Winter Smith (Book 2): The Secrets of France

by Strange, J. S.

  “Do you know what this could be?” Winter asked, calling David over and showing him the page.

  David snapped a photo before looking at it again. “She’s got a factory in Papua…Interesting. That’s very interesting. See if we can find more stuff like that.”

  They were halfway up the aisles when they heard the door they had come in through open. Hidden in separate cubicles, they ducked down, peering around the corners to see who it could be.

  A man in a dapper suit walked down the aisle Winter was in. His brown, wavy hair was slicked back. His face held on to youth, but he was definitely mid-thirties. A Rolex watch glittered on his wrist and his shoes did not have a seam out of place.

  He stopped, three cubicles away from Winter, and cleared his throat.

  “I know you’re in here.”

  They didn’t respond. Winter felt her heart constrict. They had already been caught.

  “Come out. Let’s have a proper chat,” Maxwell Weiglass said. “I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Cedric opened the plain white door to a labyrinth of glass corridors, sloping around like mazes with different lab departments inside. Missy stepped into the chilling, dimly lit blue room and looked through the glass, at desks with tablets bottled up in brown bottles. “These are the labs?”

  “It takes up a lot of room,” Cedric said, making sure everybody was still with him. “They can be quite disorientating when you’ve been down here for ten hours and you’re tired.”

  “I can imagine,” Missy placed her hand on one of the glass walls. “The doors just blend in, and you can hardly tell where the corridors begin and end.”

  The floors were white, with blue light strips on the edges. They zigzagged away from them, pulsating forwards as if hoping to draw them in.

  “This is where it happened?” Connor breathed. “This is where the zombies were created?”

  “This is it.” Cedric nodded. “The scientists down here developed the virus and injected it in the living. Some were released, which is why it got so out of control. Others turned almost immediately.”

  “Why’s that?” Missy asked.

  “Why’s what?”

  “Why do some people turn instantly, yet others take a while to turn?” Missy asked.

  “William took a little while.” Connor nodded.

  Cedric shook his head. “That’s something we’re not quite sure of. It may just be the way people’s bodies fight a virus, like a common cold.”

  Heidi peered through another hallway, at a body strapped down to a metal table. The skin was painted in make up, as if the body had been preserved for a sick art experiment. “What’s this?”

  “No doubt they’re experimenting on bodies to see if they can reanimate those who die,” Cedric said. “I’d stay away from it in case it does wake up.”

  Heidi stepped backwards.

  “Follow me, and stay close. Not everybody is invited to the celebrations.”

  They walked down the corridors, past glass doors; some misted up with cold air, others completely empty of tables and operation desks.

  As they got further into the labyrinth, they began to see where the more scientific experiments took place. Straight in front of them was a rectangular room. The glass walls were stained with bloody hands, as the dead gathered inside hit it with absent minds.

  “Be careful,” Connor said.

  They got to the corridor and stared straight into the eyes of the dead. The dead on the other side of the glass seemed to sense the living were nearby. They changed their stumbling courses until they faced the glass, all eyeing the people on the other side like they were attractions at a zoo. Missy shivered.

  “Why is it so cold down here?”

  “To preserve any bodies, and to preserve the experiments,” Cedric said. “The virus was made under room temperature.”

  “Guys, come and look at this,” Heidi said.

  She was stood away from the rectangular box that held the dead, and was instead looking into a room next to it, also made of glass, only thicker. Inside were desks littered with drawings of the dead. Computer monitors displayed graphics of muscles and movements, a chart fluctuating what looked like heart beats every couple of seconds.

  “I didn’t know the zombies had hearts.”

  “They do, but they don’t beat,” Cedric said. “That will be monitoring either their breathing, or their muscle deterioration.” Cedric peered at the blue tangled line as it jumped. “I think that would be their breathing. They still breathe air, but nobody is sure if they need it.”

  “Fascinating,” Heidi said.

  A thump on the glass made them all jump. Missy let out a shriek and grasped Connor’s arm. A woman with a torn dress licked the glass, her eyes glaring into Missy’s.

  “I always attract the weird ones.” Missy’s wavering voice gave away her fear.

  “Let’s get away from this bit. I don’t like it,” Cedric urged.

  “What are we looking for?”

  “Any papers on the research of the dead, or the creation of the virus.” Cedric turned the corner and traced his fingers along the glass, trying to find a door so he could get into the observation room Heidi had found. “Anything that may look useful.”

  He stopped and pushed. A glass door opened. He entered the room and the others followed.

  They passed hung up laboratory coats, and ID passes. Missy peered at one and read the name ‘Igor Avanka.’ She looked at others and inspected nationalities. “It seems V recruits anyone.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Cedric nodded, heading to one of the tables, his eyes on the dead in the observation box. “She’ll employ a lot of people from all over. It’s her way of getting that one world government, that one world nationality.”

  “She wants to change nationalities?” Missy asked, dropping the ID and heading towards the desk.

  “She does indeed. Something like that does not matter to her.”

  “But that’s how wars started,” Heidi said. “People fought over their land for the right to be English or Scottish.”

  “Exactly, and it will only happen again.”

  Connor stared out at the other glass compartments, looking into the distance. “Get whatever you can get and leave. There is a small flashing red light over there which I don’t like the look of.”

  Cedric stood behind Connor, holding a document in his hand. “Shit. CCTV. I bet somebody is watching that right now.”

  “Then our cover is already blown?” Heidi asked.

  Cedric pointed to his left, at nothing in particular. “Get as many papers as you can get from this room, so we can learn about the dead, and let’s get out of here.”

  “What about the other labs? Documents on how the virus is created? Maybe even how it is monitored?”

  “We can’t get that. Not when we’re being watched.”

  “We’ve made it this far,” Connor said, and turned and walked out of the room.

  Cedric chased after him, leaving Missy and Heidi to gather papers. “Where are you going?”

  “Further in. I want to find the rooms where they created the virus.”

  Cedric sighed. “Follow me. Girls!”

  Cedric didn’t wait. He kept walking, and the others hurried after him. Missy dropped two loose papers but didn’t go back for them. They opened the door to another laboratory, where there were two blood stained operation tables.

  “If there is going to be anything on the creation of the virus, it will be in these rooms.” Cedric pointed to models of DNA. “This is where the virus happened.”

  Missy shivered again. “In this very room?”

  “This very room.”

  “Creepy.”

  “What was your involvement in the virus?” Heidi asked Cedric.

  All eyes were on him. Cedric sighed, his fingers clutching the document in his hands. “I didn’t create it. I just distributed it. At first, they told us it was a vaccination against the cold.
Most of us believed it, believing we had a huge breakthrough. But then we saw what happened to the people that came in. We thought at first they were side effects, but we quickly learnt V had created something dangerous. That’s when I got out, because I knew this wasn’t the place to be. This wasn’t the side to be on.”

  “Did you feel awful, when you realised?”

  Cedric nodded. “I lost a lot of things because of a virus I helped get out there.”

  “You didn’t know.”

  “I should have known better.”

  “It’s done now.” Connor shrugged. He folded papers and placed them in his pocket. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

  Before Cedric could answer, alarms rang out around them. The blue lights dimmed, casting them all in darkness, before red lights replaced them. Missy looked at red faces of fear.

  “What the hell is that?” Connor gasped.

  They headed out of the lab, and into the corridors. Through the glass, now darker than they were before, they could see shadows moving.

  “Shit,” Cedric hissed. “Shit! The Blitzers are here.”

  Blitzers ran down the corridors, turning swiftly, months of working the glass corridors giving them security in their surroundings.

  “Come quietly and we won’t shoot!” A voice shouted. The Blitzers stared at them through the glass.

  “Run!” Cedric screamed.

  They bolted, turning their backs on the Blitzers. The alarms blared in their ears, ringing shrilly. Bullets fired and glass shattered around them. Over the sounds of the alarms came the groans of the dead.

  The observation room had been compromised. The dead were free.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Winter stepped out from her cubicle and looked at the man before her. He failed to hide his recognition. His smiled widened as he observed her. “I know there are more.”

  “Please, tell me who you are,” Winter spoke.

  Maxwell Weiglass stepped forwards. Winter held up her hand and he stopped. He shook his head. “I’m not here to harm you.” He held up his hands. “Look, I’m unarmed. I just want to know why you are here.”

  “I was invited.”

  “Please, get your other friends out here.”

  Winter said nothing, but from behind her she heard her friends step out into the open. David came up next to her.

  “Maxwell.”

  Maxwell smiled warmly. “David!”

  “You know him?” Winter asked.

  “Everyone knows him,” David said. “Winter, this is the man who funded the apocalypse.”

  Maxwell kept his smile. He looked at Winter as if expecting congratulations. Instead, he got a blank stare. “He’s just as bad as her.”

  “Now, Winter, please,” Maxwell said. “I’m here to talk to you.”

  “I don’t want to speak to you.” Winter eyed the boring office room, trying to work out an escape route. There was nobody else in here. Maybe he had really come unarmed. She eyed the only door that had an escape. What if Blitzers waited outside for them?

  “Let me introduce myself and explain why I am here,” Maxwell said. “Maybe then you will trust me, and at least speak to me. I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make you aware of what you’re facing.”

  Violet stepped behind Winter and whispered in her ear. “Maybe we should listen.”

  Winter sighed. She eyed Maxwell. “Prove to me you haven’t got any weapons.”

  Maxwell took off his suit jacket and shook it. Nothing fell out. He turned the pockets inside out. He then did the same to his trouser pockets. “I do invite you to come and feel me up and down, like a security guard at an airport, but I promise you I am unarmed.”

  Winter nodded. “Speak. We don’t have much time.”

  Maxwell let out a small chuckle. “My, my, you really are feisty. Bring out some chairs. Let’s sit down.”

  “This isn’t story time,” Violet hissed. “Tell us why you’re here.”

  Maxwell nodded. “Fine. I’m Maxwell Weiglass, and like David says, I fund V’s regime.”

  “Weiglass?” Zach asked. “You’re like the Rothschild family, aren’t you? You own a lot of banks. You’re very wealthy.”

  Maxwell laughed. “The Rothschilds are poor compared to my wealth.”

  Violet let out an exasperated sigh. “Money doesn’t define you.”

  “But it makes my life a lot easier. I helped V bring her creation and vision to life. I’m like her creative director, in some respects. I watched her idea flourish under my budgets, and I watched her establish a new world order that I felt very strongly about.”

  “A new world order led by the dead?”

  “Oh, the dead are only temporary.” Maxwell explained. He brushed it off as if the dead were nothing but a small dot on society, as if they hadn’t ruined lives and families. “They’re a creation to ruin the world as it once was. It would have been much harder to establish a new world order if there was no world disaster. We had to get rid of the separate governments, the separate rules that only existed to turn humans against one another. We had to create the dead to get rid of the weak, who have no place in the new running.”

  “You’re sick,” Winter replied.

  Maxwell chuckled again; only this time there was no warmth. “We are not. We know what it takes to make the world a better place, so that is exactly what we did. If it weren’t for me, yes, this would have never happened. After all, it’s not what you know, it is who you know.”

  Maxwell turned to one of the office compartments and disappeared inside. Winter considered running, but she knew it would be no use. He may not have weapons, but she knew he was stronger than her. He returned, rolling a chair behind him, and sat down in the middle of the hallway.

  “Please, take a seat, you’re making me uncomfortable.” When nobody moved, Maxwell resigned to the fact he would have to talk to them standing above him. He leaned back in his chair. “You shouldn’t have come tonight.”

  “Why not?” David asked.

  “I’m surprised to see you here.” Maxwell admitted. “After you betrayed V, you become top of her list to kill.”

  “Betrayed?”

  “David was supposed to be helping release the headlines V wanted to be released. If you had come here and had moved in to one of the camps for the survivors, you would have had a very different experience to life in Paris.”

  “We would have?” Winter asked.

  “Oh, yes.” Maxwell nodded. “The newspapers and media sources are all controlled by V. Headlines tell those who trust her that protestors are responsible for the broken houses and the graffiti on the walls. Headlines tell people that V is trying to rebuild an economy, but terrorists and fanatics are stopping her from doing so. People swallow it so quickly, because people want their lives back.”

  “But really she isn’t trying to rebuild a thing,” Zach said.

  “Right you are. Though, you’re also wrong. She’s rebuilding what is sure to be a better living standard. A better way of life. The new world order is what we need.”

  “The new world order is flawed,” Violet snapped. “She’s outnumbered by her own creation.”

  “Alas, that may be true,” Maxwell said. “It’s something she will have to deal with, yes. But the truth is that the new world order is one that V has taken on, and one she must complete. We will never have the old world back.”

  “So why shouldn’t we have come?” Winter asked. “We were invited?”

  Maxwell grinned. “An invite isn’t always a good thing to have. You see V invited you here under the pretence of reconciliation. The truth is, many people here will be killed tonight. Don’t ask me how, because I don’t know. But this is V’s way of taking out those who oppose her. The people downstairs are not her friends. They’re her enemies. You will not be allowed out of here tonight. You were allowed in so easily because you had to be. She wants you dead, and because you’re here, I’m afraid you will be killed.”

  Zach swayed
where he stood. “Why are you telling us this?”

  “Because I believe in chances,” Maxwell said, leaning forwards. “I believe that only the strong can survive. And until now, you have evaded V and proved that you are strong. So I think you all deserve a chance to get out of here and survive. So I’m telling you, to let you know that you can at least try to escape.”

  “Bullshit,” Violet snapped.

  “Who knows V best?” Maxwell asked. “Myself, or some washed up hooker?” Violet gasped. She stepped forwards, but Winter grabbed her, stopping her from attacking. Maxwell laughed. “That’s right. I know about every single one of you in this room. I know about every single one of you in The Union. Did you know you were being betrayed?”

  “How do you know about us?” Zach questioned.

  Maxwell peered at Zach. “You have a brother and a sister.”

  “I…I had them, yes. In London. Back home. But now…”

  “They’re called Charlie and Charlotte. Am I correct?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Am I correct?”

  “Yes.”

  Maxwell looked at Winter. “Your father is currently being prepared for his assassination. Your mother has been hidden. Your grandfather raped you. Am I correct?”

  Winter said nothing. Where was her father?

  Maxwell took her silence as confirmation. He looked at Violet. “Your poor mother died crippled, and your brothers didn’t stand a chance. You spent your life on the streets and in the beds of men you didn’t know. You dream of being an artist, but you won’t survive to be one. Am I correct?”

  Violet broke out of Winter’s slack grip and slapped Maxwell around the face. He laughed, but stopped when Violet hit him again. He raised his own clasped fist but David launched himself forwards, pushing Maxwell to the ground.

  They wrestled on the ground, Maxwell pushing David to the side and getting on top of him. A glint of a knife caught the light and David let out a scream.

  Winter ran forwards as the only door leading into the room opened. Winter tried to get the blood stained knife off Maxwell, but he cut her arm. She stepped back as bullets fired into Maxwell.