‘Prepare it for … his own bloodstream?’ Sophia said.
‘The Fifth Column are planning to intercept the Peru meteorite before it reaches Denton at Grand Central,’ DC said.
She didn’t even want to ask how he knew that.
‘What’s so bad about him getting all three meteorites — all three viruses?’ Sophia said. ‘You seem a little worried about that.’
DC reached into a pouch on his vest. ‘I’m not supposed to have a copy, but you know—’
‘Grey area.’ Sophia snatched the printout and shone her torch on it.
It was a long printout, one long page, so she walked to the tunnel wall and pressed it flat to read, aware of Damien and Aviary breathing over each of her shoulders. She turned to Jay and Nasira, who were nudging closer behind them.
‘Can you watch our six?’ Sophia said.
Nasira nodded and, bumping into Jay’s shoulder, walked back down the tunnel.
The paper was titled Phönix and the top of the page was mostly an image of three circles. It took a moment for her to realize she was staring at an old drawing of comets.
‘China, 168 BC,’ DC said. ‘One of the first defectors from the Fifth Column was an assistant for Denton’s father. His name was Victor. Denton plucked him from a concentration camp during the second world war so he could help indentify the Pheonix viruses. By the time he made it to Akhana, he was an old man with many secrets.’
Under each comet Sophia noticed a label in English.
The Detector
The Recognizer
The Scryer
In the center of the comets there was another label, with lines drawn from each comet. The label was for all three, somehow combined.
The Controller.
Sophia read from the top, aloud.
‘The Detector — a shaman with high sensitivity to the aroma of people; a fragrance or smoke that betrays words, mood, health and humanity.’
It was the Phoenix virus DC had just described.
‘Why is it called the Phoenix?’ Sophia said. ‘This was two thousand years ago.’
‘Fenghuang,’ DC said. ‘It represents power sent from the heavens to the Empress.’
‘This is the one Denton snatched from Peru, right?’ Sophia said. ‘When was it discovered?’
‘Landed a couple of days ago,’ DC said. ‘Denton’s team got there before us.’
Sophia looked at him. ‘So it’s new. Denton got lucky.’
‘Last year cometary impacts increased by twenty-six percent. They’ve been going up every year,’ DC said. ‘It’s a good time to be hunting meteors.’
‘And the meteorite sample in this base under Grand Central?’ she asked.
‘The Recognizer,’ DC said.
She moved the torch beam down and read aloud.
‘The Recognizer — a seer of lies and truth, of men and serpent, of loyalty and betrayal,’ she said. ‘That would be helpful.’
‘It’s on your back, help yourself,’ DC said, ‘But you shouldn’t bother. You already have one.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Aviary said.
No one but DC and Freeman knew Sophia had been born carrying a Phoenix virus. And with Freeman dead, she planned to keep it that way. At least until she figured out what this whole thing meant.
She shone the torch in his face, on purpose. ‘You seem pretty sure.’
‘It’s just not—’ he shrugged in the red light ‘—in use right now.’
‘Sounds useless to me,’ Sophia said. ‘I was the only test subject in Project GATE without an ability.’
‘Latent ability,’ he said. ‘You had it. Denton disabled it. Training you would’ve been … a challenge.’
‘By training you mean programming,’ Sophia said.
‘What are you guys talking about?’ Damien said.
‘I’ll explain later,’ Sophia said. ‘When I understand it myself.’
‘We thought it might come back when you were deprogrammed,’ DC said. ‘But it didn’t. No one knows why.’
‘Well, you conveniently have all the other answers,’ Sophia said.
‘That’s because I was Owen Freeman’s right-hand man for years,’ DC said. ‘And before that, I was a test subject just like you.’
‘Without the Phoenix part,’ Sophia said.
She turned back to the paper. There was one more.
‘The Scryer — the gift of tongue; to hear the words unspoken,’ she said.‘Hang on a second. To hear words not spoken.’ She turned to DC. ‘Thoughts. Hearing thoughts. That’s—’
‘Remotely reading electrical signals,’ DC said. ‘Like what DARPA did back in 2011 with their Silent Talk program. Denton kept a close eye on that one. Leagues behind his research teams, mind you. But I guess he likes to be sure. Project Genesis, GATE, Seraphim, Phoenix — all part of the Fifth Column’s Advanced Warfighter research.’
‘That’s synthetic telepathy,’ Aviary said, reading over Sophia’s shoulder. ‘I read the tests. I mean, I hacked into DARPA and had a sneak peek. You know, wasn’t … quite public knowledge.’
‘You did what?’ Sophia said.
‘And?’ Damien said.
‘They used a computer to transmit and receive electrical signals from a test subject’s brain,’ Aviary said. ‘Through electrodes.’
‘And this.’ Sophia ran her finger across The Scryer. ‘It’s the real deal. They actually pick up on the—’ she tapped her head ‘—signals in here.’
‘Yeah,’ DC said. ‘Think of it less as mind reading, more as eavesdropping. Denton believes the meteorite sample that contains The Scryer is hidden inside the base.’
‘Is he right?’ Sophia said.
‘Unfortunately,’ DC said.
She slid the paper up the wall to read the bottom.
‘The Controller — a sorcerer who can enchant a legion with his spell; his desires become the desires of his followers,’ Sophia said. ‘So that’s the triple-threat version. Sounds bad.’ She turned to DC. ‘There’s no way any of this stuff is real. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of things in the last few years that I thought were science fiction but—’
DC raised an eyebrow. ‘Like yourself?’
‘This isn’t science fiction. This is outright fantasy,’ she said. ‘A folktale from two thousand years ago.’
‘That’s what they’ll be saying about us in two thousand years,’ DC said.
‘I know, but I can’t believe Denton is deranged enough to believe it,’ she said.
‘He’s seen it for himself, many years ago. This is his fantasy now,’ DC said. ‘And he plans to make that fantasy real.’
Aviary said, ‘He’s … wait, how old?’
‘Chimera vectors,’ Damien said. ‘And before that, a Nazi serum.’
‘Oh,’ Aviary said. ‘Guess I missed that meeting.’
‘If he finds a way to deliver all three Phoenix viruses,’ DC said, ‘there’s a very real chance he becomes the Controller.’
‘Combining specific viruses,’ Sophia said. ‘Into a new virus. There’re so many variables there: has it been proven to work?’
‘Actually, yeah,’ Aviary said. ‘Not with the Phoenix, but with similar viruses.’
‘You’re the virus expert now?’ Damien said.
‘I read a lot,’ Aviary said. ‘In places I shouldn’t.’
‘You’ve been hacking into the Fifth Column for more than just that operative map, haven’t you?’ Sophia tried to give Aviary her best disapproving glance but knew it was pointles. ‘DARPA and who knows where else.’
‘I deny everything,’ Aviary said. ‘Except this though, because it’s really weird. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology resurrected the Spanish Flu / Tunguska virus all the way from 1918. The virus had been preserved in the frozen soil of Alaska.’