Exit 9

“We need to go now,” he whispered.

43

I.D. MINUS 55 SECONDS

BLUEBIRD TIME 10:59 AM

As the DOP sat down at the computer, a hush fell over the room.

Ross had already brought up the activation screen, so all the DOP had to do was input his personal password and the correct code. He typed the alphanumeric combination he’d memorized long ago into the password box.

The code itself he didn’t know, not yet, anyway. It was currently in the Principal Director’s possession. Per protocol, the Principal would not hand it over until thirty seconds prior to the time assigned for Implementation Day to begin. Which meant, as the DOP noted, he would have it in twenty-five seconds.

He clasped his hands and set them in front of him. He heard the door at the back of the room open.

“Well, I’m glad we made it in time.”

44

The door was open about an inch. Through the gap, Ash spied several people, all looking away from the door at an angle. The voice they heard earlier had stopped and been replaced by an eerie silence.

Olivia quickly divided her people into two groups, and made it clear where she wanted them to go. She looked at Ash and Chloe, and indicated they were to follow her.

She put one hand on the doorknob, and began counting down with the other.

Three.

Two.

One.

She pushed the door open. The two small groups went in first, then she stepped through with Ash and Chloe behind her.

“Well,” she said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “I’m glad we made it in time.”

The entire room seemed to turn as one to look at them. Immediately, the five security men scattered throughout the space went for their handguns. They could have saved the effort. Before any of them had their weapon above their waist, Olivia’s people opened fire. The security guards dropped to the floor, dead.

Screams of terror and surprise filled the room, as those nearest the new arrivals moved away as quickly as they could. Several people went for the doors, trying to get out, but when gunfire rang out again, slamming into the wall near the exit, they pulled back.

Olivia rushed toward the front of the room, where an unremarkable middle-aged man sitting in front of a computer on a solitary table had just been handed an envelope by an older, but similarly unremarkable man.

“I’ll take that,” she said, snatching it out of his hand.

45

I.D. MINUS 0 SECONDS

BLUEBIRD TIME 11:00 AM

The DOP froze. Standing at the back of the room was Olivia Silva.

She had once been one of the brightest stars of Project Eden. In fact, KV-27a would not have been possible but for her early work. Up until that previous spring when they learned otherwise, they had thought she was killed in the raid on the lab where she had been doing her research.

For the initial seconds, he thought she’d come back to join them, but that idea immediately vanished when the people who’d come in with her opened fire on the security detail. Joining them was not on her agenda, he realized.

The Principal seemed to have come to the same conclusion. He rushed forward, his hand moving under his jacket. Just as he pulled out an envelope, there was another round of gunfire, this time aimed at the doors to keep anyone from leaving.

“Here,” the Principal said as he handed the DOP the envelope. “Input the code!”

The DOP turned the envelope over, and stuck his finger under the end of the flap. But before he could rip it open, Olivia was standing in front of him.

“I’ll take that,” she said, grabbing it.

She had come to stop them. He couldn’t believe it. The Project was something she’d believed in just as much as he had, but now she was going to keep it from happening.

“Why?” he asked.

“You know what we’re trying to do,” the Principal said. “If you stop us, you’ll damn our whole species.”

“Oh, will I?” she asked. She pulled out a pistol from her pocket, and pointed it at the old man’s forehead.

“You wouldn’t dare,” he said.

“Oh, please. I would.”

She pulled the trigger.

A collective gasp filled the room as the Principal Director dropped dead to the floor.

Olivia pushed the DOP out of the way, and sat in front of the computer. Without closing the activation window, she opened the program that ran Bluebird’s security system. Navigating it like an expert, she began sealing off different sections of the facility until the only exit from the Cradle would be out the emergency tunnel.

“There,” she said, standing. “I think we can relax a little now. Everyone move to an outer wall and have a seat.”

Slowly at first, but with growing speed that was encouraged by Olivia’s team, the Project Eden members did as ordered. All, that was, except for the Directors. Olivia made clear with her gun that they had to remain where they were. A few glanced at the floor where their former leader lay, while the others kept their eyes on her.

“How long did you know I was being held captive?” she asked them.

“We didn’t know,” one of them blurted out. “We were told you were dead.”

She looked at him with faux compassion. “Perhaps that’s what you thought, but what about the rest of you?”

Most nodded their heads, indicating they’d heard the same thing, but the DOP and the Director of Survival did not.

She looked at the DOP. “You knew, of course.”

“Not until recently,” he admitted.

“Let me guess. Last spring, when my friend over there delivered my message to Dr. Karp.” She nodded toward a man standing in the aisle.

The DOP looked at him, and squinted his eyes. Yes. It had to be.

Captain Daniel Ash. The very man whose immune system made it possible for the Project to come up with a vaccine for the virus. It was almost fitting he was here, though the look in the captain’s eyes was anything but friendly.

“So, over half a year,” Olivia continued.

Again, the DOP made no reply.