He nodded, and started for the door. Ahead, Chloe and the members of Olivia’s team were already filing out.
A few of the Project Eden people tried to go, too, but they were shoved back. Those that Ash passed pleaded with him with their eyes, as if he might take them along, but he had no compassion for any of them. They had chosen their path when they joined the Project. They could all go to hell as far as he was concerned.
47
OLIVIA TORE OPEN the envelope the late Principal Director had given to the Director of Preparation. This was it. The activation code.
The DOP had been so very close to being the one who carried it out. She couldn’t have that.
She removed the piece of paper, and read what was written on it—the code that simply had to be input on the screen, followed by the Enter key. One word followed by one number: EXIT 9.
Was there a hidden meaning to them? she wondered. Did it matter? The only important thing was that they were the two most powerful words in the world.
Five simple characters that could wipe out mankind.
If anyone was going to bring on that kind of chaos, it would be her.
She placed her fingers on the keyboard.
E-X-I-T-9
48
AS ASH REACHED the door, he heard paper ripping behind him. It was a familiar, distinct sound. Not a sheet being torn in half, but something slower with stops and starts along the way. As he turned to see if he was right, he heard the tapping of keys.
The Go code for the virus! Olivia had opened it and was entering it in the system.
His weapon was in his hand before he even realized he’d reached for it.
Olivia struck another key.
“Stop!” he yelled, moving forward.
She looked over at him and smiled. This was what she’d intended to do from the beginning, he realized. This was what she’d been hiding. She wanted to both destroy the Project and bring its nightmare to reality.
“Olivia, don’t do it!”
She raised her right index finger, letting it hover over the edge of the keyboard.
Over the Enter key.
49
THE ONLY THING Sanjay has tried that keeps Kusum from running away is to promise that if nothing happens in the next few days, he would take her back and turn himself over to the police. He knows she can tell he’s not lying, and eventually she gives in.
He drives them deep into the countryside, where neither of them has ever been before.
He assumes Ayush has died. His cousin looked nearly dead the last time he saw him, so Kusum is the only thing he has left.
As long as he can save her life, she can hate him forever.
__________
JESSICA WHITNEY SITS numbly at her brother’s desk. She still cannot comprehend that he is dead.
Killed by an explosion? It just doesn’t make sense.
The only reason she has come to Palmer Transport & Shipping is to find a list of his contacts and clients, so that she and a few of her cousins can start letting people know in the morning that he’s gone.
Her eyes wander over his desk, stopping momentarily on a pad of paper near his phone. On it, in typical John fashion, there are the doodles and scribbles he often made when he was on the phone. It’s a new sheet so there aren’t quite as many marks as usual. Some are impossible to read, while others—“H-K,” “WHO,” and “container”—are clearer.
What any of it means, she has no idea.
Unexpectedly, her sadness overwhelms her. She rips the sheet from the pad, and crumples it into a tight ball. When she finally gets up, she drops the paper into the trash and never thinks of it again.
__________
PATRICIA MENDES IS also in mourning. In her case, it’s for a brother and an uncle. Their deaths are surprisingly similar to the man in Perth’s, and two other people in Cleveland, though she will never know this.
The police have already decided that Rodrigo must have discovered a drug lab and had let Uncle Hector know. It’s as good a story as any, and both her brother and uncle come out heroes who were trying to do the right thing.
The true story of what happened, she keeps to herself, along with the guilt she will carry until she takes her last, gasping breath.
__________
JEANNIE SAUNDERS IS coughing again.
Thankfully the attack only lasts for a few seconds. Her chest muscles are so sore, and her throat so raw, she is sure that soon she’ll pass out from the pain. It would be a blessing, actually. A way not to think about anything.
Corey is dead. No one has told her this, but she knows. She can see it in their eyes, even behind the protective suits they wear when they come into her room.
What happened to Blanton, she has no idea. She should ask, but she doesn’t have the strength.
What she really wants is to go home and lie on her bed.
She closes her eyes, that thought on her mind, and dreams that’s exactly where she is.
__________
IN A VACATION home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Tamara Costello and Bobby Lion spend their time either watching TV or walking along the nearly deserted shore. It is cold and the ocean looks angry, but the only thing on either of their minds is the phone Tamara carries in her pocket. Will it ring? And when it does, will Matt tell them it’s time? That the video they hope they never have to show anyone needs to be released?
There is no way to know the answer. All they can do now is wait.
__________
RICH “PAX” PAXTON once more tries to reach Gagnon on his satellite phone. For hours his calls have gone unanswered, and he is concerned. He has tried Captain Ash, too, but received the same results.
He and his team know the research facility on Amund Ringnes Island is exactly what it claims to be and not home to Project Eden. This means either their assumption about Bluebird’s location is wrong, or it’s on the same island Ash and Chloe and Red are on.
That’s why the unanswered calls trouble him so much. If Bluebird is on Yanok, he worries that something has happened to the others. He wants to go there right now and make sure they’re all right, but even if Gagnon answers, Pax and his people won’t be going anywhere soon.
A storm is moving in, and it’s a big one.
__________
IN A SECRET basement known as the Bunker, below the burning hulk of a building that was once called the Lodge, a teenage girl named Josie Ash sits alone in her room, her back against the wall.
Though there are others in the Bunker with her, she has never felt so isolated. Her thoughts run to her father, off on some unknown mission, and to her brother, trapped outside the Bunker where the killers are. She is supposed to be watching over him, taking care of him. She can do neither now.
Without realizing it, she begins to rock. Just let me wake up, she thinks. Let this be a nightmare.
Then she realizes that while she isn’t asleep, a nightmare is exactly what this is.
__________
BRANDON ASH PUTS a hand against the cut on his cheek. He got it while he ran behind Mr. Hayes. It stings but it’s not too deep.
“We’ll wash it out once we get some water,” Mr. Hayes whispers.
Brandon nods. Water or no water, he’ll be fine.
He wonders how far they’ve gone into the woods. It can’t be too far. He can still hear the thumping of the helicopter, and thinks he can hear the crackling of the fire, too. He can’t, but it doesn’t matter.
They’d seen the blaze for a few minutes while they hid near the edge of the forest. Two blazes, really, because both the Lodge and the dormitory are on fire. Brandon worries the flames will reach the Bunker where his sister and the others are. More than once, Mr. Hayes tells him it’s impossible.
He hopes Mr. Hayes is right.
__________
THE COMING STORM has moved ashore on Yanok Island. Both wind and snow are fighting for dominance, though neither can claim victory.
Captain Daniel Ash knows nothi
ng about the storm at this moment, but even if he does, he wouldn’t care. His focus is on the woman at the other side of the room.
Their eyes are locked. He knows what she is going to do. He wishes there were another way he could stop her, but there isn’t.
There is only one thing he can do. As he makes this decision, he sees in her eyes that she’s made hers, too.
Her finger is already in motion when he pulls the trigger.
Anxious to know what happens next?
Look for Book Three of the Project Eden Thrillers in the spring.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, a thank you to all of you for embracing the Project Eden books, and urging me to “write faster.” I’m trying, oh Lord, am I trying!
As with Sick and my Logan Harper books, I’m blessed to be working with the very talented Jeroen ten Berge on the design of my covers. He does a bang-up job, and I couldn’t be happier.
Probably the most important member of my team these days is someone I can definitely not do without. She keeps me from making a fool of myself, and constantly makes my work better. I’m talking, of course, about my fantastic copyeditor, Elyse Dinh-McCrillis. I could not do this without her.
And, as always, there’s the revolving group of folks who keep me sane: Robert Browne, Bill Cameron, Derek Rogers, Stephen Blackmoore, Ivonne Decervantes, Tasha Alexander, Nine, and my parents. (I’m sure I’ve missed a few, so apologies for that.)
Finally, life would not be complete without my kids, Ronan, Fiona, and Keira. They are simply wonderful.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brett Battles lives and writes full-time in Los Angeles. He is the author of twelve novels, including Every Precious Thing, the latest Logan Harper thriller; The Pull of Gravity; and The Deceived, winner of the Barry Award for Best Thriller 2009. More info available at www.brettbattles.com
Don’t stop here! There’s more…
Enjoy thrillers?
Check out the following great titles!
Books by CJ Lyons
From New York Times Bestseller CJ Lyons
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NERVES OF STEEL, Hart and Drake Book #1
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Drake's irascible charm eventually penetrates the barriers Cassie has built around herself, and their relationship progresses from professional to passionate. After Cassie discovers the truth behind the thefts, she and Drake must confront a killer. In the end, their only weapons are their new found love and the courage that it gives them.
Click HERE to sample or buy NERVES OF STEEL today!
How about a Ghost of a Love Story?
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If you like your stories with multiple layers, a touch of the metaphysical, and complex plots, then LUCIDITY is for you.
It’s about free will and the choices we make everyday.
It’s about the price we pay for that free will–and the price others around us pay.
But most of all it’s a bittersweet love story about a woman who would do anything to be with her lost love–then she’s forced to choose between saving the world and saving him.
Click HERE to sample or buy LUCIDITY today!
Becoming Quinn
Every Identity Has an Origin
This is Jonathan Quinn’s
Most careers begin with an interview and a handshake. Others require a little … something more. Meet Jake Oliver. The day will come when he's one of the best cleaners in the business, a man skilled at making bodies disappear. At the moment, however, he’s a twenty-two-year-old rookie cop, unaware his life is about to change.
In a burning barn a body is found—and the fire isn't the cause of death. The detectives working the case have a pretty good idea about what went down. But Officer Oliver thinks it’s something else entirely, and pursues a truth others would prefer remain hidden—others who will go to extreme lengths to keep him quiet.
Find Becoming Quinn in the Kindle Store
“A pure delight.”
—Jeffery Deaver
author of Edge and the Lincoln Rhyme novels
on the first Quinn novel, The Cleaner
“Quinn is one part James Bond, one part Jason Bourne.”
—Nashville Book Worm
The Logan Harper Thrillers
Little Girl Gone & Every Precious Thing
Little Girl Gone
Logan Harper isn't looking for redemption. He just wants to live in peace and forget his troubled past. But one morning, his quiet life is upended when he interrupts the attempted murder of his father's best friend, Tooney. The next thing he knows, Logan is on his way to Los Angeles, searching for Tooney's missing granddaughter and uncovering a sinister plot connected not only to Tooney's past, but also to the boardrooms of corporate America. As the odds stack up against him, Logan must fall back on old skills from the life he'd rather forget. He's made a promise, and the only way to fulfill it is to bring the girl home alive.
Every Precious Thing
It was supposed to be a fun weekend, a celebration of a marriage and growing family. Alan Lindley couldn't have been happier...until his wife Sara disappeared. Asked by a mutual friend to help look for her, Logan Harper is sure he'd discover a wife who simply wants out of the marriage. What he finds instead is a woman who didn't exist, a diabolical plan, and people who would do anything to keep it a secret, including taking the life of the person most important to him. What would you do for those precious to you?
Find Little Girl Gone in the Kindle Store
Find Every Precious Thing in the Kindle Store
"The best word I can use to describe his writing is addictive."
—James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author
The Pull of Gravity
From Brett Battles comes a different kind of novel, one deemed "a mesmerizing thriller of the heart" by Edgar-Award-nominated author Tim Hallinan. It's a story of love, tragedy, and those searching for redemption.
Jay Bradley thought he could leave the Philippines behind. But though he's started a new life with a woman he loves, he's still tormented by questions from his past.
He returns to Angeles City, where he once worked as a papasan watching over his bargirls. On the surface he's there to sell his stake in a bar on the notorious Fields Avenue. In reality he's come back to find Isabel, one of his old dancers and the only person who can answer his questions and quiet his demons.
Because death is seldom an ending, and always haunts those left behind.
Find The Pull of Gravity in the Kindle Store
EXIT NINE
Copyright © 2011 by Brett Battles
Cover art copyright © 2011 by Jeroen ten Berge
All rights reserved.
EXIT NINE is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For more information about the author, please visit www.brettbattles.com.
For more information about the artist, please visit www.jeroentenberge.com.
Table of Contents
Exit Nine Book Description
ALSO BY BRETT BATTLES
What Has Come Before
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Enjoy thrillers?
Books by CJ Lyons
Becoming Quinn
The Logan Harper Thrillers
The Pull of Gravity
[Project Eden 02] - Exit 9 Page 25