by Phil Tucker
"What I'm saying is, this vaccine, it's important. It's more than important. The whole war could depend on it. And the President just shot it down. Shot it down because maybe he wants to remain President more than he wants to win this war. Maybe he thinks he's got a different solution, and who knows, maybe he does, but the fact remains, he's decided to risk it. And what do you think would happen to him if word got out? If people discovered that he had purposefully shot down a vaccine?"
That got their attention. Lee smiled, eyes still closed. Tom scratched at his cheek. "People would be pretty pissed, I reckon."
"Shit." Gordon shook his head. "More than that. Things would get ugly."
"So if the President is cold-blooded enough to shut down this project to save his ass, what do you think he's willing to do in order to be one hundred percent sure nobody talks about it?"
Silence. Tom, Eric, and Jenette looked at Gordon, who in turn looked at Lee. He opened one eye, looked back and forth, and shrugged. "Makes sense to me. We're all disposable."
"No way," said Jenette. She stood. "There's no way they'd 'dispose' of us." But even as she said it, her voice drained of conviction. She shook her head. "We're citizens. We're soldiers. We're ... there's no way."
"Shit." Gordon leaned back. His anger sluiced away. "I'm guessing the doctors are in trouble too. Anybody who's been involved with your project." Everybody watched Gordon. His square face was locked in deliberation, and he stared abstractedly at the coffee tabletop. Finally, he nodded. "I guess you're right. We're collateral damage in this battle, or soon bound to be." He looked up at the others. "What do y'all reckon?"
Tom shifted where he stood. "I've not sat underground for nearly a year to be liquidated when I'm no longer convenient."
Eric shook his head. "We don't know this. We should communicate with our superiors. Let them know about the situation."
"Sure," said Lee. "Let's each write a letter now and ask Jim to post them. Better yet, let's ask Wigner to deliver them by hand."
Jenette smooth back her hair, the striations in her deltoids flaring into view with each pass. "There's no way. No way."
Selah took a step forward. "Look. They're disorganized right now. I don't think they actually expected the vaccine to work. But if we give them any amount of time, they'll give all the orders necessary to contain this and then we're all really screwed."
Five sets of black eyes locked on her. Gordon shook his head. "This isn't how we operate, Selah. You're not enlisted, you wouldn't know. But we're professionals. It's not in our job description to question. We swore loyal service. What you're suggesting we do, it's not an option."
"Sure it is," said Lee. "I'm going to break out, and if Selah wants to come with, she's welcome to."
"What the hell, Lee?" Gordon almost rose to his feet.
Lee raised an eyebrow. "There's a war going on. From what I hear, we're not winning this one either. We've wasted enough time in this hole. I'm going to get back out there before they put me away for good. Pretty simple."
"Simple?" Gordon worked one fist into the palm of his other hand as if it were a mortar and pestle. "And what, you think you can just hike out to the nearest base and report for duty once you've gone AWOL?"
"No." Lee's casual demeanor slipped and his sudden intensity was shocking. "Wake the fuck up, Master Sergeant. You looked in the mirror lately? We are never going back to ranks. Not after what we've been through. This was a one-way ticket. You think the other boys are going to take us back?" One moment he was sitting, the second he was on his feet, his body having blurred in the vampiric manner she had almost grown used to. He rounded on the others. "Wake the fuck up." His last word was a shocking bark. It stung the air in the room, violent and loud and immediate. "Our only hope was making a new division, some sort of Hybrid squad, and now that's gone. Which means we've got to act now, or spend the rest of our probably very short lives hoping we did. I'm busting out, and once I'm out, I'll figure it from there. Come, or don't."
Silence. Tom rubbed at the soft stubble on his jaw, a heavy frown of concentration on his face. "I'm out too," he said softly.
"Oh, come on, Tom!" Gordon also rose to his feet. He was shorter than Lee's rangy form, but more powerfully built, broad and heavy shouldered. Tom gave him an apologetic shrug. "Eric? Jenette?"
The other two exchanged glances and then shook their heads. "No. We're not running."
Lee nodded. "All right." Just like that, he let go of his intensity and was relaxed once more. As if it were a garment he could pull on or off at will. "Tom, Selah, follow me." Without another word, he led them out of the living room and into his bedroom in the back.
Tom and Selah trailed after him. His room was exactly the same as her own, an identical copy in every way. Lee nodded to Tom who closed the door and then crossed his arms over his chest. "All right. This is how I see it. The only way out of here is through Dominique. We need to get her on our side and then use her security clearance to get us onto the ground floor. We'll commandeer a vehicle and break out."
Tom laughed. "Dominique? After what happened between you two? That's your plan?"
Lee stared at Tom with icy disdain. "I may have complicated the matter, but whatever. Selah here is also close to her. Together, we can prove our case."
"What about the guards?" Selah looked from one soldier to the other. "Jim? Javier? Whoever is on shift at our door?"
Lee shrugged. "Dominique will get us past them."
Tom shook his head. "Sure, but she doesn't have the clearance to get us out of the building. We'd be stopped cold."
Lee's eyes were amused. "That's why we'll set all the monkeys free first."
Tom and Selah stared at him. "Set them free?" Selah tried to envision it. "But half of them are still under the effects of the serum. They would be ... impossible to control."
"Exactly. We allow them to cause the chaos, and use it to slip out. It's not a perfect plan, but I can't see a better option." He looked from Selah to Tom. "Unless you have a better course of action? No? Very good. Operation Monkey Storm is the way we're going to play it."
Tom snorted. "This is insane." He bit his lower lip as he thought hard, and then shook his head. "But you're right. I don't see any other option. And we don't have much time. How long before they shut us down?"
"Not long," Selah said. "We need to move quickly."
"We're going to wait two hours and then you will call Dominique," said Lee. All traces of his indolence were gone. "Tell her you're feeling fevered, that you're breaking out in hives, something to get her down here. We'll talk, convince her to go along with the plan, and then break out right then."
"Why two hours?" Selah didn't think she could wait that long. "Why not now?"
"In two hours, it will be dark. That will lessen both the odds of their following us beyond the wall and the chances of their being able to find us."
"Escape at night." Selah felt her stomach sink.
Lee nodded. "It's our only chance."
Chapter 11
Dominique hurried down to the Hybrid Lab as soon as Selah put in her SOS call. Keeping it vague, Selah complained over the videolink by the security door that she wasn't feeling well. She pitched her voice low, allowed her eyes to wander, and said that she was building a temperature, felt feverish, and that her tongue was swelling. Dominique was clearly suspicious, but agreed to come down and check her out.
Selah waited alone in her bedroom. Lee decided that it would be best not to crowd Dominique at first, and told Selah she had five minutes alone to convince Dominique to come before he stepped in with a more forceful approach. So Selah sat on her bed and waited.
There was a knock on the door and it opened before Selah could call out. Dominique stepped inside, and eyed Selah with a mixture of doubt and concern. She was wearing her lab coat and her hair was pulled back into a utilitarian ponytail. The strain she was under made her expression severe.
"Hi." Selah took a breath. "Dominique, I need your help."
"You're not sick."
"No. But I needed you to come down here. Give me five minutes. If you don't agree with me, I'll never bother you again. Within the week, I'll be at a SuperMax and you can forget all about me forever." It was overly emotional, but instinct propelled her.
"All right." Dominique crossed her arms over her chest. Defensive body language. "I'm not pleased at being manipulated, but all right. What is it?"
This was it. Selah gripped the edge of her bedframe with both hands and collected her thoughts. "I've been thinking. The vaccine. You know it could work. You know it would change things."
"The vaccine is dead," cut in Dominique.
"I know," said Selah, cutting in herself before she could lose her momentum. "This isn't about the vaccine, not directly, but what logically has to happen next. I'm the source, so they can't execute me in case they decide they need the vaccine down the road. They'll put me on the shelf and keep me around, and if things get real bad, they'll announce, 'Hey, we have a vaccine!' And everyone will love Lynnfield for saving the day at the last moment."
"All right, sure. That's possible. What are you getting at?"
"I'm not expendable. You are."
Dominique lips thinned, but her expression didn't otherwise change. She had clearly been thinking along these lines already.
"You know it's true. Even Wigner, though they may feel comfortable simply buying him off with a promotion or something. But you? The Hybrids? Jim? Anybody else that knows what our project is about and its results? They can't risk you guys jumping online and putting out the word. They can't."
"What's your point?" Dominique's voice had grown strangely harsh and brittle at the same time. "This comes down directly from the President of the United States. The vaccine research is dead. There's nothing we can do. If I quit, they'll just make me disappear all the faster. My best bet is to just appear to be a cheerful, mindless monkey handler so they leave me alone."
Selah shook her head. "You know that won't work. You know they won't risk it. Not with so much at stake. All they need is the Hybrid serum, and they've got it now. There's nothing else they need. They won't leave you alone."
"There is something else they need." Dominique stepped forward and sat next to Selah. "Plessy. The head vampire from Miami? He's pledged to help Lynnfield. He's lending--hiring out--a number of his own vampires to help fight back against the LA group. I've already received word from a friend in the lab in Maryland that there's talk of making real vampire soldiers. Not Hybrids. The real thing. Fight fire with fire, and all that crap."
"What?" Selah had been so intent on convincing Dominique that it took her a moment to mentally change tracks. "Plessy's working directly with the President?"
Her mind raced. Plessy. The Machiavellian leader of the Miami vampires. The heir to Sawiskera's throne. It made ... sense. A horrific, twisted sense. Plessy's objective had been to integrate with human society. To seduce it, to infiltrate its culture, and to use it to set the Miami vampires free. He'd want nothing to do with the Blood Thralls. Nothing to do with Louis and the other anarchist vampires out of LA. They would be a threat to him. To everything he had built. To his dreams.
"That's ... madness. Vampire troops? But that-- They would stop being our troops then. They'd be his. Plessy's. And that would mean... Are they being allowed out of Miami?"
Dominique shrugged. "I've only heard rumors, but yeah. Special visas. Things are getting really bad out there, Selah. The... What do you call them? Blood Thralls? The mindless vampires out of LA are spreading. Rashaad's team here at the lab is tracking their spread as if they were a viral outbreak. Mapping in real time all sort of scenarios. It's really bad. Rashaad's a complete pig, but he's good, and when he says we have less than two months before we hit critical mass, I believe him."
"Then why doesn't Lynnfield use my vaccine?" Selah wanted to hit something. She stood up, strode two steps to the wall, and spun around. "Two months? Plessy allowed out of Miami? What the hell is he thinking?"
Dominique looked up at her bleakly. "He wants power, Selah. And I guess he doesn't really care how he gets it. Who he has to hurt to hold on to it. The vaccine is as dangerous to Plessy as to the Blood Thralls. He's probably made it part of his deal to have that research stopped in exchange for his help."
Selah cupped her fingers over her mouth as she thought. "Yeah. God. Listen, Dominique. They can't kill me. But they can make you disappear. You could be very inconvenient to them. They will definitely be disappearing the Hybrid team or keeping them locked down here forever. We're all about to be crushed by forces so big we can't hope to survive if we don't move. If we don't act."
Dominique slowly shook her head, clearly not liking the direction the conversation was going. "What are you saying?"
"Lee, Tom, and I are going to escape. We need your help."
To Selah's huge relief, Dominique didn't immediately leap up and say no. Instead she laughed bitterly. "Escape? From a guarded US base? How are you going to do that?"
The door opened and Lee was there, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. He'd probably been listening the whole time. Tom was right behind him. "We need your help, Dom."
Dominique drew herself up. "You're crazy if you think I'm going to help you bust out of here."
Selah reached out for Dominique's arm. "Stop. Think. I'm going to disappear in a day or two, maybe for good. The Hybrids are never going to be released. You are going to be kept prisoner. Maybe one day they'll need you again to work on my blood, maybe not, but you know too much. You're a huge security risk. This is our one opportunity. If we don't seize it now, if we don't escape, we may never have another chance. Right now, security is still low. They've not yet locked us down. This is our chance. If we don't go, tonight, now, we may look back for the rest of our lives and regret missing our one chance at freedom."
Dominique looked at Selah and then back to Lee. He nodded. "Selah's got it right. I'm serious, Dom. I'm going to escape. We need your help." He paused. "I need your help."
"Say-- All right, say I agree. What are we going to do? Cover our faces in camo paint and sneak out through the air ducts?"
"No." Lee's voice was calm and certain. His very presence seemed to be grounding Dominique, preventing her from losing herself to panic. "We use your security card to gain access to the primate lab security system, and then you set a timed release for all the apes. We wait for chaos to break out, and then use it as cover to escape using the service elevator or stairs, depending on the situation. We'll use your security card as far as it takes us, and then we'll improvise from there. Once we're outside, we'll commandeer a helicopter or Humvee and break out."
Dominique studied Lee's face like a sculptor searching for flaws. "That's ridiculous. And I'd never do that to my apes. They'd be shot. Destroyed."
"Your apes are as good as dead right now and you know it." Lee's voice was inexorable. "You can only buy them so much more time. You've told me that yourself. Give them a chance at freedom. This way they at least die on their feet, outside their cages."
"But... No. Stop. I won't be responsible for hurting the guards. That's not right."
Lee nodded. "They shouldn't get hurt. All they have to do is use tranq guns from a distance. Play it smart. Come on, Dom. You know we're right. You can feel it. Move past the fear. Help us. Don't go down with this ship."
Dominique bit at her lower lip and looked from Lee to Selah and then down at her hands. She frowned, eyes darting back and forth, and then took a breath and closed them. Her shoulders slumped.
Selah felt a thrill of victory. "All right. How do we do this?"
"I need you to get as much of the Serum as you can," said Lee. "Tom and I are going to need to be juiced to get you two out of here in one piece. Then you set the cage release and come back down here. We'll take it from there."
"And Gordon? The others?"
"They're not coming," said Tom, voice grim. "They're going to wait this one out."
&nb
sp; Dominique nodded slowly. "Okay. Okay."
Selah stepped forward and took the older woman's hands, pulling her to her feet. "We can do this. Dominique? We can do this."
The scientist nodded and took a sharp breath. She pulled her hair free of its ponytail, smoothing it out expertly once, twice, and then twisting it away back under the scrunchie. "All right. Okay. I'm going to the lab. I should be back in fifteen."
"Oh," said Selah. "Wait. Can you get messages outside?"
Dominique nodded.
"Then I need you to send somebody a message for me. Have you heard of General Adams? The one that ended the first War?"
"Sure," said Dominique. "You want me to message him?"
"Yes. He's on my side. Tell him we're breaking out and that we'll need a place to hide in the area. Actually, even better, try to get him on a live connection. Wait, no. Can you bring an open Omni here? If I can get him on a live feed, he may be able to work something that will allow us to escape the lab." They were all staring at her. "No, seriously. Can you?"
Dominique pulled out a mini-Omni from her lab coat pocket. "This isn't locked into the closed circuit."
Lee was looking at her strangely, so Selah avoided his black eyes. She took the Omni and quickly navigated onto the net. It was like finally being able to step outside after being trapped under a huge, asphyxiating pillow for months. She paused, quickly opened a generic masking program she had used frequently back in Brooklyn called SpyEatSpy, and then entered the General's personal number in Miami.
It rang. The others stayed quiet, watching. "Be quick," said Dominique. "Our IT department is really good. They might place the call coming out of here and shut down my access."
The vidscreen went live. Cloud. Her heart clenched, and her mouth went dry. He looked up at her, his face leaner, then he blinked and stared in shock right back.
"Selah? Is that--? Your eyes!"
"Cloud, yes, it's me. I-- You're with the General?"