De Novo Syndrome (teaser only)

Chapter Ten

“You’re going to need this. It’s a standard 9mm.” She handed the weapon back to me without taking her eyes off the small space in front of the elevator.

I clutched it. “But I’ve never killed—”

“I’ve never been killed. If forced to choose, I’m asking you to maintain the truth of the latter.” She ducked her head out and back. “Can you do that?”

I nodded before realizing she wasn’t looking at me. “Yes. Yes I can.” It wasn’t just my work or my people on the line. It was my everything, my Evie. If I’d finally found the lost gene, no way would I let someone take it now. I slid the cocking mechanism back and released it, loading the first round into the chamber with a metallic slap.

“Good. When we move out don’t get distracted. I had to lay down considerable damage in the central ring to force the hostiles away from the war room.” She inched into the lobby, the very heart of the three concentric rings of the lab.

“The microfluidic sequencer and sample storage freezers.” I hissed the words. “They could destroy everything—”

“It was either the sequencer or Sandra.” She spoke through clinched teeth as she waved for me to follow. “Stay tucked in close and keep eyes on our six.”

She was right, of course. The lab’s intelligent computer, Sandra, along with her regimen of unique algorithms, were more important than the sequencer. Only Sandra could interpret the sea of data into something useful—something worth stealing.

I turned my back to Marisol’s and tried not to plotz when I saw the smoldering shambles left of my lab office. “Wait. I thought you said—”

“Level one. I did.”

“Why am I seeing—”

“I don’t know. War room’s open too.”

“They shouldn’t be able—”

“I don’t know how, but they’re overriding the system, one lock at a time.” With a quick lunge and sweep she cleared the war room. For a moment longer I stood in the lobby, mourning the loss of my office hardware, before backing into the war room.

Tugging me against the wall next to her, she must have caught the wistful look in my eye. “Sorry about your office. Concussion grenade must have started a fire. They do that sometimes.”

I ignored her sympathies. “What if they’ve split up? Interested in those reinforcements now?”

“I almost hope they did. No le miento, Buck. These guys are formidable; almost as good as any I’ve come up against.” 

Fluidly, she snaked her way around overturned chairs and Sandra’s central gesture recognition processor, holographic imager and table computer.

At least Marisol had thus far preserved the lab’s single most valuable piece of equipment. If the sequencer and frozen cores were lost, the test results would be recorded with Sandra, waiting for me to initiate the final algorithm. “But you’re not—”

“I said almost as good. We’ll be fine, no problema,” she winked. “And I promise you will never hear me say this again, but every time I stop I want to feel your ass touching mine.”

“Well if you put it that way.” We crossed the corridor to the far wall of the second ring. The second ring was large enough for over two dozen doors to open off of it, yet small enough that it curved out of sight quickly. In my direction the circular hall dead-ended into the greenhouse. Other than a few scorch marks on the bioclad walls, nothing stood out. “Clear.”

“Bueno. We follow the trail of hacked barriers until—”

“What are they using for weapons?” We scampered across an open barrier and stopped at a spoke leading toward the outermost ring, its barrier also open.

“Didn’t see any.”

“Weren’t you in a firefight—”

“Buck.” Marisol clutched my arm.

I jerked my head front. A scuffling echoed from around the corner, like that of shuffling feet. Marisol indicated for me to stay put while she prepared to make for the opposite side of the juncture.

“Dr. Buck—” a familiar voice choked out most my name before deteriorating into a coughing fit.

I held up Marisol. “Haru? That you?”

“Thank God.” The steps sped up, moving in our direction.

I didn’t dare push Marisol out of the way to confirm the voice was that of Haru Ito, my leading geneticist.

“I think they’re gone.” She continued to move closer, only a few yards around the bend. Something wasn’t right about her speech, too mechanical.

“Let me get her,” I whispered into Marisol’s ear. “One more out of harm’s—”

Marisol turned to face me. “Down!” Plowing me over, she unleashed a narrow beam of microwaves before somehow tumbling upward and smashing into the ceiling.

A screeching howl, like stereo feedback, filled the narrow corridor—the sound too directional to be in my inner ears. Bouncing off the floor, I fired the 9mm blindly in the direction of the noise. The pop of the gunpowder temporarily overrode the screech. “Marisol!”

She dropped from the ceiling, half landing in my arms and half crushing me. One eye squeezed shut, she pushed up and off while swinging her pulse weapon toward the now vacant corridor. With her free hand she yanked me off the floor, pushing me toward Haru. “It was a trap. Check her out. Safety off.”

“But she’s, where is she?” I leveled the 9mm.

“Move.” Marisol backed into me, forcing me further into the spoke hallway connecting the middle and outer rings.

“Oh no, Haru.” I slid knees-first next to a splayed figure, face-down. Marisol bolted past me as I rolled Haru over. It didn’t make sense. I stuttered, “She’s, she’s—”

“Dead. I figured.”

“Sergio Leone,” I swore. Shifting my gaze down her torso, I discovered a jumbled mess of organs. “She’s been… eviscerated. How—”

Marisol knelt in front of me, lifting my chin with her hand. Blood trickled from both corners of her left eye. “This is how things are going to go.” She shook my face. “You listening?”

I nodded.

“We’re going to get the hell out of here, and button this thing down.”

“But my work, my people.”

Marisol slapped me viciously. “You’re not listening. Your people are dead, like you’re about to be. We’ve been outmaneuvered. You saw what just happened. They could be leaving the building with your research as we speak. Now get up.”

Her words made perfect sense. Everything about what had just happened scared the crap out of me. I opened my mouth to agree. Instead I heard the word “no” echo down the corridor.

Marisol rose, proceeding to leave without me. She was scared too, I could see it. But there was something else.

“Why weren’t you surprised?”

She poked her head around the corner before looking back at me and grunting. “Vaya con Dios, Professor Buckner.” With that she shouldered her weapon and charged around the corner.

I stood. I knew she intended for me to follow. I knew I should. What was I going to do alone?