“Of course,” he responds, seemingly annoyed that she feels the need to tell him his job.
Dr. Thorpe takes a step after him as he trudges off the way he came, but Rice steps past us and takes her elbow gently, stopping her. Giving her arm a squeeze, he says, “Thank you, Miranda.”
She doesn’t look back at us, just responds with a curt nod. “I don’t wish to be a part of this. I’ll continue on my way and forget I ever saw you.”
“I don’t think we can just let her—” Kay says, but Rice cuts her off with surprising force.
“Miranda is free to go.”
“Thank you, Richard.” Dr. Thorpe takes a hesitant step and then another. She catches her stride and continues into the lab without a backward glance.
“That was a mistake,” Kay whispers as we continue on our way through a black door.
Rice leads us down a long corridor that loops back around the main lab, with window views inside. There’s no sign of Dr. Thorpe, though we just left her moments before. In fact, the room is now surprisingly empty; it looks like my high school chemistry lab.
Finally we reach our destination, a smaller lab that has little equipment but is lined wall to wall with books, mostly medical journals. Rice motions us inside and shuts the door behind him.
“This is where Dr. Reynolds designs his experiments,” he tells us. He moves some of the books off a shelf, revealing a wall safe. Rice punches in the combination, but the safe only beeps. He glances at us and tries again. “I don’t understand. I know the combination. I retrieved notes only yesterday—”
An earsplitting screech nearly brings me to my knees, and I clap my hands over my ears. Everyone else is affected too; I see Rice slump against the wall for support. The high-pitched shriek continues, and I realize that it’s coming through my earpiece. Before I can remove it, the noise stops.
A voice takes its place. A voice I know all too well. A voice filled with arrogance and hatred.
Dr. Reynolds.
“Just moments ago, Dr. Thorpe came to me with some very interesting information. I contacted all the researchers to evacuate the labs. . . . Not everyone followed my instructions, or at least they didn’t do so quickly enough, but I suppose that can’t be helped. Those left behind will be of use, certainly. More data is always useful.”
“What is he talking about?” I ask Rice, but he just raises a finger as if he’s telling me to wait and listen with him.
“I have decided to take a page out of a colleague’s book,” Dr. Reynolds goes on. “A coarse little fellow in Fort Black—I believe he preferred to be called simply Doc. I’ve started the clock, to measure how long this takes. The results will be very informative, in case of a future breach.”
“What—?” I begin to ask, but stop myself when I see the horror on Rice’s face.
Again Dr. Reynolds’s voice is in my ear. “I expected more from you, Richard,” he continues. “You were like a son to me.”
Rice’s hand goes to his communicator. “Dr. Reynolds . . . I . . . Dr. Reynolds?” He looks at me, seemingly frozen in fear.
Suddenly there is another high-pitched noise, though this time it’s not in my earpiece; it bounces throughout the lab and is accompanied by flashing lights.
“That’s the Florae alarm!” Kay screams over the noise. “A Florae has escaped.”
Rice shakes his head. “Not escaped. He let it out.”
“We won’t be able to leave the lab!” Kay shouts. “Emergency protocol shuts down all exits. We’re trapped here, five floors underground.”
I pull out my gun. I may have to play Dr. Reynolds’s game, but I’m not going to lose without a fight.
“How many Floraes are down here?” I ask Kay over the wail of the alarm.
“I don’t know exactly!” she screams back. “Ten . . . twelve . . .”
“Twenty-seven!” shouts Rice, and I can’t help but give him a look of pure horror.
I turn to the door. “Will it hold?” I shout.
“Yes, it’s Florae-proof!” he yells. “They can’t get through.”
His last two shouted words echo through sudden silence.
The alarm has turned off, and with it, the lights.
For a moment there is complete darkness, and then the backup lights flood the room with a soft glow, the yellow-green light turning our skin the color of a Florae. In the quiet I can just make out a scratching at the door. With an agonizing pop the door opens a few inches, and a green claw reaches through, scraping the wall with its knifelike fingernails.
Chapter Forty-one
Rice looks from the Florae’s claw to me. “The doors are electric,” he whispers, his quiet voice shaky. “They won’t lock while the power is off.”
I drop into my firing stance. “Stay behind me,” I tell Rice. He has no weapon and no training. He’ll be useless against the Floraes.
Kay throws herself against the door, trying to ram it closed, but it’s pointless: She’s knocked back across the room as the creature blasts the door open wide.
It stands there just inside the doorway, snarling, yellow teeth gnashing—and listening. Kay stays motionless in the heap she fell into. I can feel Rice’s breath hot on the back of my neck. Another silent moment, and the creature might withdraw. But then Rice exhales behind me, releasing a tiny rattle of fear deep in his throat as he does so.
The small noise is enough to catch the creature’s attention. It rolls its milky eyes in my direction and then bolts forward, mouth wide in anticipation, its blue-black tongue tasting the air.
I drop it with one shot, and the next one that muscles through the door after it. There are more, clawing one another as they fight their way in. Somehow three of them break through at once and all of them speed at me. I manage to take down the first two, but I hit the third in the neck instead of the head and then it’s upon me, knocking me to the side and twisting down to finish me—and then it simply falls to the floor, lifeless. I look up at Kay, who nods once and trains her gun on the empty door.
“Did you get them all?” Rice’s terrified whisper comes from the back of the room.
I shake my head as I get to my feet. There are only five dead. The other twenty-two are still on the prowl.
Rice recovers and moves to my side, stunned but recovering. “When the electricity goes out,” he whispers, “the backup generator is supposed to power all Level One areas.”
“But this is a Level One area, right?”
He nods. “Reynolds must have diverted the power supply to specifically put us in harm’s way.”
“It doesn’t matter. I have to go get Baby,” I say, turning toward the door. “If the power is out in her area, she’ll be in danger. She doesn’t remember how to be quiet anymore. They’ve made her a sitting duck.”
Rice grabs my arm. “Dr. Reynolds knows that’s where you’ll go. And even if you make it, he won’t just let you walk out of here with her.”
That’s all true, but he and Kay can tell I’m still going.
“It’ll be easier for me to go on my own,” I tell them, giving them an out. “I’ll be able to avoid the Floraes.”
Rice shakes his head. “No one knows these labs better than me. I can guide you.” I grimace under my synth-suit hood. Rice is still shaking slightly. He may use Floraes in his experiments, but he isn’t used to being hunted by Them, isn’t used to the fear they create, a fear I’ve learned to push down over the years. But he’s still trying, dealing with his fear remarkably well.