Acolyte (36 page)

But then, body bags weren't made for comfort.

‘There is one road,' Kendrick had explained. ‘There are no approaches that offer cover. At the facility, the fencing is enough to keep out anything less hardy than a tank. When it was first announced, they had a few sightseers to ward off, but the coverage of the project and the remote location means that nobody's interested in coming to see it with their own eyes now. A patrol vehicle checks the perimeter every two hours. The question you should be asking is this: how do we get inside?'

With over a hundred revivers now at the facility, research teams were getting through at least ten revivals a day. The new Baseline had widespread support even from many of those who had vehemently opposed it before, and supply of volunteered corpses wasn't proving a problem.

‘Our window is tonight,' said Sly. ‘There's a scheduled delivery of revival subjects. Thirty-five bodies in a chilled container unit, being collected from Reno in three hours. A four-hour drive to Winnerden Flats, and the unit is delivered ready for subject preparations to begin in the morning. Five of those bodies will not be dead.' She smiled. ‘Dress warm.'

They'd been met an hour later at the back of a faceless building,
by a huge, slow-moving man. He shook Kendrick's hand, nodded at Sly, then cast a suspicious eye over Never, Jonah and Annabel.

‘Last of the bodies came in not long ago,' said the man, sounding anxious. ‘We need to take five of them out.'

They all took a hand helping remove the five corpses, taking them out of their body bags and putting them in the back of a van, a look of knowing disgrace on the faces of the living.

Annabel had been the one to voice it. ‘What are you going to …?' she started, then just gestured at the naked corpses.

The man sighed. ‘Got a meat storage locker I'll use. What happens then, well, they'll turn up one way or another; the families will get them back. I don't feel right about it, but it has to be done.'

The five live replacements entered the shipping unit, with thirty corpses in black body bags and the morgue smell of chilled unease. There were three racks of metal beds in a single transport assembly, each rack layer with space for four bodies head to toe, three layers high. Their own beds were waiting, all five now-empty bags on the lowest shelves. Sly and Kendrick both had their holdalls with them. Sly took hers and put it in the foot of one bag, then lay down inside, zipping it up halfway.

‘Pick your quarters,' Kendrick told the others. ‘You'll want to zip yourselves in to retain heat, but give yourself enough ventilation. When this door seals, we don't talk again unless absolutely necessary, and even then only in whispers. The drivers are not my people. They have no idea we're here. If they catch the corpses chatting, you can be damn sure they'll cause us trouble.'

With everyone in, Kendrick pulled out a flashlight and went to the door, where the big man was waiting outside.

They shook hands again. ‘I don't like it,' said the man, ready to close the cooled unit and shut them in.

Kendrick nodded. ‘There's nothing to like.'

And with that, the door was closed.

After three hours the ground started to get uneven, the ride becoming a series of lurches and rolls as they reached the final stretch of the road to Winnerden Flats.

They slowed, then came to a halt. From outside they could hear muffled exchanges. The end of the container opened. Metal clanked, followed by a rattle and a shuddering thunk as mechanisms latched onto the rack assembly.

‘All good,' said a voice. Jonah felt movement again, the assembly being removed from the container to a secondary transport. His body bag was ruffled by a breeze for a moment before they came to a halt again.

Some small talk followed, as the paperwork was signed. The drivers wished the security guards goodnight and drove away; after a few more seconds, the rack of bodies began to move, the effortful whine of an electric motor audible in a more restricted space now, the sense of breeze vanishing.

They were in the building.

After a minute or so they stopped. There was the sound of a large door closing, then total silence and a creeping sense of cold. Delivery complete.

Wordless, Kendrick came to each of them, unzipping their body bags, signalling them to get out quietly.

They were in a large chilled storage area, dimly lit and over twice as wide as the rack assembly was long. There was a floor-to-ceiling gate in the far wall with a smaller inset door. Three other rack assemblies were beside theirs, all filled with body bags.

‘They're well stocked,' Jonah whispered to Never, nodding at the other racks.

‘OK,' said Kendrick. ‘Me and Sly will wait by the door for Rico, one of our insiders. He should be here within thirty minutes. He'll take us to a storage room where we can hide out until the time comes, which may be thirty hours or more. As soon as Andreas begins, Rico can get Tess to us. Then, our attack on Lab Two is also your cover. You'll take a patrol vehicle and drive.' He pulled a
sheet of paper from his pocket and gave it to Annabel. ‘Here. Details of where you'll be able to change vehicles and get further instructions. Clear?'

Annabel nodded.

‘You three wait here,' Kendrick said, handing his holdall to Jonah. ‘When we signal, follow with the bags, and stay quiet.'

‘Make yourself useful,' said Sly, handing her bag to Never.

‘Christ,' he whispered, feeling the weight. ‘What's
in
here?'

‘Plenty,' said Sly. She and Kendrick both held handguns; they checked their weapons before crossing to the far wall.

They waited in silence. After a minute, Never knelt down and slowly opened the zip on Sly's bag. He peeked inside. ‘Christ,' he whispered. ‘There's some meaty stuff in here.' He stood, holding a small black rectangular card and something that looked like a hockey puck.

‘What are they?' said Jonah; Never handed him the puck and held up the black card for him to get a better view. It looked like a security card, but a cable ran from it to a small black square device an inch or so across, which had several other short cables running off it.

‘Oooh,' said Never. ‘Very nice. Security hacking kit, I'd guess.' He looked up at Jonah with a completely earnest face. ‘I wonder if Sly would let me keep one of these?'

‘And what about this?' said Jonah, looking at the hockey puck.

‘Not sure,' said Never. ‘Probably explosives.'

Jonah's eyes widened. He knelt by Never's bag and gently replaced the puck, catching sight of some of the rest of the contents. As he looked up to Never, he realized Sly was staring right at him. She started walking towards them. Jonah hurriedly zipped the bag up and stood, guilt on his face.

‘Don't fuck about with this stuff, understand?' she whispered. Jonah mumbled a ‘yes'; Sly went back to Kendrick.

It was another twenty minutes before there was a gentle knock. Kendrick opened the small inset door; he and Sly went out, leaving
Jonah, Annabel and Never alone. The seconds crawled by, Jonah feeling the cold seep ever deeper into him. Then the door opened again, Sly indicating for them to come. They hurried over, Jonah and Never carrying the weapons holdalls. They stepped out into a bright wide corridor. Sly closed the door then led the way.

Along the corridor in both directions were doorways, red lights on small wall units beside them suggesting they were locked. The corridor itself was clearly in a maintenance area – a step ladder lay on its side nearby, and just ahead was a cleaner's trolley next to a pile of garbage sacks.

Kendrick and his contact weren't visible, but there was a right turn just ahead, by the cleaner's trolley; Sly took the turn first, Annabel behind, Never and Jonah at the rear. ‘Well,' whispered Never as they rounded the corner. ‘So far so good.'

At the end of the corridor, maybe fifty feet ahead, was a large black door. Kendrick was already halfway there, another man beside him in a blue security uniform. Jonah presumed he was the contact, Rico.

Jonah felt his stomach lurch; he shouted out Kendrick's name,
screamed
it out, as he pointed.

Pointed at the thing on Rico's shoulder.

The moment Jonah shouted, Rico turned. He looked shocked, clearly not expecting to have been compromised. His hand reached for a weapon as he shoved Kendrick to the floor; Sly's gun was already rising, and it fired with a dull suppressed
thump.
The shot hit the shoulder of Rico's gun arm, exactly where Sly must have intended. Kendrick took him to the floor with a sweep of a leg and was on top of the man in an instant, punching the wound as Rico cried out in pain. Jonah saw the shadow glisten on the man's shoulder, writhing along to Rico's own agony.

Rico grit his teeth.
‘Fuck
,
'
he said, his voice shaky. ‘You brought that fucking
reviver
with you …'

‘How long, Rico?' shouted Kendrick.
‘How long?'

‘Long enough,' spat Rico.

Kendrick hit the wound again. ‘Where's Templeton?' he said, but Rico didn't reply, just grinned through the agony.

Sly ran ahead to join him. The others stood where they were, starting to understand just how much trouble they were in, just how broken their plans had become in so short a time.

‘Oh shit,' said Never. Jonah followed his gaze back along the corridor past the cold-storage area to the secure door at the end, the lights on the lock changing to green. The doors opened, blue-uniformed security guards hurtling through, yelling at them to get their hands up.

Jonah stared for a moment, shadows on all of them. He was
suddenly very conscious of the holdall he was carrying. He held it out from himself, setting it on the ground and taking a step back, his arms raised. He looked at Never, confused for a moment, Never's hands already empty and in the air, but no bag in sight. Then Never's eyes flicked to the cleaner's trolley beside them, and the garbage bags lying against it. Jonah caught sight of one holdall strap protruding.

The guards were on top of them in seconds. Annabel, Never and Jonah were urged on, arms twisted behind them, then forced to the floor.

Sly and Kendrick were both standing with their guns raised, Rico prone at their feet, the armed guards facing them down. One guard stepped forwards.

‘Throw your guns down and get on the floor, hands on head.
Now.
'

‘Do as he says,' Kendrick told Sly.

Sly didn't move.

Kendrick turned to her, put out his hand and pressed down on her gun to lower it. ‘Do it,' he said.

Sly scowled at him, then complied, her weapon skittering along the floor. She stepped forwards, planting a solid kick in the groin of the prone Rico. She turned and walked to where Annabel lay, getting on the floor herself. She threw a look back to Kendrick, who was still standing, gun raised.

‘Throw your gun down,' said the guard. ‘Final warning.'

Jonah could see the rage in Kendrick's face, but his gun started to lower.

As it did, the security door at the end of the corridor behind Kendrick clunked and opened. Out came two men, dressed in identical black clothing that seemed almost military. Both were carrying large shadows. Jonah stared. The shadows were even larger than the one he'd seen on the FBI agent, Heggarty. Sinuous, writhing masses.

The men took a step forward, then one to the side, taking up positions by the door.

Michael Andreas emerged behind them.

‘Gun down please, Larry,' said Andreas.

Kendrick didn't move, but even from this distance Jonah could see his gun lower slightly then rise again. And Jonah could see exactly where that uncertainty had come from.

Andreas had changed.

It wasn't just the sense of
bulk
Jonah noticed, a curious feeling that Andreas had grown larger than his body. It was the way that this bulk seemed barely contained, ready to break out. His face appeared oddly fractured, like a broken mirror glued roughly back together, dark lines across it that seemed in flux.

Kendrick fired eight rapid shots. Andreas didn't move; even though the guards were armed, they simply watched. Kendrick lowered his gun, staring at the holes in Andreas's forehead, tendrils of black smoke emerging from them, evaporating.

Andreas smiled.

‘Come,' he said, beckoning to them. ‘We're just about to begin.'

The moment Never Geary saw Andreas he knew they didn't stand a chance.

Kendrick's ineffective volley was the icing on the cake. The would-be saviours of the world were directed through the door Andreas had emerged from, into what transpired to be a security station, a mosaic of CCTV monitors showing external night views of the facility's surroundings.

The two dark-clothed men followed Andreas inside; the fallen Rico was brought to his feet by a guard, in clear pain but awed by the presence of his leader, and the door was locked again.

‘Sit, please,' said Andreas. They complied, Never noting that neither Sly nor Kendrick were taking their eyes from Rico, clearly wanting to spend a little quality time with their betrayer.

The wounds in Andreas's forehead were healing, Never could see – but then he corrected himself. The holes simply became thinner, merging with the lines that, from this close, he could see criss-crossing Andreas's face; lines which yawned open and closed again several times. The impression Never had was of a series of mouths, yearning to be fed.

‘You were wondering,' sneered Andreas, ‘when Rico succumbed to me. Well, Rico?'

Rico's face was glistening with sweat and blood. One of his hands was trembling. The shock of his injury, Never presumed.

‘Two months ago,' said Rico. He smiled.

‘Two months,' said Andreas, commiserating. ‘So close.' He took a step nearer Kendrick, who couldn't keep the distaste from his expression. ‘Your friend Templeton had no idea Rico had been compromised, by the way. Up until Rico killed her. I'm impressed that they avoided attracting suspicion for so long, but when they did I gave them both a choice. Rico made the right decision. He's been on my personal security staff ever since, a detail he presumably omitted from any communication he sent you.' Andreas shrugged. ‘And now he's brought you all here.' He turned his gaze to Annabel. ‘Miss Harker. Mr Geary. I wasn't expecting you. Or you, Jonah. I'm particularly pleased to have
you
with us.' He said it with a leer.