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“This is a big mistake,” insisted Kira. “What about teaming up to prepare for the aliens? You know I wasn’t bullshitting. The world—which includes
you
,” she added pointedly, “will have the best chance to survive if we work together. Making full use of my collection of geniuses. Why would you give that up? Not to mention the secret to longevity? It makes no sense.”

Frey smiled. “I won’t be giving up a thing. We’ll still work together. We do still need to make sure my extended life isn’t cut short by these fucking aliens,” he said. “And I’ll still tap into your organization of sickeningly loyal geniuses. But you can’t have two equal partners. You yourself said a single dictator running the world was far more efficient than leaving it to bickering governments. Same is true in any business endeavor. You never want two fifty-fifty partners. You have one in charge and you have subordinates. So I’m just setting the tone. You’ll be a valued subordinate. Like Dutton here. I’ll decide if and when you’re enhanced, and how you’ll help us. And I’ll watch you to make sure I’m the one calling all the plays. I like to have leverage on people I work with, helps me sleep at night. When I have the proper leverage, you’ll have some autonomy again. But not until.”

“
You fucking bastard!
” snarled Kira, her face a mask of rage. “I can’t believe you’re doing this!”

“Come on, Kira. You and I are exactly alike. You yourself said that heaven was only good for the air-conditioning. Don’t pretend you’re motivated by anything other than total ruthlessness and self interest.” He paused. “And I came up with a great idea for leverage. You want to hear it?”

Kira seethed but didn’t take the bait.

“Remember when Putnam told you he had surgically implanted a powerful explosive in your skull, which he could detonate at will? Well that was just a hoax at the time. But it’s a hell of a good idea.”

“If you think you’re going to get the secret of my longevity therapy under coercion, you’re out of your mind. I was going to give it to you freely. But if you don’t reverse course on this, I’ll see you rot in hell before you get anywhere
near
it.” She paused and gathered herself, deciding to come at him from another angle. “Look, you’re an intelligent, rational man. Can’t you see the world is big enough for both of us? How can you not see that working together is in your own best interest?” she pleaded.

“There’s an old story,” interjected Matt Griffin from out of the blue, still sitting behind them against the wall. “About a scorpion and a frog.”

Frey turned and glared at the bearded hacker. “Did I invite you to join in on this private conversation?” he barked angrily.

“I just saved your ass from nuclear Armageddon,” replied Matt with uncharacteristic fervor, as though something had snapped inside of him. “So I invited
myself
.” His expression softened as he fought to calm himself. “To continue,” he went on as if he were never interrupted, “a scorpion asks a frog for a lift across a river. The frog refuses. ‘The second I let you on my back, you’ll sting me,’ points out the frog. ‘No I won’t,’ says the scorpion. ‘Because if I sting you, you’ll sink to the bottom, and
I’ll
die as well.’ The frog considers this and can’t find any flaw in this logic, so he agrees, and allows the scorpion to climb on his back. Halfway across the river the scorpion stings the frog. As the poison is taking effect, with his last breath, the frog says, ‘but why? Now
you’re
going to die too.’ The scorpion shakes his head sadly and replies, ‘I
know
. But I couldn’t help it. It’s just my nature.”

There was silence throughout the room as everyone digested Griffin’s tale. “Okay,” said Frey. “Good story. But now you’re done talking.”

“You should think long and hard about the moral of this story, Frey,” insisted Griffin with an air of contempt. “Your instincts are self-destructive. So why don’t you fight them? Why don’t you pretend you’re in this for your rational self interest instead of being a totally fucked up asshole.”

Frey turned to Griffin and without saying a word fired a tranquilizer dart into his stomach. “Did you not hear me say you needed to stop talking?” said Frey as Griffin’s eyelids slid shut and he slumped over, unconscious once again.

Kira shot Frey a withering stare.

“No reason to get upset,” he said with mock innocence, handing the tranquilizer gun to Dutton. “I’m just trying to help out. I’m guessing he needs just a little more rest and recuperation. Don’t you worry though, Kira. I have big plans for Matt here.”

Desh contemplated escape, but with his hands tied—tightly—behind his back with plastic handcuffs he didn’t have a chance. But as he had told Kira—when he thought she still
was
Kira—there was no honor among thieves. He would stay alert for a chance to create a wedge between Frey and Dutton. His initial attempt in Florida had failed, but there had to be some way to get them to follow their natural tendencies to stab each other in the back. He couldn’t turn Dutton against Frey, but maybe he could do the opposite. It was a long shot, but the only chance he could see. Until an opening presented itself, he would stay perfectly still and off the radar; a forgotten presence. Griffin had shown that sticking your head up could have unfortunate consequences.

“Matt’s story,” continued Frey as if nothing had happened, “cute as it was, missed the point. You’re no frog, Kira Miller. If anything, you’re a bigger scorpion than I am. We’re both wired the same way—at least now. If I didn’t take the upper hand, you’d eventually try to take it yourself. It’s inevitable. Putnam was trying to screw your brother. I was trying to screw them both. Round and round it goes, with the smartest and most ruthless ending up on top. And you’re already too damn smart for your own good, even without your pills.”

Kira was about to respond when there was commotion from just outside the door. The handle was turned roughly and the two snipers Frey had mentioned entered the room, supporting a limp male body between them. His head flopped down against his chest lifelessly, and blood seeped from a hole in his shoulder. As soon as they passed the threshold, the two mercs released the body unceremoniously and it fell to the floor like wet cement.

Desh’s mouth fell open, but he was able to recover before anyone noticed his reaction. He recognized this newcomer immediately.

It was Ross Metzger
.

Eric Frey didn’t have to know what was happening to know there was more danger here than expected. He pulled a gellcap from his pocket and swallowed it. He was now minutes away from being the absolute master of any situation that might arise. “Report!” he shouted at the two snipers.

“This bastard took out Curt and his entire team,” said the merc on the left. “Quietly, and without firing a single shot,” he added. “They’re all dead.” He pushed Ross Metzger’s body with his boot. “But so is he.”

“This guy took out four armed and trained men, all by himself?” said Frey in disbelief, and in that instant Desh realized Ross Metzger must have been enhanced. Ross was good, but he wasn’t
that
good. Desh remembered being a hostage years earlier, and facing certain death, when an enhanced Ross Metzger had came to his and Kira’s rescue, killing Alan Miller in the process. It was a bit of Déjà vu. Only this time, Ross wasn’t his ally. This time he was working with the poisoned Kira Miller for corrupt ends of their own.

The sniper nodded. “I saw him take out Dmitri through my scope. His speed seemed almost, I don’t know . . .
superhuman
,” he added, both fear and awe in his voice.

Frey gasped. He had finally realized that their mystery assailant was enhanced.

Which meant he could control his vital signs
.

Frey began to raise his arm to fire a bullet into Metzger’s head, but he could have been moving in slow motion for all the good it did him. Before his arm had moved a foot the bloody body on the floor twisted to the side and flung a stainless steel combat knife, which buried itself between Frey’s eyes, killing him instantly.

Metzger yanked the legs out from under both snipers beside him before they even registered that he had thrown the knife, and broke the neck of the merc to his left with the sound of a branch snapping in two. He was an instant away from breaking the second soldier’s neck when Andrew Dutton shot wildly at the blur on the ground using the tranquilizer gun Frey had handed him earlier. The dart hit Metzger in the leg, which wouldn’t have stopped him if it had been a bullet, but Metzger’s superhuman speed ended abruptly, like a video that had been in extreme fast forward being stopped on a dime—and he fell once again to the floor, blood still seeping from his shoulder.

“Get up!” shouted Dutton to the soldier lying near Metzger, whose life Dutton had just saved. Dutton rushed over to Kira Miller, grabbed a handful of her hair, and yanked her face toward his. “
Who is he?
” he demanded.

“I don’t know,” croaked Kira, wincing in pain. “He’s not with me.”

Dutton put a gun to her head and chambered a round. “
Who is he, and who else is coming?
You have three seconds!”

“Kill me and you’ll never see my longevity treatment!” she blurted out breathlessly. “I wasn’t planning a double-cross. Frey would have known. Think about it! I have no idea who he is. But if he has backup we’re sitting ducks in here,” she added.

Dutton turned toward the two mercs who had remained in the living room since Kira had entered. “You two are with me,” he commanded. “We’ll split up, recon the area, and meet outside this door in fifteen minutes. Look sharp.” He turned to the sniper he had saved. “As for you,” he added, “stay here and babysit these two.”

Desh had remained hyper-alert since the moment Metzger had made his move, waiting for an opening. During the commotion he had managed to come to a standing position by the wall without being noticed. Desh could tell that the sniper Dutton had ordered to guard them was still a little shaken from the torque Metzger had applied to his head and neck faster, and with greater strength, than should have been possible. Desh’s hands were still bound behind his back, but he readied himself for action and studied the man’s eyes. As Dutton left with the two armed mercs in tow, and closed the door behind him, the sniper shifted his gaze to follow and lowered his arm for just a moment.

This momentary lapse of attention was all Desh needed. He exploded forward and closed the ten feet between himself and the guard. The sniper raised his arm to fire as Desh collided with him, head down, and kept his legs churning, like a fullback running through an attempted tackle, driving him into the opposite wall with bone jarring force and causing the gun to fly from his hand. The sniper recovered from the initial shock and reached in his belt for another weapon, but Kira swept his legs out from under him and he fell to the ground, where Desh kicked him in the face with enough force to break through concrete. The man’s head snapped back and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Griffin and Metzger were still unconscious from the tranquilizer darts, and Frey and both snipers were dead. Only he and Kira remained standing.

Desh rushed over and dropped down onto Frey’s lifeless torso, angling back until his bound hands came into contact with the hilt of Metzger’s knife. He tugged at it until the blood-covered blade dislodged from between Frey’s eyes, which required more strength than he had expected.

Desh tried to maneuver the blade to cut through the hardened plastic of his cuffs, but his hands were tied too closely together and he couldn’t get the proper angle, or the leverage to do anything more than stab himself with the bloody knife repeatedly until fresh blood was leaking from cuts of his own.

“Give me the knife,” said Kira. “I’ll free you.”

Desh shook his head. Even if she were an ally, the plastic was too tough and his hands were too close together. She’d have a better angle than he did, but with her hands tied behind her as well, he was sure she wouldn’t have enough strength to saw through the hardened plastic. It didn’t matter anyway, since they were decidedly
not
allies. “Yeah, I’m going to give you a knife and let you use it near my wrists,” he said sarcastically. He had already done enough damage to himself.

“Then cut me loose and I’ll free you,” offered Kira anxiously.

Desh laughed at the absurdity of her request. “No chance. You’ll just kill me and escape. Jake was right, you’re the most dangerous psychopath on earth. That’s not going to happen.”

“David,” she said calmly, and it was the voice of the old Kira, the Kira he loved, which made him hate the current version even more. “I’m on your side. I’ve always been on your side . . . on
our
side,” she corrected. “I know I’ve been acting strange and I’ve deceived you, but it’s not what you think.”

“Save your breath!” snapped Desh in disgust. “You really think I’d buy any act you could come up with at this point? Really?”

“David, remember when you figured out that Alan was the one pulling the strings? And his exact plan? Remember? And you kept that from me. You weren’t sure how I’d react, and too much was on the line to trust my acting abilities. Remember?” she repeated urgently. “I thought we were dead, that we had lost
everything
. You
let
me think that—but for noble reasons.” She took a breath and hurried on. “Well this is similar; an audacious plan that Ross and Matt had to be in on. But you and Jim didn’t. I couldn’t afford to take any chances and tell you. Too much was on the line.” Kira’s eyes grew larger and she looked as pained and vulnerable as he could ever remember. “But I’ve never stopped loving you, David. With all of my heart.” She shook her head. “And I never will.”

God she was convincing, thought Desh. He
had
deceived her in a life and death situation—for good reason. So was this true? Was she just doing this to him in return? He wanted to believe her with every fiber of his being, but his rationality returned like a baseball bat to the head, and he cursed himself for allowing himself to hope, if only for an instant.

“
You really think I’m that stupid?
” he screamed bitterly. “I was there when you had your chat with Frey,” he reminded her. “When he was enhanced. I heard
everything!
You told him to kill me if he wanted. You told him you wanted to team up with him. That your sociopathic alter ego had absorbed your personality. And it was all true! Every word! Or Frey would have known.”