The Eighth Day

Chapter 32

After they cleared out of Moore City, Jensen drove Emma Tyler and Chad Dodd back to Darke County Airport, and Emma listened from the back seat as Dodd laid it out for them.

"Throwing bodies at Echo-7 isn't gonna cut it. Our agents don't stand a chance against him." He sighed. "God, I miss the good old days. Life would be so much easier if we could just launch a precision strike on his ass, but you can't fly five feet with a high explosive anymore without a satellite picking you up and blasting you out of the sky. All because that Mohammed fucknut had to go and kamikaze his drone and his RDX into the Super Bowl and ruin it for everybody."

Emma rolled her eyes. "The inconsiderate bastard," she said.

Dodd said, "What we need is someone who can go toe to toe with Echo-7. I'm not talking about an external hire, either. We need someone who's just as fast and strong as he is, and there isn't a man in the world that fits that bill. Not a regular Joe type, anyway."

"You're talking about another Echo," Emma said.

Dodd shook his head. "The other Echoes are incognizant. I'm talking about the Alpha."

"He's functional?"

Dodd shrugged. "In a manner of speaking," he said, but didn't expound.

They flew to a private airport at the company's research center in the Appalachians. Jensen waited with the plane while an autonomous electric car carried Emma and Dodd across the tarmac toward a rectangular building with windowless concrete walls built into the side of a craggy bluff. A riveted steel door led into a lounge area with an ultramodern and minimalist decor. Everything gleamed silver or a shade of white.

Beyond the lounge area, a security checkpoint prevented unrestricted access to the rest of the facility. A pair of armed and uniformed guards stood as they approached.

"Sir," one of them said with a nod.

"Gentlemen," Dodd said as he stepped through the scanner.

Emma followed on his heels and ignored the obtrusive leers of the guards as they looked her up and down. Gentlemen my ass, she thought.

"The Alpha has been in cryostasis for a long time," Dodd said as they continued down a narrow corridor. "Even though we scratched him into the win column, he wasn't exactly ready for prime time. He had...flaws. So it was like, in case of emergency, break glass. And, well..." Dodd turned his hands palms up.

They stopped in front of an elevator. Its metallic surface reflected shiny versions of their mirrored alter egos. Dodd pressed his palm against a biometric scanner set into the wall.

"What do you mean, he wasn't ready for prime time?" Emma asked.

The elevator opened, and Dodd stepped inside.

"What flaws?"

The door began to shut between them. Chad reached out and stopped it. "Coming?"

Emma crossed her arms. "What flaws?"

"You'll see. Come on."

Emma sighed and stepped across the threshold into the elevator. The door closed, and they began their descent. Time stretched on, and when at last the elevator slowed and drifted to a stop, she envisioned the door opening on a blast of heat that took her breath away and a fiery landscape where the souls of the damned whiled away the hours in eternal torment.

But instead of fire and brimstone, an enormous laboratory stretched before them. Countless rows of steel workbenches and cabinets lined the sprawling room. Test tubes, beakers, and other glassware stood at attention in neat rows on the shelves. Nanoscopes and hologram projectors perched upon the countertops, aligned with precise symmetry. A series of touchscreen displays served as a backdrop for each workstation, where ranks of scientists dressed in white lab coats went about their research, bent over various apparatuses or sweeping their arms as they manipulated various windows on multi-touch interfaces. Still others hurried about. Their toil had a choreographed familiarity, and the low hum of conversation filled the room.