The River (27 page)

Del took a few steps forward, awed and terrified.

"The glass cages house the specimens," her father said. "They're kept in a viscous solution of saline and synthetic cerebro-spinal fluid. This allows the cells to function normally. In essence, they're tricked into believing that they're still alive. But unfortunately, it's a short-lived process. If we don't extract the stem cells within three weeks, we lose the batch."

"You got to be kidding, dawg," TJ blurted. "Are you saying there's human brains in there?"

"There are three severed heads―adult specimens. Two are nearly useless and will be disposed of tomorrow. The other is new. Paughter must have gone hunting again. It's probably some poor unfortunate fool who thought a trip to the Nahanni River would be an exciting vacation."

Del heard the self-contempt in his voice.

"What about the other cages?" Jake asked.

"We just processed three young specimens yesterday. The rest of the cages are empty. Apparently VanBuren expects to fill them all. Soon."

"This is an atrocity to nature," Hawk murmured.

Del agreed wholeheartedly. Sure as hell, murder could never be excused, regardless of the potential advantages of the serum.

"So what do you do now, Dad?"

"I have to physically hook up the new specimen, connect the wires for monitoring and oversee the initial preparation."

"Sounds gross," TJ scowled.

"It is. You don't have to come with me. None of you do."

Jake raised his chin. "I do. I want to understand
everything
about this place."

"Fine then. Follow me. But I'll warn you, you'll be looking at a severed head."

Del inhaled deeply. "I'm going too."

Her father moved toward the main monitoring station and she saw one of the techs peer at them nervously. The man cocked his head at a security guard standing near the side doors.

"You'll need an escort, doctor," the tech said.

"They're nervous because you're all with me," her father scoffed. "But, hell, no one said you couldn't come in here."

A beefy looking man with two pistols strapped to his waist followed a few feet behind them.

Del could feel his eyes burning into the back of her head.

"You can travel freely between the lab rooms?" Jake asked her father.

"Only the technicians can leave through the side doors. They have ankh keys, like the pendant Schroeder buried for you. And as you can see, the doors are well guarded."

Del blocked out the sound of their voices and thought about the severed head. The
adult specimen
, as her father had called it. Over the years, especially while studying anthropological cases from Africa and South America, she had studied some horrific occurrences.

In North Africa, bones from children who were believed to have been sacrificed to the god Ba'al Hammon were discovered in the Carthage center. In South Africa, a mass sacrifice pit piled high with dozens of emaciated corpses infected the drinking water. Outside of Peru, a dig revealed half-frozen mummified bodies, some with no obvious cause of death. Many of them were children. Authorities suspected that they had been smothered with tightly bound cloths―asphyxiated.

A severed head couldn't be any worse. Could it?

She stole a peek at Jake.

He was a doctor. He must have seen some appalling things in his time. Especially in his research on Progeria. Then again, severed heads weren't common in a nanobot lab―Progeria or no Progeria.

Her father motioned them toward the first station on the far right side, then laid a hand on a neon blue screen.

All of a sudden, a light flickered inside the glass cage above them.

The cage quivered. With a soft whining sound, it began to move lower until it stopped on a platform in front of them.

"This is one of the young specimens," her father murmured, touching the screen's upper left corner until the control panel glowed. "A few years ago, we had to create this viscous fluid. The technicians had a problem with seeing their own work. In a few minutes, the fluid will start to clear."

Somewhere beneath the floor, a pump groaned.

Del held her breath, waiting.

When the light inside the cage stopped flashing, she stared in horror as the shape of a newborn came into view. The baby's body floated in the liquid, one tube attached to its umbilical cord and one to the back of its head. Its sightless eyes were closed, its tiny hands clenched into fists and its perfect cupid lips were lifeless. Breathless.

She swallowed hard and fought the urge to cry. "Is it alive?"

Her father shook his head. "As soon as we hook it up to collect the stem cells, it is legally brain dead. It can't feel a thing, Del."

She caught TJ's eye.

He was in shock, probably thinking of Julie―and their unborn child.

"The newborns are delivered via C-section," her father said. "Then they're brought here. Shortly after I was brought to the Centre, I convinced the Director to allow us to sedate them, before attaching the tubes."

She struggled to conceal her fury. "Whose babies are they?"

"Sometimes the Director's guards get the honor of impregnating the women who are brought here. But these three…"

Her father scowled, as if he had eaten something rotten.

"They're VanBuren's progeny. He impregnates any woman he can get his hands on. Tells them it's their God-given duty."

The last three words erupted from him.

Del thought of Kate O'Leary, the young, pregnant nurse.

That's why the girl was so defensive about the father of her baby. VanBuren had Kate brainwashed to believe she was having a baby for the salvation of the world. Then again, the girl didn't have a choice. The only other alternative was rape.

Or death.

"This one is ready," her father said, hovering over the monitor. "The next step is extraction of the cells. They travel through the cord attached to the back of the baby's head and into a retrieval unit. Then the cells are sorted and processed. After that, the serum is mixed and the nanobots are added. Then the rogue bot is added…as a safety precaution."

He placed his palm down on the screen and the clear liquid slowly turned murky again, then he swallowed hard and strode past the next two cages.

The other babies, Del guessed.

When he reached the fourth one, he pointed. "This one and the next are the adults. Their usefulness is at an end, which is why the Director insists on using young specimens. They last longer."

He led them to another cage and placed his hand on the screen.

"This is the newest addition. It's been wired to preserve the head, but the extraction tubing hasn't been inserted yet."

The lights flashed as the cage dropped slowly.

"With this one, half of the fluid will be pumped out until I'm finished. Once I attach the final tubing, the extraction will begin immediately. Three weeks from now, the head will be incinerated."

A nervous tremor raced through Del's body.

Disassociate. Treat the head like an inorganic, inanimate object.

She stared at the cage, unable to turn away as the level of the fluid dropped, exposing the top of a bald human head.

Slowly, the murky liquid began to clear.

"I can see the nose," TJ grimaced.

"In a minute you'll see it clearly," her father warned.

One minute later, Del screamed.

Jake reached for her but she pushed him away, oblivious to the anxious stares of the technicians. Even the security guard was unsure of what to do. Nervous, the man moved closer.

Her father stepped in front of him. "Leave her alone!"

Out of the corner of one eye, she saw Hawk stalk away, cursing beneath his breath. Behind her, she heard TJ dry heaving, apologizing between gasps.

She swiveled back to the glass cage, struggling to regain her composure. Sickened, she stared in horror at the severed head lying half-submerged in cerebro-spinal fluid.

The head with the face they all recognized.

"Oh my God," she whispered.

Twenty-two

F
rancesca Baroni's pale green eyes stared at Del…lifeless.

The fiery auburn hair that had matched her quick temper was gone. Her mouth drooped open grotesquely and, beneath it, the skin flaps of her neck were riveted to the bottom of the cage to keep her head in place. Her skin was flaccid, colorless.

Del's stomach heaved as a wormlike trail of fresh blood snaked behind the glass, suspended in the liquid bath. She backed away from the cage.

Francesca's eyes seemed to follow her, accusingly.

"What did they do?"

"The son of a bitch killed Francesca!" Jake snarled.

A tremor of fear shivered through her. "W-who killed her?"

"VanBuren," Hawk and TJ said in unison.

Her father's brow furrowed in confusion.

"I-I'm so sorry. If I had known…"

He punched in a code and the cage started to fill.

"It's not your fault," Jake said firmly.

"But this doesn't make sense. They don't kill women! They're too valuable―they can have children."

Del flinched.

Her father's comment cut her to the bone, but now wasn't the time to tell him that she could never make him a grandfather. All in due time.

"Francesca was on the pill," she mumbled, sweeping an edgy glance at Jake. "I saw them in her bag."

"But she could still get pregnant," her father argued. "She wasn't taking any contraceptives here. And with the serum in her, she'd be able to bear children within a week―if it wasn't for VanBuren."

Del recalled their nervous behavior earlier when she had mentioned Francesca's name.

"What really happened?"

The men exchanged nervous glances.

Trembling, she folded her arms protectively across her chest. She wanted to shake them and yell
'spit it out!'
She wasn't going anywhere. Not until they told her the truth.

"VanBuren raped her," Jake said. "Or at least he tried to. We saw them on the monitor after Gary brought up the Centre's surveillance."

"We turned it off, Del," Hawk added. "After VanBuren knocked her down."

"But why kill her?" Jake muttered.

Del's chin lifted. "Because she fought back."

She spun on her heel and hurried to the air chamber.

"Hey, Jake! I may have a solution to the problem."

Jake strolled to Gary's side, trying not to rush.

"Have any company while we were gone, Gary?"

"Nope, none."

Jake wasn't really surprised. No one had bothered to check on Gary because he was a programmer. Since the sorter was essential for the creation of the serum, the Director wouldn't run the risk of interfering. Not if the machine could be fixed.

Gary bit his lip. "I think I've figured out a way out, Jake."

On the monitor, Jake saw a multi-dimensional image and transparent layout of the Centre. He immediately noticed a narrow passageway marked by two red splotches. Throughout the maze that was the Centre, more splotches appeared. Some moved slowly.

"Is that what I think?"

Gary nodded. "Body heat, from infrared heat sensors. This cluster here is on the upper level. They must be having a party."

"Probably a welcome home party for Paughter."

And Jake would bet that VanBuren, the Director and all the other assholes that ran the place were there too.

"I'd like to crash
that
party."

"No, you don't."

Jake lifted one brow, perplexed. "And why not?"

"They're busy," Gary said slyly. "Maybe too busy to notice a few extra people or heat blips in the hall."

"Won't security miss us?"

"When we're ready to go, I'll run some dummy blips. I've already created a video loop of the hallway to the tunnel. What I need now is some footage from the lab. Footage of you all sleeping."

Jake clenched his teeth. "Done."

Gary turned slightly in his chair and his gaze drifted to the Specimen Lab door.

"I saw Del's face, Jake. She looked sick."

"Francesca's dead. VanBuren killed her."

He saw a glimmer of fear in Gary's eyes.

"Just get us out of here. Tonight! Or we're all dead."

The lab doors opened and a large cart rolled in, pushed by the security guard with the spiked hair.

"Dinner is served," Spike said in a bored voice.

When no one moved, he shoved the cart into the wall.

"It must be awful," Jake said sharply.

The guard scowled. "What?"

"Not to have a conscience."

Spike threw him a smug
you're dead
kind of grin, then vanished.

Jake's eyes searched the room.

Two men were mixing samples while a woman monitored the equipment. TJ hovered over her, offering her a hand as she stood. The woman thanked him. When she turned, Jake saw that she was at least seven months pregnant.

VanBuren strikes again.

He glanced at the clock.

Almost seven. Time for the techs to leave for the night.

Five minutes later, they were gone.

He headed toward Del.

"Gary needs some footage of us sleeping. We all need to take a nap. Let TJ know, and I'll tell Hawk and your father."

TJ and Hawk crawled onto the first two cots, their feet hanging comically over the ends. Del curled up on the last one.

"Move over," Jake said, lying down beside her.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Sleeping."

"Oh."

He wrapped one arm around her and breathed in the scent of her, the fragrance of her hair. Her heart hammered in her chest, and he wanted to say something,
anything
, to comfort her.

But what could he say? They all had reason to be scared.

Hell, even
he
was scared.

Lawrence dimmed the lights in the lab, then stole a quick peek in Del and Jake's direction. For a long moment, he watched them.

They looked good together…as if they were meant to be.

Satisfied, he casually wandered over to the double-door refrigerator that housed the serum samples. On the top shelf lay a dozen labeled syringes. Most contained the pale yellow Ankh serum, a few contained placebo serums, and some were samples of blood taken from some of the residents of the Centre.