Ballistic: Icarus Series, Book Two (44 page)

“What the hell are you doing?” Tessa hissed, her eyes wide as my arm disappeared inside my bag.

“Opening the window,” I said, pulling out the bottle of liquor Rhiannon had given me.

“This is not the best time to start drinking,” Jake whispered, his eyes wide as I unscrewed the lid.

I shot him a look, threw the cap in his direction, and tore away the strip of fabric Riley had been using as a headband. I crammed it into the mouth of the booze bottle and then tipped it upside down until the sharp smelling liquid dripped down my fingers. I poked my head up above the lip of the Lazy River and locked eyes with Zander through the severed chain link.

“Liv?” Riley asked, crawling over to my side.

“Dumpster,” I muttered to her as I signaled to those we’d left at the fence.

“Matrix?” Riley whispered.

“Run and don’t look back,” I said, nodding curtly.

I held up five fingers and then pointed over my shoulder toward the toppled refuse bin near the larger of the two main buildings. Zander nodded and whispered to the others. I dug in my pack and pulled out my lighter, then flicked my thumb across the flint. Riley nodded resolutely, the tiny flame dancing in her eyes.

“Get ready to run.” Riley said, dragging Tessa and the others to the back wall of the shallow trench.

I took a deep breath, and steadied myself on the wall, willing away the havoc around me. My senses were already peaked, so it was just a matter of centering myself.
In….Out.
In seconds, the chaos quieted, and the world slowed to a crawl around me.

The searchlight beam had reached the far end of its flight pattern and bounced back in our direction.
In…out…
It flicked over us, illuminating the cloud of dust Eli’s graceful entrance had stirred up.
In. Out.
The tiny particles swirled about in the sad orange glow as it passed, then plummeted to earth like a thousand tiny angels swallowed by the darkness.
In. Out.
I brought the flame to the fabric and watched as the fire swallowed it greedily.

Now.
I tossed the flaming bottle, timing it perfectly with the trajectory of the passing light. It sailed end over end inside the search beam’s glow and flew straight over the heads of the soldiers headed our way. The bottle shattered against a wooden bench, lighting up the night with an amorphous plume of liquid flame.

“Go!” I shouted, leaping from the empty channel.

The soldiers dove to the ground and covered their heads as the explosive cocktail rained fire and broken glass down around them. The bench ignited immediately, the hungry blaze eagerly devouring its aging pine framework. The second searchlight shot toward the blast just as the first one died and hovered above the cowering uniforms. Zander, Ty, and Falisha wormed their way through the hole in the fence while the rest of us scrambled out of the channel. No longer divided, we sprinted off into the imaginary safety of the shadows.

Chapter 39

Plan D

An old-school emergency siren roared to life, filling the darkness with a high-pitched squall that sounded as though it came from all directions. Ty clutched his ears in pain and bent at the waist, his face screwed up against the onslaught. Jake pulled a pair of bright orange earplugs from his pocket, crawled through the dirt to Ty’s side, and shoved them into his face.

“So much for the element of surprise,” Tessa groaned, scraping her hair out of her face.

“On to plan D,” I said, pulling Megan farther into the shadows behind the bin.

“There was no plan D, Liv!” Jake spat at me. “What the hell do we—?”

“Shh.” Ty clasped a hand over Jake’s mouth.

Seconds later, a dozen uniforms stormed past us stirring up a large cloud of dust and debris on the path toward the melee my hasty firebomb had created. One of the soldiers, a tall redheaded man, stood at the crest, shouting orders at the backs of the men running off into the darkness.

“It can’t be.” Tessa narrowed her eyes and scooted to the edge of the bin peeking cautiously around the corner by my side.

“Clemson, you take D-squad and go and put out that damn fire,” he barked, pointing toward the flaming bench. “Report back to me at Med Wing station when you are done.”

“Yes, Sir,” the soldier yelled, then spun on his heel and stomped away with his team.

“Harrington, you and your team do a full sweep of the grounds,” the man grabbed a young woman by her shoulder. “Start on the east side and work your way back to the gate. Engage and eliminate any threat to containment. Take no prisoners. Kill on sight.”

“Hostiles are K.O.S,” she yelled, plugging one of her ears. “Got it, Sir.”

“No, Harrington. They’re all in the crosshairs now,” the man said bitterly. “Hostiles, freaks, grays; anyone not in uniform, copy?”

“The grays, Sir?” She gaped, lowering her weapon. “Those people are—.”

“Those
people
are not people anymore, Harrington,” he shouted, grabbing her by the collar. “They are biological weapons, do you hear me? I, for one, will not be the one to set loose an incurable plague onto whatever poor souls are left on this God-forsaken planet. Do you have a problem with that?”

“N-no, Sir,” the woman said, visibly shaken. “I don’t, Sir.”

“Then, how about you stop jawing and follow orders!” He released her collar and shoved the young woman away.

“Holy hell,” Tessa hissed. “That
is
him.”

The moment the young soldier was out of eyesight, the man’s stern expression fell. The spotlights crossed paths for a fraction of a second a few yards ahead of him, illuminating the deep lines in his forehead and the grimace that pulled his jaw tight. With an inaudible swear, he spun on his heel and stomped off toward the building across from our hiding spot. Tessa grabbed my arm and squeezed.

“
He’s
our plan D,” Tessa muttered pointing at the man’s retreating form. “This is how we get—.”

“On it.” I tore my arm free and burst out from behind the bin.

I sprinted after him into the dark and dusty chasm between the two large buildings. I had no idea what I was going to do when I caught up with this guy, only that he was somehow our ticket into the facility. That would put me one step closer to finding my brother. At this point, every move I made would be a gamble, but it didn’t matter. I was all in. My breath rushed in and out to the beat of my boots against the ground.

A motion light flooded the area with a washed out yellow light as the man came to a stop in front of a brown, metal door. He holstered his weapon and withdrew a set of keys from his pocket. His back was turned, and he seemed distracted. I
took a deep breath, and I leaped. At the last second, he spun toward me, his elbow slicing a wide arc toward my head.

I threw my arm up and adjusted as much as I could in mid-air, but the blow still landed, hard, against the side of my head. The impact knocked me sideways and sent Louie clattering to the ground out of my reach. I managed to keep my feet beneath me. For a second.

He rushed me in a low crouch, dropped his shoulder, and buried it in the middle of my thigh. My body flew up over his shoulder and crashed hard onto the ground. With no other means of defense, I rolled onto my back and thrust both feet toward him as he lunged toward me.

My kick landed squarely in his gut. He didn’t go down, but I threw off his center of gravity long enough to scramble to my feet. A coil stretched tight in my chest and my vision sharpened. He took a swing at me. I ducked to the side, and his fist flew over my head. He took another, and it sailed wide as I jumped out of his reach. The redheaded man spun on me. I tore the knife from my pocket, flipped it open, and held it out in front of me.

“Please…I don’t want to hurt you,” I huffed, pushing back against the rage building in my chest. “Just open…the door.”

“No can do, sweetheart,” he smirked at my blade and yanked the gun from his holster.

“Idiot,” I growled.

Fire erupted in my belly, and the world went still. Silence and sweet numbness enveloped me and my vision narrowed to a point. A thick vein in his neck pulsed rapidly, beckoning to be severed. It would be easy. His blood would be warm on my skin. The coppery tang of it would fill the air.

“Freak!” The man’s eyes went wide in horror. He raised his gun, his finger tight on the trigger.

“Weaver, no!” Tessa shouted, darting out from the shadows.

She lunged forward and threw herself between the redheaded man and me. The barrel of his gun was pointed directly at Tessa’s head. Ty’s long, spear-like weapon was pointed at the man’s head, along with Falisha’s gun, and various other shaking blades and blunt objects.

Not yet, baby girl.
A warm hand landed on my lower back and the waves of fire in my chest receded.

Daddy?
I yelled out to him in my head. Or maybe out loud. I couldn’t tell.

“Keep it together, Liv,” Zander whispered into my ear, gently pinning my arms to my sides. “Close your eyes and breathe through it. It will pass.”

“What the fu—?” he groaned.

“Goddamn it, Weaver,” Tessa yelled, her own gun raised. “Stand down!”

“Cavossi?” The man’s eyes narrowed to slits. His head shook back and forth in confusion. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Get that thing out of my face, Weaver,” Tessa growled, shoving the barrel of his gun aside with her arm. “And I am here to stop you and your men from making the biggest mistake of your lives. You’re being lied to. We all were.”

“What are you talking about?” He lowered his gun but kept it ready. “And how are you even here, right now? My men searched that airport. I was told there were no survivors.”

“And there won’t be if you don’t open that damn door,” Tessa pressed, dodging my glances. “I am here to help, Weaver, but I can’t do that standing out here with a target on my ass.”

“You were
supposed
to be here, helping, all this time, Cavossi,” he glared at her. “Security was your department, remember? You were my C.O., and you never showed up. Look around you. This place is a damn cluster!”

“Better late than never,” Tessa said, grabbing him by his sleeve and dragging him toward the building. “Now, open that damn door, Weaver. That’s an order.”

“Ma’am,” he grunted.

With a quick glare in my direction, the redheaded man bent at the waist and scooped his keys up from the ground near the door. This time, he kept his gun in hand and Tessa over his shoulder, his gaze traveling back and forth from my face to the key mechanism. Once he had the door open, he swung it in, and stood aside, clutching his sidearm tightly in his hand. I scooped Louie up off the ground on my way in, frowning at the new chip in his blade.

“Who the hell are these people, Cavossi?” Weaver asked as we filed through the door after Tessa.

I could feel his eyes trained on the back of my head. I sensed his trigger-finger tightening. The heat inside my body had started to wane but the urge to saturate the parched earth with a river of the redheaded man’s blood had not. I could still hear his heart beating more clearly than my own, calling out to me.

“Breathe, Liv,” Zander said, tightening his grip on my arms.

Just a little longer, Livvie.

It felt like ages since I’d heard my father’s voice. Tears sprang to my eyes. I swallowed them back, dousing the flames in my gut. The embers still burned, waiting for the slightest gust of wind to set them dancing again.

“Friends. I vouch for them.” Tessa said, stepping between Weaver and me to close the door. His eyes drifted to mine, then locked on Louie. He opened his mouth to speak, but Tessa cut him off. “
All
of them.”

The door slammed shut, and the whining pitch of the emergency sirens dwindled to a dull hum. The hallway lights flickered and hummed, and the clamor of distant voices echoed around us.

“Hmm,” Weaver grunted, pushing past us. “What the hell is all this about, Cavossi? If you are here to help, as you say, you could have walked up to the front gate. What’s with the cloak and dagger routine?”

“We couldn’t risk it, Weaver,” Tessa said stomping up to him. “You’re being lied to.”

“This is the military, Cavossi. You know as well as anyone that being lied to is in the job description,” Weaver shrugged, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. “Any chance you want to elaborate? What, exactly, am I being lied to about?”

“Everything,” I said, stepping forward.

By the time my foot hit the floor, his gun was in my face. His nostrils flared, daring me to give him a reason, any reason, to pull that trigger. His jaw clenched, and the vein in his neck pulsed. My mouth began to water, and the coals in my chest flickered to life. Weaver’s eyes widened, swishing from mine to Tessa’s as his finger tightened on the trigger.

Not yet,
my father urged
. Hold it together.

Zander stepped to my side, a low growl rumbling in his chest. I rolled my neck to the side and exhaled deeply, willing the beast back down. It was there, just below the surface, begging to be let out to play. I wanted nothing more than to unhook the leash and let it run.

Breathe in…breathe out.

“These people are not sick,” I said, squaring up to the gun pointed at my head. “If they were, they’d have leeched out by now, or they’d be dead. The rest of us are just…different.”

“She’s right,” Tessa said, stepping up next to me. “I’ve seen it myself. Not everyone that is infected goes dark. The dangerous ones would have turned days ago, Weaver.”

“But, Dr. Zucker—,” he began.

“Doctor Zucker is a liar and a damn monster,” Riley blurted. Her brows knit and she cocked her head to the side, “But you already knew that, didn’t you? You don’t trust her.”

“And he shouldn’t,” Eli said. “She’s a part of all this.”

“It’s more than that, though. He feels guilty,” Megan stared at Weaver, rubbing absently at her temple. “Extraction? What is extraction?”