Sick (4 page)

“They’re going to find out he’s gone,” one of the men whispered.

“It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of it,” the other one replied. “You get him out of here. You remember the way, right?”

“Are you kidding? This place is a maze.”

There was silence for a moment, then, “Okay. I’ll show you, but then it’ll be up to you.”

They headed back into the hallway, picking up their pace to a near run. They passed through two more corridors and made a hard turn to the left.

After another few moments, the one in the lead said, “It’s just up—”

Without warning, the emergency lights kicked on.

The guy who’d been holding Ash’s arm let go, then ripped something off his head. Night vision goggles. Both of the men had been wearing them. With the lights on, they had become useless.

“Come on,” the lead guy said. “We’re almost there.”

He had a short military haircut and was wearing an officer’s uniform with no insignia. The man next to Ash was dressed in clothes more like the blue jeans and sweater he was now wearing, and while this guy’s hair was also short, it had a distinct civilian look to it.

They ran down the hallway, took a quick bend to the right, then the lead man skidded to a stop in front of a heavy-looking metal door. As Ash and the other man ran up, he pulled it open.

Chilled air seeped into the hallway.

“Quick, quick!” he said, then pointed at an angle out the door. “Head in that direction. It’ll get you to where we were earlier.”

“Maybe you should come with us,” his partner said.

The first guy shook his head. “I can do more here.”

“They’re going to know someone on the inside helped.”

The lead man’s face grew hard. “Go. Now. You don’t have time.”

He shoved Ash and the other man outside then shut the door.

Ash’s escort seemed disoriented for a moment, then he took a deep breath and said, “Keep low, and follow right behind me.”

He took off across a wide space of leveled dirt, not waiting for Ash to respond. Though he was tired of not knowing what was going on, Ash was smart enough to realize now wasn’t the time to push, so he headed after his rescuer.

The man led him into a narrow ravine that had been carved into the desert. It was deep enough so that they could stand up without being seen by anyone at ground level.

They followed it for thirty minutes, finally stopping when they reached a rocky overhang. There, the man fell to his knees, reached underneath, and pulled out a cloth bag. He unzipped it and removed something.

“Here,” he said, tossing it to Ash.

It was a worn-looking leather jacket with a padded lining inside, and a stocking cap and gloves in the pocket. While it was definitely a cool desert night, it wasn’t that cold.

“Put it on,” the man said. “You’ll need it later.”

“For what?”

“To stay warm. What do you think?”

Next he pulled out a messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder. He then shoved the empty cloth bag back under the overhang. “All right. Let’s go.”

Ash didn’t move.

The man took a few steps down the riverbed before he realized this. “Look, we don’t have much time. If you miss the connection, you’re out of luck. So let’s move it.”

“No,” Ash said.

The man stared at him. “All right, fine. Then you can stay here and let them find you.”

“Why are you doing this?”

The man looked away, obviously not happy. When he turned back, he took a couple steps toward Ash. “If we’d left you in your cell, you wouldn’t have woken up tomorrow morning. You were no longer any use to them alive.”

“You saved me because they were going to kill me?”

“We saved you because…” He paused, then took a deep breath. “Yeah. That’s as good a reason as any. You can either trust me or not, but I can guarantee you one thing. Those people back there…” He pointed in the direction they’d come. “They don’t care a thing about you. It’s what’s inside you that’s most important to them. And they can’t get to that while you’re still breathing. Get it?”

He turned around and started walking, this time without looking back.

Ash stood where he was a moment longer, then followed.

6

Major Littlefield was in the cafeteria when the power went out.

“What the hell?”

He’d made himself a late-night sandwich as he waited for Ash’s final cycle to complete. It was already obvious that, once more, the bug would fail to take hold. The captain was as immune to KV-27a as a person could be.

From Littlefield’s understanding, the testing of the Ash children was proceeding slowly. But now Dr. Karp would have samples from an actual body he could take a closer look at and hopefully speed up the process.

The plan for that evening was simple. Once the cycle finished at two a.m. and the captain’s vital signs remained unchanged, the air to his cell would be slowly cut off and within an hour, he would take his last breath. This method would eliminate any chance of contaminating the body with whatever poison they would have had to use otherwise.

But now the lights had gone off, and the stupid backup power had yet to kick in.

He pulled his radio off his belt. “Control, this is Littlefield.”

“Control,” a voice replied. It sounded like Brewer.

“What’s your power situation there?”

There was a slight pause. “Sir, we’re in the dark. Literally.”

“Backup?”

“No, sir. Nothing.”

Littlefield stood up. “All right, I’m coming to you.”

“Sir, where are you?”

“The cafeteria.”

“I think you’re going to have a problem getting here.”

Littlefield pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, using it as a flashlight as he weaved his way out of the room. “Why do you say that?”

“When the power cuts off, the facility entrance automatically locks down until the electricity comes back.”

“Well, what about one of the emergency doors?”

“Those can only be opened from the inside.”

“Then get off your ass and go open one!”

There was no response for a moment. “The observation room door also locks down. Jones and I are, uh, stuck in here.”

“Jesus.”

Littlefield stepped out of the cafeteria and jogged quickly toward the entrance to the containment facility. There was absolutely no one else around. Not surprising since Littlefield had been left with only a bare-bones crew of five men including himself, more than enough to deal with the single person under their supervision. The rest of the team that had been at Barker Flats had either left with Dr. Karp and the children, or had relocated to Bluebird already. So with the exception of his team and Captain Ash, there was no one else anywhere on the decommissioned base.

“Are you telling me there’s no manual override?” he asked.

“No, sir.”

“Well, where are Causey and Ellison? If they’re not in there with you, they must be somewhere in the facility. They can let me in.”

“Not sure, sir. I’ll try to locate them.”

Littlefield reached the main door. Sure enough it was locked tight. He made his way around, trying each of the three emergency doors, but they were sealed shut, too.

“Control, have you found Causey or Ellison yet?”

“No, sir. Neither is answering his radio.”

A sudden chill ran down the major’s back.

“What was the status of Cell 57 when you were last able to check?”

“The captain was sound asleep. Vital signs unchanged.”

“Are you sure he was asleep?”

“Absolutely.”

That was good, but it still wasn’t enough to ease Littlefield’ mind. “There’s got to be a way for me to get in. Something—”

“Sir?” a new voice came over the radio.

“Who is this?” the major asked.

“It’s Jones, sir. I believe if you go to emergency door B, you might be able to get in there.”

“I’ve already tried each of the emergency doors. No go. All closed tight.”

“Yes, sir, but…”

“What is it, Jones?”

“Sir, I believe…if I remember correctly, there
is
a manual override outside door B.”

“I didn’t see anything.”

“It’s…hidden, sir.”

Littlefield began running back toward emergency door B. “How do you know it’s hidden?”

There was a pause. “One of the other men, sir. He left with Dr. Karp last week. He found it and showed it to me. We’d used it when we needed a smoke.”

That was a potentially serious breach of security. Jones should have known better. It would have to be dealt with later but at the moment, the major could take advantage of the rule-breaking.

“Okay, I’m here,” he said half a minute later. “Where is it?”

“If you face the door, you’ll see a little panel low and to the right, about three feet from the entrance.”

“I see it.”

“Open the panel, sir.”

Littlefield did. There was a lever inside in the down position, and above it, a series of six tumblers with numbers on each barrel.

“Okay,” he said. “I see the lock. What’s the combination?”

“Are all ones still showing, sir?”

“Yes.”

“Then you just need to pull the handle, sir.”

“The combination is all ones?”

“I…think it’s just waiting to be reset when the next permanent operation moves in.”

Good God.
How easily they could have been compromised if someone had snuck onto the base.

He pulled the lever and the door sprang open.

Inside the facility, he couldn’t see his fingers even if he tried to poke himself in the eye, so once again he resorted to using his cell phone as a flashlight.

“I’m in,” he said as he took off running down the hallway. “I’m going for the emergency power first, then I’ll check the cell.”

When he got to the emergency panel, his worst fear was confirmed. This wasn’t just a simple fault. Someone had tampered with it. Thankfully, it wasn’t enough to put it out of action permanently.

He spent several annoying minutes getting enough of it back online so he could engage the backup system. The moment the emergency lights flared on, he began sprinting toward Cell 57.

His radio crackled. “Major Littlefield?” It was Brewer again.

Littlefield raised his radio without slowing his pace. “What?”

“He’s not there.”

The major didn’t have to ask who “he” was. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir. The emergency power gave us some limited camera access. Cell 57 is empty.”

Littlefield nearly tossed the radio down the hall ahead of him. “Dammit!”

“Sir, where are you?”

“Approaching the cellblock-50 corridor.”

“Stop, sir! Stop and get out now!”

The major skidded to a halt. “What is it?”

“The door to Cell 57 is open and the cycle is running again. The cellblock corridor will be contaminated.”

The major stared ahead. Not just the cellblock corridor, he realized.

Fifty feet in front of him, he could see the open door to cellblock 50. Soon the whole facility would be contaminated. There was no question his own life was already over.

“Contact Dr. Karp. Inform him that the subject is missing, and that we are conducting a full facility search. Tell him upon completion we’ll be initiating Protocol Thirteen.”

“What? There’s no reason for—”

“Can you access the camera outside cellblock 50?”

“Uh, I think so.”

“You should look.”

The pause that followed lasted about ten seconds.

“Dear God,” Brewer said.

“The main corridor’s your only way out, and it’s been compromised.” What the major didn’t have to add was that the door to the observation room was not biosafe-rated. “We’re dead one way or the other.”

It was nearly half a minute before Brewer finally responded. “I’ll call Dr. Karp.”

Suddenly, Littlefield heard someone running farther back in the facility. Thinking that it might be Ash, he took off in pursuit, but whoever it was got out at one of the emergency exits before Littlefield could reach them. As much as he wanted to continue tracking the person into the night, in his contaminated condition it was no longer a possibility.

He spent forty minutes searching the building for Ash, but the only person he found was Sergeant Causey. He was lying unconscious in a supply closet near cellblock 30. The major decided not to wake him just to tell him he was about to die.

Ellison, though, was nowhere to be found, making it a pretty damn good bet he’d been involved in freeing Captain Ash. No matter. They’d both be tracked down soon enough. Dr. Karp would make sure of it. Littlefield was just disappointed he wouldn’t be there to pull the trigger when it happened.