Swords Of Exodus Part 10

VALENTINE.

North Gap, Montana Dr. Silvers stared at me, wide-eyed, as the alarm sounded. Guards would be here in seconds and this time they'd probably kill me. I didn't have much time, but I didn't need much time.

I lunged toward her. She gasped and made for her desk, yanking open a drawer. A gun was in her hand. I was on top of her before she could bring it to bear. I brought the baton down, smas.h.i.+ng her wrist. The pistol clattered to the floor as the doctor shrieked in pain. I scrambled over the desk, powered by desperation and a euphoric surge of adrenaline, and came down on the other side. My free hand clamped around Dr. Silvers' throat, and I shoved her back against the wall. I dropped the baton, wrapped my other hand around her neck, and squeezed.

The normally ice-cold scientist writhed and squirmed as color flushed her pale face. She tried to scratch at me with her uninjured hand, but it did her no good. A puddle formed at her feet as her bladder let go. Her eyes began to roll back in her head. Darkness clouded my vision. A vicious grin split my face as I throttled this woman, a dark joy that I'd never felt. I was excited to watch her die.

I hesitated. My grip relaxed a little. Something was holding me back. I thought of Sarah, the last woman I'd seen die. Was that it? I tried to focus, to finish Silvers, but I just couldn't. The adrenaline rush receded. My hands hurt from choking her. The alarm was still screaming, but no one had come yet.

I let go of Dr. Silvers. Gasping and coughing, she slumped to the floor. I stepped back. My hands were shaking. My knees were weak. I felt dizzy and sick. I sat on her desk to avoid falling over.

Then the lights went out, shrouding us in complete darkness. Thankfully that silenced that annoying alarm. Dr. Silvers was too busy coughing to speak. The emergency lights kicked on a moment later, dimly illuminating the room with an eerie glow.

"M . . . Michael," the doctor managed. She always used my first name when she was trying to get into my head. It wasn't going to work this time. "Listen to me. You're not yourself. It's the drugs." She coughed again.

I cast a dark shadow across her face as I stood back up. "What did you do to me?"

"What did I do?" she wheezed. "My G.o.d, look at you! You escaped! You killed Neville without even blinking! I a.s.sume you killed Reilly as well?"

Why is she so excited about this? "I did."

She grasped her broken arm, obviously in pain, but she'd regained some composure. "Listen to me. You've been subjected to several experimental drugs as part of the procedure. They're still in your system. The rage, the aggression, the anger . . . you're having a reaction. You have to let me sedate you. I can help you, Michael. If you don't let me help you you'll die."

Shouts echoed throughout the building. Somebody started laughing. It took me a moment to realize it was me. They were coming and I didn't know why they hadn't gotten here already. Something else was going on. I had to make a decision before I ran out of time and squandered the only chance I was going to get.

Without taking my eyes off of Dr. Silvers, I reached down and found her pistol, a compact Glock. I racked the slide. No unfired cartridge was ejected, meaning she hadn't had a round chambered. If she'd gotten the gun on me before I broke her arm it wouldn't have done her any good. It figured, she didn't allow the guards to have guns down here but she had no problem violating her own rules. The little pistol had luminescent night sights, three green dots glowed above the slide. The dots made me think of fireflies, which told me I was still very high.

"Get up," I told her.

"Michael, please," she pleaded. "You can't-"

I cut her off. "Get up or I'll kill you where you sit." The Calm was returning. The rage subsided as my heart rate steadied. I was in control again.

Dr. Silvers still hesitated. I didn't. Reaching downward, I grabbed her by the collar of her white lab coat. She cried out as I yanked her to her feet. I pushed her ahead of me and wrapped my right arm around her neck. I leveled the Glock over her left shoulder and pushed her forward.

"Shut your mouth and walk."

LORENZO.

The main fuse-box killed the power and that annoying siren, but then dim emergency lights had kicked in. I didn't have time to figure out how to shut those off so it would have to do. Most of the exterior lights were on another circuit and stayed on, but the relative darkness inside the building would help me. Last I'd seen on the monitors, several guards had come from the barracks and were standing outside the main building, pounding on the door. I had to get downstairs before Spanner or somebody else let them in.

Just then, the courtyard was illuminated with headlights as a beat-up station wagon came tearing up to the chain link fence. It did a tight one-eighty turn, skidding in the snow, and slid to a stop. Ling, Shen, and Antoine rolled out of the vehicle and immediately opened fire on the Majestic guards stuck outside. Perfect timing.

I made my way down the stairs, carbine shouldered, carefully checking the corners. Nothing. The stairwell was dark, illuminated only by one weak red light. I could hear shouts below me. I knew from the cameras there were more guards in the building. Carefully I leaned around the edge, trying to cover every possible angle, by myself. Stairwells are dangerous as h.e.l.l to clear. A shadow moved below and I lunged back.

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM.

I struck the wall hard, bullets whizzing through the s.p.a.ce I'd been standing in. Puffs of dust and fragments kicked up as they struck the wall. I couldn't let him pin me down so I stuck the M4 over the side and fired several wild rounds at where the flashes had come from. The noise of the short-barreled carbine was brutal in the enclosed concrete s.p.a.ce. Great. More hearing damage.

Then there was light below as someone opened the door to the second floor. I fired again as his shadow moved through and was rewarded with a startled cry. The door slammed shut behind, plunging me again into darkness.

I took the stairs two at a time, flying blind, and only hesitated a split second before jerking open the door to the second floor. Light flooded past, and there was blood splatter on the door. I ducked back as the holes appeared in the metal door, .40 caliber bullets flying through. He kept shooting, and I could hear the bullets impacting the wall behind my back. More beams of light shot into the darkness as they poked more holes in the door.

Then it was quiet, save for the m.u.f.fled echoes of gunfire outside. It sounded like Ling was in a full-on gun battle with the rest of North Gap's personnel.

Doorways are fatal funnels. You don't ever want to get stuck in a doorway. There wasn't enough light in the stairwell for him to see my shadow, so I risked a peek through the crack, and caught a glimpse of a man running down the hall. I jerked the door open, and went through fast, crouched low, moving as swiftly as I could, but he was gone.

I was on the office level, lit only by emergency lights. Where are they? There was a trail of blood across the floor, leading into an open doorway. I approached silently. I could hear them speaking over the ringing in my ears and the blood thundering in my head.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man." He sounded like he was in a lot of pain, and it wasn't Spanner. "He shot me. What's going on?"

"I don't know! I don't know!" That was Spanner. "No one is answering on the radio. Who's shooting outside? We're under attack!"

WHUMP!.

A concussion rang out from outside. Ling was using hand grenades. The lady wasn't messing around.

"Holy s.h.i.+t!" the injured guard said. "We're gonna die! Oh my G.o.d, we're gonna die!"

"Shut up and watch the door, you idiot!"

No hesitation. I came around the corner and put two rounds into the wounded guard's back, s.h.i.+fted my sight picture, and put two rounds into Greg's chest. They went right down. I turned back into the darkness. "Ling, what's your status?"

Back in the stairwell, the radio crackled to life. It was Ling. "There are a lot of them out here. We had to retreat to cover. They got the door open. At least five more personnel entered the building, all armed, and they have a dog. The rest are coming after us. We may not be able to a.s.sist you right away."

"On it," I acknowledged. My plan would've been working perfectly had that a.s.shole not decided to escape.

VALENTINE.

One floor above us was the ground level. I forced Dr. Silvers up both flights of stairs, using her as a human s.h.i.+eld. There was a landing here, a small room with two doors. One led to the rear courtyard. The other led to the main level, where everything else was. On a row of hooks on the wall hung several bulky winter coats. Next to the door was a well-used metal snow shovel. Gunfire had been echoing throughout the building and from outside. I was pretty sure I'd heard a detonation, too, like a grenade or something. I didn't know what the h.e.l.l was going on and I didn't want to find out.

I peered out the small, square window into the courtyard. It was surrounded by a fence topped with razor wire. It was lit by overhead lights. A small whirlwind of powdery snow blew across the open area.

"You'll never make it, you know," Dr. Silvers said. Her voice was raspy. "Where the h.e.l.l do you think you're going to go?"

I let go of her, stepped back, and leveled the Glock 27 at her face. She didn't flinch. She just clutched her broken arm and stared me down.

"I ought to kill you." My grip tightened on the little pistol. My finger made contact with the trigger.

"Then do it," she said calmly. "I'm in no position to stop you."

I really and truly did want to kill Dr. Silvers. I hated her. I didn't know what had stopped me from strangling her to death before, and I didn't know what was stopping me from shooting her in the face now. Whatever it was, I just didn't have it in me.

There was another loud noise nearby, like a door being kicked in. Now was not the time for a moral quandary. Stepping forward, I raised the gun and cracked Dr. Silvers upside the head with it. She cried out in pain. Before she could fall I shoved her backward. She tumbled down the stairs and landed in a heap on the landing below.

Without pausing, I threw on one of the heavy coats, opened the door to the courtyard, and dashed into the cold night air. Being out of shape and exhausted my dash was really more of a slow jog. The fence seemed farther away than I'd thought.

I didn't even come close to making it. Before I knew what was happening I was on the ground in the snow. Someone had tackled me from behind, slamming me down and knocking the wind out of me. I nearly lost my grip on the pistol.

Furious, I kicked and struggled. The man that had tackled me swore aloud and his grip loosened enough for me to roll over. He had a baton in his hand but couldn't bring it to bear. I twisted onto my side as he tried to reestablish his grip on me. It was Davis. His eyes went wide as he realized I had a gun. He blocked it and my first shot went into the air. He was right on top of me. The next shot was close and hot and loud, right above my face, but it hit him in the chest, which gave me time to lever the pistol up beneath his chin. I was splattered with blood and brains the instant I pulled the trigger. I kicked Davis' limp body off of me and staggered to my feet.

The door I had just come through popped open. There were black clad men inside.

Sticking the pistol outward, I popped off several shots. The guards trying to funnel through the doorway were forced back. The slide locked back empty, so I dropped the Glock in the snow, scooped up Davis' baton, and turned and ran for the fence again.

It was a strange feeling, like when you're still dreaming, but you're almost awake. It didn't seem real. I ran and ran, but the gate didn't get any closer. Darkness crept into my peripheral vision. My breathing was labored, and I could still feel my heart pounding in my ears. Then I smacked into the fence, shaking the thin layer of snow off of the top and causing it to fall on me. Confused, I dropped the baton and began to climb.

A terrible electric pain shot through me, and I lost my grip on the fence. I fell to the ground, and the pain stopped almost immediately. Looking behind me, I saw another man in black fatigues holding an air taser in his hand. One of the wires had fallen out of my back, probably because of the puffy coat I wore. I started climbing again.

Something clamped onto my right leg, and I screamed out loud as teeth broke the skin. A dog, that f.u.c.king German Shepherd, latched onto my calf. My grip gave out and I fell to the ground once again.

I found the baton. Twisting around, I struck the dog hard, smas.h.i.+ng into the side of its neck. It yelped and let go. Everything slowed down once again, except my heart, which was beating so fast it felt like it was going to explode. Dr. Silvers had been right. The drugs were doing weird things to me. I felt my lips curl back in a snarl and my fingers grasped the baton so hard it hurt. Sweat was pouring down my face, stinging my eyes. My leg was bleeding, but the pain seemed distant somehow. A red haze clouded my vision as I focused on the snarling German Shepherd. That dog. That G.o.dd.a.m.n f.u.c.king dog.

It was named Gonzo.

I don't remember anything after that.

LORENZO.

I ran for the stairs, leapt down most of them, and entered a darkened room on the first floor. Men in various states of dress, all armed, were moving through the building.

"Smoot! What's going on?"

Not knowing if my disguise had been damaged, I tried to keep my head down. "Valentine's escaping."

"We're under attack!"

No s.h.i.+t.

They ran through the break room, a small entry room, and out a back door and I followed. Gunshots echoed from outside. From the rear of the group, I couldn't see what was happening.

"I want him alive!" a woman shrieked. She had platinum blonde hair, a b.l.o.o.d.y lab coat, and was limping her way up a flight of stairs that led down into the bas.e.m.e.nt. Blood was trickling down her face and she held her right arm as if she was injured. Dr. Silvers, I presume?

Before anyone else could make it outside, more shots rang out. Bullets zipped into the doorway. That had been close. One of the men in front of me, dressed in civilian clothes and carrying a pistol, snarled in pain as a round struck him in the wrist. Now Valentine had almost shot me too. Dude was on a roll.

The gunfire let up and the guards rushed forward. A man lay dead on the ground, skull emptied. The guards and Silvers rushed forward. I hung back so I could keep everyone in sight. "Get him. Hurry." The doctor saw me. "Smoot, where the h.e.l.l have you been? Valentine is escaping!" More gunfire resonated from the other side of the building. Exodus was still in the fight.

"He dropped his gun. Sic the dog on him!"

Valentine had reached the perimeter, but the guards had converged on him. Valentine hit the fence climbing like mad, only to be pulled down by a huge dog. It dragged him through the snow by the leg. It yelped and let go as he smacked it with a stick, but it circled around for another attack. The North Gap guards cl.u.s.tered around the scene, apparently confident Valentine was out of ammunition, and happy to give the dog a minute to work.

Valentine rose, screaming like a berserker. His face was covered in blood. His clothing was ripped, a baton in one fist, and every vein and muscle bulged on his face. The dog, snarling, leapt at him.

Valentine clenched the baton in both hands, holding it horizontally. The dog's s...o...b..ring jaws clamped onto the stick, and Valentine wrenched it brutally to the side. The German Shepherd's spine snapped audibly. Its limp form slammed into Valentine, pus.h.i.+ng him back against the fence.

He tossed the dog aside and screamed for more. I had never seen a man so angry.

"Now!" One of the guards ordered. Pairs of taser barbs latched into Valentine's body. He twitched as electricity crackled through his muscles. They hit him long and hard, multiple guns sparking.

"Take him," Dr. Silvers said raggedly, walking through the snow with a limp. "Do not kill him! I'm not going to tell you idiots again!" The remaining guards swarmed forward, clubbing Valentine with their batons, sticks rising and falling rhythmically. Four men all tackled him at once, and even then they could barely contain his rage beneath their weight.

Enough of this s.h.i.+t. There were five of them left alive. They all had their backs to me. I was the only one armed with a rifle. I raised the stubby carbine and pulled the trigger. The gun roared in the cold air. I put a round into each of them, and 5.56 makes a horrible mess of people at such close range. I wheeled around and double-tapped the man who had been hit in the wrist. Then I went back and plugged each of the guards again, just to be sure.

It was suddenly very quiet. I stood there, hot carbine in my hands, bolt locked to the rear. Dr. Silvers was the only other person standing. She didn't move, she just stood there, staring at me, wide-eyed. She began to s.h.i.+ver, realizing that I was not who she thought I was. The shock of it hit her like a train.

A shape moved in the carnage. Valentine slowly rose, pus.h.i.+ng limbs off of him. Now he stood, coated in a pink mush that was half snow and half blood. He saw me, surely not understanding why one of his tormentors had murdered the others, but it didn't seem to matter to him. He looked at Dr. Silvers intently, his bloodied form heaving as he gasped for air. Valentine got up, made it a few halting steps toward her, but then he began to shake, fell to his knees, and face-planted in the snow, like a puppet with its strings cut.

Chapter 7: The Sum of Our Parts.

LORENZO.

North Gap, Montana The gray sky was slowly brightened as the sun climbed over the horizon. It was still overcast and lightly snowing, but the darkness was receding to the west.

Near as I could tell, we had killed every last one of the North Gap facility's personnel, except for Dr. Silvers. There was a chance that there were some in hiding and they'd called for help. So we needed to get the h.e.l.l out of Dodge.

But first, I found Dr. Silvers' office and ransacked it, taking everything I could get my hands on. Shen and I searched for intelligence on the Majestic organization while Ling and Antoine got Valentine secured for transport. I wasn't ever going to get a better opportunity to learn about the organization that was after my brother, and after everything I'd risked and everyone I'd killed I wasn't about to let that opportunity go to waste.

Reaper would love this. The chance to explore an actual shadow government secret interrogation facility? The kid would probably pee himself with conspiratorial glee. Looking around the bas.e.m.e.nt, I began to wonder if maybe there wasn't a lot more to Reaper's conspiracy theories than I thought. The place was full of strange machines that I couldn't identify, like some kind of science-fiction torture dungeon. One of the computers in that room had a red sticker on it that said Secret. Which meant it could probably access the secure network Greg Spanner had told me about. I snagged every electronic storage device that wasn't nailed down.

Shen had broken open a metal container with a crow bar. He called me over to see something.

"What is it?" I looked into the storage bin he'd busted the lock off of. Inside were what looked like Valentine's personal belongings from when they'd nabbed him in Virginia. Clothing, wallet, watch, keys, that sort of thing, but right on top was a large, stainless steel .44 magnum revolver. I picked the Smith & Wesson up, opened the cylinder, and inspected it. "I hate this gun." For good reason. Valentine had basically shot me three times with the G.o.dd.a.m.n thing in Zubara, once right through an arms dealer. My tinnitus was a permanent reminder of how much I hated that gun, but Shen didn't know all that, and he looked puzzled. "Never mind. Grab it all."

Ling was waiting for us on the first floor. All three of the Exodus people were dressed in Mossy Oak camouflage we'd picked up in town. Dr. Silvers was with her, zip-tied to a chair. The good doctor was b.i.t.c.hing at Ling about something when we came to the top of the stairs. Ling stared her down and said nothing until we entered the room.

"Did you find everything you were looking for?" she asked me.

"Yeah. We should go." We'd only been in here for a few minutes, but already that felt far too long.

Dr. Silvers saw her iPad in my hands, and her eyes went wide. She began to say something, but Ling jabbed her with the suppressor of her MP-9 subgun and told her to be quiet.

"It says I need a pa.s.scode to unlock this." I held up the iPad. "What is it?"

"Go to h.e.l.l?"

"Kneecap her," I said.

"Wait . . ." She hadn't even given the Exodus folks a chance to be threatening. "Seven, three, one, nine."

I tried the code and it worked. "Awesome."