Page 98 of Stars
“They worked out of Uchami, didn’t they?”
At the mention of the old village, Kilaqqi flinched. After a long moment, he nodded. “Yes,” he said. “General Sevastyanov and Lazarus worked together at Uchami to develop the virus. When the general realized what he’d unleashed and what Lazarus was capable of—” Kilaqqi turned his dark eyes toward Jack. Jack almost fell into their depths, as if he were standing on the edge of infinity. “The general had two problems he had to get rid of at the fall of the Soviet Union. An illegal weapons platform and a world-ending virus. One rocket solved both problems. He burned the body of every person they experimented on, except one. And then he brought Lazarus here to hide him forever under our watch.”
“What happened to the one? Why wasn’t he killed, too?”
Kilaqqi raised his face to the thick tree branches overhead. “The virus had a nearly complete fatality rate. Out of the hundreds of Evenki the Soviets kidnapped and experimented on, only one man ever survived. General Sevastyanov and Lazarus farmed his blood to grow the virus. As long as that man lived, there was a chance the virus could spread, even after destroying the lab and every corpse of every person they’d killed.”
“You said he wasn’t killed, though.”
“As I said, one rocket solved both of the general’s problems.”
It hit Jack all at once. The Soviet satellite, the weapons platform.
The rail gun suddenly paled next to the real weapon the Soviets had flung into orbit. “I watched him ascend to the highest heaven and disappear beyond the sun,” Kilaqqi said softly.
“Why were you given Lazarus? Why did General Sevastyanov put him under your watch?”
“Lazarus nearly destroyed my people. I was a young man forty years ago, and I watched my people disappear in the night. Tens, twenties, then hundreds of them. We were being eaten by a demon, ravaged by Agdy. Souls were flung across the worlds, lost and frightened. I began my shamanic training rounding up lost souls in the underworld and listening to their stories. To what had happened to them. Eventually, I led a raid on Uchami to rescue our people.” Kilaqqi gave Jack a ghost of a smile. “I failed. But I made contact with Igor. And when he decided Lazarus’s mission was no longer one he could support, he gave us the demon who had eaten our people.”
“And you kept him alive?”
“Death is not our way. Especially not death in service of vengeance. That only feeds Agdy and throws the worlds out of alignment.”
Jack shook his head. “But you left a dangerous man alive. And now he’sgone. Where is he?”
Kilaqqi held his stare, unblinking. “We have waited forty years for the Americans to come for Lazarus. We were only holding him for you.”
“Why would we come for him? How would we have even known about him?”
“Look closer,” Kilaqqi whispered. “And tell me what you see.”
Jack turned back to the cabin, his flashlight panning over the haphazard writings, the drawings, the flags burning, the world melting,Lazarus, Lazarus, Lazarus. Stars and galaxies and the solar system, all of it on fire. Corpses marching across a burning field. The sun swallowing the Earth.
He pointed his beam of light at one of the spiral manifestos, reading the ravings of a broken mind.So I have been betrayed, and I will thus betray, even if it takes me until the end of time. I will not rest, I will not lie down. Not as long as death is my fuel, my furnace, my future. I will always be The One who comes—
It hit him sideways.
“Fuck,” Jack whispered.
* * *
29
ISS
Tumbling in Earth’s Orbit
“You haveto evacuate the station,now.”
Over the backup radio, which bounced communications off three military satellites before routing down to Houston, Roxanne ordered them to abandon the ISS.
“Houston, Michaela’s condition is turning critical. She lost consciousness during the decompression. Her vitals are slowly moving toward Cushing’s Triad, the same as Jim displayed. If we put her in the Soyuz, she’ll die on reentry,” Rafael said.
“AndIndependenceis biologically contaminated with her blood, andFreedomis hosting an armed Russian nuclear warhead that can detonate at any moment,” Mark added.
“Youhaveto evacuate. If you go onFreedom, you need to take the warhead off the capsule before reentry. But, aside from the nuclear danger, with Michaela now sick, we have to get you guys home ASAP. We have to get all of you checked immediately and figure out what is going on. This sounds like an infectious outbreak of some kind. We need to know what made Jim and Michaela sick. Did this come from the Lunar Gateway? Are the rest of you exposed? There’s too many questions. We need you home,now. That is nonnegotiable.” Roxanne’s voice was firm.
“What’s the fastest we can deorbit, Houston? We’re looking at a possible terminal event for Michaela within ninety minutes to three hours.”
