Walter scratched his chin. “I don’t know that particular verse from memory, son. Is it really that important?”
“No,” Cory said, taking another bite of his burger.
“Where did you all come from originally?” Walter asked.
Jesse and Eve and Andrea retold their stories of their times after the raptors had come. Cory tuned out during most of it, having heard it all already. Kate said nothing when it was her turn. When it came time for Cory to speak, everyone turned to him.
“New York,” he said.
“New York?” Walter asked. “You have come a long way. Well, I’m afraid I can’t help you find what you are looking for unless you tell me specifically what it is. I’ve had more than my fair share of time to go through this place top to bottom and then some, back to front, side to side,” he said while making wild gestures with one hand. “Who do you think cleaned this big mess up?”
From what little Cory knew from Andrea, maybe the old guy was telling the truth. Maybe he did not know where the virus was stored.
“I still cannot believe you have no idea where it is kept.”
Walter put down the remains of his burger and pushed himself back from the table. “Perhaps you should tell me exactly who you are and why you are here.”
Andrea held a hand up. “May I?” she asked.
Jesse nodded. Cory folded his arms over his chest.
Andrea continued, “I once lived here. As did many others. You’ve seen the logos everywhere, I assume. Cory, show him your knuckles.” He did, displaying the SESP tattoo. “Well, the SESP was an organization bent on ridding the world of humanity’s ‘excessive population.’ Their words, not mine. They assumed that they alone had the answer, and that they were saving the goddamned planet. Sorry… And, they caught me up in it too. Not by choice, I might add. They forced me to obey them. Specifically, a guy by the name of Gary Branson.” She stopped to look at Kate. She smiled at her. “I was never one for kidnapping, but there was not much I could do about it now, could I? They were going to kill me if I didn’t obey.”
“Obey what?” Jesse asked.
“Obey,” she said as if the word were distasteful. “That was what they wanted from me. But, at first, it wasn’t that. They took my creations, my life’s work and used it against me, against us. All of us. I’ve given you some of the story of my involvement, but I’ve never told you how deeply I was involved. They were indeed mine. I created them. I helped them breed them. I helped them release them. I was responsible for all of this.” Andrea was saying all this without pausing to take a breath. Cory could still see lines in her face forming. She was still holding back something else. He’d find out eventually, but for now it was not as important as locating the virus.
Kate was chewing on an onion ring as if she had never tasted such a thing before. It made him consider how much she was like his sister, only younger. His sister’s childhood had been stolen from her too.
“So, again,” Cory asked, “Where is it?”
“Son,” Walter said, slowly, “Where is what?”
“He’s looking for a virus,” Jesse interjected into the conversation. “He seems to believe it is hidden here.”
Walter shrugged. “A virus…? And… So… Where is it supposed to be?”
“How the hell should I know?” Cory said. “But it has to be here.” He pushed his chair back and stood. “And it is time for me to go find it.”
Andrea motioned for him to sit back down. “Five minutes, okay? I’ll show you where it is. I know. I know where it is.”
“Now,” he said.
Andrea picked up an onion ring, dipped it in ketchup, and stuck it in her mouth. Her lips smacked together nosily as she chewed.
Cory set his hands on the table. He had waited this long. He could wait for a few more minutes. But each minute ticking by felt like an eternity. Why did no one believe him? Should not the destruction of the raptors be the most important task of any able-bodied human being?
When they finally got going, everyone followed behind Andrea. Cory ran his fingers along the wall as they walked the corridors, remembering the bunker and all the memories he had left behind. He had been forced to kill people, and thousands of raptors, but he’d been righteous in his cause.
They walked the hallways, turning left, right, left. Eventually they came to a room at the very end of the corridor. It was marked with a single biohazard symbol placed at the center of the door.
“This is it,” Andrea said, then added, “I think.
“You think?” Jesse asked.
“If it is anywhere,” she said, “it would be in here. I was never permitted inside. In fact, this entire hallway was off limits to everyone except the Elders.”
“Elders?” Jesse asked. “You guys were some sort of religious cult?”
Cory prickled at the mention.
“Something like that,” Andrea answered. She grabbed the doorknob. “Here goes.”
“Wait,” Jesse said.
She gave him a puzzled look, but stepped away from the door.
Jesse also stepped aside, pulling everyone else with him. Everyone except Cory. He nodded courteously at Cory.
Surprised, Cory nodded back. He grabbed the doorknob. Sweat had slicked his palms. His heart was throbbing. He swallowed, and twisted the knob.
Nothing.
He twisted again, pulled, twisted.
The door was locked. Of course it would be.
Jesse chuckled. “Anyone bring a key?”
Cory was not amused. He examined the lock further. It seemed to require a special keycard to open.
“Ideas?” Jesse asked.
“I found a few identification cards on some bodies I cleared out,” Walter said. “Maybe one of them might work.”
Ten minutes later, after Jesse had returned with Walter and a handful of plastic cards, they got to work. When none of the cards opened the lock, Jesse resorted to one other item he’d brought along.
“Best key I could find,” he said. He held up a hooked pry-bar and slammed the sharpened end into the doorjamb.
It took nearly twenty minutes of chipping away at the lock and ramming the crowbar into the resulting hole. The heavy steel door finally popped open and slammed against something inside the room.
Cory paused in the doorway, looking into the darkened space. Jesse stepped forward with a flashlight, shining it past Cory and into the room.
Nothing was immediately apparent. No big vats. No refrigerated containers filled with test tubes. Nothing steaming, nothing bubbling, nothing glowing, nothing except for one item at the far end that had been built into the wall. It was a safe. A dim red light was blinking on the safe, slowly flashing in an almost heartbeat-like rhythm, as if it were being driven by a sick and dying battery.
It was a warning light.
The safe was halfway open.
Cory rushed into the room and opened the safe completely.
There was nothing inside the two-cubic foot space. Nothing except for a tiny slip of paper.
Cory fell to his knees, holding onto the table next to him. He felt Jesse step alongside and put a hand on his shoulder. He tried to shrug it off, but Jesse did not let go.
Finally, Jesse lifted his hand. He reached inside the safe and withdrew the paper note. “Something’s written on it,” he said. “Can barely read it.” He raised the flashlight and pointed it at the note.
Cory stayed on his knees and stared blankly at a spot on the floor. He had…nothing. He had been wrong all along.
So wrong.
“Says here,” Jesse said, holding the paper down near Cory, lit by a flashlight, “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
“Let me see,” Eve said. “I know that verse.” She took the flashlight and the note. Cory sensed her behind him reading the note. She finished and shined the light around the room. “What’s that?” s
he asked. She stepped past him, closer to the safe. He looked to where she was shining the light. A tiny glimmer of hope filled him. A long trembling shiver raced down his backbone.
There on the counter next to the safe was a badge of some sort. A keycard, plastic and white. It had a picture on it, but he couldn’t tell who it was in the dim light.
“Huh?” she said, surprised.
“What?” Jesse asked.
She came back next to Cory. She held the keycard and shined the flashlight on it so he could see.
He was stunned speechless by what he saw.
“Recognize him?” she asked.
Of course he recognized the man. The guy was younger in the picture, but the gray, slicked-back, full head of hair and large, toothy smile were unmistakable.
Of course Eve knew him as well.
The man on the ID badge was Noah.
-21-
RAT BASTARD
“WHO'S NOAH?” JESSE asked.
Cory smashed a neatly stacked row of manila folders lying on a desktop to his right and stormed out of the room. Papers scattered across the floor. Jesse watched the destruction for a brief second before turning and following behind, working to avoid the twin wrecking balls of Cory’s fists. With the painted and barren cement walls of the empty hallway outside the room, there was nothing else to destroy, which seemed to further infuriate Cory.
“What the hell was that all about?” Jesse asked Andrea, who had come up alongside him.
“I think he’s a little upset,” she answered.
Jesse screwed a half smile on his face and quickened his pace. Lacking items to destroy, Cory put a valiant effort into his non-destructive rampage. His arms flailed like wind-whipped branches, and he stumbled along, beating his fists against the walls every few feet. At the approaching intersection, he spun two complete circles before turning the corner and disappearing from sight.
“Hold up!” Jesse shouted, speeding up even faster to catch up with him. “You haven’t told me who this guy is yet.” Cory did not answer, but there were crashing noises in the distance that made his trail easy to follow.
Eve grabbed hold of Jesse’s shirt from behind and spun him around.
“Let him go,” she said. “I can tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“That Noah is someone we both knew.”
“He what?” Jesse said, stopping.
“He took me in,” she continued. “He’s the one I told you about. The guy who lives north of Denver. The guy who kept me safe before Cory showed up. Before he showed up and ruined everything.”
“Ruined, huh?”
She nodded.
Jesse remembered her mentioning the man when she’d explained where she had come from. He’d dismissed it at the time because he had been too preoccupied with something slightly more important. Though, he could not remember what that was now. He had a vague memory of her telling him that she’d been sent by the guy to go after Cory and bring him back.
“Tell me,” Jesse said. “How the hell do these two things connect?” It wasn’t making a whole lot of sense.
“You are telling me that this Noah guy has had the means to wipe out these things all along, and he’s purposefully chosen not to?”
“Yes,” Eve admitted. “He sent me after Cory. I... I mean, we were supposed to bring him back. But I never knew anything about Noah being here. I swear it. It’s a surprise to me too.”
Jesse just couldn’t believe her. She had to be lying again. He was sure of it. But about what?
“Cory,” Jesse said, leaving her and heading after him again. “Hold up.”
Cory stopped when Jesse closed in on him. He spun, fists clenched, eyes narrowed to slits. Jesse slowed to a stop and approached him as if he were approaching a rabid dog. He almost gave up and let him continue his path of destruction. Maybe that would let him blow off a little of that steam he’d built up. But, the need to know what the hell was going on superseded his better senses.
“This business with the virus is all true then?” he asked.
“Are you seriously that stupid?” Cory spat out, hands going in the air. “Why would I have made any of this up?”
“I don’t know,” Jesse said. “Maybe you’d gone a little crazy? This all seems a bit too unreal to be true.”
“How is any of this unreal?” Cory practically screamed. “Look around you…you dumb-ass redneck. Who do you think built this place? Little green men? Fairies from outer space?”
While Jesse had seen Cory pissed off before, this seemed more like a childish temper tantrum. It was generally unlike the guy. There had to be a piece missing, some important part of the puzzle that had disappeared under the carpet.
Jesse whistled out a long breath. Maybe it was the cheeseburger talking, maybe it was the new sense of temporary safety, but he found he was willing to capitulate, just a smidgen.
He placed a hand on Cory’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Cory said nothing. He continued to breathe heavily and angrily.
“I was wrong,” Jesse continued. “I never could swallow the whole cockamamie story about some mystery virus being real. It still doesn’t make much sense to me. Things don’t add up. But with these bunkers and what we’ve found so far…”
“Seriously? About goddamned time you figured things out,” Cory said through gritted teeth. “And now it is all fucking gone.” He spun on his heels and stormed away.
Jesse had a good sense of where he was going and let him go there alone. Everything inside told him that Cory meant to start out after Noah as soon as he possibly could, safety or no safety.
He stood there waiting for Andrea to catch up with him, clenching and unclenching his own fists as he had seen Cory do.
“This was all real?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said. “It was, I’m sorry to say. The virus, though, I still don’t believe it exists in the same way he thinks it does. And the chances of it working were always slim to none.”
“Who’s lying here?” Jesse asked, keeping a hint of force in his voice. “There is no way in hell you could have been here all that time and not known about it.”
“I’m not lying to you,” she said. “I swear it. I was never allowed in here. The area was off limits. You see this?” She flattened her hand against the wall.
“What?”
“The color. Notice the color all around you?”
“Red?”
“Red, yes. This area was off limits to almost everyone. Only a select few were permitted. If you were caught down here, you would have been instantly ejected from the bunker. This was where the senior members lived. The elitist of the elite of those assholes. I happen to not have been one of them,” she said a little too proudly.
“You knew Noah though?” Jesse asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“I did,” she admitted. “He… That wasn’t the name I knew him by. His real name was Gary Branson. But he liked to have people call him Noah instead of Gary. It gave him a sense of self-importance, I guess. He was one of those high-ups in charge of all this, and all those assholes were essentially just narcissistic pricks. Gary, I mean Noah, was probably one of the primary founders behind the movement too.”
“Founders?”
“Yes. He came from an organization called Earth Watch. They were a militant environmentalist outfit. They thought America needed to be punished for its past sins. They raised a hell of a lot of money spouting their hate.”
“Like that vice-president guy?”
“Not exactly, but yes, they shared a similar thought process. Gary and the rest just took it to the extreme. They figured they could save the world by eliminating the primary destructive force on the planet—Americans.”
“And this guy is still alive and breathing?” Jesse asked, incredulously.
“Makes it a little hard to believe in any kind of just God now, doesn’t it?”
Jesse caught up with Cory in the cafeteria. He pulled off h
is baseball cap and slicked back his hair. Cory was adjusting things inside his pack on one of the aluminum tables. He did not even bother to look up when Jesse pulled a chair out, sat it in, and tilted it back on two legs.
“I’m going along,” Jesse said in a matter of fact way. “This is important, right? I was wrong, and I should have believed you. Maybe it was your charming personality throwing me off. Whatever. Now, it’s just you and me, for better or for worse. You show me where to find this Noah guy, and we’ll do whatever it takes to get that virus away from him.”
Cory didn’t say a word for a long time, but kept a blank expression and stopped packing. Kate, Eve, Andrea, and Walter all caught up with Jesse and spread out around the table.
Glancing up, Cory stared at each in turn while Jesse watched him closely. Cory did not smile and did not acknowledge the support. He nodded only once.
“Okay,” Jesse said. “You and I will—”
“I’m going too,” Eve blurted out.
“Like hell you are,” Jesse replied.
“I know him better than you do,” Eve said. “I know how to talk to him. I know what he wants. If you go without me, he’ll kill you both.”
Jesse smirked. “He can try.”
“But I need to go,” Eve said. “Please.”
“Why?” Jesse asked.
“What reason do you have to go? What reason do either of you have to go?” She stepped back and turned away.
“So you do know it’s over two hundred miles of raptor-infested territory that we’ll have to get through? Add in that hornet’s nest we stirred up back there, and any other group that we’ve also managed to piss off.”
“I’ve made it through before,” she said.
With a lot of help, Jesse thought privately.
“Please,” she said. “It is important to me. I have to go.”
“No,” Cory said.
She pointed at him. “What gives you the right to tell me I can’t come along?”
Cory resumed his packing, ignoring her.
For once, Jesse believed her in this. She was probably looking to redeem herself, much as he was too.
Righteous Apostate: Raptor Apocalypse Book 3 Page 15