Pandora's Succession (28 page)

Fox allowed a bit more than an arm’s length between him and the imposter before he followed.
Something wasn’t right.
He looked around. It was just an empty parking lot. The market itself was deserted. If a sniper had him in his sights, they’d have to be outside the market in one of the surrounding buildings. The chance that his phone call was intercepted was unlikely. Maybe the imposter somehow sent out a distress signal. But Fox had searched him from head to toe, he was clean. He didn’t sense an ambush, but his old army instincts kicked in. That’s when he noticed there was someone behind Walsh.

“Stop.”

The imposter obeyed as his hands began to drop slightly.

“Walsh, why don’t you come on out?” There was movement behind Walsh. The back door swung open and out came Dr. Parris with a sidearm pointed at Walsh. Her eyes narrowed and a slight scowl developed as she shook her head slowly. He saw her lips move and Walsh got out. With the opposite hand she shoved him forward, staying a few feet behind him.

Fox felt a slight chill as a gust of wind blew through the parking lot. “Would either of you mind telling me what’s going on?”

“She’s a traitor, and she’s armed with Pandora,” Walsh yelled.

Parris kept an eye on both Walsh and Fox. “Go ahead. Shoot me. You’ll kill me, yourself, and a few million others.”

She better not mean what I think she does.
“I see. Do you mind telling me how you got hold of Pandora?”

“Your partner set us up,” Parris yelled. “His friends in Ares killed Dobbs and Levickis. They were counting on Hashimoto killing me too. Ironically, he saved me.”

It suddenly hit Fox.
I knew it. But wait a minute...of course...the tracking bug in my watch. Only Walsh could’ve gotten close enough to bug it. He could’ve done so before I boarded the plane at Entebbe, while I was in the shower.
“So what has Hashimoto promised you? A life of total bliss after the final holocaust?”

“I don’t plan to go on with them. I’m just as guilty as you are for corrupting what could’ve been a perfect world,” Parris asserted.

Fox noticed the imposter’s hands drop a bit more. “Keep your hands up. I’m still watching you.” His hands went up quickly. “Let me get this straight. We’ve both, in our separate times, helped bring down terrorists and other criminals, and now you’re saying that we were doing more harm than good?”

“You’re a fool. Marx said you wouldn’t understand.”

“Maybe not. But what I
do
understand is that you’ve been brainwashed by a psychopath. And I also know that the real Dr. Nita Parris wouldn’t be easily persuaded unless she was under someone else’s control.”

Parris smirked. “You’re always full of answers, aren’t you?”

Fox clenched his teeth. “You studied Clarity, you know what it does. The only thing is, you don’t want to admit that you’re a victim, do you?”

Parris nudged Walsh below his neck with the tip of her gun as his hands started to drop. They went back up again quickly.

“It’s too bad I didn’t get a chance to get to know you too well,” said Fox. “Although we started off on the wrong foot, I figured you for the type of woman that wouldn’t bend to someone else’s will.” Fox saw the instant change in Parris’s eyes and knew he’d better move quickly. The imposter certainly saw the same thing and both he and Fox dove to opposite sides a split second before he heard a loud
bang
which was instantly followed by an invisible object that flew by his left ear.

Parris was about to take a second shot when Walsh swung out his right arm, caught her arm underneath, sending the second bullet into the sky.

Fox was kicked to his lower back and fell to the ground, causing the Sig to fly from his hand. As he tried to get up, he received another kick to his stomach that flipped him over onto his back. This was not the position to be in, leaving himself at a disadvantage.

The imposter stood above him, with his right leg raised as though to drop a kick on him, when a splatter of blood along with small pieces of bone, muscle, and intestine exploded from his stomach. He dropped to his knees and keeled over onto the concrete as a red ring of blood formed around his torso.

That was the last shot from the HK before Walsh managed to grab hold of Parris’s arm, pulling the gun out of her grip and throwing her onto the hood of the car. Very quickly she spun around and kicked the suppressor from Walsh’s hand before he had a chance to fire a shot. While he was knocked off balance from the impact, Parris spun around the opposite direction and connected a second crescent kick to his jaw, making him stumble the other way. She charged him with a series of combo punches, too quick for him to block. As he stumbled back she pushed as hard as she could against the ground with her feet and propelled herself into the air. With a slightly arched back, she transferred her energy into driving her right knee upwards and struck Walsh in the chest with a flying knee attack. As though he was struck with a sledge hammer, Walsh buckled and fell to the ground.

Fox stared into the eyes of the imposter as his blood poured closer to Fox’s fingertips. His chance of getting any information from him was lost. Fox got up on one knee and felt a hot metal object press against his left temple.

“To answer you, Fox, I’m not bending to anyone’s will. And guess what? I won’t bend to yours either.”

Fox slowly looked up and stared into Parris’s cold eyes, as though a lifetime’s accumulation of anger seemed to fill them. “So that’s it? You’re just going to shoot me?”

“Were you expecting something else?” Parris asked. “Typical of you. You’re so damn arrogant.”

For a short moment, she glanced at his chest. Fox glanced down to see what it was.
Holy shit. Her table napkin.
It hung partially out of his breast pocket. He then looked into her eyes. “I wanted to give it back to you, hopefully when we were on better terms. You want it? Take it. I know how much it meant to Nita Parris. I hope you don’t mind giving it back to her.”

She blinked rapidly and her lips trembled, the scowl vanished, and she breathed hard. She appeared to be struggling, her focus dwindling, as though part of her wanted to shoot him and another part didn’t.

Slowly, Fox got up, keeping both hands held up to shoulder height. He could’ve easily disarmed her, but what then? She might resist, possibly having the same adrenaline rush her test subject did and overpower him.
Better keep the table napkin visible...it’s definitely affecting her.

He smiled at her. “I’m sure this table napkin must bring back some fond memories. The times you ate with your mother, or maybe it was a gift to you. Maybe the last thing you got from her before she passed away.”

At that moment, her hands trembled with the HK. The last thing he needed was for her to accidentally pull the trigger. He slowly inched to the side and lowered his right hand over his breast pocket, took the table napkin and held it out. “Take it. It’s yours.”

With her free hand, she reached over and took it as she lowered the HK. She brought it close to her face and took a deep breath, as though its scent gave her strength.

Fox reached out calmly and took the HK from her without resistance. He tossed it to the ground, pulled her into him, and tightly embraced her.

Parris sniffled as the tears poured. “I killed them. I killed them all.”

“Don’t say that. You haven’t killed anyone.”

“I watched their bodies being eaten by the microbe. I’m the one who released Pandora on Levickis, Dobbs, and the Boeisho agent. Fox, he was still alive and I watched him die right in front of me!”

“You said Walsh set you up,” Fox reminded Parris. “That it was Ares who killed them.”

“But there was an experiment.” Parris wiped away a tear. “Hashimoto’s not even the main person we’re after. He’s working for Dr. Tabitha Marx, and she’s bio-engineered Pandora so it only targets humans. They gave me a demonstration. They dragged in Levickis’s and Dobbs’s bodies, along with a Boeisho agent they captured, and there were mice, and I pushed the button to release Pandora on all three of them. I killed them, Fox and I didn’t even feel sorry for them. I murdered an innocent man in cold blood, I—”

Fox grabbed Parris’s face gently and forced her to look into his eyes. “Listen. You were under their influence. They were controlling you so you would think the way they wanted you to think. That wasn’t
you
who killed them. That was someone else they created. But now you’re Dr. Nita Parris again, and as traumatizing as it may be, you’re going to have to let that go. There was nothing you could’ve done to save any of them. And although I didn’t want to admit it when I first met you, I need you. Especially now, because what Marx is planning is huge. With Ares around, it doesn’t help. You’re the only person I can rely on right now, so we’re going to have to take down both Ares and The Promise on our own. Do you understand me?”

A few seconds went by, and then Parris nodded. There was something about the way that she stared at him, with her lips slightly parted. Raindrops fell, one by one, off each cheekbone and ran like dew on a newly formed leaf. It was just like in the dream. The difference was that she was alive this time, and Fox would never let anything happen to her. But that stare, he hadn’t seen her stare at him like that since...when they first met. As the inside of his mouth moistened, his head slowly gravitated towards hers.

The danger radar went off in his head. From the corner of his eye, he saw movement, enough to make him shove Parris to the side so hard she fell to the ground. He dove for the HK, rolled over on the ground once with it, and shot Walsh three times. Walsh, who was partially standing, lost his grip on Fox’s Sig when the first shot landed below his right shoulder. His spin was counterbalanced by the second shot below the left clavicle, and the third shot went straight to the sternum and threw him back-first onto the hood of the car. His lifeless body rolled onto the ground.

Fox kept his gun aimed at him, somehow expecting him to get up again.
How or when did Walsh turn?
Fox didn’t have the answer. It made him think back to when he was with Sveta. She had told him that she trusted him because he couldn’t be led astray by Ares. Now it was Walsh.
Were there anymore?
He wouldn’t know for now. It was doubtful that Walsh would’ve known all of Ares’s spies.

He didn’t even notice that Parris had already gotten up and was kneeling behind him, calling his name.

“Fox,” she said, and from the tone of her voice it was as though she had already called his name a few times. He felt her hands on his shoulders.

Fox breathed heavily. “I’m here, Jessica.”

There was a moment’s pause, as though she didn’t know how to answer. “I...I know you are.”

The drizzle stopped, and another chilly wind gust blew over him, but it was counterbalanced by the warmness of Parris’s arms wrapped around him. As the wind blew stronger, her grip around him got tighter. Fox then felt a hand slide along the length of his arm to his hand and gently pulled away the HK.

“Are you all right?” she spoke softly into his ear.

Fox didn’t reply at first, but instead, he held onto her embrace as he calmed down. She maintained her hold on him. His heavy panting eased. “I’m better.”

She didn’t let go of him yet, but he didn’t want to let her go either.

“Fox?”

He turned and looked over his shoulder at her. “Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

He stared at her for a moment.
Was this the same woman?
Yesterday they were fighting and now he was in her embrace.

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” He sighed and dropped his head. Whether or not she had feelings for him, he couldn’t let that distract him. He shouldn’t have allowed himself to nearly kiss her. It was completely out of line, even for him. But Parris brought something out of him that no other woman did. It’s what made him serenade her yesterday, made him want to protect her now. He didn’t know what it was, but it made him feel comfortable around her.

They both got up, and Fox turned to her. “We’ve reached a dead end. We don’t have either Walsh or Hashimoto’s henchman to question for information on Pandora’s whereabouts.”

“I know.” Parris walked two steps away and then turned back to him. “By the way, how’d you figure it out?”

“Figure what out?”

“You brought me back to the way I had been before Clarity. How’d you know the table napkin would bring me back?”

Fox took a step towards her. “To be honest, I was buying some time so I could figure out a way to avoid being shot. The last thing I needed was another conflict.”

“I see.” Parris turned around and put both hands on her hips and walked away slowly. She took six paces and then she stopped, turned around and looked at Fox. “What did you just say?”

Fox didn’t want to answer too quickly, and blushed. “I was stalling to avoid being shot, I didn’t—”

“No, no, no, after that. You said something about not wanting another conflict.”

“Yeah, I think I said something like that.”

Parris smacked the heel of her right palm on her forehead. “Oh my God! That’s it.” She smiled with a laugh. “That’s how you bring them back. That’s why Dewan went berserk.”