“Also possible.”
“And the DNA that was extracted from those plants turns it back on!”
At that, Neely’s smile disappeared. “Well… there’s a larger problem there, I’m afraid.”
“Like what?
“Remember when I said there’s no such thing as a free lunch?”
“Yes.”
Neely glanced worriedly over their shoulders at Will Borger. “It seems our super bacteria has some problems.”
“What kind of problems?”
“Terminal ones.”
Alison replied. “For who?”
“We were exposed to it,” Lee added nervously.
“Not for you, as far as I know. I mean for someone injected with it.”
53
The gray Jaguar XJ got Li Na out of town with the help of its GPS, but the car’s gas tank was more empty than full, leaving her far less than needed to reach the next city.
It was a miracle she hadn’t crashed it trying to get out of the parking garage. Yet once outside, the wide empty lanes provided enough room to gradually improve her steering. Now on the highway’s two empty lanes, she tried to study the inboard GPS screen without swerving. At least enough to get her bearings.
Fortunately, she was still headed east.
She raised herself up and peered through the rearview mirror, looking for other vehicles but saw none.
The men had to have transportation. Why weren’t they chasing her?
Li Na noticed the turn signal blinking in the dashboard display and tried to remember how to turn it off. She finally found it, pressing her foot down harder on the gas pedal while her eyes returned to the mirror. Still no one.
She was several miles out of the city before the helicopter appeared and circled the top level of the parking garage. All six men watched impatiently as it completed the circle and closed in, hovering less than ten meters above the thick concrete. Finally, it dropped all the way down and bounced gently onto the top level of the parking garage.
Once aboard, Sheng Lam did not speak. He sat silently, pushed into one of the middle seats, and watched the men around him carefully.
Now he knew. Now he knew what they were hiding. They were to dispose of him. And not let him touch the girl. Someone in the chain of command knew more about Lam than he had realized.
The chopper lifted into the air and tilted toward the east. The pilot had spotted the car on the road before landing and was now headed to see if it was still traveling in the same direction.
A few minutes later, the last of the city passed below them and disappeared through the side windows, replaced by fields of grass and vegetation, then trees.
Li Na heard the deep thundering sounds of the helicopter’s rotors long before she could see it. She pulled back an interior cover revealing the Jaguar’s sunroof and searched the sky. As the sounds grew louder, she finally spotted it behind her, steadily closing the distance between them.
She mashed the pedal down and clung tightly to the steering wheel, trying to keep it straight. While the numbers on the digital speedometer increased, the bushes and trees on the side of the road sped past in a blur.
Her heart felt like it was in her throat, and she was scared to death.
Next to the right-side window, Peng could see the car now. It was just a few hundred meters or so below.
The lone black car was moving at an impressive rate of speed, swaying slightly between lanes. The girl appeared to be struggling to keep it straight. And stretching out in front of her lay a highway that disappeared far into the distance.
She had nowhere to hide.
Behind the wheel, Li Na was thinking the same thing. Her mind was racing faster, trying to find a way out. There was no one else on the empty highway, no one at all. How was that possible?
She glanced again at the GPS screen, this time closer, and studied the colors. She found that some of the screen was displaying a darker area, and she fumbled with the controls until she zoomed out.
Li Na looked out through the front window to check the landscape around her. The dark patches were trees! Not quite a forest, but some areas dense enough to help.
Suddenly startled by the bumps on the road, she looked up to straighten the car again with both hands. She needed a place to exit the road. From the screen, the nearest exit appeared to be several kilometers away. She searched for the helicopter again and found it. This time, it was closer but not any lower.
They weren’t trying to stop her, she thought. They were simply following.
54
After what felt like forever, the off-ramp finally appeared ahead of her. But as she drew nearer, the distinct images of orange and yellow barriers emerged, indicating it was not yet finished.
Li Na braked hard, overcompensating before easing down on the gas again to continue forward. Given her limited experience behind a wheel, she was surprised she’d made it this far.
Now with the barriers directly in front of her, she pulled the car to a stop and looked for a way through. They didn’t seem to be affixed to anything, so she eased forward and ran into one. The colored plastic frame was knocked backward, and she rolled over it with a jolt. Once the back tires rolled over, her eyes returned to the ramp in front of the car. It was littered with debris, covered mostly by scattered pieces of asphalt and concrete. But the ramp continued downhill to a wide-open dirt area, where hundreds of large concrete blocks were stacked.
Dozens of the heavy road barriers had fallen over and some had broken into pieces. Then she saw it. Beyond them appeared to be a roughly strewn dirt road, snaking through the fields of weeds and grass toward one of the distant group of trees.
The pilot of the Mi-17 helicopter watched with bemusement as the car below navigated off the main highway and onto a small dirt road. It bounced and weaved through the fields toward an outcropping of nearby trees.
The girl clearly knew they were behind her. And enough to know that her only chance was the trees that she was speeding towards. Leaving a very visible trail of dust swirling behind her.
The girl would have had a better chance had she’d stayed in the city. Where it could take hours, or even days, to find her.
But now, once Peng and his men were on the ground, it would take only minutes.
Li Na barely made it beneath the trees before what little of the road that remained became blocked by a fallen tree. Old and uprooted from a past windstorm, the tree lay there deteriorating in several large sections. Long dead branches coming from the last piece reached over and down a steep embankment.
This was as far as the car was going.
With her satchel in one hand, Li Na pushed the driver’s door open and jumped out. She quickly approached and had begun to scale a section of the fallen tree’s trunk when she abruptly stopped.
She emptied her hands and hurriedly ran back to the car, which was still running. She climbed inside and peered back at the GPS screen. Reaching forward, she zoomed out on the screen. First once, then several times, until she could see far beyond her location to the city of Shenyang and the ocean beyond. She looked back out through the car’s rear window and located the distant highway to get her bearings.
With that, she backed out again and ran back to the tree trunk. But when she reached down to pick up her satchel, something stopped her. Even with the approaching sound of the helicopter’s rotors, she lingered.
Li Na breathed in deeply, remaining as quiet as she could. Unmoving.