Page 64 of Agent Zero
Holly’s eyelids flew up.“Phillip?”she whispered, staring at the ceiling.Thin tracers of steam rose from her forehead; she’d already sweated through her tank top, cotton clinging to her torso as her hands lifted.“Don’t do that.Don’t.”
“Shh, sweetheart.”He kept an eye on Cal just in case, slowly sank down to one knee, caught one of her hands.“It’s all right.I’m here.”
“She’ll need fluids and proteins when she wakes up.Vitamin C.”Cal was clearly in a generous mood, giving so much information.“You’d better figure out if you can trust me so you don’t have to look over your shoulder the whole time.”
I know.I’ll do what I have to.“It’s all right,” he soothed, and Holly subsided.
“Reese?”Her hand bit his with surprising, hysterical strength.“Ithurtsss…” Ending on a low hiss of breath.
Christ.“I know, honey.It’ll be over soon.”
“Ninety...ninety percent collateral, she said they were...I’m sick.”Fading into a murmur, her lids dropping to half-mast.Crescents of bruised flesh stood out underneath her glittering eyes, and that wonderful smell of hers spread in tsunami waves, underlaid with smoke-burning sickness and that weird metallic note.
“It’s going to be okay,” he told her.Maybe he was lying.
Cal shifted his weight, and Reese twitched.The other man stepped back, hands up and loose, very carefully.
“Relax,” he said.“Just come down out of the red, okay?I amhere to help.”
You’d better be.Reese didn’t bother saying it.“Get some water, and a couple towels.And since you know what the hell, start explaining.”
THIRTY-NINE
Noah Caldwell watched as Three,her spine completely straght, followed Bronson across the helipad.The old man reeled almost drunkenly, but she simply paced evenly, graceful as a lynx.She made the slippery crunching across deicer pellets look easy, even as Noah’s boots slid and slithered.She also didn’t bother bending, though the bird’s blades roared overhead.
He hurried afterward, glad the ride was over.Watching her move was a real treat.He’d always liked blondes, but she kept her hair pulled so severely back it did nothing for her.Bronson had a ridiculous parka zipped all the way up, but Three was in her blazer and skirt as usual, plus pantyhose he’d sent a servicewoman to the PX for, sensible flats.She didn’t seem to feel the cold.
None of the agents did.It was enough to make you shiver.
She was the prize, the only one to survive the induction process, and Control wanted an eye kept on her.Bronson’s useless, Control had wheezed while lighting another cigarette, just before he sent Noah out to keep an eye on this part of the project.But he’s connected, and an easy patsy if the whole thing blows up.Your job’s to keep track of Three.We don’t want to lose that one.
Four hours ago Thackeray—a civilian doctor, high up on the research side—had handed Noah a packet from Control.The major now knew his orders, and enough about the general situation to make his hands sweat and turn cold while he burned the papers outside the sliding French door of his little onbase crackerbox.
Contagion vectors.Liquidation.And above all, keeping Three under wraps.Even if the other agents were going haywire, she was precious.
A country needed soldiers, and if you couldn’t tweak them as adults, well, maybe you couldraisethem.You could get little wrigglies anywhere, but an egg preloaded with Gibraltar and agents trained from birth?Thosehad possibilities.
That was for later, though.Right now, there were other considerations, including keeping Three on deck to help catch the others.Control was very clear: Caldwell just had to get the two agents in this part of the country dealt with, tie off any civilian flack, and neutralize Bronson.
Which would be, Noah thought as he ducked through a heavy steel door into welcome warmth, a distinct pleasure.
FORTY
Male voices—doctors?Hospital?Had she finally collapsed?The thing about knowing you had something terminal was the waiting, God, it just wore across every nerve every damn day.
“Fever’s gonna spike and break.All we have to do is keep her below the brain-cook.”
A familiar voice, now, and the sound of paper moving.“Says here you were DS-7.”
She strained against delirium.Cold, she was so cold, and burning at the same time.Slickness everywhere, she was covered in slime.Phillip, closing the front door with a small click.“Have a nice life, Holl.”Sitting at the kitchen table, right where he had while giving her the news, the warmth of him still in the chair and the numb realization that she was alone sinking in.
One of the men made a bitter sound, almost a laugh.“Yeah.Serve your country, they said, you’ve got all the right measurements.Dumbshit that I was, I went along.”
Paper moving.She strained to remember where she was, what was happening to her.“Christ.Is this for real?”
“You really want to ask me that?”
“It was rhetorical, soldier.”Reese.She found the name, clung to it.Tried to speak, produced only a weird shapeless sound.
