Immortal (12 page)

The doors closed.

He walked into an industrial-looking metal cage. The air was cold, faintly musty.

Josh realized he was standing in an elevator. With a whir, the cage began to descend.

To where, he could only imagine?

Chapter 48

The morning sun blazed bright
above the jagged peaks of the Cascades as Marty Branigan sped down Interstate 5 toward I-1
00
, the four-lane road that led to Aurora Life Extension. Long stretches of light had begun to heat the roadway by the time she left the exit ramp. Inside her VW Beetle, Marty had the accelerator pressed to the floorboard. When she had already notified the police and asked them to meet her at Aurora, they questioned her as if she were perpetrating a hoax on the Phoenix police. Though unable to convince them, they did agree to have a detective check it out
their
way. Marty knew from experience what that meant:
we'll get to it when we can
.

Undeterred, she had decided to act on her own, with or without help from the police. Josh could be in deadly peril.

Marty rocketed onto the Phoenix expressway as hard and fast as she could.

Toward Aurora.

Chapter 49

The elevator stopped and the
doors opened. Josh walked down a long concrete tunnel, his footsteps echoing off the block walls. He could hear the hum of electrical equipment all around him.

Josh came to a pair of heavy doors that were dark blue and translucent. At first, he thought they were made of extremely thick glass, but upon closer inspection, he could see they were made of some type of metallic material he'd never seen before. The doors slid open on a motorized track and ahead were another set of glass doors that opened to a laboratory hallway. Passing though these, he entered the antiseptic white hallway and saw doors opening off either side. The first door on the left was marked NANO. The second read CRYO. And further down the hall was a door simply marked LAB.

The sound of voices caused Josh to dart through the nearest door, the one marked CRYO. He hesitated, leaning against the door and held his breath until the voices passed.

Then he turned and stood in astonishment.

Chapter 50

Josh Logan took a step
inside the semi-darkened room, and felt like he'd stumbled onto the set of a science fiction movie. The room was large and reminded Josh of a hospital laboratory, with the sterile feel of an operating room. Inside were a row of vertical tubes, about seven feet high and four feet in diameter, standing side by side. Josh counted eleven.
Sun tanning machines?

Each tank had a line of copper tubing leading to the back of it. Emblazoned across the face of each tank were the words: CAUTION LIQUID NITROGEN.

Josh stood motionless under the impact of what he saw. He slowly began to walk around the huge containers. Each container was festooned with a bright metal plate about half way up. Josh read the first one he came to: ASHLEY TINSDALE #44605.

Tinsdale. Where had he heard that name?
It sounded vaguely familiar to him. He made a complete circle around the cylinders, noticing that each had a small glass window near the top. As Josh glanced around for something to stand on, he noticed that each tank had its own ladder attached to the side of it. He went to the first tank and climbed up to the top of the tank.

An awful weakness spread over him and his legs threatened to give way as he looked in the small observation window of the tank. A young girl's face was staring back at him. She was statue-like and without discernable color. Josh could hear the hiss of the liquid nitrogen being continually pumped into the cylinder.

Suddenly Josh remembered where he had heard the name.
Tinsdale
. It was in the paper two weeks prior. The girl had died while on a white water rafting trip in the Grand Canyon. The story went on to say her father was a wealthy developer, who owned practically every mall in the surrounding three states. The article culminated with the statement that burial services were private.
Burial services my ass.
Obviously, the elder Tinsdale didn't want anyone to know about his affiliation with Aurora.

Josh climbed down and fixed his gaze across the room. Another group of tanks sat against a far wall. Wrangling in his increasing fear, he walked over to another capsule. He leaned forward and looked at the nameplate: JIM DAVIS #64293

Climbing the ladder, he peeked in the window, as he had with the other tank. This time, however, a different sight greeted him. A shroud-covered body stood upright in the cylinder. Josh noticed that the tanks on this side of the room didn't have the condensation on them that covered the tanks on the other side. Nor was there any copper tubing running to it.
That's odd!

He laid his hand on the tank. It was room temperature. The other tanks had been ice cold. Probing further, Josh located a row of metal clips on the top that seemed to fasten the lid to the main cylinder. He felt a growing chill inside as he unfastened the first clip. Disquieting images swirled through his mind--unexplained deaths, cryptic medical records, the implications of Hench's research.
"I never saw my husband again,"
Sara Davis had said. That thought alone reminded him that she was only one of many patients who'd complained about the heavy-handedness of Hench and his refusal to let the families see their loved ones after they died.

"Don't move, Logan."

The other man, a bullet-headed Mexican, grabbed Josh by the arm and pulled him off the cylinder.

"I'm sure the director will want to see you," he said.

The men nudged Josh out the doors and down a long corridor.

"What the hell is going on here?" Josh protested.

"You wouldn't understand, doctor."

"I understand you've killed innocent people."

Josh felt his muscles tighten.

Before he could react, they stopped in front of a metal door marked:

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

The door opened and a figure stepped out, a tall man in a grey suit and tie. For an instant, Josh's mind went blank.

He was staring at Lawrence Bowman.

Chapter 51

Marty Branigan checked her watch.
Just past noon, Josh should be there by now. For the sixth time in less than an hour, she snatched the cell phone off the seat and mashed the auto button for Vince Brezina.
Doesn't he ever answer his phone?

Maybe Josh was right; maybe she should have sat tight. Was she taking too great a risk this time? After today, she'd either have the biggest story to hit the news since the Iraq war or she'd be dead. Of course, if she was wrong about either outcome she could be just another disgraced reporter who tries to exploit a perfectly legitimate operation. But Marty knew it was highly unlikely she was wrong.

The cell phone interrupted those thoughts.

"Vince, is that you?"

"You all right?"

"Yes, I'm on my way to Aurora, now."

"Marty, listen, it's too dangerous, I did some checking, and your putting your--"

Marty pushed the red "end" button and tossed the phone back on the seat. She was not going to stop anything. Josh could be in deep trouble and she was going to get her proof, once and for all.

Less than five minutes later, she pulled up alongside Josh Logan's car outside the gate of Aurora Life Extension.

Chapter 52

Lawrence Bowman stood in his
office and stared with regret at Josh Logan. He had never imagined today would come to this. As he moved toward him, he could see the dangerous combination of emotions in Josh Logan's eyes.

Shock, betrayal, confusion, anger.

There is so much he doesn't understand.

For a moment, Bowman flashed on his son Danny, wondering what emotions he'd felt before he died. Both Josh and Danny were promising doctors. Young men with a wealth of knowledge to give to the profession. A profession Bowman had dedicated his entire life to. But medicine had its cruel side, and Bowman had felt it in the worst way.

"Josh, there's a lot I need to explain."

Josh looked aghast, a wave of nausea coming over him.

"Dr. Hench was trying to get us shut down, Josh. After he found out about me, he threatened to expose Aurora. He had to be stopped. There are people here who depend on us. People who want to see their loved ones again. We have the technology here. We're on the verge of a major breakthrough."

Josh's expression was blank.

Bowman sighed. Science, with all its flaws, must still be exploited for mankind's benefit.
Certainly he can understand that.
Government regulation prohibiting facilities like Aurora would diminish science's ability to extend life beyond the current limit. Research would go underground to become horrific slipshod operation

Josh's voice was tremulous and yanked Bowman from his daze.

"You caused those people to die. They had a chance to live another twenty years."

Bowman's eyes hardened. "Twenty years? Twenty years is nothing. I'm talking about living hundreds of years, perhaps thousands. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Before you say anything else, Josh, I think there's something you need to see."

Chapter 53

Marty Branigan strode to the
front gate of Aurora Life Extension and pressed the buzzer. After all, she thought, a legitimate company, as they insisted they were, would have no reason to would refuse entry to a potential client. She had a story ready for the guard who had yet to appear. She waited, then pressed the buzzer again. Perplexed as to why the guard didn't respond, Marty stepped to the center of the gate. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

The gate was ajar.

She knew immediately.
Josh.

Somehow he'd gotten through and was probably already in the building, in danger. After what she'd learned about Aurora and the so-called GPO, she knew they'd never let Josh live, given what he no doubt already knew.

Marty nudged the gate, stepped through, and ran to the guard shack. She peeked through the glass enclosure and saw the guard sprawled on the floor. She could see him breathing, but he was unconscious.
What the hell did Josh do to him?

She surveyed the situation and spotted security cameras mounted to the guard shack, which meant someone was probably monitoring the premises from somewhere else. She didn't feel threatened, however, knowing the habits of low-paid security guards and their penchant for complacency. Still, she could only push her luck so far.

Deciding forcible entry was not an option, she looked back in at the unconscious guard. After failing to see a key ring on him, she was about to change her mind about breaking in when she spotted exactly what she needed hanging around his neck.

A plastic passkey!

Guaranteed admission into Aurora.

Chapter 54

At times like these, Bowman
would take a deep breath, and remind himself that everything he did was for the good of the organization.

The deception, Bowman knew, had only been partially revealed by Josh Logan's intrusion today. Three years ago, still reeling from the loss of his son, Bowman spearheaded an idea to expand research in nanotechnology. After determining his initial speculation was indeed right, Lawrence Bowman started the organization that would be known as the GPO.

Driven by personal interest, fear, and increasing public scrutiny toward cryonics, he recruited Arthur Hench to use the prestige of the Ford Institute to acquire the wealthiest patients as clients of Aurora upon their death. He would collect the two hundred thousand dollar fee, with the promise of resuscitation and a cure sometime in the future. It was an easy sell; medical time travel or lying in the ground waiting for the bugs to eat you. The rich almost always chose the former. Of course, the money was never used for the
client's
future resurrection but rather diverted for the use of the GPO. Then, when that wasn't sufficient to cover the overwhelming expenses involved in their research, Bowman began to do the unthinkable. And though murdering healthy patients was distasteful to him, the additional funds were the only way to keep the GPO flush with needed cash. He had a much grander plan for the money, something so extraordinary, only a select group would be privy to it.

A secret society with but one mission.

To resurrect their dead children!

The GPO--Grieving Parents Organization.

Chapter 55

Martsed the guard's passkey
to gain entry using the Aurora building's back door. The door to the room marked LAB had just closed as she entered, so she sprinted down the hall, stopping at the first door she came to. She tried the knob, but found it locked.
Shit!

Undeterred, Marty turned down a short corridor heading for the closest door when she heard the sound of voices approaching. A quick assessment told her she could flee through the adjoining hall, but its only exit opened to where the voices were coming.
And getting closer!

She raced to the only other door, praying it was unlocked.

As she opened it, she heard the approach of running footfalls.

She shut the door quietly and scanned the room. A wheeled examination table lay in the center of the room occupied by what looked like a sheet-covered body. Marty hesitated to approach the table; right now she needed to hide. She listened intently for any sign of the approaching voices. When all was quiet, her curiosity got the best of her and she crept over to the exam table, continuing to monitor the sounds around her. Taking a few tentative steps forward, she could now see an arm dangling from underneath the white sheet. She was visibly shaking as she grasped the top corner and slowly pulled it back.

She stifled a scream as she dropped the sheet.