A woman ran out the front door. It was the Mojave coyote in Utah all over again. Her eyes and mouth spewed blood. She clawed at her shirt neck helplessly. The woman vomited. A foamy blend of blood and digested food flowed from her mouth. She heaved again, a gagging cough. Then, she fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.
I stepped closer to her. I stopped as I caught sight of a shiny clump on the woman’s back. I barely made out the shape of a large bumblebee before the insect melted into oil and slid off the knit fabric.
More tourists poured out of the manor house in varying stages of extreme illness. Men and women ran in all directions, flailing, vomiting, and shouting. Bees buzzed around them hovering and darting in, received by more shrieks and cries of pain. I felt utter helplessness as the dying crowd panicked around us. Instinctively we formed a circle, backs in, faces out.
“How do we stop it?” Faith yelled over the cries, gurgles, and screams of the victims.
“We can’t!” Josh’s arms shot out, protecting Melissa on his one side and Faith on the other.
“We don’t have a cure. We don’t even know if there is one,” said Jonah.
“Downstairs! They might still be here. We have to catch them!” yelled Josh.
“Irina! Gemma’s here. Over there! Follow me,” Ilya pointed to a woodshed behind the carriage house.
Josh, Melissa and the others ran into the manor house after the Innoviro and Evonatura demons responsible for the massacre unfolding in front of us.
I followed my brother to the shed. We reached the door and saw it chained before we could even try the handle.
“She’s terrified. They left her here as bait.”
“Gemma! It’s me! It’s Irina! We’re here. You’re going to be fine. Drop the illusion on all of us. We’ll freak her out even worse if you don’t.” I felt cool air around me and I saw my brother back to normal.
Out of nowhere, Cole elbowed me out of the way and ripped the chain away like ribbon. He yanked the thick wood door off its hinges and swooped into the shed, picking up Gemma effortlessly. Her long straight hair fell behind her like a curtain of wheat. She gaped up at him with a mixture of fear and awe.
“Who are you?” Gemma asked shakily, her face pale.
Cole carried her a few steps onto the lawn and put her down when he realized she was unharmed.
“He’s with me. He’s a friend from Innoviro,” I said.
“I went to Victoria to look for you. Ivan found me and told me everything. He said you got caught up in some kind of cult. He wanted me to help you if we could find you. What’s . . . happening here? Tatiana said that your brother, I mean our brother, would hear me and it would draw you both out. They wanted to help you so badly,” said Gemma, her voice still uneven. Her frightened eyes held my gaze until something in her clicked. “You’re not in a cult, though, are you?”
“Let’s worry about setting the record straight after we bring this place down.” I turned to my brother. “Take her to the van. Stay with her.” To Cole, I said, “We need to find Faith and get her to torch the basement.”
Chapter 10
The screams ended. Bodies lay on the lobby floor, in an obscene mixture of blood and vomit, like some sort of overdone horror show. I didn’t see any bees. I scanned the doorways to my right, left, and straight ahead frantically searching for some sign of my friends. “They must have found the basement.”
“We’ll try that stone hall off the kitchen.” Cole headed quickly but carefully through the bodies and made for a shortcut under the curved stairwells straight to the kitchen. The stone hallway had a steel door at the end. Cole ripped it off like tearing down a curtain.
Dark stairs led down to another steel door. I felt a sense of déjà vu and thought of the Innoviro lab level in Victoria. Only this home had much more history and a darker past than the sewers of BC’s capital. This home’s lower level had been built by a man participating in an actual cult. I pictured the cobra king again and shuddered. What legacy had that creature left behind? What had the creature’s remnants evolved into through the millennia? And how?
We reached the second door and Cole popped it open by ripping the doorknob out of the lock assembly. “Nice that this old house doesn’t have vault-style deadbolts. Those ones are messier.”
The hall was dark and an ambulance-style red light flashed above us. I saw figures ahead, past glass windowed walls. “Josh? Jonah? Faith? Melissa?”
“We’re here. We’ve got her! And that damn snake!” yelled Faith.
Cole and I ran down the hall and my friends’ faces came into focus in the dim red light.
We came level with an open doorway and saw Tatiana, frozen in place behind the barrel of Josh’s tranquilizer gun. She held a smooth metal canister. She wore Chester the snake like a wrap around her back, head on one arm, and tail on the other. I saw Josh’s real gun poking out of the back of his jeans, ready for fatal force.
Melissa held her gun relaxed at her hip. Casey lay flat on his back behind Tatiana. Faith and Jonah glared at Tatiana helplessly. Josh stayed cool and motionless as he kept his gun pointed at Tatiana. Cole stood beside me, both of us poised to strike.
“Give us the canister and we’ll leave you alive,” said Josh.
I knew he was lying, but did Tatiana?
“You think this is the last canister? Kill me or don’t. We’ve already sent Terra Nova to the final launch site. From there, we’ll distribute globally. So make your move. Shoot.”
“We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to make sure we’re not killing variants. You showed that same restraint in San Francisco. Why not hold off on launching Terra Nova? We can re-evaluate The Compendium and work together on creating space for variants and humans.” Josh eyed her over the barrel of his gun.
He tried to keep her talking, but I couldn’t understand why. I tried to will the canister from her hands telekinetically. It moved, but Tatiana held on tight. I tried again. Her grip was too strong for me.
“We wanted to preserve variant life, where possible. In your case it seems it is no longer possible. With the exception of Ivan’s children. You, we need.” Tatiana glowered at me with malice in her eyes.
“Where is the final launch site?” Melissa asked impatiently.
“You didn’t need our help to find Soho or Chatham Park. Why should I spoon-feed you anything more?” Tatiana spit the word ‘spoon’ with contempt.
“How many other test sites are there? Where are your secondary introduction points?” Josh impressed me with his calm restraint.
I, on the other hand, felt as though my head and heart were about to explode.
“This is getting boring. You have one shot and two targets. I suggest you put me down and play with Chester. Then again, it is a risk. You don’t know what either the snake or I am capable of, do you? Or you could let us pass and cut your losses.” Tatiana smiled a dark green grin.
“Cut our losses?” screamed Jonah. “You killed every human being on this property. The contagion may still spread after help arrives. You might have introduced the virus already! You’re an evil bitch! You and Ivan and your psychotic Compendium partners all deserve to die!”
“That’s a valid point. If you want to stop the spread of the virus here in England, you should probably have your little friend here burn this estate to the ground.”
Josh glanced up from his gun for a moment to better assess Tatiana. He made his choice and lifted the gun back to eye level. Josh fired and a dart hit Chester the snake in his meaty neck. The snake reared and then dropped to the ground.
Tatiana pulled seeds from her pocket and in one fluid motion breathed life into a torrent of vines that burst out at all of us.
Josh and Melissa were knocked to the ground and covered in a thick blanket of foliage. Tatiana broke into a sprint and tore off down the hall
ahead. A wall of wiry branches and thick leaves sprang up and blocked the rest of us from following her.
Cole tore through the vine wall and Faith reached out to shoot a thick stream of fire after Tatiana. It was too late. Her pounding footfalls faded away. Cole ripped the thick vine bonds off of Josh and Melissa.
“We can’t let her get away!” said Melissa.
“She’s right. We need to contain this site. They may have found out we were here and rushed the test. Or maybe we got here too late. Either way, Faith, if you don’t torch this place, the pandemic could start here.” Jonah had a firm grip on Faith’s arm, giving her a hard do-this-now stare.
“Get everybody out to the van. Or I’m the only one that’s going to survive this.” Clasping her hands, Faith stretched her arms overhead.
She thrust fire around the lab until a hot orange flame consumed the entire room. Casey and Chester lay motionless on the ground as their bodies caught fire. A lone canister on the back counter caught fire and exploded hot blue liquid.
The liquid transformed to bees mid-air, catching fire as they flew in frenzy around the room.
“Go! Now!” she yelled.
“Get upstairs! We’ll cut Tatiana off in the woods!” said Josh, already running.
“I’ll go for the van.” Melissa opened a portal, stepped through, and shut it behind her.
The rest of us raced back up the dark stairwell, through the kitchen and out the back door into a sculpted garden with a large koi pond and a fountain at the center.
Several men and women had tried to escape, scrambling out of the building into the garden. They lay in macabre positions near the pruned shrubberies and rosebushes. At the end of the yard a wall of green hedge closed in the back of the property.
Cole reached the hedge first and tore a hole which grew back quickly. Josh joined in and the two started tearing uselessly as the hedge branches clawed into the gaps intertwining again in moments.
Faith caught up with us and I looked back at the house. She had done her job well. She shot fireballs at each of the bodies on the ground.
Jonah beckoned the fountain’s water up into the air and doused the ground and the trees around the house. I hoped his experience keeping Faith in check would still serve us well on this scale.
“Should I take out the hedge too?” cried Faith over the crackling of the house fire and the surging fountain water.
“We can’t risk a forest fire!” shouted Jonah.
“I’ve almost got it!” shouted Cole as he tore another huge hole in the hedge and ripped into the earth pulling out a handful of roots.
Cole’s gap was large enough to run through and I made a break for it. I sensed Jonah and Faith behind me. I turned around to see Cole and Josh bringing up the rear as the hedge grew back behind them.
I caught sight of a path ahead and ran to it. The dirt trail disappeared into the trees in both directions. I saw a flicker of movement on my right and bolted toward it.
The earth crunched as my friends hit the path behind me. Our van rumbled farther back, but I ran toward the movement.
Tatiana’s green-streaked head of hair bobbed between the trees and dropped down out of sight. I ran as hard as I could toward the spot where she disappeared.
I reached a mound with wood shutters flat on the ground and I stopped short. There was no lock, but I paused to puzzle over where the tunnel led. I took a deep breath and placed my hand carefully on the seam between the shutters. I pictured Tatiana’s face and the woods melted away.
I was in the tunnel with her, my view bouncing behind her as she ran through the dark. I forced my perspective ahead and slid like a pulse through the black tunnel. A sudden burst of light blinded me and I stood on a lawn behind the ruined brick chapel from my parents’ honeymoon. Ivan’s face appeared in a space between crumbled walls and disappeared again.
I lifted my hand from the shutter door as the van pulled up behind me. I closed my eyes and showed Ilya what I saw in the tunnel.
“We can beat her to the chapel!” said Ilya.
Cole slid the van’s door open. Ilya peeled out. The van rattled through the narrow forest trail until we burst back out onto the country lane. My brother turned the steering wheel so hard the van flew up on two wheels. Then, it slammed back onto the road with a bang, racing ahead.
“Where are we going?” Faith gripped her seat as she leaned forward.
Ilya swerved to pass around a hatchback and veered back narrowly missing an oncoming sedan.
“Are you trying to get us killed?” said Cole.
“Ivan’s still in town at that ruined chapel. If we beat Tatiana to the church, we’ll catch them both!” I said.
Ilya turned back onto the M56 highway, speeding as he wove through regular traffic.
“We’re going to wind up in a police chase at this rate.” Clearly wishing he was behind the wheel, Josh glowered at Ilya.
“Tatiana has a canister of Terra Nova! And wherever they’re going next, they’ve got more waiting. If we stop them now, the whole Compendium grinds to a halt,” said Ilya over his shoulder.
“We don’t know that for sure,” said Jonah.
“This is our best shot,” I said, pleading, hoping Ilya would stay on target and keep blazing into Chester.
“I so sorry Irina! I had no idea they were cooking up a virus! I should have known. All those people died so horribly. I could have done something. I don’t know what, but something. Tatiana sounded so convincing about helping you—all of you.” Gemma’s plaintive lament wasn’t comforting anyone.
“Kid, save your confession for another day.” Faith scowled at Gemma.
“Cut her some slack.” Cole slapped Faith’s shoulder.
“Stop it, all of you. Ilya heard Tatiana’s thoughts. We’re going on that intel,” said Josh as Ilya cranked the wheel hard again.
Chapter 11
Ilya screeched into the parking lot of the large gothic church. Late afternoon sun glowed on the red brick ruins, exactly as I’d seen them in my vision of my parents’ honeymoon.
We poured out of the van as soon as Ilya lurched to a halt.
“Spread out! There’ll be some kind of shed or shutters or some external door,” I shouted.
“Dad? Dad, are you here?” Ilya ran through the parking lot toward the back end of the church surprising me since my twin rarely used the word ‘Dad’ for Ivan.
I raced after him, Jonah a step behind me. My gut told me Ilya was headed in the right direction.
We rounded the corner and there were the cellar shutters, an exact match for the ones we saw at Chatham Park. They were closed. Ivan and Tatiana were nowhere in sight.
“She couldn’t have beaten us here? Where are they?” I cried desperately.
“I can’t hear either of them. They’re not here,” said Ilya, utterly dejected.
Josh and Cole appeared around the far corner of the church. Faith, Gemma and Melissa were on their heels.
“Where did they go? Irina? Ilya?” said Josh. His tone accused us of something.
“If Ivan went in there and turned Tatiana back, then they returned to Chatham Park,” said Cole.
“Or she did beat us here and they took off already. Even if they were on foot, it wouldn’t take long to disappear from the street,” said Josh.
“Fuck this! Fuck everything to do with this!” screamed Faith.
“Shut up!” I told her. “We don’t need this right now.”
“We’re not at a dead end. We’ve got a telepath and a psychic here,” said Jonah. He took my hand and his energy pulled me back from the brink of panic.
“There’s nothing more I can do,” said Ilya.
“Irina, you can try to see what happened.” Jonah’s tone soothed me, but I still wanted to punch some
thing.
Instead, I closed my eyes and pictured Ivan’s face behind the brick ruins.
A black blink later, I was on a train with Tatiana and Ivan. Ivan’s complexion had faded to pale ashen gray-pink. He had always been pale, but this was different. Death had kissed him, reducing his strawberry blonde hair to near platinum.
“We can’t keep running. The stabilization serum won’t work much longer. You’re taking higher doses more often. It’s time for the transplant.” Tatiana fussed over a blanket on his lap.
He rested, eyes closed. “We’re not ready. Jinhua must do their part and they haven’t even started Phase One.”
“Why don’t we release Terra Nova now? The test was successful. Your children will be much easier to catch once they can’t hide in human society.”
Ivan opened his pale hazel eyes and stared at his sister with bloodshot anger. She met his gaze and broke contact quickly. Ivan resumed his resting position.
“The complexity of The Compendium requires participation of industry and individuals that will be obliterated by Terra Nova. It must be our very last step. My true brothers from my real home cannot thrive here. Variants cannot thrive here. The Compendium can only be achieved if we stay on schedule and keep to our plan.”
“Shall we move on to ground zero?” said Tatiana.
“Yes. And the more we discuss this, the more ammunition you give my daughter.” Ivan turned slightly away from Tatiana to face the window and the countryside.
“We should assume they know everything as it is. Melissa very likely shared The Compendium outline with them. They have all the research, execution, and implementation plans we had in Utah.”
Ivan turned back toward his sister, but instead of meeting her gaze, he found my astral self. His face conveyed rage and for a brief flicker, his pupils flashed the bright red of the cobra king’s eyes.
Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3) Page 8