Toxic (35 page)

Finally, he told himself, the first phase of his plan was going well. He flew over the inhuman tide that continued to grow around the base. He made sure to never let his precious passenger fall during the trajectory. Getting her out of the manufacturing chain had revealed itself to be a feat, and would be hard to repeat without arousing suspicion.

The emissary stopped at the top of a cylinder-shaped building, one of the tallest ones in the city. He had spotted it the day before during a recon mission. These vertical constructions had one advantage: to get away, you had to go down. Consequently, it would be enough to block the accesses that led to the lower levels. The elevators hadn’t worked for years.

He laid the woman down on the dusty floor of the top level. She would still sleep for several more hours. While waiting, he could start to prepare her future apartment. Jave removed a Trystel saw from the trunk that he had left during the preparations for his experiment. He got started cutting the walls and stairs with the ease of a gardener cutting a hedge. He cut at the concrete supports of the stairs, which crushed down several levels. A good part of the furniture tumbled down through the open windows and crashed onto the square. He placed a saw in one corner, napkins on a long table as well as jerry cans filled with water. Then, he pushed a box of food into the middle of the room and piled blankets just beside it. Next, he took care of the floor below, which went through the same transformation, excluding the comfort elements and food. The future tenant wouldn’t hold it against him.

He stopped and did one last check. Everything was in place. The experiment could start. He was in a hurry. He took out the precious vial that he had in his pocket.

A chrome-colored briefcase levitated towards him. With a quick gesture of his hand, the cover disappeared, revealing a sort of medical-use pistol. The vial was not adapted to be placed directly in the receptacle. He transferred the contents, which he divided into several doses. He placed the first vial in the slot, armed the pistol and walked towards the human.

She was still asleep. Her chest rose at regular intervals. He placed the hole of the barrel on her supple skin. The laser needle delivered the transparent liquid below her skin.

Administering the product to the creature on the stage below him revealed itself to be more complicated. Around the base, the hordes were so concentrated that you could call them a mega-horde. All of these tattered bodies seemed to form one collective body, a sort of monstrous solid gathering where primary movements caused turmoil and waves that moved at diverse speeds and amplitudes. Jave considered this an interesting evolution in the chaos.

He had scooped up a male who lagged behind, isolated, on a path, by attracting him with a morsel of raw meat placed inside a cage equipped with agrav repulsors. That part had been easy.

The Lynian observed the individual, who threw himself against the walls of his new prison. His hands bloody, he tried to break a window, which Jave had taken care to reinforce with a resin applied to the glass surfaces of the two floors. Jave entered the den armed with the laser syringe. Immediately, the creature rushed towards him in a broken walk. The wheezing noises and grunts increased, accompanying the frenzy of disorganized movements. The emissary didn’t move. He was waiting for it to get to the right distance away. At that precise moment, he stepped aside and placed his hand on the base of the neck of the infected creature, who leaned forward. His jaws clicked in the open and his fingers tried to scratch him or to grab a portion of his flesh. Exactly when he fell, he put the syringe to his back and pressed the trigger, which caused a brief spark. The creature didn’t react to the injection. It continued to fight, maintained on the floor by the Lynian, who started once again using another test pistol. His task accomplished, he left the room.

The only thing left to do was wait.

B
efore committing to his second family, Hector had already been a member of a gang that hung out around the port of Buenaventura, an Ali Baba cavern the size of several football fields for young unemployed people from poor neighborhoods. The merchandise was piled up on the piers and parking lots. All you needed was a bit of cunning and a bit of courage to avoid the guards and the intentionally starved dogs to take part in lucrative expeditions accompanied with a good shot of adrenaline.

The gang had only accepted one girl: Marisol Velasquez. Her almond eyes were teeming with malice and her gazelle legs, in addition to pinning her companions down during the race, didn’t leave anybody reactionless.

When he regained consciousness, Marisol’s features were superimposed on the tired features of the singer. The two women had the same eyes, he realized. As for her round thighs, her fine calves... Pain chased away his memories when he tried to get up.

“Softly,” Alva advised him.

“
Madre de Dios, me duele...
”

“Yeah, I can imagine. You should stay lying down.”

He felt the improvised bandage which covered his chest and encircled his burning shoulder. The diva called Elaine, who arrived immediately.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood. We have to get you to a hospital.”

The thought scared him.

“
Qué dice la chica...
”

“Shh. Be quiet and try not to mumble. I need surgical instruments to get the bullet out. It was very difficult to stop the bleeding, so if you want to live, keep still. ¿
Comprendes?
”

Hector nodded his head painfully. The cabin was turning around his bed. He closed his eyes.

“He’s going to live, right?” he heard vaguely.

Marisol’s voice wasn’t that of his memories. The nurse’s response escaped him.

“
Marisol...
” he murmured.

Throughout her career, Elaine had seen a lot of victims die. She had also been present for miracles, some of which overcame even the worst odds. Survival wasn’t just a thing of statistics, she had learned, through experience and time. Patients’ will counted for double, or even triple. Did the Colombian want to remain in that hell?

“We’ll try our best,” she declared, putting a hand on Alva’s shoulder. “We’ll get there soon.”

The issue of where to go had come up very quickly, given the urgency. Elaine had worked in some of the establishments in the region. She had proposed Saint Mary Medical Center, in West Palm Beach. She was acquainted with that hospital, which wasn’t far away. Masters, who had taken the captain’s chair, had charted a course to the south. On the other hand, he had avoided taking the ocean detour to save time, he explained. Elaine agreed. Hector’s wound needed to be treated as soon as possible. So, they followed the canal that opened up at the north of an almost closed bay. The fiord extended until Boyton Beach.

Once they were there, the situation got more complicated. The trafficker’s worrisome state meant that they needed a means of transport and ideally, an ambulance.

Bruce, sitting on the railing, smiled at her. “Do you think we’ll find one down there?”

“I’m going to need help during the operation. I’ll need a stretcher and a vehicle because as I remember it, the hospital is a kilometer away at best. Getting there on foot isn’t a viable option.”

“Yeah, and not to mention that we risk running into L-Ds.”

The biologist didn’t show much enthusiasm when it came to the expedition. She didn’t hold it against him, but discovered something else deep in his eyes.

“You prefer that we let him die, and that we get back on our way, to the next stop?”

“I didn’t say that...”

“Hector isn’t the most cooperative of us or the nicest. I’m the first to agree with that. But he’s a survivor, a trafficker with useful qualities. And may I remind you that he saved our life.”

“I know that.”

“Perfect, that puts an end to this discussion.”

Masters had listened to the conversation without intervening. Elaine walked down inside and came back out with a closet door that she had unhinged.

“Let’s get to work. I need a stretcher,” she yelled.

They docked at the marina in Ribowich. Bordered by a square of pontoons, it had a dozen places to dock. While Bruce helped Elaine bring Hector out onto the deck, the colonel maneuvered to park the semi-sub between a half-sunken yacht and a sailboat whose broken mast was lying on the pier. Once the boat was tied up, the soldier jumped onto the ground and got started right away at looking for a vehicle. The nurse got down on her knees beside the Colombian, who was lying on the improvised stretcher, to sponge his burning forehead. He opened his eyes. Elaine felt his cold hands on her skin.

“
Chica
...”

“Save your strength; try not to talk.”

“
Chica... ¿Dónde está Marisol?
”

Elaine furrowed her eyebrows. Sometimes, a feverish episode was accompanied by hallucinations or memory problems. Alva leaned down in front of her and grabbed Hector’s hand.

“
Marisol...
”

“Shhhh,” she whispered to him.

Bruce stiffened up, attracted by the noise of a motor.

“He got one, quick!”

So much the better
, Elaine thought. The Colombian’s state was getting worse. She needed to stabilize him as fast as possible. She prepared him with the straps she had found in a cupboard. Masters put the vehicle into reverse on the dock. He got out of the car, which was a flower delivery van.

“I tried a bunch of them, but this was the only one that started.”

“Perfect,” the nurse shouted. “Come help us move him.”

Getting the Colombian into the van revealed itself to be perilous. The improvised stretcher, which had no hand holds, was hard to move around, and they also had to move it over the railing. After never-ending minutes of efforts, they managed to slide Hector through the rear door. Masters closed it once again.

“What do we do with Dew and Alison?”

“We don’t have a choice. I need you three and we can’t bring them.”

“You’re sure?”

“The girl got by with her infected dad. She can take care of the situation no problem. We’ll only be gone for a few hours.”

She took the girl aside. “Listen to me closely. You stay on board with Dewei. I’m going to go cure Hector and take the bullet out of his shoulder. To do that operation, I’ll need assistants. Your dad was a doctor; you understand, right?”

Alison nodded. “But you’re going to come back?”

“Yes, as soon as I get the bullet out. I promise.”

She hugged the girl to her for a few seconds and then went up to Dew, who was observing the agitation with an attitude midway between caution and indifference. She slipped a few words into his ear.

“Don’t leave the boat for any reason, and watch over Alison. I’m counting on you.”

She looked him square in his small, shady eyes and then went back to the others.

As soon as she sat down in the passenger seat, Masters started with a jolt. The vehicle came hurtling through the parking lot, which it crossed until the exit before taking a right on Dixie Avenue headed north. The road, free of the rusted shells of cars that they often saw, allowed them to go along quickly. Four hundred meters later, the colonel turned to the left and took Forty Fifth following Elaine’s directions. The hospital was one kilometer further down that same road. All of a sudden, Masters slammed on the brakes mid-block. Bruce and Alva, who were in the back, slid their heads between the two seats.

“What’s happening?”

Masters stretched his arm out in front of him.

“Oh shit,” Alva exclaimed.

Gangly shadows were blocking their way. Some of them were already turning towards the van, which stayed still in the middle of the road.

“There’s another way,” Elaine confirmed. “Take Federal and then Forty Ninth.”

The soldier obeyed. After this detour, the white buildings appeared, to the great relief of the nurse, her hand gripping the armrest of the car door. They crossed Greenwood Avenue in a flash and then entered the hospital’s parking lot. Masters continued straight and then turned left, stopping before the main entrance.

Elaine went inside immediately. There, she discovered a nameless chaos: benches and counters were overturned, vending machines were broken and the floor was covered with debris. The fetid smell made her heart jump. Crossing the threshold in front of Masters and Bruce who were carrying the stretcher, Alva plugged her nose.

“Jesus Christ it stinks!”

“It’s as if we were inside a dead body,” the biologist added.

“Exactly. It’s possible that there are L-Ds in the building. Each of you has to remain on your guard and nobody should separate from the group,” the colonel declared with an anxious voice.

There were too many corners in the darkness. Danger could come at any moment. The soldier let his unease be known to his companions, who froze for a few seconds at every little noise.

“A stretcher!” Elaine exclaimed, pointing to the end of the room.

She hurried towards her finding.

“We’re going to lay Hector down on it, so that it’s easier to transport him. He’ll be more stable.”