The Girl in the Box 03 - Soulless (18 page)

“Yeah,” Reed said, “but it would be us plus them. Right now, it’s just us.”

I thought hard about what he said. “But it’s our responsibility.”

He let out a long sigh. “I get the feeling you’ll be the death of me, Nealon.”

“There are worse reasons to go,” I said to him with a wink. He grimaced and I shrugged; guess I can’t pull it off like Charlie can.

“You got your gun?” I asked Scott, who stood behind me, looking dazed. He nodded, reaching under his jacket to pull out his Beretta. “You might be able to take them out at range with your powers; I can’t.”

“Gun’s gonna be more effective than a blast of water at the range we’re dealing with,” Scott said. “But they look like they’re carrying submachine guns and rifles, so they’ve got the advantage over us.”

“Yes, let’s all not get shot,” Reed said. “That sounds like a winning strategy.”

“I have a backup gun.” I looked at Reed. “Do you want it?”

“Nah,” he said. “I’ve never used one; I’d probably end up shooting one of you. Besides, I’m gonna see if I can make things a little more hostile in here for gunplay, maybe level the playing field.” He closed his eyes for a moment and the wind picked up around us, howling through the trees. I heard the branches stir and bend, and a strong gale nearly knocked me over. Reed’s eyes opened. “Sorry about that,” he said to me. “I can control it well enough if I’m paying full attention, but since we’re gonna be running, you might get hit by a few unintended breezes.”

The wind was roaring now, I heard branches cracking and falling through the forest, and the shouts of the guards were inaudible under the rushing of the tempest. “This way,” I said, struggling to be heard as we headed away from the fence. The rattling of the trees and force of the winds blowing past us was an absolute contradiction to the blue, sunny skies above us and the sweltering heat that pressed in as tightly as the countless turtleneck sweaters I’d worn since discovering my powers. It was almost otherworldly, being in the midst of a veritable hurricane in the middle of a hot summer’s day.

I could feel the sweat running down to the tip of my nose and rubbed it against my shoulder, trying to dry it. The heat was intense, the humidity drowning me. The beads of salty liquid were springing out on my forehead more from the weather than the exertion. The winds that Reed had stirred were hot, like the breath of hell itself was chasing us through the woods.

The smell of the greenery was carried on the wind. I could taste the salt from the sweat that was dripping onto my lips as we tore through the woods, three metas outpacing the humans that were pursuing us. I hoped that there weren’t any of our own kind hunting us; that would suck. A break in the trees ahead of me gave way to a view of a concrete wall. As we emerged from the trees, I saw that the wall was part of a sprawling building in front of us. It was two or three stories tall, though it was hard to tell because there were no windows. There was a loading dock to our left, pavement running all the way around it. To our right, a smooth, empty wall was unbroken by anything but a small, square vent cover.

“There,” I said, pointing to the vent cover. “Entry point.”

“So in we go?” Scott asked as the wind howled around us. “Maybe we should contact HQ and wait for reinforcements.”

“Whatever this Andromeda project is,” Reed said, “it’s sensitive. Omega will either evacuate it from here or destroy it by the time we get back. Hell, they may already have started to do so.” He wore the look of a man doing something he desperately didn’t want to. “This is it. We do it now or it’ll be gone.”

“I guess it’s now, then,” I said. “But we do this as a team and stick together, coordinating our attacks.”

Before they could respond, I heard the squeal of tires and a Jeep came to a halt about a hundred feet away from us, not far from the loading docks. I counted four guys that jumped out, every one of them carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. The winds around us started to whip harder and I looked over at Reed, who was deep in concentration. Rather than powerful, straight line winds, I watched the dust on the pavement begin to swirl in circles, gathering power as it made its way toward the Jeep.

The twisting currents of wind formed a funnel cloud just in front of the Jeep, catching it and swirling it around within. I watched the vehicle buck and twist, hitting two of the men taking cover behind it, hard. One pitched over, blood splattering on the ground next to him. The other went flying, landing on his neck. The other two seemed to be holding onto the sides of the Jeep as it spun into the air, higher and higher, cresting at almost a hundred and fifty feet before the tornado dissipated and the car came crashing to the ground with joint screams from the men holding onto it. I didn’t watch.

I looked back to where it had landed and saw red on the pavement, then turned away and started toward the vent. I heard tires squealing in the distance and hesitated.

“Go!” Reed gave me a gentle push. “We’re committed now, we can’t go back!”

“At some point we have to deal with all this security,” I said, my feet pounding against the asphalt. “They’re not just gonna assume we left, they’re gonna keep looking until they find us.”

“Or until we kill every single one of them,” Scott said, exchanging a look with Reed. “And it seems like you don’t have much problem with that option.”

“Omega’s at war with you guys,” Reed said as we came to a halt in front of the vent, which was a rectangular solid metal panel that fit into the wall flush. “They’ve been at war with Alpha for years, so I’ve learned not to show a lot of mercy, because they’re not renowned for showing it to us.” He held out his hand and the panel started to rattle, then burst from its mounting. “Ladies first,” he said with a cocky smile.

“Ass,” I said, but didn’t argue. “I’ll go first because the range of my powers is limited, not because I’m a lady.” I bent nearly double and stopped. A long metal duct ran in front of me, and off to my left. I felt a flash of familiarity, looking down the metal tunnel, and my breath caught in my throat. It was like the box.

But it wasn’t, not really. I could feel air circulating through, and over it I heard more tires squeal and looked back to see two big trucks full of guards, unloading on the pavement about a hundred feet in front of the panel. “Let’s go!” I called to Reed and Scott.

“Shall we hold them off?” Reed said to Scott, who had his gun in one hand and his other fist extended.

Scott fired a couple shots. “Seems the gentlemanly thing to do. Got any ideas for that?”

“Elementally, dear Watson,” Reed said, another tornado forming in front of him. “Elementally.”

I heard Scott give off a cackle and I started to say something smartass and join them, my gun drawn. I stopped when I saw one of the guards on the truck aim an RPG launcher right at me.

“GO!” Scott shouted, launching himself to the left. I saw Reed go right, leaving the RPG pointed at me. I saw the flare of the tube as I dived into the duct, running as fast as I could whilst bent double.

The RPG exploded behind me, the force of it yanking me off my feet. The ductwork took an abrupt, ninety degree right turn that I couldn’t quite make as the explosive force drove me forward into the metal. I burst through the soft aluminum, my head ringing, and realized I was hanging, suspended in mid-air for almost a second before gravity caught me. I fell, dropping, down, down, down into the darkness of the room below me.

Chapter 19

I hit cold metal, my shoulder landing first, then my torso, and all my breath left me. I gasped, pain shooting through me. I couldn’t hear anything but ringing in my ears, again, only worse this time, like someone had set off a fire alarm in my brain, rattling the damned bell so hard I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. One by one, little agonies began to work their way into my consciousness; a searing pain in my shoulder, a feeling in my knee like I’d been hit with a hammer, and the taste of blood flowing in my mouth.

I worked my way to my knees and opened my eyes. I’d landed on a metal catwalk and below me was inky blackness. I looked above, to where I’d come from, and far up there I could see a smoking bit of ductwork, mangled by the explosion and my passage through the metal. Tracing it back toward the wall, it was ballooned comically, as though someone had pushed the sides out with all the ease of crumpling tinfoil. I wondered if Scott and Reed were all right, but something told me that even if they were, I wasn’t going to be seeing them come down the way I had.

I gripped the railing of the catwalk, trying to force myself to my feet. It seemed to be harder this time than I could recall it being in the past. I had pains everywhere, but after a minute of solid effort I made it to my feet, leaning on the railing for support. I looked both directions the catwalk extended, and decided I needed to pick one. I finally decided on right, not totally at random, but close. Why? Because it was the
right
way. I couldn’t bring myself to even chuckle at my horrible pun, such was the pain in my body.

I staggered along, my right leg starting to numb the more I walked. I didn’t think it was broken, but I knew I was going to have one bitch of a bruise on it later. I kept my right arm close to my body because the shoulder cried out in anguish anytime I moved it. I had lost my main gun in the explosion and fall, but I had pulled my backup, a much smaller weapon with a smaller magazine, a Walther PPK. Unfortunately, all I had was the seven shots it gave me, and then I’d be out.

My shoes clanked on the catwalk, and I hoped there was no one hiding below that could hear me. It was so dark underneath that it would be near impossible to tell. I took a fragment of duct that had blown loose from the explosion and dropped it over the side of the catwalk. I listened, but either because of the ringing in my ears or the distance it fell, I didn’t hear it land.

Ahead I saw the outline of a door, a big, heavy metal one. I urged myself forward, resting more and more weight on my wounded leg. It still stung, but I knew now that nothing was broken, which meant that all I needed to do was fight through the pain. The bad news was, there was quite a bit of it to fight through.

I reached the door and grasped the handle, turning it slowly. I pushed the heavy metal with my shoulder, trying not to rush or fall through. I cracked it and looked inside, finding a concrete room with some lockers along one wall and a set of double doors that went on into the room beyond.

I led with my gun, limping into the room. Some caution signs were posted on the double doors, but they didn’t stop me. The doors swung open for me, and I found myself in another room, walking on metal catwalks that led to a center platform with something sunken in the middle. I felt a chill; the room was like nothing I’d seen before in anything other than a movie. Large, cylindrical metal tanks were clustered below in hexagons, ominous chemical configurations written on the sides with warnings not to disturb the contents.

The whole room was cold, bitterly so, as bad as winter, and I wished for the first time that day that I’d been wearing my gloves and jacket. I felt goosebumps rise on my arms as I approached the center of the room. The catwalk gave way for the circular platform, which looked like it had a segment of metal in the middle that was removable. Exactly what it slid away for, I wasn’t sure, but it was obvious that it was patterned differently than the rest of the platform.

“Sienna?” The man’s voice caught my attention, turning me around. He was behind me, in front of the doors I had just come through, his face barely visible in the dim light of the room. He was wearing a tight shirt, no buttons, and jeans that would have stirred my imagination even if I hadn’t seen him naked the night before.

“James?” I let out a deep breath, all tension. “You found me.”

“It wasn’t that hard,” he said. “There’s only one Omega facility in eastern Wisconsin – or anywhere east until New York.” He walked down the catwalk, approaching slowly, his hands extended. “God, it looks like they tore you up...what happened?”

I brushed a strand of bloodied hair out of my face. “They fired an RPG into the duct I was using to enter the building.” I laughed under my breath, a dark chuckle without any real humor. “I wish I’d stayed in Eau Claire with you. I think it would have been less painful.”

“No kidding.” He was only a few feet away now, easing closer, when he came to a stop. “I don’t mean to be rude, because I know we’re in the middle of kind of a hostile place here, but are you gonna keep pointing your gun at me?”

“For now, yes,” I said, and the playfulness was out of my voice. “Sorry, James. I don’t really know you all that well, do I? You turn up in an Omega base at a convenient moment, and although you may genuinely be here to help me, I can’t rule out the possibility that you’re working with the enemy.”

He flushed but managed to keep his expression under control. “Ouch. So our time together doesn’t count for much, does it?”

I stared at him evenly. “Our time together was less than a cumulative hour. So, no...I don’t entirely trust you. I’m sorry if that offends you. If you turn out to be on the level, I promise I’ll make it up to you in spectacular fashion, but you’re going to have to forgive me if I don’t trust you with my life yet.”

He looked at me in cool amusement, hands at his sides. “You were going to sleep with me not twelve hours ago.”

“I was. I might still, depending on how this turns out.”

“Do I need to point out how screwed up that is?” he asked.

I cocked my head at him. “I’ve yet to touch another human being for more than ten seconds without killing them. Just because I wanted you badly doesn’t mean I unconditionally trust you. My life is on the line here. Respect that, and we can see what Omega is up to together.”

“I’m afraid I can’t respect that,” he said, one of his hands coming to rest on the railing. His face was calm, still, almost a mask compared to the sly, seductive man that had been unable to keep his hands off me for the last two days. “It hurts, Sienna.” He turned his face away, clutching the railing with both hands. “It really hurts.” He looked back at me and I caught a glimmer of something that scared me. “But not as much as it’s going to hurt you.”