Exit 9

45

I.D. MINUS 0 SECONDS

BLUEBIRD TIME 11:00 AM

The Dop froze. Standing at the back of the room was Olivia Silva.

She had once been one of the brightest stars of Project Eden. In fact, KV-27a would not have been possible but for her early work. Up until that previous spring when they learned otherwise, they had thought she was killed in the raid on the lab where she had been doing her research.

For the initial seconds, he thought she’d come back to join them, but that idea immediately vanished when the people who’d come in with her opened fire on the security detail. Joining them was not on her agenda, he realized.

The Principal seemed to have come to the same conclusion. He rushed forward, his hand moving under his jacket. Just as he pulled out an envelope, there was another round of gunfire, this time aimed at the doors to keep anyone from leaving.

“Here,” the Principal said as he handed the DOP the envelope. “Input the code!”

The DOP turned the envelope over, and stuck his finger under the end of the flap. But before he could rip it open, Olivia was standing in front of him.

“I’ll take that,” she said, grabbing it.

She had come to stop them. He couldn’t believe it. The Project was something she’d believed in just as much as he had, but now she was going to keep it from happening.

“Why?” he asked.

“You know what we’re trying to do,” the Principal said. “If you stop us, you’ll damn our whole species.”

“Oh, will I?” she asked. She pulled out a pistol from her pocket, and pointed it at the old man’s forehead.

“You wouldn’t dare,” he said.

“Oh, please. I would.”

She pulled the trigger.

A collective gasp filled the room as the Principal Director dropped dead to the floor.

Olivia pushed the DOP out of the way, and sat in front of the computer. Without closing the activation window, she opened the program that ran Bluebird’s security system. Navigating it like an expert, she began sealing off different sections of the facility until the only exit from the Cradle would be out the emergency tunnel.

“There,” she said, standing. “I think we can relax a little now. Everyone move to an outer wall and have a seat.”

Slowly at first, but with growing speed that was encouraged by Olivia’s team, the Project Eden members did as ordered. All, that was, except for the Directors. Olivia made clear with her gun that they had to remain where they were. A few glanced at the floor where their former leader lay, while the others kept their eyes on her.

“How long did you know I was being held captive?” she asked them.

“We didn’t know,” one of them blurted out. “We were told you were dead.”

She looked at him with faux compassion. “Perhaps that’s what you thought, but what about the rest of you?”

Most nodded their heads, indicating they’d heard the same thing, but the DOP and the Director of Survival did not.

She looked at the DOP. “You knew, of course.”

“Not until recently,” he admitted.

“Let me guess. Last spring, when my friend over there delivered my message to Dr. Karp.” She nodded toward a man standing in the aisle.

The DOP looked at him, and squinted his eyes. Yes. It had to be.

Captain Daniel Ash. The very man whose immune system made it possible for the Project to come up with a vaccine for the virus. It was almost fitting he was here, though the look in the captain’s eyes was anything but friendly.

“So, over half a year,” Olivia continued.

Again, the DOP made no reply.

“Did you try to get me out at any point during that time?” She shook her head. “Don’t answer. You’ll only embarrass yourself.”

She returned to the computer and accessed a new area of the security program. When the DOP saw what it was, his eyes widened. On the screen were the controls for Bluebird’s self-destruct mechanism, intended to be used if there was no other way to protect the Project. But there was no way she could set it, was there? She would need the correct security sequence, and it was kept safely locked away in-

The vault in Costa Rica.

In the security boxes at every depot, there was always one that contained the self-destruct code for Bluebird in case it had to be remotely activated. The other boxes that had been opened had been a ruse to cover up what she really wanted.

Activating the sequence would still need one of the Directors to sign on, but he’d already done that for her.

Dear God.