Mandibles (19 page)

*-CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN-*
"We need to make some calls!" Zachary demanded. "We'll let somebody know what's going on, have them drop a bomb on it!"
"Don't be ignorant," said Tyler. "You won't get a bomb anywhere close to this area in under fifteen minutes. You'd be lucky to be taken off hold in that amount of time."
"Bullshit!" said Zachary. "They've got satellites up there that can read your license plate number, so they damn well have somethin' that can bomb a building!"
"Then call the President. Be my guest."
"No, he's right, that isn't a feasible option even if the phone lines weren't jammed," said Roberta. "What else can we do? Can't we just seal off the building?"
Tyler shook his head. "Four sliding doors are going to open, two on the first level, two on the second. You couldn't possibly barricade it in time. And unless it were brick or metal, the ants would quickly get through anyway."
"They won't all try to get out at once, though, will they?"
"Actually, they will. A transmitter will be sending out signals as soon as the doors lift, sort of a call to battle. Have you heard about the recent attacks on humans by normal-sized ants? Those were tests."
"Then what about that chemical, the Heaven?"
"Like I said, it won't affect the second wave of ants except in its raw form, and we've only synthesized one canister of it. It would work like a smoke grenade, but it couldn't possibly cover more than one floor of the building. That leaves five-sixths of the ants. Barely an improvement."
"Barely an improvement to you, but that's a lot of possible lives we could save," said Zachary. "And do you know for sure that it won't cover the whole building, or are you just guessin'?"
"There's absolutely no way it will cover the entire building," said Tyler. "You'll be lucky if it covers one floor."
"Still, that's a whole floor. Is there a way in the building?"
Tyler nodded. "Yes, but you'd have to set off the canister immediately or the ants will be all over you."
"I can deal with that," said Zachary. "Where's the canister?"
"It's back in the lab where we keep our ... mistakes. But when I said that I'd made things worse, what I mean is that I accidentally unlocked all of the cages."
"So the vampire butterflies are loose?"
"Possibly."
"You've got to be kiddin' me!" said Zachary. "What kind of idiotic setup is this? What's wrong with controllin' all this stuff with a simple button?"
"The intent was to be able to control everything from anywhere in the world. Obviously my employer and his associates had no plans to be anywhere near Tampa when the ants were released, and as I've said, I'm not the computer expert here."
"Fine. I'll get the chemicals. Where's the lab?"
"After you go through the door at the end of the first hallway, you'll enter another hallway. It will be the second door on your left. On a shelf in the lab you'll find two silver canisters. If you really are intending to enter the building, you'll need the smaller one. The larger one will be effective against the first wave."
"Fine. Who's coming with me?"
"I am," said Roberta.
Zachary looked like he wanted to protest, but then nodded. "What about you?" he asked Tyler.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"I think you're wrong."
Tyler took the gun out of his lab coat pocket and pointed it at Zachary. "I think I'm right."
Though clearly enraged, Zachary let it drop and turned to Jack and Moni. "You two wait for us. We'll be back."
"Here," said Tyler, handing Roberta his red pass card. "The other doors are open, but you'll still need this to get into the building. Better that each of you have one in case there's a death, don't you think?"
"What about the venom antidote?" she asked.
"You'll find some test tubes with a blue liquid in each of the rooms with specimens."
Zachary opened the door, and then he and Roberta ran into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind them.
"Do they stand a chance?" asked Jack.
Tyler shrugged. "I'm certainly not sticking around to find out."
* * * *

Most of the butterflies were still focused on Hack's body and hadn't left the cage. Roberta couldn't see his arm very well, but she thought she caught a glimpse of bone. Slash was lying on the floor of his cage, still unconscious.

These two minor sources of relief were far outweighed by the sight of what was pouring out of the cage at the end of the hall by the dozens.
Spiders.
Ones that were as big as her hand.
Roberta hated ants as much as anybody, but she was absolutely _terrified_ of spiders. Even though she had no clue what made them so much scarier (the extra two legs?), the fact was that if she had to face a hundred ants and one spider, she'd pick the ants.
Zachary shoved her forward. "Don't even look at them! Just run!"
Caterpillars were starting to emerge from one of the other cages, but she barely noticed them.
_They aren't real_, she told herself. _They're just very sophisticated animatronic arachnids on loan from Disney. If Mickey Mouse can handle being around these things without completely losing his mind, then there's no reason you can't, too. They aren't real_.
The things being crushed under her feet certainly _felt_ real.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed something in another one of the cages. It looked like a spider leg that was the size of a human leg.
She reached the end of the hallway, threw open the door, and continued down the connecting corridor. _This is ridiculous! Calm yourself! You've had your entire body covered with ants; you can handle some fake spiders_!
At least she wasn't screaming hysterically, although she didn't think that such a thing was too far off.
She forced herself to stop running. Zachary caught up with her and took her hand in his. "Are you all right?"
"I'm not ... I think ... yes, I'm fine." She took three deep breaths. "I don't do spiders well."
"They can't hurt you. Come on, you passed the door."
They turned around, opened an unmarked wooden door, and stepped into a laboratory.
Mistakes.
Roberta could think of several words for the things that were crawling out of the ten or twelve cages that lined each side wall of the room, but "mistakes" was far too tame.
A scorpion, two feet long, moved along the floor. Its giant pincers were frightening enough, but it also had a human-shaped mouth filled with sharp, metallic teeth.
A cucumber-sized maggot crawled along on eight spider-like legs.
A foot-long bee flew around in wild circles, red blood dripping from its head.
And ants. Ants of various sizes, some with extra body parts, some with absurdly oversized stingers, some with bodies so deformed that they merely wriggled inside their open cages.
The shelf was against the far wall. Only twenty feet away.
The scorpion rushed toward Roberta, pincers snapping.
* * * *

Moni followed Tyler out of the building. "How can you just run away from this?" she asked.

"Simple," said Tyler, quickly looking away from Dustin's body. "I'm intelligent. You're more than welcome to join me."
The old Hispanic dentist had opened the door of the truck and was trying to climb out, though it was obvious he wasn't up to the task. Moni went over to him.
"You should wait in the truck. We'll be getting out of here soon."
The dentist looked around. "The ants ... they're gone, yes?"
"No. They just aren't around here," Moni said. She felt like she should help him back into the truck, but there wasn't much she could do with her broken hands.
The dentist leaned his head back and said something unintelligible. Moni leaned in closer to him. "What was that?"
He shook his head. "Nothing. I just hoped they went away. Sorry."
"I wish they'd go away, too. Maybe we'll get lucky and..."
She stopped as she remembered that they _had_ gone away at one point.
Maybe that was it!
* * * *

Roberta kicked the scorpion as hard as she could, expecting it to fly across the room like a soccer ball. Instead, her foot broke through its side and became imbedded, so she ended up with her foot in the air, a huge scorpion stuck on the end of it.

She screamed as it pinched her ankle.
Zachary grabbed the scorpion with both hands and ripped it off her foot. It pinched his arm, drawing blood, as he threw it across the room. It struck one of the cages, white chunks splattering out of its body.
As if simultaneously realizing that there just wasn't time to be scared, Roberta and Zachary both rushed toward the shelf. The spider-maggot scurried toward her at an alarming speed. Zachary ducked out of the way of the bee, which then bounced against the ceiling.
An ant fell out of its cage and practically exploded upon impact, as if it were filled with nitroglycerine.
Another second wave-sized ant ran toward her, its stinger almost as long as the rest of its body combined. She stomped on that one, and then stomped on a second with two heads.
Zachary cried out as the bee suddenly flew in a circle around his head, and then slammed itself stinger-first into his chest.

*-CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT-*
Zachary doubled over momentarily, then stood back up, grabbed the bee with both hands, and ripped it away from his chest, leaving the stinger behind.
Roberta pulled the stinger out, but there wasn't even time to ask him if he was okay. Two more scorpions were crawling out of their cages, as was a millipede with bright red streaks across its back, and a spider.
A spider with twice as many legs as normal, but still unquestionably a spider.
Zachary looked dazed, but grabbed the larger of the two silver canisters, which was about the size of a beer keg. Roberta saw a wooden holder with two tiny test tubes in it, took both of them, and slipped them into her pocket. Then she took the smaller canister, the size of a gallon jug, and they made a run for the exit.
* * * *

Moni rushed over to Tyler, who was about to get in his car. "When one of the biggest ants came to Lavin, Inc., the other ants ran away. I mean, all of them. Is that supposed to happen?"

"It wasn't planned, no, but it had something to do with the signals the ants send out. I'd actually hoped that Dustin would be able to shed some light on it."
"But will that always happen?"
"Apparently so, yes."
"Do you have any of the giant ants inside?"
"One, but it's not exactly tame. What exactly are you planning to do?"
"Tell me where it is."
* * * *

Roberta kicked the maggot out of the way. It landed on its back, legs twitching helplessly in the air as it tried to right itself.

They emerged from the lab and Roberta slammed the door shut, pinching the millipede in half. Zachary nearly lost his grip on the canister and leaned against the wall.
"Are you allergic to bee stings?" Roberta asked.
Zachary shook his head. "Not normal ones. Oh, crap, I screwed up bad. I should've been watchin' more closely."
"It's okay," said Roberta, reaching into her pocket. She took out the test tubes and slipped them into Zachary's pocket. "You take that canister out to Jack and Moni, and then take care of Dr. Ruiz. I'll handle the ones in the building."
"Hell no."
"I'm not arguing this. Get out of here."
* * * *

Moni entered the hallway, which was filled with insects. Slash was still in the cage, and though he was now conscious, he looked groggy and unthreatening. She ran down the hallway, no longer cringing at the sound of bugs being squished under her feet. Hard to believe she could get used to that sort of thing.

She pushed down on the door handle with her elbow, then wedged her other hand into the handle and pulled it open, ignoring the pain.
Roberta and Zachary were in the hallway, holding silver canisters, as she entered.
"I've got it!" she shouted. "I know what to do!"
"What's that?" asked Roberta.
"The giant ants, I mean, the really big ones! The other ants run from them! If we bring one of the giant ants with us, maybe we can herd all the other ants into the top floor, and _then_ set off the chemical!"
"So, what, we put it on a leash?"
"Basically, yeah."
Roberta patted Zachary on the shoulder and then kissed him on the cheek. "Get that stuff to the right folks. We're counting on you to be our hero."
"Yeah, well, let me tell you somethin'. You damn well better be around for my follow-up appointment, understand?"
"I promise."
* * * *

Zachary wished he could let go of the canister long enough to wipe the sweat from his brow, but it was all he could do just to free his hand enough to open the door. He felt dizzy, sick to his stomach, and almost wanted to cry. Jack would definitely be doing the driving.

As he entered the hallway, Slash stepped out of his cage. He took a moment to steady himself against the glass, and then nodded at Zachary.
"Hey, buddy. Whatcha got there?"
Zachary would've thrown the canister at him, but he didn't have anywhere near enough strength. The way he felt now, he probably couldn't take him in a fight. Hell, he probably couldn't take _Moni_ in a fight even in her current condition. He could feel the hand-sized spiders crawling up his legs.
Slash began to walk down the hallway, not even looking down at the insects and spiders that crawled around his feet. "You don't look so well. Golly, I hope an ant didn't sting you."
Zachary knew this tactic wouldn't work, but decided to try anyway. "Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people might die if I don't get out of here with this canister. You can't possibly be evil enough to let that happen."
"I don't know, buddy, I'm pretty evil. Actually, it seems to me that a canister that can save hundreds of thousands of people has a pretty good market value, don't you think?"
The gap between the two men narrowed to six feet. Slash had never proven himself to be an outrageous brainiac, so if only he were dumb enough to get close enough that Zachary could simply drop the canister on his foot...
Slash turned his head to the left, let out a high-pitched shriek, and then was knocked to the ground as a six-foot-long tarantula burst out of its cage and pounced upon him.
"_Help me_!" Slash wailed. "_Please help me_!"
Slash struggled to push the hairy spider off of himself, but it was far too heavy. It buried its immense fangs into Slash's face, muffling his screams. Slash's legs shook violently, but within seconds the shaking had diminished to a mild twitching.
The tarantula crawled most of the way off his body. Slash lay on the floor, still clearly alive but paralyzed, his mouth wide open. A centipede crawled into it and vanished from sight.
The tarantula dug its fangs into Slash's leg, and began to slowly drag him into its cage. Slash looked over at Zachary, eyes wide with terror, mouth moving as if trying to beg for help.
Zachary just watched, his entire body suddenly numb.
Slash disappeared into the spider's cage.
_Come into my parlor..._
* * * *