Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Adam stared the old man in the face for a long second before the guy turned and hurried out of the room. He knew that face. Had seen it somewhere, but he just couldn’t put together where he’d seen the guy before.
Not when…
Adam stumbled back and sat hard on the white tile. He looked down at his hands, covered in blood. Looked at the knife discarded on the floor where it had fallen after the old man swiped out and cut him.
The door had slid closed. He’d thought the old man was another captive, until the first slash of the knife. Turned out he was the captor. Now he was gone.
This whole space was wider than the boat upstairs.
A single-story lab under the surface of the water, with rows of counters across the room, cabinets on the far wall, TVs above them with constellation maps on the screens.
Data and lines of code he couldn’t read from this distance.
Windows to the right that let him see the dark waters that surrounded this structure.
Adam’s whole body shuddered, and he looked at the horizontal slashes across his torso. Hissed out a breath between clenched teeth. Get up. But he didn’t. Not just yet.
They’d come aboard this boat to look around and find the person controlling those drones. Instead, a man was dead by his own hand and Adam was bleeding all over his shirt.
Adam slid across the floor, leaving a trail of blood where he set his hand down to brace himself, but made it to his earbud. He stuck it back in. “Who copies?”
“Dan. I’m almost to you.”
A second later someone slammed on the sliding door behind him. He twisted around, which hurt, and spied Dan. His buddy tried the door. Hammered on the thick glass with the butt of his pistol, then fired at the locking mechanism. “This thing won’t open!”
Adam said, “What’s going on upstairs? Someone give me a sit rep. I’ll see what I can get from this lab.”
“Your girl tussled with Vesper,” Jay said. “At least, I think it was her. She went overboard into the water. Vesper has a rigid inflatable boat, and her guys are fishing Steph out of the water, but I don’t think she wants to go. I’m rendering aid.”
“As am I,” Ice said, his tone deadly and determined.
Dan hammered on the door. “Adam is hurt.”
He wanted to argue with that assessment, and he would. Just as soon as the shock wore off.
Adam managed to stand, trying to bite back the urge to cry out and have everyone hear him. “He caught me off guard.”
“Who?” Dan asked. “Where is he?”
“It’ll come to me.” He grabbed a rolling stool and used it to stay upright, sitting on the seat and rolling himself over to a computer terminal. Across the room was another door.
“Is he in there with you?” Dan demanded.
“He fled.”
“I’ll try to find another entry.” Dan rushed away from the sliding door.
Adam frowned at the monitors on the wall, trying not to think about the three long slashes from that razor-sharp blade. “Marina, what’s Polaris?”
“I want a sitrep from you first.” She sounded worried.
“He cut me across the chest a couple times. It isn’t deep, but it stings.
” As long as Adam stayed sitting at this angle, Dan wouldn’t see the blood and freak everyone else out.
“Later, get into the Kremlin’s computer system and get me an image of every former Spetsnaz…
No that isn’t right. Why am I thinking about Earthnet and the guy who runs it? ”
“The billionaire guy? He’s the one crazy about rockets.”
Adam winced. “And drones, I guess. And underwater labs.”
“He stabbed you?” Dan asked, but Adam couldn’t see him through the window.
“What about the billionaire?” Marina asked.
“I’ll figure it out. Just as soon as my head stops spinning.”
In his ear, Marina said, “Was there something on the blade that cut you? Like poison?”
“I hope not. I don’t have time for that.” Adam hammered the Enter key on the computer terminal. “I need a way to get into this system.”
The screen didn’t turn on, but the webcam lit up. “Someone is watching me,” he muttered. “Jay, did you get to Steph?”
“Working on it,” Jay said. “But Vesper is still on the ship.”
“Why would she be here, and the head of Earthnet is here?” Adam wasn’t sure that made sense. The world was starting to tip to the side, and he wasn’t sure he could keep it all upright. “Should’ve called me Atlas,” he muttered.
Dan said, “Okay, so the head of Earthnet was holding Doctor Warrington hostage, and Vesper is here. Has to be so she can rescue the guy, right? Too bad he shot himself. That, or she’s here to…” His voice trailed off. “Kai, find her before she does something crazy.”
“Like record a TikTok video on the lido deck?”
“No,” Dan said. “More like blow this whole ship sky-high.”
“Yeah, that would be crazy.” Kai almost sounded serious. “On it.”
“Adam, come over here and try the door from your side. See if you can get out.”
He looked at Dan through the glass. “We need to get into the system.” That wasn’t the right word. “Their network.” That was it. “Find out what this lab is, and what’s Polaris.”
“Buddy, you’re bleeding. I need you to wheel that stool over here, and we can open the door,” Dan said. “It’s time to go, and there’s no other way in.”
“Marina can get into the Polaris system.” He shifted, and pain lanced through his chest. “I can’t believe he caught me by surprise.”
The world blurred around him. He leaned his elbows on the countertop. “What am I working on?”
“We’ll figure it out together.” Dan sounded almost sad. “Help me get the door open, Phoenix.”
That name.
The sound of it echoed through him, busting through the confusion like a figure emerging from the smoke. “Sometimes I think about quitting and fighting wildfires instead of bad guys.”
“Phoenix.”
“Sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
Adam glanced over at the glass. “Look at me.”
Dan shook his head. “Doesn’t matter how good you are, there’s always someone in the world who is better. That’s why we’re a team.”
Adam stared at the computer, trying to remember what he was doing. “Is Steph out of the water yet?” If he looked out the windows, would he see her floating in the river like that dead doctor? He could…
His thoughts stuttered, and the screen drew his attention. A flashing cursor.
“Identity confirmed. Adam Russell Helton. Deceased.” The electronic voice was so loud it was probably audible over the comms channel.
“Yeah, we know that.” Adam watched his biographical details scroll across the page, followed by the timeline of his military service—including some missions that were so classified there should be no record of them. The final lines detailed how he had been killed in action.
More cursor blinking.
Then he saw more reports flash across the screen, signed by Colonel Alan Montrose.
Adam shuddered.
Page after page scrolled left. Then it shifted to psychology reports about a patient, John Smithson. Lengthy reports on his mental condition.
A notice that the patient had escaped.
Death certificates for the nurse, orderly, and the doctor who’d written those reports. Statements from hospital security, addressed to Colonel Montrose.
The screen went black.
Adam tried to absorb the fact he’d just seen the destruction of his entire life flash across the screen.
Cursor blinking.
“Conclusion: the Lazarus Protocol.”
“Adam, listen to me. You need to come over here and help me open the door. You’re bleeding on the floor, buddy.”
He stared at those two words on the screen.
“Later we can talk about what the Lazarus Protocol is,” Marina said. “Because I’d like to know.”
No one else responded.
Adam needed them all to focus on the mission. “Where’s Steph?”
“Communication detected.”
“Whoa.” Marina dragged the word out. “My whole system just flickered. I think there’s a worm that… What? This makes no…oh, no you don’t.” The comms channel crackled with static. “There’s a worm in my system. Gotta go.”
Adam couldn’t take his gaze from those two words. “The Lazarus Protocol.”
“Whatever it is can wait, Phoenix.” Dan’s tone drew his attention to the glass, where he watched his buddy. “Hey, there you are. Can you help me get the door open? Adam!”
The pain in his chest had turned to a heat that gathered steam now, blossoming in a way that didn’t feel good. “What’s going on?”
“We have Steph,” Ice said. “All good up here. I’m coming to you now, Dan. I’ll bring something to open the door.”
“Copy that,” Dan replied. “Hurry, because he’s fading.”
Adam blinked at his friend. “No one is supposed to know what it is.”
“Whatever you’re worried about doesn’t matter right now.”
Adam touched a hand to his chest, his fingers sliding through the blood. “What did he do to me?”
“He messed with your head, but we aren’t going to let that lay you low. We’re gonna get you out of there. Okay?”
Adam shook his head but didn’t know what to say. “Where’s Kyle?”
Dan said, “Who is Kyle?”
“I’m not supposed to say.”
Ice appeared beside Dan, biting off a curse. “That doesn’t look good.”
“There has to have been something on the knife. He’s been poisoned. He’s acting loopy.” Dan turned to Ice. “Can you get him out of there?”
“Always know you will.”
Dan looked over at Adam. “What’s that?”
“Get me out. All of you. ’Cause you’re my brothers.”
“You know it.” Dan nodded.
“That’s why I can’t tell you. Ash can’t tell you.”
Ice said, “Any idea what he’s talking about?”
Dan shook his head, maybe. Adam’s vision was blurry now. “The Lazarus Protocol.” Adam didn’t say more, because he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone what it was, how it worked, or how they’d saved his life and given him a fresh start that let him keep doing what he did best.
They wouldn’t understand.
More people stood at the glass. All of them staring at Adam.
“You should go. I’ll be okay.” The exhale flared hot pain in his chest. “I usually am.”
“Blow the door,” Steph said. “Do it now.”
Jay said, “Kai, status.”
“Found an explosive device in the hold of the ship. It’s behind the engine room,” Kai said. “I’m working on disarming it.”
“Coming to you,” Jay said.
Good idea. “That sounds bad.” Adam nodded. “You guys should…do stuff.” His upper body tipped forward, but he caught himself.
“He’s fading.”
Adam grinned. “You worried about me, Steph?”
Ice said, “We need to get all of us off this ship before a bomb goes off.”
“Today wasn’t a good day.” Adam shook his head. “Didn’t think it would go this bad.”
His face smashed something hard and cold. He blinked and heard them yelling in his ear.
“Guys.” Adam couldn’t lift his head. He wasn’t even sure that word had come out of his mouth, so he tried again, “Guys.”
A pop cracked off like a firework in the room. He didn’t have the strength to see what it was. “Probably that old man with his poison knife again, back to finish me off.”
“Sorry, just us.” Steph rolled him to his back.
Adam stared up at her face. “You’re prettier.”
“I bet you say that to all the CIA agents you meet. Former ones.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Not your fault I was burned. We’ll fix it.” She moved out of her spot, replaced by Dan.
“Not as pretty.”
Dan stuck a needle in Adam’s upper arm.
“Ouch.”
“We’re moving, and it’s gonna hurt. You go to sleep.”
“’Kay.” Adam’s eyes drooped closed and everything went black.
Steph backed up, completely soaked but barely cognizant of that fact. Adam had blood all over the front of his shirt, the shallow cuts bleeding profusely. The way he’d been acting indicated there had definitely been something on that knife.
Her mind wanted to catalogue the poisons she knew of, and their symptoms and treatments. Something like this was old-school spy craft.
Dan folded Adam on his shoulder and stood.
“I’ll hold the doors.” She raced ahead of them. “Kai, we need an update. Jay? What’s the situation with the bomb?”
Could they get the bomb back down here, into this lab? Surely, the density of the glass, and the fact the room could be air pressurized, meant that it might also protect the city from a portion of the blast.
“This is Jay. I’m in the hold, but Kai isn’t here.”
Steph frowned but didn’t stop moving. “And the bomb?”
Jay stayed quiet for a second, then said, “I don’t see a bomb. I don’t see anything that shouldn’t be here.”
“We’re working our way on deck.” Ice paused. “Is this thing gonna blow or not?”
“There’s no bomb here,” Jay said.
“Then why did Kai say that!” Ice ran up the stairs.
“When I catch up to the van I just saw them throw him in, I’ll ask!”