Nick. . .
Yeah, honey? He thought it abstractedly, trying to puzzle out the two men, two members in good standing of the office drone class, one maimed, the other . . . maimer? Nick nudged the first man’s head with his toe, turning his head this way and that. The ear in the other man’s mouth wasn’t his. It was someone else’s.
So this thing, whatever it was, wasn’t limited to these two.
Nick, get in the elevator and go down to the second sublevel. Now. Elle’s voice was more than a whisper now, and there was urgency in it.
He turned to Jon. “Elle says to take the elevator down to the second sublevel. Now.”
Nick didn’t know Jon that well. When the shit had rained down on them in the Cambridge Lab—belonging to the same company that was raining shit on them right this minute—he’d been on his second Ghost Ops mission. You go into battle a lot with someone and come out the other end alive, a bond is forged. After only two missions and the third one gone to shit . . . well, Jon could easily question the order.
Jon didn’t hesitate.
They both ran for the elevator and Nick punched in –2. The lights flickered, cut out, came back on.
“The fuck?” Jon said.
Nick shook his head. He had no idea.
Hurry, came Elle’s whisper in his head.
A click, then Mac’s voice. “In position.”
Nick tapped his ear. “Roger that.” He flipped to Haven. “Catherine. How’s she doing?”
Elle’s spirit was here in a way Nick couldn’t explain but knew was true. Her body, however, back in Haven, was in a sort of coma. Though Nick knew, rationally, that she was safe and in Catherine’s hands, the irrational part of him wasn’t happy with the situation. Whatever part of Elle was here couldn’t be shot and killed, but there was something going on that scared him down to the marrow of his bones. There was evil here. He’d been in lots of places where the forces of darkness operated. Where hatred and greed and lust for power were powerful motivators and he could deal with that. All warriors faced the worst of human nature and fought it. That’s why they were warriors.
But there was something about what was happening here that scared the shit out of him and he wanted Elle far, far away instead of here. In spirit rather than in body, but still.
Catherine’s calm gentle voice came on. Jon didn’t react and Nick realized that she’d switched on just his channel. “Elle’s fine. Vital signs are stable. I’m at her side and won’t leave until she wakes up or until you guys get back.”
Muscles loosened in his body. Catherine would stay by Elle’s side.
Don’t worry about me. The tone in his head was stern. Pay attention. You’re going to have to act fast. There was silence for a second in his head, and just as the elevator reached the second subbasement level with a ping, Elle reappeared. Two . . . things. Right outside the door!
Just before the door swooshed open, Nick tapped Jon’s shoulder and crouched. Jon followed his lead and dropped. “Two. All eyes,” he whispered and then the doors were open and they both moved forward, Nick right, Jon left and—
Oh God!
It was a massacre.
Dead bodies everywhere in the corridor, everyone in white lab coats stained with blood. Rivers of it. Some had been torn apart, not by knives but by what looked like bare hands.
The coppery smell of blood mixed with the tang of urine and the unmistakable stench of feces—the smells of violent death.
The linoleum floor was slick with blood, the white walls were stained with it, there was even spatter on the ceiling.
Nick!
Two . . . things came barreling around the corner, blood-spattered, mouths open, hands up into claws. They came as fast and as aggressively as any soldier, only these weren’t soldiers. Nick and Jon hesitated because these were clearly civilians. Or had been civilians.
A man and a woman in once-white lab coats, now stiff with blood. The woman was young, Asian, pretty. Or had been pretty. Now her face was contorted with inchoate rage as she sprinted screaming down the corridor, leaving the man behind. The man was thin, his lab coat flapping around his thighs, just as blood-stained, just as altered. He was balding with a comb-over hanging down over his eyes which bounced as he lurched down the corridor.
“Jesus,” Jon whispered. The man was running—trying to run—on a broken ankle. It was as if he didn’t feel it, didn’t even perceive it. It looked like all he felt was raw rage as he dragged himself as fast as he could toward Nick and Jon.
There was nothing human in their eyes, pupils expanded almost to the edge of the irises so that their eyes were black. The woman gave a banshee shriek and leaped, claws out . . .
Nick. . .
Jon took out the woman and Nick the man, red mists formed a halo around their heads, two perfect head shots so close together they sounded like one.
Down the corridor, to the right.
“Down there, to the right,” Nick said and it took effort to keep his voice steady.
Nick and Jon shared a quick glance then made their way forward, stepping over the woman whose brains were scattered over the floor and the wall. Her hands were still arched in claws. The man had fallen backward, blood seeping from the back of his head. The broken ankle was a compound fracture. White bone stuck out from the gray sock and the foot, connected only by skin, lay flat on the ground.
Pick up his pass.
Nick bent to unclip the pass from the pocket of the white lab coat. For a second, Nick studied the small sharp hologram of a successful middle-aged researcher with a kind smile. His eyes flicked to the still-grimacing face of the dead man. If he hadn’t been looking at the dead man and the hologram at the same time, he’d never have believed they were the same person.
Hurry.
Nick had to tuck away the utter dread he felt and concentrate on the mission. Of all the horrors of war he’d seen, this was undoubtedly the worst. Perfectly normal lab drones who’d suddenly turned ferociously feral.
He waved his hand forward and then right and he and Jon started forward at a trot, both of them sniffing the air. Something was burning. They started running. Being trapped underground in a fire was a nightmare. It had already happened to Nick in Cambridge and he wasn’t eager to repeat the experience.
They turned the corner to the right and saw a long corridor with a wall at the end. No doors. No elevator. Thank God at least it was free of bodies. They picked up their pace and just as Nick was thinking of slowing down to see if the badge would open something—
Hold the pass up—
The door at the back of the corridor opened up with the sucking sound of a seal being broken. A wind at his back cooled the sweat from his body. This part of the building had negative pressure. A lab dealing with hazardous material.
This is it. I’m going ahead. . .
Nick felt Elle’s presence as a faint glow in his head, growing fainter. He didn’t have time to worry about that though because he was looking at a series of transparent boxes. No, he thought, the hairs on the back of his head rising. Cages. Transparent cages.
For humans.
Ten of them, seven empty.
All around, monitors and holograms and equipment he had no name for. The room had the ozone smell of electricity and there was a faint hum of working equipment.
Suddenly, Jon took off, walking fast down an aisle, looking sharply into each cage.
The first cage had a tall dark-haired man in it who studied them, then opened his mouth. He was shouting, banging his fist against the cage, but there was no noise. He pointed desperately at a console in the middle of the room and Nick went over to stand in front of it. The man made an O with his fingers.
A button.
Nick looked down, frowning. There were five buttons. Black, white, red, yellow, blue. He looked up at the man who mouthed red and he pushed the red button. With a hiss, the doors opened and three figures stepped out of their cages.
“Sophie!” Jon shouted. “Sophie Daniels
! Where is she?”
“Sorry, man.” The tall dark-haired man shook his head. “They took her away and she hasn’t come back.”
Jon’s face was frightening, bright blue eyes like shards of ice.
One of the women—short, with frizzy red hair—spoke up. “Are you here to rescue us? Because we really need rescuing. And something really creepy is happening inside the building. If you’re here to rescue us we need to go, right now.”
“Not without Sophie,” Jon said, mouth a grim white line.
Nick held up a hand. “Elle sends us.” There was a low murmur among the prisoners. “We’ve got a van outside if we can find our way to it.”
“Where?” the other man asked. He looked about twelve, with blond dreadlocks, but he must have been at least eighteen. Elle said everyone had had to sign an informed consent release.
“On Bush, between Sansome and Battery.”
“I know a secondary way out,” the kid said. “It’ll take us right there.”
They all looked up as the lights flickered, went out for two seconds then came back on. They were dimmer now. The building was on the generator.
“Dudes,” said the kid, young face utterly serious, “we gotta go.”
“Not without Sophie,” Jon said, face set, nostrils flaring.
Honey? Could use a little help here.
Checking.
Nick took Jon by the arm and tugged him toward a corner. “Elle is looking for her. But if she’s not here, we gotta go, like the kid said.”
Jon huffed out a loud breath, like a bull. He angrily shrugged off Nick’s hand. “Okay,” he said through gritted teeth.
A siren sounded. Loud, like an air-raid siren. The former prisoners looked at them, faces pale, pinched, anxious. Nick understood completely. They had a stab at evading being treated like rats and then killed and they were being forced to wait. The red-headed woman let out a sob, then stifled it.
Honey?
She’s not here, Nick.
“Gone.” Nick met Jon’s eyes. “She’s not here. Elle looked for her but she’s gone.”
Jon stood, practically vibrating with tension, punched the side of a piece of equipment and turned to the prisoners. “Do we need to take anything?”
The dark-haired man thought, then shook his head. “If anything, you should download the data from the server. But that would take at least half an hour.”
“No.” Jon’s eyes narrowed. “Not half an hour.” He placed his top secret 100 terabyte flash drive into the side of a processer and switched it on. The sirens were booming now and the smell of smoke rose in the air. He pulled the drive out. “Done.”
“Wow.” The kid’s eyes rounded. “How did you do that? I mean—”
You have to get everyone out now. Follow Les, the young kid. He knows how to get out. Go now!
“That’s it, let’s go.” Nick started herding them toward the door, Jon standing guard. He had his rifle up, shouldered, the scope down, out of the way. The scope was a Warren 509 and could pick out rocks on the moon, but was worse than useless in close quarters.
Trying one last time to—
The voice in his head disappeared. Elle, whose soft presence inside him had been so incredibly reassuring, had winked out, leaving emptiness, coldness. Desolation.
Jon stuck his head out in the corridor, then motioned everyone to get out.
Nick stood there, like a moron. There was nothing to tap to get her back online, nothing to switch back on. Elle had disappeared and he didn’t have a fucking clue how to get her back. He missed her desperately and recognized now how much it meant to him to have her inside him.
One thing was for sure—he wasn’t moving from where he was without her.
A click, then Catherine’s voice. She sounded rushed and there were beeping machine sounds in the background. “Nick?” She was trying to sound calm but panic was riding her. “Nick, Elle’s vital signs are gone.”
He tapped his ear. “What?” he screamed. “What the fuck do you mean by that?”
Her voice was steadier. She’d put them all on the same channel and Jon turned his head to him, eyes wide in alarm. Yeah. Jon understood.
“I’m not getting any vital signs. Heart, brain, lungs. Stopped. Can you feel her?” Catherine asked. “Is she still there with you?”
“No!” No, no he couldn’t feel her. No, she wasn’t here with him. All he felt was cold isolation, not that warm connection that had accompanied him into the building, like gentle hands caressing him. Nothing—just blankness.
Fuck!
He turned around in despair. There was nowhere to look for her, nothing he could do to find her. Her body was two hundred miles away and her spirit was . . . where?
He turned and turned with nowhere to go, sweat breaking out all over his body, heart pounding beneath his rib cage. He must have looked like a madman, but he didn’t give a shit.
“Hey man, let’s go,” Jon shouted over the alarm. He was outside the door, the prisoners uneasily congregated around him. “She’s not here, we’re wasting time.”
The emergency lights flickered and went off, casting them into utter darkness for a couple of seconds. When they came back on they were even dimmer than before. Backup power was fading fast. And the smell of smoke was stronger by the minute.
Mac’s voice came on. “I’ve got what looks like fire on the eleventh and tenth floors. Fire engines are coming down Market. People are staggering out of the main entrance. We’ve got to go. That includes you, Ross.”
No, that didn’t include him. Damned, if he was going anywhere without Elle. Except Elle was back in Haven—
He heard a dull thump in his ear. “I’m defibrillating her, Nick.” Another thump. “But it’s not working. The EKG spiked but is flat again.”
“Try again,” he snarled and he heard another thump.
Silence for what felt like five centuries but was probably only five seconds.
Then Catherine came back on. “She’s dying, Nick. There’s nothing I can do.” Catherine’s voice was sorrowful. He could hear the steady hum of machinery that should be beating, together with her heart.
“No!” he screamed. Panic pounded in every cell. He’d never known panic like this. He didn’t know what the fuck to do. He’d been trained, and trained hard, to face any kind of danger. Bad guys with guns, ambushes, firefights—you name it, he knew what to do. But what the hell to do now, with a dying Elle two hundred miles away and a missing Elle right here—he had no clue. He met Jon’s eyes. “I can’t leave her. I can’t. Get out of here.”
“Dude?” The young kid stepped forward. He pitched his voice so it could be heard over the sirens. “You’re looking for Elle Connolly? Right?”
Nick jerked his head up and down. His throat was clamped shut.
“She could astrally project. That’s an electromagnetic phenomenon. There’s a Faraday cage four doors down. It says Lab Four on the door. Maybe—”
“Nick.” Catherine’s voice choked. “Oh, Nick I am so very sorry. She’s gone. Elle’s gone.”
“And we have to go too.” Mac’s hard voice didn’t betray anything, just resolute purpose. “You have a mission, soldier. Get out. Now.”
“No!” Nick screamed again and for the very first time in his life, he disobeyed direct orders. He waved at Jon. “Get these people out and into the van! I’ll be right behind you.”
Elle wasn’t gone. Elle couldn’t be gone. He’d just found her, after losing her for ten years. This wasn’t happening. He was going to hop into the van with the former prisoners and Jon and Mac, and they were going to drive as fast as the van could carry them to Mount Blue and away from this place with the stench of human sacrifice.
And Elle would be waiting for him, just as she’d be waiting for him every single day for the rest of their lives. She’d welcome the kid, the dark-haired man, the woman with the frizzy hair to Haven, and they’d stay. Of course they’d stay. They were renegades and they had special powers, so they would
fit right in, particularly with Catherine and Elle around. Woo-woo stuff was the staff of life on Haven now. There would be kids born who could levitate and travel in time and heal, and their kid would be one of them.
Because he and Elle were going to have kids, no question. He’d never wanted children. Why bring a kid into the world? The world was broken and there was no fixing it. Except—Elle wasn’t broken and neither was he. Their kids would be strong and talented and smart.
And he wanted them. He wanted it all. He wanted the fights they’d have and he wanted the makeup sex. He wanted to watch Elle bloom with his child as Catherine was blooming with Mac’s child. They were creating something in Haven. Nick had no idea what, he was a soldier for Christ’s sake. What did he know? But Catherine knew and Elle sure knew. He wanted to be there and he wanted her by his side.
She wasn’t dead. He wouldn’t let her be.
Jon was herding the fugitives down the corridor to the right and he looked back at Nick. What Jon was doing was a two-man job. It should have been one man taking point, the other watching everyone’s six. It was almost impossible for Jon to do it alone. Their eyes met and Nick couldn’t see any censure in Jon’s gaze. He was doing what he had to do so Nick could do what he had to do.
Teamwork.
That’s what he had with Elle, goddammit. They were a team, a couple. The two of them belonged together. Always had, always would. Nick’s vision blurred and he swiped at his eyes. Goddamned smoke.
He took off in the opposite direction.
“Nick!” Mac roared. He was watching their movements on his handheld and he saw Nick move in the opposite direction from Jon. “You head back right this second!”
Nick turned the sound down.
He pelted down the corridor as fast as his legs could carry him. It wasn’t the thought of Mac waiting or Jon and the fugitives that drove him. It was the thought that maybe just maybe he could save Elle. Crazy as that sounded. There was a 99 percent chance it wouldn’t work, but that was better than 100 percent. Because 100 percent meant Elle was lost to him forever—and he couldn’t, wouldn’t, accept that.