The Lethal Agent (The Extraction Files Book 2) (11 page)

THE MANDALA HOTEL, 832, BERLIN, EUROPE

SEPTEMBER 6, 2232

Rowen’s deep-brown eyes pierced through the dark. His hands were strong as they lashed out, not at her, but someone else. A figure was there with them. A smooth, hairless head. Eyes as black as night.

A Dark One.

Not one, but a dozen. Rowen fought them, but there were too many. No one could win a fight so unmatched. He’d mortally wounded at least five when one produced a knife. Then, they all had one. In a moment of synchrony, the blades punctured him all at once. His chest, his torso, his back. Rowen screamed out in pain, a sound like none she’d ever heard from him. A sound he never could have made.

Rough hands gripped her shoulders, though she couldn’t remember who or why or even where she was. Mable only knew to throw her hands out in defense against the attacker.

“Mable!” she heard someone scream her name, a voice she’d heard before but didn’t know. She launched another fist and felt it connect, though the hands didn’t release her.

“Mable! Stop!” But she wouldn’t stop. Not now, not ever. She wouldn’t let them get her, stab her with their blades like they did Rowen. Mable fought harder. She swung her elbow around and felt the heavy impact against the attacker’s chest.

But she wasn’t released.

“Mable, hey, ca—calm down. Maggie!”

Mable froze. Who would call her that? How could they know that name?

“Hey, just relax. You were screaming in your sleep,” explained the voice, smooth and calm but for the ragged edge of breath.

Theo Kaufman.

The name came as soon as she saw his face illuminated by the yellow light of the lamp. The hotel room. Germany. Bugs. A tsunami of information crashed down all at once.

Mable tried to blink it away. Theo sat on the edge of the bed where she lay tangled in the sheets, panting.

“You okay?” His features were drawn. He rubbed a spot on his chest, the spot she must have hit.

Mable nodded, unsure of what to say.

“Do you do this all the time?”

“It’s been mentioned once or twice.” Or a dozen times.

“Bad dreams?” He cocked his eyebrow.

She nodded again. They were only flashes, images of horrors she’d never seen. Without reality to stay her imagination, the nightmares were vivid and awful. She didn’t want to talk about it.

“Anything I can do?” His grey eyes shone bright against his copper skin.

“What time is it?” She rubbed the tension and exhaustion from her face with her hands.

Theo glanced at his wristlet. “Uh, 0530 local time.”

“How about coffee then?” Mable pulled at the sheets to free herself, but Theo didn’t move.

“Don’t want to try to go back to sleep?”

Mable sat up and shook her head. “No, let’s get this over with.”

Theo argued a while longer but eventually conceded. He brought them each a coffee from the dispenser at the end of the hall while Mable worked her hair into the classic Scholar bun. She already wore the tight-fitted indigo body suit, a sacrilege in itself.

“Dr. Ludwig works at the Center for German Pharmaceutical Research a few blocks away,” Theo called from the red chair, his tablet spinning its display above his lap. “Her presentation will be at the Scholar Headquarters in Madrid this afternoon. She’ll be alone in her lab for about an hour in the morning. We should be able to catch her there.”

“Hey, do you think it’s weird that now it’s Dr. Prataban’s mentee?” Mable twisted her hair in the bathroom mirror. She liked the color. Maybe she’d keep it once they got back.

“Yeah, seems like too much of a coincidence. Especially since it’s an Echo.”

Mable paused. “What do you mean? Why would that matter?”

“Well, it’s a different kind of bug. Prataban had the Yield and Ludwig has the Echo. They’re on different continents and any shared data was lost. She’s the only witness to Prataban’s research, and now she has a bug that alters her speech.”

“You think someone’s trying to keep her quiet?” Mable stared in the mirror, astonished. It was a radical idea, to think someone was using bugs to gain certain advantage, whatever that might be.

“I don’t know,” Theo called from the room. “And who knows if it’s really an Echo.”

Mable laughed in the mirror. “We were wrong in pretty spectacular fashion last time.”

She put the final touches on her hair as Theo appeared in the doorway. He rested his hands on the doorframe so his muscles peeked through his shirt. His head was shaved, and his features were set in stone. “That’s not going to happen. I swear.”

“I believe you.” She returned to the mirror and pretended to fix stray hairs, though it was as perfect as it was going to be.

“Do you? I can do the extraction. I can be the one at risk while you sit in a café around the corner. If you don’t—”

Mable turned to look him in the eye. Thoughts of the night before returned. It had been a long time since anyone turned her down. “I think you’re a Scholar, and Scholars do what they’re told. Arrenstein told you to watch out for me, so that’s what you’re going to do.”

“You think I’m a drone?”

“I know you are.”

“Is that what last night was about? To prove a point?”

“Yes,” she lied. She wouldn’t breathe a whisper of anything she felt about him.

Theo’s lips lurched up in the tiniest smile. With his hands on the door frame, he leaned in. His grey eyes drank her in.

Mable’s pulse raced in her throat. When had he gotten so close? She was trapped in the bathroom, with nowhere to go, nothing to do. She could do nothing but experience his intense gaze.

She wanted to shrink against the wall and hide. A chill ran up her arms. Theo wasn’t Dasia. He wasn’t a shy, beautiful girl she could enjoy a midnight affair with. She’d tried that route. Sex was easy, but he’d denied that offer already. Theo wanted more. It terrified her.

Theo sank into her, closing the impossibly small gap until, at last, his lips pressed hers. His hand appeared at the side of her head and pulled her closer. She tasted the bitterness of coffee and felt the heat of his breath. It only lasted a moment. Then he huffed out a strained sigh and asked, “Ready to go?”

Mable breathed her relief. As Theo abandoned the doorway to collect their bags, he handed her the equipment bag and held open the door as she entered the corridor.

They walked in silence the few blocks to the Center for German Pharmaceutical Research. In the artificial daylight, the city was entirely different than it had seemed the night before. The buildings were old, some impossibly old, as if the last two hundred years had never happened. Pods raced along the curved, narrow streets at their predetermined speeds. Scholars and Craftsmen walked along the sidewalks to their early morning duties.

Somewhere, Dr. Ludwig walked to her lab, unaware of what would transpire there today.

Only a block away, a copper building with turquoise patina, mounded spires, and cathedral architecture stood out along the riverbank. It looked like it hadn’t belonged there in centuries.

Mable stopped to take in the sight, to soak in each detail. Behind her, Theo said, “The Berlin Cathedral Church. It was built in 1905.”

“It’s stunning. It survived so many wars, it’s amazing.” She placed both hands on the stone railing that surrounded the property.

Theo took his place beside her. “Berlin was spared most of the firefight in 2130. Supposedly even the Horas chose not to attack. Something about the wall and all that. No one wanted to occupy Berlin again. They leveled Barcelona, Munich, even Rome. But not one bomb in Berlin.”

Mable tried to listen. She was genuinely interested, but all she could think of was Dr. Ludwig. That she would face another bug, and this time, attempt to not be killed by it. Was she prepared? She wanted to think she was, but now that she was here, the question lingered.

She pushed off the railing and continued toward the lab, wiping the sweat from her palms.

“There’s a park around the corner. I’ll watch you from there. Don’t forget the cam.”

She had almost forgotten. From the pocket of her Scholar body suit, she pulled out the thin film and placed it behind her ear. “Can you hear me?”

Mable marveled at the device. She couldn’t feel it at all, unlike the previous cam. “I hear you. Two blocks north, then it’s the first building on the right side. The Center for German Pharmaceutical Research.”

Mable marched forward looking like nothing more than a Scholar on her way to work. If all went according to plan, no one would ever know the difference.

LUSTGARTEN PARK, BERLIN, EUROPE

SEPTEMBER 6, 2232

Theo made sure to be set up in the park before Mable was even within a block of the facility. He checked his wristlet for connectivity before pulling up her feed on his tablet. Setting it on the park bench beside him, he watched her turn into The Center for German Pharmaceutical Research.

On the display, Theo saw the building as Mable did. A pair of transparent doors opened into a large lobby that stretched up six or seven stories.

The park behind the display was emerald green with trees he didn’t recognize. Of course, they were artificial—manufactured to imitate a species that must have once been prevalent in the area. Theo wondered what the park looked like back in the time of the cathedral, back when there was still life on this planet.

“Which way?” Mable whispered, so quiet no one around her could have heard.

“Straight ahead, there’s a series of elevators. Take the second from the left and go to the eighth floor.”

On the right side of his screen, he turned the architectural rendering of the building to find her next turn. On the left side, he watched her enter the elevator and press the eight. Then, he heard her take a sharp inhale.

“Don’t be nervous. I’m right here. I’m watching you the whole time.”

Mable didn’t respond, though he knew she could hear him. She pulled the gas canister from the equipment bag on her shoulder and maneuvered it into the palm of her hand, her way of telling him she was ready.

When the doors opened, Mable strode down the hall with purpose. “Dr. Ludwig has the office on the left.”

Mable pushed open the door to reveal a small office with various chemistry equipment, a titration set-up, and rows of beakers and vials.

“The lab is through the far door,” Theo said, finishing the navigation portion of his duties. He’d gotten her to the host. Now, he could only sit back and watch the extraction, offering help as she needed.

Mable opened the door to reveal a warehouse-sized space of tables, shelves, and enormous chemical set-ups, giant versions of the ones in the office.

“Dr. Munroe?” called a voice.

“Good morning, Dr. Ludwig,” Mable answered. She wove between the high shelves of pharmaceutical bottles in search of the Scholar.

“I’m over here,” the voice continued. “You’re earlier than I expected. I’m sorry I wasn’t in my office. I have a few final data points to confirm before my flight.” The longer Dr. Ludwig talked, the closer Mable got.

Mable found her staring up at a large display of a molecule, her back turned. Mable positioned the canister in Dr. Ludwig’s face and depressed the blue button.

The red-haired woman collapsed so fast, Mable had to catch her and lower her to the floor.

Theo felt as if he was watching an extraction vid, but this time it was live. His pulse raced, and he began to sweat despite the cool morning air. He was really watching Mable pull the clamp, the jar, the gloves from the equipment bag and set them out, ready to collect the bug.

This time, he saw Mable’s hands shaking, saw her hesitate. She pulled on the gloves, held the clamp over Dr. Ludwig’s mouth, and froze.

“You can do it,” Theo whispered.

He heard Mable’s voice through the cam. “What if it infects me again? Arrenstein can’t extract it. I’ll get caught again. I’ll have a bug—”

Theo knew for her to protest meant she was seriously struggling. She offered no complaint when Hadley left or Rowen was killed. She had only once mentioned she was tired. She’d never told him about her nightmares. But now, faced with the prospect of re-infection, she spewed her fears with no sign of slowing. He knew she was terrified.

“Not going to happen. I’ll extract it myself if it comes to that, but it won’t. Just look in her throat. Can you see it?” Theo tried to sound more confident than he felt. This wasn’t the moment to mention he was petrified to watch her in danger again.

Mable fished the flashlight from the bag and shone the beam at Dr. Ludwig’s chin. With her other hand, Mable pulled open her mouth. The beam found Dr. Ludwig’s lips, her teeth, her tongue, and finally, her throat, complete with two thin black lines.

Antennae.

The flashlight fell and clanged against the tile floor. “Oh god, I saw it.” Mable’s voice was so shredded he thought she might be crying, but he knew he better than that.

“That’s good. That’s where it’s supposed to be. It’s an Echo for sure. Just get your clamps,” Theo said as he waited and watched her shaking hands pick up the tool. “Now just reach in and get it. Got your jar ready?”

Mable turned her head enough to show the jar with the lid off and set beside it. “Okay, good. Just reach in and grab it.” Theo tried to make it sound easy. It was easy. As easy as any horrible, hard thing could be.

There was a huge part of him that hoped she would back out. That she would say she couldn’t do this anymore. She had every right to refuse, as Dr. Arrenstein had said. She could walk away, and they wouldn’t do this anymore. He wouldn’t have to watch her risk her life time and time again.

He wouldn’t have to watch her be afraid.

Mable’s hand returned to pull down on Dr. Ludwig’s chin. “There you go,” he prompted her. “Now the clamp.”

A second later, the clamp reappeared in view of the cam. It hovered for a moment before diving into the darkness of Dr. Ludwig’s throat. Mable’s arm jerked over and over as time seemed to freeze. Everything else—the park, the morning air—all disappeared. Theo stared in horrible awe, consumed by the movements of her arm and his fear she would be infected again.

When she pulled the clamp out, they both saw the bug. Four inches long with eight inch antennae, it shimmered a brilliant blue. “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.” Mable froze with the clamp in the air. He knew she stared at it as intently as he did.

A real, living bug.

“Put it in the jar,” Theo reminded her.

Mable dipped the entire end of the clamps into the liquid, forcing the bug under. Only when the bug was fully submerged did she release the clamps and slam the lid back on. Once screwed in place, she sealed the jar with the plastic tape and pushed it away.

Her breath was frayed. Her hands shook so hard she needed three attempts to pull off the gloves and shove them back into the bag. Once she returned the clamp, the flashlight, and, very carefully, the bug jar into her pack, there was only one thing left.

Mable picked up the gas canister from the floor and found the green button. She stood, slung the bag over her shoulder, and shot the green gas into Dr. Ludwig’s face.

Mable was gone before she woke.