However it had happened, if Kitano was infected, there was a good chance Jake was as well. He didn’t feel anything yet, but he’d been around Kitano for only a few hours.
The trail opened up on the left, the trees thinning and then gone altogether. Jake found himself on the crest of a long, U-shaped band of cliffs. A suspension bridge hung above river water rushing toward a dramatic waterfall, the water breaking into mist and spray as it dropped. The old slats creaked as they crossed the bridge. Hundreds of feet below was a marsh protected by steep walls on three sides and connected to the Saint Lawrence on the fourth. Geese were everywhere. A few hundred suddenly took to the air, a wall of flapping wings rising up, circling not a hundred feet from them, squawking and twisting as they rose. Kitano seemed hypnotized by the sight.
A wave of dread swept over Jake as he followed Kitano’s gaze to the thousands of tiny shapes. Thousands and thousands of geese, more than Jake had ever seen. He felt as if the ground were about to give way beneath him. Kitano and Orchid had not randomly chosen this spot.
“No more filth,” Kitano mumbled. “I am ready to die. To fulfill my destiny.” He began to shake. Jake didn’t know how much longer the old man would last.
Jake glimpsed a patch of red through a break in the trees. The door of a cabin.
Dragging Kitano with him, he sprinted for the building, heart in his throat.
The UAV was circling like a vulture.
He reached the cabin door and pulled it open. No lock. Just a simple latch.
The cabin was nearly empty, the corners full of dust and cobwebs. In the center of the room was a carefully folded garment, brilliant white. On top was a short Japanese sword with a carved wooden handle and a shorter polished steel blade.
Seeing the sword, Kitano pushed past Jake, but Jake shoved him back. Kitano fell to the floor in a heap.
Jake picked up the sword. It had a wooden handle with a black Japanese symbol stamped on it. What the hell was this doing out here?
Kitano’s eyes were fixed on the sword. “Give it to me.”
“Where’s Orchid? Where’s Maggie?”
“Give me the sword.”
Weapon in hand, Jake stepped back outside, scanning every direction. At the clearing’s edge was what looked like the entrance to an underground storm shelter. Jake spotted footsteps in the snow near the entrance.
“Give me the sword!” Kitano said from behind him.
Jake grabbed him and pushed him along the snowy path to the storm shelter entrance. He paused and grabbed the tiny thread implanted next to his left eye. Pulling the tripwire sent an electric shock through him, as though he’d grabbed a live wire. He momentarily saw spots but steadied himself.
He guessed he had ten minutes, fifteen at the outside, before the bombs started falling.
51
JAKE HELD THE SWORD AT KITANO’S BACK, SCANNING FOR Orchid as they made their way down the series of steps that ran at a steep angle underground.
A plaintive moan drifted up. His heart nearly stopped.
He saw her now, strapped down to a table, mouth taped closed. The glass sphere was suspended above her, inches from her face. Inside it, the Crawlers were a roiling silvery-black mass, filling the room with a noise like locusts in a field. The rest of the room was cloaked in shadows. There was no sign of Orchid.
Lifting her head and spotting Jake, Maggie tried to scream, then started kicking and twisting frantically.
IN THE DARK BEHIND THE STAIRS, ORCHID COOLLY WATCHED through a broken riser as they slowly descended the steps. Jake pushed Kitano ahead, using him as a shield. It would do him no good. Orchid was behind them.
She waited until Jake reached the bottom of the stairs, the back of his head perfectly framed in her small rectangular view, before she stepped out from behind the stairs and took aim. She preferred shooting her victims in the face, to observe their expression at the moment of death.
“Jake Sterling,” she said.
THE INSTANT HE HEARD HER VOICE, HE DUCKED. AS HE PIVOTED, a bullet grazed his forehead.
He dove behind a small wood-and-Formica table a fraction of a second ahead of the second bullet. The sword clanged to the floor. She shot four more times, the table splintering.
From the floor, Kitano scrambled to his feet, retrieved the sword, and fled up the stairs.
Using the table as a shield, Jake rushed Orchid. She fired, pulling off two rounds at close range, the bullets fragmenting the wood and Formica as he continued toward her. The second shot caught him in the shoulder, but the table had taken most of its power. Jake crashed into her head-on, slamming her backward. Her gun fell and clattered across the floor. Jake dove for it, won the race.
He turned, rolling, aiming and firing at Orchid, who had pulled a snub-nose from an ankle holster. Her right upper arm erupted in a spray of blood. Incredibly, she held her position, firing three shots and sending Jake diving behind a cabinet. The last echoes of the shots settled, leaving only the noise of the Crawlers.
To his right, Maggie struggled against her bindings. The glass ball dangled above.
IGNORING THE PAIN IN HER SHOULDER, ORCHID WAITED FOR a clean shot. She knew she was the superior fighter, but Sterling had the better weapon and more rounds remaining. She had to change the rules.
The noise of the Crawlers’ legs on glass was the only sound in the room. Seeing Maggie straining at her bonds, Orchid glanced back to Jake’s position.
She aimed her pistol at the glass and fired. Its glass shell cracked.
JAKE REALIZED HE HAD ONE CHANCE NOW TO SAVE HIM AND Maggie both. To pin Orchid down, he fired once more, then ran toward Maggie. Diving over her, he was in the air, propelled by rage and fear and sheer determination, grabbing the sphere of Crawlers, praying it didn’t break. If it did, the Crawlers would rip him to shreds.
His momentum snapped the wire, and he and the sphere flew through the air, headed for the ground. Twisting so his back hit the floor first, he held the orb above him like a baby, the gun still in his hand.
Fighting to keep his breath, he didn’t hesitate. With an arching hook shot, he launched the sphere at Orchid and then he fired.
The ball exploded.
Jake heard a cry of surprise, then, a second later, a scream.
Frantically trying to rid herself of thousands of razor-sharp Crawlers, Orchid bolted to her feet, screaming and writhing, firing wildly in Jake’s direction until the trigger clicked, the chamber empty. She threw down the gun, grabbing at her face.
She was covered in blood from a thousand razor-blade cuts. She staggered and fell against the wall, sliding to the floor as the Crawlers sliced unceasingly. Her eyes were shredded, blood flowing down her face. Her screams diminished, her motions reduced to jerky spasms, then nothing.
Jake was at Maggie’s side, gently pulling the tape from her mouth. Her first words were “Is Dylan infected?”
Jake nodded. “I’m so sorry. But we’ve got to get out of here. In a few minutes, this place will be blown to hell.”
“Jake-there’s a cure.”
52
