“And my message? Were you able to deliver it?”
Her only request had been that he give a message to the man who’d taken Ash’s children, the same man who had left Olivia to be captured by Matt’s people.
“I did.”
“Good. I knew I could count on you.”
No one said anything for a moment. Then Ash asked, “So are you going to shoot us here? Or take us inside so your friends can watch?”
“Friends?” she asked, as if she didn’t understand. Then her eyes widened and she smiled. “Oh, I see. Who do you think freed me from my prison?”
“We know who freed you,” Chloe said. “Assholes from Project Eden.”
“I agree with your assessment of them,” Olivia said, “but they weren’t the ones who freed me. It was my friends. Others who had become…disenchanted by the Project.”
Ash looked at her warily. “Then what are you doing here?”
Her gaze turned momentarily in the direction of the outpost hidden behind the ridge. “I have no love for anyone in that building,” she whispered. She looked back at Ash and said in a stronger voice, “I have a feeling you and I have a similar goal.”
“I doubt it.”
“Oh, come, now. Don’t you want to get inside?”
Ash said nothing.
“I thought as much.” She stood up again. “The only way you’ll get in there is with my help.”
“And why would you help us?”
She said nothing for several seconds, then, “Because the last thing I want is for the people who left me to die to be in control of the world they’re trying to create. I’m here to kill them. I assume that’s why you’re here, too.”
There was an edge to her words, a hatred that made him know she was telling the truth. “We’re here to stop them,” he said.
She grinned, her eyes twinkling. “Given the circumstances, isn’t that pretty much the same thing?”
Ash remained silent.
“So are you coming with us?” she asked.
He glanced at Chloe. He could see she was reluctant, but had also come to the same conclusion he had.
“We’ll come with you.”
36
I.D. MINUS 2 HOURS 45 MINUTES
BLUEBIRD TIME 8:15 AM
THE DOP WAS furious. “I should have been told about this immediately!”
“Yes, sir,” Ross said. “I’m sorry. I thought you might want a bit more rest before the day began.”
Not just any day, the day. Implementation Day. There, in the bowels of Bluebird, it was eight fifteen a.m. on December 22nd, but in a little less than three hours, at eleven a.m. Central Standard Time, it would be six in the morning in New Zealand on the 23rd-given the island country’s proximity to the International Dateline, it was designated as the initial release location of KV-27a. At that moment, the DOP would enter the Go code into the system and messages would be sent across the globe-activating timers on the IDMs and other automated delivery devices so that they would begin releasing their contents at the busiest time of the day, and notifying those teams who were relying on manpower to spread the virus, such as the spraying operations in Africa and Southern and Southeast Asia, and plane operations scattered all across the world.
Ross had been right to let him sleep. It was a momentous day, one at which the entire directorate of Project Eden would be present to witness from the start. What he didn’t like, however, was beginning this day of all days with news like this.
The suit he was going to wear had been laid out the night before. He grabbed his shirt, yanked it on, and started buttoning it up. “How? How could this happen?”
“We’re…not sure yet.”
From his bed, the DOP picked up the paper detailing the conversation between the Australian transport company owner and the Project member who had been his contact. “This phone number-anything on that?”
“It’s a dummy. It reroutes half a dozen times then splits in several directions. Basically untraceable.”
The DOP snagged his pants off the hanger. “It’s them. I know it is,” he said, sure the people who had been a thorn in the Project’s side had just taken things to an unacceptable level.
“I agree.”
“Major Ross, since everything is in place now, surely we can spare some manpower to deal with them.”
Ross nodded. “Actually, sir, I’ve already pulled together an assault team, and they’re en route to the Montana location right now.”
The DOP strung his tie around his collar, tied the knot, and pulled on his jacket. He looked over his shoulder at Ross, locking eyes with his aide. “I want them dead. All of them. And not by the virus.”
“Yes, sir. I understand. I’ll make sure that happens.”
“You had better. Is there anything else?”
Ross seemed to hesitate, but then shook his head. “No, sir. That’s it.”
37
I.D. MINUS 2 HOURS 21 MINUTES
BLUEBIRD TIME 8:39 AM
TWICE THEY HAD to lie low to avoid patrols, so it took over an hour and a half to reach the camp Olivia and her people had set up three-quarters of a mile to the southeast of Bluebird. Ash could feel every passing second, and knew they needed to keep moving, but Olivia had been in no hurry to start out again. If he had known how to get into the building himself, he and Chloe would have been long gone.
Finally, Olivia deemed it was time. The hike took them to the coast, then along the hilly edge. She still didn’t seem to be in any hurry. He tried to get her to pick up the pace, but she only said, “Don’t worry. We’ll be there right on time.”
Finally, Olivia stopped them and sent two of her men ahead.
“Usually they don’t guard the entrance we’re going to use. It’s almost impossible to get into, but I guess that’s to be expected today.”
“What do you mean today?”
She looked at him, amusement in her eyes. “Why do you think?”
“This is it?” he asked. “Implementation Day?”
“Oh, very good.”
“How much time do we have?”
An exaggerated look of pain clouded her eyes. “Don’t you trust me? I told you, we’ll be there on time.”
Chloe leaned toward Ash and whispered just loudly enough for him to hear, “I don’t trust her.”
“Can you at least tell us what the plan is?” he asked.
Before he knew if she would answer or not, her men returned. She conferred with them for several seconds, nodded, and said to the rest, “Looks like we’re all set. This way.”
The new path led along the face of a cliff, sloping downward until it dead-ended at a pile of snow-covered rocks that went all the way to the ice of the ocean.
When Olivia started climbing down, Ash called out, “How are we supposed to get to the outpost from there?”
“I guess you’ll have to see, won’t you?” she yelled back.
She continued down, her people following without question.
“I don’t like this,” Chloe said.
Ash shook his head. “Neither do I. But what choice do we have?”
They caught up to Olivia on a narrow strip of land that ran above the beach about twenty feet. The path wasn’t a natural occurrence, but had been carved out of the cliff face. The darkness made it difficult to see ahead, but it appeared that the trail simply ended after fifty feet.
“We should probably hurry,” Olivia called out as she neared the end of the path. “Less than twenty-five minutes left.”
“Are you joking?” Ash asked.
“Why would I joke?”
With a step to her left, she disappeared.
The path, it turned out, led to the opening of a cave in the cliff that had been almost invisible in the darkness. As Ash and Chloe stepped inside, several of the others turned on flashlights, giving them a better look at their surroundings. Not a cave, Ash realized, but a manmade tunnel. And on the ground just inside were two bodies. The guards, Ash guessed.
Olivia took the lead again, and didn’t stop until they reached a secure-looking metal door mounted in the tunnel wall. The door had no handle, and whatever hinges it swung on were either recessed in the metal frame or were on the inside. For all intents, it was impassible.