Xenofreak Nation

by Melissa Conway

  He held out his hand and she rushed forward into his arms, letting let out a little cry of relief. The hug was brief; a chime sounded from her holocomputer and she pulled away. “I need to check that. It’s the Warehouse alarm system. Kareem Williams is pretty upset about last night’s raid. I intercepted an email from him to his followers. He’s using the panda as an excuse to fire them up against us.”

  She tapped her holo keyboard and the screen split into six views from cameras set up in what Scott recognized as areas in and around the Warehouse.

  “Oh, no,” Padme murmured.

  There was no sound, but four of the views on screen showed chaos: xenos running from armed gunmen amid smoke and fire. Scott looked for telltale identification on the back of the invaders’ vests, but there was nothing to indicate these were FBI, DEA or XIA agents.

  Lupus’ head appeared on the small monitor over the control room door and his voice blasted over the loudspeaker, “What the hell’s going on outside?”

  Padme buzzed him in. The sound of the alarm echoed in from the hallway; it was ringing throughout the facility. Lupus was fully dressed and other than the sling on his arm, the only thing to indicate he wasn’t hale and hearty were the bleary red eyes blazing out of his wolf face.

  Padme made room so Lupus could see the monitors. “You shouldn’t be up.”

  “I’m supposed to sleep through that? Who are they?”

  “ARA,” Padme said. “Retribution for the panda.”

  The fifth view on the monitor was the parking garage entrance. An extended cab truck filled with soldiers pulled up some distance away. One of the men ran up and stuck a dark, oblong object the size of a baseball onto the security gate before hightailing it back to the truck.

  “What is that?” Padme asked.

  “Sticky breach bomb,” Scott said.

  A flash on the monitor was accompanied by a dull concussive thump felt in the control room. Dust trickled down from the ceiling. The truck crashed through the damaged security gate.

  “Maybe they just don’t know what’s behind the gate,” Padme suggested.

  They watched that all-important sixth view on the holo monitor: that of the empty parking garage itself. If the ARA soldiers were just out to destroy everything in the warehouse, they’d see the empty garage and turn back around.

  The truck appeared onscreen and stopped at the bottom of the ramp trailing smoke from the explosion behind it.

  Padme laced her fingers together tightly and held her knuckles up to her mouth. “Do they know we’re here?”

  A man jumped out of the truck and stuck another bomb on the elevator doors.

  “They know,” Lupus growled. He looked at Scott. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Kareem had brought Bryn along, “Just in case we need to negotiate a trade.” She didn’t think she’d be worth much if it came to that, but wasn’t about to point that out to him. The less valuable she was in his eyes, the more expendable.

  She sat in the back seat of Kareem’s white truck, jammed in between two men bristling with weaponry. Her quills bristled, too, and the men didn’t conceal their disgust. “I’d rather chop my own head off than look like that,” said one.

  “You trying to be some kinda Medusa or something?” asked the other. Bryn hunched her shoulders and pressed her knees together to make herself as small as possible.

  After they drove through the damaged security gate and entered the parking garage, one of the men plugged his nose. “Ugh, what is that smell? Is that you?” He looked at Bryn. Kareem, from the driver’s seat, said, “Shut it!”

  His lieutenant, the man in the passenger seat, jumped out and attached another bomb to the elevator doors. The blast filled the parking garage with smoke. Kareem and his men waited for it to dissipate a little before cautiously getting out of the truck. “Bring the girl,” Kareem said.

  The man who’d called her Medusa grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the truck without waiting for her to get her feet under her. She stumbled along behind until he jerked her arm and pushed her ahead of him as a human shield. If anyone came out of the elevator firing, she’d be the first to go down.

  The men flattened themselves against the concrete wall. One of them saw a security camera and shot at it. His bullets ricocheted around the parking garage. “Leave it!” Kareem shouted.

  He waved to the man holding Bryn’s arm, who shoved her forward. “What do you see?” he asked. The elevator was big, the kind that hauled freight or could hold more than one stretcher in a hospital. The doors on the parking garage side were blown inward, and she flinched as she leaned over to look inside, expecting a hail of bullets, but the doors on the far side of the elevator were intact. She heard sirens and wasn’t sure if it was coming from above them and outside, or from beyond the barrier of the elevator doors.

  “It didn’t go all the way through,” she said.

  Kareem’s lieutenant took a quick look to verify. He waved everyone back as he readied another one of the little bombs and ran into the elevator and out again. Without the protection afforded by the truck, the blast was deafening. Bryn threw her hands over her ears instinctively and was rewarded with several pricks from her quills. She coughed as acrid smoke burned her nasal passages and lungs, but it cleared much more quickly this time, sucked into the void beyond the elevator.

  The brave ARA soldiers pushed her forward again. The sound of the sirens was coming from within. She peeked and saw an empty corridor, but the interior of the elevator had been badly damaged. The floor had buckled and there was a yawning hole that would prevent anyone from walking through to the far side. She told Kareem what she saw and again the lieutenant verified it.

  Bryn heard more sirens, but these were definitely coming from outside; the police were responding. Kareem looked over to the exit ramp. If he chose to stay and continue his assault on Fournier, he’d be trapped.

  He punched his fist into his open palm and spun around. “There!” He pointed to the only objects in the garage other than the truck: the parking blocks in each parking space. The blocks were the solid black rubber kind with yellow reflective stripes, about six feet long, mounted to the concrete with metal spikes. One of Kareem’s men got a pry bar from the truck and with a lot of kicking and swearing, they managed to get one loose.

  It barely spanned the hole in the floor of the elevator. Bryn knew without being told that she’d be the guinea pig to test it. Her new boots hadn’t been kind to her feet that day, and now she was asking them to take her across a narrow, unstable bridge over a yawning void with jagged edges that would tear her to pieces if she fell. She wobbled the first few steps, but when she rested her left hand against a portion of buckled paneling, she got her balance. When she reached the middle of the parking block, it began to sag a bit and with a secret smile, she knew it wouldn’t hold the heavier men’s weight. The corridor ahead was empty, but it ran perpendicular to the elevator, which meant there could be anyone waiting on either side. She doubted they’d stop to confirm her identity before shooting, so her only hope was to hit the ground flat. She placed her right foot on the very end of the parking block and, taking a deep breath, launched herself forward. The force of her leap pushed the parking block out from under her, so she didn’t get as far as she’d intended, but two things happened: she dove to the ground without getting hit by any bullets, and the parking block clattered into the hole. A brief glance over her shoulder showed the angry face of Kareem’s lieutenant. As he raised his rifle she rolled out of view.

  “Get another parking block!” From the sound of Kareem’s near-screaming voice, he’d lost any semblance of control. Bryn got to her feet and started down the long, wide corridor. It looked like she’d entered an abandoned hospital, but just as she was beginning to think the xenos that ran the place had all vacated, she turned the corner and found it full of men running in her direction. She closed her eyes, threw her hands into the air and braced for some kind of impact.

&n
bsp; “What the hell are you doing here?” Lupus’ gravelly voice sent shivers down her spine.

  She looked up. Scott had stopped next to him and his surprised face sparked so many emotions she almost laughed aloud. Not only was he alive and well, but since he, Lupus, Dundee and two other men were all holding guns, it appeared his cover was still intact. Lupus and Dundee had matching slings on opposite arms and neither one looked all that healthy. They must have been recruited from their hospital beds to defend Fournier’s facility. The odds were not in their favor.

  “Long story,” she said, “what’s important is there are seven ARA soldiers in the parking garage. They have guns and grenades, but they damaged the elevator floor when they blew the doors, so they can’t get across.”

  “Then how’d you get across, Darlin’?” It was Dundee who asked. “They throw you?”

  She told them about the parking block. “They’re getting another one now, but I don’t think it’ll hold any of their weight. Oh, and I’m pretty sure the cops are on the way, but Kareem is crazy mad. He’s not going to leave.”

  “The cops’ll box him in and keep him busy,” Scott said in a low voice.

  Lupus said, “Give them your weapons.”

  Scott and Dundee handed over their rifles to the other two men while Lupus issued instructions. “Hold them off. When the power goes out, you better be at the tunnel.”

  The two men trotted off. When they disappeared around the corner, Lupus looked at Bryn. His face was impossible to read, but she suspected he was more than annoyed at having to deal with her. “You and I are going to have a serious talk about how you ended up among the ARA, but now’s not the time. Dundee. Take Porky here to Padme in the control room.”

  Bryn met Scott’s gaze. His eyes were brimming with warning; he didn’t have to tell her not to protest, not to ask that Scott be the one to escort her. She knew no matter what, he’d stay in character and do as he was told. She’d been so relieved to see him, but his presence didn’t make her any safer.

  Dundee grabbed her arm, the one everyone had been hauling her around by lately. Before he could pull her along with him she yanked it free. “I can walk, thank you.”

  His mouth quirked in a smile that wasn’t reflected in his flat eyes. He swept an arm in front of him. “After you.”

  Chapter Fifty

  Scott and Lupus wove their way through the maze of corridors. When they arrived at the door to Fournier’s reception area, it immediately opened. Nicola looked flustered. “Thank goodness you’re here. He’s pretty upset.”

  Fournier chose that moment to burst out of his office, thin hair mussed and face red. “Where the—Lupus! Padme has informed me that the ARA are at our door. And now of course the police are here. How did this happen?”

  “We’ll figure that out when the smoke settles. Right now, I suggest you allow the staff to take one of the escape tunnels.” Lupus spoke calmly, but Scott sensed the tightly coiled anger beneath the surface.

  Fournier snapped, “Yes, yes, have Padme unseal the main tunnel, and tell her to turn the damned alarm off! I’ll be right behind you; I have to wipe my holo drive. Cougar, I’m placing Nicola’s safety in your hands. And Lupus—get the panda out! Those bastards won’t get it a second time. Go!” His hands flapped as he vanished behind his office door.

  “Wait, we’re leaving?” Nicola pouted like May always used to before she was going to cry. “I need to get my stuff.”

  Lupus shot Scott a look that said, “Deal with it.” As he ran out, Scott caught the door and held it for Nicola, saying, “There’s no time. Come on.”

  To his consternation, she bolted in the opposite direction for a nondescript door on the far side of the room. With a groan of impatience, he tried to follow her inside, but found she’d locked it. He rattled the handle and said, “Nicola, there are men with guns who hate xenos outside. Come out.”

  “No! I have to pack!”

  The door was the typical hollow particleboard found in houses everywhere. Scott stepped back and kicked a hole next to the knob. Getting in was a simple matter of reaching in and unlocking it. The room was large and more than a typical teen bedroom. Besides the customary small bed, dresser set and desk, there was a treadmill, a big holovision mounted on the wall and a bookcase with real books.

  He expected her to be grabbing her clothes or music or games, but she stood next to the bookcase, shoving books into a knapsack.

  “These were my mother’s,” she said. “It’s all I have of her.”

  Scott knew he hadn’t been wrong about Nicola being a clone since Padme had confirmed it. Was Nicola unaware of her origins, or did she consider her genetic donor her mother? Either way, her tearful determination to rescue the books meant she’d been told her ‘mother’ was dead.

  “All of them?” There was no way they’d be able to carry the load between them.

  “No, just these psychology books. And my bird. I can’t leave her.” She handed him the knapsack and darted across the room to grasp the handle on top of a cage containing a grey and white cockatiel. The bird let out a protesting squawk and flapped its wings as she lifted it. Scott took note of a patch on its breast where feathers were missing; feathers that matched the ones forming Nicola’s eyebrows. The bird was her xenodonor, and the fact that it was still alive told him a lot about the girl’s character—and about Fournier’s indulgence of her.

  “Okay.” She stood for a moment in the middle of her room and took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”

  Scott briefly contemplated marching into Fournier’s office to arrest him. The police were outside, the entrance to the clinic had been breached and it was only a matter of time before the XIA took over.

  But Bryn had somehow managed to get herself in the thick of things again. No telling what Dundee would do with her if he got the chance. The Australian xeno may be injured, but he could not be discounted as a threat. Scott had the opportunity to make up for his past failure to protect her, and he was damned if he was going to let her get hurt again.

  Chapter Fifty-one

  The moment Bryn and Dundee rounded a corner that put them out of sight of the others, he grabbed her arm again, but instead of steering her down the hall, he pushed her through the nearest set of double-doors. It was dark in the room, except for the light from the corridor shining through the rectangular windows in the doors. He shoved her up against a wall and his body followed. Crushed up against him, she cringed away in disgust.

  “I think we’ve got enough time to get to know one another.” His hips grinding against hers made his meaning clear. She tried to push him away, but even injured, he was significantly stronger.

  His breath was moist and foul, but thankfully, the quills kept him from getting any closer. “Get those quills out of my face,” he said.

  Cooperation had gotten her out of a lot of scrapes lately. “I can’t,” she said, trying to sound reasonable. “They do that when I’m scared, and you’re hurting me.”

  “The Dundee won’t hurt you…much.” He pulled away, but only to fumble at his belt with his good hand.

  To hell with cooperation. Bryn made a break for the door, but his hand shot out and grasped her wrist. When he pulled her back towards him, she used the only weapon available to her: she head-butted him in the face with all her might. He screamed and released her wrist so suddenly she stumbled and fell to the floor. The top of her head was ringing from the blow, but she scrambled to all fours and crawled to door. She expected him to fall on her any second, but he was still screaming and a quick glimpse showed at least a dozen quills protruding from his face, several of which had penetrated his eyes.

  “Oh, my God.” She surged to her feet and shot through the door, hand over her mouth because she was afraid she would vomit, not sure if she was more horrified at what he’d almost done to her or what she’d done to him. Nearly hysterical, she ran down the corridor back in Scott’s direction, but he was nowhere in sight. She heard gunfire in the direction of the elevator,
which spurred her to run the opposite way. After a few turns, she was hopelessly lost.

  She kept moving, expecting at any moment to round a corner that would bring her back to a bloody-eyed, homicidal Dundee. Instead, she ran into Lupus.

  “What the..?” he said. “Where’s Dundee?”

  “I—I…”

  He grabbed her poor arm and hauled her after him with a frustrated grunt. She jogged next to him as he strode through a big room filled with animals. “Cutty!” he hollered.

  A thin woman in a lab coat poked her head out of the door. “What’s going on?”

  “Get the panda in a portable with wheels and do it now! Meet by the main tunnel in five minutes.”

  “Five minutes?” the woman protested.

  Lupus didn’t stick around to hear her complaints. He dragged Bryn out, around another corner and stopped in front of a heavy white door. He slammed his hand on a button. “Padme!”

  A buzz sounded and he opened the door. Inside was a room jam-packed with equipment and monitors. Padme was multi-tasking, rushing from place to place, tossing things into a black gym bag, tapping holokeys, and talking to someone. She held a hand up to stop Lupus from interrupting her and gave Bryn the briefest of glances. From the sound of the conversation, Padme was giving Fournier advice on how to destroy evidence.

  Bryn looked at a holoscreen monitor with split views of the Warehouse, the parking garage and inside the facility. Padme hadn’t expressed surprise at seeing Bryn because she would have noted her arrival, seen her run into Lupus and Scott. Had she seen what Bryn had done to Dundee? Bryn didn’t see the Australian anywhere on the monitor and all the corridors looked the same. She kept her eyes glued to the holoscreen as Padme wound up her conversation and began making plans with Lupus.