Apocalypse Island (49 page)

“How you wanna do this, Boss Man?” asked Short Tech. He was staring at the light-emitting room licking his lips, feeling a slight tug of influence on his willpower. Truth is he was on the verge of pissing in his pants. “We don’t have to go in there, do we?”

“Oh yeah,” Spencer replied. “You definitely have to go in there. It’s the only way. The dome will help to contain the blast and direct it into the hole, right where we want it.”

“Buh…but what if that thing
is
intelligent?” Tall Tech stammered. “You said you don’t know what the hell it is. What if it knows?”

For a short moment Spencer’s mind went back to the orphanage days and he remembered the upscale in activity whenever they’d caused any of the children pain or distress.

“Like I said, we’ve been studying it for more than three decades with barely a reaction out of it.”

“Yeah, but you just said seismic activity is up and it has influence over people’s minds. What if it can read minds and it knows we’re trying to hurt it?”

Spencer exhaled a weary sigh. He stood staring at the man for a long moment. Finally he said, “Can’t answer that. You signed on to do this job and you
will
do it. That’s final.”

Tall Tech looked over at the strange blue light pulsing from the room, nodded and licked his lips.

“My orders are non-negotiable,” Spencer said again. “You guys are to go in that room and arm the package with a two hour fuse. By the time it goes boom we’ll be halfway to Washington. End of story.”

Chapter 125

Wolf, standing at the vent, heard everything. He turned and looked at Eli in amazement. Eli motioned him away from the vent.

“We can’t let them do it,” Wolf whispered when they were out of earshot. “This is crazy. They’re going to destroy something they don’t even understand.”

Eli nodded his deformed head. “Yeah what’s new?” he said. “These are human beings we’re talking about.”

Wolf said, “You need to show me where Laura is now.”

“Last time I looked she had company.”

“I don’t care. I need to get her out of here.”

Eli pointed at the wall to their left and said, “There are men with guns on the other side of that wall.”

Wolf decided not to ask Eli how he knew this. Instead he said, “Can we get around them?”

Eli crawled back into the vent and Wolf followed. Back at the intersection Eli chose the second option. A hundred meters or so into the ductwork Eli stopped in front of another wall vent. He made a motion behind him with his hand for Wolf to be still and silent as he gazed cautiously through the vent.

Wolf knew that Laura was nearby. He could smell her.

Eli turned finally and said, “He’s gone. But he could come back any minute.” Using his small screwdriver, Eli then quickly extracted the vent screws, and with Wolf’s help, grasped the cover and lowered it to the floor. They stepped out into a dimly-lit corridor, moving carefully forward until they came to a door.

“Storeroom,” Eli whispered. “This is where they put her.”

Laura’s scent was overpowering now. Wolf could smell others as well, but Laura’s was strongest, telling him that she was closest to them. He pulled her automatic from his belt and surveyed the door’s lock.

Chapter 126

Laura was exhausted. Just when she had nearly given up hope that she would be able to free herself, the fingers of her right hand finally worked their magic, loosening the knot that bound her wrist to the bedstead. The hand, numb and prickly from the effort, lifted from the bed seemingly of its own volition, as though it were a helium-filled balloon. She tried to stretch her fingers out but her hand felt like a knob of wood with a thousand needles jabbing into it. After shaking the hand for a moment to get the feeling back in it she reached across and began clumsily untying her left hand.

She froze, hearing whispered voices somewhere nearby. She upped her pace, fearful that she’d be caught before she could finally escape. When she was free she slid off the bed, and holding her hands out in front of her she moved gingerly toward the sound of the voices, hoping and praying that she had the strength to overcome that son-of-a-bitch before he subdued her again. She had a vague memory of his hands exploring her body, fondling her breasts and...

A shudder worked through her. She couldn’t think about that now. She needed to concentrate. Her face throbbed, her hair was matted with blood and her head felt like it was about to explode. Even so, the ecstasy of finally being free sent a surge of adrenaline pumping through her system. She vowed that this time she’d fight to the death before she’d let that asshole lay another finger on her.

She came to a wall and moved along it until she found what felt like a door. She stood very still and listened, but the voices had stopped.

Chapter 127

Wolf and Eli stood quietly on the other side of the door. Wolf could smell Laura strongly now, as if she was right next to him. Deciding to make a bold move, he said, “Laura? Are you in there?”

“Danny?” Laura replied. “Is that you?”

“It’s me. Are you all right?”

“I can’t see a damned thing,” Laura said. “Get me out of here. Get me out of here,
now!
”

Wolf tried the doorknob but it wouldn’t budge. He shoved the gun back in his belt and looked at Eli in frustration. Eli pulled the screwdriver from his pocket and started working on the lock. But it was taking too long. “There’s a key lock on this side of the door,” Wolf told Laura. “Feel around and see if you can unlock it from your side.”

Laura ran her hands over the door until she felt the knob. Just above it she found the lock. One twist and she had the door open. With a sob she fell into Wolf’s arms.

“Oh, Christ, Laura,” Wolf said when he got a look at her face. “Who did this to you?”

“Now ain’t that cute,” someone said. “Lovers reunited.”

Still holding each other they turned their heads to get a look at who’d spoken. There stood a man with a gun. It was only then that Wolf realized Eli had disappeared.

“If you move I’ll kill you both,” the man said.

“That’s the son-of-a-bitch who did this to me,” Laura said. “I think you guys know each other, right?”

Chapter 128

“Stop playing games, Seph,” Jennings said as they descended the steep staircase. “What the hell’s down there?”

“I told you I don’t know what it is. You have to see for yourself.”

Wilder motioned for Jennings to keep moving.

When Jennings reached the bottom it struck him just how well-constructed, and how empty this place was. It seemed obvious that some sort of massive operation had once existed here. It had to have cost a fortune to put this all together. The walls were lined with bench-high electrical outlets and the ceiling was covered in row after row of fluorescent strip lighting, all of it on, all of it burning, as though the last person out had forgotten to turn off the lights.

“What about cameras, Seph?” Jennings said. “Surely they’re watching our every move.”

“There never were any cameras down here.”

“What? A facility this protected and no monitoring equipment?”

“Nope. Monitoring equipment’s too easy to hack into. Wasn’t worth the risk. They felt that the precautions they took were enough. For years they posted sentries, but once the technology was good enough they began watching from space.”

“You mean satellite surveillance?”

“Yup. Visible and infrared.”

“How come they haven’t spotted you?”

Wilder gave Jennings a look that said, ‘What are you, stupid?’

Jennings stared at her in amazement.

“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you,” Wilder said. She pointed the gun into the facility. “Let’s go.”

Jennings felt air moving past him, but it was warm and clammy, causing him to sweat, gluing his shirt to his body. And besides that there was a droning of some kind, low and steady, unpleasant, like a gigantic engine in the earth.

His mouth was dry, but not from the heat. Although he hadn’t had a drink in almost two years, he longed for a double shot of bourbon; something to take the edge off the madness.

The same nagging question kept cycling through his mind: why would the government build a facility this sophisticated just to do experiments with children? He was pretty sure now that they hadn’t. What they’d done to those kids was only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. Perhaps it had started with the children and then they’d discovered something else entirely that had caused them to change direction in a big way. Or maybe the kids had been integral to the whole thing from the beginning. Who knew for sure? Christ, he certainly didn’t. And Wilder was being so fucking cryptic. If what she’d told him was true, that Spencer and Robeson were here to destroy whatever “It” was, then he needed to think of something fast. He needed to find Laura and get the hell off this island.

For the moment his only choice was to play along and see if he could talk his way out of it. Wilder was a ruthless killer, no doubt about it, but he sensed that she possessed a certain level of compassion that he could use to his advantage. Just the same, he was not about to do anything stupid. She had a high intellect and he knew that she could see through bullshit like a tooth fairy sees through pillows.

“I know you had a partner through this whole thing,” he said. “Someone besides Big Sam. Someone who helped you use Sam. Care to share his name with me?” Jennings suspected who he was, of course. Ever since Wolf had mentioned the name, he’d been having a bitch of a time wrapping his brain around it. But now he was certain that in some twisted way it helped explain Jack Higgins’s murder. Jesus, he wondered if Laura had figured it out. An unsettling thought began to creep into his psyche. What if Laura knew more than she’d let on? He dismissed the thought. No, impossible. He was getting paranoid.

“Stop bullshitting me, Rick. You already know his name.”

“What I don’t know is why.”

“We were together in this place,” Wilder said. “We shared the same wonders and horrors. They broke him early on. He was emotionally weak, easy to manipulate. Doesn’t mean he’s not smart. He’s a marketing genius.”

“So I’ve heard,” Jennings said. “Seems each of you came out of this place with your own special...talent.”

“Call it what you want,” Wilder said dismissively. “Truth is every one of us is fucked up in some way.” She shrugged.

“I won’t argue that,” Jennings replied. “So, you find your boyfriend easy to manipulate?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“But he is your lover, right?”

Wilder made a rude noise. “Not really. We have sex. Keeps him on the path.”

“So when did he come back into your life?”

“Oh, about ten years ago.”

Now Jennings was nearly certain of what he’d suspected since hearing the name, the cold realization of it smacking him upside the head like a two by four. “Is he down here now, Seph? Are he and Sam waiting for us?”

“I’m tired of talking, Rick. Move!”

They were in an area where the huge basement seemed to be narrowing and dividing into individual chambers that were separated by deep, offset archways, honeycombed, like a labyrinth. Jennings walked ahead of Wilder, loosening his collar as sweat poured off him. Because of the archways he could not see from one chamber into the next.

“He took Laura, didn’t he?” Jennings said.

“Now you’re getting it.”

“Actually I’m not.”

“Oh, come on, you’re a good detective.”

“But why take
her?
I mean, why didn’t you just kill her when you had the chance? Get her out of the way.”

“Because she’s integral to the final equation.”

Jennings stopped, turning around. Wilder pointed the gun at him. “Keep moving, Rick. I’m not going to tell you again.”

“You can shoot me if you want, Seph, but I’m not taking another step until I know what’s going on. How is she integral? She knows nothing about this. I invited her here.” Jennings couldn’t shake the feeling that something fundamental about this case was totally eluding him. Jesus, he
was
a good detective. Why was he missing a vital connection? That Jack Higgins thing cycled around again. Why did he keep coming back to that? Because there was no other explanation. It had to be about Laura’s father.

Wilder smiled, as if she’d read his thoughts.

“I invited her here,” Jennings said again, but all the conviction had gone from the words.

“Good little actress, isn’t she?” Wilder said.

“You’re saying she knew all along?” Jennings said. “Nothing can make me believe that.”

“I think you do believe it,” Wilder said. “You’re just bullshitting yourself. Think about it, whose idea was it to start looking at Apocalypse Island? Yours or hers?”

Jennings didn’t have to think about it. He knew it was Laura’s. And he’d resisted her adamantly. Even when he’d threatened to take her off the case she’d insisted that Apocalypse Island was at the center of it. How had she come up with that? He went back in his mind and tried to make the connection but couldn’t.

“She took the ferry over here yesterday,” Wilder said.

“I know, she told me,” Jennings said. “She did it without my knowledge or consent.”

“I was on the same ferry,” Wilder continued. “It was uncanny, almost as if she knew who I was. She couldn’t take her eyes off me. I could have killed her the night before. I followed her home from the club and really freaked her out. I actually considered killing her right then and there, but decided I wanted to see what she was up to.

“So when she showed up on the ferry, well, I knew it was a sign. And then when the ferry docked, she followed me. So I hid and watched her and I knew.”

Jennings frowned. “What did you know?”

“I knew that she was a hunter. I knew that she’d come here to kill those responsible for her father’s death. She came here to finish what he started.”