Department 19: Zero Hour

by Will Hill

  Matt stared at her, his eyes wide.

  Natalia blushed deeply. “Was that not what you meant by something you didn’t know?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “That definitely qualifies. I just … I can’t believe that happened to you. It’s awful.”

  Natalia nodded. “It was,” she said. “But it was a long time ago. And now I am here.”

  Matt took a half-step towards her, his arms stiffly at his sides. He was suddenly incredibly aware of them, and found himself wondering what people usually did with their arms and their hands, what he usually did with his; nothing felt comfortable, or natural. Natalia took a small step of her own, eyes wide, lips slightly apart, her small body seeming to tremble slightly in the cool of the shade.

  Matt swallowed hard. They were so close that he could have reached out and touched her, which was exactly what he was trying to will himself to do when the console on his belt let out a loud beep.

  For a second, the world seemed to pause. Matt’s hands were centimetres away from his body; they had stopped en route to a destination that he was not remotely sure of. Natalia’s eyes were wide and fixed unblinkingly on his. Then the spell was broken, and Matt was fumbling for his console as Natalia blinked and shook her head, as though trying to clear it.

  He thumbed the screen, his heart pounding at the possibility of what might have been about to happen, and looked at the message that appeared.

  FROM: Holmwood, Interim Director Cal (NS303, 34-D)

  TO: Browning, Lieutenant Matt (NS303, 83-C)

  Come and see me ASAP. Lazarus business.

  “Is everything OK?” asked Natalia. Her voice was low, and it sounded like she was out of breath.

  Matt looked up from the console; pale pink had risen into the skin of her face, and the moment, so pregnant with promise, was gone. He held out the console; she took it from his hands and read the message.

  “We should go,” she said, handing the plastic rectangle back to him. “You must not keep him waiting, and I should get back to the lab.”

  To hell with that, thought Matt.

  “Come with me,” he said.

  “To see the Director?”

  “Yes.”

  Natalia frowned. “He did not ask for me.”

  “I don’t care,” said Matt. “It’s to do with Lazarus, so why shouldn’t you be there too? The Professor is in China and I’m no more senior than anybody else.”

  “I don’t know,” said Natalia. “Are you sure?”

  “No,” said Matt, and grinned widely. “But you’re coming with me. And I don’t care whether Cal likes it or not.”

  “She can’t go in,” said the Security Operator stationed outside the Interim Director’s quarters. “She’s not on my schedule.”

  Natalia tugged at Matt’s arm. “This is stupid,” she said. “I will just go.”

  “You don’t have to go anywhere,” said Matt. He smiled at her, then turned back to face the Operator. “You have me on your schedule, right?”

  “Correct.”

  “You know the Interim Director ordered me to come and see him as soon as possible?”

  “Right again.”

  “Great,” said Matt. “So you know it’s probably important?”

  The Operator shrugged.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” said Matt. “But I’m afraid I’m not going in there without my colleague. So you’re going to have to explain to Colonel Holmwood why his urgent message went unanswered. I’m sure he won’t blame you.”

  The Operator narrowed his eyes. Matt could see him turning the situation over in his mind, trying to find the solution that carried the lowest possible likelihood of trouble for himself. After a long pause, which Matt waited silently through with a pleasant smile on his face, the man spoke.

  “I have to call this in,” he said. “Stay where you are.”

  “Of course,” said Matt, glancing over at Natalia. “We aren’t going anywhere.”

  The Operator moved away from them, pulling his radio from his belt, and holding it to the side of his face.

  “Matt!” hissed Natalia. “What are you doing?”

  “Don’t worry,” he replied. “It’s fine. Cal trusts me.”

  Natalia frowned. “This is not like you,” she said. “I hope you are not doing this for me?”

  Matt smiled. He wanted to explain that he wasn’t doing it for her, but rather because of her; that when he was with her, he felt as though he could do anything.

  “Don’t worry,” he repeated.

  Down the corridor, the Security Operator nodded, then placed the radio back on his belt. He strode towards them with a face like thunder, and jerked a gloved thumb in the direction of the door.

  “You can go in,” he said. “Both of you.”

  “Thanks very much,” said Matt, and turned to Natalia. “After you.”

  She gave him a long, careful look, before giving in to a small smile that warmed his heart, and walking down the corridor towards the Interim Director’s quarters. Matt nodded politely at the Security Operator, then followed her.

  I’m going to pay for that, he thought, as he stepped round Natalia. One way or another. But right now I couldn’t care less.

  He had pushed the heavy door open no more than a few centimetres before Cal Holmwood’s voice boomed through the gap.

  “What the hell do you think you’re playing at, Browning? Get in here, both of you.”

  Natalia looked at him with wide, nervous eyes. Matt placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling a vast cloud of butterflies descend into his stomach as he did so, and mouthed, “Trust me.” Then he pushed the door all the way open, and stepped through it.

  Cal Holmwood was seated behind his desk, his face pink with obvious anger. Matt crossed the room, wondering momentarily whether he had misjudged the situation, had read too much into the Interim Director’s friendly manner towards him during their Lazarus update meetings, and had actually managed to do nothing more than get both of them into completely unnecessary trouble.

  “I asked for you, Lieutenant,” said Holmwood. “If I had wanted Miss Lenski to accompany you, I would have sent her an order as well.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Matt. “I wouldn’t have brought her, but your message said it was Lazarus business, and with the Professor away, I thought it would be good to have her here. I’m sorry if I was wrong, sir.”

  “You’re not wrong, Lieutenant,” said Holmwood, the colour in his face gradually calming. “Insubordinate, and bloody infuriating at times, but not wrong. Have you been taking lessons from Lieutenant Carpenter?”

  Matt frowned. “Jamie? What’s he done?”

  “Something stupid,” said Holmwood. “And classified, although I’m sure that won’t stop him from telling you about it. Breaking fundamental rules seems to be a hobby of his lately.”

  “OK, sir,” said Matt. He didn’t have the slightest idea what the Interim Director was talking about, but he resolved to go and find Jamie as soon as they were finished here.

  “To be honest,” said Holmwood, nodding at Natalia, “it’s probably for the best that she’s here. I need someone to relay what I’m about to tell you back to Lazarus, and you’re going to be prepping for departure.”

  Matt frowned again. “Departure, sir?”

  Holmwood nodded. “We have new intelligence regarding the vampire who was allegedly cured by Christopher Reynolds, when the treacherous bastard was working for our friends in Nevada. The cured vampire known as Adam. NS9 are launching a mission tomorrow in the hopes of locating him and securing his cooperation. General Allen has requested a technical observer from the Lazarus Project to go with his team, and with Karlsson away, I’m sending you. You are to extract tissue and blood samples for circulation to the rest of the Departments, then bring Adam back here for examination by Lazarus. You told me you needed a miracle, Lieutenant Browning. I may just have found you one.”

  Matt stared at the Interim Director, his heart pounding
in his chest, his mind racing with possibilities.

  The DNA of a cured vampire. Holy shit. Holy shit. An endpoint we can work back from. A process we can reverse engineer. Holy shit.

  “That is remarkable,” said Natalia, her eyes wide. “Such a subject could allow for a big leap forward.”

  Holmwood nodded. “I certainly hope so, Miss Lenski. If they can find him, that is, and if he agrees to help.”

  “Why wouldn’t he help?” asked Matt.

  “Hopefully, he will,” said Holmwood. “But given that he fled his last-known location, and left behind an IED that killed three NS9 Operators, I’m taking nothing for granted, and neither are the Yanks. They’re going after him fully armed and Ready One. Go with them, find him, and bring him in.”

  An IED? thought Matt. When was that? That didn’t come up in any of the reports.

  “OK, sir,” he said. “When do I leave?”

  “You depart on the Mina II at 0700 tomorrow,” said Holmwood. “You’re going to arrive in the middle of the night, so get some sleep when you arrive. The NS9 briefing will be on your console within the hour, so read it, study it, and be in the hangar at 0630. Miss Lenski, you will communicate this development to your colleagues downstairs. Clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” said Natalia. She glanced over at Matt, and he felt warmth rush through him as he saw the obvious pride on her face.

  “Lieutenant Browning?” asked Holmwood.

  “Yes, sir,” he replied. “I’ll be ready, sir. Thank you.”

  “All right then,” said the Interim Director. “Dismissed.”

  Matt nodded and headed for the door, Natalia beside him. As he reached out to take hold of the handle, Cal Holmwood called his name.

  “Yes, sir?” he asked, turning back.

  “Next time I tell you to come and see me, you come on your own. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” said Matt. “I’m sorry, sir.”

  “My capacity for indulging you and your friends is not infinite, Lieutenant,” said Holmwood. “And neither is my patience. Now get out.”

  As the Zero Hour Task Force meeting disbanded, Larissa saw Kate nod at her, then jerk her head in the direction of the Ops Room door. She looked around at Jamie, saw him deep in conversation with Jack Williams, and felt a stab of frustration. She was extremely worried about her boyfriend; the look of defeat on his face as he shook his head at her had sent a chill up her spine. But she knew that Jamie would not appreciate her interrupting his conversation to ask him why he had seemed on the verge of tears, so she turned back to her friend and nodded. Kate smiled and headed for the door, carefully making her way through the black-clad mass of her colleagues. Larissa waited for a second or two, then followed.

  Kate was waiting in the corridor, a wide smile on her face. Larissa felt a similar expression rise on to her face as she let the door swing shut, despite her concern for Jamie; there had always been something irresistible about her friend.

  “Hey,” said Kate.

  “Hey yourself,” she said, and pulled her into a tight hug. Kate didn’t struggle in the embrace, not that doing so would have done her any good; Larissa was now far, far stronger than any human, and if she decided to hug someone, they were going to be hugged whether they liked it or not.

  “OK?” asked Kate, frowning.

  “Fine,” said Larissa. She released her grip and stepped back. “You?”

  “I’m all right,” said Kate. “Are you sure you are? You’re acting like you haven’t seen me in months.”

  “It feels like that,” said Larissa. “Sometimes.”

  The mixture of amusement and concern on Kate’s face warmed her heart. Her relationship with Jamie was endlessly complicated, without even taking into account whatever was going on with him now; her relationship with Matt was compromised, if only slightly, by the fact that she had once almost killed him, even though she hadn’t meant to. But her relationship with Kate? That was something she could understand, that appeared impervious to the shifting sands their lives were now all built on. Larissa was absolutely certain that if they had met in the real world, away from all the madness and darkness that now surrounded them on a daily basis, they would still have been friends. They were compatible, in that easy, impossible-to-define way that separates friends from acquaintances.

  “Let’s get something to eat,” suggested Kate. “I skipped breakfast.”

  Larissa hesitated.

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Kate. “It’s cool if you don’t want to; you don’t have to think of an excuse.”

  Larissa shook her head. “It’s not that, not at all. I do want to. But I need to talk to Jamie first. There’s something going on with him.”

  “When is there ever not?” said Kate, smiling. “But you’re going to be here for a long time if you’re waiting for him to come out.”

  Larissa frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “He came out twenty seconds after you,” said Kate, and pointed down the corridor towards a pair of double doors. “He went into the hangar.”

  “Are you serious?”

  Kate nodded.

  “Hang on for a minute,” said Larissa, then turned and rocketed along the corridor, heat rising in the corners of her eyes. She slammed through the double doors and scanned for her boyfriend. There was no sign of him, but she could smell him; the familiar scent was faint but unmistakable, confirmation that Kate’s eyes had not deceived her.

  Larissa flew to the hangar doors and floated at the edge of the shade, centimetres away from the sunlight that would cause her to burst into flames. She couldn’t see Jamie anywhere, even with her supernatural eyesight. She stared for a long moment, then flew back the way she had come, descending to the ground in front of Kate, who looked at her with narrowed eyes.

  “Everything all right?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Larissa. “I don’t think so. But if he doesn’t want my help he can deal with it on his own.” She smiled. “Right now, I’m starving.”

  The two girls found a table in the corner of the canteen on Level G and took their seats. Kate had a bowl of fresh fruit, some yoghurt, and a mug of steaming black coffee. Larissa, whose supernaturally enhanced metabolism made putting on weight all but impossible, had filled her own plate with bagels, bacon, scrambled eggs, fried tomatoes, and mushrooms. She attacked her breakfast as Kate filled her in on developments in the Security Division.

  “… the ISAT thing is still there, you know? I don’t think either Paul or I are ever going to truly be rid of it. Everyone kind of grudgingly accepts that it needed doing, and everyone feels better now it’s done, but it’s going to take them all a long time to forget what is was like sitting in that chair while we asked them whether they were a traitor or not. And it’s all still messy, with Shaun and working with his dad every day, but it’s OK. It’s getting easier.”

  “Good,” said Larissa, through a mouthful of eggs. “That’s good.”

  “What about you?” asked Kate, tipping yoghurt on to her fruit. “How much of your head is still in Nevada?”

  Larissa grinned. “Funny. Really funny.”

  “Sorry,” said Kate, smiling. “I just think it’s sort of amusing that you think we don’t know you wish you were still there. You’re not as good at hiding things as you think you are.”

  Oh, really? thought Larissa. You’d be surprised, my friend. Very surprised.

  “I miss it,” she said. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t. I miss the open spaces, and people that didn’t look at me like I was something too dangerous to turn their back on. But when I was there I missed you and Jamie and Matt. So what does that tell you?”

  “That you haven’t found somewhere you can be truly happy yet?”

  Larissa shrugged. “Maybe. The grass is always greener, right?”

  “So they say,” said Kate. “But you and Jamie are good? Everything’s OK?”

  Larissa considered the question for a second or two. Were they all right? If Kate had
asked Jamie, she suspected that he would have already said yes, everything was cool. But she wasn’t quite so sure; the conversation about what it would be like if they were both vampires had shaken her, and refused to leave her mind, and her concern over whatever was wrong with him now had been joined by anger that he had disappeared after the Zero Hour meeting without talking to her. And on top of those problems, worse by far than either of them, was the secret she carried with her every minute, the secret that grew heavier with each day that passed without sharing it with her boyfriend.

  “I think so,” she said, eventually. “I hope so, at least. It’s hard, me being what I am and him being normal. It makes things weird, and even though he swears he can handle it, I never quite believe him. Is that bad?”

  Kate smiled. “No,” she said. “I think that’s fine.”

  She nodded. “It’s not just that, though. The America thing is always there too.” She paused for a second. “General Allen tried to persuade me to stay, did you know that?”

  Kate shook her head.

  “Well, he did,” said Larissa. “He said he could get Cal Holmwood to agree to a transfer.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I asked him if Jamie would be able to come too. Allen said he’d like nothing more, but that there was no chance in hell.”

  “Descendant of the founders and all that,” said Kate.

  “Right,” said Larissa. “But here’s the awful thing. I almost said yes anyway.”