Maya slid the shotgun beneath her belt and climbed onto the janitor’s cart. She reached through the hole and grabbed the water pipe. With one quick kick, she shoved the cart down the hall and pulled herself up into the hollow ceiling. All she could hear was the fire alarm and the water squirting out of the sprinkler head. Maya removed the shotgun from her belt. She wrapped her legs around the pipe and hung upside down like a spider.
“Get ready,” a voice said. “Now!” The Tabula stepped into the hallway and fired their guns. The alarm stopped ringing a few seconds later and suddenly it was very quiet.
“Where’d she go?” a voice asked.
“Don’t know.”
“Be careful,” the third voice said. “She could be in one of the rooms.”
Maya peered down through the hole in the ceiling and watched one, two, three Tabula mercs pass beneath her, carrying their handguns.
“Prichett here,” said the third voice. It sounded like he was talking into a radio or a cell phone. “We saw her on the third floor, but she got away. Yes, sir. We’re checking each-”
Holding on to the water pipe with her legs, Maya swung through the jagged hole. Now she was upside down, her black hair dangling above the floor. She saw the backs of the three Tabula and fired at the first man.
The recoil from the shotgun snapped her backward and she somersaulted through the air, landing on her feet in the middle of the hallway. Water sprayed from the sprinkler head, but she ignored it and shot the second man as he was turning. The third man was still holding his cell phone as shotgun pellets punched through his chest. He hit the wall and slid to the floor.
The sprinkler stopped spraying water and she stood alone looking down at the three bodies. It was too dangerous to remain in this building. They had to get back to the tunnels. Once again, she saw the shadows change on the wall and then an unarmed man appeared at the end of the hallway. Even without the family resemblance, Maya knew that it was the second Traveler. She lowered her shotgun.
“Hello, Maya. I’m Michael Corrigan. Everyone around here is scared of you, but I’m not frightened. I know you’re here to protect me.”
An office door opened behind her and Gabriel stepped into the hallway. The brothers faced each other and she was standing between them.
“Come with us, Michael.” Gabriel forced a smile. “You’ll be safe. No one will order you around.”
“I have a few questions for our Harlequin. It’s a strange situation, isn’t it? If I left with you two, it would be like sharing a girlfriend.”
“It’s not that way,” Gabriel said. “Maya just wants to help us.”
“But what if she has to make a choice?” Michael took a step forward. “Who are you going to save, Maya? Gabriel or me?”
“Both of you.”
“It’s a dangerous world. Maybe that’s not possible.”
Maya glanced at Gabriel, but he gave no indication of what she should say. “I’ll protect whoever makes this world a better place.”
“Then I’m the one.” Michael took another step forward. “Most people don’t know what they want. I mean, they want a big new house or a shiny new car. But they’re too frightened to decide the direction of their lives. So we’re going to do it for them.”
“The Tabula told you that,” Gabriel said. “But it’s not true.”
Michael shook his head. “You’re acting just like our father did-making a small life, hiding under a rock. I hated all that talk about the Grid when we were growing up. We’ve both been given this power, but you don’t want to use it.”
“The power doesn’t come from us, Michael. Not really.”
“We grew up like crazy people. No electricity. No telephone. Remember that first day at school? Remember how people pointed at our car when we drove into town? We don’t have to live that way, Gabe. We can be in charge of everything.”
“People need to be in charge of their own lives.”
“Why haven’t you figured it out, Gabe? It’s not difficult. You do what’s best for yourself and to hell with the rest of the world.”
“That’s not going to make you happy.”
Michael stared at Gabriel and shook his head. “You talk like you have all the answers, but one fact is clear.” Michael raised the palms of his hands as if he was blessing his brother. “There can be only one Traveler…”
A man with short gray hair and steel eyeglasses stepped around the corner of the hallway and raised an automatic pistol. Gabriel looked as if he had lost his family forever. Betrayed.
Maya shoved Gabriel down the next hallway as Boone fired. The bullet hit Maya’s right leg, slamming her against the wall, and she fell facedown on the floor. It felt as if all the air had been squeezed out of her body.
Gabriel appeared and scooped her up in his arms. He ran a few feet and lunged into the elevator while Maya tried to pull away from him. Save yourself, she wanted to say, but her mouth couldn’t form the words. Gabriel kicked the wastebasket out of the doors and punched at the buttons. Gunshots. People shouting. The doors closed and they were moving to the ground floor.
MAYA BLACKED OUT and when she opened her eyes they were in the tunnel. Gabriel was on one knee, still holding her tightly. She heard someone talking and realized that Hollis was there. He was stacking up bottles of chemicals that he had taken from the genetic research building.
“I can still remember the little red warning signs in my high-school lab. All this stuff is dangerous if it gets near a flame.” Hollis turned the nozzle on a green canister. “Pure oxygen.” He picked up a glass bottle and poured a clear liquid onto the floor. “And this is liquid ether.”
“Anything else?”
“That’s all we need. Let’s get far away from here.”
Gabriel carried Maya to the fire door at the end of the tunnel. Hollis lit the propane blowtorch, adjusted the hissing blue flame, and then tossed it behind him. They entered a second tunnel. A few seconds later, there was a loud popping noise and the expanding air pressure slammed the fire door open.
When Maya opened her eyes again, they were climbing down the emergency staircase. There was a much louder explosion, as if a massive bomb had just hit the building. The power went out and they huddled in the darkness until Hollis switched on the flashlight. Maya tried to stay conscious, but she glided in and out of a dream. She remembered Gabriel’s voice and a rope lashed around her shoulders as she was pulled up through the ventilation duct. Then she was lying on her back in the wet grass, staring at the stars. She could hear more explosions and the wail of a police siren, but none of that mattered. Maya knew that she was bleeding to death; it felt as if all the life within her body was being absorbed by the cold ground.
“Can you hear me?” Gabriel said. “Maya?”
She wanted to speak to him-say one last thing-but someone had stolen her voice. A black liquid gathered around the edge of her vision and then it began to spread and darken like a drop of ink in a glass of clear water.
60
Around six o’clock in the morning, Nathan Boone glanced up at the sky over the research facility and saw a hazy patch of sunlight. His skin and clothing were covered with soot. The fire in the tunnels was supposedly under control, but black smoke with a harsh chemical odor continued to pour out of the vents. It looked as if the earth was burning.