Nellie gazed at the empty cages. “Brain power. Strength. Agility. You know what that reminds me of?”
“It’s like the thirty-nine clues serum! It does exactly the same thing—enhances a person’s abilities to superhuman.” Sammy folded the sheets away in his pocket. “So that was Nathaniel’s plan all along. He couldn’t access the original formula, so he thought he could replicate the results with radiation technology.”
“A modern-day Victor Frankenstein.”
“That’s what Grace meant,” concluded Sammy. “Who would have supported Nathaniel, knowing this was what he was up to? Who would want to go through this just to have the abilities the serum would give you?”
“And this was what Hope stumbled onto. Poor girl.” Nellie could only imagine the nightmares such a place would give a six-year-old. Wandering around here, the sick animals in their cages. “Come on, we’ve got the proof we need. This place gives me the creeps.”
“There might be more.” Sammy was looking down the darkened corridor beyond.
“Don’t you think we’ve seen enough?”
Sammy set his lips in a grim line. “We can’t risk missing anything, Nellie.”
Nellie swallowed, and on they went.
The next room was protected by an air lock, useless now, but once it would have been up and running to make sure whatever was inside didn’t get out. Nellie slid the plate-glass door aside and shone the flashlight in.
Surgical tools had been left in their trays. There was a huge operating light overhead; its ten lenses made Nellie think of a giant insect peering down at them. It hung over an operating table.
The floor was tiled, for ease of cleaning, yet Nellie felt her stomach churn at the dark brown patches and the clogged floor drain.
There were bones in the corners, and bedding. Mattresses and sheets had been dragged into a pile. Sammy inspected one of the larger bones. “This is deer. It’s been gnawed at.”
Nellie sniffed the air, smelling something on top of the stale dust. A moist, animal musk. “This is a den.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.… ” He locked his hand into hers. “Let’s go.”
Sammy was right. They knew what they needed to know.
They got moving fast, back into the corridor and toward the exit. Nellie needed to be out of this place. Now where was the door? She turned and—
Nellie saw it, just a blur as her flashlight caught a sudden motion, the shining ivory color of claws and fangs. She screamed as it ripped into Sammy.
Sammy lay motionless, blood seeping through the clothing on his back.
Nellie stepped back, her gaze trapped by the creature’s.
It was the thing that prowled the camp last night.
It moved on all six limbs. The two pairs of arms were long but spindly, but its legs were thick—muscle-bound and coiled for leaping. The skin was raw, red, and covered with lumps.
What was it? It was like nothing she’d ever seen.
It growled and edged forward; its small yellow eyes blazed with bloodlust.
Was Sammy alive? The creature’s claws were five inches long and sharp as scalpels.
It rose up onto its rear legs and Nellie stifled a scream.
It was a bear, but not one found in nature. As well as its normal set of limbs, there was a second pair of arms jutting awkwardly from under and behind the first pair. The fur was patchy and the skin underneath was covered in pustules.
She thought of the cage she’d seen. Three bears, but only two were accounted for. Had it escaped, mutated by Nathaniel’s experiments? Was this one of its deformed offspring?
Nellie edged back into the operating room. The creature stalked in, sniffing the air, snarling angrily.
The tray of surgical gear was just a few feet away. There were knives and saws. They looked puny when compared to the creature’s wicked claws and fangs, but they were all she had. Nellie grabbed the nearest knife. She tried not to think about what it had been used for last. She just hoped it was still sharp.
She couldn’t leave Sammy, but how could she get to him? The monster seemed to fill the whole room. Even without the claws it looked strong enough to rip her limb from limb.
It leaped and Nellie dove. It flew over her, smashing against the far wall as she rolled under the operating table. She banged her head on the steel edge as she scrabbled up and yelled as a claw cut the back of her calf. She swung the knife behind her and the creature roared as the blade sliced across its paw.
It tore the table out of the floor, ripping it loose from its bolts.
Nellie clutched the knife with both hands and stabbed into the bear’s hind legs. Blood spouted from the wound and then the thing swatted her, hurling her off her feet, the knife still stuck in its leg.
Now weaponless, stunned, and head spinning, Nellie crouched as the table smashed against the wall, just inches above her head. All it needed was to hit her once and she was gone.
She needed to get out.
Having ducked the creature twice, she was back in the corridor and beside Sammy. She choked down the fright at the long tears across his back. “Sammy?”
He groaned. Thank God he was still alive.
But for how long?
The monster howled.
“The door … ” muttered Sammy. “Trap it … ”
It was their only way out, but right now that didn’t matter. Nellie lowered Sammy up against the wall and ran over to the door. There was a control panel, a big rusty box with buttons and dull, unlit bulbs. Cables hung loose from the dented cover and there was an abandoned mouse nest in among the wiring.
“Red to red,” said Sammy, his eyes struggling to stay focused. He was losing consciousness by the second. “Blue to blue.”
“Red to red. Blue to blue. Got it.”
But it was dark. Was that red, or was that brown? And in the dim light the green and blue looked the same.
The creature was smashing up the operating room. Perhaps it thought she was hiding in there, or maybe it was just filled with so much hate it just wanted to destroy everything.
Sparks jumped as she wound together what she guessed were the red wires. Somewhere within the door, mechanisms and cogs came to life. Rusty pistons began to slide, awakened after almost fifty years.
The monster heard. There was a loud crash as it smashed one last thing. Then it sprang toward the source of the noise.
“Blue to blue, blue to blue, blue to blue … ” Nellie repeated it like a prayer. Her fingers were slippery with sweat, and she wasn’t sure it was blue to blue but she began knotting the copper wiring together.
The monster raced toward her, howling with madness. It stretched out its arms …
The control panel burst into flame as Nellie dove away.
The pistons screamed as the emergency door slammed down.
Nellie hugged Sammy, eyes squeezed shut, expecting a sudden blow from the deadly claws. The creature roared and screamed, and she heard the claws tear against metal.
Why wasn’t she dead?
The thing was right next to her.
She opened her eyes.
The door had come down, but not quickly enough. It had caught the monster halfway, trapping it so it had its forelegs and shoulders on one side, the hindquarters on the other. It flailed wildly, less than a foot from them.
And yet the door continued to grind, trying to close.
The creature was being steadily crushed.
It hissed. Each breath became a more desperate gasp than the last. The door was squeezing its lungs, slowly suffocating it. It beat its paws feebly against the door.
It stared at Nellie; it was a look she’d never forget. The fury gave way to fear. Then its eyes closed and the monster’s body slumped and it let out a soft sigh.
“It’s dead,” Nellie said. She came over to Sammy and peeled back his torn jacket. She bit her lip. There were three deep tears, each about six inches long. “I need to get you to a hospital, right now.” She emptied out
her backpack and opened up the first-aid kit. “I’ll patch you up. The moment we get a signal, we’ll call for help. You have insurance?”
“Don’t make jokes. Laughing hurts.” Sammy wiped the sweat from his face and grinned, though it was bordering on a grimace. “Now, if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to faint.”
Location Unknown
Dan had woken up a few hours ago in a room that was just this side of a cell. No windows, air coming in through ducts, the strange smell of a place newly built, all drying paint and dust. The meal had been basic, but enough to get some strength back into his groggy body.
Then, he had no idea how much later, guards came in and pushed him out.
“The boss wants a word,” one of them declared.
The construction was steel, glass, and concrete—and massive. Pipes ran along the ceiling, huge with warning symbols and chemical codes. The inhabitants ranged from guards to laboratory technicians to more guards. They came loaded with pistols and submachine guns and an attitude of “shoot a lot first, then ask questions much, much later.”
“Wow,” Dan said. “Early Bond villain architecture. I bet you’ve got a giant laser beam here, don’t you?”
They didn’t lead Dan to a laser beam, but instead, to an arboretum.
Outside the gigantic glass dome lay snow and mountains and endless storm clouds. Within were towering palm trees, wide oaks, tropical fruit trees, and a sea of flowers, all growing randomly among the trunks and drooping branches.
Nathaniel Hartford was pruning the rosebushes. His bright shears had already left a pile of dead flower heads on the floor.
The guards kept a discreet distance, but matched his and the Outcast’s progress footstep by footstep. One snap of Nathaniel’s fingers and Dan would have five burly armed men sitting on top of him.
Nathaniel paused as Dan approached. His eyes were a watery blue, but Dan was fixed by his gaze.
“Let’s have a good look at you,” ordered the Outcast.
Grandfather and grandson faced each other.
“Ah, there is more Hope in you than there is in your sister,” said Nathaniel. “Amy is much more like her grandmother. Strange, don’t you think?”
“No, not really.”
He’s just an old man.
Liver spots decorated the backs of his wrinkled hands. He stooped slightly, and the firmness had long gone from his face, leaving sagging skin and sharp cheekbones.
Dan stared at him, trying to see how much of his grandfather he might recognize, not just in himself and Amy, but in the old photographs of his mother.
What had father and daughter shared? He caught glimpses of her in the old man’s face, brief and slight, yet there she was in his gaze, in the way he held his hands, in the still poise.
A hard, bitter emotion caught in his throat. Two opposite urges tugged within his chest. This was his grandfather. Apart from Amy, this man was the closest living relative Dan had. Yet this was his enemy, who was dedicated to destroying the Cahills.
Dan forced his gaze away from the Outcast. He didn’t trust himself. “Where am I?”
“I call it the Hive, Dan,” said Nathaniel.
The name fit. The panels looked like sections of honeycomb, and bees drifted through the sweaty air, searching the flowers.
“I’ve always been an engineer at heart. I love building things. And tinkering. I always needed to know how things worked.” Nathaniel looked around his construction. “Do you know my first job was on the Manhattan Project?”
Dan stopped dead. “You helped build the atomic bomb?”
Nathaniel waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, I was a mere number cruncher. But it was I who sized the detonators within Little Boy, the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. You know how an atomic bomb works, I presume? Or is your knowledge of science and history as backward as I fear?”
Dan scowled. “The bomb had two sections of uranium. Separate, they were safe, but together, they reached a critical mass and caused an atomic explosion.”
“Exactly.” Nathaniel smiled at Dan like a benevolent grandfather. “A projectile, fired into a target. I sized the bags of cordite that shot one into the other. Isn’t it curious how such a simple ingredient can change the world?” He looked sideways at Dan. “Sound familiar?”
“The Cahill serum,” said Dan. “Is this a test, Nat? Or can we just get to the point? You want to re-create the serum, we know that.”
“Hardly,” said the Outcast. “I want to destroy it. Once and for all.”
“I’m the only one who knows the formula. Why didn’t you just have Melinda shoot me? Problem solved. Why show me all this?”
“Killing you would only be a temporary measure. What would prevent some clever chap, or girl, in the future, from uncovering the formula for themselves? The genie is out of the bottle. Once you know it’s possible, others will try and achieve the same thing. Look at how many countries developed atomic and nuclear technology after we did. No, I want a more permanent, everlasting solution.”
“How?”
“By taking that formula out of your head.”
“To do what with it? Use it on yourself?”
Nathaniel shook his head. “No. I will corrupt it. Turn it into the very opposite of what it is. Into the most perfect poison. But one with a single purpose.” He turned slowly and pointed the blades of his shears at Dan’s neck.
Dan shifted a pace back. “Which is what?”
Nathaniel gazed at him coldly. “To wipe out the Cahill bloodline forever.”
Dan spoke. “That’s impossible. There must be thousands of us; descendants of Gideon and Olivia Cahill must be spread all over the world by now. You’d need an army, thousands of people, and even then, it would take decades to find everyone.”
Nathaniel scoffed. “People? Who said anything about people? And I have not thousands, but hundreds of thousands. And my army will have all the time in the world. They’ll carry on their duty, generation after generation. No matter how long it takes, the Cahills will be removed from this world.”
He had to be lying. Nothing he was saying made any sense. Dan continued. “Even if you did make this supertoxin of yours, how would you get it to target the right people?”
“By creating a toxin that affects only those with a specific DNA makeup. In this case, the Cahill gene. It’s taken many years and countless millions of dollars to decode the unique DNA of Gideon and Olivia, the gene that all the branches have in common. Fortunately, I’ve had the time and the fortune to do it. And I am that close to making it happen.” He tapped Dan’s forehead. “I just need the formula.”
“You really think I’m going to tell you?”
“Oh, yes.” Nathaniel smiled coldly. “One way or another.”
Dan said nothing. He needed to stall, maybe a day, maybe two. Sooner or later—
Nathaniel laughed. “Ah, I see. You want to play for time in the hope of escape, or rescue?”
Nathaniel took the shears to a fresh bush. “I’ve studied your escapades, as any proud grandfather would do. I’ve seen how perfectly you and Amy work together. Wherever there’s one, the other won’t be far behind. So you believe, quite naturally, your older sister will arrive soon and save you.”
Snip, snip. Two heads tumbled.
“Not this time, Dan.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I know she’s in China, with two of your friends.”
Dan’s blood ran cold.
“I thought it would take longer to find her, but today seems to be my lucky day. Alek Spasky reported to me a few hours ago that your sister had arrived at the symposium. He’s waiting for her and I’m expecting his call any minute now.” Nathaniel gestured to one of the guards.
The guard nodded and handed over a cell phone.
Nathaniel flicked the screen on. “The wonders of modern technology.” He handed it over to Dan.
Dan took it and stared at the screen. The image was blurred and the sound
crackled.
Nathaniel stood at his shoulder. “I need you to understand one thing very clearly. There is no hope.”
The image began to clear, and a face, a familiar face, came into focus.
“Amy?” Dan’s blood ran cold.
“Dan! Dan! Can you hear me?”
Dan gripped the cell phone, squeezing it so hard that the plastic creaked. “Amy! I’m here!”
He shook it. He could hardly see her: the screen was a blizzard of static, his sister’s face a frightened mask.
Her voice crackled through the speakers. “I—I don’t have much time, Dan. You have to listen.… ”
“Where are you? Tell me!”
Amy sighed. Her shoulders slumped and she seemed to crumble from inside. He’d never seen her so small, so beaten.
How could she be? She was his sister. They’d been through everything together and had always come out on top.
Always.
Nathaniel stood over Dan, wondering what turmoil of emotions the boy must be feeling right now. It had been so easy to break him.
Family could be both a weakness and a strength. Grace had taught him that.
Now a little more of a push and Dan would crumble entirely.
A deep animal growl rose from Dan’s throat. Nathaniel stepped back and gave his men the nod. Dan had just seen his sister killed; he was about to—
Dan exploded. The guards—the best money could buy—were taken by surprise. Dan rammed his knee deep into the gut of the guy in front and his elbow into the face behind him. A third tried to grab him but had his fingers bitten to the bone.
He’s gone wild!
Nathaniel pushed a guard ahead of him as Dan swung around, his eyes blazing.
The guard raised his machine gun.
“No!” Nathaniel yelled. “I need him alive!”
The guard hesitated; Dan leaped at him and both tumbled into the thick foliage. There was a thud—the sound a head makes when hit by wood—then the leaves of the bushes shook.
Mission Atomic Page 10
