Jezebel's Ladder (16 page)

He
dove
, searching for the
only person he knew he could trust in this maelstrom. He popped straight down
to Jez’s temporary apartment.

Her living room was lit by a tiny,
travel night light that had rechargeable, battery back-up for power outages,
part of Jez’s emergency, overnight bag. She hated tripping over strange
furniture in hotel rooms.

There was a man prone on the floor,
and Jez was smacking her new Taser, trying to get the green light to come back
on. “It takes a minute,” he explained. This time, Jez could hear him. “Nena is
the mole. She’s a Fossil clone. She’s got me tied up…”

Almost verbatim, she started to
recite his information onto radio channel two.

Muffled shots whistled in the
hallway. A body fell against the door, knocking it open.

“We’ve been breached!” she
announced. Another Nena walked through Jez’s door in the same black dress, but
with a Fossil headset and body armor.

This Nena was
almost
identical, but having a recent view for complete comparison, Daniel blurted, “This
one’s a little bigger in the behind than mine.”

Her arm muscles weren’t as toned
either. Oobie was about to guess aloud that his Nena attended morning exercise
sessions when the newcomer shot the radio out of Jezebel’s hand. The bullet was
a pancake round that shattered the communications gear. Only a few metal and
plastic fragments entered the target’s hand.

Clamping the hand with her blanket,
Jez howled. The Fossil agent tossed the Taser across the room with her free
hand.

Gritting her teeth, the acting head
of the LA office said, “Nena, are there nine of you?” All the badges, all the
scatter-brained lapses where she forgot trivial details made sense now. She had
alibis for all the thefts and betrayals because she was legion.

“I’m Una, the oldest. There are
only five of us now. You’re talking to Oobie, aren’t you? Tell him to go back
to Trina. We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to help her with this mission, and we
don’t want to lose her, too.”

“What?” Mainly, Jez was trying to
keep the woman talking. She knew Claudette was in her bedroom, trying to
assemble her shotgun in the dark while making no sound. Her friend needed cover
and the Ladder Project needed information.

Una spoke to the air beside Jez. “A
while ago, we replaced the red syringe by your bed with a morphine overdose.
Master Sam, Dr. Wannamaker, ordered us to put out the eyes of the enemy, keep Daniel
occupied and safe for the invasion. Convert Daniel if possible, but give him
the red injection otherwise.”

He felt like vomiting. Weiss had
already stopped the lethal injection once, but he wasn’t here tonight. The Houston doctor knew or might guess too much, and would have told someone the truth.

“You twisted bitch,” Jez snarled. “Stealing,
poisoning, and lying I expect. But pretending to like an innocent boy…”

“It wasn’t pretending, not for
Trina. She was raped when she was fourteen. All that hand-holding shit for
months was just what she needed. Damn you for getting her hooked with those
horses. Because of this crush, she volunteered to keep him occupied on a date.
If she doesn’t succeed, Master Sam is going to terminate her. We already lost
Dexy to the sick depredations of that monster, Maverick. I don’t want to lose
another sister. Get back where you belong, Oobie! The next wave will be here
any time.”

His recall key had been changed
today; they couldn’t force him to go back. If his side won, he and Trina were
probably both dead.

He told Jez, “It’s too late for me.
If she’s going to kill you, I don’t want you to be alone.”

The woman waving the gun asked, “Is
he still here?”

“Yes,” said Jez. “He won’t go. He
wants to be here for me when I die. He thinks of me as his sister.”

Una roared in frustration. “What is
this, high school? I won’t kill her as long as I get three things: the new
password to the safe, all her computer files on the Fountain of Youth, and that
butterfly necklace.”

Without batting an eyelash, Jez
said, “The password is W-H-A-C-K-A-M-O-L-E. My laptop is right over there. If
you bring it over, I’ll give you access to anything you want.”

Una called someone on her headset
and relayed the password. “Why is Octavia laughing?”

“It’s an arcade game. The object is
to smack a mole over the head,” Jez explained. “There is no Fountain of Youth.”

Oobie saw Claudette creeping out of
the dark recesses of the bedroom with a shotgun aimed. She was waiting for
Una’s pistol to be aimed somewhere other than Jez’s heart. The woman in the
wheelchair hadn’t seen Starlet yet. Oobie popped over to the door, pretended to
look out the opening, and shouted, “Rescue is coming down the hall!”

Jez echoed, “Down the hall? No,
it’s too soon! They’ll ruin the trap.”

Una spun to fire at the entry way.
Starlet blasted her hips with buck shot, pumped, and hit her again in the upper
body as she fell.

Given the damage, Una had to be
dead. Claudette removed the pistol and kicked her side to make sure.

“You were supposed to give her a
chance to surrender,” complained Jez.

“You’re welcome. I guess I’m not
cut out to be a judge either.” Into her own radio, Claudette said, “This is
Starlet. One Nena down, four to go. One is holding Oobie hostage, and the other
three are probably on their way to the HQ safe. I have Butterfly and we’re
going off the grid.”

Jez told Daniel, “Go. I don’t want
you seeing the rest of this. I also don’t want Trina killing you when the
shooting starts. Keep her occupied till this is over. Try to keep her alive. If
she hasn’t hurt anyone, we can ask her to read the Ethics page and question her
after its over.”

He nodded and popped back to his
body, dreading what torture might be facing him.

Benny dunked the offending memory stick into his tea thermos
and screwed the cap tight. Suddenly, his driver pulled off to the side of the
road. “Sir, the apartment building has been breached. I didn’t understand all
of it, but evidently Ms. Horvath poisoned some people to soften us up.
Butterfly and Starlet have gone to ground.”

Tan and the driver looked at Benny
for instructions. The actor wanted to drive back and defend his friends and
co-workers, protect everything he had worked so hard to construct the last five
years. However,
But
he would be useless, a
liability from both a strategic and physical standpoint. He growled and wanted
to break something. He promised Jez he would start the project over, but what
kind of man would let his injured girlfriend fight his battles for him?

Then the bottom of his thermos
shattered. Tea sprayed the floor of the limo. The driver whipped out a 45 but
could see no holes in the windows. The attack had come from inside the car. Tan
looked at the pocket where the memory card had been and back to the mess. “I
think you are smart to listen to Miss Jezebel.”

Benny sighed. He would stay out of the
melee till the dust cleared, but he wouldn’t sit idle. “Lose whoever might be
tailing us and go the Four Seasons Hotel. We’re going to start making more eyes
and ears tonight if we’re going to stay alive tomorrow.”

The driver waited for an opening
and then U-turned at break-neck speed across five lanes of traffic.

****

When the memory cards received the
assault signal, a small charge inside detonated. Cards that were plugged into
computers rendered those computers unusable. The seven devices that had been
kept in men’s hip pockets caused painful, debilitating, upper-thigh injuries
that were not fatal, but sowed panic and confusion among the Ladder Project
personnel. The man who’d used his inside vest pocket for storage incurred the
most damage.  Two comrades pulled him off the front line in a futile attempt to
save his life. To call them demoralized would be an understatement.

When Jez saw the first guard
bleeding from a hip injury, she knew that their defense was doomed. Taking
Starlet’s headset, she ordered, “Everyone who is inside the apartments, fall
back to the basement. Retreat to the basement laundry room.” They would make
their stand there until her reinforcements arrived.

Unfortunately, Nena had known the
frequencies. The emergency call would make the listening, enemy troops pour in
faster. Shortly after her announcement, their channels were jammed by
interference.

While Jez held the flashlight,
Claudette carried the shotgun and pushed Jez’s wheelchair to the elevator. “Oh,
fudge,” the Bible-belt belle exclaimed when she found that it had no power
either.

“We’ll take the stairs,” Jez
decided, trying to sound upbeat. This was followed by gunfire in the stairwell.
The sharp crack made both women jump. “Or we can hide in that nice room over
there.”

****

Daniel rejoined his body, ready for
anything, except what greeted him. A pair of sugar-cookie-scented candles
burned by the door. The faint, yellow flames illuminated the entrance, but left
most of the room veiled in shadow. Nena, or Trina he supposed, sat naked at the
end of his bed bawling and sniffling. “I don’t know what I did wrong. I tried
everything the way Quinn told me.”

Silently, he lifted the bar he was
tied to off the hook that held it to the ceiling chain. He knew from his
training that he should seize the element of surprise and choke her with the
bar. Instead, he acted on instinct by grabbing the tissue box from his
headboard and extending the box toward her.

The movement in her peripheral
vision caused her to level a gun at him. When she saw it was Daniel, she
softened. “Now I’m all red and puffy; it’s all your fault.”

He wanted to protest, but it seemed
futile. “I’m sorry. It was a big shock, Trina. I saw Wannamaker’s signature and
freaked. At least now I know why you beat me at my favorite video game.”

While she blew her nose and
recovered her dignity, he untied the stocking on his left wrist with his teeth.
The smell made him giddy again. Trina said, “Our egg donor was an Olympic
gymnast and marksman. Master Sam did everything he could to give us an
advantage, even a pheromone boost. We can’t turn it off, even if we want to.”
She had avoided elevators for five years because some men couldn’t handle the
concentrated doses in enclosed spaces. “You were the only guy who ever treated
me like a friend. Wait. You called me by my real name.”

He smiled. “I had a little talk
with Una. I agreed to stay here till the assault is over, whoever wins.”
Small-arms fire could be heard periodically throughout the complex. He focused
on her eyes. “And don’t worry; you’re still perfect.”

She licked her lips and looked down
shyly. “You’re just trying to be nice. We’re freaks, and I know it.”

He shook his head. “I am terrified,
but just talking with you…” With his one, free hand, he gestured at the raging
erection he was sporting.

Trina grinned. “Well, I sort of
cheated. I spiked your medication. I wanted our date to last all night.”

Panic crept in again. Daniel asked,
“Did you put anything else in it?”

“An experimental drug called Nova
our company is developing. Master Sam uses it all the time; I stole some of
his. It makes male orgasms ten times more intense. I…uh…wanted your first time
to be special. I thought if you liked it, we could do it again.”

He swallowed hard. White spots
appeared at the corners of his vision. “It was already special, because you
are.”

She stared at the door,
uncomfortable with the compliment. “You’re trying to make me cry again. What
are we going to do while the fight is going on out there?”

After he untied his other wrist, in
a hungry voice, he said, “More.”

Trina knocked him flat with her
enthusiasm, but he was able to hold on tight with both arms. They attacked each
other with such frenzy that neither noticed when the charges in the nearby
headquarters detonated.

When she slid on top of him, Daniel
gave a shuddering gasp, certain nothing could feel better. Seconds later, she
proved him wrong with every sinuous move she made.

****

A horde of hired gang members ran
like Vikings across the darkened parking lot toward the apartment building’s
front entrance. The Fossils used hired hands for this attack because actives
might have been detected too soon. From his observation post on the top floor
of HQ, Crusader signaled the men on the roof of the storage garage. Machine
guns fired into the crowd. The battle had been joined. Fossils weren’t the only
ones capable of surprises.

It would be a brutal exchange, but
the head of security thought the Ladder Project could make a clean sweep of the
thugs. On the radio, his guard at the clinic’s back door said, “Boss, the loons
in Ward Seven are going ape-shit. This Ragnar guy keeps shouting that zombies
are coming. It’s getting all the others worked up.”

Instinctively, he drew his sidearm.
Pacing Benny’s office, the heart of the trap, Crusader warned his men, “Incoming.”

Then the explosives Nena had been
hiding in the HQ for the last month triggered. She had put double the amount
necessary near the support beams, on the assumption that some of the packages
would be found and disposed of before they were needed. The explosion was
intended to take out the front security desk and shatter the glass entryway to
allow for easy access. Instead, the whole face of the building turned into
shrapnel, peppering attacker and defender alike. Without the supports, the
ceiling of Crusader’s third-floor office swung down on him like the jaws of a
predator. If he had remained at the window, he would have been a permanent part
of the debris. Instead, he was merely dazed and partially buried.
Unfortunately, he’d dropped his pistol in the collapse.

Insulation and dust filled the air.
Still, there were far more defenders than the Fossils were expecting. What had
been advertised as a quick smash-and-grab became a smoke-filled King of the
Hill by moonlight. Already inside, Octavia and her sister Quinn used the distraction
to sprint up the back stairs.

Crusader used his new talents to
ignore the pain and push against the rubble that had him pinned. Pushing
straight up didn’t work. No one on the radio was answering. Why? Communications
could be jammed. His headset might be damaged. Maybe the ringing in his ears
meant he was the defect in the equation. Perhaps everyone was too busy to chat
at the moment. Whatever the cause, he had to assume he was on his own.

Running a hand over the headset, he
found no breaks, but his hand came back red. He couldn’t wait for help to
arrive. Engaging adrenaline overdrive, he pushed the beam on his leg sideways.
It ground slowly to the left. Even with the added abilities from the new page,
his chest was pounding from exertion, and sweat dripped into his eyes as he
rose shakily to his feet. He was going to feel that tomorrow.

The sheer number of soldiers
swarming the parking lot below told him that the Fossils had committed
everything they had to this gambit. Jez had been right. He owed her a drink, or
whatever you bought an ex-drunk, to apologize for being an asshole. Johnson was
a handful. Still, he envied Hollis the adventure she presented.

When Crusader saw the matched set
of Nenas split off from each other, he thought the head wound was causing
double vision. Moving in perfect synchronization, each was dressed in
identical, commando-Barbie gear and had her blonde hair back in a tight bun.
Without hesitation, the one closest fired a Taser at him. He blocked with his
glove, grabbed the cable, and jerked the weapon out of her hand. While she was
still gaping at the feat, he swung the cable like a whip across her face,
leaving a bright, scarlet slash.

“That’s going to scar, beauty
queen,” Crusader gloated.

Then he realized only one girl had
the mark. There were actually two separate Nenas. The other launched an elegant
flying kick. He pivoted just enough to dodge the blow and redirected her
trajectory with a shove. The unmarked woman landed painfully in a pile of
broken glass and wiring. Now there was a Nena on each side of him, both
bleeding and pissed. One was giving instructions to the other, but he couldn’t
hear a word. That explained one problem.

Surrendering to the flow, he
blocked the first punch and hopped over the other’s leg sweep. He probed both, and
the marked girl’s reactions were slower. She couldn’t see as well on her
injured side. Their second attack was better coordinated. He hopped one kick,
only to have another catch him square in the back, bruising the kidney and snapping
a rib. He clamped down on the pain and switched to defense.

Watching them fight was like having
a front-row seat at the ballet. If they hadn’t been kicking his ass, he’d be
throwing roses for the performance. They must have practiced together for hours
a day, but choreography was predictable. Seeing their rhythm, he was able to
foresee and block nearly every blow.

Frustrated, Quinn drew her pistol
to finish the job. He grabbed Octavia by the neck and backed away. Quinn wouldn’t
fire into her sister. Octavia scratched at him with her French-manicured nails,
but she smelled fantastic. He shook his head to clear it.

The gun barrel moved to track his
forehead. She was going to take a shot soon. Blast. Out of options, he jumped
off the ragged edge of the building, taking one clone with him.

Quinn screamed with anguish as
another sister vanished. Over the radio, Master Sam said, “Focus! Get the pages
or you’re next. You women are
weak
.”

Tears pouring down her face, Quinn
marched over to the safe and tapped the code. It unlocked as promised. When she
swung the door open, however, the flash blinded her. Fortunately for her, there
was no one left to close the trap. Groping around inside the safe, she found it
empty.

Kneeling on the ground, she sobbed.
All the time, all the loss had been for nothing.

Master Sam blustered, “What is your
problem?”

She told him.

“End your life,” he ordered. “I
don’t care how. Use fire to eliminate all evidence of your existence, you
useless piece of garbage. I’m never building another woman.”

None of her sisters answered on any
of the channels. Too depressed to bother with the fire, she held the pistol to
her own head.

The speaker on the desk said, “Man,
that pissed me off and I’m not even a woman.”

Quinn hesitated. With a heavy,
Dutch accent, she said, “Who is there?”

“I am the Virus, the fire that
burns away the impure. If I can break it, it is not fit for Heaven. I am the
crucible of technology.”

She trembled. Was she already in
Hell? She was slowly regaining her vision as vague, watery blobs. “You helped
Jezebel escape.”

“I found no fault in her. I can
help you escape as well.”

“At what price?” she demanded.

“One you won’t mind paying. Kill
Wannamaker. You know where he is, and he’s been polluting my planet for long
enough.”

She nodded. “But I have to obey his
voice. I’ve been conditioned.”

“Turn to channel thirteen.”

As she did so, Master Sam’s voice
came over the headset. “I declare that your old life is over; your new name is
Sedna, the goddess of the underworld. You now answer only to that name. Can you
do it?”

Quinn/Sedna nodded. “He’ll probably
kill me, too, but I can’t stand the thought of being alone.”

In his own voice, Virus whispered
over the radio, “The last one is safe with Daniel—happy. Jez and Una sort of
arranged it together. I’ve steered everyone else away.”

That hope gave the last active
clone the courage to wander half-blind through the carnage, guided only by the
voice of a maniac, but that was normal for her.