Smith hurried through the small decontamination pass-through--- the size of a shower stall--- and came up to the hatch. Through the rectangular porthole he saw the mutilated body of Dylan Reed and Bauer, holding a ceramic capsule in the palm of his hand.
He wasn't going to bring out the entire sample. He didn't need to. A drop would be more than enough. A drop he could hide in his suit; that would be enough to re-create the monstrosity.
Crouching, Smith opened a panel at the bottom of the hatch and engaged the manual override. He rose just as Bauer turned, his expression one of total disbelief.
It can't be...!
Smith saw Bauer's lips move but didn't hear his words until he had changed the frequency on his helmet radio.
"...are you doing here?"
Silently he watched as Bauer punched the keypad, watched as his incredulity dissolved to horror when the hatch didn't open.
"What are you doing here?" Bauer screamed. "Open this hatch!"
"No, Doctor," Smith replied. "I think I'll leave you with your creation."
Bauer's face was contorted with fear. "Listen to me---!"
Smith changed the frequency and began walking away. He thought he heard fists falling on the hatch, but knew that that was just his imagination.
"Control, this is Smith. Where's Olson?"
Static crackled in his ear, then a familiar voice came through. "Jon, this is Klein. Megan is safe. She's in the decontamination area. She told me that the autodestruct was armed."
"Bauer did that."
"Where is he?"
"Still inside."
After a moment's hesitation, Klein replied, "Understood. We're opening the blast door, Jon. But you only have a few seconds. Hurry!"
At the end of the cocoon Smith saw the huge door start to swing open. With sweat pouring off him, he forced himself to move even faster. There it was, the cavity cut into the wall at the end of the cocoon.
Then the door stopped and began closing. He was still at least fifteen steps away.
"What's happening?" he demanded.
"The door closes automatically," Klein shouted back. "It will seal five seconds before the blast. Jon, get out of there."
Smith forced his screaming muscles to move even faster. One step, one second, one step, one second...
The blast door moved relentlessly, reducing the size of the opening. With a final desperate effort Smith hurled himself forward, hitting the leading edge of the door, squeezing himself through as it brushed by him and locked.
Seconds later, he was thrown to the ground as the earth seemed to rear up and something like a giant's fist slammed into the blast door.
__________
He opened his eyes to white: ceiling, walls, sheets. With a soldier's instincts he lay perfectly still, then slowly, carefully moved his neck, hands, feet, arms, and legs. His body felt as though it had gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
The door opened and Klein walked in.
"Where am I?" Smith asked, his voice weak.
"In the land of the living, I'm happy to say," Klein replied. "The doctor tells me that you'll be just fine."
"How-?"
"After the shuttle exploded, Jack Riley and his team went into the decontamination chamber, put you through the process, then got you out."
"Megan?"
"She's fine. You both are."
Smith felt his limbs turn to jelly. "It's over," he whispered.
Somewhere far away he heard Klein reply, "Yes. The compact has been broken."
___________________
EPILOGUE
___________________
According to the media reports, General Frank Richardson and NSA Deputy-Director Anthony Price were killed in a tragic crash due to faulty brake lines. Richardson was given a warrior's burial at Arlington National Cemetery while Price was interred in his family's plot in New Hampshire. The president, citing overseas commitments, was absent on both occasions.
Subsequent reports dealt with the crash of a private jet over the Pacific Ocean. The plane, belonging to the Bauer-Zermatt pharmaceutical company, went down six hundred miles west of Los Angeles on its way to the Big Island of Hawaii. There was only one passenger onboard: Dr. Karl Bauer.
President Castilla led the nation in mourning its greatest space tragedy since the Challenger disaster. Investigators determined that the explosion onboard the shuttle Discovery was linked to fuel-pump problems during the craft's descent into Edwards Air Force Base.
"What will happen to Megan?" Randi Russell asked.
She stood beside Smith in a small cemetery called Tsarsoye, overlooking Moscow and the river.
"She's not Megan anymore," Smith replied. "She has a new name, a new face, new identity." He paused. "She survived, but in the end she was counted among the dead. There was no choice. She had to give up her old life if the secret of what really happened was to remain intact."
Randi nodded. Through the CIA grapevine she had heard rumors that one or more of the shuttle astronauts had survived. But after a while, the whispers died away. When Smith had arrived in Moscow, she turned to him for the truth. Megan Olson had been a longtime friend of Sophia's... and of hers as well. Randi felt she had a right to know if Megan was still alive somewhere.
"Thank you for telling me about her," she said.
Smith looked over the rows of headstones. "Without your help, everything would have ended differently," he said softly.
Smith stepped forward and laid flowers on Yuri Danko's grave.
"Without the brave, where would any of us be?"
__________
THE END
COVERT-ONE : BOOK TWO
THE CASSANDRA COMPACT
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NEXT
COVERT-ONE : BOOK THREE
???
__________
(Nihua)
Covert-One 2 - The Cassandra Compact Page 36
