“Wait,” Phoe said, laying a hand on his arm. “What is that?”
“What is what?”
“The stuff in that vial. What will it change me into?”
Manning laughed. It was a maniacal, mad scientist laugh that made Phoe want to jump to her feet and run, IV be damned. “I have no idea.”
“What?” she shrieked. “What do you mean you have no idea?”
“When I spliced Cage, I was just beginning to understand how it all worked. I had no idea how it was going to affect him. And I still don’t understand why it reacted with him so strangely.”
Phoe almost laughed at his crazed excitement. He was enjoying telling her about the process. As if he’d been keeping his secrets inside but had been bursting to tell someone. “You see, we’ve isolated the alien genome and found that it reacts differently with human body chemistry. I have no idea why Cage can change at will to whatever he likes, but Eve can only inhabit the dragon.”
“You’re so reassuring Dr. Manning.”
“I just want to be truthful.”
Phoe took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She thought back to Eve’s story about the assassin who wouldn’t die. Would she be invincible like that? Would it make her insane as it had nearly made Cage? Would she be a psychopath like Eve?
“This is crazy but just do it. Do it and get it over with.”
“You must understand, Phoe. Whatever form you choose, you’ll have both the strengths and weaknesses. I’m not sure how it will affect your aging process. And I’m not sure how well you’ll be able to control the shifting. Are you certain you want to do this?”
“What choice do I have?” Phoe asked.
Manning nodded and dropped the vial into the bubble. “This is going to be cold. And probably a little uncomfortable.”
Phoe watched as the red, viscous serum swirled into the clear liquid. With one twist of the mechanism at the base of the sphere, the solution began to flow into her veins. It wasn’t uncomfortable at first, then it grew colder until it became a full-body ice cream brain freeze. When it turned into thousands of burning shards tearing through her veins, Phoe groaned.
“Just relax, Phoe,” Manning said. “I should have put you to sleep before, but there wasn’t time. Don’t fight it.”
“What have you done to me?” she growled.
Suddenly every muscle in her body was tight, pulling at the tendons until she was arching against the bonds that held her to the table. A sensation like nothing she’d ever experienced tore into her midsection. She screamed, squinting against the pain. Her heart pounded hard against her sternum, and for a moment she was quite sure that whatever this was would rip her in two.
She tried to focus on Cage’s and Jess’s faces. They were the only reasons she would survive this. Even if Cage had only been using her, she loved him. God help her, she did.
“You have to focus, Phoebe,” Manning coaxed. “Your heartbeat is elevated. Just breathe.”
He stood over her with some large device that looked like a cell phone. He waved it over her body, taking readings, looking concerned. The pain was intense, but it seemed far away. The cold serum must have begun to take hold to her cells, and as they regenerated, the heat inside her body rose as if she were on fire from the inside. Any moment she felt sure she would burst into flames, yet she was somehow outside of it, looking down.
“Cage,” she screamed, her body pulling taut once more.
“You’re seizing, Phoebe.”
Almost of its own accord, her body stretched, a gruesome crucifixion on a monument to science. And then, just when she thought she might be pulled apart, she did burst into flames. She could feel the heat, but there was no pain.
A comforting warmth settled around her. She could see the fire all around and the panicked look in Manning’s eyes. He ran, and she heard him breaking glass. She wanted to laugh as she realized he was getting a fire extinguisher.
And then it was over.
20
Jess sat silently at the window, staring down on the Martian surface. Below them, the shuttlecraft that had brought her sister to New London stood like a hulking mechanical beast that guarded the house. Machine’s henchmen were scattered all over the grounds as if they were expecting something to happen. Silently, she cursed Macijah St. John. She’d told him to keep Phoe away from New London at all costs. At this point there was nothing to do except pray that Phoe had left the amulet on Earth.
What the hell had Jess been thinking when she’d sent that amulet to her sister? Phoe was clever, but so completely sheltered from the outside world. Jess’s friends at the IU had assured her that they would get to Phoe and stop her, even if they had to arrest her, but then that St. John bastard had intercepted them. It didn’t matter if Machine killed her; Jess only wanted her sister to be safe and that key as far from Derek Machine as humanly possible.
She hadn’t said much, silently hating Derek as he sat there, smugly tapping away on his phone. He had dispatched a regiment of goons to search Phoe’s belongings for that amulet. They’d picked her up and pretty much anything in the hotel that wasn’t nailed down. So far there hadn’t been any luck and, though Machine sat there sneering through his teeth and barking confident orders, Jess could tell that he was ready to spit nails.
“Sir, you asked for a report.” Jess looked up to see one of the guards, obviously a were, standing in the doorway, filling it with his massive frame.
“Tell me you found the amulet, Carson,” Machine snarled, rising from the couch and walking over to the man. Derek was slight and looked almost miniscule next to the were, but he was definitely not intimidated. In fact, the guard looked afraid of Machine. Apparently he was unaware of the fact that he could easily break his boss in two.
“I’m afraid not, sir. The search continues, but the girl’s belongings are turning up nothing.”
“It must be there,” he hissed. “St. John didn’t have it, so the girl must.”
“But, sir, we went over every inch of that hotel room and every individual item. She had nothing with her.”
“Well, look again,” Machine roared.
Jess jumped at the volume of his voice. Derek was always controlled and unaffected. To hear him raise his voice was frightening. He was getting desperate. At the moment when all of his devious plans were about to come to fruition, he was thwarted. He seemed like a man who’d just realized that everything balanced on the edge of a knife. One wrong step and his house of cards would fall down around him.
“Yes sir,” the guard answered, scurrying through the door like a frightened rat.
“Imbeciles,” Machine grumbled.
“I want to see my sister,” Jess said, rising from her place.
“Get used to disappointment,” he said, going back to his phone.
“You said that I could see her as soon as she got here.”
“Wrong,” he shouted, whirling around so fast that Jess stumbled backward. “I said that you could see her as soon as she handed over the amulet. Do you see the amulet?”
“You’ve got her, Derek. Her and St. John. Just stop this. Let us go, and you can burn the world at your leisure.”
“I’m saving the world,” Machine snarled, turning and going to the window. “For those worthy of living anyway.”
“Worthy? Who gets to decide which of us is worthy? You?”
“That’s the best part, Jessica. They decide for themselves. Face it. The world down there is burning already. The animalistic denizens are already eating one another. Even the cities that have been untouched by The Others are already clanging their death knells into the cosmos. Violence, drugs, greed, they’re symptoms of the inevitable. Only those who care, who are willing to pay for it, get to survive. It’s a culling of the herd, if you like. And with those things in my corner, no one will oppose us.”
“Us?”
“Of course. Myself and Eve. And of course Mr. St. John.” He turned away and began mumbling to himself. “He will prove to be most u
seful.”
“You’re insane. And you’re going to get all of us killed.” She lunged at Machine, tackling him from behind. She beat her fists against his back, actually getting a few hits in before the guards realized what was happening and ran to break it up. “The world will burn. And you’ll burn with it, Derek. You’ll burn too.” She screamed and kicked as the guards pulled her away. Tugging and tearing at his hair and clothes, she was crazed. She wanted a piece of Machine. If she could get away from his oversized puppets, she’d be able to tear him limb from limb until there was nothing left.
“You know, Jessica,” Machine said, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping at the blood on his lip. “I was beginning to tire of you anyway. I had thought that we might be friends. Your genius could be an asset to my little venture, but alas. Some beasts can’t be controlled.” He nodded to the guard who held her tightly. “Take her to the outskirts and put her out of the gates.”
“You can’t do that. The IU will come after me.”
“And when they do, there will be nothing left. The vacuum of space is appropriately named. Always clearing up messes efficiently.”
The guard dragged Jessica down the vast corridors of Machine’s house. He was so intent on his purpose that he didn’t notice the small knife in her palm. There were many tools in an archaeologist’s arsenal. As soon as they were away from everyone, Jess stumbled forward, dropping to her knee and forcing the guard to stumble into her. Using his precarious pose as he tried to catch himself, she simply pulled him against her, driving the knife deep into his side and jerking upward. He gasped, and blood was already gushing from the wound. Jess could feel it running thickly down her arm, and the sharp scent made her gag as she laid him down in the hallway.
“Sorry,” she said, jerking away from him as he reached out for her. Kneeling down, she searched through his jacket, taking his key card and sleek autopistol.
Stepping over him, she began to run down one corridor after another. She had no idea how large the house was. Machine had only allowed her to explore the few rooms that adjoined to the study. She had seen them bring Phoe and St. John in, but once they were inside the house, Jess had lost sight of where they were taken.
Manning had told her that there was a lab in the basement. Perhaps if Machine wanted to use them as some kind of genetic experiment, then they would be held in the lab. Her prayers were answered as she came to a set of stairs that would lead down. She followed them lower and lower into the bowels of Machine’s compound.
“Jesus, who would dig this far down?”
As she approached the base of the staircase, she could smell the pungent odor of the Martian soil. The sulfuric stench was so acidic that it burned her throat. Overhead she could hear the hum of the air vent, pumping oxygen into the underground corridor.
Slowly she crept, keeping close to the wall with her knife poised to strike. Her only hope of overpowering the army of were-creatures was to strike first and viciously.
When she came to the end of the hall, she had to decide left or right. Both sides looked equally daunting: dark and lined with doors. She sighed, hoping that the key card she clutched would open any door. And that whatever was behind the door wouldn’t eat her first.
“Will you choose what’s behind door number one, two, or three?”
Before swiping the key at the first door, she pressed her ear against it, listening. No need to abandon common sense. Hearing nothing, she swiped the card and said a little prayer that the door would open and an alarm wouldn’t go off. Her heart slowed as she heard the locking mechanism click and the whoosh of the oxygen filter blowing out in her face.
Jess crept into the room, keeping to the shadows and her pistol poised as she checked for guards. The room was dim, save for the flickering lights coming from the bank of CCTV screens lining one wall. They were all a mess of static. A dark shape lay huddled on the floor atop what appeared to be a mattress. It made a noise and she dropped to her knee, putting a finger to her lips as if shushing herself.
“Hello?” she rasped, creeping along the floor on all fours. As she got closer, she could see that whatever it was had been chained to the wall behind. “Oh please don’t be an Other,” she whimpered.
“It’s much worse than that I’m afraid,” the heap on the floor answered.
Jess gasped and pointed her gun at him. “Don’t move,” she shrieked.
Cage rose up and rolled his eyes as if to say, “moron.” “I’m afraid the chains make moving nearly impossible, Miss Addison.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I made a deduction. A nervous woman with a gun creeping around in Derek Machine’s cellar. Your complexion suggests that you do a lot of work outdoors, and you have the deep red Martian soil impregnated in the grooves of your shoes. Which means you’ve been digging in the dirt. Like an archaeologist trying to escape from Machine. You could only be Jessica Addison.” He winced in pain as he twisted, trying to sit up straight. “And you look like your sister.”
“That’s clever. Who the fuck are you?” Jess snarled, still pointing the pistol at him.
“Macijah St. John,” he said, offering his hand as best he could.
“Oh shit,” Jess exclaimed, shoving the pistol into the back of her pants and kneeling down to help him. “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize you.”
“It’s fine. Where is Phoe?”
“I was hoping you’d know the answer to that question. I told you not to bring her here.”
“I didn’t really have a choice,” he said with a groan. “They hit me with some kind of sedative on the street in Tulsa, and the next thing I remember is waking up here. I left her at The Mayo Hotel.”
Jess shook her head. “She’s—”
“I know. She’s here in one of the labs. I don’t know what Machine’s going to do to her. We have to find her. Does Machine have the amulet?”
“No. They can’t find it. Do you think Phoe managed to hide it?”
“Possibly. Look, you have to get me out of here. Whatever they’ve given me won’t let me shift.”
“The only person with a key to those cuffs would be Machine and I’m sure as hell not going back there,” Jess said. “I thought you were supposed to be some kind of super spy. Can’t you just pick the lock?”
“With what? Do you happen to have a set of lock picks on you?”
“No.”
“A hairpin?”
“No.”
“Then I’m pretty much just a guy chained to a wall.”
Jess sighed. “I have to go find Phoe. God only knows what will happen to her if we leave her alone in here too long. They could be torturing her for that amulet right now.”
“Don’t be so quick to assume. Phoe’s a clever girl. You don’t give her enough credit.” He tried moving again, but the chains that were locked around his arms only compressed until he was seething with pain. “She’s probably stronger than you or me.”
Jessica chuckled. “Phoe? Phoe Addison? She’s been a scaredy-cat since we were children. I’m amazed she even got here. I suppose I should thank you for that. For saving her life.”
Cage nodded. It was obvious he was completely exhausted. “Not that she needed much saving. She saved my life a few times too, you know.” He shook his head as if trying to clear it. His eyes were cloudy and he couldn’t seem to focus. “What the hell is wrong with me? Machine said that I’d been given a dose of some kind of sedative. It’s meant to control the creatures. Does that mean anything to you?”
“A little. Manning, that geneticist that used to work for the IU—”
“Used to?”
“Yeah. After some industrial snafu, they fired him. Machine brought him to New London about six months ago to work on his project to learn how to control the Others. He’s been able to separate their genetic code and create a splicing sequence that can make humans—”
“Able to shift into an Other?”
It suddenly dawned on Jess. “Like you. O
h my God. You were the reason he was fired.”
“I was.”
“Holy shit. You’re a were. Like one of those things?”
Cage sighed and rolled his eyes. “You’re sure you’re a scientist? I mean, I thought you’d be quick.”
Jess laughed in spite of herself. “Sorry. And cut me some slack. It’s been a rough few days, ya know?” Cage nodded and she took that as contrition. “Anyway, now Manning is working on some kind of drug that will help Machine control the creatures. It can also hold them in stasis indefinitely.”
“Or hinder a shifter’s abilities.” Cage sighed. “I just can’t believe that Oliver would be working for Machine.”
Jess turned away, staring up at the fuzzy static that obscured the monitors in front of them. It wasn’t so long ago that Jess herself couldn’t believe that she’d be working for the likes of Derek Machine. He was a parasite cosplaying as a philanthropist and everyone knew it. Even before she’d gotten mixed up in his game, she’d suspected that he was a psychopathic son of a bitch.
“Everyone here who works for Machine is doing so because he either has something over on them or he’s promised them something. Or they have no other choice.”
“You said Oliver was here. On New London?”
“Yes. Machine sent him down to meet Phoe.”
“I need you to find him. If he’s the one who did this to me, he’s the one who has to fix it. If I can shift, I can get free and we can all get the hell off this planet.”
Jess nodded and left him, taking note of which room he was in. It would be just her luck that she’d find Phoe and not be able to find St. John again. As soon as she got into the hallway, she heard someone shout. She pressed herself against the wall, praying that the shadows would protect her. She waited several seconds, counting down before pushing herself away from the wall and sprinting down the hallway to the next door. Just as she was shoving the key card into the lock, two guards came around the corner.
“Hey. What are you doing down here?” Jess took a deep breath and ran at them. They were surprised by her audacity and for a precious moment they stood still in amazement. It was enough time to shoot one before winding around and clipping the other on the bridge of the nose with the butt of the gun hard enough to hear the bone crack. As both guards lay on the floor moaning, Jess knew that the shot had to have been heard. She’d have to move quickly. Running back to the door, she shoved the key card back into the reader and used all of her force to shoulder through the heavy door.
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