The railcar was slowing down. The lithium ion batteries were dry. But the hydrogen was still going.
‘They’ve stopped firing,’ Benito said.
‘That’s because we’re out of range,’ Sophia said. ‘For now.’
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jay dropped to his knees before Damien. Jay himself had taken a round in his left shoulder. It burned like hell, leaving his left arm dangling uselessly at his side. But the pain was nothing compared to watching Damien lie there with that fucked-up slurping noise coming from his chest. He couldn’t believe what was happening. Damien’s eyes were half-open, focused on him. Jay felt useless.
Lucia was over Damien, her medical backpack open on the floor. ‘Sucking chest cavity,’ she yelled above the rush of air.
Her hand was pressed firmly over the exit wound on the left side of Damien’s chest. The round must’ve ripped open the skin on Damien’s back and burned its way through his flesh, smashing open the veins and nerves. It had gone wide on his left side, missing his heart and perforating a lung.
Jay couldn’t give a fuck about the Blue Berets, the Chimera vector, any of that shit. Right now, he was going to do anything to make sure Damien survived.
Lucia pointed to Damien’s chest. ‘Hand here, firm pressure.’
As soon as she removed her hand, Jay took over. Damien exhaled. His eyes were closed now. Scarlet bubbles frothed over Jay’s knuckles. Jay swallowed, hard. His eyes tingled. He could feel tears coming. It only angered him more.
Lucia pressed two fingers into the groove between the large muscle of Damien’s neck and the windpipe. ‘His pulse is too fast,’ she said.
As soon as Damien opened his eyes, Jay yelled, ‘It’s OK, you’ll be fine!’
Lucia removed Jay’s trembling hand and applied a sterile dressing to the wound. He watched her tape three sides, leaving the bottom open for drainage. He could almost visualize Damien’s heart pumping furiously to make the best of what blood was left in his body.
Lucia reached for a plasma bladder and catheter from her backpack. Screw that. Jay beat her to it. He held the catheter between his teeth and ripped the bladder out of its packaging. Lucia let him do it, and stabbed Damien’s thigh with an auto-injector of morphine. Jay tore the caps off the bladder and jabbed the catheter into the bottle’s self-sealing neck. Lucia took the bottle from him.
‘Let me do it,’ he said.
‘It’s OK,’ Lucia said. ‘I have it under control.’
She undid the screw clamp, allowing the liquid to run through the line and bulk out the blood in Damien’s veins.
Jay felt tears splash his cheeks.
‘Thank you,’ Lucia said.
Jay rocked back on his heels until he was slumped against the side of the railcar. His mouth twitched. He tried to keep a straight face, but his chin trembled. He ran his functional hand through his hair. He should never have let Damien get on the railcar.
***
Renée called out from the driver’s cabin. ‘Where to?’
On her hands and knees, Sophia yelled back, ‘Keep going!’
She checked her com. The Blue Berets were yellow dots on her screen. They’d dropped back. Her team was safe. For now.
Jay shuffled towards her. He clamped his good hand over her com. ‘You need to get Damien to a hospital!’ he yelled over the noise. ‘Now!’
‘I’m sorry.’ She looked up at him. ‘We can’t help him yet.’
‘Actually, you can help him,’ Benito shouted.
Jay hesitated, turned to Benito. Sophia did the same. Maybe Denton had retained a medical team in case the Berets needed treatment.
‘How?’ Jay said.
Benito slipped a hand between the buttons of his shirt and scratched his chest. ‘The Axolotl Chimera vector. It’s only encrypted with Cecilia’s DNA, yes?’
‘Damien is dying!’ Jay yelled. ‘And you’re having a nerds’ tea party about DNA?’
Sophia glared at him. ‘Thank you, Jay, that’s enough quite testosterone for now.’ To Benito, she said, ‘That’s right.’
Then realization hit her. She hadn’t thought of that.
She called Cecilia back immediately. ‘I have critically wounded. I need the Axolotl Chimera vector—decrypted.’
‘That’s too dangerous,’ Cecilia said.
‘I’ll wipe it as soon as we use it,’ Sophia said. ‘Please. I need this.’
Cecilia didn’t respond straight away. For a moment, Sophia thought the connection had cut out.
Then Cecilia said, ‘As soon as you’ve used it, erase it from your com again.’
‘Thank you.’ Sophia ended the call.
Her com beeped. She checked it. Cecilia had just sent her the decrypted Axolotl code.
She looked up at Jay. ‘We can save him with the Axolotl Chimera vector.’
‘What?’ Nasira said. ‘You’re actually considering this?’
‘I can take you to the Vector labs,’ Benito said, scratching his chest again. ‘In the Project GATE labs.’
‘You’re going to risk all of our lives to help someone who never wanted to help us in the first place?’ Nasira said.
‘I’m not leaving a member of my team behind,’ Sophia said.
‘He’s not a member of our team!’ Nasira yelled.
‘He is now.’
‘Yeah, well, it’s considered impolite to kill your friends while you’re committing suicide,’ Nasira said. ‘For the record.’
‘Sophia!’ Renée called out. ‘We’ve passed another platform!’
She checked her com. There was only one more platform left. And it was crawling with yellow dots.
‘Fuck, they move fast,’ Jay said, peering over her shoulder at her com.
‘Too fast,’ Sophia said. ‘Much too fast.’
Something was wrong. With the surveillance under her control, it was impossible for the Berets to be in place that quickly.
On her knees, not wanting to give the Berets an easy target, Sophia crawled to Benito.
‘Nasira, get over here!’ she called.
Nasira crawled after her, but Jay was already kneeling beside her. ‘Are you crazy?’ he said. ‘They’ll be on us in a matter of minutes!’
‘If you want to stay alive, then stand aside.’ She looked down at him. ‘Or kneel aside.’
Jay’s Adam’s apple bobbed beneath the sweat-laden stubble on his neck. ‘No.’ His shiny eyes blinked. ‘I’m helping you.’
‘Fine.’
She glanced back at Benito. He was scratching his chest again. ‘What are you doing?’ she said.
‘It’s itchy.’
‘Why?’
‘Inoculation I had recently.’
‘The hell you did. Nasira! Do his chest.’
Nasira kneeled before Benito and waved an open palm over his chest. She stopped near his heart. ‘Getting a soft buzz right here.’
‘Shit,’ Sophia said. ‘You have a subdermal GPS implant.’
‘We’re underground,’ Jay said.
‘Doesn’t matter. This is sferic-based GPS. Very low-frequency signals that penetrate earth and sea.’
Jesus, she thought. There was no way in hell she could remove that. At least not without killing him.
Benito nodded. ‘Next to the heart. That would be a generation-three implant then. I don’t remember it being implanted though.’
‘That sounds about right,’ Sophia said.
She wasn’t familiar with the third-generation implants. Her first thought was to get Cecilia on a voice call and have her talk them through it, then she remembered the Fifth Column’s most skilled cryptanalyst was sitting right in front of her. Dr. Benito Montoya.
She licked her cracked lips. They tasted sour with perspiration. ‘Can we disable it?’ she asked.
Benito pushed his glasses up. ‘Can you isolate and monitor the implant’s power consumption?’
She turned to Jay.
‘On it.’ Jay got to work with his own com. It took him a mo
ment, but it wasn’t long before an electric blue line shivered across his screen. ‘Done.’
She took Jay’s com and handed it to Benito.
‘Right,’ Benito said. ‘Now set your com to transmit on 900 megahertz.’
Sophia sensed Nasira hovering over her. She handed Nasira her own com. It was the only one currently in control of the hijacked surveillance system. Someone needed to keep an eye on it.
‘Here, swap,’ she said. ‘Keep watch on the Blue Berets.’
Using Nasira’s com, Sophia identified the implant and adjusted the com’s transmission frequency to match it. ‘OK, 900 megahertz,’ she said.
Benito exhaled, surprisingly calm and surprisingly focused. More than she was, at least.
‘Right. I want you to transmit a password of sixteen zeroes,’ he said. ‘This will be the kill password.’
She punched in the numbers. ‘That’s the password?’ She transmitted it, but the com told her the implant wasn’t responding. ‘No, it’s wrong. It’s wrong.’
Benito didn’t look concerned. ‘Right. Change the first digit to a one.’
She did as he said. Same result.
‘Keep trying through to nine.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t understand—’
‘You will. Just do as I say,’ he said quickly.
She tried the number two. Nothing. She tried the number three. Same result. She continued through the numbers until Benito said, ‘Stop! What number was that?’
‘Six,’ she said.
‘Right. Keep that number, move to the next digit.’
She cycled from zero to nine, transmitting to the implant with every number.
‘How do you know which number is the right one?’ she said.
Benito kept his eyes on Jay’s com. ‘When it’s the right number, the implant doesn’t use as much power to process it. Dead giveaway.’ He laughed loudly and abruptly. It made her jump.
‘You’re guessing the password based on how thirsty the implant is for power?’ she said. ‘Is that how it works?’
‘Correct. I watch the power usage and tell you which numbers are accepted and which numbers are rejected.’
Benito’s hands moved in elaborate gestures. If a symphony conductor were tripping on acid, Sophia thought, that’s what his hand gestures would look like.
‘Number by number, we can figure out the kill password. In cryptography, it’s known as a side-channel attack.’
He was speaking a little too fast, but she got the general idea of what he was saying.
‘Stop!’ he said. ‘Now when I say “next”, lock it in and move to the next digit, understood?’
She nodded, then moved on to the fourth digit, her fingers working furiously through the numbers.
‘Next!’ Benito said.
That was a nine. Four digits down, thirteen to go.
‘Next.’
That was a two. She continued with the sixth digit, one finger ready to enter the number, another finger ready to hit the transmit button.
‘Next.’
Seven.
She was getting faster.
‘Next.’
Zero.
At this rate, they were revealing one digit every ten seconds. Fast, but not fast enough.
‘Shit,’ Nasira said.
Sophia badly wanted to know what Nasira was looking at, but kept her focus.
‘Next.’
Number five.
‘What is it?’ she said to Nasira.
‘They’re catching up.’
Sophia cycled through another round of numbers.
‘Next.’
Number eight.
‘I have visual!’ Cassandra called from the rear.
‘Next.’
Number five.
Sophia entered the five, but accidentally put it as the first digit. ‘Shit.’
She wrote the six back in, then stuck the five at the end. She couldn’t screw this up. Five to go.
‘Next.’
Number eight.
Sweat stung her eyes. Her fingers were shaking.
‘Next.’
Number three.
‘They’re closing!’ Lucia yelled, checking her mag.
‘Next.’
Number six.
Subsonic rounds smacked viciously into the rear of the railcar, shattering glass. Sophia ducked lower.
‘Next.’
Number one.
Sophia rubbed sweat from her eyes. One more to go.
‘Renée, top speed!’ she shouted.
‘We already are!’ Renée yelled back.
That wasn’t good.
Jay and Nasira scrambled over broken glass to the rear, taking up fire positions. Lucia was still monitoring Damien’s chest wound. Damien’s eyes remained closed.
Sophia realized she’d been holding her breath. She inhaled deeply through her nostrils and exhaled through parted lips. She returned her focus to the com. She had to finish this.
The railcar jolted, dropping to half its speed. The jolt knocked the com from Sophia’s grasp. It skittered to the other side of the railcar.
Sophia launched off her knees and scrambled for it.
‘The platform’s up ahead!’ Renée yelled.
Rounds sprayed over them. Sophia laid flat, arms forward. She touched the com with her middle finger. All that did was push it further from her grasp. She wriggled after it. The railcar’s acceleration carried the com right to the end of the carriage. Great.
Cassandra’s boot came down beside it. Sophia looked up, yelled at her. Cassandra must have heard her over the noise because she looked down that instant. Sophia pointed to the com. With the inside of her boot, Cassandra slid it towards Sophia’s hands. Sophia grabbed it, held on tight.
‘They’re gaining on us!’ Cassandra yelled.
Sophia’s blood ran cold. The Berets knew how to juice the lithium ion batteries.
Not now. Not fucking now.
She rolled back to Benito, ignoring the bits of glass that stuck to her. Flat on his chest, he was moving towards her. They met in the middle of the chaos. Sweat ran in rivulets from her scalp, making her eyes sting. Lying on her stomach, com in clammy hands, she cycled through the numbers for the last digit.
‘Nasira!’ she yelled. ‘End platform! Are the Berets still there?’
Nasira was on one knee, P90 aimed and firing. She glanced down at Sophia’s com, shoved in her pocket. ‘They’re still in position!’ she yelled back.
Denton had planned this. And she’d walked right into it. And in less than twenty minutes, Cecilia would walk into Denton’s ambush—the Chimera vector codes open for his taking.
‘Sophia!’ Renée yelled. ‘Make the call!’
Sophia tried another number. Nothing. She tried the next one.
Benito yelled, ‘Jackpot! Send the kill password!’
‘What if this doesn’t work?’
‘Then I die.’ He locked gazes with her. ‘Do it.’
Sophia hit the transmit button. Benito coughed. He hunched over, spluttering and choking. She grabbed his hand, squeezed. She’d fucked up. Was the implant trying to kill him?
He stopped choking and cleared his throat. He straightened up, other hand over his chest. He exhaled slowly and managed a weak smile. ‘You haven’t killed me yet.’
Sophia nodded, then released his hand. ‘Stop the railcar!’ she yelled.
The railcar lurched to a halt. Nasira dropped Sophia’s com. It slid across the floor. There was another railcar opposite them. Stationary. No one inside. Luck might still be on her side.
‘We’re sitting ducks!’ Jay yelled from beside her, loud enough it almost blew her eardrum.
Benito, still lying on his stomach, held up Jay’s com. ‘I’ve cloned the signal onto this. As far as Denton knows, this is me.’
Taking Jay’s com, Sophia turned to the others. ‘Everyone out! Onto the tracks!’
‘In the other railcar?’ Jay said.
‘No! The track
s. If you want to stay alive then do as I say!’
Jay nearly tripped on Sophia’s com. He picked it up and glanced at her.
‘Keep it,’ Sophia said. ‘Go!’
Jay and Lucia hauled a barely conscious Damien out of the railcar door while everyone else climbed out the windows. Sophia climbed out with them. She could see headlights in the distance. Blue Berets.
She said to Nasira, ‘Find a way back to level one.’
She grabbed Renée by the shoulder, gave her Jay’s com, then pointed to the empty railcar beside them. ‘Start that engine. Drop the com in the railcar and send it past the Berets at full speed.’
Renée didn’t reply, just climbed aboard. She tossed Jay’s com on the floor, then disappeared into the driver’s cabin.
Heart racing, Sophia climbed back inside the original railcar, into the driver’s cabin. Now she was face to face with the approaching Blue Berets. Six hundred feet and closing. With subsonic rounds, their effective range on a moving railcar would be no more than 300 feet.
Rounds smacked the cabin around her. She crouched down and started the engine, then thrust the acceleration handle as far forward as it could go. The railcar lurched. She rolled out of the cabin, crawled to a window. Jumped.
Renée landed on the tracks beside her almost at the same time, then dropped to her knees. She’d been shot. Sophia pulled her up, arm over her shoulder. Renée had one hand pressed firmly over her thigh, her teeth clenched more in annoyance than pain as they watched the railcar duo punch into the darkness.
One of the railcars was now a rigged decoy with a fake signal transmitting Benito’s location. The other was on a direct collision course with the Blue Berets. That should keep them busy, Sophia thought.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Denton sat hunkered over his Toughbook—a rugged laptop designed for extreme environments—in the darkened Security Control room. He watched the single dot onscreen—Montoya’s subdermal GPS implant—tell him Sophia and her insurgents were trying to escape in a second railcar. Major Novak stood at his shoulder, his breath warm on Denton’s shaved head. He hated it when Novak did that. Especially when his idea of breakfast was an omelet that smelled like its only ingredient was onion.
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