Deadline

  “Kelly, how did you—”

  She turned back to us, giving me a small nod.

  That was my cue. I offered Dr. Wynne another smile, and said, “We’ve been doing some digging, and we didn’t have a way of reang you that wouldn’t send up too many red flags, especially since the Doc wanted to be involved. We figured you’d want to know what we’d managed to find.”

  “And the guns were what? Just a precaution?”

  “Pretty much.” I lowered my gun. “You can’t be too careful these days.”

  “You let me think Dr. Connolly was dead.”

  “That’s true,” I said agreeably. “Mahir?”

  “On it.” Mahir produced a handheld reader from inside his coat and walked around to offer it to Dr. Wynne. “The information you’ll want to see is presently up on the screen. Read carefully. The implications can be rather unpleasant.”

  “When I sent Dr. Connolly to you, I expected you to disappear immediately,” said Dr. Wynne, running one big hand through his thinning hair as he looked at the screen. “It would have been the smart thing to do. If you’d dropped off the grid as soon as she got there, you could have been safe.”

  “You know we’ve never worked that way,” I said, surprised by the apologetic note creeping into my tone. I really was sorry. If we were wrong, and he only wanted to protect us—

  Shaun, said George. Shaun, stop a second. You need to stop.

  Dr. Wynne nodded as he scrolled through the material we’d collected. “This is some very good work. How difficult was this to find?”

  “Not terribly,” said Mahir, before I could speak. He looked at Dr. Wynne neutrally, and added, “It’s amazing how much of this was out there, floating around, and simply needed to be put together in the correct order.”

  Shaun—

  “Wait a second, George,” I said softly, watching Dr. Wynne’s expression. He was frowning with concentration, studying the data. “I want to hear what he has to say.”

  “Was any of it commissioned?” Dr. Wynne glanced up. “Is there anything here that you needed a lab or special access to find?”

  All Dr. Abbey’s research was conducted in a lab, and I didn’t know how much of it was available to the general public. We’d released some of it in the process of getting the rest of the data, but not everything, and not in a collected format. I opened my mouth to tell him that… and stopped, frowning.

  George spoke into the silence: He lost track of Kelly as soon as the building blew and destroyed her ID—the ID he gave her. He never questioned her death. He must have known. Shaun—

  “I know,” I whispered. And I did know, suddenly, and without room for argument: Dr. Wynne ordered the destruction of Oakland. Dr. Wynne killed Dave.

  “Know what, son?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” I swallowed my revulsion, forcing my face to stay neutral. “Is Kelly the last living member of her research team?”

  Dr. Wynne hesitated before nodding. “Yes. That’s why I knew I needed to get her out of here. I was worried that something might happen to her if she stayed.”

  “So you sent her to us?” He would have known her arrival would bring us all in from the field; he couldn’t send her out with false data—she’d know; she’d been on the research team too long for him to slip that by her—and the real stuff was more than enough to keep us stationary for hours. We were all home when Kelly got there. Even if we hadn’t been, I would have called anyone who was out on assignment and demanded they come in. Let her get there. Wait a few hours. And then unleash the hounds, knowing we’d all be in one place.

  “I knew I could trust you.”

  “Huh. Okay.” I raised my gun again, aiming it at him. Mahir and Kelly blinked at me, looking startled. “See, I would have sent her to Canada. Or maybe to one of the unsanctioned labs, the ones where they’d know what to do with the stuff she had. We were grateful for the story we couldn’t break and all, but it wasn’t the best use of your illegal resources.”

  “I don’t see what you’re getting at, Shaun,” said Dr. Wynne, looking up. His eyes widened when he saw the gun. “What’s that for? We’re all friends here.”

  “I’m starting to not be so sure about that.” Becks stepped up next to me, raising her own gun into firing position. “Why did you send her to us? What the hell made us so special?”

  “You were dangerous,” said Kelly, and gave the dry-erase board another glance before looking toward Dr. Wynne. “That was it, wasn’t it? You sent me to them because they were dangerous.”

  Dr. Wynne said nothing.

  I gave Kelly an amiable nod. “I think that means yes. So what screwed you up, Dr. Wynne? Did somebody read the time wrong?”

  Dr. Wynne frowned. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

  “We checked the Doc real carefully for trackers, but there weren’t any after we trashed the ID you gave her,” I said. “If there had been, I don’t think we’d have made it out. Somebody cared enough about killing us that they were willing to blow up half of downtown Oakland—”

  “I think you’re exaggerating a bit there, son,” said Dr. Wynne.

  “—but they lost track of us after that, didn’t they?” I kept my gun trained on Dr. Wynne, watching his face as I spoke. “Why do you care where we got our research, Dr. Wynne? Shouldn’t it be enough that we got it? If we can do it, anybody can.”

  “No, Shaun, not anybody.” Dr. Wynne shook his head, smiling a little as Mahir snatched the reader away from him. “You’d need some pretty specialized resources. People with inside data.” Kelly paled. “People who aren’t bound by American law.”

  Mahir’s eyes narrowed, expression going suddenly dangerous. “Are you saying, sir, that we were a perfect testin ground for the spread of information?”

  “I’m saying I expected you to run,” said Dr. Wynne. His tone was reasonable enough, still the warm, Southern-accented voice of the man who’d been there to welcome me and George back from the dead when the CDC took us off the highway. He ran a hand through his thinning hair, looking at me steadily. “I never gave you much credit for brains, Shaun—that was your sister’s department, God rest her soul, and if she made any errors in judgment, it was in trusting you to watch her back—but I still thought you were smarter than this.”

  My throat felt dust dry, making it impossible to swallow. “You take that back,” I whispered.

  Don’t listen to him, said George. All he’s doing is messing with you. He knows damn well that we would never have run. He didn’t expect us to.

  “That’s easy for you to say, George,” I muttered. “You’re the dead one.”

  Dr. Wynne’s eyebrows rose. “You really do talk to her. That’s… fascinating. I’d heard that, but I thought it was an exaggeration. Does she answer?”

  I glared at him.

  He raised his hands. “Now, son, I’m not trying to be insulting. I’m just interested. It seems a bit, well, crazy, if you don’t mind my saying it.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve heard it all before,” I said flatly.

  “We’ve said it,” added Becks. “Frequently.”

  “Dr. Wynne?” Kelly sounded… lost. For the first time since she’d shown up in Oakland, she sounded utterly and completely lost. She’d been scared, she’d been confused, and she’d been angry, but she’d never sounded like that. “Is he right? Is what Shaun’s saying… Is he right?”

  He half turned toward Kelly, lowering his hands. “It was never personal, darling. You have to believe that.”

  She shook her head, eyes narrowing. “I don’t know what to believe… but I do believe you sent me out there to die. The facts aren’t on your side.”

  “I suppose I should have considered this as a risk. They’ve managed to get to you, haven’t they? These silly people with their silly crusade against the status quo. Well, that’s why you went in blind, isn’t it?” He took a step toward her. “You know I never wanted to hurt you. You were one of my favorites.”

  Her lip t
rembled as she looked at him. The urge to believe was naked in her eyes. “I just don’t understand.”

  “Don’t worry. You don’t have to.” He smiled a little. “Just know that you helped me a great deal with my research, and someday—when the world is ready—your work will help a lot of people. Isn’t that enough?” He took another step forward.

  “Stop right there,” I said, sharply.

  And he lunged.

  I never would have guessed that a man that size could move that fast. In the time it took to shift my aim, he grabbed hold of Kelly, swinging her against his chest, and produced a gun from his lab coat pocket, pressing it against her temple. She squeaked once, sounding terrified.

  “Drop it!” barked Becks.

  “I don’t think so,” said Dr. Wynne mildly. “But thank you for asking.” He took a step backward, dragging Kelly with him. “You know, Shaun, I would never have tried this if we’d hit our original target. I wouldn’t have needed to. Georgia would have gotten the point when Tate made his grand, villainous exit. She would have left well enough alone.”

  “Don’t you talk about her!” I snarled.

  I didn’t realize I’d stepped forward until Dr. Wynne tapped the gun against Kelly’s temple again, making a “tsk” sound. “Now, you wouldn’t want me to slip and shoot this little peach, would you? She’s such an earnest girl. Never could believe the worst of anyone. That’s why this was inevitable. She could be useful only so long.”

  Mahir, meanwhile, was gaping. “You mean… I always thought he was a bit overblown at the end, a bit too much of a movie-reel villain. That was intentional?”

  “No need to look for shades of gray when an absolute black-and-white is in front of you,” said Dr. Wynne, reasonably. “We offered you a perfect bad guy, with no motives to question and no thought required. You were just too damn dumb to take it.”

  “Dr. Wynne?” whispered Kelly.

  “Hush now, darling, you be still.” He took another step backward. “You like stories, don’t you? Here’s a story for you. Once upon a time, there was a young doctor who wanted to save the world. But worlds don’t save easy, and this one needed to be damned a little longer before it would properly appreciate salvation. Salvation came with… complications. So he agreed to help some men who knew better than the rest of the world. Men who would be angels. And he learned that a man who controls enough can become an angel, too, in his own time.”

  “Okay, you win,” I said. “You get to be the crazy one. I give you the crown.”

  Dr. Wynne shook his head. “Here’s another story for you—one that’s going to be the truth very soon. I was stunned when the security cameras reported a break-in. It’s fortunate I came to work on time or there’s no telling what sort of damage you might have done before I could stop you. Of course, we suspected you might have had some involvement with the outbreak in Portland, but it wasn’t until you tried to repeat the event here that we understood just how far astray you’d gone. Without your sister to shore you up, and without a conspiracy to chase, you simply couldn’t face reality. You started making monsters out of thin air.”

  “Why is it you assholes always feel the need to tell the media your evil plans before you kill us?” asked Becks. She sounded totally calm. I have never been more proud of her. “Is it a union requirement or something?”

  “I thought you might like the truth before you died. You people are always so fixated on the truth. Like it’s more righteous than a lie, even when the lie protects what the truth would destroy.” His lips quirked in a regretful smile, making him look like the sympathetic figure who once greeted me with the news that I was going to live. I hated him even more for that. “I’m not afraid of being recorded. You can’t transmit from here, and it’s not like you’ll be leaving.”

  I forced myself to lower my gun, saying, “How about this. We all put down our guns, you give Kelly back, and we go. Okay? Nobody needs to die. It’s not like we can prove anything’s actually happening here.”

  “Oh, but you did prove it, you did—and you exposed some holes we hadn’t even considered patching. You did the work for us, and you’ve brought me everything we’ll need to repair the situation. Half a dozen researchers, a few dozen assistants, and all this goes away for another decade. That should be more than long enough for us to make some real progress on the problem, without sending the world into a panic.” He chuckled. At least he wasn’t backing up anymore; his back was to the counter, Kelly locked against his chest. “You get so hung up on your precious truth that you can’t see the big picture. If this information got out…”

  “What? People would know something?” Becks glared. “Your evil plan sucks.”

  “Why tailor new strains of the virus?” asked Mahir. “What does it serve?”

  “We’ll find one that doesn’t trigger reservoir behavior,” said Dr. Wynne. “Once that’s done, we’ll be in the position to pick the virus apart at our leisure. No more pesky moral issues with shooting the infected. No more unexpected behavior. Once it’s been normalized, once it conforms, we can finally get to work on a virus that does what we want it to do, that follows our orders, not anyone else’s. We’ll save the world the way we want to, in our own time, and we’ll get the proper credit. The reservoir conditions complicate things, and we can’t have that. Still, I’m sorry the strike on Oakland was called in early, Shaun. I really did like you. I’d hoped to spare you this very situation.”

  “What makes you think the information won’t get out anyway?” I asked, mildly. “I didn’t bring my whole team here. If we don’t check in, it all goes public.”

  “Ah, but by the time it goes public, we’ll have tied you to the outbreak in Portland, and possibly to the attacks on President Ryman’s campaign. You may even be the reason your sister died. You won’t be a hero, Shaun. You won’t even be a martyr. You’ll be the man who killed his sister for ratings, and the world will hate you.” Dr. Wynne smiled beatifically as he let go of Kelly and reached for the counter behind them. She didn’t move. Something about the gun pressed to her temple seemed to be dissuading her. “Nothing that comes out of your little tabloid press will be believed. It’ll just be the final thrashings of a madman.”

  You bastard, whispered George.

  For once, I was calmer than she was. “You’re an asshole,” I said.

  “Yes, but I’m an asshole who’s going to walk away from here alive, which is more than I can say for you,” he replied. He locked his arm aroundagain, pulling her toward the door. “Security is on the way. There’s nothing you can do.”

  When he moved his hand, I saw what he’d picked up from the counter: two plain ballpoint pens. “What are you going to do when security gets here?” I asked. “Scribble us to death?”

  Kelly’s eyes widened. She didn’t look lost anymore. Now she looked terrified. Even having a gun against her head hadn’t elicited that response. “What?” she whispered.

  “In a manner of speaking, yes,” said Dr. Wynne.

  “It’s a pen,” I said.

  Appearances can be deceiving, said George.

  Kelly looked at me, eyes still wide, and mouthed, “I’m sorry.” Then she reached behind herself, fumbling a scalpel from the tray of surgical instruments before driving it into the back of Dr. Wynne’s neck. He bellowed like a wounded bull, gun falling as he clapped his hand over the side of his neck. The hand that held the pens snapped upward, some sort of trigger releasing in one of them. A thin dart whistled through the air past my ear, embedding itself in the wall. Becks fired twice, one shot catching Dr. Wynne in the arm, the other going wild. I brought my own arm back into firing position and shot him squarely in the chest, right in the spot where he’d been aiming the pen at me.

  The impact whipped him hard to the side, and Kelly lost her grip on the scalpel, falling back. She slammed into Mahir. Dr. Wynne, still bellowing, raised the pens again, aiming at them. Kelly screamed and shoved Mahir to the side, sending him sprawling as Dr. Wynne’s knees buckled. r />
  Dr. Wynne fell hard to the floor, and Becks immediately shot him twice in the head. That was one body that wouldn’t be getting back up.

  Mahir staggered to his feet, careful to avoid touching Dr. Wynne’s blood. “Oh my God—”

  “Mahir, are you clean?” I demanded.

  He looked down at himself, scanning his clothing. “I—I think so. Nothing seems to have gotten on me.”

  “Great. Well, avoid fluid transfer until we can get you to a test unit. A non-CDC unit. Suddenly, I don’t trust anything in this damn building.” I lowered my gun, but didn’t put it away. “Come on, Doc. We need to get the fuck out of here.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said, sounding dazed.

  My head snapped up.

  There was a clear plastic needle embedded in her chest, glittering with a faint, oily sheen. “He shot me,” she said, staring at it. “Dr. Wynne shot me before he fell down. With the pen. Only it’s not a pen—it’s a defense mechanism. You can load them with knock-out darts, or lethal injections, or… all sorts of things.” She swallowed. “All sorts of things.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything,” said Becks.

  “Right. Because he obviously shot me with a ative or something.” Kelly shook her head, looking actively annoyed. “Don’t be stupid. We don’t have time for this.”

  “Fuck, Doc, just come on.”

  “No.” She turned and yanked open a drawer, pulling out a test unit. She slammed it down on the counter, popped off the lid, and shoved her hand inside. “I’m so sorry. I swear, I didn’t know. Maybe I should have known, maybe I was being a naive little idiot—I was so busy trying to do what I was supposed to do, and save the world, that I didn’t open my eyes—but I didn’t know.”

  “I believe you,” Becks said, softly.

  The lights along the top of Kelly’s test unit were turning red, one after the other.

  She pulled her hand out when the last light stabilized on red, shooting a challenging glare in our direction. “Now do you believe me? Dr. Wynne shot me, and I’ve gone into amplification. I’m done. It’s over. And I really think it’s time for you to leave.”