Genesis

by Lara Morgan

  She began trying to tune in the frequency with one hand as they headed up another corridor.

  “The grunts might pick it up,” Pip said.

  “What else can we do? If Riley doesn’t know we’re still here, he might just go straight on to blowing this part up.”

  “I thought he wanted to stop the place exploding.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe he can’t get to the selfdestruct, or – I don’t know.”

  Rosie was too distracted trying to find the frequency to worry about that. “Here.” She got it and spoke urgently into the com. “Riley, it’s me. Are you there?”

  For a moment there was nothing but fuzzing air then a grainy image of Riley flickered on. “Rosie?” He looked like hell.

  “Yes!” She threw a triumphant look at Pip.

  “You’re alive,” Riley said.

  “Yes, and so are Dad and Aunt Essie. Is it you setting off the bombs?”

  “Three of them I–” Riley suddenly cut off to look behind him. Rosie heard a series of sharp thuds. “Keep … com … open!” Riley shouted, and abruptly the screen went blank.

  CHAPTER 39

  Riley ran for his life. The guards who’d been tracking him thundered down the corridor firing pulse blasts. Luckily, the small grenade he’d planted went off just in time to intercept them. The explosion threw the guards backwards, smashing down a wall and blocking him from view. All of the guards were crack shots, courtesy of their bio implants, and he’d already caught a blast across his arm. Without the nano cell replicators he’d shot himself full of in one of the labs, he’d most likely be dead. He could still feel the remnants of his injury from the crash in the pod and it was slowing him down more than he liked. But at least Rosie was alive – and apparently free. She was one tough kid, he had to give her that. He crashed through a door into a stairwell and took the stairs three at a time. He reached a landing, then switched the com back on. Thank God she was still there.

  “Rosie.” He waited a second then saw her face, bruised and definitely scared, but stubborn.

  “Riley, are you okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me. Where are you?” She hesitated and he quickly added, “Just tell me, the guards are too busy with me to waste time going after you.”

  “We’re on our way to find those files,” she said.

  We. She had to mean Pip, and his suspicion was confirmed as the boy’s face came into view beside hers. But there wasn’t time to argue the point.

  “And your dad and Essie, you said they’re alive?”

  “Yes, but they’re not in a good way.” Her face pinched fractionally. “Yuang infected them with the MalX.”

  Riley was shocked that even Yuang would go that far.

  “But I think Pip can cure them,” she said.

  “What?” Had he heard that right?

  “Turns out I’m immune, boss,” Pip said, pressing close to Rosie to see him. “I can cure them with an infusion.” Pip’s gaze held a challenge and for a moment he felt a crack of sympathy for the boy slide in through his anger at him. What had Helios done to the kid? But time was way too short to explore this.

  “Forget the files, Rosie,” he said. “I can go after those. Just get your family and get out.”

  “But we’re right here.” Pip’s tone was angry. “Yuang’s office is just down the hall.”

  “The selfdestruct is already set.” Riley struggled not to raise his voice. He could hear footsteps below.

  Rosie looked scared. “How long?”

  “It’s an hour,” Pip said before he could. “Maybe less. How long has it been on?”

  “Five minutes or so,” Riley said.

  “Can you stop it?” Rosie asked.

  He didn’t want to lie to her. “I don’t know,” he said reluctantly.

  “Where are you?” Pip said.

  “Near level one.” Riley knew what Pip was thinking. He was closer to the control room and Rosie and Pip were definitely much closer to Yuang’s office. There wasn’t enough time for him to try to turn off the selfdestruct then go to Yuang’s office to search for the files – especially if he couldn’t turn off the selfdestruct, which was very likely.

  “We’re wasting time, boss.” Pip’s use of the term “boss” was far from respectful and Riley had to control his anger. The damn kid was right.

  “Rosie,” he said. “Five minutes, that’s all you spend, okay?”

  “What about you?”

  “Don’t wait for me,” he said. “I’ll provide as much distraction as I can. You get your family. And Pip,” he held the boy’s unfriendly stare, “you get her out.”

  Rosie looked annoyed but he ignored her. If he got out of this, he had a feeling Rosie was going to be the kind of ally he needed – regardless of her age. And right now she needed Pip’s help.

  “I already promised her I would.” Pip’s gaze was icy, but the hand he put on Rosie’s shoulder made him slightly more confident.

  “I’m going to blast a hole in level one then put a call out to Yuang and try to get to the control room,” he said. “Make sure he’s nowhere near you.”

  “Be careful, Riley.” Rosie’s expression was worried and scared.

  He switched the com off and slammed the door to level two open, then kept on going up towards level one. Hopefully, the guards would check level two before they followed him. As he went, he pulled an explosive from his pocket. It was the last of the lot he’d pilfered from the Enclave’s store. He was sorry for any guards left below that would be trapped when he blew the exits, but if he couldn’t shut off the selfdestruct, it wouldn’t matter anyway. He reached level one and ran out into the massive cold store of bodies and set the explosive to take out the door and lift, then sprinted away.

  Time to entice Yuang to try to stop him.

  Rosie shoved the com in her pocket and glanced at Pip. Level one was where his parents’ bodies were.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I know what you’re thinking.”

  “Sorry for caring.” Rosie winced as she came down too hard on her injured ankle.

  “They’re dead,” he said harshly. “It’s just their bodies in there now, not them.” He looked angry after seeing Riley. Angry at the world.

  “Yuang’s office is down here.” He turned left towards a plain white door and pulled the gun from his waistband.

  “Pip …” Rosie eyed the weapon.

  “It’s all right. He won’t be in there. He’ll be after Riley.”

  He was probably right, but still Rosie watched anxiously as he punched a set of numbers into the keypad.

  The room was empty. A large desk dominated the area. Behind it was a floor-to-ceiling shelf, the contents scattered across the floor by the blasts.

  Pip went to the desk and began opening the drawers. “He might have left the code key in here somewhere – if he hasn’t destroyed it.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Who knows why that bastard does anything.”

  Rosie tried a cabinet against the wall, aware of the time ticking away. The cupboard wasn’t locked. Inside the shelves held only files and assorted boxes. She pulled out one of the boxes and opened it: tags, more files and electronic keys. She read the top of a file – Dome six, storage. She kept looking. Most of the boxes were filled with the same sort of things: records, memos, notes on security and other administrative junk.

  Pip was rummaging around in the detritus on the floor without success, and anxiety ate away at her as she removed all the files and boxes.

  A dull boom echoed, vibrating the floor. They paused and stared at each other. That was level one.

  “How much time do we have left?” Rosie began flinging more files on the floor.

  “About half an hour. We spend three more minutes here.” The muscles across Pip’s back flexed with tension as he turned away from her.

  Rosie dropped to her knees. At the back of the cupboard was a small square metal box and on the lid the Helios symbol. It looked similar to
the box she’d found by the river. She pulled it out. It was almost the same except that it opened with a simple clasp.

  Fingers trembling, she flipped the lock. Her heart sank when she saw what was inside.

  Nothing but pendants like the one Riley had given her that she wore around her neck.

  She sifted the small green discs through her fingers. All of them had the Helios symbol engraved on one side. She dropped them one by one back into the box.

  “Find something?” Pip had come up behind her.

  “No,” she said, looking at the last green disc.

  “They’re like the one Riley gave you.” He squatted down beside her and picked one up. “You know, now I think of it I might have seen the scientists using one of these in a handheld of some kind.”

  “What?” She stared at him then back at the pendant, turning it over in her hand.

  There was no triangle on the reverse side of the one in her hand. Her breath quickened and she pulled the pendant out from under her shirt, comparing it to the other, running a finger over the sharply etched triangle on her pendant.

  “What did you see them using it in?”

  “Don’t know.” He looked around at the clutter. Stooping, he picked up a small, square palm com. “Something like this.” He handed it to her.

  Rosie inspected it. There was a screen and keypad on the front and on the side a small slot. Perhaps just the right size for the pendant. She slipped the pendant on its chain over her head and tried to push it in. It went in smoothly and the screen activated.

  “It’s a storage disc,” she said.

  Lists of files were scrolling across the screen.

  Genesis 1, Lab variation.

  Genesis 1, Subjects k to m.

  Genesis 1, Shore files.

  “Look!” She turned it so Pip could see it. “It’s got to be what Riley was looking for. It’s here.”

  Rosie felt elated and then almost immediately angry. All this time, they’d had it. They didn’t even need to be here.

  “Christ,” Pip said quietly. He crouched beside her and took it out of her hands. “There’s stuff in here about everything. Check this out.” He turned the screen towards her. There was a small capture of two scientists and two children, a girl and a boy. The boy looked familiar.

  “Riley and his family,” she whispered.

  “Come on, we gotta go.” Pip helped her to her feet. Rosie put the pendant back around her neck and the com into her pocket. Pip found a white long-sleeved collared shirt in a cupboard.

  “Better than nothing,” He buttoned it halfway, shoved the guard’s weapon into the waistband of his pants and they headed out the door.

  CHAPTER 40

  The corridors were still empty and the signs of hurried leaving and destruction were everywhere. Tables were overturned in the refectory, files scattered across the floors of offices, and when they reached the dome with the labs, they saw broken glass and medibots toppled over by the force of the blasts. They weren’t far from the exits now and from somewhere ahead came the faint sounds of vehicles, raised voices and, less distant, people running and doors slamming.

  Rosie tried to raise Riley on the com again to tell him what they’d found but got only static. As they neared the room where Rosie’s family was, an insistent low-pitched bell began to ring and a calm mechanical female voice echoed throughout the Enclave.

  Evacuation protocol one. Time to detonation: forty minutes.

  They looked at each other in panic and began to move faster.

  “Guess that answers one question,” Pip said.

  “But why is that on now?” Rosie spoke through her teeth as every step shot pain through her ankle.

  “Yuang probably disabled the announcement when he activated it and Riley’s turned it back on.”

  “It’s a message,” Rosie said. “To let us know he couldn’t stop it. His com must be busted.”

  “Or something could be interfering with the signal.”

  Rosie hoped it was the latter but when she tried again to reach him she didn’t even get static. Both her legs were aching and starting to become unsteady with fatigue. She thought the blows Pip had caught from the grunts had to be bothering him as well, but they kept going in silence now. Time was not on their side.

  They reached the lab where her family had been and Rosie hobbled ahead of Pip.

  “Rosie, wait!” he hissed a low warning but she ignored him.

  She was afraid they wouldn’t be there, her anxiety giving her a burst of energy and robbing her of caution when she needed it most.

  She activated the door and rushed in. Relief overwhelmed her as she saw they were still there, but as she reached the sealed bubble and began undoing the flaps, a low voice spoke from behind.

  “I was wondering how long I would have to wait.”

  She spun around. Yuang was sitting on a chair near one of the lab stations, his legs crossed casually, wearing an indigo-coloured suit. His smile held a trace of mockery. “Hello, Miss Black. Where’s young Pip?”

  Rosie just stared at him, frozen.

  “Well?” he prompted.

  She didn’t answer and tried not to look back at the door. Pip had stopped in the entrance and a slim cupboard was blocking Yuang’s view so he hadn’t seen him. Oblivious, Yuang shook his head with a playful frown and got up. “You’re not very talkative, Miss Black. Is he playing the hero? Gone to help Shore?”

  She swallowed. “Yes, he has.”

  Yuang looked disappointed and moved towards her. “You’re a terrible liar, Rosie. You’re going to have to learn to do better.” He reached into his jacket and drew out a small black pulse gun. He pointed it at her middle and she heard the subtle whine of it powering up. “It’s time for you to consider your options, child. Helios has room for smart girls like you but we can’t have you telling stories about us. Even without proof.”

  Rosie stopped breathing. Yuang’s dark eyes were calm, regretful even, but there was a terrible hardness there as well. He would pull the trigger – he might not be happy about it, but he would do it.

  “I can’t–” Fear made her voice a whimper and she coughed, tried again. “You want me to join Helios?”

  “If you want to save Riley’s life and your own – yes.”

  Was he saying his grunts had caught Riley, or was he just trying to scare her? She glared at him, terrified but furious as well. How was Yuang always one step ahead of them?

  Yuang brandished a com in his other hand. “One word and he’s free. It’s up to you, Miss Black. Otherwise …” He lifted the gun until it was aimed at her head.

  She wanted to scream. As if he would let Riley go, even if he did have him. There was no way out. They had the information. They had Pip to cure her family and now Yuang was stopping it all. The detonation alarm was ringing louder, almost in time with her pulse.

  “You’ll never let him go,” she said.

  Yuang sighed and he looked at her with pity. “Don’t make me do this, Rosie.”

  “I’m not making you!” Her voice rose to a shout and she watched his finger tighten on the trigger.

  “One more–” He didn’t finish as he suddenly sensed Pip behind him. He whirled around but Pip already had his gun raised. Rosie glimpsed Pip’s face; his eyes were dark blue and glittering with contempt and a kind of madness. He didn’t speak but, with mouth set and a shaking hand, he shot Yuang point-blank in the chest.

  The force of the pulse shuddered through Yuang’s body and flung him backwards. He fell to the floor, his gun still clenched in his hand, a smoking hole in his chest. He hadn’t made a sound as he died but for a sudden intake of breath.

  Pip stood over him, shaking, the gun still held high in his outstretched hand. Yuang’s face held an expression of angry surprise and the stench of burnt flesh filled the room. It turned Rosie’s stomach. The automated voice echoed through the corridors again.

  Time to detonation: twenty-five minutes.

  “We have to go.” Pip�
�s face was empty, pale.

  Rosie could only nod. She turned around and pushed open the plastic bubble that held her aunt and dad. She was moving like she wasn’t really in her body, like a bot, not really human. The alarm clanged louder.

  She went to her dad first. His eyes were closed and his skin covered in the red rash of the MalX, but he was breathing. And he smelled sweet and that almost knocked her to her knees. It was what happened to people with the MalX not long before they died. It was a reaction in the blood and sweat. Her mum had smelled like that. Memory crashed over her like a wave and Rosie began to shake. Not now, she thought desperately and forced herself to keep it together.

  She disconnected the drip and peeled the tiny pods from his head as fast as she could. Pip was doing the same for Aunt Essie.

  “We need to get your aunt awake,” he said. “She’s not as bad as your dad. Look for adrenaline.”

  He was crashing around in the stationary medi units beside the bed. She turned to the unit by her side.

  “Is this it?” She held up a syringe sealed in opaque mediplast.

  “Give it here.” Pip snatched it from her hand. His movements were jerky, unsteady. He punched the needle into her aunt’s neck.

  It worked fast.

  Aunt Essie stirred and opened her eyes. “Pipsqueak?”

  Rosie rushed to her side to help her sit up. “Aunt Essie, we’ve got to get out. Riley couldn’t stop the selfdestruct.” She was babbling but her aunt seemed to understand.

  Her gaze took in Rosie’s dad, then Pip, then the rash on her own bared legs, but all she said was, “How long have we got?”

  “About twenty minutes,” Rosie said.

  She swung her legs off the bed and to the floor, wincing. She was only wearing a singlet and underwear, but didn’t seem to notice. Then she saw Yuang’s body. Her eyes went from Rosie to Pip and the gun shoved back in his waistband. Her mouth hardened slightly but without comment she stepped towards Rosie’s dad.

  “Can we wake him as well?”

  “No more adrenaline,” Pip said. He was already kicking the bed’s wheels down, rocking the frame.

  “You okay to run?” Aunt Essie looked at Rosie’s ankle. Rosie realised she had stopped noticing the pain.