Maze Master

by Kathleen O'Neal Gear

  Nadai nodded. His face had flushed bright red. He looked ill, like he might pass out at any second.

  Micah blinked to clear the sweat from his eyes. To Anna, he said, “Ready?”

  CHAPTER 57

  Voices erupted as the soldiers in the hall took up positions.

  In a surreal moment, the crow cawed twice and the sound of wings beat the air.

  Micah said, “Anna, when they come—”

  “Hazor? Asher?” General Cozeba’s voice boomed. “General Garusovsky just wants to talk!”

  As though the last light in the universe had just gone out, Anna bowed her head. “Listen to me. Everything they tell you, and I mean everything, will be a lie. Never forget that.”

  No one made a sound, but Micah could hear Nadai breathing as though he’d just finished a marathon.

  Anna tipped her head back, leaning it against the wall. “Garusovsky will offer you anything you want. He must in order to convince you—”

  “Understood.” Micah firmly clutched his M-16 against his chest. He could smell the distinctive scent of burned powder, a scent he found comforting. He scanned the hallway, then glanced back at Anna’s sober eyes.

  She said, “I suspect you are immune to LucentB, Micah.”

  The room had gotten hotter, the scent of sweat stronger. He nodded. “Are you immune?”

  “No.”

  Micah swallowed before he dared to ask, “Tell me how you escaped from that Russian prison.”

  “Borodino helped me.”

  Micah blinked. “Why?”

  “He’s one of Hakari’s Ten. Yacob Borodino.”

  Micah went a little light-headed as the ramifications sank in. “He’s an American spy? He wanted you to find the Marham-i-Isa? Was he hunting for it, too?”

  “We all were. All ten of us. I don’t know how many of The Ten are left.”

  Hushed voices reverberated outside.

  “We’re coming down, Hazor. Hold your fire!”

  Micah shouted back, “You and who else, Cozeba?” He tightened his grip on his rifle and readied himself to spray the hallway with bullets.

  “Just me and General Garusovsky.”

  “You’d better be unarmed, and you’d better keep your hands where I can see them.”

  “Affirmative, Captain.”

  Boots thudded down the hall.

  Micah leaned slightly forward, waiting for them to appear. When they did, his gaze searched for visible weapons, then unusual lumps that might indicate hidden guns. He didn’t see any, but they might have pistols stuffed in the back of their pants, just as Micah did. They had their hands up. Garusovsky and his black-haired lieutenant had their silver hoods shoved back. Brave of them, but they probably assumed that the people in the fort were still alive because they were not infected.

  Breathlessly, Anna said, “Micah, one last thing—”

  “Stop talking,” Micah said when Cozeba and a Russian general came into view. “I understand.”

  Garusovsky took Micah’s measure, looking him up and down. He obviously found Micah interesting, because his eyes glittered. Deep lines cut across the man’s forehead and around his wide mouth. His HazMat suit was spun from unbelievably fine silver threads. Micah briefly marveled at the metamaterial.

  Garusovsky’s English was heavily accented. “You are Captain Asher’s spokesman?” He lowered his hands slightly.

  Micah gestured with his rifle. “Keep them over your head, General. High over your head.”

  When Garusovsky lifted his hands higher, his suit sent out fluttering waves of brilliance.

  Anna sucked in a deep breath and held it for a couple of seconds, as though to gird herself, then she leaned out to look at Garusovsky. “What’s the offer, General?”

  Garusovsky’s wrinkled face tightened. “We will allow everyone in this fort to live in exchange for the Marham-i-Isa.”

  “I don’t believe you, General.”

  A faint crescent of teeth showed between Garusovsky’s lips, as though he read her hidden panic with perfect clarity. His voice turned friendly. “What do you want, Asher? Are you afraid I will misuse the vaccine? Maybe once I have it, I will withhold it from Americans? I will not. How can I assure you of that?”

  “Give me Hakari.”

  Garusovsky’s smile faded. “He’s dead.”

  “You’d better get serious, General.” Anna took a new grip on her rifle as though her palms had grown slick. “Or we’ll destroy the computer that holds the cure.”

  Garusovsky took a sudden step forward. “Then you do have it?”

  “We do.”

  While they talked, Micah’s mind traced out logical pathways. She said she had it, and Nadai had nodded at that, but Zandra Bibi’s gaze was darting around the room, as though wondering what Anna was talking about. Micah softly said, “Let me talk to Garusovsky.”

  Anna gave him a frightened look. “Don’t even consider—”

  “I’ve got that part, Anna.”

  She backed into the room.

  Micah stepped squarely into the doorway with his rifle aimed at Cozeba. Garusovsky’s lips curled in a faint smile of appreciation. Micah said, “How long have you been working with Cozeba, General? I just want to know when he betrayed America.”

  Garusovsky chuckled, but the Americans in the hallway glanced sideways at Cozeba.

  Anna slid along the wall inside the room, getting out of Garusovsky’s sight, and her breathing went shallow, probably wondering what Micah was doing. Wondering if he was just stalling, or had more interesting motives.

  General Cozeba’s brows lowered. A bead of sweat ran down his left temple.

  As though amused, Garusovsky said, “Your disagreement with Cozeba is irrelevant to me. Tell me what you want.”

  From the corner of his eye, Micah saw Anna subtly sag against the wall. She looked like she was running data through her mind, trying to decide if she believed him or not.

  Micah called, “I don’t believe you’re going to use the Marham-i-Isa for the good of humanity, General. I think you’re a fucking prick and once you have the cure, you’ll vaccinate only Russians—which would be an ingenious form of worldwide cultural cleansing.”

  Anna whispered, “Careful, Micah.”

  Garusovsky laughed. “You have no choice, my friend. I have hundreds of men moving into position around this fort. You can’t win. You may as well give it to me without bloodshed.”

  Anna shook her head ferociously, then Micah saw Cozeba swallow hard and glance expectantly down the hall.

  Micah’s ears suddenly registered the sound. The distant whine of turbines. Every American in the hallway dove for cover.

  Micah shouted, “On the floor!” and hit the deck, just as the minigun opened up and the window and stairwell exploded. The eight men in silver suits cried out and scrambled for cover. The U.S. Marines let out an earsplitting cry and charged. In the melee of automatic rifle fire, flashing knives, and profanity, it was impossible to make sense of the fight.

  General Garusovsky screamed and staggered back against the wall, then he took off at a dead run for the stairs.

  Micah lunged out the door, charging into the fight.

  Cozeba’s boots pounded behind him, and Micah wondered if he was going to be shot in the back by his own commanding officer.

  Tracer rounds ripped through the fort, some glowing green, and the heavy oak rafters splintered. Chunks of wood careened down the hall. Micah couldn’t dodge them. Impacting rounds ricocheted from the stone walls and whined past him like screaming eagles. Americans were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Russian forces, so closely intertwined that …

  Cozeba yelled, “Hazor, protect Borodino! I want him alive!”

  Micah’s legs pumped, going after Borodino.

  Borodino had his back to Micah when Micah hit him like a freight train, slamming Borodino to the floor, while soldiers rushed and screamed all around them. “I’m a friend!” Micah shouted in his face. “A friend, goddamn you! Stay do
wn!”

  Borodino stared up at him in panic. “Does Anna have the cure? Did she decipher—”

  Anna shouted, “Micah, look out!”

  He glimpsed her charging down the hallway with her rifle aimed. And saw Garusovsky pick up a pistol from the floor and fire.

  Micah jerked when the bullet tore through his shoulder, splintering his scapula on the way out, and leaving his left arm useless. He rolled off Borodino, felt the man grab the pistol from his grip, and …

  Anna called, “Yacob, is Hazor alive?”

  “Yes!”

  She nodded and charged into the melee.

  Borodino lunged after her. “Right behind you, Anna!”

  Outside, the gunships blasted the area around the fort. Micah heard screams and rifle fire.

  Placing his hand against the wall to keep his balance, he rose and staggered back toward Bibi’s room. Where was Nadai? He still had a pistol, right?

  Mortar blasts outside filled the hall with garish light. Like fireworks. But fireworks with no sound. The flashes erupted in silence. I’m going into shock. Did the bullet take out the top of my lung?

  When Micah sank to his knees by the doorway, he felt no pain, just hot blood drenching his back.

  He tried to stay on his knees, in preparation for getting back on his feet, but he slumped against the wall. When he looked down and saw a computer just inside the door, still blinking … red and green … he stared dumbly at it. What is that thing? As though his body knew something his brain did not, he reached out, grabbed the computer and dragged it onto his lap to protect it.

  His hearing seemed to come back in a rush. Screams shredded the air, making him turn. Eight American soldiers, including Lehman, who somebody must have untied, surrounded the last enemy soldiers on this floor. Cozeba and Anna stood off to the side. The general was waving a fist, issuing orders.

  Through the open window, a magnificent deep voice penetrated the chaos. A man was singing at the top of his lungs. The language sounded like Latin.

  Anna whirled as though she recognized that voice, and her eyes blazed with disbelief.

  Just inside Bibi’s room, Micah caught movement. He might have been watching an old-fashioned movie flicker in black and white, as Nadai stepped out into the hallway and knelt in front of Micah, shielding Micah with his own body, his pistol leveled down the hall. He was shaking badly. Micah doubted he could hit anything, but he appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

  “Thanks … Nadai.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. We’re probably both going die now. I doubt I can hit the broad side of a barn.”

  When Garusovsky and his soldiers had been shoved into the far corner with rifles aimed at their hearts, Anna came back at a run.

  She edged past Nadai and dropped to the floor at Micah’s side, where she gave him a stern look. “Stay with me, Micah,” she said as she ripped his shirt open.

  Micah saw her as though from a great distance. He started wheezing as blood filled his lungs. “May not … be able to.”

  Her voice came out hoarse with emotion. “Don’t you dare die, goddamn you!”

  Micah convulsed. It felt strangely like falling through emptiness. He heard Cozeba shout, “Medic! Where’s that damned medic? Janus?”

  Before he knew what Anna was doing, she’d torn his shirt completely off his body, wadded the cloth, and jammed it into the hole in his chest to hinder the blood flow. “Martin, give me your shirt!”

  Exhausted, Micah closed his eyes and conjured images of home. He heard the whisper of wind through rain-soaked pines and saw the old two-track road in front of the house.

  Micah? Micah, stay with me!

  Nausea tickled his throat and a painful tingling sensation played over his skin. He heard a man sob somewhere close by, then another groaned and started panting. Was it him?

  Micah, don’t do this!

  He was on the old tire swing in the magnolia tree, sailing back and forth through the muggy summer air with Matthew laughing and pushing him way too high, while he shrieked, “Stop! Stop!”

  Matthew laughed louder. “Get used to it, little brother. Life is just like a wild swing ride. Gotta learn to hang on tight.”

  Micah felt weightless.

  Weightless and happy.

  CHAPTER 58

  Martin got to his feet and lowered his pistol. Hazor’s dark face had gone slack. Crimson froth drained from the corners of his mouth as his wounded lung struggled to breathe. Martin had never seen a man die before.

  Weaving on his feet, Martin leaned against the wall. He knew it now. The fever wasn’t my imagination.

  Cozeba yelled, “Janus! What’s taking so long?” and stalked back down the hallway.

  Martin went over to pick up the computer that had slid from Hazor’s hands. It seemed undamaged, which was a miracle. Bibi had shoved it into Martin’s hands before she’d charged down the hallway to enter the fight … but as his fever soared Martin had set it down, afraid he’d drop it. Hazor had obviously found it. Martin tucked the computer securely beneath his arm and leaned against the wall with his knees locked.

  When the medic arrived and shooed everyone away from Hazor, Cozeba sprinted back to organize his surviving soldiers for the next assault.

  Anna picked up her rifle and headed down the hall to join Cozeba.

  Martin called, “Anna? Wait. Give me two minutes, that’s all.”

  She hesitated, then turned and ran back. He grabbed her arm and dragged her into the room with him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  In a dark corner, Martin righted the table, placed the computer on top, and opened it. When he touched the keyboard, the screen flared to life. “Where’s the photonic sequence, Anna? Which file?”

  “It’s called ‘Mystery.’ Why?”

  Martin concentrated on tapping keys. He could feel a strange weakness in his limbs, a numbness that increased as his fever climbed.

  “Are you all right? What are you doing?”

  “I want to see the Marham-i-Isa with my own eyes.”

  “You know what it is?”

  “I will after we enter the Divine Word.”

  Astonished, she asked, “What’s the Divine Word?”

  Martin glanced at the people in the hallway frantically working on Hazor, then he fixed Anna with a solemn stare. “You know it just as well as I do.”

  “No, I— I don’t.”

  The cursor winked, awaiting instructions. Martin took a moment to switch the font to Greek, and turned to Anna. “Do you want to input it?”

  “What is it?”

  He was suddenly sick to his stomach, but along with the strange euphoria came a startling sense of peace and tranquility. “You’re one of The Ten. It has ten letters.”

  Anna’s eyes flared, and Martin knew the instant she saw it in her memory … the Greek letters carved into the stone ossuary, dimly visible through the smoke-filtered moonlight.

  “The inscription we found in the Cave of the Treasure of Light in Israel!”

  Anna input the first letter—phi. A circle filled with a spiraling double helix appeared on the screen.

  Leaning closer, Martin asked, “Is that a human cell?”

  “Yes. Definitely.”

  Anna stared at it for an instant, before she input the second letter—pi. A sphere, the same geodesic dome that they’d seen earlier, appeared beside the cell.

  “That’s the virus,” she whispered. “That’s LucentB.”

  “I know.

  Anna input the psi, and the sphere blazed as though set afire.

  “What’s happening? Are we inserting the key in the lock?”

  “We’ll know in a few seconds.”

  She hit the sigma key.

  A brilliant green line appeared on the sphere.

  “What’s that?”

  “Give me a second.” Anna’s fingers flew, inputting: pi, phi, tau, tau. As she typed each letter, the line moved around the geometric shapes on the surface of the virus.


  “Hey!” Martin said, “Isn’t that the zigzagging course of our maze?”

  Anna whispered, “Yes.”

  She entered the next letter of the inscription: pi.

  And the blazing sphere began to roll toward the human cell. When it struck the cell, the jagged green line locked into the cell wall. Like inserting the jagged edge of a key in a lock, the key opened a pathway, and the virus inserted itself into the cell and instantly started to replicate, producing identical copies of itself by the hundreds.

  Anna seemed to stop breathing.

  “Hakari is showing us how the virus works at a genetic level. This is how it enters our cells and kills us.”

  “Enter the last letter, Anna.”

  Pi.

  The screen exploded with light, and an intricate, beautiful, 3-D image of the spiraling DNA molecule appeared. Through the center of the molecule, a line of red dots seemed to mark out a specific sequence of DNA.

  “That’s it,” she whispered. “See it? Right there. That’s the sequence for the LucentB vaccine, Martin. It’s a DNA vaccine.”

  “You mean that’s the Marham-i-Isa? Are you…”

  Outside, helicopter turbines whumped, and the whirling shadow of blades passed over the floor.

  Cozeba shouted, “Hundreds of enemy soldiers are surrounding the fort, and they have rocket launchers!”

  Just as Anna leaped up to run for the door, an explosion rocked the fort, and chunks of metal careened down the hall outside. Shrill whining shredded the air. When the helicopter crashed, a thunderous roar shuddered the fort’s ancient walls, knocking Anna off her feet.

  “Anna!” Martin cried.

  “I’m all right!” She got up and ran for the door.

  Martin stared at the computer.

  I’ve been searching for the Marham-i-Isa my whole life, and it’s right there in front of me.

  At least he’d lived long enough for this moment. And maybe, just maybe, they’d found it soon enough that he wouldn’t die.

  CHAPTER 59

  When Anna charged through the door, Janus and Bibi were struggling to rise from where the blast had thrown them against the wall. She knelt beside Micah.