“Why?”
Ben stepped back, his breathing labored from the exertion, and also looked at Julie.
Waiting for the answer.
But Stephens only laughed, gurgling blood that had filled his mouth. He spat, a wry smile on his face. “It’s too late,” he said.
“You mentioned that already. But I’ll make that decision for myself,” Ben said. “Where’s the bomb, Stephens? I know it’s in the park somewhere. In the caves, like you said on the phone?”
“You’ll never find it,” he replied.
“Stephens, please,” Julie said. Stephens just shook his head.
“Like I said,” Stephens said, looking at each of them in turn. “It’s too late. America isn’t united enough to save itself.”
Julie cocked her head. Where had she heard that before?
“This country values freedom, but you and I both know that ‘freedom’ is a joke. We’re somewhere between a third-world country with a corrupt government and an overbearing corporation on the scale of how free we really are. Americans now hold on to every scrap of ‘freedom’ they can find, including their own individuality —”
Ben stepped forward and punched Stephens again. “Where is the bomb?” he yelled.
Stephens staggered backward, nearly losing his balance. He seemed dizzy, but remained standing. Then he looked up sharply. He started to laugh as he withdrew something from his coat pocket.
The small glass cylinder was filled with a liquid of some sort, and a large hypodermic needle glinted in the fluorescent light of the lab room.
Without warning, Stephens shoved the syringe into his arm.
His eyes fell backwards into his head, but rolled forward again a few seconds later. He sniffed, then spoke. “As I said, Harvey, it’s too late. America is not united enough to save itself. It doesn’t matter now, whether you find your bomb or not.” Suddenly his mouth began to leak saliva, foaming around the edges. “I would leave, if I were you,” he continued. “This is a highly concentrated specimen of the strain, and I estimate there is less than a minute before I become contagious.”
Julie winced as the virus visibly tore through the man’s body, ripping it apart from the inside out. She also winced at the meaning behind the man’s words.
Highly concentrated specimen.
Ben lunged forward, throwing Stephens’ body back against the far wall. Even with the virus destroying the man’s body, he still didn’t fall.
“We’re immune, Stephens,” Ben said. “Remember?” He pulled the sleeve of his left arm up and held it up to Stephens’ face. “You took too long. The virus has already died out of our systems, and we’re now immunized to it. And Dr. Fischer —” Ben nodded toward the professor. “He’s been immune, but you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Julie watched the exchange, piecing everything together. She thought through Stephens’ explanations; she considered the specific words he’d used.
“Ben…” she tried to coax him backward, but Ben wasn’t listening.
“You led us here, to our deaths, for what? For your amusement?”
Stephens was smiling again, and he reached back into his pocket. “No,” he whispered.
Ben frowned.
“It was an experiment. My experiment. I told them no one would be able to figure it out, and that it was an embarrassment on our part to accomplish something so miraculous and not have the satisfaction of watching it unfold. Up close.”
“So you let us figure it out?” Ben asked.
“There will be nothing left,” he said. “America will be a barren wasteland, Harvey. The end is justified, but what about the means? What about my reward, knowing that my role has been fulfilled?” The man’s voice began rising, his face showing more and more emotion. “I was groomed — born — for this role,” he continued. “And I must get the satisfaction of knowing it was foolproof. I had to finish it here, to watch you die, just like the rest will.”
Julie’s eyes widened as Stephens’ hand came out of his coat.
“And no one is immune from death,” Stephens said, holding a gun up to Ben’s chest. He flicked off the safety, staring into Ben’s eyes the entire time. “You’ve performed your role admirably, Mr. Bennett. Now let me perform mine.”
He pulled the trigger.
Julie felt her body being pushed aside as a dark form rushed past her. She stared, helpless, as Ben’s body flew sideways toward the tables in the center of the room. She screamed, sprinting at Stephens as he aimed the second shot directly at her.
She collided with Stephens headfirst, sending her forehead into the man’s sternum. She felt his lungs expand rapidly, involuntarily gasping for air. She kept moving forward, now back on her feet. She ran full-speed through the man’s slender body, lifting it off the floor and smashing it into the wall. Glass vials and beakers, along with a stack of neatly filed papers, exploded from their location along the back table and down onto the hard floor. The sound of breaking glass and chaos almost blocked out the sound of her own screaming.
Almost.
She reared back with her fists and pummeled Stephens, who was lying haphazardly across the table. She aimed for the same spot Ben had hit him earlier — just below his eye where a gaping wound was forming. She punched, again and again, and he eventually stopped moving.
She took a step back, breathing heavily. Julie noticed that her coworker’s skin had begun to rise, as if he’d been filled with water like a balloon. She knew that the virus had moved completely through his body, but she was astonished at how quickly he’d reacted to it.
There must have been a very heavy concentration of the virus inside that vial. The realization terrified her.
Purplish welts had formed on his exposed skin, both from the virus and the bruising he’d received from Julie and Ben. She watched as his skin changed hue from a purplish tint to a lighter red, and finally noticed that his breathing had stopped. She waited another few moments and then checked his vitals.
Dead.
Chapter Forty-Five
Ben heard Julie say his name from somewhere behind him.
“Ben…” it was forceful, yet hesitant. A warning.
Still, he moved forward. He hadn’t felt emotions like these for over a decade, ever since his dad had been taken.
“You led us here, to our deaths, for what? For your amusement?” he asked the questions pointedly, as if he already knew the answer. Did he?
Stephens smiled. “No. It was an experiment. My experiment. I told them no one would be able to figure it out, and that it was an embarrassment on our part to accomplish something so miraculous and not have the satisfaction of watching it unfold. Up close.”
Ben asked the next question carefully. He wanted to get closer, to try to subdue Stephens. “So you let us figure it out?” He took a step forward. Careful. He treated the situation like his many encounters with wild animals. Don’t approach directly when possible, but don’t move too quickly.
Another step.
Stephens kept talking, but Ben had already tuned him out. He was focusing on the hunt, trying to sneak his way into Stephens’ personal space. He knew Stephens wasn’t an animal, but that was to Ben’s benefit. Stephens was acting emotionally, based not on animal instinct but human perception. Ben could rely on a slower reaction time from him because of that.
But as he planned his move, he caught sight of Stephens’ arm. It swung upward, cradling a weapon.
“You’ve performed your role admirably, Mr. Bennett,” he heard Stephens say. “Now let me perform mine.”