“If everyone in that room doesn’t be quiet and sit down this instant,” the president yelled, “I am going to fire every last one of you and give your jobs to the janitors!”
Her mother stopped trying to fight Liddie off and let Liddie guide her to the nearest chair. It frightened Liddie to see her mother in this state, but she was actually a little disappointed her mother hadn’t gone further. Or better yet, her mother could hold Chella down while Liddie stomped right through the woman’s ovaries. After all, if there was anybody here who had a real reason to be angry it was Liddie.
“Sir,” Dr. Chella said as Emmanuel helped her up. “If I could have permission to go clean up my face before we continue the conference…”
“No you may not,” the president said. “I may not have caught everything that was said before Director Gates came in and greeted you, but I heard enough to know you have some serious explaining to do. Did you honestly lock the young Miss Gates in a room alone with two reanimated and leave her to die?”
“I did no such thing,” Chella said. “Junior over there was never in any danger. I would never put another human being in harm’s way.”
“My ass,” Liddie muttered under her breath. That got a warning look from the president, but he said nothing to chastise her.
“Then just what exactly could you possibly have expected to accomplish with this little stunt?” the president asked.
“Sir, I’ve only just shown to the world how the reanimated nearly destroyed the human race, and maybe even given us exactly the clue we need to destroy all that remain.”
The president only looked surprised for a second before he regained his composure. “Continue.”
“It’s pheromones, sir. So obvious an answer that someone should have figured it out by now, but nobody did.” She neglected to add Nobody but me, but Liddie knew the sentiment was intended all the same.
“Pheromones,” the president repeated. “You’ll excuse me if I ask you to tell me what that means. The term sounds familiar.”
“They’re a chemical factor released by certain species to trigger specific responses. They are a common phenomena among insects.”
“Insects? And just how are things that started out as humans making these chemicals that only insects are supposed to have.”
“I suspect it’s not exactly like insects. You must remember, sir, I’ve only just now made this discovery. The actual difference between these new pheromones and the ones science is already familiar may be very great. Or small. We simply can’t be sure yet. But I do know where they come from: the so-called tumors.”
The president rifled through a series of papers spread out on his desk. “Those would be, let’s see…the anomalies you discussed in one of your reports.”
“Correct. They were never tumors at all. They’re glands of some sort that we’ve never seen before. I believe now that they are what created the pheromones. And the anomalies in the reanimated nasal cavities are the pheromone receptors.”
“And what exactly is so important about these pheromones? What do they actually do?”
“Don’t you see, sir? That’s how the reanimated communicate. That’s how they find these groups they become part of, that’s how they seem to know when other reanimated are in the vicinity, and most importantly that is how they sometimes appear to coordinate their attacks. When alone they only have their individual empty brains to work with. But once they’re together, the pheromones make them into a sort of hive mind. Like one creature in many bodies.”
“But these pheromones can’t be something that you’re just discovering now. The glands you talk about must have been in the earliest reanimated specimens. So why is this the first I’m hearing of them?”
Again, Dr. Chella didn’t even try to hide her malicious smile. “I’ve had my suspicions for a while, but I couldn’t study them. Director Gates had been so obsessed with the idea of a Z7 that she took funding away from all other research.”
Director Gates stood from her chair. “That is a blatant lie! I was only taking funds from programs that…”
The president put his hand to his head like he had a headache. “I will not tolerate any more outbursts, Gates. Dr. Chella will finish having her say.” Liddie looked at her mother, who looked back. She wondered if her mother had just noticed the same thing she had. This was the first time in either this conversation or the last that the president hadn’t referred to her as “director.”
“Dr. Chella,” the president said, “I’m still failing to see how this has anything to do with locking a member of the CRS senior staff in with two reanimated, one of which we still don’t understand in the slightest.”
“And that was exactly the problem. We don’t understand that thing. We don’t know what it’s truly capable of. Or at least we didn’t. We do now. I had a theory, and unfortunately it required the younger Gates to believe she might be in danger, but my theory turned out to be true.”
“And are you going to tell us this theory, or are you going to continue acting like a drama queen and making me ask you questions every few seconds so you can make yourself feel smarter?”
Dr. Chella paused at that. Her moment of discomfort secretly delighted Liddie, but she had a feeling that delighted moment wouldn’t mean a whole lot for much longer.
“Sir, I’m only trying to say this: the Z7 is capable of rational thought, but it was obviously affected by the pheromones. I could see the way it looked when the reanimated was going for Miss Gates. It looked euphoric. That alone wouldn’t be so bad except for the other issue. For just a few seconds, it was able to control the other reanimated. And if it can control one, it can control others. It can do this, yet it is obviously not on our side.”
“That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard!” Liddie said. “Edward is just like any of us! You can’t just say—”
“Miss Gates?” the president said. His voice was unexpectedly quiet, and Liddie stopped. “I do think a terrible mistake has been made here. You’ve allowed yourself to get too close to the subject to see the truth. This is not a man. He may look like a man and talk like a man, but he is not one. He is a reanimated. A zombie. A zed, if you want to use the slang of those yokels in mid-country. And if Dr. Chella’s claim about what he can do is even slightly correct, then that actually makes him something worse. It makes him the only thing in known history with the ability to control the worst bioweapon ever unleashed on the planet Earth. And that is simply not acceptable.”
The president contemplated his hands for a moment. “Between this and the broadcast that went out on TV an hour ago, I do believe I have no choice. This particular project is terminated. The Z7 is to be destroyed. Dr. Chella, since you obviously have no misguided personal feelings in the matter like certain others do, I’m putting you in charge of making sure this thing is shot in the head and burned immediately. After that, I will review the particulars in this matter and determine if any further disciplinary action is warranted.”
Liddie leaned forward. “Mr. President, you’re acting illogically here. Just let us do some more experiments to prove he’s not a threat.”
“My word is final, Miss Gates,” the president said. The screen then went blank.
Dr. Chella and Dr. Emmanuel stood up. “I’m sorry it had to happen this way,” Chella said. “Really I am.”
“You lying fucking bitch,” Liddie said. “Don’t even fucking say that. You’re not sorry in the slightest.”
Dr. Chella looked at the screen as though making sure that the president couldn’t still listen in on the conversation. “You’re absolutely right. This may just be the happiest moment in my entire life.”
“I won’t let you do this,” Liddie said. “You’re not going to just kill an innocent man.”
“The president himself ordered it,” Dr. Emmanuel said. “You can’t go against that. It would be treason.”
“And you know as well as any of us do that this thing isn’t innocent,” Dr. Chella added. “No ma
tter what it can do or say now, it once couldn’t do anything other than hunt down and kill people. And it absolutely disgusts me that you treat it as though it were as good as us.”
Liddie looked at her mother. The woman still had that look of righteous indignation on her face, but that was probably more from having her daughter threatened and her authority challenged. She probably didn’t care what happened to Edward as anything other than an experiment and theory she’d been trying to prove. But maybe that was enough. As long as she cared about Edward on some level, she wouldn’t want to destroy him.
Liddie made an almost imperceptible nod in Chella’s direction, but her mother caught it. Liddie hoped her mother realized what she was planning and wouldn’t try to stop it at the last second, but then her mother knew her better than anyone else. She had probably already realized that when or if this day came, Liddie wouldn’t let anything happen.
Liddie stood up, followed by her mother. “You don’t understand what you’re doing,” she said. “If you go through with this, you will…” She interrupted herself by punching Dr. Emmanuel in the balls.
He screeched and hunched over, putting him in the perfect position for Liddie to knee him in the chest. Liddie then grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him against the wall, although that was less to hurt him than to get both him and her out of the way of her mother and Dr. Chella. Dr. Chella stood there, too shocked to consider now might be a good time to defend herself, as Liddie’s mother ran up to her and punched her once more in the face. There was an audible crunching noise this time, and her mother screamed and pulled back her hand, but Chella didn’t say anything. Her eyes simply rolled back as her nose went from merely bleeding to completely smashed, and then she fell to the floor. She didn’t move, although she was at least still breathing. That was good. Liddie hated the woman with a fiery passion, but it would have made things so much worse if they had accidently killed her. As it was, Liddie suddenly realized, both she and her mother had just completely obliterated their careers and possibly gotten themselves a jail sentence for assault and battery.
Liddie wasn’t sure how her mother felt about it, but to Liddie it was worth it.
Chapter Twenty Five
Edward had just been entering another of the disturbing red dreams when all the lights in his apartment came on at once and woke him up. His first reaction was relief, but that didn’t last long. No one ever interrupted him at this time of day. Something was up.
He heard the front door open, but he didn’t move from his bed until he heard Liddie speak. “Edward.”
He threw on some clothes quickly and went into the living room. Liddie stood in the open door. She looked disheveled like she had just been running or exerting herself in some way. She also had what looked like a laptop bag over her shoulder and a pile of clothes in her hand.
“Liddie, what’s going on?” Edward asked.
“You need to change into these clothes immediately,” she said. “It’s time for us to leave.”
“Leave? To where? Am I being moved?”
“No, leave as in leave permanently and never come back. Dr. Chella has been ordered by the president himself to terminate you.”
Edward blanched, but went to take the clothes. “Is she coming for me right now?”
“Um, no. I actually, uh, locked her and Dr. Emmanuel in a supply closet.”
He couldn’t help but smile at that, and despite the worried expression on her face only moments earlier Liddie smiled, too. He took the clothes and looked at them. They were janitor’s coveralls and a beat-up pair of shoes. They weren’t anywhere near the right size for him, but he supposed that was a minor problem at the moment.
“But how am I supposed to get out?” Edward asked. “They’re probably even watching this on the security cameras right now and calling in the guards.”
“My mother is working on that right this instant.”
“Your mother?”
“And it’s not going to be just you getting out. We both have to come with you. Considering all the laws we’ve already broken in the last fifteen minutes, I don’t think we can expect to get out of this with only slaps on our wrists.”
Edward put the coveralls on over his clothes. His heart was racing, yet he didn’t actually feel scared. He’d wanted to do this for as long as they’d been keeping him here, but he’d never really thought it would be possible. Any plans for escaping had been pure fantasy, although in the more recent ones he hadn’t been leaving alone. The fact that Liddie would really be coming along actually gave him butterflies in his stomach.
“Was it about what happened in that room?” Edward asked.
“Mostly,” Liddie said. “I’ll explain everything Chella said if we manage to get out of here. But there’s something else, too.” She gestured at the computer bag. “I didn’t even know about it until just now, but apparently it was all over the news tonight.”
“What was?”
“You, actually.”
Edward was too shocked to say anything to that, so he just finished putting on his shoes and went out into the hallway. He thought for a moment about going back in and grabbing his NASCAR video, since it was likely a rather rare find in the modern world, but he kind of doubted he would be able to watch it at any conceivable point in the future. It felt a little strange leaving the apartment knowing it would be the last time, but it wasn’t like it had ever been his home. He wasn’t sure that he would ever have a real home ever again.
Just as he was leaving the apartment, Danielle Gates jogged down the hall and met them. She looked even more out of sorts than Liddie, thanks mostly to her horribly swollen hand. He nodded at her and she nodded back, but he didn’t really have anything to say to her. In none of his escape fantasies had she ever been along for the ride. From the very beginning she had struck him as someone who put duty first, possibly even before her own daughter. But he had to be wrong about that. Liddie had to be the only reason she was helping. He certainly didn’t think she really cared one lick about him.
“I distracted the guard in this floor’s security station, then hit him and tied him up. No one should realize anything is wrong for at least an hour. I swear, I’ve physically attacked more people today than I previously have in my entire life.”
“So how are we actually going to do this?” Liddie asked.
“You can both go down in the elevator together without anyone getting suspicious,” Danielle said. “Or at least I hope so. But from there you’ll have to temporarily split up. It would look strange for one of the senior staff members of the CRS to be palling around with a janitor. Direct Edward toward one of the back exits. Probably by the canteen area. He shouldn’t look too strange there, just another low level employee trying to get lunch. You can then go to the motor pool and get one of the vans, but you have to remember what I showed you that one time about disabling the tracking device. Go around to the exit and pick Edward up, then get the hell out of Stanford. If you’re lucky you’ll get about an hour before anyone realizes something is wrong, and even longer before they realize he’s not anywhere in the building.”
Liddie stared at her for several seconds without speaking, then replied softly. “You’re not coming with us.”
“I can run interference for you here. Even if I can only get you a few extra minutes, that still may be enough for you to get Edward out.”
“But you’ll get arrested for this,” Liddie protested.
“Maybe,” Danielle said. “But maybe from here I can show people that Dr. Chella is a dangerous quack.”
“Why are you really helping me?” Edward asked.
“You are the proof of my life’s work,” Danielle said. “Others may think you’re dangerous. Even I’m not entirely sure you’re not, especially if there’s any truth to Dr. Chella’s theories. But I will not have everything I’ve worked for destroyed just because a clueless politician got paranoid.”
Edward nodded. He had suspected it could be something like that, but som
ething about the way she spoke made him wonder if she wasn’t being entirely truthful. “That’s it?”
Danielle glared at him, then looked to Liddie. “I suppose there’s something else I should say, since I have no idea how long it might be before I can see you again. About the file I gave you to give to him.” She turned to Edward again. “It was a fake. I’m sorry, but I did what I needed to do to get you to cooperate, and I would do it again.”
“I already told him, Mom,” Liddie said.
“I know. I knew the very next time I talked to you after you took it to him.”
Liddie blinked. “But you never said anything.”
“That’s because I already saw the way you were looking at him. I didn’t think much of it. I figured it would pass. It didn’t.”
“What are you talking about?” Edward asked.
Danielle actually smiled at him. “You may be an anomalous super zombie, but at your core you’re still a just another clueless man. Just why the hell did you think she was spending all that time with you? It sure as hell wasn’t because she thought you were a fascinating test subject.”
Edward understood her meaning, but he wasn’t sure he believed it. When he looked over at Liddie, however, she wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“I’m taking a very big leap here, Mr. Schuett,” Danielle said. “In letting her take care of you, I’m assuming that you aren’t dangerous, either as a zombie or a person. I hope that’s not a wrong assumption.”
“No,” Edward said. “It’s not.”
The Reanimation of Edward Schuett Page 16
