by R. D. Brady
Chris shook his head. “No, it’s not the same—”
“It is the same. And yes, it’s an uncomfortable position to be in. And it’s one you’re not used to. But some of us are. And we simply need to figure out ways to defend ourselves as best we can. Or better yet, find a way to befriend those more powerful individuals so we don’t have to defend ourselves.”
Chris watched her for a moment. “But you don’t think that, right? I mean, not about me.”
Maeve smiled. “No. But I’ve had my Uncle John teaching me how to defend myself since I was a kid. And how to shoot. And how to stay safe. So no, generally I don’t. But there have been moments.”
“What kind of moments?”
“Guys who thought they were entitled to more than I thought they were entitled to.”
Chris’s jaw tightened.
“I was fine.
“So you’re saying we have to rely on Alvie being nice, huh?”
Snap, who was perched on Alvie’s back, let out a small cry. Alvie immediately pulled her around, cuddling her to his chest and humming softly.
Maeve smiled. “I think we’re in good hands.”
Chris smiled down at her. “I suppose we are.”
A shrieking sound blasted down the hall, and all of them went still.
Shivers ran through Maeve, her eyes growing wide. She placed her hand on Crackle’s back as he too shivered. “What the hell is that?”
Chris tensed, his weapon pulled into his shoulder. Pop lowered himself down on Chris’s back, now peering over his shoulder.
Alvie turned and threw Snap at Maeve.
“Oh my god!” Maeve dove, landing on one knee, and she caught Snap in midair before she hit the ground. She pulled her into her chest as three beings slid out of the doorway ten feet from Alvie.
They were humanoid in appearance, seven feet tall, incredibly skinny, and a sickly pale white. They reminded Maeve of the Slenderman legends she’d heard of except that they had faces, although not human ones. When they blinked, their eyelids slid across their yellow eyes from the side.
“Back up, Maeve,” Chris ordered.
Maeve clasped Snap to her chest, backing away from the nightmares as Crackle held onto her shoulders, his grip painful. Maeve’s heart threatened to pound out of her chest as Alvie turned toward the creatures.
“Alvie, no! Run!”
And he did.
Right toward them.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Maeve watched in horror as Alvie ran toward the three creatures. The one nearest him opened its mouth, emitting a shriek and showing off three rows of razor-sharp teeth. It lunged forward, its teeth snapping at Alvie. Alvie stepped to the side, running along the wall and landing on the being’s back.
Chris opened fire on one of the beings, but every place he hit turned insubstantial as his bullets passed right through.
“Its mouth, aim for its mouth!” Maeve yelled, swinging Snap around to her back next to Crackle and pulling up her own weapon.
Alvie clutched onto one of the thing’s necks, looking like the world’s smallest bronco rider. He placed his hands on either side of the being’s head. Chris drew a bead on one of the things and pulled the trigger. Its head exploded in a mist of brain matter and blood. Maeve turned to the other one, but Chris beat her there, taking it out as well.
The third let out a shriek, which ended in a gurgle as it slumped to the floor. Its eyes bulged before all the light in them disappeared.
Alvie hopped off the creature, moving slowly. He stood next to it, staring down, his shoulders dropping.
Maeve stood rooted in place. Alvie had just killed it—with his hands or his mind, she wasn’t sure. She’d had no inkling that Alvie had that kind of destructive power.
Another ability I didn’t know about.
Unease slid through her as she lowered her weapon. She could feel her arms beginning to shake.
Her gaze shifted from the monstrous vision on the floor to Alvie standing next to it, looking down. Sadness was written all over his slumped posture. She approached him slowly, reaching out tentatively for him.
“Alvie?”
He looked up at her, his eyes filled with tears and such pain that it broke her heart. Her emotions shifted from unease to empathy.
“Oh, Alvie.” She dropped to her knees next to him, wrapping her arms around him as he shook.
Chris stepped in front of both of them, scanning the room. “Clear.”
But Maeve kept her attention on Alvie. She touched his cheek, wiping away a tear. “I’m so sorry.”
Alvie leaned his face into her hand. And then Snap crawled over Maeve’s back and onto Alvie. Alvie pulled her tight into his chest as he took a stuttering breath, his eyes wet.
“What was that thing?” Chris asked.
Maeve still felt shaken by Alvie’s actions and the attack. “I don’t know.”
“It was a Califax-AG3.”
At the new voice, Maeve’s head whipped to the side where a door was open, her gun back at her shoulder.
Next to her, Chris did the same. “Who’s in there? Identify yourself.”
The door opened and a man slumped into view. He sat along the floor, holding his stomach where blood had soaked through a bandage. “I’m Dr. Sheridan. And I could use a little help.”
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chris helped lower the doctor to the ground of the lab as Maeve searched for a first aid kit. They’d closed the door to the hall after helping pull Dr. Sheridan out of the doorway. Chris recognized the name—Sheridan was the one in charge of setting up all the labs.
Alvie had ushered the three little ones over to the couch against the wall. Chris leaned down so only the doc could hear him. “Do you know what happened? How the security system broke down?”
Sheridan somehow managed to look down his nose at Chris from his position on the floor. “Of course I do. I’m the director of services.”
“Right, well, Director of Services, what the hell happened?”
The man’s face was ashen, his eyes glassy with pain. “It was not anyone in my area. My team did everything they were supposed to do. Even though we were rushed with everyone and everything arriving at the same time. I can’t believe they expected us to—”
Chris struggled not to grab the guy by the lapels and demand answers. “Yeah, Doc, that’s really awful. Now what happened? How did the system fail?”
Sheridan blinked at Chris’s tone. “It was designed to fail.”
“Designed to fail? What do you mean?” Maeve asked as she knelt next to him, placing her supplies on the ground next to Sheridan’s chest.
Sheridan grimaced. “There was a back door in the security system. Someone accessed it and shut down the security in some of the containment units.”
Chris sat back, stunned. “Someone intentionally let these things out?”
“Yes.” Sheridan winced as Maeve peeled back his bandage.
“Sorry,” she said quietly.
Chris watched Maeve inspect the man’s injury without really taking it in.
Someone let these things out. Who the hell would be stupid enough to do that?
“That can’t be right. It must have been a mistake. No one would—”
Sheridan shook his head and then blew out a breath between clenched teeth. “It wasn’t a mistake. A code, a long code, was entered to let the creatures out. For some, the cages were opened. For others, weaknesses were introduced. I’m guessing to see if the creature could detect it.”
“You think someone was testing them?” Maeve asked.
“Being where we are, that does not seem out of the question.” The doc let out a shaky breath as Maeve finished cleaning the wound.
Chris wasn’t a doctor, but he’d seen wounds before. He could tell this one had been caused by a single swipe across the doctor’s abdomen, but now it almost seemed like the wound had somehow grown larger—as if the skin itself was being eaten away. He’d seen a case of flesh-eating bacteri
a once and that looked awfully similar to the doctor’s wound.
While working on the wound, Maeve kept her face blank, but Chris saw the briefest of tremors in her hands. Maeve knew the doctor wasn’t going to make it. But she quickly and carefully placed another bandage over the wound and then smiled at Sheridan.
“Now let me give you something for the pain,” she said. She grabbed a syringe and, after releasing the air, inserted it into his arm. “This will only take a minute to take effect.”
Sheridan smiled, letting his head fall back. “That already feels better. Thank you.” He motioned for Chris to help him sit up. With a bit of work, they managed to get the doctor up, leaning him against the wall.
“Do you know how many species of these things there are?” Chris asked.
“Fifty-seven.”
Chris felt his jaw drop. Next to him, Maeve turned a few shades paler. “Do you have files on them?”
Sheridan nodded with a frown. “But you don’t have clearance to see the other projects.”
Chris snorted. “You do realize that point is completely irrelevant right now, right? We are going to run into every alien on our way out. So a little heads up as to how to survive that would be nice.”
Sheridan shook his head and then tilted his head to the side, staring at Alvie and the triplets. “They’re awfully cute,” he said, his words a little slurred.
Chris frowned at Maeve. Morphine, she mouthed back.
Chris touched Sheridan lightly on the shoulder. “Doc? You said you were going to show us those files?”
His head lolled back to Chris. “Oh, right.” He frowned. “Where’s my tablet?”
Chris looked around, spying the small computer a few feet away. He grabbed it and handed it to the doctor. “Here you go.”
The doctor blinked a few times, squinting at the screen.
“It needs your password,” Maeve prodded.
“Oh, right. What is my password?”
Chris struggled not to groan.
“Ah, yes—Dimaggio13. He was one of the greatest players that ever played the game, did you know that? Thirteen glorious seasons for the Yankees,” Sheridan said to Maeve.
Maeve shook her head. “I didn’t know that. Can you show us where the files are?”
“Files? Oh, right—all the creepy crawlies.” Sheridan looked over at the triplets again. “Except for them. I always thought they were cute.”
A noise from the hallway made Chris jump. “I got it.” He strode for the door. Taking a breath, he glanced out but saw nothing except a ceiling tile now smashed on the ground. He stood silently listening but he heard nothing. Alvie stepped next to him.
Chris looked down at him. “You sense anything?”
Alvie shook his head. Chris watched outside for another minute, but he heard nothing except for Maeve and the doctor speaking quietly behind him. Alvie moved back to the triplets.
Chris wanted to head back to Maeve and hear what the doctor had to say, but he needed to stay by the door and hopefully he’d be able to keep them safe from anything that wandered down the hall.
Or scurried, or hopped, or teleported for all we damn well know.
Minutes passed, and then Maeve walked over to him.
“Did you get what we need?” Chris asked.
She nodded. “I guess so. But knowing what’s out there doesn’t exactly make me feel better. Some of these things—they have paralytics in their claws or they’re huge. Those blue gorillas? Those were only babies.”
“Well, Sheridan said only some of the containment units were opened. We won’t have to face all of them.”
“No,” Sheridan said loudly. “You weren’t listening. I said the hacker only opened some of the containment units.”
Chris turned back to him. “Right, so only some of the aliens are out.”
Sheridan shook his head. “The ones that got out, they freed the others. They’re all out.” Sheridan’s voice shifted to sound like a wrestling announcer. “Every. Single. One.” Then he giggled.
That is a man who cannot hold his morphine.
Chris turned his gaze back to Maeve. “Maeve, how many are there?”
Maeve looked up at him, her eyes huge. “Over two hundred.”
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Edwards Air Force Base, California
John Forrester had landed at Edwards Air Force base ten minutes ago. He had grabbed a flight in an F15 and it had taken him no time to get here from Dayton. Now he was striding through headquarters at Edwards to the office Wanda had commandeered, clutching the folder that he hoped could make a difference.
He had been trying to reach Wanda ever since their phone call earlier and she hadn’t gotten back to him. And John had used that time to reach out to everyone and anyone who might have some information about what was going on. And finally he learned one thing—some of the subjects at 51 had escaped.
He had finally reached her assistant, who told him Wanda could not discuss anything over the phone, but if he wanted to fly out to Edwards, she’d speak with him in person.
Wanda’s aide saw him coming and quickly jumped up from his desk and opened the door. “She’s expecting you.”
He and Wanda had known each other since they had worked together at the Pentagon. They mingled in the same circles. And now he was about to put that decades-old friendship to the test.
Wanda looked up from her desk as John walked in and he was taken aback by the bags under her eyes and the stress showing in her slumped posture. Wanda was always impeccably dressed. She usually looked like she’d just stepped out of a fashion shoot.
But not today. Today she looked like a woman with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
John shoved aside his concern for his old friend. Compared with his worries for Maeve, his concern for Wanda didn’t even rank.
As soon as the aide closed the door behind him, John spoke. “Do you know what’s happening in Nevada?”
Wanda nodded. “Yes.”
“Did you order it?”
She shook her head. “No. Someone else is in charge out there.”
“I don’t understand. The base has never had a breach like this. What the hell happened?”
Wanda looked away. “I have a team looking into it.”
A feeling of unease slid over John. “You know what happened. Why it happened. You—” He stopped short, horror overcoming him. “Someone did this, didn’t they? Someone wanted to see the subjects in action, didn’t they? It was Drummond, wasn’t it?”
Wanda was always a good poker player, and her face showed no emotion. “Not to my knowledge. But how do you know Drummond?”
The old anger boiled up. “Let’s just say I have a history with the man. You never should have approved him for the position.”
“What kind of history?”
“The kind that tells me that if he is anywhere near these projects, it will not be good for anyone.”
“Martin is, as you said, the head of the BOSAC, but I assure you he would never—”
John scoffed. “He would never endanger lives to fulfill his own agenda? Apparently you didn’t do a deep enough background check on him. You should look into why he was banished to Thailand a decade ago.”
“Thailand? What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about things you should already know.” He handed her the file. “You need to read this.”
Wanda took the file. “What is it?”
“Everything you should have found out about Martin before you gave him control over people’s lives.” He paused, the thought that had been rolling around in the back of his mind haunting his every step. “Are they going to initiate the Manhattan Protocol?”
Surprise flashed across Wanda’s face. “How do you know about that?”
“Wanda, I have been around this project from the start. I know all the security protocols.”
“If the situation becomes untenable, then yes, the Manhattan Protocol will be initiated. But that wi
ll be hours and hours from now, if ever. Remember, that’s a last resort.”
John felt the breath leave his lungs. “And that will be Martin’s call, right?”
Wanda nodded, tight-lipped.
“But you’ll wait until the staff is out, right? You’ll make sure everyone who works on the base is clear before you initiate the protocol.”
“John, you know how these things work.”
John did, but it still didn’t lessen the blow. “There are good people on that base. They don’t deserve this.”
“Even if I wanted to, there’s nothing I can do. My hands are tied.”
And John realized then that whatever was happening was truly out of her control. “The President could.”
And Wanda’s facade of neutrality dropped as shock splashed across her face. “The President knows nothing of what happens at Area 51. It’s need-to-know, and the President simply does not need to know.”
John knew the arguments against allowing members of the executive or legislative branches into the know. As elected officials, their tenure with the government was up to the whims of the populace. In contrast, there were members of the government who had been with their agency for decades. The President or a senator might only hold office for four or six years, respectively. And no one wanted to take the chance of any of them using the information they learned from the A.L.I.V.E. projects or any of the other projects in a re-election bid.
But right now, things had gotten well out of hand if someone intentionally released the subjects. “There is precedent. Presidential intervention has happened. President Kennedy intervened. And it’s needed right now.”
Wanda shook her head. “I can’t do that.”
“But Maeve’s there,” he said quietly.
“I know.”
John’s head snapped up. “You know? You’re risking her life and everyone on that base, and for what? Information? Information that could be gained another way? This is reckless. This is an abuse of power. And you’re going along with it. You are better than this, Wanda. We are all better than this.”