Day of Doom

by David Baldacci

  Isabel glanced at her men. They were eyeing one another nervously. She looked back at Atticus. “So you’re saying that he plans to destroy the part of the Earth where we are right now? But he’s here! I know he is. How does that make sense? He’ll die, too.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe he’s suicidal. Ever think of that possibility?”

  Isabel hissed like a snake and glanced at her men once more. They were all taking steps back.

  “What are you doing?” she snapped. “Don’t listen to him. He’s only a child.”

  The men turned and ran flat out.

  “Come back! Come back!”

  Before she could make another move, her men were out of sight.

  She looked down at Atticus and shook him hard. “You fool. You did that on purpose. And now you’ve cost me my henchmen.”

  “I just wanted you to be fully informed as to the conditions on the ground. So, are you going to stick around for the big boom?”

  “Idiot boy. I —”

  Atticus shrieked and pointed. “Vesper One! There!”

  Isabel didn’t look that way. “Do you really think I’m that stupid?”

  Atticus slipped one hand inside his pocket. A second later the sounds of an MP5 machine gun blasted through the tunnels.

  Isabel ducked, rolled, and pulled a large gun from her coat pocket.

  When she got back to her feet, Atticus was gone.

  She had no idea that Dan had told Atticus exactly how he had fooled Isabel and her henchmen back in DC. Or that Atticus had loaded that same sound track on his phone and engaged it by pushing a button when he’d slipped his hand in his pocket. That tactic had just paid huge dividends.

  She heard his footsteps running away, but with all the tunnels here, it was impossible to determine in which direction he’d gone. But she didn’t need him, anyway. However, what he had told Isabel had been valuable. To think that the idiot Vesper One would even contemplate such a thing. But it couldn’t be true, could it? It was one thing to beat the Cahills and rule the world. It was a very different thing to destroy the world entirely.

  I live here, too.

  She looked down at the knapsack she’d been carrying. It belonged to that simpering Dan Cahill. She smiled. If she had figured correctly, it was more than worth its weight in gold. All her little texts under the name of Arthur Josiah Trent to his adoring, gullible son were about to pay off.

  She opened the knapsack and dug through it.

  It took her a minute, but she found it.

  She held up the silver flask.

  The serum.

  Finally. She had it.

  And with it she perhaps had a way to win after all.

  “Oooff,” Jake exclaimed as he turned a corner and ran hard into something. The “something” fell backward and Jake landed on top of it.

  “Atticus!”

  Jake quickly lifted his little brother up and dusted him off as the others gathered around.

  Jake hugged Atticus so hard his brother gasped in pain.

  “Att, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you alive again.”

  “Well, if you keep squeezing him that hard, he might not stay alive,” pointed out Sinead.

  Jake let him go and stepped back, a broad grin on his face.

  “How did you get away, Att?” asked Dan.

  “Just a little misdirection,” he said, obviously pleased with himself. Just then, Atticus seemed to notice the others. He flashed a huge smile. “You guys got away, too!”

  Evan nodded. “We split up. Fiske took four others and headed out in another direction. I hope they’re okay.”

  Atticus smacked knuckles with Phoenix and smiled shyly at Natalie, who had regained a little of her haughtiness and didn’t smile at him.

  “So, what do we do now?” asked Jake.

  Amy looked around. “Preferably hook up with the others, locate the Doomsday device, and somehow disable it.”

  “That’s a lot to ask for,” said Hamilton.

  “Go big or go home,” declared Dan.

  Atticus looked at him. “Isabel has your knapsack.”

  Dan’s features clouded. Amy gazed at him worriedly.

  Hamilton caught this look.

  “Something we need to know? What’s in Dan’s knapsack?”

  Amy stared at Dan but said nothing.

  Dan sighed. “The serum.”

  “What!” exclaimed the former hostages in unison.

  Jake looked accusingly at Amy. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  Ian said, “So, our mother finally has the serum. She’ll take it. And when she does, there will be no stopping her.”

  “Maybe,” said Amy. “But maybe we won’t want to stop her.”

  They all stared at her.

  “How exactly does that make sense?” asked Evan.

  “Oh, it makes a lot of sense from a historical perspective,” replied Amy. “But we don’t have time to sit here and debate this. We have to find the others. And we have to do it fast.”

  Jake said, “She’s right. Come on.”

  They ran hard down several corridors, turning left at some and right at others.

  Every once in a while Amy would look down at her phone-app compass. It had worked pretty well before, despite their being inside a mountain. But now it was jumping all over the place.

  Something was coming. She wondered if it could be stopped. Maybe it was already too late.

  They reached a broad passageway, far wider than any of the others they had encountered. Amy stopped and said, “Let’s take a minute and get our bearings.”

  “Look,” exclaimed Dan.

  They all stared at where he was pointing.

  Jake said, “It’s a door. First one we’ve seen.”

  “It’s a big door,” added Atticus, staring up at the ten-foot-high wooden portal.

  Sinead stepped forward. “Well, instead of standing here gawking at it, perhaps we should see if it’s open. How’s that for an idea?”

  “Now that’s the Sinead we all know and loathe,” said Dan.

  When she whipped around to stare piercingly at him, he smiled and said, “That nicey-nice junk just wasn’t you, Sinead. Be yourself.”

  She started to snap something back but then apparently reconsidered. She actually smiled at him. “Good advice.”

  Hamilton added, “By that, I hope you don’t mean you’re going back to your evil, deceitful ways.”

  “No, I’m just not going to keep on trying to prove by words that I’m on your side. I’ll let my actions do it.”

  She yanked hard on the door’s immense wrought-iron handle and, to everyone’s surprise, it opened easily.

  They cautiously peered inside the chamber. It was large and totally dark.

  “Should we go in?” asked Natalie in a quavering voice.

  “I guess we better,” Amy whispered back. “The others might be in here, only we might not be able to see them.”

  “Or they could be hurt, or worse,” added Evan.

  They all eased into the room.

  When Hamilton, the last one in because he was guarding their rear flank, stepped clear of the door, it slammed shut and locked.

  They all whirled around to look at it.

  Amy said accusingly, “Ham, why did you shut the door?”

  “I didn’t. It closed all by itself.”

  “Never a good thing,” opined Atticus nervously. “Doors closing by themselves.”

  Suddenly, the lights came on in a blinding flash, causing all of them to shield their eyes with their hands.

  “Wow,” said Ian painfully. “Where did that come from?”

  “Uh, guys?” said Atticus, who was looking upward.

  Dan tugged on the door. “It won’t open.”

  “Let me try,” said Hamilton.

  “Uh, guys!” said Atticus more urgently.

  Hamilton tugged on the door with all his strength. Nothing happened.

  “Let me help,” said Jake. He and Hamilton pulled h
ard on the handle.

  “Guys!” snapped Atticus.

  “What is it, Att?” barked his brother. “We’re busy over here.”

  Atticus pointed upward. “Look!”

  Everyone slowly looked in that direction.

  Suspended in the air, their hands tied above them with chains, were Cheyenne and Casper. They appeared to be unconscious.

  “What the —” began Dan.

  Atticus blurted, “Does anyone else hear that?”

  That was the sound of something gurgling.

  “What’s that?” exclaimed Natalie as something touched her foot and she jumped.

  Now instead of looking up they all looked down.

  It was water. Lots of it. And it was coming fast from somewhere.

  “The room is filling up,” shouted Jake.

  Indeed it was. The water level was already at their calves.

  Amy yelled, “Quick, the door, we have to get it open!”

  They ran over to the door and everyone pulled and tugged and kicked and pushed. The heavy wood didn’t budge.

  “We’re trapped!” yelled Dan.

  “We’re going to die!” added a frantic Natalie.

  The water was now up to their waists and it was rising fast.

  There seemed to be no way out.

  Dan and Amy looked at each other.

  Dan was thinking, If I had the serum, I could take it and break the door down. But I don’t and I can’t.

  Amy seemed to be reading his thoughts. She inexplicably smiled at him. It was a calming smile.

  It seemed to say that they would get out of this, somehow.

  But as the water inched up toward their chests and Jake put Atticus on his shoulders to keep him above the waterline, Dan couldn’t see any way out of this one. As the torrent kept pouring in, they all started to tread water.

  Phoenix was struggling, and Hamilton quickly went to his aid, keeping his head above the water.

  Amy looked at the others as they slowly floated up to the ceiling.

  This is it. We’re going to die.

  Fiske Cahill was fighting like a man thirty years younger. He had destroyed three of Vesper One’s men but others kept coming. As he looked around he saw that his group was slowly losing the battle.

  Nellie had struggled valiantly with one Vesper, but he had pounded her on her injured shoulder and she was now facedown on the floor with her hands zip-cuffed behind her.

  Reagan was fighting like a demon, leveling every Vesper that came within her reach. But Fiske watched helplessly as another Vesper Tasered the teenage tornado and she instantly dropped to the floor and out of the fight.

  Jonah had been subdued almost immediately, although he kept trash-talking after his hands were bound behind him until one of the Vespers stuffed a rag in his mouth.

  Jonah’s last words before this happened were “You wanna ’nother piece of me, bro?”

  And poor Ted was swinging randomly at Vespers who surrounded him. They laughed at his awkward attempts to hit them until one drew too close and Ted connected and knocked him flat on his butt. Then they quickly subdued him.

  Fiske fought on, the last man standing. But as a dozen Vespers formed a circle around him he knew it was only a matter of time. He looked behind him at the behemoth device.

  If he could somehow sabotage it . . . ?

  He turned, ran straight at a slight gap in the Vespers’ defensive arc, broke through by flattening two Vespers with one spin kick, and sprinted flat out at the device.

  A single shot rang out.

  Fiske Cahill gasped and fell to the floor.

  Amy looked frantically around. Their heads were maybe a foot from the ceiling. She looked at the Wyoming twins. Because of how they were strung up, their mouths were very nearly underwater. As Cheyenne drew some water into her lungs, she suddenly jerked and awakened. Amy watched as the tall young woman darted glances around the room and saw her brother trussed up beside her. Then her gaze fell on Amy and the others.

  Amy shouted, “We found you tied up here. Then the water started pouring in. We’re going to die!”

  Cheyenne struggled against her bindings, but to no avail. She started to swing herself sideways. It was hard, being mostly in the water, but she kept at it. She finally managed to hit her brother but then bounced off. The second time she collided with him, Casper woke up, too.

  Cheyenne screamed, “Sandy did this. He’s working with Vesper One. We’re going to die.”

  Casper looked frantically around and saw Amy floating near him. Amy wasn’t looking at him. She was staring at the door. The walls were solid stone. The water was having no effect on them. But the door was wood and, thick though it was, it was not nearly as strong as the walls. And water could always escape through a weaker part of whatever was trying to contain it.

  But she needed something to work with.

  She turned back to the Wyomings.

  “Do you have something that I can try to open the door with?”

  Cheyenne looked at her brother.

  “Knife, in a sheath on his left leg.”

  Amy took a breath, held it, and dove under the water.

  It was cold and dark but she made her way over to Casper, felt for his leg, slipped up his pant leg, gripped the knife, and pulled it free from its sheath.

  She surfaced.

  Dan looked at her. “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to save us,” she called back. She dove back under and kicked hard to make herself go deeper. She reached the door and thrust the knife in between the door and the door frame at the point where the lock would be located. She pulled back on the knife handle, trying to jerk back the lock with it. Her air almost out, she kicked to the surface.

  She looked around. Casper and Cheyenne were now underwater.

  “Jake, Evan!”

  They looked at her and she pointed frantically at the Wyomings.

  Atticus said, “It’s okay, Jake. I can tread water.”

  “Not for much longer,” grumbled Jake. They were almost at the ceiling.

  Evan and Jake swam over to the Wyomings and managed to lift their heads out of the water by holding on to the chains and using them as leverage.

  Cheyenne and Casper both gasped for air when their heads broke the water’s surface.

  Amy dove back down and began working on the lock again. Twice she managed to wedge the knife into the correct position, and both times she didn’t have the strength to pull it back.

  If she went back up to draw in air, she was afraid there would be no “up” to get it. The entire room would be underwater.

  This would be her last chance. She dug the knife in and pulled with all her strength, even planting her feet against the solid wall to increase her leverage. It didn’t work.

  Then Amy felt something tugging on the knife. She looked over and Dan was next to her, helping her. Together they pulled with all their might.

  Amy could feel the lock slowly sliding back.

  WHOOSH!

  It was like a mini-tsunami. The door, pushed by tons of water, shot open and the freed water poured through it.

  And so did all of them.

  They were hurled pell-mell down the hall. As the water dissipated, they all groaned and slowly got to their feet, checking for broken bones and missing limbs.

  Amy looked at Dan, who was next to her.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I couldn’t have done it alone.”

  “What little brothers are for. That and making big sisters crazy,” he said, though the terror of almost drowning was still clearly in his features.

  Jake pointed back toward the room where the Wyomings were still dangling.

  “What about them?”

  “Leave them,” said Amy. “Gives us two fewer jerks we have to fight. I think we’ll have enough to face as it is. Let’s go.”

  They all ran off to finish this.

  Fiske lay motionless for a long moment. The pain in his shoulder burned like someone had pierced h
im with a sword covered with molten lava. That’s what it felt like to be shot. He rolled over and rose to his knees, feeling slightly nauseous.

  He looked up to see everyone staring at him. Nellie gazed grimly at him and touched her own gunshot wound. Reagan, the effects of the Taser wearing off, stared at him with semi-paralyzed features. Ted could not see him, but apparently could sense what had happened.

  “Fiske?” he said. “Are you okay?”

  Jonah just grunted with the rag stuffed in his mouth.

  Fiske managed to say, “I’m all right.” However, he felt far from all right.

  “For now,” said Vesper One as he walked into the circle formed by his men. “But not for long,” he added, the smoking gun still in his hand.

  Fiske stared up at him.

  “You know, for an evil genius type with delusions of grandeur, I really would have pegged you for being a bit longer in the tooth. You look like you’re about to go to the prom for the first time, not that any decent girl would condescend to go with a creepy punk like you.”

  Vesper One’s expression remained unchanged. “Sarcasm flowing from a defeated foe. Interesting. I guess if it makes you feel better, go right ahead.”

  “You don’t want me to really get started. I might never stop.”

  Vesper One gazed at him with pity. “Oh, you’ll stop. Precisely when I want you to.” He pointed the muzzle of his pistol at the center of Fiske’s broad forehead.

  “Shoot an unarmed man? Hardly sporting of you.”

  “But I’m not sporting. I’m a Vesper. I win any way I can.”

  “Actually, so do the Cahills.”

  This comment had not come from Fiske.

  It had come from Amy Cahill.

  The next instant Vesper One’s minions were being overwhelmed by this infusion of fresh troops.

  Jake brought down two of them all by himself, pounding them until they collapsed into unconsciousness.

  Hamilton moved through the Vespers like a threshing machine, kicking and punching any of them within reach. When one tried to Taser him, he grabbed the device and zapped the man instead.

  Amy and Dan stood back-to-back and took on all comers. Kicking and punching and biting when necessary, they managed to subdue a half dozen Vespers in a matter of minutes.