She didn’t know whether to believe a word he said. ‘Then why do you need the Chimera vector?’
‘I’ll give Cecilia this: she’s really fucking good at what she does.’ Denton held up the empty syringe. ‘I could have a hundred years out of this baby.’
‘So you can continue as the Fifth Column’s lap dog?’ Sophia said.
Denton shook his head. ‘Oh no, not at all. Their plans are doomed to fail. Just like yours. You and everyone else, your revered Cecilia McLoughlin included, have failed to consider every angle, every possibility.’
Sophia needed to get out, consolidate her team and find a way out of the facility and off the island before the missile hit. But she didn’t just want to leave Denton to his own devices.
‘Without me, you’re shooting in the dark,’ Denton said. ‘You don’t have access to every piece of the puzzle.’
‘Neither do you.’
He smiled sweetly. ‘Oh, but I have more pieces than you could ever hope to acquire. I’ve been privy to things your insurgent scientists could only dream of. Like it or not, Sophia, you need me.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘You’re a parasite. Like each and every one of your kind. Even if you kill me, the Akhana won’t rest until your kind are banished for good.’
A vein on Denton’s forehead trembled.
‘Tell me, Sophia, have you ever considered the possibility that maybe I’m not the one who carries the flaws?’ He paced alongside the transparent panel, his hands curled into fists. ‘You see that I’m different, but what you don’t see is that I’m different for a reason. The current state of humanity is defective. Doomed for extinction — not because of me but in spite of me. And after all is said and done, a stronger, smarter, more efficient man shall be born from the ashes to lead civilization.’
He stopped pacing, his gaze locking onto hers. She knew he believed every word he said.
‘I am the Fifth Column’s replacement,’ he said. ‘And the way I see it, I’m not the one with the sick mind. You are. Infected with emotions, mired by conscience, paralyzed by guilt. You’ve been reduced to a shivering strip of meat who dreams of self-worth. It’s pathetic. And somewhere inside you know that, but you refuse to admit it. You can’t admit it, because then you’d have to admit that you, along with the other ninety-four percent of the population, are an evolutionary failure.’
At Sophia’s nine o’clock, a pair of double doors parted. Damien entered the lab.
Ignoring Denton, he said to Sophia, ‘Find Benito and get out of here!’
‘I expected you would’ve run away by now,’ Denton said to him. ‘Isn’t that what you always do?’
‘Not this time,’ Damien said. ‘I’ve been irradiated,’ Damien told Sophia. ‘You need to keep your distance.’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Sophia said. ‘He needs to be stopped.’
‘You’re no good to anyone dead,’ Damien said. ‘Your team needs you.’
Sophia took her other knife from Renée's belt. ‘See you on the other side.’
* * *
Benito held the remaining vials up to the artificial light. It was hard to believe the iridescent blue liquid that swilled inside was the most dangerous — and the most valuable — possession on Earth.
‘Think about what you’re doing.’ A new voice.
‘Oh, right,’ Benito said with faux confidence. ‘The Blue Beret commander with no Blue Berets left to command.’
He turned and found himself staring down the barrel of Major Novak’s submachine gun.
‘Put the vials down carefully,’ Novak said.
‘And then what?’ Benito said. ‘You’ll shoot me? Well, that sounds like a wonderful idea.’
‘Why would I shoot you?’ Novak said. ‘I’m on your side. The Fifth Column are on your side.’ He shook his head, trying for disappointment. ‘You think all we can offer you is a career and a home? We can offer you a life. Survival from worse things to come.’
He stepped further into the room, his cheeks flushed red. His broad nose cast a shadow that concealed his lips. ‘Sophia has clouded your judgment, can’t you see that? I’m giving you one more chance to do the right thing. Put the vials on the floor. Slowly. You have to understand that if they fall into inexperienced hands, it could undo everything we’ve done for the human race.’
‘That’s exactly what Sophia plans to do,’ Benito said.
Novak’s thick eyebrows lifted a fraction. ‘But is that what you want to do?’
He didn’t have an answer. Allying with the Akhana, with Sophia, Cecilia and her band of renegade scientists, was the moral choice. But he couldn’t escape the fact that allying with the Fifth Column, regardless of whether or not he condoned their practices, was the wise choice. The Akhana couldn’t guarantee his survival. But the Fifth Column could. At least for as long as they needed him.
‘I know you want to do the right thing, Doctor,’ Novak said. ‘Join us and we shall lead humanity through the dark—’
The side of Novak’s face exploded. He slumped forward, rolling onto his bloated abdomen.
Jay limped into view from the east entrance of the Sequencing lab. He continued without breaking his stride, one hand over a bloodstained stomach.
‘Jay!’
Sophia’s voice. It came from the west entrance. Benito looked over to see her running towards them. She slowed down and he saw that one of her arms was glazed with blood from the recent shocktrooper encounter.
She stopped short. ‘Are you hurt?’ she asked Jay. ‘Where’s Nasira?’
Jay looked at her wounded shoulder. ‘Speak for yourself.’ He stood unnervingly still. ‘Nasira’s dead. Tell me where Damien is. Right now.’
‘In there, with Denton.’ Sophia pointed the way she had come. She looked at the vials in Benito’s hand. ‘What are they?’
‘The Chimera vector,’ Benito said. ‘The anti-psychopath one.’
‘How?’ Sophia said. ‘How did you get it?’
‘I hacked into the computers. The codes were still floating about in the RAM.’
‘The what?’ Jay looked confused.
‘Residual memory.’ Benito turned back to Sophia. ‘What happened to Denton? Did you… you know, stop him?’
Sophia shook her head. ‘Long story.’ She snatched the vials from Benito’s hand and offered them to Jay.
‘No way,’ Jay said. ‘I don’t want to end up sterile.’
‘That only works on psychopaths, or women carrying the psychopath gene,’ Sophia said. ‘Inject it. Give the other to Damien. Trust me, you’ll need it.’
‘Damien’s already been injected,’ Benito said. ‘Otherwise the radiation would have killed him in a matter of hours.’
‘Radiation?’ Jay said. ‘Is he OK?’
‘He will be now,’ Benito said.
Sophia pulled the cap off the needle and extended it towards Jay. Jay didn’t hesitate. He offered the inside of his elbow and Sophia injected. When she was done, she stepped back, risked a glance in Benito’s direction, then nodded at Jay. ‘Go.’
* * *
Sophia walked towards Benito. He stood there, seemingly in a daze. He must have heard her approach but didn’t acknowledge her. She stopped short, realizing she had no words for him.
‘Have you seen Nasira?’
That was Lucia’s voice. Sophia turned to see her enter from the east. She stopped just short of Novak’s rotund body.
‘Where have you been?’ Sophia said.
‘Buying you some time, keeping shocktroopers distracted,’ Lucia said, out of breath.
‘Jay didn’t tell you when he came through?’
Lucia shook her head. ‘I didn’t see him.’
‘Nasira’s dead,’ Sophia said.
Lucia clenched her fists. ‘We have to go. I’m counting seven minutes until the missile hits.’
‘What about Damien and Jay?’ Sophia said.
‘They have the Chimera vectors. If anyone can stop Denton, it’s them. There’s nothi
ng we can do for them now.’
Sophia shook her head. ‘I can’t leave them behind.’
‘If we stay, we all die,’ Lucia said. ‘But if we go, you have the chance to save some of us.’
Chapter Forty-Six
The closer Damien drew to Denton, the more he felt as though some part of him was being siphoned away. At first, he thought it was his eyes playing tricks on him. Denton seemed younger. The fine wrinkles in his face, around his mouth and eyes, had disappeared. He seemed at least a decade younger.
He’d injected both Chimera vectors.
Damien came to a halt right before him, only the almost invisible panel of aluminum oxynitride separating them.
Denton cemented his stance, his lips parting in curiosity. ‘It seems all of your efforts have been in vain.’
‘Not all of them.’
Damien held up an empty syringe, the one Benito had given him, and watched the color drain from Denton’s smooth, regenerated face.
He tossed the syringe aside, then placed the palm of his hand on the panel that divided them. He was in the emerald grass of the olive grove, the sky warming him from above. Denton stood in the grass on the other side.
He focused. The aluminum oxynitride sheet fractured into a million pieces.
They stood squared off, twenty feet apart.
Damien heard Jay’s footsteps and looked over his shoulder. ‘You made it.’
* * *
‘Always.’ Jay raised his pistol at Denton.
Denton rolled his eyes. ‘It’s unfortunate that you’ve chosen to betray me after all I’ve done for the both of you,’ he said. ‘I can only imagine the iconoclastic brainwashing techniques Sophia employed to draw you into her cult. I suppose you blame me for the brainwashing. One among many of her colorful conspiracy theories.’
‘We’re both injected,’ Damien said. ‘Benito was kind enough to put his cryptanalyst skills to good use.’
‘Nothing like “residual memory” to even the odds, right?’ Jay said. ‘Benito hacked into your computers, grabbed the Chimera thingie from the SLAM.’
‘RAM,’ Damien said. ‘He means RAM.’
Denton smiled. ‘As children, the two of you showed every promise of becoming valuable assets. I’m not quite sure what spurred you to do it, but, to my own surprise, I am willing to overlook your betrayal …’
He took one step closer. A little too close for Jay’s liking.
‘… if you consider what will be my only offer.’
‘You’re in no position to be making offers,’ Jay said. He tasted the roof of his mouth. The only fear he could detect was Damien's.
Denton checked his watch. ‘You’re in no position to be declining them. We have six minutes before the bunker-buster bomb hits. If we die here, now, fighting over the same thing, that would be regrettable. And pointless. I’d like to think it possible for us to work together to achieve a common cause. Every resistance throughout history has failed,’ he said, ‘until now.’
He turned away.
What the hell was that, Jay thought. He projectile vomits his disappointed parental speech and then just fucks off? Screw that.
He aimed his pistol at Denton’s head. His hands were trembling. He dropped his aim slightly, to Denton’s back. He couldn’t do it. Not yet. He needed to know.
‘What common cause could we possibly have?’ he said.
Denton looked over his shoulder. ‘Dismantling the Fifth Column.’
He manually opened a pair of glass doors and exited the lab. His confidence was starting to piss Jay off. He raised his pistol again.
‘Don’t think I won’t shoot you!’ he yelled.
Denton laughed and called back, ‘That wouldn’t be a good idea.’
Damien seized Jay’s shooting arm. ‘What are you doing?’
Jay didn’t look away, kept the back of Denton’s brain stem in his sights. ‘I’m about to kill him.’
‘No, you’re not,’ Damien said. ‘I want answers.’
‘To what?’
‘To us!’ Damien yelled. ‘What happened to us, our families. Everything that happened.’ He pointed to the open glass doors. ‘I don’t want to admit this any more than you do, but if anyone can really give us that, it’s him.’
‘What about Sophia?’
‘She doesn’t know what Denton knows.’
Damien ran towards the glass doors.
‘Shit,’ Jay said, and chased after him.
They found themselves at the bottom of a narrow flight of stairs that ascended to a closed door.
‘Come on!’ Damien yelled at Jay.
They climbed the stairs and kicked the door open. They were in the aircraft hangar, the same access door they’d used in the past for debriefs.
He saw Denton making for the row of high-speed Piasecki X-49 Speedhawk helicopters. He couldn’t see any Blue Berets. Or shocktroopers. Or aircraft pilots. There were only three Speedhawks. Had Sophia taken one already?
Together, he and Damien ran to catch up, slowing as they reached Denton. He was already in the cockpit, strapping on his flight helmet.
‘Do you even give a shit that we could kill you right now?’ Jay yelled.
‘Don’t just stand there, for Christ’s sake,’ Denton said. ‘We have three minutes. Get in.’
Damien took Jay’s pistol and stepped closer, aiming at Denton’s head. ‘We want our records. From Project GATE.’
‘Help me find the General,’ Denton said. ‘And the records are yours.’
Chapter Forty-Seven
Rotor blades sliced the air ahead. Sophia slowed her sprint as she reached the two Piasecki X-49 Speedhawks. They had thin lifting wings on either side that reminded her of dorsal fins on a fish. The tail sported a vectored-thrust ducted propeller that looked like an oversized fan. Maximum speed: 167 miles per hour. If anyone could hot-rod a helicopter, it would look something like this. And just as well. It was probably the only thing that had a chance of getting them clear in time.
Damien and Jay were nowhere to be seen. She realized they weren’t going to make it.
Lucia was already in the pilot’s seat of the closest Speedhawk, her helmet on. Sophia turned to see Benito farther away than she’d thought. The hangar roof above was already open. She climbed up into the cargo hold.
‘Faster!’ she shouted at Benito.
He slowed to a halt. ‘I’m not going with you.’
‘You don’t have any choice!’ she yelled. ‘Get in!’
He started for one of the other, slower helicopters. ‘I have a pilot’s license. I can fly my—’
‘Those helicopters are too slow. We don’t have time.’ She aimed Renée’s pistol at his face. ‘Get in now.’
‘Or what?’
‘Or I will shoot you.’
Benito swallowed, then began to climb in. She holstered her pistol and offered her working hand to help him, but he ignored it. She yelled for Lucia to go, then held on as the Speedhawk rose sharply towards the hangar roof.
‘Hang on!’ Lucia shouted over the noise of the rotor blades.
The Speedhawk ascended faster than Sophia had expected. Benito was half in, hands clawing for something to hold onto. She leaped forward, sliding on her stomach, and seized his wrist just in time. The Speedhawk was out of the hangar. The humid air hit her, then rushed out of her lungs as she was slammed flat onto her chest.
As the Speedhawk shot skyward, she held onto Benito’s wrist to stop him falling out. His eyes were wide and his hands searched for something to cling to. There was only her arm. He seized it.
She slid herself further forward and snatched whatever she could grab — the back of his collar — and tried to haul him inside. He managed to crawl up to his stomach. She only had one hand as leverage. With her wounded shoulder, she didn’t have the strength to pull him in.
Past his head, she could see Desecheo Island below. She guessed they were about thirty floors high off the island. Something glinted in the sunlight. She watched i
t disappear into the center of the island with the sound of rumbling thunder.
The bunker-buster bomb.
She held her breath. They were still too goddamn close.
Lucia shouted something, but Sophia couldn’t make out what she was saying.
Again, she tried to pull Benito in. She gripped the back of his blood- and sweat-stained singlet. It tore from her grasp. She reached further down, her fingers wrapping over his belt. An instant later, he was lying beside her, hands sprawled across the slippery floor.
Below them, the island disappeared into a cloud of iridescent white. Then the Speedhawk shuddered, knocking her right over Benito and out of the helicopter. The white cloud trembled, and a thin white halo spread out below her as she fell. She could see the ocean ripple in its wake.
Frantically, she hooked both arms around Benito’s right leg. Her brain rattled inside her skull as she went from headfirst to upright. Without warning, the Speedhawk lurched sideways, nearly tearing her free. It felt like the helicopter was a lure on a giant fishing line that was being cast out to sea at phenomenal speed.
She hung on. Her shoulder wanted to tear away from her body. About 200 yards below her, through squinted eyes, she saw the shockwave shredding the island apart. An unbearable heat smothered her, forcing her to close her eyes.
In her mind’s eye, she saw Leoncjusz smile as he held up a ruby-colored Christmas ornament. My mother calls these bombka.
She opened her eyes. It felt like her grip around Benito’s leg was slipping. He was hanging off the side of the Speedhawk’s cargo-hold doorway again, and this time his grip looked worse than hers.
The shockwave faded. Their sideways slingshot had ended. Miraculously, the helicopter was still upright. Lucia stabilized it.
Sophia was dangling below Benito, one arm wrapped around his ankle and a fifty-level drop to the Caribbean below. Every muscle in her body was on fire. Light danced across her vision. She no longer had any feeling in her hands, feet or even her face. Everything felt numb. She felt numb.
Benito managed to pull himself further in. Sophia reached out to grip the edge of the doorway. With her weight off him, he was able to drag himself inside. She hauled herself in after him and shut the door. Collapsing on one of the seats, she closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, hoping the tears wouldn’t come. The pain in her shoulder returned with a vengeance, stealing the breath from her. She could barely think, let alone speak.
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