by Toby Tate
“What’s that?” Phillips asked.
“We need to stop her now before she can use this information against us.”
CHAPTER 43
Lilith figured the Ford’s chief engineer knew that he probably shouldn’t be doing what he was doing but just didn’t care. She had power over him that made everything else in his world fade away like a weak radio signal and did things to him that no other women had ever done, or could ever do. Lilith knew she owned him.
He had made sure that all those on this particular watch shift were “slaves” who would allow them access to the ship’s reactor compartment, where they now stood. The CHENG and Lilith stood regarding the lead reactor shield. Though she felt no discomfort, the temperature in the compartment was well over one hundred-twenty degrees, caused by the heavy machinery that screamed all around them. She could feel the harnessed power of the reactor radiating through the shielding, shining like a beacon in her mind, reaching out and beckoning her forward. Lilith didn’t know if she would live or die once she performed her task, but somehow she felt she wouldn’t be harmed. Once she was in touch with the source of radiation, it would make her strong and cause a physiological change that would bring about miraculous results.
The beginning of a new race.
She thought about her brother John and their childhood, the way he had turned his back on her and then turned her in to the FBI. All the miracles he had witnessed and yet he still never became a true believer. Lilith had developed almost godlike powers and what she was about to do would make her even more godlike. Who was he to think he could ever stand in her way, to stand in the path of divine providence? Mankind was nothing more than a blight on the earth and Lilith was a prototype for the new, improved humanity, one that would reign throughout the eons. John and the other weaklings aboard this ship would be the first to pay and after that, the entire population of New York City. Only then could the change come.
Lilith focused on the reactor door, grabbed the handle, pulled it open and stepped into the fire of God’s creation.
CHAPTER 44
Captain Phillips held the phone up to his ear, listening to the admiral and trying his best to keep his anger in check.
“Yes, sir, I understand sir,” Phillips said for the fifteenth time. He had debriefed the admiral on the situation and was now sitting in the sleeping quarters of his stateroom listening to a pep talk that he really didn’t have the time or patience for. Out in his main quarters Blakely was hacking into the files of the Ecological Victims of Evolution, trying to get something, anything, that could tell them what MacIntyre’s sister, Lilith, was up to. It was beginning to look like Mac himself may even be involved. Somehow, though, Phillips just didn’t believe that. Mac was a patriot and gung-ho Navy all the way. Someone else was involved—someone higher up in the chain than Mac, or Phillips or even the admiral. But who?
It made his head hurt to think about it.
“Greg, I know you’re doing all you can and I understand all this is unprecedented,” the admiral said. Phillips couldn’t help but let out a barking laugh.
“You can say that again,” he said.
“I want you to continue working with Blakely. He’s got a handle on this and you need to do your best to see that he has whatever he needs to get his job done.”
The problem is, Phillips thought, I’m not exactly sure what his job is.
“ And Greg…”
“Yes, admiral?”
“Don’t let this thing get you down. You’ll get through it.”
Phillips sighed. “Yes, sir.”
As soon as he hung up the phone, there was a knock on the door of his sleeping quarters.
“Come,” he said.
Blakely cracked the door and peeked through before opening it all the way.
“Captain, you should take a look at this. I think we’ve figured out what our lady might be up to. And it doesn’t look good.”
* * *
Phillips, Hunter, Lisa, Jessica, Crane and MacIntyre all stood around Blakely as the operative scrolled through several windows on his way to the one he was looking for. It was a Word document with underlined internet links and several footnotes and photos of different types of atomic mutations—a black cat with two heads, a sheep with six legs, a human infant with no arms and legs that resembled the flippers of a seal. There were also several photos of burned and scarred survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that made Hunter‘s skin crawl. He wondered to himself how humans could bring themselves do such abominable things to each other, even if the other guy did shoot first.
Next to Blakely on the table sat several empty coffee cups, marking the passage of time since he had started his search.
“Right here. I found a file containing some notes taken from various studies on uranium toxicity and the effects of uranium on the human body. It seems that Ms. MacIntyre was doing research on how enriched uranium interacts with certain biological life forms.”
Hunter didn’t like the sound of that.
“She apparently had this idea that some types of radiation like alpha or gamma rays would somehow mutate her chromosomes and cause a physiological change, one that could actually be beneficial to her.”
“Beneficial in what way?” Hunter asked.
“It would mutate her genes and cause her cells to do something quite extraordinary…spontaneous reproduction.”
A hush fell over the room as Hunter pondered the thought of hundreds of thousands of Liliths overrunning Manhattan, the United States and eventually the entire planet.
“But she would have to ingest enriched uranium to get exposed to that kind of radiation. Where would she be able to find that much enriched…?” Phillips’ words trailed off and he suddenly bounded across the room and grabbed the mic for the ship’s intercom. “Captain Geralds, call the CO’s stateroom ASAP. Captain Geralds, call the CO’s stateroom ASAP.”
Five seconds later, the growler on the bulkhead howled and Phillips grabbed the handset.
“Lance, have you located Ms. Lamber… I mean MacIntyre yet?” he asked.
Judging by the CO’s face, Hunter figured the answer was no.
“I think she may be in one of the reactor compartments. Find out which one and bring her into custody. Use force if necessary. Got that?”
Phillips hung up and glanced at the CIA operative.
“Well, Blakely, do you have any more frightening revelations you care to enlighten us with?”
Blakely shook his head. “No, but I shudder to think about what she’s going to do next.”
CHAPTER 45
After receiving a call from the executive officer, Johnson hung up the phone, then picked it back up and called Chief Rodgers, who was still monitoring the ship’s surgeon in sickbay.
“How’s the doc doing?” Johnson asked.
“He’s still out, sir. Probably will be for a while. Lieutenant Mason was concerned that the commander may be harmful to himself if he wakes up so they gave him a sedative.”
Sly simply grunted a response. How could he be sure Mason wasn’t infected with the parasite and under Lilith’s control? For that matter, how could he be sure of anyone?
But at the moment, the first order of business was finding that woman.
“I need you to do something. Arm yourself and go down to the number two reactor compartment and see if you can find Julia Lambert, AKA Lilith MacIntyre. The CO wants her brought to his stateroom for questioning. If she gives you any hassle, use force if necessary. Be careful, though. She could be dangerous.”
“Aye, sir.”
Sly hung up the phone and headed out the door of the operations department office.
* * *
Lilith stood inside the shielding, bathing in the radioactive sun that was the core of a nuclear reactor. She gazed directly at it through the containment structure and the metal cladding, seeing the block of enriched uranium as it emitted alpha particles and gamma rays that would kill most humans, searing their flesh and mutating
them in monstrous ways. With intense concentration, Lilith tentatively felt the lead casing, then passed her hand directly through it and the cooling water and into the uranium fuel. She felt no pain, only warmth; the warmth of life. It was smooth and solid to her, changing from one element to another through the process of nuclear fission. She could see the huge hafnium fuel rods as they moved down, controlling the rate of reaction. The amount of free energy that was contained in this process was almost limitless and radiation bombarded her hand, invaded her bloodstream and began changing her atomic structure even as she stood there. It was like finding the key that unlocked the secrets of life.
Lilith could feel the beginning of something else, something growing inside of her, moving with a life of its own. She thought of the Immaculate Conception, a child born of God, and smiled. It would be like a miracle, the beginning of a new race—the chosen race.
Lilith sighed deeply with a euphoric sense of power, then finally pulled her arm and her hand free of the fuel and the lead casing.
She glanced at the door that she had come through to get into the compartment, then slowly turned to the six-inch-thick shielding that surrounded her, focused every bit of energy on it and walked forward. The sensation was like stepping into a giant ball of putty—it required concentration and forward momentum against the resistance to keep from being trapped and becoming a permanent part of the shielding. She forced her way through, inch by inch, glimpsing the molecular structure of the lead as she passed through each layer. Lilith realized that the interaction with the uranium had not only made her powerful, it had also enhanced her eyesight.
Inside the room, the CHENG waited with mouth agape as Lilith’s form poured out of the lead wall, materializing from solid mass as easily as walking through a door.
“What’s the matter, never seen anyone walk through walls before?” she asked.
CHAPTER 46
The Command Information Center, or CIC, is the nerve center of any ship. From that point, radar and weapons systems could be utilized to acquire and obliterate a target within hundreds of miles with nearly pinpoint accuracy. The Ford carried enough firepower to wipe out a fleet of ships—or an entire city. Counting the air wing, the Ford could devastate several cities.
But for now, Lieutenant Charlie Duncan was only concerned with the surface-to-air Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile he was about to launch. With the latest missile guidance technology, the ESSM could literally take out a fighter plane or even another missile in mid-air. But he would be using it for quite another purpose.
He and his partner, a first class gunner’s mate with arms like telephone poles, had already incapacitated the lieutenant that had been standing watch inside CIC and duct-taped her to her chair. The big gunner’s mate stood at the door with an M16 rifle and kept a lookout, just in case anyone tried to interfere with their mission.
Duncan knew what he was doing was probably wrong, but the whole thing was like a dream, as if his body was being controlled by another person and he was just along for the ride. That girl, the operations specialist that had given him the wildest sex of his life, had mesmerized and hypnotized him somehow and he would do anything for her. She was achingly beautiful and he longed to have her again. But his job now was to do whatever the woman named Lilith wanted him to do.
The weapons officer looked down at the radar console and plugged in the coordinates as instructed then he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, took a seat in the chair and waited.
* * *
Lilith and the chief engineer made their way out of the reactor compartment and into the engineering space where the giant steam turbines pulsated with enough energy to power a small city.
The crewmen that manned the space seemed to regard Lilith differently than they had when she had entered the first time—not with lust, but with animal fear. They saw that she had changed, knew that she could snap her fingers and end their miserable lives. And she would—soon enough.
Their feet clunked against the steel deck plates as they walked past the crewmen in their blue coveralls and hearing protection and Lilith realized she could see right down to their bones, like X-ray vision. She turned to one of the turbines and saw the intricate blades inside the steel casing rotating at incredible speeds, driving the massive electrical motors that powered the ship. But she knew they were still at anchor and would be so for a while. In fact, she thought, they would soon be there forever, a permanent fixture at the bottom of New York Harbor.
They came to the end of the engineering compartment and climbed the ladder to the next level, then up again until they reached the watertight door on the fourth deck. She undogged the door and pulled it open.
In front of her stood Chief Master at Arms Dan Rodgers with a nine-millimeter pistol pointed at her chest.
“I’m afraid I need you to accompany me to the captain’s stateroom,” he said.
CHAPTER 47
Lilith stared at Chief Master at Arms Rodgers with a mix of surprise and amusement. It looked as if they had figured out what she was up to, so she had to give them credit for that. She had obviously underestimated the captain and his crew. Lilith wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“So, the captain requests my presence, does he?” she said. “What if I refuse? Are you going to shoot me?”
“If I have to,” Rodgers said.
“What if I take your gun away? What will you do then?” She gave a playful, mischievous smile.
“I wouldn’t try it.”
In the blink of an eye, the gun was in Lilith’s hand and pointed back at him. Rogers’ stomach clenched in sudden fear.
“How the hell did you…” he began as Lilith squeezed off a round and put a hole in the chief’s forehead. The pop of the pistol inside the narrow passageway was deafening but Lilith didn’t notice. A trickle of blood oozed down the man’s face and his eyes went blank as he fell back on the deck like an uprooted tree.
Lilith inspected the polished, hot metal of the Beretta M9 semiautomatic as she turned it over in her hand. “I never did like guns,” she said, “but this could come in handy.” She stuck the pistol in the waistband of her jeans and stepped over the chief’s body. The CHENG followed close behind, stopping to glance at his dead comrade.
* * *
Everyone in the captain’s stateroom snapped their eyes toward the growler on the wall as it squealed for attention. The CO picked it up and Hunter watched as the muscles in Phillips’ face went slack. Someone on the other end was relaying what was obviously more bad news.
“Get a security team down there ASAP and seal off the area. And find Lilith MacIntyre; I don’t care if you have to tear the ship apart. Is that understood?”
Phillips slammed the phone down and glared at MacIntyre.
“Well, Mac, she managed to disarm my chief master at arms and put a hole in his head. Some crewmen said she was heading forward down the passageway with the CHENG. I want to know what she was doing in engineering and I want to know now!”
Phillips’ face was crimson as he spoke and Hunter thought he could almost see steam coming out of the CO’s ears.
“Captain, believe me, I don’t know. The only thing I can think of is that she somehow got into the reactor core and came in contact with the uranium. If that’s true, then only God knows what it might have done to her. But I swear to you, I had nothing to do with this.”
The two men engaged in a staring contest, testing each other to see whose will would bend first. Phillips’ demeanor eventually softened.
“I believe you, Mac. But my chief master at arms is dead and now his killer is loose on the ship. We need to find Lilith and we need to do it soon. You’ve got to try and think. She’s your sister. Where would she go? What would she do next?”
Mac considered this as he sat down in the nearest chair and rubbed his temples. “I’m not sure. She’s not acting rationally, and she certainly never killed anyone—that I know of.”
“Well, I know what I would do if I were her,”
Hunter said.
All eyes swiveled in his direction and Lisa raised an eyebrow.
“I would be trying to get myself off this ship. Lilith has obviously accomplished whatever she came here to do and knows she can’t stay here now that she’s killed someone.”
Phillips slowly began to nod. “That’s a good point. It’s as if she’s burning bridges she doesn’t intend to cross again.”
“So if you were trying to get off the ship, how would you do it?”
“There are really only two ways, three if you count swimming, and I seriously doubt she’ll do that,” Phillips said. “She’s either got to fly or take a boat.”
“I think we can rule out flying. What about a boat?”
“The Ford has several life boats, but they’re not powered. There is the admiral’s barge, but it has to be lowered into the water with the crane.”
“Where is the barge?”
Before Phillips could answer, the growler squealed frantically and everyone jumped at the sound. The captain grabbed the handset off the wall.
“This is Phillips.”
Phillips ground his teeth together, his jaw muscles tensing as he listened to the voice on the other end of the phone. After several long seconds, he slowly placed it back in the cradle.
“Looks like you were right, Mr. Singleton. Lilith wants us all up on the flight deck near the admiral’s barge.”
CHAPTER 48
