«But you're flawed, you see. As Wilfred proved to be in the end. And you've cost me beyond measure. All this, about to be destroyed. Two generations of progress. Fortunately, I have countless generations to rebuild it, improve it, then see it flourish. You'll all come with us, and be a part of that. Or you'll all die here.»
Another stepped out of the opposite door, and had a sleepy toddler by the hand. «Keep your hands up,» he ordered her, and stepped forward.
«Transportation's waiting for those selected,» the first told her.
«What of the rest?»
«Once we're clear? Fail-safe. A difficult sacrifice. But we understand difficult choices, don't we? We have all the records we need, and the funds, the time to rebuild. Move forward.»
As she did, Diana pulled the laser scalpel out of her pocket and aimed it at the eyes of the one holding the toddler.
The little girl screamed, and began to wail when the man holding her hand convulsed and fell. Equipment exploded as Diana swung the beam. Even as Wilson returned fire, Deena shoved Diana to the ground, then dove toward the younger child. As she scooped the toddler up, spun, she saw Wilson, and the infant, were gone.
«Take her.» She pushed the screaming child—her child—into Diana's arms. «You've got to take her. I've got to go after him. Don't argue! Just listen. Someone must be trying to get through—all the fire we heard.»
«You're hurt.»
«It's nothing.» Deena dismissed the burn on her shoulder, and pushed past the pain. «You get her to safety. I know you can. I know you will.» She pulled Diana into her arms, kissed her, kissed the little girl. «I have to stop him. Now go!»
She sprang up, ran out of the nightmare, and into hell. Diana struggled to her feet under the weight of the child. She had the laser still, she thought, and would use it again if she had to.
21
They should split up. Time-saving, more efficient, but the risks were too many. Her hip was a low, continual scream, but Eve kept moving, kept moving.
At every fork, every turn, every doorway, she braced for the next assault.
«There may be little else in direct defense. You'd assume with the level of security above, and the defense here, no one would get through.»
Rather than finesse, he blasted the locks on a door marked EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES.
«Mother of Christ,» he whispered as they saw what was in the room.
Medical trays, preservation drawers, tanks filled with clear liquid. In them were fetuses at various stages of development. All were deformed.
«Defects,» Eve managed while her blood ran cold. «Failures or defective results, stopped when defects were observed.» She studied the electronic charts. Something worse than sickness was clogged in her throat.
«Or they were allowed to develop further, even created this way, so they could be studied. Experimented on,» she said, swallowing bile. «Kept viable until they were no longer useful.»
There was nothing viable there now. No hearts beat in the room but hers and Roarke's.
«Someone's turned off the life systems here, all of them.»
«There have to be more.»
«Eve.» Roarke kept his back turned to what couldn't be changed, couldn't be saved, and studied the equipment. «They haven't just been turned off. It's on a Yellow Alert.»
«Meaning?»
«Might be a level for the security breach, automated as you suggested. Or it could be a holding pattern before Red, and self-destruct.»
She spun back. «Deena couldn't have gotten that far ahead of us. She's not that damn good. If… Someone else set it.»
«Bury it,» Roarke said. «Bury all this and everything in it rather than have it taken.»
«Can you abort?»
He was working, manually, through his scanner. And shook his head. «Not from here at any rate. This isn't the source.»
«Then we find it, and whoever's running this show, before it goes to Red.»
She turned, pushed through the doors.
In the white tunnel outside, she saw Diana standing with her hand gripped on a younger, smaller version of herself. In her other hand was a laser scalpel.
«I know how to use it,» Diana said.
«Bet.» And Eve knew exactly what it felt like to have the beam slice through flesh. «But that would be pretty damn stupid as we've come to get you the hell out of here. Where's Deena? Has she set for self-destruct?»
«He did. She went after him. He had a baby.» She glanced at the sniffling toddler. «Our baby sister.»
«Who did she go after?»
«Wilson. He had her.» She lifted the toddler's hand a fraction. «Her name's Darby. I killed him, one of him, with this. I set it on full and aimed at his eyes. I killed him.»
«Good for you. Show me where they went.»
«She's tired.» Diana looked down at Darby. «I think they gave her something to make her sleepy. She can't run.»
«Here.» Roarke stepped forward. «I'll take her. I won't hurt her.»
Diana studied his face. «I'll have to kill you if you try.»
«That's a deal. More help's coming.» He hoisted the child.
«They better get here soon. This way. Hurry.»
She went off in a sprint.
Eve loped behind her, shoving her back at splits and turns until she'd checked for the all-clear.
The Gestation area was still unsecured. Diana bounded right in, and for the second time Eve had shock slap her back.
The room was full of chambers, interlocked and stacked like the inside of a hive. In each chamber a fetus floated, in thick, clear liquid. A tube—she supposed to replicate an umbilical cord—attached each one to a mass she assumed was artificial placenta. Each chamber held an electronic chart and monitor, recording respiration, heartbeat, brain waves, listing the date of conception, the donor, and the date listed for Quiet Birth.
She jolted back when one of the occupants turned, like an alien fish swimming in strange waters.
There was a record as well of stimuli. Music played, voices, Languages, and the continual beat of a heart.
There were dozens of them.
«He killed Icove.» Diana gestured to the bodies on the floor. «This Icove anyway. He's going to destroy it.»
«What?»
«He's going to take what he wants, the ones he's picked, and destroy everything else. Deena was going to destroy it, but she couldn't.» Diana looked around. «We came in here, and we knew she couldn't. She went that way, after him. One of them. There may be more than two.»
«Get them out of here.» She swung to Roarke. «Get them up and out.»
«Eve.»
«I can't do both. I need you to do this. I need you to get them to safety. Fast.»
«Don't ask me to leave you here.»
«You're the only one I can ask.» She gave him a long last look. Then she rushed in the direction Deena had taken.
She passed into a lab, what she realized was a conception area. Life was being created in clear dishes in smaller chambers than the ones in Gestation. Electrodes hummed bloodlessly.
Beyond that was a preservation area. Refrigeration units, every one labeled. Names, dates, codes. There were operating rooms, examination cubes.
She came to a door, saw another corridor, another tunnel beyond. Stepping into it, she swept her weapon, and spun back inside as a laser stream blasted the wall.
She swung the rifle off her shoulder—braced it so she could fire it with one hand—and gripped her blaster in the other. She sent out a stream of fire, right, left, right, then dove out, firing right again.
She saw the man fall, white lab coat spreading up like wings. As she rolled, she caught a secondary movement and fired blindly left.
There was a howl, more of rage than pain. She saw she'd winged him, that he was down, crawling, dragging his useless leg behind him.
She let some of her fury free when she reached him, and kicked him hard over on his back.