Death and The Divide (24 page)

“Mm, mm, mm.” She tried shaking her head, but it couldn’t move in the restraint. No! Her inner scream left her empty and raw.

A pinch and a sting initiated the local anesthesia. The scanner whirred and clicked, and Manson placed a mask over his face then leaned over her. He held the small probe positioned like a stylus in his big paw. She silently begged him to look at her. If he could see the anguish in her, maybe he would stop. But he didn’t.

A moment later, he finished. He retracted the probe, moved the scanner, and placed an adhesive pad over the small hole in her belly. He never allowed his gaze to meet hers, never said another word. After lifting the sterile field canopy, he stared at the probe in his hand for a moment then left the room.

She squeezed her eyes shut, letting warm tears trail down her temples and into her hair. If he’d raped her, she wouldn’t feel any less lost and invaded. He’d take what he wanted from Linc, too. Now he would create his blasphemous key to solve the scourge he’d created. Fuck him. She gritted her teeth. Fuck him.

Chapter Twenty-Four

A soldier came to remove the webbing from Linc. As much as he wanted to jump up and throttle the man, he remained limp, trying to process the disaster of Dr. Louis Manson. How could he have sunk so low?

“You can get dressed,” the soldier said, holding his blaster ready. “I’m instructed to take you and Miss Moralez to the lowest level so we can close off that section and lock you in.”

His anger had burned out when Manson left the room with his sample probe, a gleam of anticipation in his eyes. The scientist had remained silent throughout the procedure extracting Linc’s sperm. It was done. He couldn’t stop him. Defeat left him deflated. No doubt when the plan succeeded and he no longer needed their DNA, Manson would have them killed. He certainly wouldn’t want the world to know his role in the creation of the doomsday virus.

A trickle of energy moved into his arms and legs, so he swung off the table and retrieved his clothes. The guard waited, giving him no privacy.

“I can’t believe you’re going to let that mad man go free,” he couldn’t help saying, riled that the North’s soldiers had facilitated Manson’s vile plan.

“We’re following orders. The priority is securing the cure,” the man said after a moment, but his expression wavered.

Linc shook his head. The Triumvirate gave Manson free rein as long as he promised a cure? Who knew what they would do once he delivered it? Surely these soldiers would report the man’s dire deeds. Unless Manson planned to kill all of them to protect his secret. The master of parasites might unleash another pet to wipe out the last of the witnesses to his gruesome crime.

He led the way to the lift with the guard behind him. For a couple of seconds, he considered attacking and trying to steal the weapon. The guy could fire before he made a move, though. He liked to hope he still had a way out of this mess, but he was quickly losing optimism.

The lift arrived at the lowest level and its door slid open. Bright light blasted him along with a wave of calypso music, and he threw up a hand to shade his eyes. Did he dream? The sound of waves crashing against a surf and the calls of seagulls met his ears. What the hell? When his eyesight adjusted, the scene of a tropical beach stretched before him.

A panorama mural of a sandy seascape extended to open ocean on the far wall of the round room. In front of it, a pool of clear blue water formed a crescent with a hot tub in the center. Cushioned lounge chairs on fake grass fanned away from the pool. A few colorful beach umbrellas and tables interspersed the loungers.

A figure wrapped in a peach colored robe raised her head from one of the chairs where she curled in a fetal position.

Annaria.

Her expressionless face appeared pale, and her eyes looked huge, accentuated by purple circles under them. She made no move to greet him, just placed her head on the chaise’s pillow.

“Dr. Manson ordered you to stay here for now. You won’t be able to leave this floor.” The guard seemed about to say something else but clamped his lips together and left.

“Hey, you’re alive.” Minlo’s dark head popped up from another chair. He wore sunglasses and had removed his shirt. The white skin of his thin chest was nearly as blinding as the light meant to replicate the sun.

Linc took a few steps further into the room and winced. A stitch of pain caught him when he moved a certain way. A reminder of Manson’s invasion of his body.

“Ria, are you okay?” He went to her chair.

“I don’t know what I am, anymore,” she said in a small voice, not looking at him.

“At least those assholes didn’t put us in the jail cell with the cannibal fucks,” Min said. “I heard one of the guards suggest it. The creepy doctor said he had other plans for you, so they stuck us down here where they can close off the stairway and the lift without affecting other floors.”

The young man left his chair and came to stand beside Linc who detected the scent of coconut oil. Bottles of suntan lotion sat on a counter at one side of the room beside a kitchenette, and a replica tiki bar replete with a dried palm frond canopy.

Min went to sit on the end of a lounge chair beside Ria. “I offered to make her a margarita. There’s a full bar with all the mixers.”

“Did you investigate possible escape routes?” Linc asked.

“Yeah, and you can forget it. We’re sixteen levels below the surface here. The only way in and out is the stairwell or the lift.”

Ria uncurled from her tucked position and pushed back in the chair. She let out a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest as she glanced up at Linc. “Did Manson, you know, take your…”

He nodded and sat on the end of her chaise.

“I feel so invaded,” she said, rubbing her abdomen. “It seems like a small thing until you think about part of your body being removed and used against your will. I mean, it didn’t really hurt much, and it was over in minutes, but an egg is like a tiny me. You know? I would have killed him if I could have gotten my hands on him.”

“I understand completely,” he said. “I feel the same way. The worst part is, it left me feeling defeated. There’s nothing I can do to fight against this. The soldiers seem to think any means to an end. No matter what horrible things Manson does, nothing is as important as stopping the cannibal plague.”

“I hate him, but maybe they’re right.” She sighed. “It has to be stopped. There’s no denying that. If we donate and egg and sperm, is it so bad? Maybe I’m overreacting.”

“I think it’s bad. There has to be another way. Once he joins them and an embryo forms, it’s a life. When he takes a section to extract the DNA, it will no longer be vital. It’s murder as much as if he pulled out a blaster and shot one of us.”

She frowned but didn’t reply.

How could she ponder the morals of this action? It was clear-cut murder. Of course, the lofty Northerner’s didn’t have the same opinion about abortion as the South. He had to remember that.

“Sooo, I’m gonna have that margarita now,” Min said, hurrying away.

“I’m sorry, Linc. It is horrible no matter how you look at it.” She sighed.

“Look, as much as this left me defeated, I still think we have to consider ways out of here.” He brushed a strand of curly black hair from her cheek. A rush of affection for her swept over him, warming his heart. He’d come to admire and respect her during their trials. Through it all, she’d kept going, determined to risk her life for the sake of humanity. A part of him wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her, although he didn’t know how she’d react to such a move.

A spark of interest lit her eyes. “Do you really think there’s hope we can survive this? I have a strong feeling he’s going to kill us when he has his great cure.”

“I’m not going to give up until my heart stops,” he said, strength of determination returning. “Unless this beach is set up as a gas chamber, they’ll have to come for us at some point. We have to think about that and take steps to turn that to our advantage.”

“You mean attack them?”

“If needed. Whatever it takes.”

She bit her bottom lip, staring at her hands in her lap for a while. Then she said, “You’re right. We can’t give up. What should we do?”

He stood and scanned the circular area. “Look for items we can use as weapons and have them ready. Then we can talk about a plan of attack.”

She left the lounger, a little pink returning to her cheeks. “I’ll get dressed. I didn’t have the energy when they first brought me here.”

She picked up a lump of clothing from a chair and headed to a small bathroom off the side of the kitchenette. A weight lifted from him at her acceptance of his suggestion. If she gave up, it would leave him hopeless. That would suck the life from him.

Min wandered over, a glass of green liquid in one hand. He sipped on a straw shaped like a pink flamingo. “This margarita is mondo!”

“Have you seen any surveillance equipment?” Linc asked, wanting to slap the drink out of his hand.

“There’s a camera over there, but it’s not on.” Min pointed to an area over a fake palm tree. “It’s probably part of the original construction, not put there specifically for us.”

“So they might turn it on if they want to see what we’re doing?”

Min shrugged. “If it’s operational. Who knows?”

He advanced on the younger man, fighting to contain his anger. “Will you snap out of your cocoon of pleasure-seeking denial? We are going to die if we don’t figure out a way to beat them. Manson’s going to kill us once he no longer needs our DNA. That means as soon as his cure is legitimized, we’re no longer necessary. He’s not going to let us go and take the chance we’ll tell his secret that he’s not a savior. Don’t you get that?”

Minlo flinched. He lowered his head. “I-I don’t want to think about that.”

“You’d better think about it and stop slathering on suntan lotion and mixing stupid drinks like this is some sort of vacation.”

“I can’t face Ria dying, too. Her sister’s gone and now this. I can’t deal with it.” He placed his glass on a table and covered his face with his hands. “I don’t want anyone else to die!”

Linc blew out a breath. “Okay, okay. I understand. I don’t want that, either. So help me. Put that fantastic brain of yours to work. We have to come up with a defense.”

Min wiped his hands down his cheeks and finally nodded.

“Good. What can we do to rig a trap for anyone who comes here to take us away? What can we do?”

Min glanced around. “I suppose we could make use of those decorations and drop it on them like a capture net.”

Linc swallowed a lump of relief. Min was finally putting his mind to the task. He followed his direction to the wall where fishing nets artfully draped with other nautical items. “What if they have blasters?”

“Then we might want to drop something heavier and knock them out.”

Linc studied the tables and chairs. If they broke them apart, heavy tabletops might prove useful.

Ria left the bathroom, attired in her earlier soft gray leggings and tunic. She looked more like her old self, vital and charged for action. Her appearance boosted his morale.

“I wish we could hear some outside news,” she said, twisting her unruly hair to the back of her head.

“I can help with that.” Min perked up and extracted small items from his many different pants pockets. “They don’t look like anything as separate pieces. That’s why I keep them this way. I suspected they might lock us away without our tech devices.”

Ria’s hand went to her wrist. They had confiscated her comm.

“What’s that?” Linc moved closer as Min assembled another handheld device from the many parts he had hidden on his body. It wasn’t as slick looking as his other one, but its rough appearance didn’t matter if it worked.

“There. Let’s see if it will link to their wireless network.” He fiddled with it and nothing happened. “That’s whacked. I’ll have to make some adjustments.”

“Hurry, we may not have much time,” Ria said.

He moved to sit at a table and pulled it apart, reattaching sections and muttering.

A scraping noise from the ceiling made them all glance up. A silver rectangle about one inch thick but ten feet wide lowered from a slot in the ceiling. Linc strode forward for a closer view. It clicked then stopped its descent.

“It’s a screen,” Min said. “Amazing size. I’m impressed.”

Ria came to Linc’s side. “I don’t think they’re trying to impress us.”

Manson’s face appeared up close, then he stepped back and his torso became visible. He stood in the lab, one hand tucked in the pocket of his white coat.

“There. The link is up. So, Dr. Butler and Ria, I wanted to give you both a front row seat to the greatest discovery that will occur in this century. This will also serve to record the success of my experiment.

“First, we have the now fertilized ova that you both graciously made possible.” He gave a small bow. “I’ve inserted it into the nutrient-rich acceleration fluid. We’ve already achieved eight divisions and the genes have been activated. Here it is in this Life cube.” He held up a small, white square container.

Ria snaked a hand through the crook of Linc’s arm, holding on so tightly her fingers dug into his skin.

“I’m about to extract some tissue, after which, I’ll plot the DNA. Then I can graft the part that can control the virus into its DNA and we can test it on one of our captives.”

“Louis, can you hear me? Please don’t do this. We’ll help you find another way,” Linc yelled.

The scientist continued, unhearing. “This will take a while, so I’m going to turn off the monitor until the sequencing is complete and I’ve aligned the DNA into the virus. Feel free to enjoy the facilities while you wait.”

He placed the cube into a tissue extractor and gave them a big smile. Then the screen went blank.

“Son of a bitch,” Linc murmured, pounding a fist into his hand.

Ria leaned her head against his shoulder. “He’s going to kill us, isn’t he?”

He gave in to his impulse and pulled her into his embrace. She didn’t resist, hugging her arms around his waist as if holding to a life buoy. He stayed that way for several minutes, giving and taking comfort not available anywhere else in this madness.