The Phoenix Variant: The Fifth Column 3 (18 page)

‘Hi,’ Sophia said. ‘You’re Czarina, right?’

Without a word, the operative tossed her a single ribbon of plasticuffs.

Sophia discarded her knife. ‘How romantic.’

*

Denton watched with interest as the operative instructed Sophia to kneel at the entrance of the debris-strewn laboratory.

‘I like what you’ve done with your face,’ Denton said. ‘It’s very … grim.’

Sophia had almost forgotten the half sugar skull the Mexican demon lady had painted on her face. Despite her unceremonious fall through the chasm, the face paint hadn’t rubbed off.

‘What took you so long?’ Denton said.

‘I stopped for a hot dog,’ Sophia said.

‘I wore my favorite suit,’ he said.

He seemed pleased to see her, and that bothered her. Perhaps it was because he was wearing a suit. Behind him, his small team of scientists stood by their equipment, waiting for his orders.

‘You’re really running low on friends these days,’ he said. ‘Would you like to borrow some of mine? Czarina perhaps?’ He gestured to the operative in the red jacket.

With her Cleopatra haircut and cherry-red lipstick, Czarina looked Sri Lankan. She watched Sophia with indifference, unconcerned that she was still wearing her ruck.

‘It’s a shame you didn’t bring that meteorite with you,’ Denton said. ‘Didn’t I say BYO on my invitation?’

Denton gave no order to Czarina to strip Sophia of her weapons. He was already inspecting her Glock. He weighed it in his hand, removed the magazine and cleared the chamber. She watched him catch the round and feed it back into the magazine. Then he handed both the Glock and the magazine to Czarina, who passed them over to a Blue Beret. The Blue Beret stored the magazine in a pouch on his vest and shoved the Glock into a larger pouch on his belt.

‘You know, since you won’t be needing it,’ Denton said.

She kept an eye on it. It was the only weapon in the room she could fire—everything else was fingerprint protected. Even the electroshock pistol Denton brandished. It was a slightly improved version of the more commonplace Taser electroshock pistol, except this one could retract its barbs from one target and engage a new target immediately.

Denton checked the cartridge and fired it into Sophia’s neck. She felt the dart-like probes break her skin. She waited for the electric current but it never came.

‘Compliance purposes,’ Denton said. ‘I’m sure you understand.’ He looked down at the plasticuffed hands in her lap. ‘We both know you can break your restraints in seconds. This is just a little stimulation.’

He squeezed the trigger and the charge whipped through her. She fell on her side, legs frozen and arms pulling into her chest. She almost punched herself in the face. Then the current stopped.

Denton frowned, but only for a moment. ‘You’re not alone,’ he said. ‘Who is with you?’

‘No one,’ she whispered, lying on the floor. ‘Unfortunately.’

She hoped somewhere nearby DC was preparing some sort of distraction, or destruction. Either would be good. As long as she wasn’t caught in the crossfire. Or blast radius, depending on what he had in mind.

Denton handed the electroshock pistol off to Czarina, keeping the wires connected to her. He stepped closer, but not close enough. The problem with being captured by Denton and his operatives was they were too smart to get within range. Once she was their captive, it was over. And the longer she remained their captive the more her chance of escape evaporated.

But she had DC.

Or did she? She couldn’t trust him completely.

Denton stood as close as he would dare. He feigned confidence, but she could feel a ripple of anxiety underneath. He had a lot on his plate today, she could tell.

Denton’s face was cold for a moment, then a slight smile emerged.

‘DC,’ he said. ‘Now that’s interesting.’

Sophia felt her insides chill. She hadn’t let anything slip. How did he know?

‘What makes you think that?’ she said.

Denton didn’t answer. He retreated to a moss-coated table scattered with equipment his scientists had piled on top. It looked like the sort of apparatus he could use to isolate and extract the Phoenix virus. She felt a growing certainty build inside her—she was too late.

‘You can sit back up now,’ Denton said.

‘You’re too kind,’ Sophia said.

‘He’s not working alone, you know,’ Denton said. ‘He has other friends. Friends you might not like.’

Sophia tried to shrug. ‘That’s life,’ she said. ‘If you don’t like them, you—’

‘Kill them,’ Denton said. Then he smiled. ‘Or at least use them. And then kill them.’

‘I see you haven’t changed,’ she said.

‘Oh, I wouldn’t be entirely sure of that,’ he said. ‘There are some remarkable wonders of this world—and not of this world—and they change you.’

Sophia wet her lips. She was tired, dehydrated. But she had to keep focus. She was still lying on her side. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.

She knew quite well what he was doing—or at least part of it—but she was curious what he might say. More so how he would say it. And it might buy DC some time. Assuming he was even thinking of helping her. She tried not to think about that too much.

‘See, I don’t need you in the capacity I once did,’ Denton said, removing his suit jacket. ‘Gifts from the heavens.’

‘You don’t strike me as the religious type,’ she said.

‘When I’m God I’ll get back to you on that,’ he said, searching for somewhere to hang his jacket. ‘Do you recall your most recent social engagement with Dr Cecilia McLoughlin?’

‘Vividly.’

Denton settled for hanging his jacket on the back of a steel chair. But he wiped moss from the chair first.

‘Well, add to the fact I essentially saved your life in the OpCenter—and it wouldn’t be the first time—McLoughlin was, as you might have noticed, desperate,’ he said. The thought seemed to bring a glow to his face. ‘For all her wiles and calculation, she didn’t understand the scope.’

‘She had some ambitious plans,’ Sophia said. ‘I’ll give her that.’

Denton’s hands knotted into fists. Sophia noticed that. He relaxed them, breathing deeply through his nose.

‘She had pieces,’ he said. ‘One piece. Almost, anyway. Even that slipped through her fingers.’

‘What are you doing here?’ Sophia said, eyeing off the equipment on the moss table.

Denton licked his lips. ‘Do you recall the code McLoughlin was so desperate to extract from you? The one you didn’t even have.’

The one she’d just been discussing with DC. Owen Freeman had entrusted her with it instead of him. She’d memorized the code for the chromosomal location of the Phoenix virus. In her own DNA, it seemed.

‘That’s really quite amazing,’ Denton said.

He turned on his heel and plucked a thick permanent marker from the clutter of equipment. Wiping the seat of his chair clean again, he started to write on the surface.

‘It just … popped in there,’ Denton said, smiling. ‘Like a giant image.’

She watched him write.

X Q 1 2

He shook his head. ‘My God, can you imagine what all three Phoenix viruses will be like?’

Sophia realized what he was writing. His hand trembled with excitement.

X Q 1 2 X P 3 1 2

‘Was there a dot in there somewhere?’ Denton seemed to gaze through her. ‘Right, yes.’

He plunged the marker onto the table, putting a dot between the number
1
and the number
2
.

Denton knew the code.

He knew the chromosomal location of the Phoenix virus in her DNA.

How did he know?

Denton turned to the others in the room, ignoring Czarina. They appeared to be his personal traveling Phoenix virus development team.

‘This, ladies and gentlemen, is your chromosomal location.’

Denton reached into his own pocket and grasped a small hard container, the same type of container she kept her escape and evasion items inside. Only Denton’s was for keeping several plastic vials. Each filled with blood.

She realized it was her blood. Samples from the Fifth Column, taken long ago.

What had she done?

Denton finally had what Dr Cecilia McLoughlin could not acquire. He had her blood and he had the Phoenix virus in her blood. She’d just walked right in and handed it to him.

He’d already injected one of the Phoenix viruses, and now he had the second. She just hoped he hadn’t caught Damien and Jay.

The gift of tongue; to hear the words unspoken.

Denton had read the code right out of her mind. All he had to do was make her think of it and then pinch the image from her mind. All because of a goddamned electrical signal firing in her brain. Until today she hadn’t even known something or someone could receive that signal.

‘I’ve been waiting a long time for this,’ Denton said. ‘A long time.’

He handed one of the vials to his team so they could begin.

She was too late.

‘I honestly don’t have the time to interrogate—well, torture—you,’ Denton said. ‘Which is really quite wonderful because that would take an awful long time on someone as damaged as yourself. Now we can synthesize the virus anew. Prepare a vector and give it a spin.’

If you’re out there, DC, now might be a good time.

Sophia watched Denton admire the vial in his hands. His team had finished synthesizing the virus or whatever it was they did to help Denton strip the Phoenix from her DNA. Something she scarcely knew she had until today.

Denton attached the needle and extended his arm.

‘Colonel, do you want a test subject first?’ Czarina said in a low tone.

‘I’ll do just fine,’ he said. He pierced the basilic vein that bulged from the inside of his elbow and pushed the plunger.

‘Are we waiting for your third virus to arrive?’ Sophia said.

‘Patience,’ he said, ‘is not a virtue. But it will come, soon.’ He licked his lips. ‘I don’t suppose there’s anyone else helping you? You used to have a few buddies. Nasira?’

Sophia tried not to think of her. Or her location. What she was doing.

Denton turned to Czarina, who was still holding the electroshock pistol. ‘Have the Blue Berets sweep the dining concourse in Grand Central,’ he said. ‘They should find Nasira. And a … friend of hers. Dyed red hair.’

Sophia felt her stomach tighten. She tried not to think of Nasira and focused on Denton. Focused on Czarina. Any escape or sabotage plans that floated in her head, she had to push away. If Denton could snatch fragments of her thoughts then anything was fair game.

‘There’s a little more to it than just
fragments
,’ Denton said. He snapped his fingers. ‘Tyler, how does it work? Tell her what you told me this afternoon.’

One of the scientists, plain-clothed like the others, froze in position, blinking.

‘Oh, well, a significant portion of our DNA are actually viruses. The virus DNA is absorbed—’

Denton shook his head. ‘Just get to the Phoenix virus, the mislabeled sample we found in this base that I injected an hour ago. The
Scryer
.’

‘Ah yes, that Phoenix virus rapidly integrated with your DNA and began coding proteins that release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine,’ Tyler said. ‘It activated the parasympathetic element of your autonomic nervous system. This is called
being in a state of cholinergia
. Which you’re experiencing at this moment, Colonel.’

Denton drew a circle in the air with one finger. ‘And after that?’

‘Well, from the preliminary tests we ran on your blood work and brain activity, it appears to be altering your brain function. We cannot determine gene expression without—’

Denton held up a hand. ‘Without using a breath mint,’ he said. ‘I can smell the garlic from here and it’s quite disgusting.’ He turned from Tyler to Sophia. ‘So the upshot of it is I can remotely read electrical signals from your brain and interpret them.’ Like tuning a radio. All I have to do is adjust the dial and listen.
’ He smiled, his gaze drifting from Sophia. 
‘Doors open that I didn
’
t know existed. I
’m hooked into a stream of information no one else can access.
’ He closed his eyes for a moment. 
‘I feel connected, alive.
’

Denton placed the empty syringe on the moss-coated table. ‘And now I’ll have another virus to add to my collection.’ He opened and closed his fist, then dabbed some blood from his elbow. He rubbed it between two fingers, deep in thought. ‘Sorry love, but you can’t read my thoughts,’ Denton said. Then he paused, fingers apart. ‘But you can smell them.’

Sophia didn’t say anything.

He nodded, intrigued. ‘You’re picking up on pheromones, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘Clever girl. Finally, achievement unlocked.’ He approached her. ‘How? By accident? Naturally? Some sort of deprogramming glitch?’

Sophia honestly didn’t know how it happened, but it had started at the festival that evening.

‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Maybe it was the tracking marker you removed recently. We were following you, but I didn’t want to collect on that just yet. Tried it this week and noticed you were off the grid.’ He smiled. ‘Just when I needed you too.’

She watched him unroll his sleeve. ‘You wanted me here?’

He shrugged. ‘It was really a matter of who or what arrived first. The meteorite from the museum or yourself. I could take either.’

‘That meteorite has the same—’

‘Phoenix virus as you do,’ he said. ‘Save your energy, I can finish your sentences for you now.’

‘I wouldn’t want to steal your fun,’ she said.

‘No,’ he said. ‘No, I’m having a wonderful time. Your boys needn’t run so recklessly with that rock of theirs. Considering I don’t need it anymore.’

‘Then why are you pursuing it?’ she said.

‘For my collection,’ he said. ‘Nothing against your blood, but I prefer something a little more solid.’ He inhaled sharply, then drummed his fingers on the empty syringe. ‘Tell me, what do you
smell
on me?’

‘It’s not a smell,’ she said. ‘Well, your deodorant wore off.’

‘Well, whatever you call it.’ He tapped his nose. ‘It’s collected
here
and processed in your brain so let’s not get pedantic. Unless it’s me doing it, in which case it’s acceptable.’

Sophia swallowed. ‘Desperation.’

Denton’s hand hit the table, hard, dislodging moss. ‘If there is one thing I am not, it is desperate. Not anymore, at least.’

He held up two fingers and at first Sophia thought he was giving her the peace sign.

‘Two Phoenix viruses down, one to go,’ he said. ‘Oh, but I can see myself in your mind.’ He leaned toward her, entranced. ‘Strength. Resolution. It’s—’

‘Cold,’ she said. ‘There’s a void.’

‘There is no void,’ he said in a low voice.

She could smell his breath. ‘There is,’ she said. ‘I can feel it. No one else has it.’

‘The word you’re looking for is evolution,’ he said, drawing the pistol from his holster.

Sophia stared down the barrel of his Heckler & Koch USP pistol.

‘And thank you, by the way,’ he said. ‘It’s been fun.’

A deep groan echoed from the depths of the OSS base. It wasn’t a human groan, but a metallic one. Something exploded below them. They all looked sharply down through the grated metal floor. A surge of foaming water burst through the walls and filled the base below them.

Denton turned to his team. ‘Pack it up!’ he yelled. ‘Get everything back to the surface.’

Something slammed across Denton’s pistol, knocking it from his grasp. Sophia identified the shiny blur.

DC’s sword.

It hit the metal floor with a high-pitched clang. The pistol skittered across the floor. DC lifted his sword and cut horizontally. Denton reeled back, across the moss table. The sword caught the wire attached to Sophia’s neck, tearing the electroshock pistol from Czarina’s hands. Denton’s team hustled quickly through the exit on Sophia’s left, across the spindly catwalk that connected to the outer ring of the OSS base.

Czarina drew her pistol and took aim at DC.

Water exploded into the room—spraying shattered glass across the table, covering Denton. He slid off the table, landed beside it, covered in clumps of moss. Sophia shut her eyes as the water and moss washed over her. She stood up—Day of the Dead makeup stinging her eyes—and thrust her plasticuffed wrists down hard across her midsection. The force of the impact snapped the bindings.

Czarina’s pistol washed between her knees. She went to grab it but her fingers were still numb from breaking the plasticuffs: it slipped away, carried by the water. She turned to chase but lost sight of it immediately. Water surged around her hips and poured through the only place it could—the exit on her left. Denton’s team made it across the catwalk, the last of the scientists slipping but regaining his footing. They made it out.

DC cut the air with his sword. Czarina weaved to avoid the blade. Sophia got to her feet and moved around DC, avoiding his sword. She could see Denton doing the same, edging for the exit.

She yelled to DC. ‘Stop Denton!’

DC rolled across the table—sword held to one side. He came up and lashed at Denton. It would have been a quick decapitation, except Denton knew it was coming. Denton kicked under the table, knocking DC off balance. Sophia moved for Czarina but a hard surge of water pinned them both to the wall.

Czarina reached for a knife and went in for a backhanded stab. Sophia smashed her elbow into Czarina’s forearm. She took the electrode wires still attached to her neck and wrapped them around Czarina’s arm, around her neck—then tore the barbs from her neck.

Blood, diluted ruby red with water, washed down her arm. She kicked Czarina hard in the midsection, sending her sideways along the wall—out the exit and sprawling across the spindly catwalk. More water rushed through and knocked Czarina off the catwalk.

Sophia dived for her, tried to grab her hand. She missed. Czarina dangled under the catwalk from one hand. Sophia checked over her shoulder. Denton was behind her. He turned as DC closed on him, sword in both hands. Sophia scrambled farther onto the catwalk. She rolled to her feet and swiveled, facing them.

Denton was unarmed, trapped between DC and herself.

DC thrust his sword forward. Denton sidestepped the blade, then ducked the next attack. DC moved closer, slicing Denton from every angle. The frenzied movements of the blade made it difficult for Sophia to get any closer and help subdue Denton, who seemed able to evade every strike. He advanced on DC, tearing the sword from his grasp and almost cutting his head off.

DC rolled back into the room.

Denton brought the sword toward her. Sophia ducked under the handrail. She swung between the handrail supports. Denton struck the next section of handrail. It buckled under the force of the strike and knocked Sophia off the catwalk completely.

Water rushed beneath her. Her fingers found purchase and she hung in the path of the foaming water. She shut her eyes against the blast, pulling herself up to see properly. There was salt in the water and it made her eyes sting. She was hanging under the catwalk, not much further along from where Czarina had hung.

She tried to look through the crashing water around her but couldn’t see the operative anywhere. Her eyes burned. She blinked, wiped her face across her arm to get the salt out. All that came off was a smear of her Day of the Dead makeup.

Above her, Denton and DC struggled across the catwalk. She could hear the clang of the sword striking metal. The catwalk buckled slightly and dropped a few inches. It wasn’t in the best shape and banging it around with the sword certainly wasn’t helping.

She lifted herself up until the top of her head pressed against the grille. The water pushed on her, eroding her grip. Above her, the battle shifted farther along the walkway, away from the room. She let go with one hand and allowed the water to force her back, then reached up to grab the edge of the catwalk. It wasn’t much of a grip but her other hand was slipping.

She grabbed the lip of the catwalk with both hands. She was waist-deep in fast-moving water. The catwalk shivered a few inches lower.

Sophia grabbed one of the handrail supports and held. Every muscle in her arms and shoulders burned in protest. She pulled herself up to the handrail, grabbed it with both hands and hauled herself onto the catwalk. She could see Denton forcing DC into retreat. She could also see a Blue Beret at the far end, taking up a position in the next room to fire on DC.

‘Behind you!’ she yelled above the roaring water.

DC dropped to one knee and kicked behind him. His boot caught the Blue Beret’s kneepad and knocked him onto his face. DC grappled for the carbine. It bounced off the handrail and disappeared into the water. The Blue Beret drew his pistol. DC’s hands closed over it. Their legs and arms entangled as they fought for control over the pistol. DC wrenched it from the Blue Beret, breaking the soldier’s finger through the trigger guard, and aimed at Denton—who batted the pistol off the catwalk with his sword.

Sophia looked for anything she could use. She still had her ruck on, so she searched for her spare Gerber knife, only to remember she’d given it to Aviary as a present. Denton swung at DC again, but DC rolled over the Blue Beret. The sword struck the Blue Beret in his sternum, fracturing the boron carbide plate and continuing part way into the soldier’s chest.

Sophia moved quickly for Denton. He knew she was coming and freed the sword from the Blue Beret’s armor by pressing his boot onto the soldier’s chest. He turned and carried the sword over his head. Sophia weaved to one side, hitting the handrail. It came free and she teetered on the edge. The sword struck the middle of the catwalk behind him.

She did the only thing she could do—threw herself backward onto the pinned sword. She landed on it before Denton could draw it free, protected by her ruck, and kicked him in his midsection. He lost his grip on the sword and landed on top of the critically wounded Blue Beret, almost rolling off the catwalk and into the water.

Sophia moved off the sword, her ruck still intact. She drew the sword as she moved and came to one knee. DC was nowhere to be seen. It was just her and Denton now.

She slashed left to right, just over the handrails. Denton dropped back on the Blue Beret to avoid the blade. She slashed again, right to left. This time Denton dived forward, over the Blue Beret. The blade passed over his head.

Sophia retreated and slashed downward, aiming for the back of his head. He rolled to one side. The blade missed. She kept her strikes light and controlled, careful not to embed the blade in the degrading catwalk. Denton’s roll knocked an upright off the walk completely and the entire handrail on that side fell away.

More room for her to manipulate the sword—she slashed across from her shoulder. Denton rolled the other way, leaped back to his feet. She moved in, worked the blade from side to side. The blade struck the left handrail and it peeled off, dangling from the end of the catwalk.

Denton came so close that she thought he might get around the blade. She retreated quickly. His movements were precisely timed and responsive. She kept slashing, thrusting—but Denton evaded every strike as though he knew it was coming before it happened.

He smiled and retreated a step, hands comfortably resting at his sides. He knew he was untouchable and there was nothing she could do about it. She watched him turn and walk away, toward the end of the catwalk.