Hex Read online

  “There are just too many people, Tom,” he said softly. “Not enough of them are mobile. We’d never get out.”

  “We can only take those who can walk by themselves,” Ali said as decisively as she could. “We can’t do anything more.”

  10

  STRIDING THE BLAST

  Melek and Finn raced through the door, almost cannoning into Kez and panting for breath.

  “We got them,” Melek gasped. “But there are more coming!”

  “We need to find that control center,” Wraith told them. “Find a computer terminal so Raven can locate it.” He was already moving, gesturing for Melek to join him. “Finn and Jeeva, bring up the rear. Raven, whatever you do, don’t get yourself shot.” He heard Raven make a derisive noise behind him, but she seemed to be keeping up.

  They thundered down the corridor, turning a corner just in time to avoid gunfire from behind. They were passing rooms which might contain an access terminal but they just couldn’t risk the time to search. Another corner loomed and Wraith skidded around it. Finn and Jeeva were firing behind; presumably the guards were getting closer. Ahead of them he could see an elevator, which must lead to the part of the facility which was underground, and the corridor branched in two directions. He was trying to decide which to take when the elevator doors slid open. A scientist in a white lab coat stared at them in horror and tried to close the doors, but Melek forestalled her. He forced them open, pulling the woman out and knocking her unconscious with a swift blow.

  “Keep the guards back!” Wraith called to the other two gangers, who stayed at the turn of the corridor, firing a fusillade of shots. Kez grabbed some of his stock of explosives and switched them to explode before lobbing them down the corridor one by one. The resultant explosion was loud enough to make Wraith wince, but it seemed to be successful as Jeeva called to him that there was no one else in pursuit.

  Wraith didn’t doubt that more guards were on the way but it seemed that there was a problem with the elevator.

  “What’s wrong?” he demanded as Melek cursed.

  “The panel’s locked down,” the ganger told him.

  “Raven?” Wraith asked, but she shook her head. “It’s a physical lock. I can’t fuse it.” However, she did produce a small tool and set to work on the panel.

  “What’s holding us up?” Finn demanded as he and Jeeva reached the others.

  “The elevator controls are locked,” Wraith told him and Raven looked up.

  “Wraith, try to find another way down,” she told him. “There must be emergency stairs. Try to find where they’re holding the test subjects.” Wraith hesitated for only a second then he nodded quickly.

  “Jeeva, Kez, stay with her,” he ordered and headed down the corridor with the other two gangers.

  Kez looked around nervously, holding the elevator doors open so Raven could work on the panel. Jeeva was watching the corridor warily, holding his gun ready in case more guards should turn up. Suddenly Raven gave a grunt of satisfaction and the panel clattered to the floor of the elevator.

  “Get in,” she told them. “We’ve got to go now!” Kez and Jeeva didn’t need any more persuasion; in seconds they were in the elevator.

  “Which floor?” Kez asked and Raven frowned.

  “We’ll try this one first,” she said, pressing the appropriate button as the doors slid shut. “On the original plans this floor was used for administration—there should be terminals there, even if the control room isn’t.”

  The ride took less than a minute, and as the elevator slowed both Raven and Jeeva readied their weapons.

  “Get back,” Jeeva warned him, and Kez flattened himself against the right-hand wall of the car next to the ganger. Raven had already moved to the other side. As the doors slid open bullets clanged off the back wall and Raven and Jeeva opened fire simultaneously.

  “Explosive!” Raven hissed and Kez quickly switched the one he held to detonate, counted to four, and threw it through the doors. A second later it exploded and there were shouts of alarm. Jeeva quickly leaned out of the elevator and fired several rapid shots. Then he turned to nod at them.

  “Three dead,” he said. “We’d better get going.”

  “There must be hidden vidcams,” Raven said, looking both ways down the corridor they had emerged in. “Kez, find me a computer terminal now!”

  • • •

  Wraith was having no luck finding a flight of stairs anywhere in the maze of corridors. The laboratory had definitely been remodeled and he couldn’t reorient himself enough to locate where the emergency stairs had been on the original plans. They might even have been blocked up by now. Twice they had run into security and had only got free by blasting their way through. That wouldn’t work another time. The whole facility was on alert now.

  Wraith also wasn’t comfortable with killing so many people. But he had forced himself to accept that this was the cost of his sister’s rescue. He rationalized that the scientists had killed thousands here over the years; more blood was on their hands than would ever be on his by killing them. But so much death revolted him and he was relieved that the gangers lacked his scruples. His comlink with Raven came to life—the private link rather than the unit he wore on his wrist.

  “We’re three floors below you, Wraith,” she told him. “But we haven’t found a terminal yet. It would seem the scientists put a lot of their findings on paper first.”

  “Keep looking,” Wraith said aloud and in answer to a glance from Melek, explained: “Raven hasn’t found a computer yet.”

  “Watch your back, Wraith,” his sister warned. “I think there are hidden vidcams all over this place.”

  “Damn!” Wraith exclaimed. “Raven thinks we’re being watched,” he told the gangers. “We’d better find those stairs fast.” There was a sudden yell from Finn as he pushed through a set of double doors ahead of them.

  “Over here,” he yelled back at them.

  “Did you find the stairs?” Melek demanded as they joined him.

  “Service elevator,” Finn corrected, pressing the panel to summon the elevator.

  “Better than nothing,” Wraith agreed. “Let’s just hope they haven’t locked down this one too.”

  His prayer went unanswered. The controls were covered by the same locking panel. This time it was Melek who went to work on it, while Wraith and Finn watched out for guards. Melek was using a laser to cut the panel off, a delicate task, as it could short-circuit the controls before they could use them. Wraith took advantage of an apparent lack of pursuit to contact Raven on his wrist com unit.

  “Raven?”

  “Here,” she answered immediately. “No news yet, brother.”

  “That’s not why I’m calling. Can you guess where Ali is? We’ve found another elevator and we need to know what floor.”

  “One moment,” Raven answered. “I can locate her by her signal. Hang on . . . That’s strange.”

  “What is?” Wraith demanded as Melek called out to him:

  “Got it!”

  “Good work,” Wraith told him and he and Finn squashed themselves into the elevator. Then he spoke into the com unit again: “Raven, I need a floor number.”

  “She’s in another elevator,” Raven told him, in tones of disgust. “God only knows what the stupid kid thinks she’s up to.”

  “Raven!” Wraith shouted into the unit.

  “OK, it’s stopped. Five floors down,” Raven told him. “Now leave me alone. I have problems of my own.”

  Wraith turned to Melek, but the ganger had already pressed the correct button.

  “Sure hope there aren’t more guards waiting for us down there,” the ganger said fervently. “I don’t know how long we can hold out.”

  “I know.” Wraith’s expression was set. “But Raven will take out that security system. We just have to give her time.”

  • • •

  Ali had been nervous about using the elevator at night, certain that the scientists would detect an unaut
horized use. But Tom had insisted that they try to get to Revenge before the gangers arrived. She wondered if his insistence had been partly motivated by the suspicion that, given the opportunity, Ali would leave him behind. She was annoyed by the thought that he didn’t trust her, but admitted privately that he had grounds for suspicion.

  The person she’d been only a month ago wouldn’t have cared less what might happen to Tom. But the events of the last two weeks had changed her. From her encounter with Raven in the network to her capture by the CPS, forces had been in motion compelling Ali to reevaluate her conception of herself and of everyone else. One of those forces had been Wraith. His conviction that the extermination laws were immoral had made her think for the first time of what they actually meant to people besides herself. Her experience in the laboratory had brought that home. She knew she wouldn’t try to double-cross Tom or Luciel. But they couldn’t know that.

  Whatever her misgivings, they seemed to make the elevator trip unnoticed, arriving on the floor where Revenge was without incident. The lights were muted on all the corridors and they passed by the rooms quietly.

  “We should wake them up,” Tom said at one stage. “Get them ready to go.”

  “We’d better not.” Ali shook her head at him. “When my friends arrive they’ll have enough problems without a bunch of kids all over the place.”

  “You’re trying to get out of taking them,” Tom accused.

  “I’m trying to keep us alive,” Ali hissed at him. “And I won’t do anything that could prevent our escape.” If I haven’t done that already, she added silently.

  Luciel pushed open the door to Revenge’s room cautiously and in the dim light they saw a convulsive movement from the bed.

  “Who’s there?” the girl demanded, her voice rising alarmingly, and Ali hastened to reassure her as Luciel touched the panel by the door to activate the lights.

  “It’s me,” she said quickly. “Ali. We’ve come to help you escape.”

  “There is no escape,” Revenge told her and Ali groaned inwardly. Obviously this wasn’t one of the girl’s lucid periods and she wondered how they would escape with someone more than half out of her wits.

  “We’re getting you out of here,” she said as calmly as she could. “Raven’s coming, remember?”

  “Raven . . . ,” Revenge repeated, trying the word out.

  “Ali,” Luciel said softly, calling her attention to him. “She’s still in restraints.”

  “I know.” Ali frowned at them. “I just hope Wraith can do something about that. We’ll have to wait until he gets here.”

  “He’d better get here soon or this escape will end in this room,” Tom said gruffly. Then they all froze as a voice behind them replied.

  “Your escape is already over.”

  • • •

  Kez had run into the scientist as he searched one of the lab rooms, and before either of them had any time to gasp, Jeeva had grabbed the man and shoved him against the wall

  “Where are your computers?” he demanded. “Tell us or die!” The man looked wildly at the ganger, clearly terrified, as there was a soft laugh from behind them. Kez turned to see Raven raise an eyebrow at Jeeva.

  “ ‘Tell us or die?’ ” she repeated.

  “I can’t tell you anything!” the scientist insisted. “We don’t use computers!” Jeeva looked appalled, but Raven just shook her head, a nasty expression coming into her dark eyes.

  “You’re lying,” she said softly. “You need equipment to process the results you get from the test subjects. Where is it?”

  “I don’t know,” the man moaned before Raven hit him hard with the butt of her pistol.

  “Tell us now!” she insisted. “Or I’ll let my friend kill you.” Her eyes locked with those of the scientist for several long seconds. Kez’s heart thudded at the look on her face. He’d never seen anything so utterly malevolent. Raven was clearly furious at the delay in their plans and every ounce of her anger was directed at the man she confronted now.

  “It’s over there,” the scientist muttered, giving in to that cold stare.

  “Show us,” Jeeva told him, taking the initiative again and pointing the man in the direction he had indicated, setting his rifle against the scientist’s back.

  He was shaking with fear but led the way through the maze of corridors obediently. They seemed to have halted pursuit for the moment and Kez suspected that the guards were concentrating on Wraith’s part of the team. But his suspicion proved false when they rounded the last corner and came face-to-face with six guards in CPS uniforms. Raven and Jeeva opened fire instantaneously, the ganger still holding the scientist in front of him as a human shield. Raven didn’t have that protection, but before the guards could take advantage of that she’d retreated, pulling Kez after her. The resulting firefight lasted only five minutes. The guards were professionals, but they couldn’t stand against the explosives Raven had devised. Within minutes the corridor was a blackened wreck and all six guards and the scientist were dead, the last an afterthought on Jeeva’s part, annoyed by the man’s earlier prevarication.

  Raven crossed past the dead without blinking, stopping in front of a heavy door.

  “This is what they were guarding,” she said, kicking it experimentally. It swung open with a clang, the twisted metal attesting to the force of the explosives which had wiped out their opposition. Raven’s eyes lit up as she saw what lay inside and Kez heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of the gleaming computer terminals.

  “This is it, right?” Jeeva asked and Raven grinned at him.

  “This is it,” she confirmed. “Watch the door. This’ll only take me a minute.” With that she swung herself into a chair before one of the consoles and activated a terminal, seemingly at random. Kez stood at her side, watching her hands speed over the keypad before suddenly coming to rest as her eyes glazed over and she entered the computer system.

  • • •

  Ali turned around slowly, her companions following her lead. There was a hiss of rage from the bed as Revenge threw herself against her restraints, but the man who stood watching them ignored her. He was flanked by a detail of five armed CPS guards, but he wore a white lab coat over an expensive tailored suit. He didn’t look like the kind of person who would inspire the obvious terror that gripped Tom and Luciel. He was white-haired and elderly, looking mild in comparison to the guards. Ali raised her eyes to meet his, and froze. A steel-blue gaze held her in place, seeming to turn her inside out and dispose of her in a few seconds.

  “I don’t think you’re going anywhere,” said the scientist she unhesitatingly identified as Dr. Kalden. “I was notified of an unauthorized elevator use on this floor. Would this escape of yours have anything to do with the group of vandals security has just disposed of?”

  “Disposed of?” Ali paled in alarm and she heard Luciel gasp softly.

  “It looks very like there’s a conspiracy here,” Dr. Kalden said, his eyes boring into Ali. “And I would very much like to know why you are attempting to remove this test subject from the laboratory.” He gestured toward Revenge casually and Ali glared at him. But before she could speak, Revenge beat her to it.

  “She’s coming for you!” she shrieked. “Raven’s coming to wipe you clean with blood!”

  “And who is Raven?” Dr. Kalden regarded Ali coldly. “Another of your ganger friends, Miss Tarrell? Or would she be another mutant?”

  Ali didn’t answer but she couldn’t help an involuntary warning glance at Tom and Luciel, and that was all Dr. Kalden needed.

  “I see,” he said slowly. Then he turned to one of the CPS operatives. “Advise the rest of security that one of the terrorists is a mutant who will be aiming for the central computer room.”

  “Oh God,” Ali groaned, transfixed with horror.

  She’d betrayed Raven and now they were all going to die. She watched as the CPS guard reached for his com unit and then started as a new voice rang out.

  “Drop it!” W
raith ordered, leveling his rifle at Dr. Kalden. Two sinister-looking gangers stood behind him, also pointing guns directly at the scientist.

  “Wraith!” Ali thought she might faint from the sheer flood of relief that poured through her. “I thought they’d caught you!”

  “Not yet,” Wraith replied, keeping his eyes on the scientist. “What’s going on here?”

  “Your break-in has failed,” Dr. Kalden informed him, unwavering despite the gun pointed at his head. “Give yourselves up.”

  “All I want is Ali and Rachel,” Wraith told him. “Let them leave and you won’t be injured.”

  The CPS operatives followed the conversation, their eyes going from one speaker to the other as they watched the standoff. Ali had been watching as well, but now she felt she should say something. Wraith didn’t know yet that he wouldn’t just be taking two of them out. But it was then that Wraith got his first look at his sister.

  “Rachel,” he whispered, his eyes blank with grief. “Rachel, is that you?”

  “Wraith?” For an instant the fury flinging herself against her restraints calmed, sanity returning. But the moment passed. “Let me free!” she screamed at Dr. Kalden. Wraith made a movement toward her, but was halted by the scientist’s next words.

  “Leave her,” Dr. Kalden ordered. “It is over. You are outnumbered here, and your mutant friend trying to break into the control room will discover that our system is safe from any intrusion.” He smiled chillingly. “There’s a virus in that system which is activated automatically when the computers are accessed during a security alert. Your friend Raven won’t get past that, however skilled she is.”

  • • •

  As Raven allowed her mind to fuse with the laboratory’s computer system she tried to concentrate on what her objectives were. Huge amounts of data surrounded her and the lure of those test results was hard to resist. But it was the security system she needed to find.

  She flashed through the data streams, calling up information on the security alert. She was vaguely aware that the signals from Wraith’s and Ali’s transceivers were getting closer and the information scrolling past informed her that they were about to be joined by two different security teams headed toward them.