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“Don’t,” the first voice ordered. “You’re covered with the bug. It’s either this way or we will be forced to terminate you.”

  Terminate? Ash stayed where he was.

  Soon the spray stopped.

  “Remove your clothes and throw them behind you.”

  Ash hesitated for only a second, then stripped.

  Once more the flow commenced, followed by a strong stream of odorless water.

  As soon as it shut off, the first voice said, “There’s a wall three feet to your left. Follow that toward my voice about ten feet. There you’ll find a towel and some clean clothes. Please hurry.”

  Ash did as instructed. As he was toweling off, he heard the sprays come on again. Judging by the sound, though, it wasn’t flowing over flesh.

  Decontamination suits, he realized. Like the ones the people who’d come into his house—so long ago, it seemed—wore. That’s why the guy’s shirt had felt so strange.

  The clothes waiting for him were not the flimsy garments he’d been given while in his cell. There was a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a pullover sweater, socks, and a pair of sturdy but flexible ankle-high boots.

  “Ready?” the first voice asked a minute later, no longer muffled by what must have been the hood and mask of the suit.

  “Yes,” Ash said. He finished tying his last shoelace and stood up. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?”

  “Not until we get out of here,” the other voice said.

  A door opened, but the lack of light remained unchanged.

  The two men led Ash away from the room, one always keeping a hand on the captain’s arm.

  They’d been fast-walking for nearly three minutes when the guy in the lead let out a very low “shhhh.”

  They stopped in the middle of the hall.

  “Over here,” the lead guy whispered.

  Ash was ushered through a doorway, into a space that was barely big enough for the three of them. The door then clicked shut.

  A moment later, the sound of a single pair of running footsteps rushed by outside without stopping.

  “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.”

  L
ittlefield 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.

  He walked all the way down to Cell 57 and sat on Ash’s cot. He then had Brewer patch him through to Dr. Karp.

  “I can’t say that I’m pleased,” the doctor said when Littlefield finished his report.

  “I can’t say that I am, either.”

  “Is that it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then finish things.”

  “Yes, sir. I will, sir. Good luck.”

  Dr. Karp grunted a reply, then was gone.

  “Brewer?” Littlefield said.

  “I’m here.”

  “Initiate Protocol Thirteen.”

  7
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br />   Five minutes beyond the rock overhang, Captain Ash and his escort came to a tall chain-link fence. There were several rows of razor wire mounted to brackets across the top, meant to discourage anyone from climbing over.

  His guide pulled a small, rectangular device out of his pocket and stared at it for a few seconds before nodding to his right.

  “That way,” he said. “Seventy-five feet.”

  As they walked along the fence, Ash caught sight of the building he’d been freed from. It was really no more than a distant, half-lit blob. That surprised him. He hadn’t realized they’d traveled so far.

  What was even more surprising, though, was that there were no helicopters flying around looking for them, no vehicles racing across the desert hot on their trail, no apparent interest in them at all. Was it possible the Army didn’t even realize he was gone?

  “Found it,” his guide said as he dropped to his knees beside the fence.

  The man undid a couple of temporary ties from the chain-link, fence then pulled open a slit that had been previously cut into it.

  He shoved the messenger bag through first, followed it, then pulled one of the edges back as far as it would go. “Your turn.”

  As soon as Ash passed through, the guy hemmed up the fence, then said, “Not long now.”

  “And then what?”

  Ash got no response.

  The desert on this side of the fence was no different from that on the other, save for the fact that it wasn’t under direct military control.

  They found another ravine, this one only deep enough to cover them from the waist down. They followed it for several minutes before they climbed out and veered off to their right. In the sky, there was definitely something brewing in the East that would challenge the night for control before too long.

  They walked for five more minutes, then the guide said, “Wait here.”

  A minute passed. Then two.

  Ash was just starting to wonder if the guy was going to come back when—

  Light flashed, and a tremendous roar raced across the desert as the ground shook for what seemed like several seconds, knocking Ash to the ground.

  He pushed himself up and stared, dumbstruck, toward the middle of the valley. The building that he’d been held in was gone, replaced by flames so bright, his eyes hurt looking at them even at this distance. Above the inferno, a giant cloud of smoke rose into the air, lit from below by the flames.