"He killed Icove." Diana gestured to the bodies on the floor. "This Icove anyway. He's going to destroy it."
"What?"
"He's going to take what he wants, the ones he's picked, and destroy everything else. Deena was going to destroy it, but she couldn't." Diana looked around. "We came in here, and we knew she couldn't. She went that way, after him. One of them. There may be more than two."
"Get them out of here." She swung to Roarke. "Get them up and out."
"Eve."
"I can't do both. I need you to do this. I need you to get them to safety. Fast."
"Don't ask me to leave you here."
"You're the only one I can ask." She gave him a long last look. Then she rushed in the direction Deena had taken.
She passed into a lab, what she realized was a conception area. Life was being created in clear dishes in smaller chambers than the ones in Gestation. Electrodes hummed bloodlessly.
Beyond that was a preservation area. Refrigeration units, every one labeled. Names, dates, codes. There were operating rooms, examination cubes.
She came to a door, saw another corridor, another tunnel beyond. Stepping into it, she swept her weapon, and spun back inside as a laser stream blasted the wall.
She swung the rifle off her shoulder-braced it so she could fire it with one hand-and gripped her blaster in the other. She sent out a stream of fire, right, left, right, then dove out, firing right again.
She saw the man fall, white lab coat spreading up like wings. As she rolled, she caught a secondary movement and fired blindly left.
There was a howl, more of rage than pain. She saw she'd winged him, that he was down, crawling, dragging his useless leg behind him.
She let some of her fury free when she reached him, and kicked him hard over on his back.
"Doctor fucking Wilson, I presume."
"You can't stop it, it's inevitable. Hyperevolution, man's right to immortality."
"Save the hype, 'cause it's done. And you're getting mortal all over the place. Where's Deena?"
He grinned, young, handsome. And, Eve thought, completely mad. "Which one of her?"
She heard the scream, desperate and terrified. 'No.'" To save time, she used the butt of her stunner and knocked him unconscious. She yanked off the security card he wore around his neck.
She sprinted toward the sound and caught just a flicker of Deena rushing a doorway.
It was marked STAGE ONE NURSERY, and through the glass Eve could see clear bins holding infants.
When she saw Wilson inside, a weapon jammed under the soft jaw of an infant, she pulled up short. If she blasted inside, he'd kill. Deena possibly, the infant almost certainly.
She scanned the corridor, looking for options. She saw doors marked STAGE TWO NURSERY, and beside them STAGE THREE, and felt her blood curdle.
T
he kid was tireless, Roarke thought. She'd run, full out, down nearly a mile of corridor. He was only able to keep pace with sheer grit. Blood dripped into his eyes, seeped from his arm, and the little girl he carried weighed like lead by the time they'd reached the elevator.
So did the fear at the base of his stomach.
"I know how to get out. It'll take too long for you to take us all the way, try to get back. Nobody tried to stop us. Nobody's going to bother with us now."
He made his decision fast. "Straight up and out. I have a car outside, ER lot. It's a black ZX-5000."
For an instant, she looked like what she was. A near-teenage girl. "Iced."