Jay sprang from his position, retreating, Damien just a few steps behind. He cursed himself for not having made it to the junction in time. Now they were trapped between two pairs of operatives. He ran for the junction with Ladder M, the way they’d come through, but he knew they wouldn’t get there in time. The operatives they’d first encountered would cut them off.
‘Wait!’ Damien hissed.
Jay turned and noticed Damien pointing up. He followed Damien’s finger. High above, a long line of ventilation grates lined the ceiling. Jay could see the night’s sky through them. It was almost black except for the winking lights of skyscrapers.
Jay started for the elevated footpath on the side of the tunnel. It was narrow but just enough to stand on with both feet. He helped Damien up beside him. It didn’t boost them enough to reach the grates.
A thin pipe was fixed to the wall at chest height. Just enough to stand on with the heels of his stupid dress shoes. At the very top of the wall, another pipe he could use. It was possible.
He threw himself up against the wall, finding the tiny pipe with his feet to get high enough to grab the handhold. It was no larger than a thick piece of rope but it kept him against the wall. His hands found the higher pipe before he lost his balance and he clung to the wall, shoulder burning in protest. Damien was grappling for the same position beside him. Jay could see tiny human-shaped blobs of orange and red in the distance. The operatives were closing.
‘Hurry up!’ Jay said under his breath.
Above the higher pipe Jay could see a small ledge — somewhere he could haul himself into. He lifted one knee to his chest and laid his foot flat on the wall. He used his dangling leg to haul himself up. The pendulum effect gave him enough momentum. He threw his elbows over the pipe, onto the ledge. With his other foot on the wall, he pulled his body to the ledge.
There was nothing between him and the grates, but there were rows of arches across and supporting the ceiling. Jay edged over to one and wrapped his arms around it. Using it as leverage, he pushed off the alcove and away from the wall. Now he was dangling freely from the ceiling. The arch ended where the grate began. He had no way of getting there.
Damien had followed his steps and was also dangling from an arch. He wrapped a leg around it and pushed himself closer to the grate. Then he gripped the grate itself, fingers through the square holes. Jay watched as Damien hung from the grate using only his fingers. The meteorite was still inside the ruck strapped to his back.
The operatives were getting closer.
‘What are you doing?’ Jay hissed.
Damien was breathless, but focused. He swung on the grate, curved his body. He kicked up, striking a nearby grate above him. The impact made a resounding clang that carried through the tunnel. They were beyond the point of hiding now.
Jay felt his heart double its contractions. He didn’t fancy fighting two operatives, let alone four.
Damien swung and kicked again. This time he hit the grate hard enough to dislodge it.
Shit, Jay thought. That could actually work.
Damien kicked a third time. The grate bounced upward, moved halfway. Damien stopped swinging and moved for the gap. With one hand he struggled to slide it open. Jay watched from where he hung as Damien shifted it. The grate moved a fraction. Damien now hung with one hand on the dislodged grate and one on the grate he was swinging under. Above him, a narrow gap. He lifted himself through it.
Jay moved quickly, clawed his way along the grates until he reached Damien. He hung from one hand and used the other to push Damien up. Damien was out of the tunnel. Jay moved closer, reached out and grabbed his partner’s offered hand.
From the corner of Jay’s vision he could see movement in the tunnel. The operatives could see him now.
‘Quick!’ Jay breathed.
He straightened his arms out, held his breath and climbed up through the gap. He was half out, Damien pulling on his arm. Pain arced through his shoulder, through the wound from the arrow. His grip slipped and he fell back through.
Damien reached down, snatched him. Jay dangled inside the tunnel. He looked up, found Damien braced over the grates. Jay reached up and clamped his other hand over Damien’s arm. He wasn’t going to let go. He couldn’t.
Damien reinforced with his other arm, legs spread between the grates. Damien pulled hard and Jay slowly rose. Just a fraction more and he could reach the grates and help haul himself out.
His fingers reached out, brushed the grate, found a hold. Damien shifted one hand to the back of Jay’s collar. Jay didn’t care if it strangled him, he just wanted out. His head made it above the surface. He switched his grip from under to over the grate and wriggled upward.
A cracking sound from below.
It bounced along the tunnel, filling Jay’s ears. Something hard, heavy struck the side of his midsection, almost crushed his ribs. He pulled himself out, pressed his chest over the grate. Damien almost fell backward onto the sidewalk, but he didn’t stop pulling. Jay’s knees were up and out. He was clear. He rolled over. Away from the grates. Pain took the breath from him.
While Damien hurriedly lowered the grate back into position, Jay noticed the city lights before them start to blink out, block by block. The darkness crept closer to them and then halted two blocks away. Just before Grand Central terminal. Everything south of Forty-Second Street was pitch black.
Jay tried to stand but a fierce wind tore through the street, knocking him onto his back. The howl chilled him. When he could open his eyes again he noticed the sky in the distance. It was no longer black but a brooding purple. It ruptured with the occasional flash.
Hurricane Isaias.
Jay tried to breathe but his ribs sent fire through him with every inhalation. He looked down and realized what that cracking sound in the tunnel had been.
He’d been shot.
Chapter 27
‘Did Freeman ever give you his code?’ DC said.
The question caught Sophia by surprise. ‘Code?’
‘The one Cecilia was trying to get out of you in Denver,’ he said.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said.
DC rolled his eyes. ‘It’s just us here. I already know.’
‘He never actually kept the whole code,’ she said. ‘Just the chromosomal location. Unless he was stupid enough to trust you with the number.’
‘He wasn’t,’ DC said.
‘It was the code for a Phoenix virus, wasn’t it?’ Sophia said.
DC nodded.
‘Which one?’ she asked.
He didn’t look at her, and instead seemed to focus on a stray newspaper.
‘Your one,’ he said. ‘Freeman told me it was an inherited endogenous retrovirus. Integrated into your DNA. Denton believed it was passed down from your grandfather, Yiri, and that originally it was an exogenous retrovirus of extraterrestrial nature.’ He finally looked at her. ‘Your grandfather was infected with a Phoenix virus.’
Sophia swallowed. ‘So my special power came from an alien rock.’
‘The technology wasn’t up to scratch back then but Denton spent the best part of the Cold War crunching your grandfather’s DNA. Owen Freeman defected and stole the code before he could solve the puzzle. Denton had to start again. The Phoenix virus lay dormant in your mother. Again, with the technology of the time it was useless to Denton. But for some reason it sparked inside you.’
She felt anger well inside her. ‘You kept all of this from me,’ she said.
DC shook his head slowly. ‘Half of it I only learned in the last twenty-four hours,’ he said. ‘Need to know.’
‘I need to know,’ she said softly, more to herself.
‘That’s why I’m telling you everything they’ve told me.’