The Chimera Vector (35 page)

The boys were the only ones with usable coms. She had to split them up.

‘Damien, Jay, we need you to communicate for the team. The shocktroopers and Denton can still hear what you say, so only use the coms when you’re finished. Use a code, something only you’d understand. And Jay, you need to disable the auxiliary power first.’

‘Why?’ he said.

Nasira sighed. ‘Are you going to question everything she says? She knows what she’s doing.’

‘Yeah, and I know this facility like the back of my hand,’ Jay said.

‘That’s nice, Jay, but I’ve spent more time studying the facility’s power grid than you’ve spent taking topless photos of yourself in a mirror,’ Sophia said. ‘If the auxiliary power’s disabled first, it creates a hiccup in the power flow. The blast doors reset. They’ll open and then close again. That’s my chance to get inside, take down the uninterruptable power supply and stop Denton from injecting. Then I can distract him.’ She wet her cracked lips, thinking through her plan as she told it. ‘Once the nuclear reactor goes offline, I can open the blast doors from the inside, overriding Denton’s command.’

‘Why are you the one to stop Denton?’ Jay said. ‘Shouldn’t you send a more capable person?’

She glared at him. ‘Like who? You?’

‘He has a point,’ Lucia said. ‘We injected them with the Axolotl vector. They have more chance of stopping Denton than we do.’

Sophia cleared her throat. ‘Fine. I’ll gain access, keep any shocktroopers out and let you in. And then it’s up to you to stop Denton. If I need to, I’ll stall him. Whatever it takes to stop him from preparing the vector and injecting himself.’

‘And then what?’ Damien said.

‘Kill him?’ Jay said.

Sophia eyed Jay carefully. ‘I’d prefer the honor, but if I can’t then don’t wait for my permission. Blow his goddamn brains out. Now, we have twenty-one minutes until this facility is vaporized. And seven minutes to stop Denton. Set your watches for seven minutes.’

‘Seven minutes?’ Jay laughed. ‘You know how far the reactor is from here?’

Sophia glared at him. ‘Do you have a better plan?’

He shook his head. ‘There isn’t a chance in hell we can pull this off.’

‘You’re such an optimist.’

‘I’m a ray of fucking sunshine.’

‘Then use your sunshine to tell Damien when you’ve disabled the auxiliary power. And try to keep it cryptic. Our comms are open. We don’t want to invite the whole facility to our little tea party.’

‘And then what?’ Jay said.

‘Then you meet me at Ground Zero. The Vector labs.’

‘Assuming we succeed,’ Jay said.

Sophia checked the magazine in her P90. ‘We have to.’

Chapter 37

Damien ran through the claustrophobic corridors of the facility’s sub-levels. Lucia was two paces behind him, boots striking grated metal. His lungs were burning for oxygen, but she hadn’t stopped to catch her breath once. He increased his pace until he was sprinting as fast as the narrow corridor’s sparse, weak lighting would allow. Every second or third fluorescent tube buzzed angrily as he ran beneath it.

His replacement vest from the aircraft hangar was making his armpits and neck itch. It was only when he tried to swallow and his mouth was void of all saliva that he realized how tired and hungry he was. He considered asking Lucia if she had any water in her webbing pouches, but then he reached the entrance to the nuclear reaction chamber and forgot all about it. The last time he was down here had been about a month ago. The door wasn’t as he remembered it. It was too thick for one grenade to breach.

‘This isn’t right,’ he said.

He could hear Lucia slowing her breathing. ‘Denton?’

Damien rubbed his nose. ‘He’s sealed it remotely.’

‘Oh good,’ she said. ‘So if we use our grenades to blow the door, how are we meant to take the reactor offline?’

Damien thought for a moment. He reached out and took the grenade from the pouch on her waist. Conscious of her watching his every move, he kneeled and placed both grenades on the floor by the reinforced door.

‘I’ll have to overheat the reactor,’ he said. ‘My ability. Thermogenesis.’

‘What about radiation poisoning?’

‘I have the Axolotl Chimera vector, you don’t. If anyone gets irradiated it should be me.’

‘You don’t have to do this,’ Lucia said.

Damien paused. ‘I do.’

‘Smells like a swamp down here,’ Lucia said. ‘I don’t like smells.’

Damien rested his stolen MP5 on top of the grenades. ‘I’ll be sure to wear deodorant next time.’ He carefully removed the pins from the grenades while the MP5 kept the spoons in place.

Lucia wrinkled her nose. ‘That would be worse actually. I was diagnosed with hyperosmia. It’s why Denton recruited me—my vomeronasal organ.’ She tapped the bridge of her nose. ‘It actually works. Yours doesn’t.’

Damien sniffed his armpit. ‘You should keep your distance then.’

‘You don’t smell that bad. There are good smells too. Pheromones.’

Damien felt his cheeks flush red as he removed the pin on the last grenade. ‘I thought they didn’t exist.’

She smiled. ‘Oh, they exist alright.’

Damien rose to his feet, satisfied the MP5 was keeping the grenade spoons firmly in place. ‘You should go help Sophia,’ he said. ‘I can do the rest.’

His lips were so dry they peeled from each other like sticky tape whenever he spoke.

‘And the radiation?’ Her raised eyebrow disappeared under the edge of her black bangs.

‘I guess I’ll be careful.’

He knew that was hardly going to convince her.

‘Not careful enough.’ She removed a blister pack from a pouch and popped two capsules. She took his hand and squeezed, forcing it open, then slipped the capsules into his palm. ‘Potassium iodate.’ She closed his fingers over them. ‘For radiation poisoning.’

‘If I’m quick enough,’ he said, ‘I won’t need them.’

She forced a smile and released his hand. ‘Smell ya later.’

***

The elevator was the quickest way down. Jay hit the button and waited. The feeling of having something meaningful to accomplish was pleasant and familiar. He had focus. And he needed focus or else he just ended up restless. It was damn good to do something worthwhile. Especially when he was doing it with Damien. And chicks.

‘Drop your weapon,’ Nasira said.

On second thoughts, he preferred it just with Damien.

Exhaling slowly, he said, ‘Bullets don’t exactly scare me as much as they used to.’

‘They will if they’re about to blow your brains out,’ she said, pistol aimed.

‘Hey, so maybe we got off on the wrong foot.’

‘Three rounds to the head,’ she said. ‘Not even a motherfucking salamander can regenerate that.’

‘OK, OK.’ Slowly, he lowered his pistol to the floor.

‘Take five steps back; take off your webbing and radio with one hand. If you go for your pistol, I’ll drop you.’

Jay measured the steps carefully, no sudden movements. When he reached the fifth step, he removed his webbing and radio. Once they hit the floor, Nasira dropped a pair of plasticuffs in front of him.

‘Put them on.’

She wasn’t close enough for him to attack. All he could do was pick up the stupid plasticuffs. He wrapped the nylon cable over both wrists, fed one end through the ratchet on the other. Slowly, he turned to face her. He didn’t hesitate to lock gazes with her. He wanted her to know how pissed off he was.

Nasira stood with legs shoulder-width apart, one slightly forward. Jay felt uneasy knowing he didn’t have his wingman this time. He’d known Nasira for a while now. A few hours. Long enough to know she’d kill him if he gave her good reason.

He held out his wrists. The plasticuffs hung loosely over them. He’d leave it to her to tighten them. If she was stupid enough to come any closer it was her fault really.

She remained where she stood. ‘I’m sure you have some brain cells left. Use your motherfucking teeth.’

Jay forced a smile, then brought his wrists up to his mouth and bit on the pointed tip of the cable. OK, so she wasn’t stupid, but he’d make sure she paid for this. He pulled the tip. The ratchet scraped over the jagged teeth of the cable tie. The plasticuffs were designed so once the tie ran through the ratchet it couldn’t be pulled back. It could only be pulled tighter.

He lowered his wrists, firmly bound.

‘Tighter,’ she said.

‘That’s what she said,’ he mumbled to himself.

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’ He tightened the plasticuffs until his fingers tingled. ‘Why are you doing this?’

Nasira gestured with her pistol for him to walk. ‘Because I don’t know if you can be trusted. And right now, that’s not a risk I’m willing to take.’

From a few meters back, she gave him instructions. Before he knew it, he was in a public bathroom and she was ordering him to sit between urinals.

‘For fuck’s sake, I could be helping you!’ he yelled.

She looped another set of plasticuffs around a water pipe. ‘You could also be sabotaging us. Fasten your cuffs to the pipe.’

Jay did as she requested.

Once she was satisfied, she said, ‘How do I get to the auxiliary power station?’

‘Maybe you shoulda thought of that before you screwed me over.’

She leaned in slightly, but not enough that he could use his legs to trap her arm or neck.

‘Don’t talk to me about betrayal,’ she hissed. ‘Your loyalties are indecisive at best. You know what that makes you, big boy?’

‘Definitely a Gemini.’

Nasira ripped off his throat mike and earpiece, then unclipped the radio from his belt. ‘It makes you a
piston agent
. Shifting loyalties whenever it fucking suits you.’

‘Considering I’m sitting between two urinals, that’s more like a “pissed on” agent, right?’ He smiled.

She flinched, but held still. He’d almost had her. She’d nearly moved into range.

‘Once I reach sub-level three,’ she said, ‘how do I get to the station?’

Jay ground his teeth. ‘I guess you’ll have to work that out for yourself.’

‘That arrogance of yours is such an endearing asset.’

‘Why, thank you. It was either that or get my nipple pierced.’

‘Where’s the station, Jay? It’s really quite fucking simple. Tell me or I make you tell me.’

‘What are you going to do, huh? Torture me? You don’t have the time.’ Jay tried to laugh, but got a lungful of urinal cake odor. ‘And even if you did, I wouldn’t tell you. Sister.’

She shrugged. ‘I can be quite persuasive.’ She pointed her pistol, one of those 007 jobs, at his leg. ‘Give me the directions or I disable your legs.’

Jay breathed in through his nostrils. He stared her down. ‘Let me go now or I disable your head.’

Nasira cocked her pistol.

‘First right. Continue about 200 meters. The door says
Auxiliary Power Station
.’

Nasira wiped sweat from her forehead. ‘I’d really like to kill you right now, but just in case you’re on our side, I’ll let you live.’

She walked out. Just left him there.

‘You stupid fuck,’ he muttered to himself. ‘You fucking stupid fuck.’

Chapter 38

Sophia found the Vector labs unguarded. There was one main entrance and it happened to be a bottleneck, flanked with equipment once used to program and torture her as a child. A chill crept across her shoulder blades. She suppressed the urge to shudder.

With one hand securing her P90, she pulled a stolen Blue Beret pistol from her holster, pulled the slide back and put the safety catch on. Cocked and locked. She offered it to Benito. It was a Browning High Power; bulky for close quarters, but it would do.

Benito shook his head.

‘Take it.’ She planted it in his hand.

His fingers closed unwillingly over the grip. She pointed out the safety catch. All he needed to do was take it off and he was ready to fire. He didn’t seem too impressed by that, but didn’t have a choice.

She checked her watch: 04:08.

Four minutes until Denton had the Chimera vector code ready.

Eighteen minutes until the facility was hit by a bunker-buster bomb.

She noticed Benito touching the ring on his wedding finger again.

‘When you were a boy,’ she said, ‘did you ever think you’d end up here?’

Benito laughed. ‘Not in a million years. I wanted to be a rally car driver when I was young.’

‘Why didn’t you?’

He gave her a wry smile. ‘I almost did.’

‘Almost?’

‘I actually started. Learned to navigate first. Began working with some of the local drivers. We competed. One driver, Rickson, he taught me how to handle the wheels. He was really talented.’ A smile crept along his face. ‘I got pretty good at it. Thanks to him.’

‘And what happened?’

He snorted. ‘My father told me to get a real job. A real education. So I did.’

‘I see.’

‘He was right in the end. I needed steady money, so I needed a steady job. And so here I am.’ He glanced at her. ‘What did you want to be when—’ He broke off, looked down. ‘Sorry. That was stupid.’

She watched him restlessly slide his wedding ring back and forth from his knuckle.

‘So you settled down, got married?’ she said.

He nodded, but didn’t say anything further.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said, ‘I’ll get you back to your family.’

He looked at her, covered his glance with a laugh, brief, ironic. His teeth were a dull white, but his smile was somehow calming to her.

She walked away from him, heading for the sliding glass doors. Anyone coming in here would have to come through these doors. She’d spotted a Class D fire extinguisher on the way in and decided to rig it so it would go off when someone entered.

‘You know, I named my daughter after you,’ he called after her.

She laughed, mostly to dispel her tension. ‘Does she know she’s named after a programmed killer?’

‘She’s not with us any more,’ he said. ‘It’s been three years.’

His words were quiet, as if he hoped she hadn’t heard him.

She couldn’t help but think of her parents, then felt selfish.

She stopped halfway to the fire extinguisher. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’