The Clone Paradox (The Ark Project, Book I)

by J. W. Elliot

  “Down,” Kaiden yelled as he dropped to his belly. Security weren’t shooting tranquilizers. They were shooting to kill. Noah had known everything. How did they think they could escape so easily? Still, maybe they could fight their way to an airship.

  Kaiden peered over the rail to find the airship bay empty. His stomach tightened. If Birch had expected an airship, she had been sadly mistaken. A line of security personnel formed a giant semicircle around the door. That could only mean that they had been expected, and TAP was prepared for them.

  “They’re going to trap us!” Kaiden yelled. “Out. Out!”

  Kaiden sprayed the line of security with a burst of fire and leaped back through the hole. Jade knelt beside the rent, using the twisted metal as protection as she covered his escape. Then, she tossed another explosive into the hole as they sprinted back the way they had come. Kaiden knew she was blowing the stairs so the security couldn’t follow.

  “Time for your backup plan,” Kaiden yelled to Willow, trying to still the growing panic.

  “Follow me,” Willow called.

  “Where?” Jade asked.

  “Watch out,” Birch shouted as a line of security personnel burst into the corridor in front of them. Kaiden recognized many of them. As he squeezed the trigger in short bursts and watched them fall with blue tranquilizer darts protruding from their twitching bodies, he was grateful that Willow had grabbed the non-lethal ammo. He didn’t know if he could have killed the people with whom he had grown up and trained. Not when this mess was his fault.

  “This way,” Willow called.

  Bullets punched into the walls and whined and buzzed around their heads. Birch rolled a concussion grenade toward the TAP security as Kaiden’s little team sprinted after Willow down a side corridor. The explosion rocked the corridor, but some security had already sped past the grenade and were firing at them.

  A bullet slammed into Kaiden’s backpack. He stumbled but kept running. He paused at a corner and released a burst of darts into the oncoming security. Several dropped. The rest scattered. Kaiden spun and sprinted down the corridor.

  Willow led them lower and lower, down to levels that Kaiden never visited except in his virtual exploration of TAP a few hours before. Willow drew up short before an elevator with blinking red lights. They gathered around her, panting. Kaiden scanned each of them quickly to make sure no one was wounded.

  “I’m not sure I want to jump into an elevator with TAP hunting me,” Birch said. “There’s no guarantee the door will open again. We could get stuck in there like fish in a fish tank.”

  They all gazed at Birch.

  “You have the weirdest way of expressing yourself,” Willow said.

  “What?” Birch said. “The fish can’t get out, can they?”

  The elevator door slid open, and Kaiden spun to face it. Greyson and Iris filled the doorway.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Descent

  “What the…” Kaiden jerked his rifle up, but Willow grabbed the barrel and cast him a confused expression.

  “Hang on,” she said. She glanced at Greyson. “Are you ready?”

  Greyson scowled at Kaiden’s rifle. “Didn’t we just save your bacon?” he said.

  Iris clicked her tongue. “I told you I didn’t do anything.”

  “Not now,” Willow said. “We don’t have time.”

  Kaiden didn’t miss the petulant glare Iris shot at him or the way her finger kept moving toward the trigger of her KMH 70 Manslayer Sniper Rifle. When loaded with a .408 mm x 60 mm exploding round, that gun would leave a hole the size of a grapefruit in a person. The new accelerated power gave it much higher velocity and an effective range of three miles. The big gun wouldn’t be of much use in a running battle, but Iris never fought without it. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed Kaiden’s scrutiny of her weapon.

  Kaiden grabbed Willow’s arm. “What makes you think this is a good idea?”

  “They’re part of your team,” she snapped and yanked her arm out of his grasp. She scowled in confusion. Then she drew Kaiden aside so the others couldn’t hear.

  “I thought you trusted them,” she said.

  “I did,” Kaiden said, “but I think they might be responsible for Quill’s death.”

  Willow blanched and cast Greyson and Iris a furtive glance. “You never said. How was I supposed to know?” Willow raised a hand to touch his cheek. Her fingers were cool. “Let’s just get out of here, and then we can discuss it,” she whispered.

  “We really don’t have time for this,” Birch said, raising one eyebrow at the sight of Willow’s hand on Kaiden’s cheek.

  Willow spun away from him. “Take off your wrist terminals,” she ordered.

  “Why?” Jade asked. Her chin came up, and her eyes narrowed. She raised her rifle without taking her gaze off Greyson and Iris.

  “Because they’ll use them to track us, even with the DWJ,” Willow said, “and we need to do something about that.” Willow pulled out several new wrist terminals from her pack. “These are set to a different frequency. They won’t be perfect, but at least they’ll make it more difficult for TAP to track us.”

  Birch tugged a little drone out of her pocket and attached their discarded wrist terminals to it. She sent it flying down a different corridor.

  “That should give them something to chase for a while.”

  When they finished, Iris tossed a bag full of climbing harnesses to Jade and held up a thick blue line that dropped through the floor of the elevator. Six other lines dangled beside it.

  “Hook up,” Iris said.

  “Where are you taking us?” Jade asked.

  Iris pointed to Willow. “Ask her. We’re just following instructions.”

  “I have another way out,” Willow said. “It’s our only chance.”

  They all buckled into their harnesses, but Kaiden kept an eye on Greyson and Iris. He couldn’t figure them out, and he couldn’t escape the lingering doubt that Iris had been the sniper who killed Quill. If she had, then why would she be helping him now?

  The touch of Willow’s cool fingers against his cheek and the quiet hug she had given him earlier had stirred him more than he cared to admit. Still, he couldn’t escape the nagging feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling him.

  Kaiden almost decided to leave them all and go his own way, but he couldn’t abandon Birch and Jade. And he hadn’t had time to formulate any other plan. He had thought he might have a couple of days at least, but things had taken a sudden turn for the worse, and the best they could do was improvise until he did have time to get reorganized. They all crowded into the elevator, being careful not to step through the hole in the floor, and the door swished closed.

  “Why are we repelling down an elevator shaft,” Jade asked, “when we could simply push the button?”

  Greyson grinned. “The buttons don’t work, sweetheart,” he said.

  Jade pointed her rifle at him. Her eyes narrowed. “You call me that again, and I will shoot you.”

  Greyson held up his hands, but the grin never left his face.

  “Go,” Birch said.

  Greyson winked at Jade and dropped through the hole. Iris followed.

  Someone pounded against the door.

  “They’ve found us,” Birch said.

  “They’ll blow it,” Jade said.

  Willow dropped through the hole. Jade followed. Then Birch. A terrible screeching sound shook the elevator as Kaiden jumped into the black hole. The rope buzzed through the belay device as he fell. Slits of light blinked past, marking each floor. Kaiden counted fifteen before the roar and flash of light filled the shaft. His line went slack, and he plunged into the darkness.

  Kaiden’s mind ripped open as the TAP discipline lashed into him. He screamed in agony. Terror boiled in his chest and squeezed his stomach tight. Nausea sw
ept over him. He was curled up inside the box, suffocating in the complete darkness. Spiders tore at his flesh. He was going to die. Even through the horror and agony of the discipline, he knew he was falling. If the discipline didn’t kill him, the fall most certainly would.

  Then, the sound of his mother’s voice echoed in his mind. “I love you, darling,” she said. Her arms encircled him. Her soft lips touched his cheek. He was safe.

  Kaiden didn’t fall far before he slammed into the ground. The pain jarred him out of the fog of the discipline. Someone was screaming. Hands grabbed at him, tugging at his clothing.

  “Move,” Birch’s voice penetrated the pain and the fear.

  Kaiden tried to scramble to his feet. Someone was dragging him. Debris crashed around him. Pain lanced through his arm as he slammed into a wall. The discipline ended, and he reeled in confusion, reaching for the wall to support him. Birch gripped his arm and dragged him to a sitting position.

  “Kaiden!” Birch yelled again. “What’s the matter with you?”

  Kaiden coughed. “Discipline,” he mumbled.

  Birch clicked her tongue in irritation. “So much for Flint jamming their ability to administer discipline,” she said to the others.

  Bits of the elevator still rained down around them. The acrid smell of high explosives, hot metal, and burning oil filled the air. Kaiden coughed again and scrambled to his feet. Jade dragged him toward the door, stumbling over the wreckage. They burst into a corridor to find the others waiting for them. Their discarded harnesses lay in a pile.

  “Are you hurt?” Willow asked. Her face tightened in concern.

  Kaiden shook his head and glanced at his arm. Blood was starting to soak the sleeve. Something poked out of the ragged tear. “I’m fine,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Birch said. She pulled a bandage from her bag, sliced his sleeve away with her knife, and gazed at the wound.

  “That’s a nice piece of metal you’ve collected,” she said.

  Jade bent to inspect it. Then, she yanked it out.

  “Holy…” Kaiden yelled.

  “Nothing serious,” Jade said. “You’ve got INCR like the rest of us.”

  Kaiden glared at her. Jade smiled prettily as Birch applied an antibacterial salve and a bandage.

  “Now, let’s act like we’re trying to escape,” Birch said as she shouldered her pack. “Unless you want to hang around and see if you can collect any more metal souvenirs from TAP.”

  “Weren’t any of you disciplined?” Kaiden asked.

  They all stared at him.

  “Guess you’re just special,” Greyson said. “Maybe Noah really cares about your future.”

  “Or maybe,” Jade said, “Noah knows you’re the leader, and he’s trying to scare you.”

  Kaiden grunted and snatched at the flashlight Willow handed him. They all knew Kaiden wasn’t calling the shots on this mission. This was all Willow’s plan. Maybe she had been manipulating them from the start. The smile that had twitched at the side of Willow’s mouth when Birch had teased him faded to a deep frown as if she knew what Kaiden was thinking.

  “Come on,” Kaiden said.

  Willow rested a hand on his arm. “Trust me,” she whispered. And she winked at him before she led them into the darkness.

  Kaiden scowled after her. He couldn’t escape the feeling that he was going to regret this, but he waited for the others to fall in line before he followed.

  His mind still felt cloudy from the discipline, and his head ached. But he couldn’t forget the powerful emotions that surged through him as his mother embraced him. Somehow, the memory of her presence had pushed the fear and the pain away. And it seemed that the discipline triggered these memories of the woman he now knew was his mother. But, if she was his mother, why did he love her and hate her at the same time?

  Kaiden flexed his arm. The wound throbbed, but it hadn’t been serious. The INCR would soon repair it, even though it had failed to save Quill. He glanced back at the tangled remains of the elevator. The beam of his flashlight cut through the settling smoke and dust. Noah had been serious. Kaiden was now an outlaw, and the best-funded, most secretive organization in the world would be chasing him no matter where he went. All he had done was postpone the inevitable. TAP would find him in the end.

  Greyson and Jade had taken up positions at the back of the line. Kaiden slung the rifle over his shoulder and plodded along behind them. What could he do but try to survive as long as possible?

  The walls of the corridor were round, smooth, and gray. Its ceiling rose twenty feet over their heads. A musty dampness coated the inside of Kaiden’s mouth.

  He noted with some amusement that Greyson kept glancing at Jade. Greyson had long prided himself on his abilities with the ladies in TAP. It was true that his close-cut black hair, dark eyes, and narrow face had turned many a young lady’s head, but Kaiden thought maybe he had picked the wrong lady this time.

  “So, where’s your family from?” Greyson asked.

  “TAP,” Jade said in a flat disinterested voice.

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know what you meant. Now, leave me alone.”

  “You always this friendly?”

  Jade ignored him.

  Kaiden liked Jade’s spunkiness, and it did him good to see Greyson get a bit of her temper. He deserved it.

  “I thought Indians were supposed to be these spiritually sensitive people who respected everyone,” Greyson said.

  Jade jerked the butt of her rifle sideways. It slammed into Greyson’s ribs. He doubled over, and she swept his feet out from under him, so he fell flat on his back. She leveled her rifle at his nose.

  “I told you to leave me alone,” she said. “When I want to hear you talk, I’ll ask you. Until then, keep your fool mouth shut.”

  Greyson slapped the rifle barrel away from his face and crawled to his feet. “Grow up,” he growled as he stomped off after the others.

  Jade let Greyson get ahead.

  “Thanks,” Kaiden said to Jade as he fell in beside her.

  Jade glanced over at him.

  “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” he said.

  Jade grinned. “My pleasure.”

  “By the way,” Kaiden continued, “I never thanked you for trying to protect me last night.”

  “It’s my job,” Jade said.

  “Not like that,” Kaiden said. “You risked your career and your life for me. I won’t forget it.”

  “Looks like I just lost my career, anyway.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that.”

  “Don’t be.”

  Kaiden glanced at her. “I’m still not clear why you decided to join us.”

  Jade looked over at him. Tears glistened in her eyes.

  “Because I’m alone,” she said. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

  This statement surprised Kaiden. Jade seemed so tough and professional. But maybe that was just a façade to hide her real feelings. Still, he wanted to comfort her—but how? He didn’t want to make the situation more awkward or get a rifle butt shoved into his ribs.

  “We may not be much,” he said, “but we’re a team.”

  Jade reached over and grabbed his hand. She squeezed it. Her grip was firm, and her hand smooth. “Thank you,” she said.

  A little shiver ran through Kaiden, and he squeezed her hand back before letting go.

  The corridor narrowed and pressed in around them, forcing them to walk single file. They stopped talking because the others were closer now, but their arms brushed, and each time they did, Kaiden experienced the desire to feel her hand in his again. It was a strange feeling. He had never felt drawn to any woman before—and now there were two.

  Greyson, who was the tallest, had to hunch over as the concrete tunnel nar
rowed and gave way to solid rock. It smelled of earth and age, probably because the moist air didn’t circulate much down here. The team traveled in silence for some time until a blue light flashed ahead. Willow answered with her flashlight, and the light flashed again.

  “It’s safe,” she said.

  “Who’s waiting for us?” Kaiden asked.

  Willow hesitated. She glanced down and pursed her lips. “You’ll see.”

  As they approached the blue light, a tall man with a rifle over his shoulder stepped out of the shadows into the beams of their flashlights. He wore jeans and a T-shirt stretched tight over his muscles, and he had a scruffy red beard.

  Willow shook the man’s hand. “This is Hawk,” she said. “He’ll lead us out of here.”

  “And who are you?” Greyson demanded.

  “Your guide.”

  “Evading the question?” Greyson said.

  “He belongs to the Destroying Angels,” Willow said.

  Five rifles snapped up to point at him.

  Hawk raised his hands in surrender and glanced at Willow. “I told you,” he said. “You should have warned them.”

  “Relax,” Willow said. “All of you.”

  “What are you doing, Willow?” Kaiden demanded. What made her think this was a good idea?

  “I’m saving our lives,” Willow snapped.

  “Funny way of doing it,” Greyson said. “Turning us over to TAP’s worst enemies.”

  “I’m not turning anyone over to anyone,” Willow said. “And in case you didn’t notice them shooting at us with live rounds and the explosion at the elevator, TAP is actively trying to kill us. We are now TAP’s enemies.”

  “She has a point,” Birch said, lowering her rifle.