Catalyst (Book 1): Decay Chains (23 page)

“Don’t do this,” he said. “Quit being difficult.”             

“You’re out of control. You’re killing people left and right. You leave me with nothing but sadness.”

Matt’s eyes said it all. Her message wasn’t getting through.

“You’re wrong.” He leaned in and whispered, “I’m leaving you alive.”

He turned his back to her and headed toward the stairwell.

“I’ll be back for you, dear,” he said. “I imagine you’ll take care of Jane for me?”

“I’ve got her.”

The rain glinted off his hair as he walked away. She lifted her gun and focused on her breathing as her finger sought the trigger. His back was turned. It was time. Stormy was mid-shot when she was struck in the head so hard everything went fuzzy. Her eyes watered and the rifle spun off to the right. The shot ricocheted off the soaked solar panels and dropped dead somewhere on the other end of the roof, far off target.

Stormy whirled around and returned a hit to Jane square in the jaw with her rifle. She was so pissed, she kicked Jane’s bad leg again and watched with glee as the injured operative collapsed before her. She looked back at the stairwell, but knew Matt was already gone. Her eyes only reassured her of her millionth missed opportunity.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

DAY ONE—MINUTES INTO EPIDEMIC: 00:00:42

“Matt’s on his way down.” Stormy’s mic had an unexplainable echo now. “Purdy, get me outta here.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Purdy said. “Only thing is we’re already back in the van. But you want us upstairs, we’ll be there.”

“No. I didn’t realize you were already out. Stay put and be on the lookout for Matt. I’ll rappel down instead.”

“Oh, hell yeah,” Purdy said. “Stan, you’re girlfriend’s coming down rappel style.”

“What?” Stormy asked.

“Uh, nothing,” Purdy said. “We’ll be waiting for him. See you in a few.”

Stormy left her hot mic up and turned her attention back to Jane. She leveled her gun at her. “Let’s get to know each other.”

“Oh, I know all about you,” Jane said.

“Well, tell me about you then.”

“We watch you like a lab rat. It’s fun to see how you suffer. And the look on your face when we blew up your car.” She smirked and leaned her head back. “Oh, truly classic.”

“That’s more about me. Tell me about you. What’s your favorite form of torture?”

“You are a sad soul, Stormy.”

“Come on, spill. Water boarding, good ol’ beatings, mutilation? Tell me.”

“I know how you cry on your runs. We all felt like that at first. Don’t worry love, this life gets easier after everyone you care about dies.”

“You have no idea how I feel or you wouldn’t go there. You would run from me if you understood.”

“I think I understand just fine. You’re the confused one.”

“Sounds like the one person you do care about is about to get mutilated by Matt. You sure you don’t want to talk?”

Jane had nothing to say to that.

Stormy dragged Jane to the ledge and hung her head over. Her head crashed down hard and her neck pressed into the concrete slab at an awkward angle.

“Let me know when you feel like chatting.” Stormy waited. Lit sirens dotted the landscape. She searched for the van, but couldn’t make it out. Rappelling into that mess wasn’t going to be fun.

She dropped her weapon to her side and forced Jane’s chin up. A smile gleamed beneath beaming eyes. Jane looked at the chaos below like a kid at Christmas. She was enjoying this. Sickened by her delight, Stormy pulled her away from the show.             

“Where’s your headquarters?” Stormy asked.

“Headquarters.” Jane laughed so hard she buckled over. “You don’t need excess people when you have intelligent individuals and infinite resources. Besides, we like the small business feel and low overhead of a close-knit family operation.”

“I love how economical you all are.”

“There aren’t many of us, but we have more people than you, quite honestly.”

“So, what’s this about, huh?”

“I don’t expect you to understand.”

“I won’t, trust me.”

“It’s not what you think. We aren’t monsters.”

“Stay focused. Money? Power?”

“Well, the cure is surely going to be worth something now won’t it? But think bigger, if you can.”

“Do you have the cure?”

“Of course not. I’m not the big fish in this pond.”

“Then why are we talking about it?”

“I’m not sure why I’m bothering to talk to you. You’re about a minute away from taking my life. I wish you would just do it already and make a martyr of me.”

“I’m not going to kill you. So this is some cult holier-than-thou shit?”

“No, not at all. I’m an atheist, you know.”

“Fucking what then?”

“You’ll see in time.” Jane looked somewhere between indignant and apologetic. “You’ll all figure it out eventually. It would’ve been nice to see your face. If I’d finished this mission, instead of failed, I would’ve had a bird’s eye view for the whole show. But I would’ve sacrificed that just to see your pretty little face when it was done. I think most of us would’ve. Shock and awe is never as good as when it is on the face of one of your enemies. You’ve made a lot of enemies, Stormy, in rapid time too I’d say. Good on you.”

“I really don’t like your tone,” Stormy said. “You’ve got the amount of time it takes me to drag you out of here to tell me what I want to know. Go out with a bang. Tell the truth. You don’t believe in an afterlife anyhow, so it’s not like you’ve got anything to lose. No redemption, hand of God, devil smiting, none of that shit awaits you.”

“That’s just it though. Keeping you in the dark a little longer is all I really want, in what turns out to be my incredibly short life. Since I won’t be able to watch you scream in agony, I’ll just leave you guessing how this ends. Matt should’ve stuck around a while to see what happens when you fall out of favor with Cold World.”

“You didn’t have much to say when he was here, but you’re awful chatty now.”

“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men won’t be able to put Matt’s sweetheart back together again.”

“Get up.”

“You’re such a bitch. We really could’ve been great friends I think, if you’d just been a tad bit smarter, Stormy. A little less idealistic too.”

Instead of fighting or having any adverse reaction, Jane snickered as Stormy dragged her by her hair, and at gunpoint, back to where her partner lay convulsing. Stormy kicked Jane’s feet out from under her and forced her head down. Jane screamed when Stormy’s boot impacted with her bad leg. The male operative rolled over and groaned.

Stormy counted on the inevitable. “It won’t be long now.”

Jane’s words were muffled. “I’m ready to go.”

Stormy looked at her watch. “No, you’re not, but keep telling yourself you are.”

Ian came up on the mic. “Are you coming down or not?”

“Please hold,” Stormy said.

“Whatever. By the way, I think your boyfriend took the back way out.”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear.”

The male operative moaned, stilled for a moment, and then thrashed about again. His face jerked in and out of Stormy’s view. She could see agony in his eyes, until they bled over in that familiar, fuzzy yellow. His eyes dilated, and lost their blue luster forever. Wouldn’t be long now. Jane stopped snickering and flailed against Stormy’s grip.

“You are clever, aren’t you?” Stormy said. “I thought you wouldn’t figure it out till he was chewing your arm off.”

“You go beyond your own values.”

“I fail to see what you mean. I must not be smart enough. You’ve got a minute or so, why don’t you explain it to me?”

“Fuck you, Stormy. You’re going to watch everyone die. They won’t kill you till last.”

“They aren’t going to kill me. It’s going to be the other way around. You’ll see. Oh, that’s right. No, you won’t. Not unless there is a camera in his stomach.”

“Go to hell.”

“I won’t be alone there.”

The male operative was alert again. His hands rooted around for a grip on the rooftop. He low crawled till he was on top of Jane.

“I told you I wasn’t going to kill you,” Stormy said. “I keep all my promises, every last one. And Cold World will not win. I will not die at their fucking hands, I assure you.”

“Stormy, do you need assistance finding your way down?” Ian asked.

Chewing and screaming drowned out Stormy’s last transmission to Ian. She walked away from the chomping and resulting agony to be heard.

“No, I can find it on my own, thanks. Leaving now.”

“You’d better be. Purdy’s threatening to leave you here.” There was arguing in the background.

Stormy smiled, they would never leave her here. They knew better. She turned back to the super just in time to see him clamp down on Jane’s neck, hard. Bright red blood shot everywhere. Apparently, Jane was a damn good bleeder.

Rain poured off the solar panels. This dreary morning was too much like the one this had all started on in an equally damned city several hours south of here.
Thank God for the rain. He doesn’t want the agent to work either.

Stormy watched the super with displeasure as he mowed down, and waited for Jane to stop convulsing. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her chest stopped moving.

“This is for Vicky.” Stormy put a bullet in both operative’s skulls. She pilfered Jane’s pockets and retrieved her cell phone. As she walked to the edge of the roof, she pressed redial.

“Going to kill you,” Stormy said when the ringing stopped.

“We’d love to see you try, Stormy.” The woman’s voice was sugar sweet, but it came out cruel. “Thanks for taking care of Jane. I never did like her. You saved me some blood on my hands.”

“Who are you?” Stormy asked.

“I’m Vector. Your worst nightmare, darling.”

“Let’s meet in person.”

“Come find me.”

“It’s a date. But we could meet sooner if you gave me an address.”

“Oh, that would spoil the fun.”

The line went dead.

“Ian, did you get that?” Stormy asked.

“Of course, I did. Why do you constantly question my mad skills?”

In the name of safety, Stormy took her time preparing to rappel down Vallexor. Out of self-preservation, she tried to fucking hurry. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she stepped off the side of the building and down into the makings of hell.

Josh looked up through the windshield at the side of Vallexor Industries. “She’s really getting a runner’s butt isn’t she?”

“Don’t talk about my butt,” Stormy said.

“Yeah, don’t talk about her butt,” Stan said.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Purdy said.

“Lean back more, Stormy,” Stan said.

“Stop mooning the cargo van and I’ll stop talking about your ass,” Josh said.

“It’s not my fault. These aren’t the right pants for rappelling down a damn building,” she said. “Bad idea to go with the low-rise today.”

“Just hurry up,” Ian said. “You look so ridiculous. It’s embarrassing.”

“Oh no,” Josh said. “You’re butt is gonna be on T.V.”

“Stop talking about my butt. Did you guys take out Matt?”

“Nope. Never saw him,” Stan said. “It’s been kind of hectic down here.”

“Maybe the cops will get something right and take him out for us,” Josh said.

“Doubt it. He took out six on the rooftop pretty much on his own.”

“He’s good at what he does,” Purdy said.

“He’s fucking fast is what it is.”

Stormy wanted to hurry, but every time she looked down she was twice as careful on her next move. Talking was making her out of breath, but it was keeping her mind off falling from the side of Vallexor and going splat on the concrete below. She was almost three quarters of the way down. If she kept her mind off the ground, she could move faster.

“Keep talking to me guys,” she said.

“You should wear those pants more often,” Josh said.

“Talk about something else.”

“Well, there is quite a commotion waiting for you down here,” Ian said. “You think you can get in the van faster than you’re getting down that building?”

“I can’t wait to be in the van.”

“We can’t wait either,” Josh said. “It’s time to go. For real.”

“Almost there.” Below her, supers were running the show now and the police were shooting at anything that moved. As soon as they saw her, bullets were going to start flying in her direction.

“So Matt was definitely working with Cold World,” she said.

“How in the hell did we miss that?” Josh said.

“No fucking clue,” Ian said. “It’s not possible.”

“This is what it sounds like when the Jobs twins make a mistake,” Purdy said.

“Pay attention, they are about to create a beautiful rationalization right before your eyes,” Stan said.

“Fuck off,” Ian said.

“Oh, that was just precious,” Purdy said.

Ian opened his mouth to respond, but a super slammed into his door and the moment was lost.

Stormy couldn’t help but beam when she let her rope out and took a giant hop down. Two equally large hops remained before she landed on the pavement. All hope of a graceful landing evaporated when the first bullet whizzed by. Instinct took over and she ducked, which sent her ropes haywire. She slammed face first into the building, crushed her mic on impact and lost Jane’s phone. Palms out, she pushed away from the building. She slammed into it again, but this time she was able to hit with her feet. Bullets lay waste to Vallexor’s exterior. She tried to ignore them. Dings and more dings rang out as she steadied herself.

At first, she thought it was her own reflection she caught in the window, but right away she corrected herself. Before she let the rope out again, she flicked off the super that eyeballed her from inside Vallexor.

The bullets came in steady sprays. Stormy was one hop from the ground and knew if she didn’t hurry, she wouldn’t make it down. Their aim was getting better with each spray, probably because she was coming into range of the firing squad. She took a final hop, but never hit the ground.