Whatever Chandra’s invasive touch had done to her, injuries were processing much faster than before. She didn’t even bleed much.
“They’ll pump in gas,” Riley said. “Try to suffocate us and keep us down until they can move us to the incinerators.” She checked the clip in the gun. “It works. They managed to take down two others that way. We need to get off this level.”
“What did she do to me?”
Riley didn’t even glance her way. “I think our best bet is the elevator shaft. We can pry the doors and climb, but we need to start now. They’ll be pumping the inert gas in soon, if they haven’t already.”
She was right, Bryn realized; there was a breeze coming from the air vents, and a slightly sweet smell to it. Annalie seemed especially vulnerable to it, because she slowed down as they headed for the elevators; Bryn had to pull her along in a stumble, and then carry her.
As Riley pried open the doors, she said, “It wasn’t Chandra’s fault. It was the nanites; they were ready for harvesting. Normally the docs come in and draw them off in a syringe when they mature, but they’re programmed for self-transfer if the host is awake and mobile. They transfer the excess supply to the nearest identified ally.” The elevator shaft was empty, the car somewhere up above and likely locked down. Riley took a breath and jumped. She grabbed the cables and looked up. “Let’s go,” she said. “Can you handle her weight?”
“Yes,” Bryn said. She wasn’t sure—Annie wasn’t exactly skin and bones—but Bryn 2.0 felt capable enough. Riley was climbing the steel cables bare-handed, which should have been impossible; since it wasn’t, Bryn jumped and grabbed on. Annie’s weight overbalanced her and almost sent her tumbling down the open shaft, but she clung to the cables with sudden, panicked strength, and began to inch her way up.
It wasn’t hard. It hurt, but it wasn’t hard at all.
Above her, Riley jumped like a cat and landed on the tiny metal ledge with her hands outstretched to either side to lock herself into the narrow space. She balanced herself and began to pry the doors apart.
They were waiting on the other side, and as the metal doors screeched apart, Bryn saw the hail of bullets hit Riley, punch through her body, and tear open bloody holes in their wake.…
But the holes didn’t bleed more than a few drops, and Riley lunged forward.
Bryn kept climbing, careful of her balance, and once she’d gotten to the opening, she swung around the cable, building momentum, and jumped as she held Annie tight against her shoulder.
She landed on bodies. It was a good thing Annie was still out, because it was gruesome. Riley was the only one still standing, and she looked…feral. There was a silvery, reflective shine deep in her eyes, and as Bryn watched, she lifted a raggedly severed arm and…
And ate until the shine went away. Then she dropped the gnawed flesh, wiped her mouth on her shirtsleeve, and looked away. “It’s not a choice,” she said. It was the second time she’d mentioned that, Bryn thought. “The nanites need energy. They take it how they can get it, it’s part of the programming, and protein is what they crave.”
She was right, horribly and awfully right. Bryn should have found the heap of dismembered limbs sickening, but when her stomach complained, it was rumbling, not heaving. Dear God, no, no, let me not be hungry.…
She licked her lips and tasted blood. It was delicious.
“Keep moving,” Riley said.
This level was empty, too, but Bryn thought that there must have been personnel still alive and sealed up behind doors, because there was no attempt to gas them. Annalie woke up—groggy and confused, which was good because it meant maybe she wouldn’t remember what had happened before so clearly. The stairs that Riley headed for were locked up, but that didn’t seem to pose a problem anymore to Upgraded Riley. She just smashed the locks, picked out the pieces, and led the way up.
They met Jane halfway to the next level. She was standing on the landing. “You know I can’t let you leave,” she said. She must have been afraid, Bryn thought, but there was nothing of that on her face, or in her body language. She just looked…hard and uncompromising. “Sorry.”
“You did this,” Riley said. “We’re just the lab rats. You’re the ones who conducted the experiments. Can’t blame us if it goes wrong.”
“You’re not stupid, Riley, and you’re not vicious. You know what happens if you get outside the Pharmadene building; you know the risk of vector infection. The government knows, too. If you make it even one floor closer to the world, they’ll vaporize this place with a nuclear strike, because that’s the only way. And I wouldn’t bet that you and Bryn can survive that. You’ll be taking most of San Diego with you in the process. Innocent lives.”
“Well, on the upside, we’d be taking you,” Bryn said. “What do you mean, vector infection?”
Jane actually smiled a little. “Those nanites inside you are self-replicating. That was what Fountain Group was tasked to create—self-replicating, self-powering nano-soldiers that don’t need injections, and can convert others as they go. The only thing they haven’t mastered yet is how to program them accurately for combat situations, but you know what? You’re doing just fine without it.”
“You called it harvest,” Bryn said. “You were using those people in the lab as incubators for the nanites, and harvesting the crops.”
“I told them that if they made them touch-transfer enabled, it would be a mistake,” Jane said. “But too late now. The rat’s out of the cage, and all that crap. You can’t leave here, Bryn, because you’re a walking colony that’s going to replicate, and when that happens, you’ll pass it on. Vector infection. It’s not even a choice.”
“It can only pass to someone without a live immune system,” Riley said. “Don’t let her spook you. You can’t infect the living, only someone already Revived.”
“You sure about that?” Jane asked. “Because I’m not. And the consequences are a global plague the likes of which only Revelations predicted. So you’re not leaving. Are you?”
Bryn was dizzy with the imagined horror of it. Riley hadn’t been able to control the impulse to transfer the nanites, and the hunger…“Self-powering,” Bryn whispered. “The hunger. We’ll eat anything, won’t we? Even other people.” She wanted to be sick, but her body refused to allow it. No, the nanites refused. They were in charge now.
“Protein,” Jane said. “Think about it. In battle, there’s always a source of protein around. Living or dead. It’s just good strategy.”
Bryn leaned against the stairwell wall, suddenly faint. She collapsed to a sitting position on the stairs.
“Don’t give up,” Riley said. “Bryn, don’t give up.”
“Let Annie go,” Bryn said. “She’s not infected. Let her go, and I’ll stay. I swear.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Jane said softly. She had a remorseless look in her eyes. “It isn’t even vaguely a possibility that we’re negotiating here.” A door opened above her on the landing, and she glanced up, but not with any surprise; she was clearly expecting reinforcements. “See? You’ve got zero shot here, ladies. Absolutely ice-cold zero.”
“I’d recalculate that if I were you,” said Patrick McCallister, as he leaned over the railing and pointed a P90 directly at Jane’s forehead. “Hello, Jane.”
“Hello, Pat,” she said. Other than a flicker of her eyelids, and a slight tightening of muscles, her self-control was impressive. “How’d you get in?”
“I had help,” he said. “On your knees, Jane. Face the wall, hands up and flat—you know the drill.”
“You’re a fool if you think you can take them out of here. Oh, it can be done, but you have got to ask yourself, Pat—should it be done? Because what you’re taking out of here isn’t your sweet little not-quite-dead girlfriend. This thing inside her skin, it’s not really human anymore. And it’s weaponized.”