Toxic (83 page)

"We can't do anything for you! I told you to get out of here!"

The boss thought it good to intervene. The Reverend turned towards his lieutenant, who moved aside.

"What's your problem?"

"Some guys stole my goods," Hector explained, looking angry.

"Drugs?"

"
Quatrocientos
kilos. Cocaine.
Pura
."

"And?"

"You can help me get it back. I was on my way to make the delivery when I ran into those robbers."

Dan and the Reverend had a discussion in quiet voices. The Colombian noted Alva's avid expression. He clenched his jaw as to not respond to her distress.

"What's in it for us? Your customers consume other things now. Your coke isn't worth anything anymore."

"There's a group of junkies just north of Miami. They will welcome you like saviors. Some of them will be willing to do anything for this type of product."

Dan looked at Alva and lowered his weapon. The proposal led to another meeting.

"Where are these robbers?"

Hector smiled. "Not far from here."

Elaine watched the reptile creature, the eyes of which were almost as yellow as the contents of one of the vials. The pumps had extracted all of the cryo-fluid from the body of the young woman, which was replaced with her own reconstructed and thawed blood. She looked like she was around thirty, and was blond with a morbid look. Did he really think he could revive her? Maybe she would come back, but not in human form.

"She won't become infected?" the nurse asked, doubtful.

The alien leaned his massive head towards the open vat. His tongue whipped in an out. He didn't have eyelids, but a sort of cap, which pulled away to reveal his eyes.

"Excellent question."

On the screen, a three-dimensional projection displayed the progress of the fluids in the patient's vascular networks. The veins went pink and then red one after another, and that was about all she understood. The numerous symbols were still incomprehensible.

"Reestablishing general circulation won't make her come back to life," Elaine announced, putting on a stethoscope and taking her hand.

Her skin was still icy and humid. The heating produced by the metal vat would take time to reach the extremities of her body.

"I know. We have to make her heart start again," the alien responded, holding two chrome rods and a sort of injector pistol. "I think that the technique consists in stimulating it with electric shocks in combination with a dose of adrenaline."

"Uh... Yes. We should start at two hundred joules."

The practitioner's forked tongue vibrated. "Obviously, I'm trying not to damage this female's vital organ."

"Adrenaline, three milligrams," Elaine specified in a hesitant tone.

How long had it been since she had said those words?

She looked at the patient once again and then the screen.

"She's been dead for several hours. This treatment won't bring back her life. Many people have tried. Our literature is filled with attempts that have ended up as nightmares."

The reptile didn't seem to get the message. He continued with his examination. His claws touched the icons on a diagram.

"Do you get what I mean, doctor Frankenstein?"

He stopped. "Franken...stein?"

"Never mind," Elaine sighed.

The doors of the lab opened suddenly. The two Lynians came in. The strange cacophony of alien languages filled in the spaces, with whistles and more or less long chirring noises on the reptilian side and hiccups and low tones from the Lynians.

Jave turned towards Elaine, as if he had just noticed her presence.

"It seems that the revival is going well."

"She isn't quite saved yet," Elaine let off with a sigh.

"This is going to work."

What made him say it with so much confidence?

"Could you come with me?" he asked her all of a sudden.

She raised an eyebrow. What did he mean? Her leaving the premises was out of the question.

"We need to talk," the creature added. "You and me. It won't take long."

She spotted the equivalent of a spark in Jool's grey eyes, just behind them. Or was it a reflection? Elaine accepted and they left the lab.

"Changes in the situation are forcing me to leave," the emissary started. "I advise you to follow the recommendations of Jool or the reptilian. They will help you."

"I don't obey anyone."

"I'm not talking about obeying. Listen to them if you want to survive."

"What's happening?"

The alien crossed his thick fingers, a gesture that she interpreted as indecision.

"You can't stay on your planet. We need to evacuate you."

Elaine swallowed her saliva.

"I understand the shock that this may cause," Jave continued, "but believe me, you don't have any other option."

"How are you planning to evacuate several billions of human beings?" she stammered.

"We can't."

The nurse put a hand on the railing. The floor started to move, to sway. The cloudy horizon of the sun wobbled in the distance.
My God
... she thought, closing her eyes.

"It's technically impossible," the alien started again.

"How many?" she whispered.

At least he was being frank.

"Five million. I hope you will be one of them. I need to go now."

Under the surveillance of the leader that these guys called the Reverend, Hector recognized the road that he had taken towards the alley. The big guy was driving. The racetrack was only a few kilometers away but their truck was moving frustratingly slow. He thought about Alva and the others in the trailer. They hadn't exchanged a word. The plan would fail if these guys found out that he knew them. The diva seemed to be in a desperate state, exhausted and at her wit's end.

"How is it that a trafficker is wandering alone around here?"

He had expected the question.

"Two days ago, we were attacked by drones, more than usual. I'm not sure why, but it seemed that it happened in the whole area."

The two guys looked at each other. The driver shook his head.

"Yeah, we know about it. And you got away?"

"Those bastards got my friends. I hid under my pickup."

"And these robbers are in the area? How many are there?"

"Four guys showed up just after the attack. They threatened me and stole the 4x4. I heard them talk about going back to the race track."

"The Homestead race track?"

"
S󘁥s posible
."

The explanation seemed to satisfy them, for the moment.

Hector hoped that Hanson had conveyed his message and that Jon and his men were already in place. They wouldn't be long in finding out.

The vehicle took the main road to the left. After two hundred meters on that bit of highway, the driver stopped his truck at a junction. The path to the right, blocked by a fence, led to a vast parking lot that had returned to its savage state. Hector spotted the bleachers through holes in the vegetation, as well as part of a building. One that was still standing.

"No sentries," the Reverend said, surprised. "Your robbers aren't very cautious."

"The site is huge. They can't cover all the entrances."

The driver came back to them.

"There isn't anyone, my Reverend. What do we do?"

The white-haired man asked the Colombian the same question.

"Our new associate says that we should try the other entrances."

"I don't like this plan. We would be better to leave him be and take care of our friends back there."

"Patience, my son, your time will come. But..."

The Reverend spotted it: "We're going in that way."

The vehicle knocked down the fence. The former two-lane path led them to the edge of the track at the turn, where the boss ordered them to stop.

The barrier was in a sorry state. The high walls had fallen down and the concrete blocks were strewn across the asphalt covered in potholes and cracks, as if it had been bombed. The majority of the holes were filled with shrubs or brush.

They got out of the cab. One of them men got down from the back of the truck and joined them. After a discussion between the three of them, the latter climbed up the ladder fixed to a pylon supporting the remains of projectors. The verdict wasn't long.

"I see a vehicle. It's coming towards us," he cried from above.

"Perfect," the Reverend said, exchanging glances with the driver.

The latter climbed up onto the roof of the trailer. He took out a machine gun. Hector hadn't thought that they would have weapons like that, firepower enough to make up for their numbers.

"Is that really necessary?"

"Do you want to get your merchandise back?"

"
Sí
."

"So, it's necessary, the leader concluded, nodding his head to his right hand man.

The Colombian objected. "
No! No!
You can't do that!"

"That's your problem, man," the fourth
gringo
in the band intervened.

The Reverend armed his AK and smiled at him.

"The problem with this guy is that he's been taking us along for a ride from the beginning. I saw how the junkie looked at him. They know each other. And for an unknown reason, he led us into a trap. But still, I think his story about four hundred kilos of coke is real. So, we're going to take it and then, we'll recruit a new family. A big family."

He stopped, satisfied to see Hector's face fall apart.

"Go and find the bitch," the boss ordered his stooge.

"Marisol...
No...
" the Colombian sighed.

From the roof of the trailer, the man opened fire. Hector put his hands over his ears and fell onto his knees. The Reverend walked in front of him. He waited for the ruckus to finish before speaking.

"The price for your crime is the life of the bitch. Think about it well before you try to scam me again."

"What are you doing?" a female voice yelled.

The goon was dragging Alva by the arms. He threw her down at his side. Hector wanted to protect her, but the Reverend smacked him with the butt of his gun. The Colombian collapsed to the ground. The sand blocked his mouth. He gulped.

"Marisol..."

"Hector!"

She had red eyes, just like Marisol after a hit. These guys had given her coke again.

"I'm sorry. It's all my fault..."

"Very touching," the white-haired man laughed, pointing his assault rifle at the diva's chest. "Ending your life this way is too bad, my child. May the Lord welcome you..."

The Reverend pronounced his last words and then went silent. There was a vibration in the air and a sort of whistling. A blue spark appeared at the base of his neck. The Reverend collapsed over Alva. From the truck, the henchman dove down to avoid a second shot, which shook the cab. Hector rushed at the second man, who pointed his gun at Marisol. He tackled him around the waist. The two men rolled to the side and a new shot resounded.

The man who got up groaned in surprise as the diva got up in a flash.

"Hector!"

She started to run with fury towards the body of the Colombian, who was spread out on his stomach."

"Hector!"

She turned him over, shaking like a leaf, her view fogged by tears.

"Hector..."

He was already gone. The bullet had hit his heart.

The killer pointed the weapon at Alva. A blue light appeared at the base of his neck just before he could press the trigger. An angled shape appeared a few meters above them. Freed by their jailers, who wanted to help their companions, Masters, Bruce, Dewei and Alison got out of the trailer. They didn't get far. The open terrain helped the drones spot them and in the end, they had them all. Alva was the first. She collapsed on top of Hector's warm body.

Elaine leaned over the edge of the vat. Her mind was trying to make sense of the incomprehensible. She shook her head and caressed the patient's face. Her chest was moving up and down at regular intervals, a sign that her respiratory function had returned. Was she capable of more?

The reptilian had assured her that the cryo-fluid preserved cells.

"Death is an interruption, although brutal," he had affirmed, "but in some cases, it's not irreversible."

The creature watched the information band on the screen. In the middle of the flow, Elaine recognized the sinus rhythm line. Her heart was behaving normally.

The woman's eyelids trembled. Under her skin, her eyes were moving rapidly, like during a dream or a difficult awakening.

"It shouldn't be long," the alien announced.

The patient's fingers started to move around. Elaine grabbed her hand.

"I'm Elaine Jones. I'm a nurse. Can you hear me?"

The eye activity intensified, but she still kept her eyelids closed. Her lips opened slightly. The nurse leaned over the body, which was covered with a white sheet.

"I'm here. What are you saying?"

She heard a vague murmur, the words of a foreign language. Latin.

"I don't understand..."

"
Dove sono? Chi sei?
"

"My name is Elaine," she tried again.

"
Non capisco. Che ne dici?
"

The alien's whistling attracted the attention of the young woman, whose eyes filled with terror. Diagrams on the monitor went into a panic.

"We captured her in Rome. It's Italian," the reptilian said.

The patient moved suddenly and tried to leave the vat.

"Calm down, calm down. There's no danger; he's with us."

Elaine read the lack of understanding in her gaze: how could those things be on their side?

"I know.
E 'complicato
," she improvised.

She pointed to herself.

"Elaine. What's your name?"

"Jo... Joana."

The Roman was reacting normally given the circumstances. It was both extraordinary and frightening.

"Do you think this will work on repaired living dead?"

"Most likely."

"
Questa cosa. Mantenere questo rettile dalla mia vista
," Joana said with a look of disgust.

"I'm sorry; I don't speak Italian. Only a few words. Everything is OK...
Tutto 衢ene
."