Every muscle in Freedman’s body tensed like a hair trigger. Whatever she was holding, Cam didn’t want her hands to snap forward and throw it. “I knew Albert Sawyer!” he shouted. “I’m your friend!”
One problem was that they wore Russian uniforms. Another was that Freedman’s face was a wild mask. Her eyes rolled and popped with fear.
“I’ll kill you!” she barked. “Stay back!”
“I knew Albert Sawyer,” he said.
This time his words seemed to register. Her head ducked and lifted again, not in a gesture like a nod but like a woman double-checking her thoughts. For an instant, Freedman seemed unaware of them. But she didn’t lower her arms.
Cam slid into the shallow pit where Deborah stood below Freedman, putting himself at the same disadvantage. He thought it might calm her.
“Sawyer’s dead now,” he said gently. He hoped this news was something they could share.
Instead, when Freedman’s eyes rose, her expression was filled with new terror. “They’re all dead,” she said, and yet her voice seemed disconnected from the rest of her. It was flat and distant. Was she even talking to them?
Kendra Freedman was insane. At some point, she’d experienced a psychotic break.
Deborah repressed a low sound like a moan, but she didn’t try to run. She stood her ground, entrusting her life to him. He wanted to take her hand. He wanted to say We’re going to be a// right, but Freedman needed to be the sole focus of his attention. Her sleeve had shot back from her hand and Cam stared at the scar on her wrist. He had known would-be suicides. Sometimes they were beyond reach.
“We’re here to rescue you,” he said. “My name is Cam.”
She ignored him. The chopper was still hammering over the ruins behind him to his right. Her gaze flickered in that direction, then shifted to his left. At what? Alekseev? Cam would have yelled at the Russian to keep away if he hadn’t been afraid to raise his voice.
“I’m your friend,” he said.
“Stay back!”
“We’re here to—”
“I’ll kill you!” Freedman nearly fell when the pile beneath her shifted, her left hand slashing outward for balance. But she stayed up, and they didn’t die.
It was the second time she’d reacted violently to that word. Friend. Why? The Chinese must have promised her the same thing, and Cam struggled to find a different way to connect with her. Sawyer. She’d stopped when he mentioned Sawyer, so he said, “I knew Al. He told me everything. We know it wasn’t your fault.”
“What was his first patent number?”
“I, uh—”
Freedman’s left hand rose away from her body again, threatening. “He loved that number like it was a million dollars,” she said. All at once she was in total possession of herself and this change was uniquely frightening, because now Cam saw her true presence and her intellect. Could she really be smarter than Ruth?
If he tried to fool her, she would know.
He said, “Al told me how your sister gave you all of those old ABBA records on CD for Christmas. You brought them into the lab and played them there. It made him crazy.” Don’t say that word! he warned himself. Crazy. Friend. Watch your mouth. His head was racing but he was careful to speak slowly. “Al liked hip-hop, and you made him listen to ancient rock like ABBA and Duran Duran. He laughed about it.”
Sawyer had cursed her for a stupid bitch. Sawyer’s guilt had turned him cold and mean. He denied that he was even slightly to blame for the end of the world, yet he’d been an integral part of the archos tech’s design team.
These people were unique. Their rare education set them apart. Ruth had always felt responsible because she could do something, just never enough. How much worse would that self-loathing be for the woman who’d been the main force in the creation of the machine plague? A planet had died because of her.
If this doesn’t work…
Freedman’s gaze turned to track the helicopter again, denying Cam the chance to make eye contact. That only increased his nervousness. We can’t shoot her, he thought, but we can’t leave her here, either. The Chinese have already sent troops to recapture her. They’ll send more. Another chopper is probably already on its way.
“Al,” Freedman said, like a robot.
“We’re here to rescue you,” Cam repeated. “The helicopter is ours. We’re American soldiers.”
She looked down at her fists. Fear had widened her eyes again, and Cam realized that a lot of her terror was for herself — for the things she’d done to escape. She didn’t want to cause any more death.
“Take me to the lab,” she said.
“We’ll go anywhere you want.”
But he’d rattled the words out too quickly, as if speaking to a child. His tone brought her face up again and he saw that she was there, inside herself, listening and coherent. Her eyes gleamed with triumph.
“They built a sister lab nearby,” she said. “I know it’s there.”
“You mean in the Saint Bernadine hospital?”
“They built a sister lab nearby. They said no, but they used the same couriers and I saw the same man on the same day. I know it’s there.”
Couriers, he thought, doubting her. Could she really have discerned the existence of a second lab within walking distance of Saint Bernadine from such a small clue? She keeps repeating herself exactly, he thought. She clung to some phrases like a drowning woman tightening her grip on a life ring, as if she questioned or even forgot herself.
This was more than sustained shock and guilt. Had the Chinese tortured her?
“Please.” Deborah brushed her good hand through her ash-darkened blond hair, perhaps to reinforce that she wasn’t Asian. Then she held her palm up to the woman above them. “Please, Kendra. Come with us.”
“We don’t have much time,” Cam said. “The Chinese will send more men—”
“I’ll kill them.”
“—and we don’t have much fuel.”
Freedman began to crouch, settling herself on the loose slats where she paused and stared. “We won’t have to go far,” she said. “I know it’s there.”
“Come down,” Deborah said. “Please.”
“No.”
“We can take you back to American lines,” Cam said with more certainty than he felt. They would need to refuel even if they weren’t blocked by Chinese aircraft.
And if they stop us, he thought, do I put a bullet in her head? Or do I let them have her because they’ve won and she might help them succeed in repopulating the planet?
My God. Is it better if we all die?
Who knows what she could build if the Chinese keep her locked up for the rest of her life. What will they do to us? If they improve the mind plague, they might be able to control everyone on the planet for thousands of years, breeding people like cows or dogs for strength and obedience. Beauty. Sex. It’s better to kill her, he realized, wondering if he could draw his pistol before she threw her nanotech.
“I won’t go,” Freedman said.
“You don’t understand,” Deborah said. Some of her old arrogance showed in her voice and posture, and Cam liked her for it. “A lot of good people died just to get us here,” she said. “We need you.”
“I need to see the other lab,” Freedman said. “They built the vaccine there.”
“We have the vaccine! You must have it, too,” Cam said, but Freedman didn’t move on her heap of rubble, squatting on her haunches. He was reminded of a child again. What would she do? Hold her breath?
Abruptly she shoved herself back to her feet, extending her fists to both sides as she looked over Cam’s head. Deborah wasn’t the only one losing patience. Colonel Alekseev had kept his distance, acting as a lookout, but now he picked his way through the ruins with his AK-47. “We must leave!” he called.
“I won’t go.”
“It doesn’t sound like you even know where this lab is,” Cam said, pleading with her, and Deborah said, “We can keep you safe in Colorado. We have some gear. There’s an MRFM and—”
“The lab is nearby. I know it’s there!”
Freedman’s passion reminded him again uncomfortably of Ruth. Maybe that was why he hesitated. They were so intent on getting her out of the Los Angeles sprawl, too tired and rushed to imagine any change in plans. What if it made more sense to stay?
“Why?” he asked, trying not to flinch from a gust of ash. The helicopter thundered closer in response to some signal from Alekseev, whipping the ruins with dust and shreds of paper, but Cam persisted. “Why do you want the vaccine?” he asked. Then: “We’ll take you there!”
The worst of the downdrafts shifted away from them as the helicopter landed, making it easier to hear — but Freedman cocked her hands on either side of her body, ready to fight.
Cam bent his body, too, reflexively dropping into a gun-slinger’s crouch. “We can move a lot faster in the sky,” he said.
Beside him, Deborah had also touched her sidearm. “Please!” she said. “Please, Kendra.”
“Andrew Dutchess released the archos tech,” Freedman said. “Not me. It was Dutchess.” Her voice was small again, and she fidgeted and blinked.
Jesus, Cam thought. Jesus Christ, I think she’s forgotten where she is.
He stepped toward her. His legs were stiff. Every movement was reluctant, even as his skin shivered with anticipation. Either he would force her to recognize her surroundings or he would tackle her. If he was lucky, he could disarm her. Her nanotech must be in glass or plastic vials exactly like Ruth had done.
“There’s a new plague,” he said. “The mind plague.”
Snap. Her eyes shifted to him, clear and afraid. “I can stop it,” she said.
“How?”
“There’s a marker in the vaccine. I helped them build it, but they did as much work as possible without me. I need key components and software if I’m going to design my cat’s paw ”
“Cat,” he said, not understanding.
“I know it’s there.”
“You saw the same man on the same day,” Deborah said, prompting her. She also distracted Freedman. Cam nearly scrambled up the broken wood slats — he could knock her feet out from under her if he lunged — but Freedman smiled and said, “Yes. The other lab is nearby.”
“How can you stop the mind plague?”
“I can alter the vaccine and make it a cat’s paw. A new kind of nanotech.” She was lucid now, speaking rapidly, as if from a memorized speech.
She must have recited those words to herself hundreds of times in captivity, but Cam wondered. Could they trust her? She seemed no more substantial than sunlight caught in a set of window blinds. Snap — open. Snap — closed.
“It will attack the new plague and its vaccine, too,” she said. “Anyone who’s currently infected will be freed from the plague and it will shut off the vaccine in everyone who’s been inoculated.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cam said.
If they could find the other lab — if Freedman could do what she said — they would turn the tables on the Chinese. Millions of people around the world would regain their intelligence even as China’s armies became vulnerable to the mind plague.
Deborah wasn’t buying it. “I don’t understand,” she said. “Why wouldn’t this thing just turn around and leave our side open to infection again, too?”
“Because I can give it the same self-governing markers we developed for the plague,” Freedman said. “My cat’s paw will know who’s immune and who isn‘t, and it will establish itself individually in everyone it finds.”
“Smart tech,” Cam said, looking for Deborah’s eyes. “Remember what a jump they’ve made. The mind plague and its vaccine aren’t just machines. On some level, they’re both able to think, even more so than the booster. They remember what they’ve done.”
“It still won’t work,” Deborah said. “None of us are sick. There’s nobody except us and the Chinese for hundreds of miles, and none of us are carrying the plague. Even if she can reverse who’s immune and who isn‘t, that doesn’t solve anything if the Chinese stop us. Don’t you see? They don’t even have to kill us. All they need to do is keep us contained.”
“We are carrying the plague,” Cam said. “Right? We came out of Colorado. We must have traces of it in our blood. Our lungs. Our skin.”
Freedman nodded. “Their vaccine is the only thing protecting you. My cat’s paw will attack the vaccine.”
“That’s how it’ll spread,” Cam said. He touched Deborah’s arm, trying to convey both tenderness and brutal resolve. “The mind plague will infect the Chinese. Everyone we left behind will wake up.”
“But this includes us,” Alekseev said behind him. “My men and us. What she wants to build will infect us, too, yes?”
“Yes.”
Deborah didn’t say anything, staring at Cam, but then Alekseev nodded.
“Okay, let’s go,” Cam said to Freedman. “You have my word. We’ll find the lab.”
He would have done it to save Ruth if nothing else.
Alekseev bodysearched Freedman with a pistol in his hand, relieving her of four plastic vials that Cam was sure contained nanotech. They also took off her knapsack. Deborah sorted through it gingerly. “There’s nothing in here but canteens,” she said as Medrano and Alekseev pestered Freedman for more information. “What are we looking for?” Medrano said, but Freedman only cried on Cam’s lap once they were aboard, cramming all six of them into the chopper. She turned into his chest and neck and cried like a broken girl, weeping against his ash-black fatigues as she formed words inside her breathless sobs.
“It was Dutchess,” she whispered. “Not me. It was Dutchess.”
Cam strained to hear. Maybe she needed that secrecy. She’d obviously learned to hide herself during her imprisonment, both from her captors and her own conscience.
“She doesn’t know where we’re going,” Deborah said. “One thing I can tell you, there won’t be aircraft or trucks. The Chinese wouldn’t have risked constant flights or traffic between the labs. Our satellites would have seen the pattern. That means it’s close by.”
“There are five thousand buildings close by,” Medrano said.
“Look for another hospital,” Cam said, “maybe an office complex or a school. They’d need space — clean rooms for labs, storage, barracks. Go south. She was heading south.”
“She’s out of her mind,” Medrano said.
“She’s smarter than the rest of us put together. I think she noticed something. There were clues. Kendra?” Cam lowered his voice. “Kendra, where is their other lab?”
“I found the police,” she said. “I told them. Nine thousand five hundred and seventy feet. I told them.”
She was babbling. She was sick — physically sick. The round face and double chins from Rezac’s photos were shrunken down to something more like a living skull. Her cheekbones pressed tightly through her skin, which was why her eyes seemed too large, squeezed out of her face.
She couldn’t have weighed more than eighty pounds.