The Sphinx Project (20 page)

I heard a swish. The lock beeped. I barely had time to draw a deep breath before the door opened. Using the small metal grate in the desk, I watched as they all stepped into the room, guns drawn.

"Where is she?" one of them barked.

"Where's who?" Jake asked.

"The girl. We know she's in here."

I almost groaned. Could this be any more clich�d?

"She's gone," Jake replied.

"Just shoot him. They've probably bonded. We can find the girl on our own," Doctor Fould's voice ordered.

"You have three seconds to tell us where she is," the first man said again. "One."

I heard footsteps. Another man rounded the corner.

"Dad?" Jake said, his voice faltering a little. He sounded a lot younger than he was.

"Answer the question, Jake. It's too late for her, but we might be able to help you."

"Two."

I could hear Jake's breathing quicken.

I took hold of my knife in my left hand and when the man finished counting, I flung the table with all my strength toward the door. The men yelled as it crashed into them. A gun discharged, the bullet embedding itself into the wall.

As soon as the desk had begun moving, I took a flying leap over it to hit the man directly in front of me. Both of my feet connected straight with his chest.

He collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. I swung my left hand to the side, driving the handle of my knife into another man's temple while kicking out behind me to the third man's groin. They were all down, but the first was starting to get back up.

Jake's dad raised his arm, a gun wrapped tightly in his grip. I lifted my leg, swinging it in a high arc to connect with it. My foot knocked the weapon out of his hand before I punched him in the nose.

The woman stood there watching as the men dropped around her. She made no attempt to get her hands dirty. I hesitated, my fists itching to connect with her perfectly made-up face. Instead I slammed my hand into the nerve in her neck, pulsing it with my palm. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell to the floor.

She'd feel like shit when she woke up.

I kicked Jake's dad over with my toe, leaning down to inspect his tag. Sheesh—Chief of Staff. No wonder Jake could go where he wanted. He hadn't looked like I'd imagined an intern. This explained a lot.

"Come on!" I grasped the narrow file and shoved it into his arms so I'd have both hands free to fight.

He nodded and followed me, almost as though he was in shock. I couldn't leave him there. I didn't trust that he'd be okay once I was gone. How could his own father talk to him that way?

I could hear more footsteps running in our direction. Definitely time to go.

We hurried to the stairs and sprinted up. Their heavy footsteps weren't far behind us. As we reached the next flight of stairs, the door above us clanged open, hitting the brick wall with a crash.

We turned off the stairs, pushing the nearest door open. I could hear Jake panting but I wasn't breathing heavily at all. He seemed to be able to move surprisingly quickly, but he was panicking, which messed with his lung capacity. I could move so much faster with much less effort, but I couldn't leave him behind.

"I need to get somewhere with no people," I whispered, just loud enough for Jake to hear me.

He nodded and at the next intersection veered to the right, to the morgue. The corridor was long and straight. We were almost there when I heard an ominous click.

I grabbed the fabric of his scrubs and dragged him down with me. A feather-tailed dart sailed over us. He froze, staring at the narrow metal needle buried deep within the door in front of us.

"Get up!" I urged, dragging him to his feet.

We pushed through the door, and I shoved him into the corner of the room with the folders. I stood to the side of the door as two of the men barged in after us. In the split second I had to analyze the situation, I could see the third, who'd been hit in the head, was obviously down for the count.

I let the first run past me but leaped as the second one entered. I brought an elbow down on the top of his head, followed by a knee below his ribs. He dropped to the ground.

I found myself facing a wall of silver squares, with handles protruding from them. The other attacker ran directly at me. I grasped a handle at waist height and yanked, hard. At the same time I slid myself to the floor, allowing the steel tray to trundle straight out, hitting the man square in the stomach.

I rolled from beneath the metal bed and found my feet at the same time he did, although I was significantly steadier. He moved forward, hands held high. He used them to shield his face, and his forearms to protect his upper body. He was a boxer, perhaps a kick boxer, but he didn't seem to move in that way. He lumbered around a bit.

He came within reach; I kicked out, straight to his knee. His leg buckled and he fell to the ground with a yell.

"You need to shut him up!" Jake was panicking. I couldn't blame him.

I leaned over the man, pushing the webbing between my thumb and finger against his windpipe. Applying pressure with my thumb, I cut off his air supply. His eyes went wide with fear before his body went limp and he passed out.

As he stilled, I rose to my feet, surveying the damage. We lugged the two men to the corner of the room to hide them a little before turning to push the tray holding the dead body back into the wall. As soon as I laid eyes on what was on the tray, I froze.

"What the hell is this?" I ordered.

Jake peered over my shoulder.

"Oh, those." His nose wrinkled in revolt. "You haven't heard the news reports?"

"I saw them. I know what they're capable of—probably more so than you. Why are they here? They need to be destroyed!"

"What makes you an expert on Premature Senescence Anaemia?" he asked warily.

"Because the people who made me what I am made them… Wait, what did you call it?"

"P.S.A. It's what they've named the condition. Do you know anything about biology?"

I shook my head. Biology wasn't considered necessary for my education.

"It's a blood disorder," he said with a small shrug.

"We need to get out of here, now."

"We?" Jake asked, fear became more pronounced.

"You're not safe here. You've uncovered their secret. You have proof that they've gone out of their way to cover up two murders, maybe more. Your own father would have let them shoot you. Why would you want to stay here?"

"What about school? And my career?"

"It's up to you. But hurry up and make your choice because I'm going now." I turned and stalked toward the door "These men are not alone. There are more coming. Do you want to stay here and take the chance that they might leave you alone? Or do you want to come with me?"

He looked lost; I really couldn't blame him. In a single hour, his whole life had been turned upside down.

"These are all connected," I said, my voice gentler. "The men chasing me, the beheadings and the disease. It's not safe for you here anymore and I'm sorry that you've become involved, but you need to decide now."

I couldn't help but pity him. I knew the expression on his face right now. His whole world was falling apart.

"I never meant to drag you into this. I didn't think they would find me."

Blankly, he nodded his head.

"Does that mean you're coming with me?" I asked.

The doors swung open again and this time 'the chief' stepped through them, gun extended. Before I'd had the chance to draw my own, he fired twice. I heard them fly into the wall behind us. Jake yelled in pain.

I drew my gun smoothly and fired, sending a single bullet into the man's forearm. He, too, fell to the ground, grasping his hand.

"Come on." Grabbing for Jake's arm, I paused as I saw the blood dripping from his shoulder, soaking the blue fabric of his scrubs. The bullet had hit him, passing right through.

He hugged his injured arm to his body with his good hand, obviously in pain. I helped him to his feet and when we passed his father, I kicked the older man, sending him spinning across the ground.

When we reached the first floor again, we passed a few consulting rooms. I grabbed a handful of gauze from a supplies cabinet and pressed it to either side of the wound. I didn't have time to clean it. I wrapped an elasticized bandage around his shoulder, holding the gauze in place. It would have to do for now.

He stood, pulling several small packages and vials from a trolley and shoving them into his big pockets. He grabbed some fabric wrapped in plastic too. His injured arm hung limply at his side.

The whole time I kept my eyes open for the scientists. Surely they were around here somewhere and I wasn't going to be taken by surprise again.

We walked speedily toward the exit. I discreetly lifted a coat lying over the arm of a plastic chair so he'd have something to wear over his scrubs. We couldn't walk around with the blood staining his clothes.

He stumbled slightly at the threshold, looking back over his shoulder. He seemed to know it would probably be the last time he'd lay eyes on the building.

I helped him into the coat and we hastened past the patients just outside the hospital grounds, some in wheelchairs, some trailing poles with IV bags still attached. All of them puffing away on cigarettes.

We reached the intersection that had first directed me to the hospital without trouble. He stood, his toes on the very edge of the pavement, waiting for the traffic to stop. I half expected him to launch himself in front of the next passing car. He didn't. As the road cleared, we picked our way across, his eyes downcast.

I flagged down the first cab I saw and went directly to McDonald's, where Mouse was sitting inside with a milkshake. I stood up and waved at her. She immediately got to her feet and came straight out. She climbed in beside me and didn't say anything when she saw Jake, although she did give me a pointed look.

We didn't bother getting out to catch a bus back to the station; we stayed in the taxi the whole way instead. The driver dropped us off at the taxi stand, around the corner from the interstate terminal, and we strolled back to the parking lot.

There was only one other person in sight, but we waited until he'd gotten into his car before we moved to ours. Mouse and I climbed in the front. Jake folded himself into the back.

"Are you even old enough to drive?" he asked as I took the wheel.

"Of course I am. Oh, by the way, Mouse, this is Jake. Jake, this is Mouse."

Chapter Twenty-two

Jake shyly said hello to Mouse. Keeping an eye on the mirror as I reversed, I caught sight of a tinge of pink that creeped across his cheeks.

"Hi. Or you can call me Lorelei if you want. I don't mind." Her face was a little flushed too. Did I look like that when I first met Matt? I shuddered slightly at the thought of how quickly I'd been taken in. Catching her eye, I snorted, causing her elbow to find its way into my side.

We drove back the way we had come, returning to the hidden track that wound into the forest. We would have liked to keep driving as far away from South Carolina as possible, but we couldn't do that. We needed to get the labs tonight.

Something buzzed as I applied the brakes.

"What's that?" Mouse asked, her eyes scouring the car for the source of the noise.

I reached under my seat and gathered Matt's phone from where it had fallen. I pushed the little green answer button and held it to my ear.

"Hello?" There was no sound at all. "There's no one there."

"Of course there's no one there," Jake said dryly. "It's a text message."

"A what?" I asked.

He held out his hand. I placed the phone in his palm. He pressed a square on the screen and words appeared.

"They have Marissa too. Tracing location to organize rescue. You in?"

"The scientists have Marissa, too," I said to Mouse. "They're organizing a rescue but haven't figured out what facility they've been taken to."

"I have a list of property owned by Chimaera Pharmaceuticals. We can dive into it further, after we've been to the labs tonight." Mouse said.

"So I tell him yes?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay…how do I do that?"

"Give it here," Jake said, holding his hand out again.

He tapped away at the screen, holding it up for my approval before sending the two words:
"We're in."

"So, what are you doing at these labs? Am I coming too?" Jake asked.

"No, it's not safe for you," I replied.

"In case you haven't noticed, nothing's safe for me. My own father shot me. What am I going to do? I'm not sitting in here on my own while you two go gallivanting around playing secret agent. What if one of those things comes across me?"

I sighed. He was right, but what on earth would we do with him? We eventually came to a compromise. Jake would drop us off a few miles from the clinic. He would then drive back to town and withdraw as much cash as possible so he could buy some new clothes in the morning.

I wasn't totally comfortable with this. We barely knew him, but Mouse seemed to agree so I nodded too.

Mouse cleaned Jake's wound and patched him up properly, finding a blue shirt in the trunk that would fit him. We ate a meal of bread, fruit and beef jerky and when Jake excused himself, making his way into the woods to do his business, we made haste to change into more appropriate attire.

I pulled on black, long-sleeved thermal underwear and combat pants. For the first time since we'd left the labs, we geared up completely. Unfortunately we didn't have the high-tech coms we'd used in the bar; they were useless without the second one.

I dragged the tactile ballistics vest over my black top and loaded myself up. I slipped a semi-automatic pistol into the shoulder harness below my arms and added two additional pre-loaded magazines to the compartments below. A smaller handgun was strapped to my ankle just in case. Two spring-loaded tactical knives hid in pockets on the vest and a fixed blade sat in a holster on my thigh.

Last, I added my sleek black sword to a sheath on my back. If I was going to have to chop these creatures' heads off, I wanted to be as far away from the gunk as possible. I didn't like the idea of killing them, but what other choice did we have?