by Will Hill
“Are you sure you’ve eaten anything in weeks?” asked Kate, only half-serious. “They do feed you down there, right?”
Matt nodded, fighting to swallow his mouthful. “Don’t worry, they do,” he said, reaching for his tea. “It’s pretty good, too. There’s a cook whenever you want something, no matter what time it is.”
“No wonder you hardly ever come out. Twenty-four hours a day?”
“Yeah. It’s kind of intense down there, Kate. Everyone works long hours.”
“How long?”
“Long,” said Matt, then dug back into his food. Kate watched him eat; he didn’t look like he’d lost much weight, so she wasn’t worried about his physical health. But her friend looked absolutely exhausted; his skin was pale, almost ashen, and the bags beneath his eyes were black and swollen.
“So how’s it going?” she asked. “Lazarus, I mean. What’s the news?”
Matt looked up and smiled with his mouth full. He would have sat in the ISAT interview room until the end of time before he told Paul Turner anything about the Lazarus Project, but Kate was a different matter. When things had seemed at their worst, before Jamie went to Paris and the Loop was attacked, the four of them, Kate, Jamie, Larissa, and himself, had sworn that they would tell each other everything from then on. Secrets and hidden agendas had been on the verge of tearing them apart, and they had vowed not to let such a situation arise again.
“There’s not much to tell, really,” he said. “We’re making progress on mapping the vampire DNA strand, and we’ve isolated some of the elements of the protein that triggers the turn. We’ve got a theoretically viable carrier enzyme in the early stages of development, and we’re continuing our analysis of the data Jamie recovered from Christopher Reynolds.”
Kate nodded. She had barely understood a word that Matt had said, but she didn’t want him to know that. Instead, she struck out for the one subject he had raised that she felt confident in discussing.
“Is Reynolds’s data helping?” she asked. “Even though he was working on the opposite of what you’re trying to do?”
“Oh, it helps,” said Matt. “Trust me. The processes aren’t the same, but the steps he took have given us a road map we can use. Professor Karlsson thinks we’ve saved at least a year by having access to his work.”
His work, thought Kate, with disgust. Torture is all it was. Murder.
“He was a genius,” continued Matt. “Evil. But a genius.”
“Maybe so,” said Kate. “I’m still glad Jamie shot him.”
Matt grinned broadly. “Me, too,” he said. “Very glad indeed.”
“So everything just carries on, then?” asked Kate, slicing open one of her eggs and smearing it across a slice of toast. “No major breakthroughs, no big eureka moments?”
Matt shook his head. “I’m afraid not. The truth of the matter is, we get fractionally closer every day. But unless we get some magic shortcut, or someone takes an incredible leap of deduction that turns out to be correct, it’s still going to take a long time. Years, maybe.”
“Even with all of you killing yourselves every day,” said Kate. “Shows what I know. I don’t understand how anything can take years to work out.”
“The cleverest people in the world have been trying to prove string theory for the last half century,” said Matt, sipping his tea. “And I’m sure they all work pretty hard.”
“Have you told Jamie?” asked Kate.
Matt shook his head again. “No. I haven’t seen very much of him lately, to be honest with you. But he knows it’s going to take a long time; Reynolds explained it to him when he was still pretending to be Talbot. It must have been one of the few times he told anyone the truth.”
“It must be killing him,” said Kate, softly. “His mom and his girlfriend.”
“I suppose so,” said Matt. “He’s got more invested in Lazarus than most of us who actually work there. And if there was anything I could do to speed it up, to accelerate a cure for Larissa and Marie, you know I would. Right?”
“Of course I do,” said Kate. “And so does he.”
Matt smiled briefly, then set about demolishing the remainder of his breakfast. Kate did the same. When their plates were empty, she sat back in her chair and started on her second coffee. Matt had drained the last of his tea and was looking at her expectantly.
“What?” she asked, frowning. “Have I got egg on my face?”
“No,” said Matt. “I told you about Lazarus. It’s your turn.”
“ISAT?”
Matt nodded.
“Not much to tell either,” she said, putting down her mug. “We’re only one full day in. Nothing to report yet.”
“Nothing?” asked Matt.
Kate considered telling him about the surveillance operator and his girlfriend, but decided against it; she didn’t believe their promise to tell each other everything covered the personal indiscretions of others.
“Nothing,” she repeated. “Which is good, obviously.”
“When are you doing Jamie?”
“I don’t know,” lied Kate. “The schedule is randomly generated every night.”
“So Reynolds was the last leak?”
“We don’t know that yet,” said Kate. “But we haven’t found anything so far that suggests a security threat.”
“What about Major Turner?”
“What about him?”
“Working with him,” said Matt. “What’s that like?”
Kate took a long sip of her coffee and considered the question. “It’s . . . remarkable,” she said, eventually. “I’ve never seen anyone more dedicated to what they do than Paul. It’s inspiring, to tell the truth.”
“And that’s not because of . . . well, you know, because of . . .”
“Shaun?” said Kate, putting her friend out of his misery. “That’s definitely part of it. He lost his son because the Department wasn’t secure, because we’d stopped looking at ourselves, I mean really looking at ourselves, and neither of us wants what happened to Shaun to happen to anyone else. But it’s not a personal crusade, whatever anyone thinks. It’s about the Department. For both of us.”
“Well, rather you than me,” said Matt, smiling gently. “He still scares the crap out of me.”
“Don’t worry,” said Kate, returning his smile. “He has that effect on most people.”
“But not on you?”
“Not anymore,” she said. “We’ve . . . well, I guess we’ve become pretty close. Very close, actually. I’d trust Paul with my life.”
“So would I,” said Matt. “He still scares me, though.”
Kate laughed, and, after a second or so, Matt joined in. There was warmth in the laughter, a sense of comfort in each other’s company, and a familiar thought appeared in Kate’s head.
We need to do this more often. Jamie too, and Larissa when she gets back.
Matt’s laughter subsided, and he opened his mouth before appearing to think better of whatever he had been about to say. Kate was a remarkably observant girl who rarely missed anything, especially not something as obvious as Matt’s aborted gesture, and she immediately leaned forward in her chair.
“What is it?”
“Nothing,” said Matt, flushing bright red. “I was just going to . . . it’s nothing.”
“It’s clearly not nothing, whatever it is,” said Kate, her voice gentle. “Tell me.”
Matt swallowed hard. His face appeared to be on the verge of bursting into flames. “There’s . . . a girl,” he said, eventually. “She works downstairs. Her name’s Natalia.”
A girl, thought Kate, grinning inwardly. Of course there’s a girl. Well, whoever she is, she has to be a better bet than the last girl he had a crush on. Angela Darcy would have torn him to pieces. Probably literally.
“All right,” said Kate. “A g
irl called Natalia. I don’t think I know her.”
“You don’t,” said Matt. “She lives in the Lazarus quarters, and she hardly ever leaves the lab.”
“Where’s she from?”
“She’s Russian,” said Matt, and Kate saw his eyes light up as he thought about her. “The SPC pulled her out of university a couple of years ago and sent her to us when we were restaffing Lazarus. She’s only eighteen, but she’s smarter than almost anybody in the Project. I think maybe only Professor Karlsson . . .” Matt trailed off and blushed again at the realization that he had been gushing.
“Have you talked to her?” asked Kate, trying not to openly grin. Matt was so utterly adorable, so enthusiastic and shy and unsure of himself.
“I talk to her every day,” said Matt. “We work five desks apart.”
“No,” said Kate, patiently. “Have you talked to her?”
“Oh,” Matt said, and looked down at the table. “No.”
“Maybe you should?” suggested Kate.
For a long moment, Matt’s gaze remained fixed on the surface of the table. Then he looked up with a delicate, beautiful smile on his blushing face. “Let’s change the subject,” he said. “How do you think Larissa is getting on at NS9? I haven’t even spoken to her since she left. Do you think she’s keeping out of trouble?”
19
THE WAR ON DRUGS, PART ONE
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
Yesterday
Larissa ducked her head beneath a stream of bullets, threw herself back against the low ornamental wall, and grinned at Tim Albertsson. The special operator stared back at her, his mouth open, his eyes bright.
“How many?” he asked.
Larissa raised her head above the wall and lowered it again in a blur of movement that Tim could barely see. Not a single shot was fired, such was her supernatural speed.
“Four,” she said, calmly.
Tim looked down the wide expanse of grass that had, until very recently, been an immaculate lawn. At the bottom of the gentle slope, taking cover behind the low walls and outbuildings that stood inside the estate’s open gates, he could see the black shapes of the other four members of their squad. They were perhaps fifty yards away, too far to be of any real help if the vampires above them charged, but Larissa didn’t seem remotely concerned. The vampire girl was positively beaming, her eyes crimson, her fangs fully extended, her usually pale skin flushed pink.
Bloodlust, thought Tim. I’ve never seen it up close before, but that’s what it is. Her vampire side has taken her over.
“Ready to do this?” she asked, fixing him with her glowing eyes.
Tim nodded. “I’ll call the others up,” he said. He reached for his radio, but Larissa gripped his wrist and held it. Her touch was gentle, but he was very aware that he could not move his hand an inch unless she let him.
“They’ll follow,” she said. “I’m talking about you and me, right now. Are you ready?”
Tim stared at her, utterly bewitched. Then he nodded. “Let’s roll,” he said.
* * *
They had been in the gym, putting the new intake of recruits through their paces yet again, when the session had been interrupted by General Allen.
There had been a heavy atmosphere of unease throughout Dreamland since the compulsory briefing several hours before, during which the NS9 director had informed the entire Department that the Florence Supermax, the Colorado prison that was generally acknowledged to be impregnable, had not only been broken into, but that the prisoners it had held had all been turned and released. The determination that Larissa had seen on the faces of her new colleagues as the briefing began had rapidly evolved into something very different as General Allen played a piece of police surveillance footage taken above the outskirts of Denver.
* * *
The camera was looking down on the aftermath of a crash that had taken place on a wide, four-lane highway.
Several cars, perhaps as many as eight or nine, were strewn across the tarmac, crunched together into sculptures of twisted metal, at least one of them flipped onto its roof. The traffic that had managed to stop before becoming part of the carnage was backed up for what looked like miles in either direction, and the source of the incident was clearly visible; he was standing in the middle of the road wearing a prison jumpsuit pushed down to his waist.
The man was striding back and forth across the road, punching out the windows of crashed cars and screaming soundlessly at what appeared to be nothing. His head was bald, and his heavily tattooed body rippled with muscle. It gleamed under the glaring spotlight shining down from the police helicopter, a blinding beam of light that he suddenly seemed to become aware of. The prisoner stopped in the middle of the road and stared directly up at the camera. Then, with casual, almost nonchalant power, he leaped into the air, rising toward the screen like a shark emerging from the depths.
There was a crash of noise as the man disappeared from the frame, and then the footage began to shake wildly. The pilot and the occupants of the helicopter could be heard screaming and yelling, and the watching audience of operators gasped as a flailing shape fell away from the camera, crashing onto the surface of the road, where it lay still. The movement of the frame became more and more violent before the video and audio finally cut out. The last thing that could be heard before it did was a desperate voice screaming, “Mayday!”
Larissa looked around the briefing room as the video ended and the wall screen went back to displaying the NS9 crest. Her new colleagues were pale, their eyes wide and staring. Unsurprisingly, Tim Albertsson was the first to break the silence. “He shouldn’t be that strong,” he said. “Not if he’s new.”
“No,” said General Allen, from his podium at the front of the room. “He shouldn’t be.”
“So what’s going on?” asked an operator that Larissa didn’t know.
“We have no idea,” replied Allen. “But similar reports are coming in from Departments around the world. We will find out what has happened in Colorado, but in the meantime I want you all to be aware of what is out there. These vampires appear to be more powerful than most of you have ever faced, and you will prepare yourselves accordingly. Do I make myself entirely clear?”
There was a murmured chorus of agreement. General Allen stared at the massed ranks of his department for a long moment, then nodded and continued with his briefing.
* * *
Larissa had left the assembly hall with her stomach churning, but desperate to be given a mission; she wanted to help, to make a genuine contribution to the department she was a temporary part of.
As a result, she had been expecting to be reattached to one of the operational squads she had gone out with in recent weeks. She was therefore extremely disappointed when the message that arrived on her console was the same one she had received almost every day during her time in Nevada: an order to report to the training facility and continue working with the new intake of recruits. Tim Albertsson had said nothing, but it was clear to her that he was equally annoyed by the situation. So when General Allen walked into the gym and told them he needed to speak to them, she saw the same excitement on his face that she could feel burning in her chest.
“I’m hearing good things about this intake,” said the general, casting a glance in the direction of the recruits. “Ahead of schedule, they tell me. That true?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Tim. “They’re responding well, sir.”
“Responding well to what?” asked Allen, a smile emerging on his face. “Having their asses kicked by a teenage girl?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Tim, fighting back a smile of his own. “That certainly made an impression, sir.”
“I bet it did,” said Allen, turning to face Larissa. “Did you take it easy on them, Lieutenant Kinley? Be honest with me.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Larissa, n
ot sure whether she was saying the right thing. “I didn’t want to hurt them, sir. Well, not too badly, anyway.”
General Allen burst out laughing, and a second later Tim joined in. Larissa didn’t, as laughing at her own jokes was not in her nature, but she allowed herself a small smile.
“All right,” said General Allen, composing himself. “I need you both in Briefing Room 3 in fifteen minutes. We’ve got new intel that needs immediate action. Find someone to cover the rest of your schedule and meet me there. Clear?”
“Yes, sir,” said Larissa.
“Yes, sir,” said Tim, less than a second later. “Although you could have just messaged that, sir.”
“I like to come down here now and again,” said Allen, looking around the circular room. “This room brings back a lot of memories. Fifteen minutes, operators.”
The director turned and strode out of the gym. They watched him go. As soon as the door closed behind him, Tim clapped his hands together.
“All right,” he said, his voice full of excitement. “Time for me to see what you can really do.”
“Maybe,” she replied. “We don’t know what the mission is yet.”
“Almost the whole department went out this morning chasing down the Supermax escapees,” said Tim. “They’re the worst of the worst, the most violent, dangerous, antisocial prisoners we’ve got, and you and I have been down here, training kids. So if we’re finally going out, this must be something big.”
Larissa nodded. She knew what he was saying made sense. Tim’s squad were all special operators, the somewhat nebulous term that she had heard many times since arriving in Nevada. Truth be told, she was rather looking forward to seeing exactly what made them so special.
“I guess so,” she said. “Meet you there in ten minutes?”
“See you there,” said Tim, smiling broadly.
