Sophia watched Denton admire the vial in his hands. His team had finished synthesizing the virus or whatever it was they did to help Denton strip the Phoenix from her DNA. Something she scarcely knew she had until today.
Denton attached the needle and extended his arm.
‘Colonel, do you want a test subject first?’ Czarina said in a low tone.
‘I’ll do just fine,’ he said. He pierced the basilic vein that bulged from the inside of his elbow and pushed the plunger.
‘Are we waiting for your third virus to arrive?’ Sophia said.
‘Patience,’ he said, ‘is not a virtue. But it will come, soon.’ He licked his lips. ‘I don’t suppose there’s anyone else helping you? You used to have a few buddies. Nasira?’
Sophia tried not to think of her. Or her location. What she was doing.
Denton turned to Czarina, who was still holding the electroshock pistol. ‘Have the Blue Berets sweep the dining concourse in Grand Central,’ he said. ‘They should find Nasira. And a … friend of hers. Dyed red hair.’
Sophia felt her stomach tighten. She tried not to think of Nasira and focused on Denton. Focused on Czarina. Any escape or sabotage plans that floated in her head, she had to push away. If Denton could snatch fragments of her thoughts then anything was fair game.
‘There’s a little more to it than just fragments,’ Denton said. He snapped his fingers. ‘Tyler, how does it work? Tell her what you told me this afternoon.’
One of the scientists, plain-clothed like the others, froze in position, blinking.
‘Oh, well, a significant portion of our DNA are actually viruses. The virus DNA is absorbed—’
Denton shook his head. ‘Just get to the Phoenix virus, the mislabeled sample we found in this base that I injected an hour ago. The Scryer.’
‘Ah yes, that Phoenix virus rapidly integrated with your DNA and began coding proteins that release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine,’ Tyler said. ‘It activated the parasympathetic element of your autonomic nervous system. This is called being in a state of cholinergia. Which you’re experiencing at this moment, Colonel.’
Denton drew a circle in the air with one finger. ‘And after that?’
‘Well, from the preliminary tests we ran on your blood work and brain activity, it appears to be altering your brain function. We cannot determine gene expression without—’
Denton held up a hand. ‘Without using a breath mint,’ he said. ‘I can smell the garlic from here and it’s quite disgusting.’ He turned from Tyler to Sophia. ‘So the upshot of it is I can remotely read electrical signals from your brain and interpret them.’ Like tuning a radio. All I have to do is adjust the dial and listen.’ He smiled, his gaze drifting from Sophia. ‘Doors open that I didn’t know existed. I’m hooked into a stream of information no one else can access.’ He closed his eyes for a moment. ‘I feel connected, alive.’
Denton placed the empty syringe on the moss-coated table. ‘And now I’ll have another virus to add to my collection.’ He opened and closed his fist, then dabbed some blood from his elbow. He rubbed it between two fingers, deep in thought. ‘Sorry love, but you can’t read my thoughts,’ Denton said. Then he paused, fingers apart. ‘But you can smell them.’
Sophia didn’t say anything.
He nodded, intrigued. ‘You’re picking up on pheromones, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘Clever girl. Finally, achievement unlocked.’ He approached her. ‘How? By accident? Naturally? Some sort of deprogramming glitch?’
Sophia honestly didn’t know how it happened, but it had started at the festival that evening.
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Maybe it was the tracking marker you removed recently. We were following you, but I didn’t want to collect on that just yet. Tried it this week and noticed you were off the grid.’ He smiled. ‘Just when I needed you too.’
She watched him unroll his sleeve. ‘You wanted me here?’
He shrugged. ‘It was really a matter of who or what arrived first. The meteorite from the museum or yourself. I could take either.’
‘That meteorite has the same—’
‘Phoenix virus as you do,’ he said. ‘Save your energy, I can finish your sentences for you now.’
‘I wouldn’t want to steal your fun,’ she said.
‘No,’ he said. ‘No, I’m having a wonderful time. Your boys needn’t run so recklessly with that rock of theirs. Considering I don’t need it anymore.’
‘Then why are you pursuing it?’ she said.
‘For my collection,’ he said. ‘Nothing against your blood, but I prefer something a little more solid.’ He inhaled sharply, then drummed his fingers on the empty syringe. ‘Tell me, what do you smell on me?’
‘It’s not a smell,’ she said. ‘Well, your deodorant wore off.’
‘Well, whatever you call it.’ He tapped his nose. ‘It’s collected here and processed in your brain so let’s not get pedantic. Unless it’s me doing it, in which case it’s acceptable.’
Sophia swallowed. ‘Desperation.’
Denton’s hand hit the table, hard, dislodging moss. ‘If there is one thing I am not, it is desperate. Not anymore, at least.’
He held up two fingers and at first Sophia thought he was giving her the peace sign.
‘Two Phoenix viruses down, one to go,’ he said. ‘Oh, but I can see myself in your mind.’ He leaned toward her, entranced. ‘Strength. Resolution. It’s—’
‘Cold,’ she said. ‘There’s a void.’
‘There is no void,’ he said in a low voice.
She could smell his breath. ‘There is,’ she said. ‘I can feel it. No one else has it.’
‘The word you’re looking for is evolution,’ he said, drawing the pistol from his holster.
Sophia stared down the barrel of his Heckler & Koch USP pistol.
‘And thank you, by the way,’ he said. ‘It’s been fun.’
A deep groan echoed from the depths of the OSS base. It wasn’t a human groan, but a metallic one. Something exploded below them. They all looked sharply down through the grated metal floor. A surge of foaming water burst through the walls and filled the base below them.
Denton turned to his team. ‘Pack it up!’ he yelled. ‘Get everything back to the surface.’
Something slammed across Denton’s pistol, knocking it from his grasp. Sophia identified the shiny blur.
DC’s sword.
It hit the metal floor with a high-pitched clang. The pistol skittered across the floor. DC lifted his sword and cut horizontally. Denton reeled back, across the moss table. The sword caught the wire attached to Sophia’s neck, tearing the electroshock pistol from Czarina’s hands. Denton’s team hustled quickly through the exit on Sophia’s left, across the spindly catwalk that connected to the outer ring of the OSS base.
Czarina drew her pistol and took aim at DC.
Water exploded into the room — spraying shattered glass across the table, covering Denton. He slid off the table, landed beside it, covered in clumps of moss. Sophia shut her eyes as the water and moss washed over her. She stood up — Day of the Dead makeup stinging her eyes — and thrust her plasticuffed wrists down hard across her midsection. The force of the impact snapped the bindings.
Czarina’s pistol washed between her knees. She went to grab it but her fingers were still numb from breaking the plasticuffs: it slipped away, carried by the water. She turned to chase but lost sight of it immediately. Water surged around her hips and poured through the only place it could — the exit on her left. Denton’s team made it across the catwalk, the last of the scientists slipping but regaining his footing. They made it out.
DC cut the air with his sword. Czarina weaved to avoid the blade. Sophia got to her feet and moved around DC, avoiding his sword. She could see Denton doing the same, edging for the exit.