Robert didn’t miss. The guard by Thomas took a bullet in the head.
Alecto must have regained some strength because the other two guards still standing swayed and one fell to his knees.
Jack set his sights on Lizzy. “Stand down or I put a bullet in your chest.” He held his gun with both hands, but his hand wavered.
“Trying to be a big man come to rescue the fair maiden. But you’re a scared little boy playing at a man’s game. Look at your hand shake.”
The red dot from the laser sight on his gun flitted erratically on Lizzy’s chest. Jack wanted to pull the trigger and put an end to Anna’s ordeal and get Thomas out of the place. But Lizzy still held a knife at Anna’s throat. Jack’s hands shook so badly and he was such a lousy shot, he was afraid if he shot at Lizzy, he’d miss and hit Anna. But Jack continued to aim his gun at her.
“I’ll tell you what. Put the gun down and walk away. This is a family matter, and you’re just the hired help, aren’t you, cowboy?”
Cowboy. “Cowboy up,” Erika had once said.
Lizzy’s shaky hand trembled at Anna’s neck and cut her again. Anna moaned in pain, her cries muffled by the gag she had on.
Jack took a steadying breath and fired. One bullet went wide left, but the second caught Lizzy in the shoulder and knocked her back. She dropped the knife and it clattered on the stone floor. She stared open-mouthed at Jack, her right hand holding her bleeding shoulder.
Jack didn’t take his gun off her as he walked closer to her. “Tell them to stand down or the next one goes between the eyes.” He aimed it at her head, the red laser light dancing in her eye.
Lizzy’s gloating sneer was gone. “Stand down!” she shouted.
Jack rushed to Anna. He kicked Lizzy’s knife across the room. He pulled the gag from Anna’s mouth and reached behind her to untie her wrists. “Are you all right?” he whispered in her ear.
She nodded slowly. Her wrists were purple and swollen. They were bound tightly with a strong nylon rope, but Jack was able to undo the knots.
Anna’s face was wet with tears and blood. Her eyes were both swollen nearly shut and her lip was puffed and bleeding. Jack knelt in front of her and undid the knots at her ankles.
He wanted to pick her up and carry her out of the place. He wanted to get her to a hospital and see her wounds cleaned and dressed and make sure that they gave her something to calm her nerves and take away her pain. But they weren’t out of the Croft lair. He picked up a rifle he’d scavenged from one of the dead men and handed it to her.
But she didn’t take it. Anna rose from the chair on visibly trembling legs and knelt before Thomas. “Thomas? Tommy,” she said. Her voice was soft and low. Her hands trembled as she fumbled with the rope at his ankles.
Jack knelt behind Thomas and got his wrists free. From the back he could see where the bullet had entered Thomas’ body. His shirt had a hole in it on the right side a few inches right of his spine. Jack quickly checked Thomas’ front with his hand. His hand was quickly covered in sticky blood. The bullet had gone through Thomas. Jack hoped that was a good thing. Thomas was alive but still bleeding and unconscious. If they didn’t get him to a hospital soon, he’d surely die.
Jack whispered in Anna’s ear, “The bullet went through. He’ll make it, Anna. Let’s get him out of here.” He maneuvered Thomas’ limp body across his left shoulder and pushed up. He grunted with the effort and had to stand still for a moment to steady himself.
“Behind me,” Robert ordered. He still had the rifle pointed at Lizzy.
Her face was less smug than it had been. She still held her hand to her shoulder to staunch the blood, but she stood tall and defiant.
Jack and Anna got behind Robert and his gun.
“You too, Alecto,” Robert said.
“No,” Lizzy said. Her voice was shrill and now lacked the confidence it had had when she was mocking Robert. “You cannot take it. It belongs to my father.”
Jack couldn’t help himself. It was like he was channeling Erika. “Her name is Alecto and she doesn’t belong to anybody.” He raised his gun with his right arm and winced from the pain it sent across his wounded shoulder. “She’s coming with us and we’re leaving. I’ll kill you myself if I have to.”
Any hint of a smirk was gone from Lizzy’s face. He’d already shot her once. She no longer taunted him.
Robert backed toward the door with Jack, Anna and Alecto behind him.
Lizzy stood and watched them, her hands on her hips, her chin jutted out. “You have made the last mistake you ever will, Robert. You know my father will hunt you down and take the creature back. None of you will be safe. Not even my sweet cousin Hannah.” Her lips curled into a smug smile. “Or perhaps he will let you and your family live until the culling begins just so he can watch you suffer.”
“Leave my wife out of this, Elizabeth. She has nothing to do with any of this.”
Lizzy spat out a disgusted breath. “Nothing to do with it? Who do you think rang me up to let me know you were paying me a visit today? It seems your wife, Hannah, values her own life more than yours.”
Robert stopped walking. He stood motionless at the threshold of the vestibule that led to the elevators, his gun at his side.
Anna pushed open the wide, double doors and pulled her father’s suit coat. “Come on, Dad. Worry about Mom later. Thomas …” Anna gestured with her head for Jack and Alecto to get to the elevators.
Jack continued moving backward and Alecto came with him. Anna pulled her father’s hand and he too began walking backward toward the elevators.
“Run, Anna, run,” Lizzy called. “Run while you still can.”
Jack turned the key to call up the elevator. It rumbled upward.
Robert took a few more steps backward. Lizzy had stopped her approach, apparently content that the battle was finished – if not the war. Robert turned and walked toward the elevator.
He held the rifle limply in his hand. His angular face was ashen and his eyebrows were pinched in the same way that Anna’s did when she was mad or upset. In fact, Anna looked like a blonde, female version of her dad.
Anna turned too and was nearly to the elevator when its doors opened. Jack motioned for Alecto to get in and she did. Jack followed, still struggling beneath Thomas’ weight. Jack’s legs were like noodles. He’d be relieved to put Thomas down.
Anna had just stepped into the elevator when the shots rang out.
Robert’s eyes grew wide with fear and surprise but only for an instant. He lurched forward and fell to the ground, his face pressed against the pale yellow marble now stained with his blood.
Lizzy had taken a rifle from one of the dead guards and gunned Robert down.
Anna screamed and attempted to run toward Robert. But Alecto’s quick reflexes were faster than Anna’s legs. She turned the key to close the door with one hand while she grabbed Anna by the hair with her other, yanking her back into the elevator before the doors closed.
As the doors silently slid closed, Jack stared through them at Robert Sturgis’ body splayed against the floor. The man’s eyes stared back at him, as lifeless and vacant as the stone on which he lay.
50
ERIKA
It was long past time to wash the stink of the Conexus off her. Erika rummaged through the lost-and-found bin near the office. She found a pair of jeans that were two sizes too big and had a rip in the knee, but they were better than the frayed black jeans she’d been wearing for far too long. She scrounged a belt and a very used T-shirt. The clothes were the wrong size and well worn, but they passed the sniff test. Near the bottom she found a pair of sneakers. She held them up to her foot and they looked like a close fit.
She headed to the girls’ locker room and entered from the back side. She wanted to avoid passing through the gymnasium filled with sick and dying people.
The shower room was dark and empty. The smell of soap, cleaning products and mildew was familiar. The water was tepid at best, but at least it wa
sn’t cold. The showerhead was so caked with hard-water deposits that most of the tiny holes were blocked. The water was barely a drizzle. But it was wet and clean and the best shower she’d ever had.
Erika let the water wash away layers of dust and dirt while tears slid quietly down her face. She tried to wash her grief down the drain along with the grime. After nearly forty minutes standing under the spittle of water, her skin was like a raisin and her tears exhausted. For the time being, anyway.
Her pits were still hairy and her legs were like Velcro, but at least she didn’t stink anymore. She threw on the lost-now-found clothes, served herself another round of PB&J and slept in the empty bed near Ian.
Her sleep was fitful. She dreamed of her dying town and her now dead mother. After a few hours, she gave up on sleep and went in search of Dr. Randall and Tex.
She figured Dr. Randall was in the Spanish department pod, where he’d told her Tex was receiving treatment. Two guards in hazmat suits and carrying rifles stood at either side of the door to the pod. One of them stepped in front of the door before she could open it. “Sorry, miss, you need clearance to go in there.”
It was hard to tell if they were military or the Makers or some other agency. Their clothes weren’t visible inside the white suits.
“Look, is Dr. Randall inside? I’m his research assistant and he asked me to come see him. Well, go on. Go inside and ask him.”
The guards exchanged a look. The one who had been silent shrugged his shoulders.
The other one let out a sigh. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
In less time than it took her to scrape some dirt from beneath a fingernail, the guard was back. He opened the door and held it open for her. “Dr. Randall says it’s about time you got here.” The guard wore a look of smug satisfaction that Erika’s butt was apparently in a sling.
Erika nodded curtly and entered like she owned the place. She stepped inside the vestibule that connected the four classrooms of the pod. Three of them were dark, but the one on the right had some lights on. She opened the door and peeked her head inside.
Dr. Randall waved her in. “Come in, come in. My, don’t you look better. A shower does a person a world of good, doesn’t it?” He beamed at her.
Now that she was clean and no longer wearing rags, she noticed how terrible Dr. Randall looked. He’d already looked disheveled when they met him so long ago back at his underground home in Aphthartos. But now he looked like a mentally ill hermit who’d spent a year walking through a desert. His patchy beard hung down in an unflattering sort of Fu Manchu goatee that met up with scraggly sideburns. His greasy, matted hair hung down to his collar. It was everything she could do not to hold her nose as she got near him.
He’d been sitting behind the teacher’s desk but stood when she walked in. There was a woman sitting with him, dressed in the white hazmat suit that everyone else wore. Well, everyone who wasn’t sick or who had arrived via a silver orb.
There was only one bed in the room and it was hidden behind a portable curtain wall. Erika assumed Tex lay on the bed behind that curtain. He made no sound. Maybe he’s sleeping.
As Erika approached, Dr. Randall made introductions. “Dr. Montoya, this is Erika Holt, the young lady I told you about.”
Erika could see little of Dr. Montoya except for a pair of warm brown eyes hiding behind eyeglasses and a screen of plastic. She was short, even smaller than Erika. But her handshake was firm.
“Very nice to meet you, Ms. Holt. Dr. Randall has told me so much about you, our brave young hero.”
Erika had never thought anyone would apply the moniker ‘brave hero’ to her. A blush crept up her cheeks. She fought off the temptation to say something off-putting or sarcastic. She settled for, “I’m no hero.”
“And humble too, I see. Well, I’m very glad that you all survived the incredible ordeal that you’ve been through. I would like to hear more about it someday. But I’m afraid I don’t have the time for stories right now. Dr. Randall and I have been discussing – things – and, well, I have to get back to my office in Phoenix to – do some work.”
Erika was glad to see that despite the fact that Dr. Randall looked like a crazy hermit, Dr. Montoya had listened to him. And she was glad to meet Dr. Montoya, especially since Ian would be working with her. Dr. Montoya was being discreet even when speaking with Erika. Given all that Erika had seen, discretion was a good thing. She hoped that Dr. Montoya would find a way to get the antiviral synthesized and into the right hands before the Makers had a chance to derail her.
As Dr. Randall and Dr. Montoya made plans to speak again soon, the door opened. A military guy built like a refrigerator barged in. He wore the same hazmat suit that the others wore, but the collar of his military uniform was visible through the clear plastic faceplate. He was flanked by two other men, one on each side.
“General Bardsley, what a surprise,” Dr. Randall said.
Erika knew it was no surprise. She also knew Dr. Randall well enough to know that his tone carried a fair amount of disdain for the general. If Bardsley noticed it, he didn’t show it.
“General? Oh my, what an honor,” Dr. Montoya said. “I am Dr. Helen Montoya of the Phoenix office of the CDC. I’m so happy to see that the federal government is providing such high-level assistance to the outbreak here.” She put out her small, gloved hand to General Bardsley.
The general took her diminutive hand and shook it once then let go. “Dr. Montoya. The honor is mine, ma’am. And yes, I am sure that the president is working on getting the best people out here to, ah, help out.”
To her credit, Dr. Montoya didn’t get pissy with the general about the fact that she was the best. Instead she asked, “Well, isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Epidemics aren’t really my department,” General Bardsley said.
“What is?” Dr. Montoya asked.
“To be frank, Dr. Montoya, I’m not at liberty to discuss these things with you. In fact, you don’t have clearance to be in here. Nor does she.” Bardsley tilted his head toward Erika.
“I think a round trip in that ship we arrived in and her time at A.H.D.N.A. gives her the required clearance. She knows more about it than you,” Dr. Randall said.
Erika kept her mouth shut and enjoyed the show. Even through the hazmat suit, Bardsley’s face flushed with anger.
“I will take my leave, Dr. Randall,” Dr. Montoya said. “There is much important work to be done and many lives in my hands. I’ll be back in a few days to check on things here. You know where to reach me.”
Dr. Randall hugged her. “It was wonderful seeing you again, Helen. I wish it were in better circumstances.”
“It was wonderful to see you too, Will. Take care of yourself.” Dr. Montoya nodded curtly to General Bardsley, flashed a warm smile to Erika and departed the room gracefully.
General Bardsley acted as though Dr. Montoya had never been there. He shifted his attention immediately back to Dr. Randall and chose to ignore Erika’s presence entirely. “Let’s cut to the chase, Will. As you may have guessed, after the little stunt she pulled in Aphthartos, Sturgis is no longer in charge of the H.A.L.F. project. I am.”
Erika didn’t know yet whether this was good news or bad for Tex. And what does this mean for Jack? Because she hadn’t found Jack in Ajo, she worried that Sturgis had killed Jack after the Conexus ship left Aphthartos. But if Sturgis was booted, maybe this Bardsley guy let Jack go? Jack, where are you?
Dr. Randall stared evenly at the general.
“How’s the thing doing?” Bardsley glanced toward the screened bed where Tex lay.
It had taken him only one sentence to make Erika dislike General Bardsley intensely.
“He is resting,” Dr. Randall said.
Bardsley ignored Dr. Randall’s not-so-subtle redirect. “It can rest on the way. We’re transporting it to a new holding facility.”
Dr. Randall’s eyes blazed. His voice came out higher and a bit squeaky. “You can’t move him
now. He’s not stable. You don’t seem to understand.”
“Understand what? I know you think of it as a pet, but it’s not a dog, Will. It’s government property. An experiment. What we’ve been preparing – what it was made for – is coming to pass. It’s time for it to get back to work.”
Erika’s hands were balled into tight fists at her sides. It took great restraint not to interfere in their conversation and let Bardsley know that he’d make Tex into an experiment again over her dead body. But she chose to glare at him rather than confront him. She had no doubt that Bardsley would make her into a dead body if he found her standing between him and his goal of taking Tex. Getting him out of here won’t be easy.
Dr. Randall took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. He replaced his glasses, put his hands on the desk and leaned forward so that the two men were mere inches apart. “Let me put it to you in a way that you can understand. If you take him from here now, you will kill him. He has been severely damaged. There are only two people on this planet that know how to properly care for his kind. Seeing as how Croft has Lilly sealed up in prison, that leaves me. You seem to think he’s valuable. How valuable will he be to Croft if he’s dead?”
Bardsley didn’t back up or back down. “You’re as melodramatic as Sturgis is. You two fossils really did get warped by your time down in that cave, didn’t you?”
But Dr. Randall didn’t shrink back from the general. “What is the harm of allowing me twenty-four hours? One day to stabilize him. Get him prepared for transport. He’s so weak right now. You have to understand. They operated on him and I don’t even know yet the extent of the damage. If you attempt to dampen him to control him, he’ll die. As surely as I’m standing here, I promise you that. In fact, let’s get Croft on the phone right now. Let me tell him that if he’s moved today, he can expect the arrival of a dead hybrid.”
H.A.L.F.: The Makers Page 32
