Down Read online

  “None were reported.”

  “Good,” she said. “Let’s hope it stays that way.

  “We do have a potential problem, though,” he said. He explained about the phone call Harden had received and the general consensus that Project Eden forces might be on the way there.

  “Any way to know for sure?” Rachel asked.

  “Not from here. I was actually hoping you could check on that.”

  “I’ll get someone on it,” Crystal said. “No promises, so keep your eyes and ears open.”

  __________

  “THAT’S THE LAST of them,” Dixon told Ash as he and his partner, Cabrera, ushered another scrubs-wearing medic into the holding room on level six.

  The other team members were gathered by the elevator, ready to move on to their next floor. They’d become numb to the sight of wards filled with patients and had been able to pick up their pace, finishing level six in half the time they’d needed on eight.

  “Who’s staying on this level?” Ash asked.

  A woman raised her hand. “I am.”

  “Corrie, right?” he said.

  She nodded.

  “You know what to do?”

  “Yes, sir. Check the patient rooms every fifteen minutes, and if there are any problems, come get you.”

  “Right,” he said. He turned to the group. “Okay, everyone. We’re going up to five.”

  “Not four?” someone asked.

  “From this point forward, we’re meeting up with Chloe’s team. Let’s get moving.”

  The elevators were called and Ash piled into the first car with half his people. When they exited on five, the man guarding the detention room looked surprised.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked.

  Ash shook his head. “How close are you all to being done?”

  “Five more minutes at most.”

  “Is Chloe around?” Ash asked, hoping she’d returned to her team.

  The man nodded to his right. “That way, I think.”

  Ash found her working by herself, clearing another ward.

  “Thought we should work together from this point on,” he said.

  “Whatever you want.” She brushed past him and moved to the next door down the hall.

  “You’re supposed to be doing this with someone, you know,” he said, following her as she entered the new room.

  “I’m fine by myself.”

  The room was one of the smaller wards, ten beds only, and in a rare occurrence, one of the beds was empty. Chloe made sure no Project Eden people were present and then headed back toward the door.

  As she neared him, Ash said, “I just, uh, want to make sure you’re all right.”

  “I’m fine,” she said, her face expressionless. “Thanks.”

  He locked eyes with her. “I need you here, with us, not distracted. I realize there’s a lot going on in your head right now, but if you let that control you, you’re going to get people hurt.”

  Grim-faced, she stared at him before saying, “My whole life has crashed back down on me. How am I supposed to ignore that?”

  “I’m not asking you to ignore it, but I am asking you to focus on what needs to be done here, right now.” He paused. “This is the most important thing we’ve done since the fight began. I need you.”

  She blinked and looked away, then whispered, “He was a monster.”

  Ash said nothing.

  “He said I was no better than him for what I was going to do.” She looked at Ash. “Does that make me a monster, too?”

  “It makes you human, which is several steps up the evolutionary ladder from these assholes.”

  “I’m not so sure.”

  He put his hands on her cheeks and tilted up her face. “Chloe, you’re not the monster. You’re the slayer.”

  “Poetic,” she said, one corner of her lips ticking up slightly.

  “But true.”

  “Maybe.” She closed her eyes as if lost in thought, and then nodded. “I’m here, Ash. I’m right here with you.”

  __________

  WITH THE GROUPS combined, it took only ten minutes to clear each floor. As soon as they were done, Ash headed up to the hut that served as Dream Sky’s entrance.

  He clicked on his radio. “Blake, this is Ash. Do you read me?”

  “Loud and clear, Captain. Good to hear your voice.”

  “Can you patch me through to Ward Mountain?”

  “Yes, sir.” The radio was quiet for several seconds, then, “Captain, I have Crystal and Rachel on the line.”

  “Captain Ash?” Rachel said. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Everything is fine. I’m calling to officially notify you that Dream Sky is ours.”

  16

  NB016

  5:51 AM EST

  CELESTE LOOKED OUT the window at the dark streets of Brooklyn. Sunrise was still an hour and a half away, but it already felt like the longest night of her life.

  Reports of fighting had continued coming in from Project locations around the world. Casualties and damages were heavy in many places, and more than a dozen verified locations had been totally overrun and destroyed. Celeste knew that number would increase.

  And then there was Dream Sky, the nucleus meant to ensure that the human race thrived again. Other than the supposedly malfunctioning alarm, there had been no reports of attacks, but until Vintner arrived there and reported back that everything was fine, she couldn’t help but assume the worst.

  How had everything gone so wrong so quickly?

  Not so quickly, a voice whispered in her head. It was one she’d been ignoring for a while, but it was right. Things had been going off the rails since Implementation Day. And the cause of that went back even further.

  The so-called Resistance.

  The faction had been buzzing around Project Eden for as long as she could remember. Every once in a while, the Project would swat it down, but as far as she knew, none of the previous directorates had thought the Resistance was worth the trouble of eradicating. It had merely been seen as an annoyance that could be pushed to the side when necessary.

  That had been a colossal miscalculation.

  The buzzing gnat wasn’t a gnat at all, but a colony of wasps that had hives spread nearly as far and wide as Project Eden itself.

  Though Celeste had no proof, she was positive the group had been responsible for the destruction of Bluebird and the deaths of the original directorate on Implementation Day. This act of terrorism against the Project had set into motion the series of events that allowed Perez to become principal director in name and Project dictator in reality. Though his reign had been short, it was a disaster nonetheless, ending with yet another Project Eden base destroyed. Courtesy of the Resistance, no doubt.

  Those people should have been destroyed years ago, but she couldn’t change the past. She had to concentrate on the now.

  That brought up another equally troubling issue. While all bases had security personnel, most were no more than standard guards whose most difficult task was staying alert on duty. They were fine for crowd control at survival stations but any real heavy work was left to the strike teams, which were designed to react to problems quickly and efficiently.

  When the Project was being planned, it was assumed the only post-epidemic threats that might arise would involve small riots or the occasional military unit made up of people who had avoided exposure to Sage Flu. The primary response to that would be an aerial spraying of the virus on those causing the problem. If there were survivors, a strike team would finish them off. This meant that a single strike team could cover an area of thousands of square miles. If, for some reason, it required assistance, a neighboring team could be called in.

  What hadn’t been expected was anything like the worldwide attack the Project was experiencing now. Strike teams had needed to spread themselves thin, resulting in more casualties than Celeste cared to think about.

  The simple fact was, the Project had been pus
hed to the brink, and like it or not, it was up to her to keep it from toppling over the edge.

  First priority was to ensure that Dream Sky was okay. After that, she would consolidate resources and go after the Resistance. And this time it would be no mere fly-swatter job. The Project would have to crush the rebels.

  The door to the operations center opened behind her.

  “Ma’am?” Dalton said.

  Still looking out at the dead city, Celeste said, “Have we heard from Dream Sky?”

  “Vintner just checked in. His team is almost there.”

  “Thank you. I’ll be right in.”

  As the door closed again, Celeste looked east over the soon-to-be-rotting structures of man’s failed society. Her eyes might have been tricking her, but she thought the strip of sky at the horizon was beginning to lighten. Daylight at the end of the long, long night.

  A good sign.

  She hoped.

  17

  EVERTON, VERMONT

  6:03 AM EST

  “BOBBY FOR BLAKE,” Bobby Lion said into his radio.

  “Go for Blake.”

  Bobby looked at the monitor. At the moment it was displaying a feed from one of the cameras he’d hastily set up a few hours ago to watch the routes into town. “I’ve got movement on the highway to the north, heading our way.”

  “Vehicles?”

  “Yeah. Looks like trucks.”

  “How many?”

  “Unsure. Their lights are off, but there are at least four.”

  “Copy that. What about the south?”

  Bobby pushed the button that switched the monitor to a feed from the camera aimed on the only other way into town. “Still clear.”

  “Okay, thanks, Bobby. Let me know if anything changes.”

  “Will do.” Bobby set the radio down and looked over at his partner, Tamara Costello. “I was really hoping they weren’t coming.”

  She stared into the woods for a moment and then pushed to her feet.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “It doesn’t take both of us to do this,” she said as she picked up her rifle. “I’m going to see if Blake needs help.”

  “If he needed you, he would have said so.”

  “If I sit here doing nothing any longer, I’ll go crazy.” She stepped over and kissed the top of his head. “I’ll see you when it’s over.”

  “Be careful.”

  “When have I not been?”

  “Pretty much every day.”

  __________

  RENI HOLED UP in a house on Mersey Street, where she found winter gear—jacket, sweater, gloves, boots—that fit her well enough. Once outfitted, she spent the next half hour trying to calm down.

  Dream Sky had been taken. The base she and the rest of the security force were charged to protect had fallen into the hands of…of…well, not an unruly mob, that was for sure. The invaders were skilled and organized.

  Drop it, she told herself. Instead of speculating about who they were, what she really needed to do was figure out her next move.

  Contacting another Project base was a no-brainer, but it was not an option at the moment. She hadn’t been able to take any communications gear when she escaped, and the town’s landlines and cell phone towers no longer worked. Perhaps there was an electronics store that sold sat phones, but Everton was small so that seemed unlikely. Besides, any phones she found would likely need charging and the electricity was out.

  Hold on, she thought.

  If the people who’d taken over Dream Sky were as organized as they seemed, then they would have left some watchers outside. Those people would have radios at the very least, and probably even working sat phones. Find them and she’d find her means of contacting her superiors.

  So, where would they be?

  At the school in the center of town? Perhaps. It was an excellent position that provided a wide view of the town. The only drawback was that the hut entrance to Dream Sky was far from there. Someplace else, then, that had a closer view of the hut.

  The wooded hills just west of the field would provide a good view. The best, in fact.

  That must be it.

  She left the house and entered the forest at a safe point and worked her way around to the suspected location.

  She found two separate camps, about a hundred yards apart. The first was lit by a lamp on the ground and surrounded by equipment boxes, many of which were open and empty. Though she counted only one person, the snow around the area was packed down, leading her to believe many others had been there. On one of the closed boxes she saw the mega jackpot—both a radio and a sat phone. She gave the man a more critical assessment. He was large and had a physique that spoke of a military background. On his hip he carried a pistol, and Reni could see at least one rifle leaning against a nearby tree.

  She could drop him with a single shot, but without a sound suppressor for her pistol, it would immediately draw the attention of anyone else in the area and she could quickly lose her advantage. Sneaking up and getting the drop on the man would be more difficult, and if it turned into hand-to-hand combat, she was less than enthusiastic about her odds.

  She sneaked over to the second camp, hoping that would be better.

  While the camp was also lit, the illumination came not from a lamp but a television monitor. Sitting in front of the screen was a man in not nearly as good shape as the other guy. Behind him a woman sat on a box. She was smaller, the wiry type. More of a problem than the man, but Reni felt a good right to the jaw would silence any fight the woman might have in her.

  Individually, she could handle either of these two, but together one would raise the alarm while Reni was still taking care of the first.

  She was still trying to figure out what to do when the man leaned toward the screen and said, “Do you see that?”

  The woman looked over his shoulder. “What is that?”

  “Trucks, I think.”

  “Which way are we looking?”

  “The highway north of us.”

  “Is it them?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The man picked up a radio and communicated the information to someone on the other end. The other camp? She thought it likely, but the trees blocked the first guy from view and it was too far to hear anything from her position.

  The important thing, though, was that the man had revealed vehicles were heading this way, headlights off. To Reni that meant only one thing: the Project had figured out something was wrong here and sent reinforcements. If she could get to the road and meet them before—

  The woman rose to her feet and leaned over the man, momentarily blocking him from Reni’s view. When she straightened up, the two exchanged a few quiet words and then the woman walked off, leaving the man alone.

  Reni carefully circled around to make sure the woman had left and not just stepped away for a moment. When she was certain, she crept closer to the camp. The man was so focused on the monitor that he was completely unaware of her approach.

  She made it to within two yards of his back before he suddenly stiffened, as if listening. As he started to turn, she smacked the butt of her rifle into the side of his head.

  He fell off his chair, dazed, so she hit him again. This time, his eyes closed. She checked his pulse. Not dead, but definitely out cold.

  After tying him up with some of his wires, she grabbed his radio and did a quick search for a sat phone. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have one. The radio was better than nothing, though. At least she could listen in on what the others were planning. She stuffed the device into her pocket, took a moment to get her bearings, and then headed northwest to where the highway entered the town.

  __________

  “ALL RIGHT,” ASH told Blake over the radio. “Stand by. They’ll be there soon.”

  Harden had finally been able to string a portable antenna up through the shaft and into the hut so they could get a signal inside the Dream Sky control room.

  Ash handed
the radio back to Harden and turned to Chloe and Powell. “So?” he asked.

  “Not a surprise,” Chloe said. “We knew someone would eventually show up.”

  Powell nodded.

  “I was really hoping we were wrong,” Ash said. He thought for a moment. “Okay, here’s what I’d like to do. Chloe, take about half your team back up the emergency tunnel and guard the entrance in case they try to come that way.”

  “Okay.”

  Ash looked at Powell “The rest of Chloe’s team will help you guard this entrance, and I’ll take mine out to help Blake. If things go right, our new guests will never make it this far.”

  “If things go right,” Chloe said.

  “I appreciate the optimism.”

  “Just trying to keep it real.”

  He smiled. Though there was still a distant look in her eyes, Chloe seemed to be coming back around.

  “We should get moving,” he said.

  Unexpectedly, Chloe hugged him. “I’m, uh, I’m…” She pulled away and shook her head. “Try not to get killed, okay?”

  __________

  ACCORDING TO A map of the area, the highway the vehicles were on dumped into Everton near the northwest corner. Ash assumed if the occupants suspected something was wrong here—and why would they come if they didn’t?—they were likely to stop somewhere short of town and work their way through the woods to the north so they could sneak up on the base.

  Sticking to plowed streets, he and his team jogged through the predawn darkness until they reached the point where they had to leave the road and slog through the snow. Once they were under the cover of the trees, the depth of the snow reduced dramatically and they were able to pick up speed again.

  When they reached the base of the hill, Ash signaled for everyone to get down and then whispered, “Sealy, you’re with me. The rest of you wait here while we scout ahead.”

  After reaching the top of the hill, they looked out toward the highway, but their angle was bad so they couldn’t see the road. Ash spotted a shallow pass that ran through the hills just to the north.