Visci (Soul Cavern Series Book 2)

by Venessa Giunta

  Zoey’s anger was almost tangible in the air, like a swarm of bees. But she said nothing against him.

  “If I die, I die. But you need to stop this. Whatever it is. I’m not sure whether it’s this war people are talking about or something else, like we thought. But if some humans are carriers and infected”—Jenny hadn’t realized that he’d been awake when they were talking about that—“then you guys have to figure all that out because it could become an epidemic.” He looked at Zoey, in particular. “You need to work on that.” He nodded at her and waited until she returned the nod. “And,” he said, looking at Jenny, “you guys need to find Helen.”

  Helen. Jenny had almost forgotten. She cringed and a wave of desperation came over her. How would they find Helen? Was she in the lab? Somewhere else? She didn’t know.

  “So fix the poison and find Helen. That’s your job right now, and that’s all. Anything else can wait.” Jorge looked again to Zoey and rested his hand on hers. “And no killing people.”

  She gave him a small growl of frustration but nodded, turning her hand over and squeezing his. He smiled at her.

  “Soooo,” Sara said, drawing out the word, “now are we breaking into a lab?”

  Jenny sighed. They’d spent a good hour trying to hash out what to do. Zoey wanted to go herself. Jenny figured it might give her an excuse to kill people without violating her promise to Jorge.

  Jenny suggested going in as a group. Safety in numbers and all that. But Oliver nixed that idea right away. He said there was no way he could get more than one or two inside without security noticing. No matter the scenario Jenny put forth, Oliver said it was impossible.

  Will was vehemently, violently opposed to everything. Sara had gotten shot on their last expedition and that had been with them being very lucky. He didn’t think they had any idea what they were going into nor how many Visci they’d find. Would they be armed? Would they shoot to kill? Would they bother asking questions if the little raiding party was captured? What was the exit strategy?

  In the end, they decided that she, Oliver, and Mecca would go into the lab, with Will driving them. Sara would be their support, but stay here at the apartment, on her laptop. She could play with the security system and help them get through most issues that way.

  “I don’t know how we’re going to get into his office,” Ollie said abruptly. “There is an eye scanner and a swipe card.”

  “No keypad?” Sara asked.

  Ollie shook his head.

  “Crap.”

  “Now you tell us?” Zoey snapped.

  “That makes it harder?” Jenny asked. It made sense, but she didn’t know anything about hacking into security systems. She sort of wondered how Sara did.

  “Yeah,” Sara replied, rooting through the bag she’d brought back from her apartment. “I’m not sure how to do this without tripping the alarm. Biometrics can be hard to fiddle with. Well, anything aside from fingerprint scanners. Those are easy.”

  They all watched her as she pulled out a small, black gadget. It wasn’t any bigger than a stack of four or five quarters. One end was flat, and the other had a small wire sticking up about a centimeter.

  “Here we go!” Sara said with that grin. “Okay, so I don’t know if this will work. It’s possible it will not-work spectacularly. But still might be worth a try.” She looked at them expectantly.

  Jenny was glad everyone had looks in their faces that matched her cluelessness.

  “What is it?” Mecca asked.

  “It’s…” She squinted and wrinkled up her nose for a second. “I’m not really sure how to explain properly. It’s supposed to intercept, maybe jam, electronic signals sent among microchips and other tiny parts. But it’s…” She waggled her hand back and forth. “Let’s just say it’s still in development.”

  “It’s a bug?” Will asked.

  Sara looked affronted. “I guess if you want to be simple.”

  He smiled and spread his hands. “I’m a simple man.”

  She smirked good-naturedly and continued. “Like I said, it may not work—probably won’t work. But I guess it’s better than nothing.”

  Jenny still didn’t understand how the little black disk was useful. “What do we do?”

  “Oh! Sorry.” She turned to her laptop, tapped some keys, and pressed her finger against the disk. A tiny blue LED lit and flashed. She gave the screen a nod and then turned her attention back to them. “So you put it on the eye scanner. Not on the lens, but on the backside or top or whatever the scanner’s encased in. This is magnetized, so if the case is metal, you can just slap it on there. But if the case is plastic, you’ll need to hold the little guy, because it won’t stay.”

  She moved her non-slinged hand to mimic what she said.

  “I’ll be on the other end of your phone, trying to get it to open up.” She paused and swept her gaze across the group. “I’d explain that part but… You probably don’t want me to, right?”

  Mecca raised her hands. “No. Please don’t.”

  Jenny snorted. “Where do you get these things?”

  “If I told you that…” Sara winked.

  Jenny shook her head, amused. “All right. What if that doesn’t work?”

  “Cut a hole in the wall?” This came from Oliver, who’d been very quiet during the entire conversation.

  This got Will’s attention. “Is that an option?”

  “It could be, as a last resort. There’s a supply closet beside his office. Mostly paper, ink toner, that sort of thing. If we had to, we could cut a hole in the drywall.”

  “That seems a lot more straightforward than…” Will waved a hand at Sara. “No offense.”

  “Pfft. None taken,” Sara said, though she made a face at him and laughed.

  “Can we get on with things?” Zoey snapped. “I’d really like to get a better sample to work with than antidotes that don’t work.”

  Chapter Thirty-One: Mecca

  Mecca climbed into the back seat of Zoey’s car, and Will followed. Ollie and Jenny were already in the front seat, Ollie making the short drive again. They began talking about the plan.

  “This is not a good idea,” Will whispered to her. “Why are you so gung-ho about doing this? Only two days ago, you wanted to slaughter any Visci you could find.” His eyebrows crinkled together as he stared at her with hard eyes.

  “I’m not being gung-ho. But Jenny’s going to do this either way.” Her voice had taken on a determined quality that she hadn’t recognized in herself in a long time. “And I will not let her get killed.”

  The hardness in his eyes slipped away, and he leaned back a tad. His face, expressionless for that moment, shifted into one that included something of a grin quirking up one side of his mouth. “But she’s Visci.”

  She pursed her lips and then said, “I know.”

  “So not all Visci are bad?”

  “Jenny isn’t bad.”

  He said nothing, but he was trying to get her to admit that not all Visci needed to die. She was coming to terms with that. But she wasn’t sure she was ready to say it out loud yet. Luckily, Jenny came to her rescue and she didn’t have to.

  “You guys know I can hear you, right?”

  “We do now,” Mecca said. She leaned back in the seat, the gun from the safe house tucked into her jacket pocket, pressing against her hip.

  They pulled into the back of the lab building, just like earlier. There were fewer cars this time—only three. As Oliver cut the engine, he said, “Doctor Blume is here.”

  Mecca let out a breath. “That will make this more difficult.”

  He nodded.

  “You’re staying in the car, remember?” Mecca said, when Will moved to follow them across the parking lot.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are.” She put a hand on his chest before she realized she was going to do it. Never mind. “We agreed that you’d stay in the car in case we need to get out fast. That is the only reason you’re here.”

>   He glared at her.

  She leaned in, lowering her voice. “Please, Will. I can’t be worried about you in there too.”

  His glare turned into a frown and he grumbled, “Fine.”

  “Thank you.” She meant it. She turned away, fitting her Bluetooth bud in her ear and found Jenny and Ollie staring at her. “What?” She didn’t give them a chance to respond before she rang up a group voice chat with them, Will, and Sara. “Can you hear me?”

  “Got you, loud and clear,” Sara said on the other end. “If you’re ready, I’ll loop the camera on the back door.”

  Jenny and Oliver fiddled with their earbuds, and Mecca didn’t even look to see if Will was fixing his. She really wanted him with her, but she couldn’t take the chance. She couldn’t watch over him along with Jenny and Oliver. Straightening her back, she said, “Do it.”

  The three of them jogged across the small lot and up the stairs. Oliver swiped them in with his badge.

  Here we go.

  Chapter Thirty-Two: Jenny

  They came in on a hallway that reminded Jenny of her high school. All institutional beige with pale blue accents. A time keeper terminal was stationed near to the entrance, beside a closed door with a sign that said “Break Room” on it. It was one of those doors you only find in institutional buildings. Metal, painted to match the walls, with a thin vertical window near the handle, glass reinforced with crossed metal filaments. In case they were trapped inside during the zombie apocalypse, no doubt.

  Oliver led them down the hall and turned right, then left.

  “I’m going to see if I can get you into the closet beside his office,” he whispered. “Then I’ll find out where he is. If he’s inside, I’m not sure what we’ll do.”

  That hadn’t even occurred to her. They couldn’t very well cut a hole in the wall beside his desk when he was sitting at it. Not subtle at all.

  Ten seconds later, he was shoving them through the door of a medium-sized supply closet. One wall had stacks of shelving occupied by a few cases of printer paper, lots of office supplies, and random cardboard boxes. Jenny tapped the flashlight on her phone as the door shut them in darkness.

  “Have you got the thingy?” she asked Mecca.

  Her best friend fished into her jeans pocket and pulled out Sara’s little black disk. Jenny took it and cracked the door open enough to put her eyeball against it and see out.

  “Did you see the office door?” she whispered.

  “No.” Mecca crowded in behind her.

  “It’s just there.” She pointed inside the closet at the wall on the left side of the door. “That’s his office, on the other side.” She leaned away, letting Mecca see. “You can barely make out the scanner thing at this angle, but it’s right there.” She crunched her finger in a hooking gesture.

  “Yeah, I can see the edge. Oh, hey, Oliver’s coming.” Mecca pulled back and opened the door.

  Oliver motioned them out. “He’s in the main lab. I’ll go down there and keep an eye on him. If he heads this way, I’ll let you know.”

  They both nodded. The danger of the situation struck home. Jenny felt like throwing up. If they got caught…

  Oliver rushed back along the hall, leaving them in silence. Jenny shoved her phone in her pocket after switching off the light. There was nothing to be done but move forward. “Keep an eye out,” she whispered.

  She moved to the electronic thing in the wall. It looked sort of like a camera eye with a dog’s shame collar around it.

  “Do I just put it on the outside—”

  “Yes,” came Sara’s voice. “Just slap it on the metal.”

  “It’s plastic.”

  “Didn’t we talk about this? Put it on the side and hold it. Make sure the light is on.”

  “It is.” Jenny held the little thing to the side of the scanner. The blue light blinked. “Is it—”

  “It’s fine. Well, it’s not fine, because it’s not doing what I think it should be doing. But you’re holding it fine.” Keys clacked on the line.

  “What do you mean?” Mecca whispered.

  “Nothing. It’s fine. We’re all fine. So weird. But fine.”

  “Sara.” Mecca’s tone had gone dark.

  “Shh,” Sara said.

  “Is it working or not?” Jenny asked, glancing down the hall. She thought she could feel her blood pulsing behind her eyes.

  “Not. Definitely not.” Sara’s voice had the same light, breezy tone it always did.

  Mecca said, “Sar—”

  “He’s coming!” Oliver whispered, frantic. “I looked up, and he was gone, and he’s in the hall now. Hide!”

  Jenny looked at Mecca, who had the same startled look on her face that she must have had. She palmed the disk and they scrambled to get back into the closet.

  “The signal’s gone,” Sara said. “Are you guys okay?”

  “Sh,” Mecca said in a quiet, clipped tone.

  Jenny cracked the door eyeball-width again and peered out.

  A short, thin man in a white lab coat came stalking from the direction Oliver had gone. Stalking was the only way to describe it. If there had been prey ten feet down that hall, this man would have walked just this way to capture it.

  As he neared the door, Oliver’s voice came ringing out, breathless. “Doctor Blume! Doctor Blume!”

  The man, clearly irritated at being startled, turned. Oliver came racing up, looking all around. When he didn’t see Jenny and Mecca, he let out a strained breath.

  “What is it?” The doctor had a distinctly German accent. He reminded Jenny of some old comedy show her mom used to watch that was set in a World War Two prisoner of war camp. Not something Jenny herself would write a comedy about, but who understood the older generation?

  “I—I’m sorry,” Oliver said, slowly.

  Please, please let him have thought of a story before he engaged the crazy scientist.

  He hadn’t.

  “Well, I was wondering if…”

  When Oliver didn’t finish, Blume scoffed at him, his angled features shifting from irritation to anger. “What is it, Mr. Armitage? Do you need more to do?” He leaned in toward Oliver. “Or maybe less?”

  “I—I’m sorry,” Oliver repeated.

  The man huffed, swiped his key card, and leaned in to the scanner. Oliver looked over and made eye contact. Every muscle on his face froze into a panicked mask.

  Mecca gave Jenny a little push away from the door. “Come on.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “There’s only one way we’re getting into that office.”

  Mecca blew past her and into the hall. Jenny didn’t know what to do but follow. As the man opened the office door, she barreled into him and bullied him through. Oliver’s shocked look matched Jenny’s own feelings, but they were committed now, so she barreled in right behind.

  “Close the door,” Mecca said to Oliver as he came through.

  “What is going on?” the man demanded in a voice that indicated he always got the answers he was looking for.

  Mecca flashed a gun at him and said, “Sit down,” waving it at a chair in front of his desk.

  Jenny barely held in her gasp. Where had she gotten the gun?

  Then she remembered. Bringing Oliver and Jorge back from the halfway house. Mecca had taken one of the thug’s guns and held it on Oliver in the car. Jenny hadn’t even thought about it since. And she didn’t realize Mecca had brought it here. “What are you doing?” she whispered through gritted teeth.

  “Shh.”

  So much shushing going on. Jenny tried not to let her panic overtake her.

  The man, though, certainly wasn’t panicking. He simply stood there, staring at them with a smirk on his face.

  “Sit,” Mecca repeated.

  “I shall not,” he said. “You are in more trouble than you realize.”

  “No, you are,” she said. “Oliver, get his laptop.”

  Jenny hadn’t noticed it when they’d entered, but th
ere was indeed a laptop on the large, oaken desk.

  The doctor wasn’t any taller than Jenny, but rail thin and with very sharp, aquiline features. His gaze swung to Oliver, who drifted forward to comply. “Stop.”

  Oliver’s movement ground to a halt.

  Jenny said, “Get the laptop, Oliver,” her voice stern.

  His eyes, looking terrified, darted from the doctor to her.

  She tried to convey calmness and gave him a nod. “It’s okay. The laptop.”

  He blinked several times, as if he were clearing something out of his eyes. Come on, Oliver. Finally, he returned her nod and moved more decisively toward the desk. Blume stared at her, and she got the distinct impression he was studying her, measuring her as surely as if he’d held her in his hands and turned her over and over.

  “Well, this is unexpected,” he said, more than a bit of surprise in his voice.

  Jenny straightened her back and looked him in the eye. “My friend told you to sit.”

  He snorted. “Yes, indeed, she did.”

  Oliver had gathered up the laptop, and Jenny handed him the small pack they’d brought. He slid it in and hoisted the pack onto his back.

  Jenny had taken her attention away from Mecca and Blume but turned back when a sudden scuffle began. Blume grappled with Mecca, his hands over hers, which held the gun.

  Jenny jumped toward them, knowing that Blume would be so much stronger. And she was right. He jerked the gun, and it popped from Mecca’s grip.

  But her other hand dropped onto the man’s wrist.

  A look of confusion slid through his eyes as Mecca abandoned the gun and grabbed his wrist with the other hand too. Her face had become a mask of fierce determination and anger. Rage, even.

  At the halfway house, Jenny hadn’t been able to watch the man above her as Mecca did her thing. She’d been busy trying not to die.

  But now…

  Even in London, she hadn’t actually seen Noor kill the man.

  It went quickly, the business of death. Blume’s skin pulled tightly over his body. The gun clattered to the floor as he reached for Mecca’s arm, trying to break her grip on him. But his strength—that Visci strength—seemed to be gone now, because he couldn’t even get a handle on her, let alone pull away.