A moment later, the sound of a single pair of running footsteps rushed by outside without stopping.
“They’re going to find out he’s gone,” one of the men whispered.
“It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of it,” the other one replied. “You get him out of here. You remember the way, right?”
“Are you kidding? This place is a maze.”
There was silence for a moment, then, “Okay. I’ll show you, but then it’ll be up to you.”
They headed back into the hallway, picking up their pace to a near run. They passed through two more corridors and made a hard turn to the left.
After another few moments, the one in the lead said, “It’s just up-”
Without warning, the emergency lights kicked on.
The guy who’d been holding Ash’s arm let go, then ripped something off his head. Night vision goggles. Both of the men had been wearing them. With the lights on, they had become useless.
“Come on,” the lead guy said. “We’re almost there.”
He had a short military haircut and was wearing an officer’s uniform with no insignia. The man next to Ash was dressed in clothes more like the blue jeans and sweater he was now wearing, and while this guy’s hair was also short, it had a distinct civilian look to it.
They ran down the hallway, took a quick bend to the right, then the lead man skidded to a stop in front of a heavy-looking metal door. As Ash and the other man ran up, he pulled it open.
Chilled air seeped into the hallway.
“Quick, quick!” he said, then pointed at an angle out the door. “Head in that direction. It’ll get you to where we were earlier.”
“Maybe you should come with us,” his partner said.
The first guy shook his head. “I can do more here.”
“They’re going to know someone on the inside helped.”
The lead man’s face grew hard. “Go. Now. You don’t have time.”
He shoved Ash and the other man outside then shut the door.
Ash’s escort seemed disoriented for a moment, then he took a deep breath and said, “Keep low, and follow right behind me.”
He took off across a wide space of leveled dirt, not waiting for Ash to respond. Though he was tired of not knowing what was going on, Ash was smart enough to realize now wasn’t the time to push, so he headed after his rescuer.
The man led him into a narrow ravine that had been carved into the desert. It was deep enough so that they could stand up without being seen by anyone at ground level.
They followed it for thirty minutes, finally stopping when they reached a rocky overhang. There, the man fell to his knees, reached underneath, and pulled out a cloth bag. He unzipped it and removed something.
“Here,” he said, tossing it to Ash.
It was a worn-looking leather jacket with a padded lining inside, and a stocking cap and gloves in the pocket. While it was definitely a cool desert night, it wasn’t that cold.
“Put it on,” the man said. “You’ll need it later.”
“For what?”
“To stay warm. What do you think?”
Next he pulled out a messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder. He then shoved the empty cloth bag back under the overhang. “All right. Let’s go.”
Ash didn’t move.
The man took a few steps down the riverbed before he realized this. “Look, we don’t have much time. If you miss the connection, you’re out of luck. So let’s move it.”
“No,” Ash said.
The man stared at him. “All right, fine. Then you can stay here and let them find you.”
“Why are you doing this?”
The man looked away, obviously not happy. When he turned back, he took a couple steps toward Ash. “If we’d left you in your cell, you wouldn’t have woken up tomorrow morning. You were no longer any use to them alive.”
“You saved me because they were going to kill me?”
“We saved you because…” He paused, then took a deep breath. “Yeah. That’s as good a reason as any. You can either trust me or not, but I can guarantee you one thing. Those people back there…” He pointed in the direction they’d come. “They don’t care a thing about you. It’s what’s inside you that’s most important to them. And they can’t get to that while you’re still breathing. Get it?”
He turned around and started walking, this time without looking back.
Ash stood where he was a moment longer, then followed.
6
Major Littlefield was in the cafeteria when the power went out.
“What the hell?”
He’d made himself a late-night sandwich as he waited for Ash’s final cycle to complete. It was already obvious that, once more, the bug would fail to take hold. The captain was as immune to KV-27a as a person could be.
From Littlefield’s understanding, the testing of the Ash children was proceeding slowly. But now Dr. Karp would have samples from an actual body he could take a closer look at and hopefully speed up the process.
The plan for that evening was simple. Once the cycle finished at two a.m. and the captain’s vital signs remained unchanged, the air to his cell would be slowly cut off and within an hour, he would take his last breath. This method would eliminate any chance of contaminating the body with whatever poison they would have had to use otherwise.
But now the lights had gone off, and the stupid backup power had yet to kick in.
He pulled his radio off his belt. “Control, this is Littlefield.”
“Control,” a voice replied. It sounded like Brewer.
“What’s your power situation there?”
There was a slight pause. “Sir, we’re in the dark. Literally.”
“Backup?”
“No, sir. Nothing.”
Littlefield stood up. “All right, I’m coming to you.”
“Sir, where are you?”
“The cafeteria.”
“I think you’re going to have a problem getting here.”
Littlefield pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, using it as a flashlight as he weaved his way out of the room. “Why do you say that?”
“When the power cuts off, the facility entrance automatically locks down until the electricity comes back.”
“Well, what about one of the emergency doors?”
“Those can only be opened from the inside.”
“Then get off your ass and go open one!”
There was no response for a moment. “The observation room door also locks down. Jones and I are, uh, stuck in here.”
“Jesus.”
Littlefield stepped out of the cafeteria and jogged quickly toward the entrance to the containment facility. There was absolutely no one else around. Not surprising since Littlefield had been left with only a bare-bones crew of five men including himself, more than enough to deal with the single person under their supervision. The rest of
