Page 88 of Heart of Danger
He stood still for a breath, two. Nick and Jon stood still as statues too. For all the combat they’d seen, for all the deaths in battle they’d watched, there was something so inherently evil in this scene they were shocked. As if touched by Satan’s hand.
Catherine was the first to move. Her hands were swift and sure as she gently, quickly started unhooking the men from the machinery. She was whispering under her breath and after a moment, Mac realized she was running down a check list, much as he and his men checked gear just before going into battle.
Finally the men were unhooked, lying there unmoving, like meat on a butcher’s marble slab, barely breathing. Catherine looked at them in pity.
“Wrap them in sheets, Mac. I’m going to do something.”
All three of them nodded, and started wrapping the sheets around their fallen comrades’ naked torsos. They had barely finished and were hoisting them up when another alarm sounded, high-pitched, even more urgent than the other one.”
Catherine ran back into the room.”
“What’s that alarm?” Mac asked.
“I pulled the fire alarm, and that’s the evacuation signal. All external doors are now open. Let’s go.”
When the driverpulled up at Entrance D, Lee realized he needed a break. It wouldn’t take him more than ten minutes to get to the huge autopsy suite. He would pass by the recreation room. At this time of night, it would be empty.
Millon treated its employees well. There was an espresso machine which made divine coffee, there were trays of loose-leaf Chinese teas, a large selection of herbal infusions.
The chairs were comfortable and the staff kept the place very neat and clean. All in all, Lee thought, he deserved a nice cup of tea. Review his notes while he was at it, and perhaps even meditate. He was early.
He was looking forward to this, in every sense. Patient Nine and his confrères had proved to be most meddlesome. All in all, it was going to be a pleasure harvesting Nine and the others. Though he was a scientist and didn’t believe in something as arbitrary as luck, he did feel that the program would regain its natural rhythm once these men were out of the way and he could test on more ordinary patients.
Nine and his men were outliers, in every sense of the word.
He got out of the car and signaled the driver to pull away, watching the red back lights disappear from view.
Lee knew the grounds were patrolled by security agents but for the moment, it was as if he were alone in the entire facility. In the state of California, even.
The air was bitterly cold but clean and refreshing. The stars overhead bright and remote. It was a beautiful night, a night to mark a new beginning.
They were close. Lee could feel it. Once his outliers were gone, he was certain he could start bringing the program to a successful conclusion. Another six months testing—or rather having that moron Flynn test the program—and he’d be ready.
Why, this time next year he could be in Beijing, undersecretary to the Minister of Science. Or perhaps to the Minister of Defense. An honored member of the high councils of his country, a man who had been instrumental in shaping his country’s future. A man who had been true to his country through a long, lonely and bitter exile.
Ah, but the taste of triumph would be all the sweeter for having waited. He was a young man still, not even forty yet. He’d handed over the cancer vaccine. Members of the Politburo were given the finest medical care the world could offer.
He could live to be a vigorous eighty-year old, even ninety-year old. Another forty, fifty years of power at the pinnacle of the world’s most powerful country to look forward to.
He drew in a deep breath and glanced west. He was inland, of course. But 30 miles would take him to the Pacific. He could almost feel his homeland calling to him across the wide body of water. The greatest civilization mankind had ever known, triumphant once more.
Thanks to him, Charles Lee.
He smiled and reached for his security pass, frowning. Odd, it wasn’t in his front pants pocket, as it usually was. It wasn’t in any pocket at all, he found as he rummaged. Nor in his briefcase.
The stress was getting to him and he was very glad the major source of his stress—besides that moron Flynn—was going to be eliminated tonight. He had never forgotten an important document in his life and here he’d forgotten or misplaced his security pass.
Well, there was a go-around.
The security staff had prepared for just such a contingency. He and ten others also had a special code assigned them in case they didn’t have their pass or the pass was chipped and had to be replaced. He entered in the code.
In his head, he was already in the recreation room, calmly preparing his tea, settling his troubled spirit, so at first he didn’t understand what was happening.
The door didn’t open. Lee punched in the code again and the fire siren sounded from the outside loudspeakers, signaling evacuation, and the door opened. He knew why the door hadn’t opened at first, why the alarm was sounding and who had pulled it. The system had already clocked him in and it hadn’t clocked him out. He was being read as an intruder. Someone else had clocked in using his security pass. And he had a good idea who.
The same person who called in the fire alarm.
Catherine Young.
