Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3) (8 page)

Josh pulled his hands apart. A large dead bee lay crumpled in an oily smear on his palm.

“Burn it.” Josh’s voice was dark and angry as he glared at the dead insect. We all knew he spoke to Faith, and that he could handle the flames.

Faith complied by reaching her hand out to shorten the range. A brief blast was all it took to eradicate the remains.

“Let’s end this place.” Cole gripped the door until it crunched.

Chapter 9

Josh pulled into a parking spot at the outer edge of the estate’s visitor parking. We were all rattled. I comforted myself knowing we’d found the right place and the Terra Nova ordeal would end soon. Everything else we dealt with after that could be managed without the human race on the line.

“We’ll need new disguises again.” Melissa seemed the most levelheaded of all of us as she carefully re-clipped her hair. “We should be tourists, preferably from a non-English country so we can easily keep to ourselves.”

“How about a large Chinese family?” Ilya asked.

“Bring it!” said Faith.

The telltale feeling of cool wet air filled the van. My friends blurred around me and slowly resolved. Smooth heads of black hair surrounded me. I glimpsed the glass window next to me and saw the reflection of a pretty teenage girl with full lips and a soft white sweater.

Next to me, Jonah’s hair remained black, but bone straight and sculpted with gel. His crisp collared shirt and khaki slacks weren’t all that different than something he would normally wear.

Cole, Faith, Ilya, and Josh were all wildly uncharacteristic in their preppy outfits and clean-cut hairdos. Melissa turned around and I saw a lavender outfit exactly like one I’d seen her wear at Innoviro. I began to understand more concretely where Ilya’s illusions came from. His mind projected pieces of items and faces he remembered. How intentional those projections were, I’d have to find out over a coffee someday.

“Don’t wander off too far and we’ll be good for the rest of the day,” said Ilya.

“Take a moment and memorize the other faces in this van. If we have to split up and find each other again, you don’t want to grab the first dark-haired person you see.” Josh seemed far less serious with his new face. Fortunately Ilya hadn’t attempted to change any voices this time.

“I’m sure this goes without saying, but Evonatura’s labs will be well hidden. We should be able to gain access both from the main manor house and from some point out in the adjoining woods. We probably won’t find the entrance in the woods, but let’s try to find a way into the house’s basement level.” In her lavender outfit, Melissa regained some of her former snootiness.

Josh examined his face in the rearview mirror. “This is a tourist facility, so areas that are off limits will be clearly marked. We can’t go by the map on the estate’s website because that just showcases the spots they want people to check out. Look for a basement door or stairwell with a rope and/or sign for private or restricted space.”

“Do you still have the tranquilizer guns? If we get past a barrier and run into some form of security, can we drop them without hurting them?” Jonah’s eyes, both familiar and strange, connected with mine.

“For civilians, that’s fine. But for Innoviro and Evonatura, I’m not sure we can take the humane path here.” Cole massaged his palms again. He imparted a far less threatening vibe in his new body. The next adversary who underestimated this man would probably die.

“Shouldn’t we assume Casey, Ivan, and Tatiana are all on site, along with all the Evonatura people from London and this facility?” Faith ignited a test flame on her disguised palm. Satisfied, she closed her fist.

“And my sister? Won’t Gemma be here too?”

“I’ll listen for her. I should hear Casey and Aunt Tat too. I won’t know what he’s thinking, but I’ll be able to sense my father.” Ilya paused as discomfort distorted his face. Was he connecting the primal snarl he had always sensed from Ivan with the cobra-like monster I’d seen in my visions?

“Melissa and I still have the tranquilizer guns, but we don’t know exactly what we’ll find. We may have another Soho on our hands if we’re confronted. Remember what we’re after here. If we see Ivan or Tatiana and there are no witnesses, we should take the opportunity to take them out,” said Josh.

“But I’m talking about innocent people.” Jonah’s voice got a little louder.

“Anyone involved with Terra Nova is not innocent,” said Melissa, calm but firm.

I couldn’t help but remember Melissa’s own role in Terra Nova. Would she seek revenge today?

“We’re not getting any younger. Let’s do this!” Faith opened the van’s door.

The rest of us piled out behind her. As I took stock of our party, I thought we more resembled a small high school class than a family. Regardless, we would not be what the Innoviro or Evonatura people hunted.

Faith and Melissa led the way to the small ticket booth on the other side of the arch. Melissa pulled out her wallet again. I considered her reaction if I asked her where the money came from. Had she been that well paid at Innoviro? Or was she able to create a portal into a bank vault and take what she needed, like her surprise black dress in London?

The Chatham Park manor house was a grand Victorian home. Its gray brick and stone pillar exterior implied a library rather than a home, but little touches gave it away. Vases and knicknacks adorned windowsills on the upper level. A restored horse buggy had been posed next to a carriage house.

We crossed the estate lawn via the manicured stone path. The royal vibe from Regent’s Park emanated from Chatham too and I felt as though an aristocrat would stride past momentarily.

“Good afternoon!” said a short round woman dressed as a Victorian housekeeper. “Have you dears been given your tour yet? We’re just startin’ another group now. Come on.”

The housekeeper tour guide didn’t wait for our reply. She seemed not to expect a dialogue. She gestured fervently and we obeyed. Josh frowned at each of us and I knew he meant for us to keep quiet. Since none of us spoke Chinese we all stayed silent. The housekeeper ushered the rear of the tour group we joined into the house’s lobby.

The Chatham Park house was as impressive inside as out. Two staircases curved together connecting two sides of the main lobby to a landing on the upper level.

The main tour guide was a man in a black tuxedo with a white bowtie and white gloves. His clothing had seen better days, almost a genuine antique as well. “Now, ladies and gents if you’ll just follow me, we’re on our way through to the main sitting room. We’ll go through to the library and dining hall from there.”

As our group began to move, I gave Jonah a gaze of approval and I thought to my brother,
This could work in our favor. We get to thoroughly examine everything in the house and we won’t be suspected of anything sketchy.

Ilya rolled his eyes, but began to ponder the idea.

The tour guide described the duke and duchess who last lived in the house, their family’s heritage, and why the home was eventually donated to a public trust.

If I had been free to lose myself in the drama of old world aristocracy, it would have been an engaging tour. The house was beautiful and it had been full of fancy people leading privileged lives. I could separate my actual life from the dream of their past and I surprised myself at feeling no bitterness at their charmed existence.

We shuffled from the sitting room into the library, on to the dining hall, through the huge kitchen ringed with bright copper cookware hanging from hooks, and up a narrow stairwell to the servant’s quarters. We made our way along an upstairs corridor to the family’s wing of bedrooms and guest rooms. It was hard to imagine that somewhere in this massive house Ivan and his accomplices were manufacturing the horror of Terra Nova.

Several hallways not taken and doors not labeled caught my eye throughout the tour. Each time I saw a potential door to a stairwell or hall to a secret passage, I shouted mentally at Ilya. It did no good for our route though. Our housekeeper guide remained ever vigilant making sure we didn’t stray off course.

Back on the lawn in front of the house, the tuxedo guide finally announced the tour’s conclusion and the group dispersed.

“You dears have a lovely time at Chatham Park. Ask at the front gate or find one of the staff if you need anythin’ at all,” she said a bit too loudly before she bowed and left.

Faith craned her neck around to watch the woman leave. “What was with that bow?”

“Maybe she thinks we’re Japanese.” Cole shrugged his shoulders.

Melissa smoothed her pencil skirt and adjusted her blazer. “Does it matter?”

“No it doesn’t. That woman has nothing to do with anything. Did we all get a good look at the doors and halls with potential to connect downstairs?” Josh watched the building as though it could still convey information.

“We should split into three groups. Melissa and Cole, with me on that stone corridor off the kitchen. Irina and Jonah, take that wood door in the-,” Josh stopped short as a cry came from the main house behind us.

A shrill shriek followed the cry. The sound was as unnatural coming from that opulent building as if a lion roared in the middle of an urban mall. Another scream pierced the air and more sounds of vocal alarm rang out.

A woman ran out the front door. It was the Mojave coyote in Utah all over again. Her eyes and mouth spewed blood. She clawed at her shirt neck helplessly. The woman vomited. A foamy blend of blood and digested food flowed from her mouth. She heaved again, a gagging cough. Then, she fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.

I stepped closer to her. I stopped as I caught sight of a shiny clump on the woman’s back. I barely made out the shape of a large bumblebee before the insect melted into oil and slid off the knit fabric.

More tourists poured out of the manor house in varying stages of extreme illness. Men and women ran in all directions, flailing, vomiting, and shouting. Bees buzzed around them hovering and darting in, received by more shrieks and cries of pain. I felt utter helplessness as the dying crowd panicked around us. Instinctively we formed a circle, backs in, faces out.

“How do we stop it?” Faith yelled over the cries, gurgles, and screams of the victims.

“We can’t!” Josh’s arms shot out, protecting Melissa on his one side and Faith on the other.

“We don’t have a cure. We don’t even know if there is one,” said Jonah.

“Downstairs! They might still be here. We have to catch them!” yelled Josh.

“Irina! Gemma’s here. Over there! Follow me,” Ilya pointed to a woodshed behind the carriage house.

Josh, Melissa and the others ran into the manor house after the Innoviro and Evonatura demons responsible for the massacre unfolding in front of us.

I followed my brother to the shed. We reached the door and saw it chained before we could even try the handle.

“She’s terrified. They left her here as bait.”

“Gemma! It’s me! It’s Irina! We’re here. You’re going to be fine. Drop the illusion on all of us. We’ll freak her out even worse if you don’t.” I felt cool air around me and I saw my brother back to normal.

Out of nowhere, Cole elbowed me out of the way and ripped the chain away like ribbon. He yanked the thick wood door off its hinges and swooped into the shed, picking up Gemma effortlessly. Her long straight hair fell behind her like a curtain of wheat. She gaped up at him with a mixture of fear and awe.

“Who are you?” Gemma asked shakily, her face pale.

Cole carried her a few steps onto the lawn and put her down when he realized she was unharmed.

“He’s with me. He’s a friend from Innoviro,” I said.

“I went to Victoria to look for you. Ivan found me and told me everything. He said you got caught up in some kind of cult. He wanted me to help you if we could find you. What’s . . . happening here? Tatiana said that your brother, I mean our brother, would hear me and it would draw you both out. They wanted to help you so badly,” said Gemma, her voice still uneven. Her frightened eyes held my gaze until something in her clicked. “You’re not in a cult, though, are you?”

“Let’s worry about setting the record straight after we bring this place down.” I turned to my brother. “Take her to the van. Stay with her.” To Cole, I said, “We need to find Faith and get her to torch the basement.”

Chapter 10

The screams ended. Bodies lay on the lobby floor, in an obscene mixture of blood and vomit, like some sort of overdone horror show. I didn’t see any bees. I scanned the doorways to my right, left, and straight ahead frantically searching for some sign of my friends. “They must have found the basement.”

“We’ll try that stone hall off the kitchen.” Cole headed quickly but carefully through the bodies and made for a shortcut under the curved stairwells straight to the kitchen. The stone hallway had a steel door at the end. Cole ripped it off like tearing down a curtain.

Dark stairs led down to another steel door. I felt a sense of déjà vu and thought of the Innoviro lab level in Victoria. Only this home had much more history and a darker past than the sewers of BC’s capital. This home’s lower level had been built by a man participating in an actual cult. I pictured the cobra king again and shuddered. What legacy had that creature left behind? What had the creature’s remnants evolved into through the millennia? And how?

We reached the second door and Cole popped it open by ripping the doorknob out of the lock assembly. “Nice that this old house doesn’t have vault-style deadbolts. Those ones are messier.”

The hall was dark and an ambulance-style red light flashed above us. I saw figures ahead, past glass windowed walls. “Josh? Jonah? Faith? Melissa?”

“We’re here. We’ve got her! And that damn snake!” yelled Faith.

Cole and I ran down the hall and my friends’ faces came into focus in the dim red light.

We came level with an open doorway and saw Tatiana, frozen in place behind the barrel of Josh’s tranquilizer gun. She held a smooth metal canister. She wore Chester the snake like a wrap around her back, head on one arm, and tail on the other. I saw Josh’s real gun poking out of the back of his jeans, ready for fatal force.

Melissa held her gun relaxed at her hip. Casey lay flat on his back behind Tatiana. Faith and Jonah glared at Tatiana helplessly. Josh stayed cool and motionless as he kept his gun pointed at Tatiana. Cole stood beside me, both of us poised to strike.

“Give us the canister and we’ll leave you alive,” said Josh.

I knew he was lying, but did Tatiana?

“You think this is the last canister? Kill me or don’t. We’ve already sent Terra Nova to the final launch site. From there, we’ll distribute globally. So make your move. Shoot.”

“We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to make sure we’re not killing variants. You showed that same restraint in San Francisco. Why not hold off on launching Terra Nova? We can re-evaluate
The Compendium
and work together on creating space for variants and humans.” Josh eyed her over the barrel of his gun.

He tried to keep her talking, but I couldn’t understand why. I tried to will the canister from her hands telekinetically. It moved, but Tatiana held on tight. I tried again. Her grip was too strong for me.

“We wanted to preserve variant life, where possible. In your case it seems it is no longer possible. With the exception of Ivan’s children. You, we need.” Tatiana glowered at me with malice in her eyes.

“Where is the final launch site?” Melissa asked impatiently.

“You didn’t need our help to find Soho or Chatham Park. Why should I spoon-feed you anything more?” Tatiana spit the word ‘spoon’ with contempt.

“How many other test sites are there? Where are your secondary introduction points?” Josh impressed me with his calm restraint.

I, on the other hand, felt as though my head and heart were about to explode.

“This is getting boring. You have one shot and two targets. I suggest you put me down and play with Chester. Then again, it is a risk. You don’t know what either the snake or I am capable of, do you? Or you could let us pass and cut your losses.” Tatiana smiled a dark green grin.

“Cut our losses?” screamed Jonah. “You killed every human being on this property. The contagion may still spread after help arrives. You might have introduced the virus already! You’re an evil bitch! You and Ivan and your psychotic Compendium partners all deserve to die!”

“That’s a valid point. If you want to stop the spread of the virus here in England, you should probably have your little friend here burn this estate to the ground.”

Josh glanced up from his gun for a moment to better assess Tatiana. He made his choice and lifted the gun back to eye level. Josh fired and a dart hit Chester the snake in his meaty neck. The snake reared and then dropped to the ground.

Tatiana pulled seeds from her pocket and in one fluid motion breathed life into a torrent of vines that burst out at all of us.

Josh and Melissa were knocked to the ground and covered in a thick blanket of foliage. Tatiana broke into a sprint and tore off down the hall ahead. A wall of wiry branches and thick leaves sprang up and blocked the rest of us from following her.

Cole tore through the vine wall and Faith reached out to shoot a thick stream of fire after Tatiana. It was too late. Her pounding footfalls faded away. Cole ripped the thick vine bonds off of Josh and Melissa.

“We can’t let her get away!” said Melissa.

“She’s right. We need to contain this site. They may have found out we were here and rushed the test. Or maybe we got here too late. Either way, Faith, if you don’t torch this place, the pandemic could start here.” Jonah had a firm grip on Faith’s arm, giving her a hard do-this-now stare.

“Get everybody out to the van. Or I’m the only one that’s going to survive this.” Clasping her hands, Faith stretched her arms overhead.

She thrust fire around the lab until a hot orange flame consumed the entire room. Casey and Chester lay motionless on the ground as their bodies caught fire. A lone canister on the back counter caught fire and exploded hot blue liquid.

The liquid transformed to bees mid-air, catching fire as they flew in frenzy around the room.

“Go! Now!” she yelled.

“Get upstairs! We’ll cut Tatiana off in the woods!” said Josh, already running.

“I’ll go for the van.” Melissa opened a portal, stepped through, and shut it behind her.

The rest of us raced back up the dark stairwell, through the kitchen and out the back door into a sculpted garden with a large koi pond and a fountain at the center.

Several men and women had tried to escape, scrambling out of the building into the garden. They lay in macabre positions near the pruned shrubberies and rosebushes. At the end of the yard a wall of green hedge closed in the back of the property.

Cole reached the hedge first and tore a hole which grew back quickly. Josh joined in and the two started tearing uselessly as the hedge branches clawed into the gaps intertwining again in moments.

Faith caught up with us and I looked back at the house. She had done her job well. She shot fireballs at each of the bodies on the ground.

Jonah beckoned the fountain’s water up into the air and doused the ground and the trees around the house. I hoped his experience keeping Faith in check would still serve us well on this scale.

“Should I take out the hedge too?” cried Faith over the crackling of the house fire and the surging fountain water.

“We can’t risk a forest fire!” shouted Jonah.

“I’ve almost got it!” shouted Cole as he tore another huge hole in the hedge and ripped into the earth pulling out a handful of roots.

Cole’s gap was large enough to run through and I made a break for it. I sensed Jonah and Faith behind me. I turned around to see Cole and Josh bringing up the rear as the hedge grew back behind them.

I caught sight of a path ahead and ran to it. The dirt trail disappeared into the trees in both directions. I saw a flicker of movement on my right and bolted toward it.

The earth crunched as my friends hit the path behind me. Our van rumbled farther back, but I ran toward the movement.

Tatiana’s green-streaked head of hair bobbed between the trees and dropped down out of sight. I ran as hard as I could toward the spot where she disappeared.

I reached a mound with wood shutters flat on the ground and I stopped short. There was no lock, but I paused to puzzle over where the tunnel led. I took a deep breath and placed my hand carefully on the seam between the shutters. I pictured Tatiana’s face and the woods melted away.

I was in the tunnel with her, my view bouncing behind her as she ran through the dark. I forced my perspective ahead and slid like a pulse through the black tunnel. A sudden burst of light blinded me and I stood on a lawn behind the ruined brick chapel from my parents’ honeymoon. Ivan’s face appeared in a space between crumbled walls and disappeared again.

I lifted my hand from the shutter door as the van pulled up behind me. I closed my eyes and showed Ilya what I saw in the tunnel.

“We can beat her to the chapel!” said Ilya.

Cole slid the van’s door open. Ilya peeled out. The van rattled through the narrow forest trail until we burst back out onto the country lane. My brother turned the steering wheel so hard the van flew up on two wheels. Then, it slammed back onto the road with a bang, racing ahead.

“Where are we going?” Faith gripped her seat as she leaned forward.

Ilya swerved to pass around a hatchback and veered back narrowly missing an oncoming sedan.

“Are you trying to get us killed?” said Cole.

“Ivan’s still in town at that ruined chapel. If we beat Tatiana to the church, we’ll catch them both!” I said.

Ilya turned back onto the M56 highway, speeding as he wove through regular traffic.

“We’re going to wind up in a police chase at this rate.” Clearly wishing he was behind the wheel, Josh glowered at Ilya.

“Tatiana has a canister of Terra Nova! And wherever they’re going next, they’ve got more waiting. If we stop them now, the whole Compendium grinds to a halt,” said Ilya over his shoulder.

“We don’t know that for sure,” said Jonah.

“This is our best shot,” I said, pleading, hoping Ilya would stay on target and keep blazing into Chester.

“I so sorry Irina! I had no idea they were cooking up a virus! I should have known. All those people died so horribly. I could have done something. I don’t know what, but something. Tatiana sounded so convincing about helping you—all of you.” Gemma’s plaintive lament wasn’t comforting anyone.

“Kid, save your confession for another day.” Faith scowled at Gemma.

“Cut her some slack.” Cole slapped Faith’s shoulder.

“Stop it, all of you. Ilya heard Tatiana’s thoughts. We’re going on that intel,” said Josh as Ilya cranked the wheel hard again.