Olivia smiled and sat on the edge of the desk. Twenty minutes later, Howard’s hands finally stopped moving on the keyboard.
‘Well?’ said Madeleine.
He blew out a sigh and pushed back from the table. ‘I’ve put all the decoded files together in a continuous stream. It’ll probably make more sense if you read it.’
Madeleine wheeled herself across to the computer and navigated to the start of the document. She scrolled down slowly and felt fear form a cold weight in the pit of her stomach with every slide of her fingers. It was several minutes before she spoke.
‘Like I suspected, the ultimate goal of Jonah Krondike and the army group he’s working with appears to be the creation of a new race of super soldiers. Various governments have tried to do just that in the past and all have failed, including our own CIA’s Project MKUltra, which ran from the 1950s to the 1970s. The background to the data in these folders appears to stem as far back as the Second World War, with a lot of the original research carried out in German concentration camps.’
Howard’s face darkened. ‘You mean, Krondike was working for the Nazis?’
Madeleine nodded curtly. ‘Though I think he was more interested in the scientific advancements they could procure than the politics of war. The period where Asgard was a prisoner of Krondike appears to be when they made the first big leap in their research.’
‘That’s when they obtained access to his DNA,’ said Olivia, a trace of anger audible in her voice.
‘Yes,’ Madeleine said. ‘And the DNA of all the immortals they captured subsequently.’
She clenched her jaw at the thought of the father she had never known. Somewhere within the complex fields of data she was staring at were the blood, sweat, and tears he had shed during his years of capture. A slow rage ignited deep in her belly.
The need to avenge both her parents stoked the flames higher and dampened her trepidation. ‘Their biggest breakthrough came about six years ago.’
‘Wasn’t that around the time the data in the other folders stopped?’ said Howard.
‘Yes. That’s when they obtained all the ingredients necessary to start their next experiment.’ Madeleine scowled at the monitor. ‘Jonah Krondike’s human enhancement program is made up of four broad phases. Phase One consists of preparing the test subjects with a rigorous regime of physical and mental training, before using performance-enhancing drugs and chemicals derived from their research on the immortals to accelerate their physical development. It also includes the use of specific techniques and medications to modify their behavior. This alteration of their physiological systems continues into Phase Two.’
She paused, fingers clenching on the trackpad at the enormity of what was laid out on the screen.
‘Madeleine?’ Olivia said anxiously.
‘It’s okay. This is just so—’ Madeleine took a deep breath. ‘Phase Two places the subjects in a prolonged coma during which their DNA is manipulated. This is when Jonah’s scientists use bionanotechnology to bind immortal genetic material into the dormant subjects’ own chromosomes. It’s by far the longest phase of the program. In that time, the subjects’ muscles and brains are constantly stimulated by electrical signals and their bodies filled with drugs to augment the processes started in Phase One.’
‘Jesus,’ Howard murmured. ‘This is sounding more and more like a Frankenstein freak show.’
‘You’re not far off,’ said Madeleine darkly. ‘Phase Three is the tricky part. From their results, it seems this is the period where they had to…terminate many of their subjects.’
‘What happens in Phase Three?’ said Olivia.
‘They wake them up,’ said Madeleine. ‘It seems most of the subjects showed extreme aggression and psychosis. There’s mention here of research staff being injured by several subjects going on a rampage before they were taken down by security.’ She furrowed her brow. ‘The final phase consists of battle-condition training and testing of those subjects who made it through Phase Three without being killed.’
Silence fell across the study.
‘Has anyone made it to Phase Four?’ said Olivia.
Madeleine shook her head. ‘I don’t know. The stuff on here is a few months old. It looks like Serle hasn’t input the latest information into the database yet.’ She hesitated. ‘Looking at the timeline of the experiments, they should be awakening a batch of twenty-five subjects about now.’
‘Damn!’ Howard ran a hand through his tousled hair. ‘This is bad. We’ve got to—’ He broke off and stiffened in his seat. ‘Olivia?’
Madeleine looked around.
Olivia was standing rigidly next to the desk, her face pale and her gaze lost somewhere in the scenery outside the window overlooking the lake.
Despite never having seen one before, Madeleine knew she was witnessing one of the immortal’s psychic episodes. ‘What is it?’
Olivia didn’t seem to hear her. ‘Something…something is…’ She snapped out of her stupor and looked at them in wide-eyed horror. ‘They’re here!’
Madeleine shot out of the chair, heart slamming against her ribs as she looked wildly through the windows.
‘Who’s here—?’ said Howard with a puzzled expression.
The sound of helicopter rotors rose from the direction of the lake.
‘Shit!’
He bolted to his feet and hit a couple of keys on the computer.
They were almost out of the room when glass shattered behind them. Smoke bombs and flash grenades sailed through the broken windows and clattered onto the floorboards.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The door blocked out the light and most of the explosive sounds from the bombs.
‘The weapons bag!’ Howard shouted as they raced down the corridor toward the rear of the chalet.
Madeleine snatched the backpack from under the console table in the lobby. ‘Got it!’
She grabbed the Sig Sauer, jammed a couple of magazines in her waistband, and threw the bag at Howard.
He caught it, removed a submachine gun, and looped an ammunition belt holding magazines and grenades around his shoulder. ‘We need to get to the boat!’
Fear had taken an icy grip of his heart. They were heavily outnumbered and the chances of them making it out there alive without Ethan and Asgard were slim at best. Despair made acid churn in his stomach.
You can’t give up!
Howard glanced at the women with him and saw angry determination overcome the panic on their faces. He gritted his teeth.
If they want us, they’re gonna have to come and get us!
Gunfire erupted outside the front of the property. Bullets thunked into the walls of the chalet and punched through glass. White fumes billowed down the passage behind them as more smoke bombs were lobbed inside. The detonations of flash grenades followed close behind.
They dashed across the kitchen and barged through the French doors opening onto the rear deck. Howard spotted movement out the corner of his eye, pulled Olivia behind him, and fired at the masked soldiers coming around the side of the building. The reports of the Sig Sauer echoed the shots from the submachine gun as Madeleine opened fire on the soldiers coming the other way.
‘Get ready to move!’ he said.
He yanked two grenades from the belt, launched the first one at the men in front of him, and threw the second toward the opposite end of the deck.
They jumped off just as the bombs exploded and raced for the jetty. Dirt and gravel puffed up around them as bullets peppered the ground in their wake. They leapt onto the wooden boards and sprinted toward the boat. Halfway down the pier, Madeleine cried out and stumbled.
Olivia lurched to a halt and whirled around. ‘Madeleine!’
Red bloomed on Madeleine’s left flank where a bullet had struck her. She winced, clamped a hand over the wound, and half-ran, half-limped toward them.
‘Keep going!’ Howard ordered.
He tossed the backpack at Olivia, dropped to one knee, and ope
ned fire on the soldiers chasing after them.
Olivia shouldered the bag, wrapped an arm around Madeleine, and helped her to the boat. The vessel rocked in the water when they jumped in.
‘Key’s in the ignition!’ Howard shouted over his shoulder.
The roar of the motorboat engine rose above the sound of gunfire. The Sig Sauer’s bullets whizzed past him and struck one of the soldiers.
‘Howard!’ Madeleine yelled.
‘Go!’ he screamed.
Howard heard her curse. The boat started to accelerate, rotors spinning through the water. He rose and ran backward, the submachine gun shuddering in his hands as he continued his assault on the men charging across the beach. Wood chips erupted ahead of his legs where shots splintered the weathered boards. He turned and bolted toward the end of the pier.
The boat was five feet from the dock when he jumped. Heat flared on his left thigh as he soared over the water.
He hit the aft deck, collapsed to his knees, and rolled. A harsh grunt escaped him when he struck the starboard side. Olivia stumbled across the boat, dropped to her knees, and clamped a hand over the bullet wound on his leg. Howard ignored the fiery pain lancing through his flesh, sat up, and brought the submachine gun up above her head to shoot at the soldiers who stood firing at them from the jetty and the shoreline.
Madeleine reloaded the Sig, pushed the throttle all the way forward, and twisted around. A grim expression darkened her pale face as she raised her arm at their attackers and pulled the trigger repeatedly.
Shots scored the water and thudded into the stern of the vessel.
‘Get down!’ Howard shouted at Madeleine.
He covered Olivia’s head with his arm and pulled her next to him as he flattened himself to the floor of the boat, pulse racing and stomach twisting with horror at what he had just seen.
The deadly whistle of the rocket-propelled grenade reached his ears a moment before the boat suddenly turned. He glanced toward the controls in time to see Madeleine let go of the wheel and throw herself to the deck. The missile whooshed past the port hull and struck the surface of the lake some thirty feet away. The detonation brought a cold shower of water on their heads and caused the vessel to lurch violently to the side. The engines screamed, propellers churning empty air for a breathless moment. The boat rocked back down with a loud thud and splash, and started to accelerate again.
Howard cautiously lifted his head and looked around, amazed they were still in one piece. ‘Nice move.’
Madeleine smiled weakly, rose to her knees, and grabbed the Sig where it lay on the deck. The relentless gunfire continued from the direction of the lake house. With the boat now just under half a mile from shore, the bullets fell harmlessly into the water.
Howard tensed. The soldier who’d fired the RPG was loading another one into his shoulder-held launcher.
Madeleine blanched. ‘Shit! There’s three of them!’
Howard’s mouth went dry when he saw two more dark-clad figures raise their launchers. He tightened his hold on the submachine gun. ‘We’re not out of range of those yet!’
That was when Olivia shifted beside him. She knelt on the deck, raised a hand, and laid her palm against the side of his face.
Alarm flashed through Howard when he registered the steadfast light in her blazing eyes. ‘What are you doing?’
‘This is the only way I can think to protect you.’
A different kind of fear gripped Howard. He swallowed. Olivia raised her other hand toward Madeleine. The scientist hesitated before moving closer. The boat rolled and skipped across the water as it hit a countercurrent, causing her to stumble slightly.
Olivia touched Madeleine’s face gently when she came within reach.
‘Are you sure about this?’ said Madeleine.
‘No.’ Olivia’s expression hardened. ‘Get ready.’
She closed her eyes.
The clatter of the distant gunfire faded as a heavy weight wrapped around Howard’s head. He clenched his jaw and steeled himself for the excruciating pain that was to follow. One second passed. Then two and three. He blinked and stared at Madeleine, seeing his own shock reflected on her face.
Bar a mild sense of pressure and the complete absence of sound, he could feel little else.
The same could not be said of the soldiers on the shore.
Howard watched, mesmerized, as they dropped their weapons and fell to the ground, bodies writhing in agony and mouths open on screams that never reached his ears. The two rocket-propelled grenades that had been launched veered to either side of the boat before hurtling harmlessly across the lake, their trajectories modified by an invisible wave. The stretch of water between the boat and the beach had similarly flattened under the unseen psychokinetic force emanating from the vessel. The tops of the trees edging the lake bowed backward into the forest, branches shuddering and leaves shaking in the silent storm.
A fine sheet of sweat broke out on Olivia’s forehead. Her fingers trembled on his skin.
Awe filled Howard at the sheer, ungodly power of the woman touching him. On the other side of Olivia, Madeleine gaped at the shoreline, her gaze wide and unblinking.
There was movement in the sky to the left. Howard turned his head with some difficulty and saw a helicopter rise above the treetops on the far side of the lake.
Scoleri glared at the distant boat. The rotors whined. The helicopter rocked slightly, buffeted by the edge of the psychic pressure wave.
‘Maintain a safe distance!’ he barked at the pilot. He twisted in his seat and stared at the man lying on the floor of the main cabin. ‘Have you got her?’
‘Yes,’ said the sniper.
His hands were steady on the rifle and his eye glued to his scope.
‘Take the shot,’ Scoleri ordered.
The bullet struck Olivia in the chest. She gasped and blinked, shock flaring through her a second before pain erupted at the site of the entry point.
‘No!’ screamed Madeleine.
Howard caught Olivia as she fell. He laid her on the deck, his face ashen with fear. Madeleine leaned over her and pressed a hand on the wound in her ribcage, tears welling in her pale eyes.
Olivia coughed and choked. The metallic taste of blood flooded the back of her mouth. A black circle started to encroach upon the edge of her vision. The roar of her racing heart filled her ears.
‘Ethan,’ she rasped, staring blindly past Howard and Madeleine at the blue sky.
Consciousness faded and darkness filled her world.
Part Three: Burn
Chapter Twenty-Three
The soldier at the security checkpoint scrutinized their IDs.
‘Major Reed, Captain Davies,’ he acknowledged with a curt nod before handing the cards back. ‘What is the purpose of your visit to Fort Huachuca today?’
Ethan took the counterfeit badges Howard had hastily made that morning and rested an elbow casually on the edge of the sedan’s window. ‘We have a meeting with the commander of your medical center. It was a last-minute arrangement.’ He glanced at the computer visible in the booth behind the soldier. ‘Check your schedule.’
Asgard sat silently beside Ethan, his expression appropriately aloof behind his black aviator glasses. He’d had a haircut before they left the chalet.
The flight to Tucson had been uneventful. They’d hired the rental at the airport and swapped the number plates for the fake ones they’d brought with them. Anyone checking the vehicle registration would find its owner to be one Captain Arnold Davies, from Fort Irwin, California. As far as Ethan was concerned, the real Major Reed was also currently a resident there. They’d come by the army uniforms at one of the surplus stores in the city.
The soldier returned shortly, an apologetic grimace on his face. ‘I’m sorry about that, Captain. Looks like the official visitors’ list was updated in the last couple of hours. I have you scheduled for a meet with the Commander at 15:00. Just follow the road to the right and take a left at the roundabou
t. You can’t miss it.’
Ethan thanked the man, closed the window, and stepped on the gas. Only then did he release a small sigh of relief. Howard had promised he’d have them on the visitors’ list by the time they landed in Tucson. Asgard removed the aviator glasses, dropped them in the glove compartment, and extracted two handguns. Armistad was in the trunk of the car, as were Ethan’s swords.
Cool air poured through the vents as they drove across the yellow, barren desert. Buildings appeared up ahead and to the right, the structures shimmering faintly in the summer heat. The tail end of the Huachuca Mountains rose against the cloudless sky on the horizon.
The medical center was an L-shaped, ochre-colored, three-story complex located at the south end of the base. They followed the service road to the back, parked opposite an exit door, and walked around to the front entrance. One of Howard’s associates had managed to pull up the floor plans of the building while they were flying out of Sacramento. Howard forwarded the file to the satellite phone he’d given Ethan.
‘Your best bet is the storage rooms in the basement,’ Howard said when he called them. ‘The medical data we looked at was several years old. If the base was indeed where these soldiers were initially assessed, I doubt the information we’re seeking is in active case files.’
Two soldiers came out of the glass front doors as they approached them. The men stopped talking, dipped their chins respectfully when they saw Ethan and Asgard’s uniforms, and walked by, their chatter resuming once more.
Ethan kept his gaze focused straight ahead as they walked into the cool, bright lobby and passed the information desk. They headed down a busy corridor, turned left at a junction, and pushed through a door halfway down the passage. It opened onto a staircase. A nurse was strolling down the steps from the floor above. Asgard smiled and held the door open for her.
She blushed, murmured a hasty ‘Thank you,’ and walked out into the first-story corridor.
‘Wow,’ said Ethan as the door closed behind her. He stared at Asgard. ‘I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you try to charm someone.’
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