’
He peeled himself from the wall and walked slowly to the front between the chairs and tables.
‘Suffice to say that my source is unimpeachable,’ he said. ‘And we need to move swiftly if we are to catch them in the act.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Mitchell. He nodded once more to the men and they left.
Mitchell turned to Graham.
‘And the girls?’
‘Let’s hope we can get to them in time,’ said Graham. ‘Even now this rogue element will be destroying all the evidence. Hence the reason we must move quickly to foil them.’
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