Escape (50 page)

Having been able to find the end of Handell's sentence in his thoughts, Fesha stepped closer to him and demanded, “Where is that?”

Doctor Coragail appeared beside the elder doctor. “Doctor Handell? Are you all right?” He shook Handell's shoulder lightly, and the older man fell over with a grunt. “Doctoor?! Speeek tooo eee
 
.
 
.
 
.
” And with those slurred words, Doctor Coragail crumpled to the floor beside Handell, where he lay gazing blankly up at the ceiling, his eyes blinking slowly and heavily.

Director Lesteran loomed over them, grinning more broadly than ever. Fortunately, she had managed to glean the answer to her question from Handell's mind. It had been on the tip of his tongue, and his mind had been all but screaming the answer at her as he'd tried to verbalize it with his numb and useless tongue.

“Sweet dreams, gentlemen,” Director Lesteran said, and then strode from the room. She locked the door behind her, so that no one would breeze into the room, thinking it unoccupied, and find the two doctors collapsed within. The doctors would have to let themselves out when they woke up.

* * *

Jilly watched Doctor Handell reenter the examination room
—
with no sign of either Doctor Coragail or the short, chubby woman who had asked to speak with the two doctors in private. While they were gone, Ferrel had confided in Jilly his inability to read the chubby woman's thoughts, and Jilly had privately wondered how some people were able to shield their thoughts. It would be nice to know, if only to retain a measure of privacy around Ferrel. Out of curiosity, she tried to read Doctor Handell's thoughts now.

He turned to face them and regarded her silently, his eyes glittering. Either his thoughts were also shielded, or he wasn't having any. Perhaps certain people were naturally harder to read
—
somehow more mentally withdrawn than others. Jilly tried to remember if she had ever been able to read the elder doctor's thoughts. She couldn't recall one way or the other.

“Under the circumstances,” the doctor began, smiling disconcertingly at them. “The director feels it would be best if you two were removed to a more secure area.”

“And what area would that be?” Ferrel asked, sounding very suspicious.

Jilly knew what he was thinking
—
literally
—
and without being able to read Doctor Handell's intentions, she couldn't help wondering the same thing: were they about to be taken to a
secure
facility where they could be experimented upon? Where scientists would try to uncover the secret workings of the nano virus in their blood, regardless of the consequences to its hosts? Ferrel was right. They were no longer patients.

They were prisoners.

“Do not be concerned,” the doctor said, as if he could read
their
thoughts. “You will be taken to one of the lower levels of the medical center, where we will be able to perform tests and devise treatments without the prying eyes of so many strangers. It is as much for your security as for ours.”

“Assuming we believe you, where are you taking us?” Jilly asked.

“Come with me, and you will see,” the doctor said, opening the door.

She hesitated, eyeing the open door and the doctor who was now standing in the hallway waiting for them.

Ferrel turned to her.
Like you said, how is a medical center going to keep us prisoner, anyway? Let's see what he's talking about before we try to bust out of here.
With that, Ferrel strode out into the hallway. Jilly followed a moment later. When they were both in the hallway, standing on either side of the doctor, Handell surprised them both by dismissing the guards outside the door. Then he turned on his heel and began walking down the hallway.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until they reached a bank of lift tubes. The doctor pressed the down arrow and they only had to wait a few seconds before one of the tubes chimed and opened to admit them. Once they were inside, he punched the button numbered 55
—
more than 50 floors down from them. Jilly found herself wondering what was on that level, and whether their chances to escape would be diminished down there. She could tell from Ferrel's thoughts that he was also worried, but he had a secret comfort tucked away inside his tunic: the neural disruptor he'd swiped from one of the patrollers he'd killed inside the tram car. Remembering how he'd dealt with those patrollers, Jilly wondered why he took comfort from a weapon rather than his newfound ability to kill people with his thoughts.
Old habits,
she supposed.

The lift tube doors opened, and revealed a long, gray, alloy-walled corridor beyond. Bars of yellow lighting dimly illuminated the corridor from the runners along the floor and ceiling, and the corridor appeared entirely deserted. The doctor stepped out of the lift. “It is not much further. ”

They followed him into the corridor, both of them wondering:
what isn't much further?
As they walked down the corridor, they passed door after door to either side, each one numbered in bold white numerals.

“What's on this level?” Jilly asked, her head turning from left to right and back again. She still couldn't see anyone, and the corridor hadn't branched or intersected any other. It was as though the entire floor were composed of one long corridor and whatever rooms lay behind the numbered doors.

The doctor walked all the way to the end of the corridor, and she watched him place his hand on the palm scanner beside the door furthest from the lift tubes. The door slid open with a metallic swish and clank, and he gestured for her and Ferrel to precede him into the room.

Jilly frowned into the darkness beyond the door, unable to determine what was in there. She turned to the doctor and said, “After you.”

He hesitated briefly, then smiled broadly and looked at Ferrel. “You have something for me.”

Ferrel frowned and took a step back. “No, I don't,” he said, his hand straying to the lapel of his tunic. Jilly was watching him carefully, mentally telling him not to pull his gun yet. The situation hadn't called for it. After all, what was one old doctor going to do to restrain them? If they wanted to leave, they could easily overpower him. They didn't have to
shoot
him.

“Yes, you do,” the doctor said. “It is right there inside your tunic.”

“There's nothing inside my tunic,” Ferrel said, taking another step back.

“Then why are you thinking about shooting me with it?”

Ferrel's eyes goggled, and he drew the pistol inside his tunic. “How the
kefick
did you know that?” he demanded, pointing the pistol squarely at the old doctor, who merely grinned in response.

Jilly was gaping at the old man. It had to be a lucky guess.

“Answer me!” Ferrel said, shaking his gun. His eyes were flashing, and glowing faintly in the dim light. He sounded furious
—
psychotic even
—
and the doctor just went on grinning.

Jilly sensed Ferrel's intention even before his finger tightened on the trigger. A second later a crackkling burst of blue fire lanced out from the barrel of the pistol. Jilly followed the blinding flash to its target, and saw it impact on the blank wall at the end of the corridor.

“What the kefick?” Ferrel said, and Jilly blinked. Where was the doctor?

She turned back to Ferrel, her eyes questioning, and was just in time to see a blurry flash of the doctor's white coat, a brief struggle, and another crackling flash of blue fire. All in the space of an instant it was over and the doctor was standing over Ferrel's crumpled body, grinning back at her, the pistol pointed at her chest.

Her mouth opened in a scream that was swallowed by another noisy discharge of the neural disruptor. She fell to the floor with a thud, and the doctor tucked the pistol into his coat. Picking Ferrel up with one arm, he walked over to Jilly and picked her up with the other. As he stepped into the darkened room he had opened a minute ago, the lights came on automatically for him.

He scanned the opposite wall. A row of 8, dark, circular transpiranium portals stared back at him like eyes. He started toward them. Upon reaching the first portal, he dropped Ferrel and Jilly unceremoniously and scanned the controls. These were the stasis chambers Doctor Handell had been trying to tell him about before he'd succumbed to the nano virus.

According to his own internal memory banks, the creature who wore Handell's face knew the stasis chambers were designed to maintain a lifeform in whatever state they entered the chamber for an almost infinite duration. They could be used for a variety of purposes, not the least of which to keep these two meddlers out of trouble. Unfortunately the virus had progressed too far for him to simply wipe their memories as he'd done with the two doctors. Their memories were by now backed-up and digitized. If a gap were to suddenly appear, it would be repaired almost instantly. So he had to do resort to more primitive methods.

Slapping a palm to the scanner beside one portal, the creature opened it, and shoved Ferrel inside. He slammed the portal door behind the boy and spent a moment intuiting the controls to activate the chamber. They were fairly straightforward. A few button presses later and the chamber hummed to life, a faint blue light emanating from within. He repeated the process with Jilly and then left the room. The door automatically slid shut behind him, and he smiled as he strode down the corridor back to the lift tubes. It would be a long, long time before anyone discovered them here. And by that time it wouldn't matter how much anyone knew. By then, no one would actually want to combat the virus. Who in their right mind would choose frailty over strength?

Eventually, the human race would thank them. Their invasion would be lauded as a turning point in their evolution. It should have been thus a long time ago, and would have been so had a cowardly few not fled.

As the creature punched the up arrow on the lift tubes' control panel, he wondered how the mission directors planned to prevent history from repeating itself. Every human had to be saved in order for their weakness to be permanently purged. It was their destiny to save humanity, and this time they had to succeed.

No matter how long it took.

The lift tube opened and the creature stepped inside. He punched the number for the uppermost floor, and as he rode the lift tube up, his body seemed to dissolve into a hazy gray cloud. A moment later, the cloud solidified, his features and clothing now rearranged into those of Madam Director Fesha Lesteran.

Chapter 30

K
ieran Hawker awoke to a quiet whir and hum of machinery. He could also hear the sounds of muted conversation, quickly growing louder.

“You really think these two pilgrims are terrorists?” one voice said. “Look how they're dressed.”

“Could be part of their cover,” another voice said.

Who were they? With a flash of recollection, he remembered the patrollers who had answered their request to get into the city with stun blasts. Kieran decided to keep his eyes shut and pretend to be unconscious a while longer, at least until he had a better idea of where he was, and how he could use the situation to his advantage. He had a feeling that the patrollers didn't know he was awake. Flexing his wrists experimentally, they ground into his restraints. That wouldn't be a problem. The patrollers had no way of knowing that their restraints couldn't hold him.

“Well, they look like Constantics to me,” returned the first voice. “What are you going to say to the commandant? You know Constantics aren't allowed inside the city.”

“These are extenuating circumstances.”

“I hope so, because
—
what the?”

Kieran heard a few more startled exclamations, a strangled cry, and then: “Where is she?” Followed by the rising, high-pitched whine of a neural disruptor's capacitor abruptly cut short. He heard armor clattering, and then there was another strangled cry, and Kieran realized he no longer had the luxury of pretending he was unconscious. In a sudden, fluid motion he sat up and spread his wrists, snapping his restraints with a metallic twang.

At first he didn't realize what he was seeing. A vaguely familiar blur was careening from one patroller to the other. He looked around quickly, and realized that he was inside a transport car of some kind. All around him patrollers were slumping over their seats and clattering to the floor in the wake of that blur, with no sign of what had happened to them. When Kieran tried to focus on the blur, it resolved into a familiar shape.

Dimmi.

Mere seconds later, she stopped and the last patroller clattered to the floor. She turned to him with a predatory smile, her red eyes glittering fiercely, and said, “Let's go find our
friends
.”

* * *

When they reached the Tekasi Medical Center, Kieran went to the nearest information terminal and began a search for Jilly Claassen and Ferrel Catrel. The computer spent a moment searching its patient directories, then informed him that the patients he was looking for had checked into the ER and been treated by a Doctor Coragail about an hour ago. According to the computer, they hadn't checked out of the medical center yet, meaning they were probably still being treated.