Sophia wrapped her arm around her head to muffle the piercing sound that filled the donut-shaped corridor. Behind her eyelids, she saw the grenade’s xenon lamps pulsing viciously. They made the corridor walls hot like the surface of the sun.
She traversed the floor on her hands and knees and found herself halfway across the body of an Elohim. He writhed beneath her, blind and disoriented.
All the Elohim had collapsed to the floor. Cecilia had fallen too. Her off-white trench coat was difficult to see among the white combat suits the Elohim wore, but Sophia found her. She collapsed beside her.
The flashing dissipated. Sophia had five seconds before the Elohim’s vision would return. She guessed a further ten seconds before they gathered enough coordination to fire their PEP rifles, paralyzing her.
While Cecilia was still protecting her eyes, Sophia took the opportunity to rifle through the trench-coat pockets with her good hand. She found a bulky wallet and opened it. Inside were four needles, four vials and alcohol swabs inside a pouch. Sophia could see four vials inside. Each one had a different color. One was amber, one was vivid blue, one was crimson and another violet. She recalled the Axolotl Chimera vector being violet in color and the Anti-Psychopath being blue. Cecilia was smart enough to carry a backup. One of those vials had to be the Chimera vector. Sophia held onto the wallet.
The Elohim stirred around her. Cecilia reached down with one hand and took her P99 pistol from under her trench coat.
An Elohim grabbed Sophia’s leg, pulled her flat onto her stomach. The wallet slipped from her grasp. Cecilia sat upright, gripping her P99. She pulled back on the slide.
Sophia crawled to her knees and elbowed the Elohim who was grabbing her. His grip slipped. Cecilia reached for the wallet. Sophia whisked the pistol from the Elohim’s hip holster and aimed it at Cecilia.
They were aiming at each other.
Sophia squeezed the trigger.
So did Cecilia.
Cecilia’s round struck Sophia in the chest. Burned through her skin, her lungs, blew out her back.
Shuddering, Cecilia collapsed where she lay.
Sophia turned over, onto her knees, breathing hard. Her right lung had taken the round. She almost passed out. Breathing felt like swallowing lava. She was too scared to feel her back, see how much flesh was missing. She didn’t want to guess how many minutes she had left before death.
Cecilia’s gloved hands were wrapped around the wallet. Sophia shoved the pistol between her knees and pulled at the wallet, but Cecilia wasn’t going to give it up so easily. Sophia’s peripheral vision told her the Elohim around her were starting to recover. She was running out of time.
Forcing herself to stand, she half-ran, half-staggered to the cell door that imprisoned Damien, Jay and Denton. She found the General’s severed finger on the polished concrete floor, picked it up and pressed it into the fingerprint scanner. She heard the Elohim behind her reaching for their PEP rifles.
The red light above the fingerprint scanner faded and the green light blinked on. The cell door opened.
Sophia collapsed. The pistol slipped from her grasp. She saw Damien and Jay rushing towards her. They checked her wound.
‘We need first aid!’ Jay yelled at Denton.
‘That’s not going to happen,’ Denton said.
Sophia tried to hang on, to stay conscious. She followed Denton’s gaze to the Elohim standing on either side of Cecilia, PEP rifles aimed in her general direction. And there was Cecilia, also standing, seemingly unharmed.
‘These bullet-resistant vests,’ she said, ‘it’s not like the movies. One little bullet and it feels like I’ve been hit with a sledgehammer.’ She ripped the Velcro to remove her vest and inspect the damage. ‘And that one little bullet compromises the whole vest. If I want to stay protected I need a new one.’ She discarded the vest and reached for her wallet. ‘Or I could inject myself with the Chimera vector.’
‘I’m guessing you’re not planning on having children then?’ Denton said.
‘Actually, that only works for women carrying the dormant psychopath gene.’
‘That’s a bit sexist,’ Denton said. ‘For the men it doesn’t matter, but for the women it has to be dormant. Are you sure you got your science right? You know, in case you plan on putting a bun in the oven later.’
Cecilia smiled. ‘I have to be sure. Inability to metabolize ammonia. Massive immune response. Organ failure. Brain death. That’s the last thing I want.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Sophia said, her voice weak, short of oxygen.
Cecilia’s smile grew wider. ‘Oh, I suppose you thought it was just a little sterilization for those poor, poor women,’ she said. ‘I lied. It’s a little more than that.’
She tossed the wallet to Sophia.
Jay snatched it and opened it.
‘Inject her with both Chimera vectors,’ Cecilia said. ‘We don’t want her dying on us just yet.’
‘Which one?’ Jay yelled.
Cecilia smiled. ‘Take your pick.’
Damien took the wallet from Jay, then used sign language to talk to him so Cecilia couldn’t eavesdrop. ‘Two are Chimera,’ he signed, spelling the word letter by letter. ‘What are the other two?’
‘One has to be the flu cure,’ Jay signed. ‘She can’t have Sophia sick forever.’
Damien handed the violet syringe to Jay.
Jay pulled off the plastic cap and squirted some of the fluid into the air.
It might be a Chimera vector, it might be the flu antidote, or it might be lethal, Sophia thought.
Jay pulled back the sleeve of her Fifth Column-issue pajamas, found a vein and injected slowly. Then the crimson syringe.
Damien passed Jay the blue one. ‘What’s the fourth one?’ he signed.
‘If it’s in the wallet, it can’t be too bad,’ Jay signed back.
Jay injected the blue one. Damien passed him the amber syringe, and he injected that too.
‘OK, good,’ Cecilia said. ‘Enough with the pointless sign language. Get back in your cell, boys. You too, Denton.’
Sophia’s vision cleared. The fire in her damaged lung was receding.
‘And ever an ill death may they die,’ Denton said.
The Elohim aimed their PEP rifles at Cecilia.
Sophia turned her head to see Denton smiling.
‘You should’ve killed me when you had the chance,’ he told Cecilia.
Cecilia looked surprised at first, then angry. Her jaw worked and her lips pursed firmly together. She drew her pistol.
Before Sophia knew what she was doing, she had her pistol in her good hand. She squeezed a double tap through Cecilia’s heart.
Like a discarded marionette, Cecilia slumped backwards.
Sophia was on her feet, a new-found reserve of adrenaline burning through her. She moved away from Damien and Jay and aimed her pistol at Denton.
‘How did you do that?’ she said.
‘A little anti-Cecilia mojo. I had Adamicz install it separately, just in case.’
‘Does that mean we have it?’ she said.
Denton shook his head. ‘It decays soon after you’re deprogrammed. It only works if an operative is reprogrammed before it can decay. Which, it seems, is what Cecilia is doing with her bodyguards.’
‘Was doing,’ Jay said.
Denton walked over to Cecilia’s body and picked up her pistol. ‘If you want to leave, I suggest you do it now.’
‘You’re letting me go?’ Sophia said.
Denton checked his pistol magazine. ‘How else will these boys get their payment for helping you?’
Sophia lowered her pistol. ‘What if I come back to kill you?’
Denton grinned. ‘Then I’ll have to stop you, won’t I?’
Sophia didn’t return the grin. ‘What are you going to do now?’
Denton looked down at Cecilia’s lifeless body. ‘Clean up this mess.’