Nemesis: Book Six (8 page)

K
nox put
the phone to his ear.

He hadn't spoken to Will in a few hours, and now it appeared that they would be face to face again, soon. He had barely spoken to the man during this crisis, yet couldn't trust anyone else. His only brother in arms here was Will, a lone man walking around an alien land.

The phone rang twice.

"Will."

"We're coming down there," Knox said.

"Who?"

"Marks and me."

"What the fuck are you talking about? They're letting him out of the bunker?" Will said.

"Yes. Things have … reached an untenable space. The disease Marks created, it's going to destroy the world's core if its not stopped. That's why we're coming, at least that's the cover story."

Will chuckled. "He's planned every move, maybe since the very beginning. He's ahead of everyone, all of us, anyway. He won't be ahead of her, though."

"I don't know," Knox said. "I heard her, or rather, I heard the woman that deserted—"

"Rigley?"

"Yeah, that's her name. The alien was using her to speak—"

"Jesus," Will said, interrupting again. "That's what was happening."

"You saw it?"

"I think so, yes."

Knox continued, "I heard her, the alien, and she's scared, Will. I don't think she knows how to stop this. Whatever Marks has put into motion, he's the only one that can do anything about it. He's somehow made it so that the antidote to the disease only activates if his blood is involved, meaning if he dies, it's all over."

"Well, things are fucked, I supposed. Not much has changed on that front."

"What have you found?" Knox said.

"Rigley, for one. Or what's left of her."

"Where are you?"

"So, it appears the alien has holed up in a house down here. She's not in it right now, but there's some weird shit happening, regardless. One of the kids I was originally chasing, Michael Hems, he's here, except something is changing in him. He's huge. Like NFL linebacker status. Rigley says there are more people too, that they're in the back room, the whole family."

"Have you gotten to them?" Knox said.

"Not yet. I'm outside watching Rigley pace, but I think I'm about to try. There's a window, she says, to the room the family is staying in. I just hope she doesn't have me climb face first into the room with that Frankenstein thing. I don't think Michael Hems is inside that body anymore."

Knox didn't say anything for a few seconds, just looked at the door in front of him. Marks would come to it soon, and then it would be time to go. They were heading to a land where kids turned into monsters and women lost their minds.

"Are you going to be able to do anything?" he said after a few seconds.

"I don't know, Knox. I really don't. I think I'll be able to get into the house, but after that, I don't know what I'm going to find."

Knox nodded to himself. "Things are fucked."

* * *

M
arks actually didn't show
up at the door telling Knox it was time to go.

No, Knox found him with the president. What did it mean, the two of them together? Knox didn't know and he didn't give a damn at this point. The die was cast and Knox would be in Grayson by nightfall. If these two plotted together, then who gave a hoot in hell? The world would end when Marks saw fit, apparently, regardless of what anyone did.

Knox stood with his back to the door; Marks stood behind a chair and the president still sat.

"I talked to Will," he said.

"Where is he?" Trone said.

"He found the alien's base, a house in Grayson. She's not there he says, but a family is—"

"A family?" Marks interrupted.

Knox looked to him, his face showing not a single emotion. "Yes, Will said he saw one of the kids that they originally went down there for. Michael Hems. He says the kid is distorted though, like something is growing inside him, making him huge. Will doesn't know much else, but he's about to go inside."

"He didn't say anything else about the family? Why they're there? What they're doing?" Marks said.

Knox didn't like that Marks' interest was piqued about this. He didn't like Marks' interest piquing for anything, really, but especially not now-—when they were heading to said family.

"No, nothing else. Why?"

Marks smiled. "No particular reason, I just find it interesting that one of the original kids involved in all this is back with the alien, or the alien's base at least. Don't the two of you?" He looked to the president and Knox followed.

"I don't think it really matters at this point," Trone said. "You have to go down there, regardless, both of you—because I'm certainly not letting him go alone." Trone looked at Knox as he finished the sentence, and Knox felt relief at the statement. If they had been plotting, there wasn't a thing he could do about it, but it was still nice to know they saw eye to eye—that the hour Knox spent away hadn't allowed Marks to work any voodoo magic on the president.

"Absolutely right," Marks said. "We still have to go; I just thought I'd probe a little deeper. Is Rigley there?"

Knox looked at him, tilting his head slightly. "Why would that matter?"

Glee lived in Marks' eyes, bouncing around like fireflies at night. "Well, we wouldn't want to leave one of our own down there, if we can rescue her, right?"

"Even a deserter?" Knox said.

"She may be able to give us some insight into the alien species. It wouldn't be a bad idea at all to try and bring her back in when this is over. Did he find her?"

He didn't believe a word coming from Marks' lips. Marks wouldn't try and debrief Rigley so that he could better understand the alien. He was going to Grayson to
become
the alien.

"Yeah, he found her," Knox said and then turned back to the president. "When would you like us to leave?"

"What do you say, Marks? When?"

"Within the hour."

* * *

R
igley wasn't going
to make it. Will should have killed her already. Just put her out of her misery. She wasn't quite like a dog with rabies, not Old Yeller--more like a beetle with half its legs ripped off. Why watch it squirm around, trying to find some release for its pain, when none would come? The only humane thing to do was to pull his weapon and end it for her.

But he didn't.

He watched her pace, having just 'hung up' with Knox. She paced and mumbled, paced and mumbled, picking at her thinning hair and the scab marks across her flesh. She'd been strong once. Talented. She'd controlled divisions of the most advanced killers in the world. Now she didn't know reality.

Why let her keep going like this?

Maybe because you had a part in making her?

Maybe. Maybe to all of it.

"Rigley," he said.

She stopped walking and looked at him, but didn't say anything, her eyes wide as if she'd forgotten he was there.

"It's time to go back to the house."

She nodded, though Will wasn't sure she understood at all.

"Are you ready?" he said.

She nodded again. Will decided if she fell behind, or didn't react as he needed her to when they started their run, he'd kill her. Painless and quiet, he would snap her neck. He couldn't risk her fucking this up; though, he already was by keeping her around.

"Here's the plan. We're going to run, head around the back of the house and stay low when we get there so anyone looking out windows won't see us. We're going to stay close to the house, and you're going to tell me the room that the family is in when we get to it. Then we hop in the window. You got all that? Quick and simple."

Another nod.

Will closed his eyes and dropped his head. This was idiocy, keeping her around. She would get him killed, sure as the sun would shine tomorrow.

"Let's go," he said.

* * *

W
ill stayed low
, following the wall. He looked behind him and saw Rigley, still there, quiet as he. Her eyes weren't full of cunning and determination like before—in her past life—but it seemed the training drilled in over years and years had taken hold. Which was all that mattered.

"What room?" he whispered.

It took her a few seconds, and Will could practically see the synapses firing in her head, her eyes giving away the slow processing inside.

"Two over," she whispered back, and whether it was training or mimicking Will, he was glad for it.

Will turned back to the front and saw the window. He would have to peek his head up, and then he'd have to hope that he saw humans standing inside, instead of the freak from earlier or—even worse—Morena. Rigley could be lying about everything, or simply didn't know the truth; all of that was completely within the realm of possibility.

He moved forward, staying low, his feet quiet over the dead grass from where the white strands peeled back. He heard Rigley moving behind him, only slightly louder. He was under the window, and knew that he could stick his head up; but if anyone or any
thing
was in the room, they would see him too.

Will reached up to the air tight latch and pulled, a small sound escaping as air rushed out.

He slowly took the helmet off and placed it down in front of him. The whole damn thing was a nuisance, but he had to keep it with him no matter what—as long as he had no other way to communicate with Knox. He turned so that he faced the window and slowly stood up. His eyes passed the threshold and he saw ….

* * *

W
ren thought
that he could believe anything he saw for the rest of his life. He thought that nothing in this world or universe could present itself and he doubt it. If The Devil appeared right now on a knee, one hand on his cock and the other holding an engagement ring, ready to propose—Wren would have simply told The Devil no.

Yet, he didn't believe this.

The man who showed up at his house, nearly drawing his gun because he wanted to find Michael, stared back at him.

Wren didn't know what his own eyes looked like, but the man in front of him seemed to feel the exact same way—disbelief and shock climbing over his face like a man scrambling up a rock slide.