by D. L. Orton
“I’m fine,” I say, still not used to seeing Bella with gray, curly hair.
“Easy there, kitten.” Dave grabs her by the elbow. “He’s got a gun.”
I laugh and hold the pistol out to him butt first. “Come on, Dave. We both know I’d never shoot anyone.”
He takes the gun out of my hand and then lets go of Bella. “Right.”
“Did you hear the news?” she says and takes my arm. “They found the Magic Kingdom, and there’s someone inside. He’s been stuck in there for decades!”
“Mom!” Soleil calls out.
We turn and watch her jog across the atrium. It’s the first time I’ve seen her since she threw me out of her office. Her eyes have dark circles under them.
“What’s happening?” she says, breathing hard. “I heard there was some sort of bomb outside!”
“Not a bomb,” Dave says, “a meteor. Caused a bit of excitement when it hit the ground, but it’s all quiet out there now.”
She eyes my muddy clothes—and her mother’s hand on my arm—but doesn’t comment. “And I heard they found that underground Disneyland—”
“—the Magic Kingdom,” I say.
“Yes,” she continues, “the place that’s rumored to have the state-of-the-art genetics lab.”
Dave shuts his eyes and pinches his nose. “Looks like Ted blabbed to pretty much everyone.”
“And did you hear?” Bella says to Soleil. “There’s a man inside!”
Soleil nods, her eyes wide. “Some old man named Jimbo. They say he’s delusional.”
“Well, if you’d been locked up inside a cave for twenty years,” Bella says, sounding annoyed, “you’d be a little nutty too.”
“Easy there, princess,” Dave says. “We’re all on the same team.”
Bella holds tighter to my arm, but doesn’t respond.
“So is it true?” Soleil asks, glancing at Dave and then me.
“Yeah,” Dave says and puts his arm around Bella, pulling her away from me. “Jimbo spends his time babysitting some sort of weasel he’s trying to teach ballet. He refused to let Dr. Kai inside because she didn’t have any fish bones, told her to come back later—after the weasel finished his nap.”
“Well, at least we know there’s air inside,” I say. “Plus electricity, food and water.”
“I agree, it’s a start,” Dave says and lets go of Bella. He empties the bullets out of the handgun I gave him, drops the ammunition into his pocket, and hands the pistol back to one of his men. “Tell Armstrong I want to see him in my office, first thing in the morning. That moron is going to be cleaning toilets from now on.”
Looks like Custer just had his Last Stand.
“Yes, sir,” the uniform says.
“And get all these people out of here. Fun’s over.”
“Yes, sir. Right away, sir.” The man starts shooing people away from the airlock.
Dave turns back to me. “What’s up with the cannonball? Armstrong said you broke it open, grabbed the contents, and hightailed it out of there.”
I hand him the note.
Dave reads it and then tucks the paper into his pocket. “May I?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I don’t need it anymore. I got the message.”
Soleil glances at me and then her adoptive father. “What’s going on here? What are you talking about? Who sent the message?”
“I did,” I say. “To myself.”
Bella gives me a curious look. “What does it say?”
“That it’s time for me to go home.”
Dave and Soleil exchange looks, and Soleil gives a slight shake of her head.
“Go home?” Dave says, looking annoyed. “What does that mean? You need to go back to the Bub?”
“No,” I say. “I need to get to the mountain, Dave, and I’m going to need your help.”
He rubs his forehead, not meeting my gaze. “You can’t go running off on a wild goose chase with so much at stake here. Soleil tells me she’s close to a breakthrough.” He glances at her for confirmation. “Until that happens, we need you here.”
“So freeze my blood,” I say. “I’ll give you as much as I can spare.”
“I wish it were that simple,” Soleil says. “Cold temperatures destroy the biotechs—I can’t even refrigerate samples—so freezing your blood isn’t feasible.”
“Christ,” I say, trying to come up with a compelling plan. “Dr. Nadales can come with me to the Magic Kingdom.” I nod at Soleil. “I know it’ll have everything you need to recreate the biotechs—because that’s where mine were made.”
“Most of it is contaminated,” Bella says. “Jimbo claims you can’t go down to the underground city or labs anymore. He says it’s been sealed off for more than a decade.”
“Mierda,” I say, desperate to come up with a reason to get back there. “Maybe I can figure out a way to clear out the virus? You have to let me try!”
“Except it’s contaminated with CO2 not Doomsday,” Dave says. “And that’ll kill even you, Superman. Plus the main power is off and the radio doesn’t work. Until I can fix those issues, it would be a waste of time.” He shrugs. “We don’t even know if Willy Wonka can find the front door.”
“I need to get back there,” I say, glancing at Bella and then Dave. “Please.”
“What about Shannon?” Dave says. “You want me to strand her in that cesspool while you take a plane to go gallivanting in the wilderness? Do I look like I have planes coming out my ass?”
“No,” I say. “But—”
“And what about all the people here in C-Bay—and KC and the Bub and the biodomes all over the world? Don’t those lives matter to you?”
“Yes, of course, but—”
“Until we figure out that magic shit in your blood,” Dave says, “our days are numbered, and right now, that number isn’t looking very big. I can keep patching seams and moving people around until I’m blue in the face, but the biodomes—and even that Magic Kingdom of yours—are eventually going to fail, every single one of them. And when the last one goes down, mankind will be functionally extinct.” He looks at Soleil.
“Maybe you and Dr. Kai could last another fifty years,” Soleil says.
“Assuming you can fight off the gators and the crows,” Dave adds.
“But it’s inevitable,” Bella says. “Unless we can find a vaccine.”
“You’d risk all that, sacrifice all those people for this?” Dave yanks the note out of his pocket and holds it up. “For this one woman?”
I glance at Bella, knowing the answer but unable to confirm it out loud.
“I’ve told you,” I say, unwilling to give up, “we don’t need to sacrifice anything. I guarantee the facilities inside the mountain will be more than sufficient to create the biotech devices. Hell, there may even be a file on how to make the vaccine from scratch in there.”
“You can’t guarantee any such thing,” Soleil says, not bothering to control the anger in her voice. “From what Dr. Kai says, you’ve never been inside this one—you didn’t even know where it was! It could take months to pump out all the carbon dioxide—months in which thousands of people could die—and at the end of it all, we could discover that the lab was destroyed by a fire, or the cave ceiling collapsed and there’s nothing left down there, or any of a hundred other possibilities.” She exhales, her face lined with stress. “All we’re asking for is a little more time.”
“Think about it, Diego. I got one cargo plane here at C-Bay and a shitload of problems. I need to ferry supplies to trade for Shannon, rescue the injured folks stranded at KC, and help three other biodomes with the same flaw that took down the Lou. Or,” he says, his voice steadily rising, “I can fly you out to a remote mountain fortress locked up tighter than a clam’s ass at high tide so you can sit on your butt in the snow?”
I glance down at my hands. “Of course not, but—”
“Well then give me a break, buddy. I’m doing the best I can, and you’re sure as hell not helpin
g.”
“What about Matt?” I say. “He could come pick me up in the Cessna and fly me out there.”
“Where is he going to stop for fuel, Einstein, in Catersville?” He gives a mirthless laugh. “Believe me, I’ve looked at all the possibilities, and your best option is to stay put. Once Soleil gets the Doomsday vaccine sorted out, I’ll get you to where you need to go.”
I swallow, unable to get the words Time is running out to stop banging around inside my skull. “Mierda.”
Dave puts his hand on my shoulder, and I resist the urge to shove it off.
“Work with me here,” he says in that condescending voice of his. “Once we figure out how to get inside, I’ll send people out there to check on the power generator and get the radio working. Then we can pump the CO2 out and get the place up and running again. That’ll give the Bub folks someplace to go and us a chance to see what’s inside.”
Fifteen fucking days and Isabel dies.
“In the meantime,” he says, “Soleil needs you, and I need time to ferry all the KC people here, get Shannon back, figure out what to do with the Bub folks, and get repair parts to the other biodomes. Until all of that’s taken care of, I’d have to be an idiot to let you risk your life—and the lives of others—on a lark.”
“Then I’ll get there on my own,” I say. “I’ll take my backpack and walk to Colorado.”
“Where’s your brain, Domingo?” Dave’s voice is full of contempt. “It’ll take weeks to get there. Soleil would have to stop the research on your biotechs, and if something does go wrong with the biodomes, hundreds of people could die because of your selfish obsession.”
“I’m going to the Magic Kingdom, Dave, whether you like it or not.” I glance at Bella, but she won’t meet my gaze. “I’ve done all I can here. I need to get back to my own… life.”
“Mr. Crusoe, please,” Soleil says. “I’ve made good progress on the vaccine, but I can’t finish it without you. I know we got off to a bad start, but this is about more than just the two of us. It’ll only be a few more weeks, a month or two at most. Please. I need you here.”
“You can come with me,” I say, turning to her. “The lab is under the ground, Dr. Nadales. The Magic Kingdom is a cave. It’s inside the mountain.”
Her eyes get big.
“I was locked up in there,” I say, “back when you had those dreams about your father and your brother.” I glance at Bella and then our daughter. “There are secrets in there, Sol. And answers.”
The color drains out of her face, and she walks across the space between us and slaps me hard on the face. “How dare you!”
“You are one sick bastard,” Dave says. “There’s nothing in that mountain except carbon dioxide and rat shit. I’m not letting you do something stupid, and I’m definitely not letting you risk the lives of thousands of people. You’re staying right here until we have the vaccine.”
I step away from him. “You can’t keep me here.”
“Well, actually,” he says and snaps his fingers, “I can.”
A couple of uniforms appear out of nowhere, shoving Bella aside and grabbing onto my arms.
I try to break free, but Bella steps in front of me and puts her hands on my shoulders. “You can’t win this one, Diego. Please.”
“I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Dave says, “but I can’t risk you doing something stupid while I’m gone.”
I look at Bella, begging her with my eyes to intervene.
She shakes her head. “David’s right. We need you here.”
Dave hands the note to Soleil and then takes her arm. “I’m leaving you in charge. So keep your eyes open.” He glares at me. “And I know you need his blood, but I wouldn’t trust Tarzan as far as I could throw him.”
I turn my head toward Dave, feeling the old animosity flooding into my chest. “Let me go, you two-faced prick.”
He nods at his men. “Lock him up.”
22
Jimbo
Lani
“The guy’s a loony,” I say, rubbing my hands together to keep them warm. “He and his pet badger have been locked inside that mountain for ages. For all I know, he couldn’t get the blast door open if he wanted to.”
“He has a badger in there?” Madders says over the radio. “Those things are mean as hell.”
“I don’t know what it is, Madders. Benny was having luncheon when I rang the doorbell and I didn’t ask.” I wrap my sleeping bag tighter around my shoulders. “I’m supposed to come back after his afternoon nap and bring coffee and fish bones.”
I hear him sigh. “Okay,” he says. “Do the best you can. Kirk says he’ll get some men out to you in the next week or so. Will you be okay until then?”
“Yeah, sure. It’s a bit on the brisk side, but I have plenty of food and water. If worse comes to worst, I can hole up inside the tunnel. It’ll be protected from the wind and snow, and maybe I can play tiddlywinks with Benny.”
“Whatever it takes. Tell Jimbo you’ll give him coffee and fish bones once he lets you inside.”
“You mean, lie to him?”
He’s quiet for a moment. “We need to find out what’s in there, Lani—and soon.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“And I wouldn’t be surprised if Kirk can come up with the goods. So it wouldn’t be a lie—at least not yet.”
“Okay,” I say and pull my sweater tighter around my neck. “How are things there? Any news on repairing the damaged wall?”
“No, Kirk’s all out of ideas, and folks here are scared.”
“I’m scared for them too,” I say.
“We all know winter is coming,” Madders says. “And unless the Almanac’s wrong—which it never is—it’s going to be a stonker. We need to evacuate soon, Lani. Before the snow is too deep for the trucks to get through.”
I stare at the radio receiver, listening to the wind whip through the trees around the tent.
“Lani—”
“Yeah, I know. I’m working on it.” I start putting my shoes back on. “I’ll give you a call when I get back from afternoon tea with the Jimbo and Benjamin. Lani out.”
By the time I get back up to the concrete ledge, the wind has died down, but the sky is dark and heavy with snow clouds.
I crouch down, follow the pathway through the hot zone, and then slide along the concrete wall until I get to the tunnel. This time, I only set the guns off once. I wave my jacket in the tunnel to make sure nothing’s changed, then walk up to the flashing red panel and place my hand against it.
After a brief interaction with the computer, it tells me that security has been notified, and I wait for Jimbo to come on.
But he doesn’t. I wait for the panel to reset and then try again. No Jimbo.
“Damn it, where is he?”
I check my watch and try again in five minutes.
Nothing.
For the next four hours, I sit on the cold, hard concrete shivering and going over our initial conversation in my head, getting up every ten to fifteen minutes to try again.
Okay, so he’s not just a loony—he’s a jerk.
Over and over I press my hand to the pad and wait while the computer tells me security has been alerted.
Is he afraid the virus will kill him if he lets me in? Or did I scare him off when I mentioned David? Or is he stark, raving mad, and at this very moment, he’s off teaching that badger how to do ballet?
When it starts to get dark, I decide to head back to the campsite to get some dinner and warm up, planning to come back later with a flashlight for another try.
But as I shuffle back against the concrete wall, I realize my mistake.
Snow is falling, and the concrete ledge is covered in pristine white—six inches of it. There’s no way to see the pencil scribbles that mark the safe pathway out.
“Oka fefe.”
When I get close to where I think the pathway ends, I get down on my hands and knees and start sweeping the deep snow away, frantically looking for
the pencil markings. After only a few minutes, my gloves and pants are a soggy, frozen mess, and my knees are burning from the cold, but I can’t seem to find anything.
You stupid, lolo girl. You should have known this would happen.
I pack a handful of snow into a ball and toss it out. The report of the guns in the still night air is so loud, it makes my teeth hurt. But when they stop, I can see their firing pattern in the snow right in front of me.
You haven’t gone far enough!
I walk ten or twelve feet farther down the wall, scraping at the edge of the snow with my shoe, looking for the markings.
It’s almost dark now, but there’s a moon rising in the east—and the pencil scribbles are visible beneath my frozen shoe. I get back on my hands and knees, pushing the snow out of the way with my forearms to reveal the parallel lines.
If there hadn’t been a moon tonight, you’d be dead.
“But there was. And I’m not.”
Progress crawling across the huge expanse of frozen concrete is painstakingly slow, and twice the clouds of snow I toss out set off the guns—but somehow I manage to avoid getting shot in the back or frozen to death.
It’s after midnight when I finally stumble up to my tent. Not only did I have trouble getting through the hot zone, I had trouble finding my campsite in all the snow.
Good thing you chose a location next to a stream or you never would have made it back.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
I unzip the tent fly and collapse into the darkness.
“And lucky.”
When my heart stops pounding, I manage to find a flashlight, pull off my snowy, half-frozen clothes, and put on some dry ones. My fingers and toes are so cold, I can barely feel them, and when I attempt to make hot tea, I’m shaking so badly I can’t get the tiny camp stove to light.
After wasting nearly half my matches, I give up, crawl into my sleeping bag, and shiver until exhaustion overwhelms me.
The following day dawns cold and still.
After a hot breakfast and a quick call to the Bub, I put plastic bags over my socks and stick my feet back into the damp shoes, making a mental note to ask David to send out some boots. Then I gather up my things and get to work.