The Rising(58)

But the thing dressed as a cop was wrong; Alex did have a choice. They weren’t his family. Theirs wasn’t his world, any more than China had been his parents’ world. They’d fled to America, just as he had, in a manner of speaking. The Chins might not have birthed him, but he was more like them than he could’ve possibly realized, something he found sadly ironic.

Mostly, just sad.

This is for your own good. You don’t belong here, with them.

Words spoken by the ash man before Alex split him in half with one of the cop thing’s severed arms, leaving him to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

You have something we want, something that belongs to us.

*

Raiff picked up speed as soon as the lights of the FedEx Office came into view, framed by an endless ribbon of empty sky. Sights like this made him wonder what people here who didn’t know the truth about the contents of that sky saw when they looked at it. Surely not the same thing he did, his perspective stilted by the knowledge that something else really was out there.

But it wasn’t that simple.

Not even close.

The truth wasn’t something that could be spotted through telescopes or by space stations. The truth was that the boy inside that FedEx Office was the only thing standing between this world and extinction.

Raiff gave the car more gas.

*

“You remember what the ash man said?” he asked Sam suddenly, feeling her hand tighten around his while they waited to pay for the copies.

“No, not exactly.”

Her eyes left his to dart toward the manager, who was busy helping another customer with an order, the harsh lights reflecting off her glasses.

“That I have something he wanted,” Alex said, “something that belonged to him.”

“I was thinking of something else he said, that this night never should have been necessary, that they shouldn’t have needed to come here—something like that.”

“They,” Alex repeated, “as in who?”

“That’s what I’ve been thinking about,” Sam said, trying to clear the fatigue from her voice. “I don’t know, maybe whoever brought you from wherever you came from to Laboratory Z. Like rebels, going up against the establishment.”

“So now I’m a rebel?”

“I didn’t say that. But you’re obviously important to them, and whatever their cause is, back where you came from.”

“My parents told me I came from an adoption agency. They didn’t say it was based somewhere in outer space.”

“I think you must be part of some civil war,” Sam said suddenly.

“That’s what you’ve been thinking about?”

“And it makes perfect sense. The way the ash man talked about disobedience, how it wouldn’t be tolerated, that there was a price to pay for it. What did that sound like to you?”

“Is this a test?” Alex asked her, managing a smile.

“Just answer the question.”

“I don’t know, maybe something like the Nazis would say.”

“Exactly my point.”

*

“Go,” Rathman commanded and watched his men move.

He’d never worked with them before and the files he’d read on the private jet that brought him from Marsh’s fortress in the Klamath Mountains in northwestern California to San Francisco told only part of the story. Their training was rock solid, experience too. But until he saw them in action, he wouldn’t know if they were really any good, how they’d respond to such a challenge.

He watched the front team moving with perfect fluidity, avoiding the most direct spills of light so their approach could not be detected from inside, weapons held at the ready.

They were good, all right. Now it was time to see how good.

“I’m going in, sir,” he told Langston Marsh.





61

MISDIRECTION

ALEX TUCKED THE NOW folded pages containing the results of Dr. Chu’s final tests in his pocket, while Sam handed some change to the clerk to pay for them.

“Okay,” she said, backing away from the counter, “let’s go.”

Alex held his ground, seeming to grind his shoes into the floor. “I’ve already ruined your life enough. I can’t drag you into this any more than I already have,” he said, his voice warm, gentle, and very sad.

She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere without you. I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, I just can’t.”

“You need to go home, back to your parents. Leave the rest of this to me.”

“Alone?”

Alex swallowed hard.

“I go where you go,” Sam said.

And then she started to shake and couldn’t catch her breath. Like some kind of panic attack had set in, like the past ten hours had been poured into a bottle that had burst apart inside her, all the death and fear spilling out at once. The tears were coming before she could even try to stop them, all the unanswered questions hammering at her mind. She tried to breathe again but managed only to gasp. She’d never hyperventilated before but was pretty sure this was what it felt like.

Then Sam felt Alex wrapping his arms around her, hugging her so close she could feel his heartbeat against her chest and wondered if he could feel hers skittering. The rapid beating slackened as he held her. She could feel her breathing steadying as well, wanted to wipe her nose and eyes but realized she was squeezing Alex too tightly to let go. She felt like a little girl again, weak and helpless. Not the high school girl with the perfect GPA and through-the-roof SAT scores, which were her ticket to the Ivy League and a career with NASA in space.