The Enclave (The Verge) (22 page)

Moving her right hand to the filament reel, she stretched out her thumb from its grip on the auto pistol and deactivated the electro magnet.  Katherine did not hear the sound of the hook being released but was ready to spring aside when she dropped the short distance to the lift so that the falling cable would not hit her.

Katherine stayed glued to the side of the lift shaft, still and silent after the echo of the falling cable had disappeared.  But there was no sound of a guard, no bullets tearing through the ceiling of the lift. 

Katherine frowned.

Surely the Alliance wouldn’t be this sloppy?

Katherine’s frown deepened.  They were expecting her again.  A way had been left open for her, but who was waiting for her at its end?

The bones from her knuckles stood out from Katherine’s skin as her grip unconsciously tightened around the stock of the pistol.  If Hyde was there waiting, he would not even have the time to draw breath to speak before the first round found its way into his body.  And she would gladly die to make sure that the rest of the magazine’s occupants followed it.

Whatever was going on, Katherine knew with a certainty that they were not going to kill her for returning, at least not on sight anyway.  Still, it did not pay to let your guard down.

Katherine activated he
r comm unit.

“
Steve, I’m not meeting any resistance.  They are still trying not to hurt me.”  Katherine tried to choke back the laugh that rose from her throat.  It came out sounding clipped and derisive.

‘They’ll regret that decision pretty soon.’

“What did they do to me to make them want to keep me alive?  What did they do to Daniel?  And if we are so important, why let us both go?”

‘I can’t answer any of that Skipper.’
  Even over the Commlink Katherine could hear the hesitance in his voice. 
‘They might never be answered.’

“
Maybe I’ve read the situation wrong and I get shot as soon as I step out of the lift.  I won’t have to worry about it then.”

‘Captain-’

“I’m not suicidal Steve.” Katherine cut through the Lieutenant.  “I’m just a realist.”

Steve did not reply.

“Steve, I’m going to leave my commlink open.  I want you to hear everything that happens.  And if anything happens to me, I want you to turn tail and get the Hell out of here. That’s an order.”

There was a long stretch of silence before Steve Tran answered her.

‘Understood.’

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Katherine slipped through the lift access panel and landed lightly in the lift.  The doors were locked open as if inviting her into the fourth level corridor for a friendly get-together.

She rose with her pistol up and ready, listening for the slightest betrayal of sound that would indicate that someone was lurking outside.  But Katherine could only hear the even sound of her own soft breathing.

Katherine stepped out of the lift and into the corridor.  Glancing right showed a white, empty corridor, glancing left showed her something different.

At the end of the corridor stood a man dressed in the same grey T-shirt and sweat pants as she.  He was also built like a brick shit house, and in the bright white corridor did not look very friendly.  In each hand he held a knife.

In her right hand was Steve’s Auto Pistol.  Reflexively, before she even recognized he was no guard, she had the pistol aimed at the man’s chest.  Katherine stopped herself from pulling the trigger.

Quicker than the eye could blink, the man flicked a hand leaving himself holding only one knife.

Katherine was at least ten metres away and she watched as the knife somersaulted through the air as it covered the distance between them.  She quickly sidestepped left, reluctant to attack someone who looked to be a test subject like herself.  Her gun did not move and Katherine felt the sharp jolt as the butt of the knife thudded into her pistol and sent it flying away from her hand.

Shit!

And with another burst of speed, the man was right in front of her, his other held knife ready and deadly.  He came in fast, the long bladed knife arching down towards Katherine’s throat.

She dropped to the ground and lunged towards where the throwing knife dropped to the floor.  The man lunged at her open back, going for the easy kill.

With her own burst of speed, Katherine flipped over and caught the blow with the sleek bladed throwing knife, now held secure in her right hand.

The man leapt back and Katherine took the opportunity to scramble to her feet.  The two then began to warily circle each other, studying each other for something that can be used to their own advantage.  Katherine adjusted the throwing knife in her hand.  It was double bladed so she could not hold it backhanded like she was used to, if she did the blade would cut her forearm to ribbons.  Just her luck that the man liked it up close and personal.  If he had used a gun, Sam’s Kinetic Shield generator would have given her enough protection to incapacitate this man without risking her life and limb.

“You don’t have to attack me.  I’m here to help you.”  Katherine spoke to the man as they circled each other.  His face was slack, his eyes looked dead, emotionless.  It was the face
of an automaton.  Her words would mean nothing to the man but Katherine still had to try.

“Why are you doing this?”

“The test must be completed.”

Katherine slowed in her circling; his response took her by surprise.

Suddenly, the man lunged and Katherine twisted and swatted his blade away with her own.  But the man had a longer reach and as they separated he swiped at Katherine’s arm slicing along her bicep.  She leapt away from him and the two began circling each other again.

“What test?” she asked, this time keeping a closer eye on the man’s movements.  The man’s eyes continued their blank stare.

“Stage Four – Proof of Concept.”

What the…?

This time Katherine saw the tightening of his muscles and she ducked instinctively, hoping that she had not misread him.

She heard the swish of the man’s blade as it sliced through the air above her head.  As his body moved forward, Katherine somersaulted across the corridor, away from the man.  She quickly came to her feet and held her knife ready.  There was to be no more circling, not if she could help it.

“What is the Proof of Concept?” she asked as the man turned back towards her.

“You are.”

He leapt forward and swung his knife.  Katherine parried the blow with her own blade and then let loose with a powerful sidekick to the man’s exposed ribs.  The kick connected and the man fell.  But as he did so he jabbed out with his hand and managed to grab Katherine’s knife arm and pull her to the floor with him.

They both hit the titling together.

Katherine fell on top of her attacker, rolled clear and slammed her back against the wall.  She reached out to steady herself and her hand touched something familiar on the floor next her.

And then the man was on his feet again.  He leapt at her and pushed his knife to her throat before Katherine had time to react.  She threw up both her hands to defend herself, dropping her own knife to leave her own hand free to get the danger away from her throat.

With all her strength Katherine held the knife at bay, the point of the blade cutting into her skin.  And Katherine desperately realized that she could not hold it.

The man’s face was right in front of Katherine’s.  And he was close, so close that Katherine felt his warm breath puff against her face.

Without thinking, Katherine suddenly let go of the knife hand with one of her hands, reached up and gouged her thumb into his unprotected eye.

He yelled but still continued to push the knife down into Katherine’s throat.  Katherine suddenly shifted her weight, pushing her throat against the knife but freeing up her right shoulder.  She then plunged her thumb with as much force as she could muster into the eye socket.  She felt the eyeball push back into the socket and then tear apart as her thumbnail cut through the iris and into the eyeball itself.  She buried her thumb until it could go in no further and then jerked it out.

The man let out a hideous in-human scream and Katherine felt a sudden splash of warm blood explode all over her face.

She kicked the man away from her and saw a fountain of blood spraying out from his ruined eye socket.  He screamed again as he fell backwards, clutching at the bloody socket.

Katherine had poked his eye out, but he was not yet out of the fight.  And he still had the knife in his hand.  The man began to lash out wildly, trying to hit her despite the pain and the loss of part of his vision.

Katherine grabbed at the object on the floor beside her and
leveled the auto pistol at the man’s bleeding face.  He was moving erratically but she had all the time she needed now.

She aimed carefully at the head of this screaming zombie of a man.

And then she fired.

Three rounds struck the man square in the face and he dropped to the floor as his skull exploded behind him.

Katherine felt sick.  This man did not deserve to die like that.  But thinking back on the blank face, the dead eyes, she thought that the mind that been born into that body had left it long ago.  She had come to save these people.  What if she could not?  What if it was too late?

She clenched her teeth on her uncertainty and let the rage slowly build again inside her and tightened the grip on her gun.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

“You did well 72.”

The auto pistol swung around to aim squarely at the woman who had spoken.  The woman was unfazed; as if she was used to having someone capable of pulling the trigger pointing weapons at her.  White, pristine and proper were the only words Katherine could think of when she saw her.  All she needed was glasses and a test tube to be the perfect stereotypical image of a lab geek.  But she was not a fool; the four heavily armed guards arrayed around her were proof of that.

Katherine said nothing.  She kept the arm holding her pistol rock steady.  The guards kept their guns aimed at her and Katherine noted the stun packs that were loaded in place of the lethal rounds on their weapons.

“93 had showed promise but no one has shown as much Talent as you 72.”

What about Daniel?

“What was done to him?” Katherine did not look at the man she had just killed.

“You should know that better than anyone 72.”

Katherine gritted her teeth. 
The bastards were still conducting their experiments.  The only way to possibly stop them is to hunt down every last
one of the cockroaches and terminate them.

Behind her came the sounds of booted feet.  They now had sealed up the corridor.  She did not bother to look back at them.

“You knew I would come back.”

“The possibility was high.”

“What do you want with me?”

The woman smiled at Katherine as if she was patronizing a small child.  “That is a question for Doctor Barkley to answer.  Would you like to speak to him?”

The thrill that tightened Katherine’s innards at the mention of Barkley made her reply soft and girly.  “Of course I bloody well do.”

And when I see him I am going to rip him to shreds.  He will
not
be walking out of this place.

“Is Hyde here as well?”

The woman blinked in surprise.  But there was too long a pause before she said “Who?”

Katherine stifled an urge to shoot the bitch.  It seemed like she needed the woman to get her to Barkley.  Barkley may lead her to Hyde.

“Just take me to
Doctor
Barkley.”

Katherine relaxed her arm and tossed the auto pistol over to the woman’s feet and felt a malicious twinge of satisfaction as the technician took an involuntary step back.  The tech was not as confident as she portrayed.  Katherine unslung the assault rifle and let it drop behind her.  The guards waiting behind her can collect it.

“Follow me please.”

The woman turned and started walking down the corridor, her attack dogs trailing close behind.  The guards behind curled around Katherine and she held out her arms waiting for someone to come forward to pat her down for weapons.  But none of the men moved.  After a few moments Katherine dropped her arms and began walking.  If they did not want to search her, that’s their mistake.

Katherine thought she was being lead to the main lab where she and Tom had been taken to earlier.  But instead was lead into another section of the complex.  A section that she could not remember from Yunga.  Then again, she was not looking for secret passages when she left Yunga.  All she had worried about was getting 56 and any other test subjects out of the place and leaving anyone else remaining in the complex dead.

The entrance sat across from the large double doors of the main laboratory and now that she knew it was there kicked herself for not noticing it before.  Then again, she and Tom had been busy with several guards when she first came this way and she had been unconscious when she left.