16
Hitting the brakes, Davey put her flashers on and wrenched the car to the shoulder of the road. On her cellphone, she searched the local news coverage until she found it. Helicopters, at least a dozen police cars, S.W.A.T, and numerous unmarked black government SUVs all swarmed the parking lot of Global Cures. It wasn’t the subsidiary building where she worked, but the same place where Ethan had relinquished custody of Mason Drekker less than twenty-four hours ago. Why would Travis be there? Getting an awful feeling in her gut, Davey nearly swooned beneath the wave of dizziness that overtook her. This was bad. Ethan was missing, but there was no way he could be responsible for the killing spree Travis had described. Had Drekker been revived? Aaron had promised that wouldn’t happen.
Shit.
Despite Travis’s warning, Davey saw no other choice but to go. Ethan was missing. Global Cures was on lockdown. And she had to find out why.
As expected, gaining access to the base was no easy feat. Even amidst the chaos, security was tighter than ever. Her conversation with the soldier guarding the outermost gate started with professional negotiations, reasoning, and logic, and then the pleading began. But when those earnest entreaties also failed, things quickly deteriorated into an all-out shouting match, during which Davey wondered at what point she would be dragged from the rented Volkswagen and wrestled into handcuffs. A godsend came via an unexpected crackle of static on the lawful soldier’s radio. The guard’s entire disposition changed in an instant, and then suddenly, Davey was being waved through without a second glance. Clearing the next two checkpoints without further hassle, she was then confronted by a blockade of uniformed men and a hundred flashing lights.
She had barely gotten her bearings when a figure she recognized strode forward from the chaos and met her just as she exited her vehicle. The new commander was tall and broad—even more imposing than Ethan—yet smaller than their older brother.
“You shouldn’t be here, Ms. Little,” Aaron said in a deep baritone filled with suppressed urgency. “This situation is extremely volatile.”
“I have to be here,” she insisted. “Where’s Ethan?”
Aaron answered, though he looked as if he really didn’t want to. “He’s inside. Out of contact.”
“For how long?”
“I’m not sure.” He paused, turning around to bark an order at two uniformed men who were standing idly by a patrol car. “He was spotted in the building before the security feeds were disabled, but we were never able to establish communication with him.”
“He left this morning and came here to talk to you,” Davey offered.
Aaron’s face darkened with concern. He swore harshly, clenching and unclenching his jaw as he stared up at the central building. “That’s not good.”
“I know,” Davey whispered. “I have to go in there.”
“Mason Drekker has killed countless and taken the rest as hostage. I can’t allow you in there, Ms. Little.”
“Then don’t allow it. Just don’t stop me.”
Aaron sighed, frowning.
“Ethan is in trouble. I don’t know how much he has told you about Drekker, but it’s me who that madman truly wants. Commander, I’ll be in little, if any, danger.”
Aaron ran one hand through his spikey blond hair. “Ezra was much better at this shit.”
Davey smiled with understanding. “But you believe in Ethan, don’t you? You know he’s your brother.”
“I don’t know what he is,” Aaron said unconvincingly.
“I think you do.”
Taking her by the arm almost roughly, Aaron led her past the barricades and soldiers, not stopping until they were a few yards from the main entrance. “Once you go in there, I can’t help you. You’ll be on your own, Davey. Come what may, an assault team will breach the building within the hour. We’ll do it blind if we have to, but whatever intel you can get me will go a long way.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
“Okay, then,” he said. “Go help my brother.”
∞∞∞
Thirty feet down the corridor of the main entrance, Davey turned a corner and encountered the first dead body. The scene only became grislier from there. Scientists and soldiers alike—no one had been spared. She stopped counting the dead after twenty, and stopped looking for signs of life because there were none. Following the endless trail of blood-stained floors and crimson-smeared walls, Davey reached the elevator. She knew what level she needed to reach. She knew it was where Ethan would be. Whatever security protocols might have prevented unauthorized visits to the eerie basement prison had been disabled, allowing Davey freedom to descend to the belly of the beast, Global Cures.
Down here and within those dimly lit cells, were the only living things left in the building. Not much had changed about the strange creatures of odd human and bestial appearance. Disturbingly, the red-eyed man with the bleeding forehead was missing. His cell was empty, but the blood smears from his self-inflicted wounds still smeared the thick glass paneling.
The double, floor-to-ceiling doors constructed of reinforced steel loomed before Davey. But the doors were no longer sealed. In fact, they looked as if they’d been pried apart. The control panel next to the entrance was a destroyed mass of wires, ruptured plastic, and twisted metal. Davey stood at the entryway, examining several grooves gouged into the edges of the doors. She placed her fingers into the impressions and inhaled sharply. The doors had definitely been ripped apart. But what kind of strength did it take to accomplish such a thing? And who was responsible? Ethan or Drekker? Nervously licking her lips, Davey stepped through the opening and into the lab. What she saw knocked the wind from her lungs.
“Ethan,” she whispered breathlessly.
He was bound to a chair, his head bowed low, partially hiding a face contorted by concentration and pain. A metal rod, measuring at least nine feet in length and six inches in diameter impaled the upper half of his abdomen—just beneath where a human diaphragm would have been—and shredded through his right shoulder blade as it exited his back. Synthetic blood and other fluids ran down his body, pooling onto the floor and beneath the chair. Visible microcurrents moved across the bloody puddles and rippled over his skin in tiny waves, intermittently pulsing like little beacons of light. The only other movement came from the fingers of his left hand, constantly twitching a repetitive pattern against the chair’s steel framework.
If he’d heard her call his name, he didn’t show it. Davey moved closer, wanting to run to him, but she knew the situation warranted more caution. Eventually, she reached his pitiful form. As her fingers neared his skin, the microcurrents parted, allowing her to pass unharmed. Ethan didn’t react when she touched him. Davey gasped. It felt like a fire raged beneath the surface of his skin. He was burning up. Then she noticed the sheen of sweat beading across his brow.
In a trembling voice, she whispered his name once more, and he flinched. The tightness that slowly suffocated her, eased from within her chest. Ethan lifted his head, giving Davey a full view of his condition. His face was unharmed, but his eyelids fluttered at a rapid rate—almost faster than her limited human sight could register. Beneath the blurred motion of those errant appendages, his irises were black and green, transformed by an infinite numerical series that scrolled in a repeating loop. She had witnessed his eyes do that before, but never while he was in such a weakened condition.
“Ethan,” she whispered, but got no response. “Ethan?”
“He can’t hear you, Davey.”
Startled by the unexpected voice, she turned to discover the source and came face-to-face with her ex, Dr. Travis Kane. Crouched on all fours, he was across the room, hiding beneath the shadows of a large specimen table. “I told you not to come here. It’s far too dangerous.”
“I had to come,” she answered defiantly. “What’s wrong with Ethan?”
A look of sneaky guilt slid across his features. “That rod—it pierced his central power cell. I tried to remove it, but he’s put up some sort of electrical barrier, and now I can’t get near him.” Expression darkening, Travis cradled his casted right arm and looked away. “That’s the second time he’s nearly killed me,” he said angrily.
“You just admitted to trying to remove Ethan’s main source of power. That’s like killing him—even if only temporarily. Of course he stopped you.”
Shaking his head, Travis’s eyes widened with something akin to panic. “I don’t think you quite understand how the robot you’re fucking generates power. With that kind of damage, radioactive decay is inevitable and the cell could become completely corrupted within the hour. The explosion will vaporize this facility, and the entire city will become a crater rivaling the Grand Canyon in size.”
“Ethan won’t let that happen.”
“Ethan has no control over what’s happening right now!” Travis almost shouted.
“Keep your voice down,” Davey ordered in a terse whisper. She narrowed her eyes. “And he seems to have enough control to stop you from laying a finger on him.”
“Stop being naïve,” Travis argued, but obediently lowered his voice. “That power cell has to come out. If he won’t let me do it, then you have to.”
“I won’t.”
“Davey, he’s right.” Ethan’s soft voice was music to Davey’s ears, even though he was surrendering to Travis. “I’ve tried to shut the cell down internally, but it’s not responding.” He flashed a wry grin. “Apparently, Global Cures doesn’t want me self-destructing, even if it’s to save their own asses. You have to remove the cell, Davey.”
“Ethan, don’t ask me to do that.”
“The decay is becoming critical, and I can’t hold it back much longer. Davey, I can’t be the reason you die. You have to stop this.”
“Ethan…”
“Please,” he whispered hoarsely. “Help me.”
Kneeling in front of him, Davey placed her hands on either side of his face and winced. His skin was much hotter than before and almost painful to touch. But at least his eyes were normal again. They watched her with an intense worry and more fear than Ethan was willing to let on.
“Davey, you have to,” he whispered.
She nodded, feigning calm for his sake, while on the inside, her heart raged against what had to be done. Ethan’s hand lifted, snapping the cuff about his wrist as if it were made from toothpicks instead of steel. When his finger brushed her cheek, Davey realized she was crying…and that her illusion of outward calm was a joke.
Taking a deep breath, she carefully examined the wound in Ethan’s abdomen and the damaged power cell. Then she leaned in and kissed him, tenderly pressing her lips to his with unspoken yearning, desperation, and hope. His mouth moved against hers with equal passion. It was a silent, heartbreaking goodbye.
“I’ll bring you back,” she swore, and sobbed into his lips.
Flicking her wrist, she blindly yet skillfully disengaged the two-part locking mechanism of the power cell within Ethan’s abdomen. Sweeping her finger in a downward motion rendered the cell inert, and the consequences were immediate. Ethan’s body went limp. The light disappeared from his eyes. His head dropped to his chest, and he was gone.
Davey gritted her teeth, willing herself to rise to her feet. The tears clouding her vision weren’t from sadness. They were from rage. Bending to Ethan once more, she gently pushed the thick crop of hair from his forehead and placed one final kiss along his hairline. Then Davey turned to Travis and balled her hands into fists. They shook with rage like the rest of her.
“Where’s Drekker?” she asked.
“I-I have no idea,” Travis stammered.
Unwilling to waste another second on uncertainty, she went past him, quickly moving around the room to scan for cameras. Locating one, Davey grabbed the end of a metal table and began shoving it across the floor. The legs made a piercing sound as they scraped along, and Davey wondered if the noise itself would be enough to summon that animal to her.
“What are you doing?” Travis asked.
Ignoring him, she focused on locating a screwdriver. It took several frustrating seconds too long, but once she had the necessary tool, Davey boosted herself onto the table and made quick work of removing the inactive camera. After connecting it to a new power source and then feeding it back into the network, Davey successfully restarted the signal. The video broadcast would only be internal, but that was all she needed. This wasn’t about helping Aaron or those soldiers. She wanted payback.
“Drekker,” she said, speaking directly on camera. “I’m in the basement, standing exactly where you left Ethan. Get your ass down here, you sonofabitch. It’s time to finish what we started.”