“Well,” she said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “I’m glad we made it in time.”
The entire room seemed to turn as one to look at them. Immediately, the five security men scattered throughout the space went for their handguns. They could have saved the effort. Before any of them had their weapon above their waist, Olivia’s people opened fire. The security guards dropped to the floor, dead.
Screams of terror and surprise filled the room, as those nearest the new arrivals moved away as quickly as they could. Several people went for the doors, trying to get out, but when gunfire rang out again, slamming into the wall near the exit, they pulled back.
Olivia rushed toward the front of the room, where an unremarkable middle-aged man sitting in front of a computer on a solitary table had just been handed an envelope by an older, but similarly unremarkable man.
“I’ll take that,” she said, snatching it out of his hand.
Forty-Five
I.D. MINUS 0 SECONDS
BLUEBIRD TIME 11:00 AM
THE DOP FROZE. Standing at the back of the room was Olivia Silva.
She had once been one of the brightest stars of Project Eden. In fact, KV-27a would not have been possible but for her early work. Up until that previous spring when they learned otherwise, they had thought she was killed in the raid on the lab where she had been doing her research.
For the initial seconds, he thought she’d come back to join them, but that idea immediately vanished when the people who’d come in with her opened fire on the security detail. Joining them was not on her agenda, he realized.
The Principal seemed to have come to the same conclusion. He rushed forward, his hand moving under his jacket. Just as he pulled out an envelope, there was another round of gunfire, this time aimed at the doors to keep anyone from leaving.
“Here,” the Principal said as he handed the DOP the envelope. “Input the code!”
The DOP turned the envelope over, and stuck his finger under the end of the flap. But before he could rip it open, Olivia was standing in front of him.
“I’ll take that,” she said, grabbing it.
She had come to stop them. He couldn’t believe it. The Project was something she’d believed in just as much as he had, but now she was going to keep it from happening.
“Why?” he asked.
“You know what we’re trying to do,” the Principal said. “If you stop us, you’ll damn our whole species.”
“Oh, will I?” she asked. She pulled out a pistol from her pocket, and pointed it at the old man’s forehead.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he said.
“Oh, please. I would.”
She pulled the trigger.
A collective gasp filled the room as the Principal Director dropped dead to the floor.
Olivia pushed the DOP out of the way, and sat in front of the computer. Without closing the activation window, she opened the program that ran Bluebird’s security system. Navigating it like an expert, she began sealing off different sections of the facility until the only exit from the Cradle would be out the emergency tunnel.
“There,” she said, standing. “I think we can relax a little now. Everyone move to an outer wall and have a seat.”
Slowly at first, but with growing speed that was encouraged by Olivia’s team, the Project Eden members did as ordered. All, that was, except for the Directors. Olivia made clear with her gun that they had to remain where they were. A few glanced at the floor where their former leader lay, while the others kept their eyes on her.
“How long did you know I was being held captive?” she asked them.
“We didn’t know,” one of them blurted out. “We were told you were dead.”
She looked at him with faux compassion. “Perhaps that’s what you thought, but what about the rest of you?”
Most nodded their heads, indicating they’d heard the same thing, but the DOP and the Director of Survival did not.
She looked at the DOP. “You knew, of course.”
“Not until recently,” he admitted.
“Let me guess. Last spring, when my friend over there delivered my message to Dr. Karp.” She nodded toward a man standing in the aisle.
The DOP looked at him, and squinted his eyes. Yes. It had to be.
Captain Daniel Ash. The very man whose immune system made it possible for the Project to come up with a vaccine for the virus. It was almost fitting he was here, though the look in the captain’s eyes was anything but friendly.
“So, over half a year,” Olivia continued.
Again, the DOP made no reply.
“Did you try to get me out at any point during that time?” She shook her head. “Don’t answer. You’ll only embarrass yourself.”
She returned to the computer and accessed a new area of the security program. When the DOP saw what it was, his eyes widened. On the screen were the controls for Bluebird’s self-destruct mechanism, intended to be used if there was no other way to protect the Project. But there was no way she could set it, was there? She would need the correct security sequence, and it was kept safely locked away in—
The vault in Costa Rica.
In the security boxes at every depot, there was always one that contained the self-destruct code for Bluebird in case it had to be remotely activated. The other boxes that had been opened had been a ruse to cover up what she really wanted.
Activating the sequence would still need one of the Directors to sign on, but he’d already done that for her.
Dear God.
Forty-Six
ASH HAD NEVER felt so relieved as he did when Olivia stopped the man from activating the release of the virus. He didn’t even flinch when she killed the older man. But when she started working on the computer again, he moved forward so he could see what she was doing.
She’d accessed a self-destruct system. Good. This place needed to go.
He watched as she set the timer to fifteen minutes, then hit Start.
Without getting up, she turned to the men she’d kept at the front of the room. “You’ll stay here. The world won’t be needing your services after all.”
One of the men said, “You can’t let us die in here.”
Ash started to scoff at the irony, but was cut off by the sound of Olivia’s gun. The bullet ripped into the man’s leg, sending him crumpling to the ground.
She looked at the others. “If any of the rest of you want to try to leave, I’m happy to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
There didn’t seem to be any takers.
“Good.” She glanced at Ash. “You and your friend should move out into the hallway with my men. We’re not going to have a lot of time to get out of here. I’ll join you as soon as I’ve had a final, private conversation with my old colleagues.”
There was a tingle at the back of Ash’s neck, that sense there was something he was still missing.
But the threat was over. Olivia had stopped it, and in less than fourteen minutes the entire place was going to be destroyed. If he wanted to get back to Josie and Brandon, Olivia was right. They needed to leave.
He nodded, and started for the door. Ahead, Chloe and the members of Olivia’s team were already filing out.
A few of the Project Eden people tried to go, too, but they were shoved back. Those that Ash passed pleaded with him with their eyes, as if he might take them along, but he had no compassion for any of them. They had chosen their path when they joined the Project. They could all go to hell as far as he was concerned.
Forty-Seven
OLIVIA TORE OPEN the envelope the late Principal Director had given to the Director of Preparation. This was it. The activation code.
The DOP had been so very close to being the one who carried it out. She couldn’t have that.
She removed the piece of paper, and read what was written on it—the code that simply had to be input on the screen, followed by the Enter key. One word followed by one number: EXIT 9.
Was there a hidden meani
ng to them? she wondered. Did it matter? The only important thing was that they were the two most powerful words in the world.
Five simple characters that could wipe out mankind.
If anyone was going to bring on that kind of chaos, it would be her.
She placed her fingers on the keyboard.
E-X-I-T-9
Forty-Eight
AS ASH REACHED the door, he heard paper ripping behind him. It was a familiar, distinct sound. Not a sheet being torn in half, but something slower with stops and starts along the way. As he turned to see if he was right, he heard the tapping of keys.
The Go code for the virus! Olivia had opened it and was entering it in the system.
His weapon was in his hand before he even realized he’d reached for it.
Olivia struck another key.
“Stop!” he yelled, moving forward.
She looked over at him and smiled. This was what she’d intended to do from the beginning, he realized. This was what she’d been hiding. She wanted to both destroy the Project and bring its nightmare to reality.
“Olivia, don’t do it!”
She raised her right index finger, letting it hover over the edge of the keyboard.
Over the Enter key.
Forty-Nine
THE ONLY THING Sanjay has tried that keeps Kusum from running away is to promise that if nothing happens in the next few days, he would take her back and turn himself over to the police. He knows she can tell he’s not lying, and eventually she gives in.
He drives them deep into the countryside, where neither of them has ever been before.
He assumes Ayush has died. His cousin looked nearly dead the last time he saw him, so Kusum is the only thing he has left.
As long as he can save her life, she can hate him forever.
JESSICA WHITNEY SITS numbly at her brother’s desk. She still cannot comprehend that he is dead.
Killed by an explosion? It just doesn’t make sense.
The only reason she has come to Palmer Transport & Shipping is to find a list of his contacts and clients, so that she and a few of her cousins can start letting people know in the morning that he’s gone.
Her eyes wander over his desk, stopping momentarily on a pad of paper near his phone. On it, in typical John fashion, there are the doodles and scribbles he often made when he was on the phone. It’s a new sheet so there aren’t quite as many marks as usual. Some are impossible to read, while others—“H-K,” “WHO,” and “container”—are clearer.
What any of it means, she has no idea.
Unexpectedly, her sadness overwhelms her. She rips the sheet from the pad, and crumples it into a tight ball. When she finally gets up, she drops the paper into the trash and never thinks of it again.
PATRICIA MENDES IS also in mourning. In her case, it’s for a brother and an uncle. Their deaths are surprisingly similar to the man in Perth’s, and two other people in Cleveland, though she will never know this.
The police have already decided that Rodrigo must have discovered a drug lab and had let Uncle Hector know. It’s as good a story as any, and both her brother and uncle come out heroes who were trying to do the right thing.
The true story of what happened, she keeps to herself, along with the guilt she will carry until she takes her last, gasping breath.
JEANNIE SAUNDERS IS coughing again.
Thankfully the attack only lasts for a few seconds. Her chest muscles are so sore, and her throat so raw, she is sure that soon she’ll pass out from the pain. It would be a blessing, actually. A way not to think about anything.
Corey is dead. No one has told her this, but she knows. She can see it in their eyes, even behind the protective suits they wear when they come into her room.
What happened to Blanton, she has no idea. She should ask, but she doesn’t have the strength.
What she really wants is to go home and lie on her bed.
She closes her eyes, that thought on her mind, and dreams that’s exactly where she is.
IN A VACATION home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Tamara Costello and Bobby Lion spend their time either watching TV or walking along the nearly deserted shore. It is cold and the ocean looks angry, but the only thing on either of their minds is the phone Tamara carries in her pocket. Will it ring? And when it does, will Matt tell them it’s time? That the video they hope they never have to show anyone needs to be released?
There is no way to know the answer. All they can do now is wait.
RICH “PAX” PAXTON once more tries to reach Gagnon on his satellite phone. For hours his calls have gone unanswered, and he is concerned. He has tried Captain Ash, too, but received the same results.
He and his team know the research facility on Amund Ringnes Island is exactly what it claims to be and not home to Project Eden. This means either their assumption about Bluebird’s location is wrong, or it’s on the same island Ash and Chloe and Red are on.
That’s why the unanswered calls trouble him so much. If Bluebird is on Yanok, he worries that something has happened to the others. He wants to go there right now and make sure they’re all right, but even if Gagnon answers, Pax and his people won’t be going anywhere soon.
A storm is moving in, and it’s a big one.
IN A SECRET basement known as the Bunker, below the burning hulk of a building that was once called the Lodge, a teenage girl named Josie Ash sits alone in her room, her back against the wall.
Though there are others in the Bunker with her, she has never felt so isolated. Her thoughts run to her father, off on some unknown mission, and to her brother, trapped outside the Bunker where the killers are. She is supposed to be watching over him, taking care of him. She can do neither now.
Without realizing it, she begins to rock. Just let me wake up, she thinks. Let this be a nightmare.
Then she realizes that while she isn’t asleep, a nightmare is exactly what this is.
BRANDON ASH PUTS a hand against the cut on his cheek. He got it while he ran behind Mr. Hayes. It stings but it’s not too deep.
“We’ll wash it out once we get some water,” Mr. Hayes whispers.
Brandon nods. Water or no water, he’ll be fine.
He wonders how far they’ve gone into the woods. It can’t be too far. He can still hear the thumping of the helicopter, and thinks he can hear the crackling of the fire, too. He can’t, but it doesn’t matter.
They’d seen the blaze for a few minutes while they hid near the edge of the forest. Two blazes, really, because both the Lodge and the dormitory are on fire. Brandon worries the flames will reach the Bunker where his sister and the others are. More than once, Mr. Hayes tells him it’s impossible.
He hopes Mr. Hayes is right.
THE COMING STORM has moved ashore on Yanok Island. Both wind and snow are fighting for dominance, though neither can claim victory.
Captain Daniel Ash knows nothing about the storm at this moment, but even if he does, he wouldn’t care. His focus is on the woman at the other side of the room.
Their eyes are locked. He knows what she is going to do. He wishes there were another way he could stop her, but there isn’t.
There is only one thing he can do. As he makes this decision, he sees in her eyes that she’s made hers, too.
Her finger is already in motion when he pulls the trigger.
Thank you for Reading EXIT 9
Up next, book three — PALE HORSE.
Pale Horse
A Project Eden Thriller | No. 3
And I looked, and behold a pale horse;
and his name that sat on him was Death,
and Hell followed with him.
—Revelations 6:8
IMPLEMENTATION DAY
Thursday, December 22nd
World Population
7,176,323,921
Change Over Previous Day
+ 280,229
One
BLUEBIRD, YANOK ISLAND
11:03 AM CENTRAL STANDARD TIME
&nb
sp; DANIEL ASH LOCKED eyes with Olivia Silva, his gun held out in front of him.
For a moment it was as if time itself had frozen solid.
Then the corner of her lip curled up in the slightest of smiles.
Oh, God. No!
Even as he thought this, he squeezed the trigger, but her finger was already plunging toward the ENTER key.
Two
RIDGECREST, CALIFORNIA
8:25 AM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME
MARTINA GABLE’S PLAN had been to sleep as late as possible. She’d arrived home the previous evening, after spending the first few days of her winter break getting in some extra workouts at Cal State University Northridge’s athletic facility. Like most freshmen, she had wanted to come home right away, but she knew if she put in a little more time at the gym, it would go a long way toward scoring points with Coach Poole and the other members of the softball team’s staff. As good as she had been at the game in high school, she was just one of a hundred or so equally talented players at the university vying for a spot on the squad.
It had been a good move. Only two other freshman girls and one sophomore had hung around, and the coaches seemed both annoyed that more hadn’t stayed and pleased that Martina and the other three were there.
Instead of trying to one-up the other girls, Martina had gotten them to work together, helping each other like teammates would. It wasn’t any kind of strategy on her part; she was just good at that kind of thing. But it was clear from the comments she received from the coaches before she left that her leadership skills had not gone unnoticed.
The Project Eden Thrillers Box Set 1: Books 1 - 3 (Sick, Exit 9, & Pale Horse) Page 53
