Chapter 17 - The Ghost in the Pines
The dense canopy of pine trees swallowed the headlights of our car as we bumped along the neglected dirt road. Branches whipped against the windshield like skeletal fingers. In the back seat, Lily had drifted into a fitful, feverish sleep, her small body radiating heat that felt like an engine running in overdrive.
"We have less than thirty-six hours," I said, checking my watch. The hands seemed to mock me, ticking inexorably forward toward midnight of her birthday.
"We’re almost there," Vance muttered, navigating through an overgrown gate marked with rusted biohazard warnings.
Tucked into the hillside was a low, brutalist concrete structure, entirely swallowed by moss and creeping ivy. It looked like a tomb from the Cold War. As our headlights swept across the reinforced steel entrance, a blinding halogen floodlight snapped on from an overhead watchtower, pinning our vehicle in a glaring white cone.
"Hands on the dashboard! Step out slowly!" a voice boomed through an external loudspeaker, crackling with static.
Vance stepped out first, her hands raised high, the rain soaking her hair instantly. "Jonathan! It’s Vance! Sarah Vance! I brought the Evans asset!"
The silence that followed was suffocating, save for the drum of raindrops on the car hood. Then, with a heavy pneumatic hiss, the hydraulic locks on the reinforced blast door disengaged. The massive door swung inward, revealing a frail, gray-haired man in a stained lab coat, clutching an antiquated shotgun.
"You brought them here?" Dr. Jonathan Sterling rasped, his eyes wide with frantic paranoia. "Are you insane, Sarah? If they followed you—"
"They’re already on our tail, Jonathan!" Vance yelled back, sprinting to the rear door and helping me lift Lily out. "The countdown sequence has initiated. Her core temperature is climbing, and she’s reciting the delta string."
Sterling froze, his gaze dropping to the unconscious little girl in my arms. His weapon lowered, his trembling hand coming up to touch his mouth.
"My God..." Sterling breathed, tears instantly welling in his aged, bloodshot eyes. "It’s really her. Subject Zero. The child from the upstate lab."
"Her name is Lily," I snarled, stepping past him into the bunker. "And she is my daughter. Now help her, or I swear to God I will dismantle this place with my bare hands."
May you like
Sterling blinked, momentarily stunned by my venom, before his posture straightened. "Bring her to the containment bay. Quick! The sub-dermal beacon must be deactivated before their orbital sweeps pinpoint her bio-signature!"
***