Armageddon, page 8
part #5 of Liars Series
The librarian reached for it, but Bess held it back. ‘I just need to take a quick look,’ she said. ‘Before you start digitising.’
‘You are trying my patience, young lady,’ the librarian warned.
Bess was already taking off the plastic. ‘It’ll take five seconds,’ she promised. She didn’t say what she was thinking—that maybe the librarian was the one who had deleted the record. Maybe he was involved in the conspiracy. Whatever was in here, she had to see it before he had a chance to erase it.
She opened the magazine and started scanning through, hoping she would spot the word ‘Viper’ before the librarian took it away. It must be in here somewhere. The computer said so. And why would Viper have deleted the record if it wasn’t about him?
Bess was halfway through the magazine when a different word caught her eye. MALBURSE. Hadn’t the defence minister gotten in some kind of trouble over a place called Malburse? The same minister Viper had tried to kill?
Bess stopped skimming and started reading properly. Her eyes grew wider and wider.
‘That’s more than five seconds,’ the librarian said. ‘Give it here.’
Bess barely heard him. Parts of the story she already knew—there was a small village on the other side of the world, in a war-torn region called Malburse. A local had leaked information about enemy combatants using the village to stockpile weapons. Aaron Fisher, the Minister for Defence, had discovered that this source was unreliable, but sent troops into the village anyway. It turned out to be a trap. His soldiers died, along with many civilians. Fisher had kept his job by blaming the assistant minister for everything. The assistant was forced to resign.
The only part Bess hadn’t seen before was the list of casualties. She read the last name and felt the floor open up beneath her.
DOWN INTO THE LABYRINTH
‘How did you find this?’ Jarli asked, staring down into the tunnel.
Eaton avoided the question. ‘Help me get him down the ladder,’ she said, grabbing Scanner’s collar.
The steel trapdoor had been hidden under a battered filing cabinet in one of the ground-floor offices. Underneath was a dark pit. Eaton said it led to the labyrinth of coal mining tunnels beneath Kelton. They could make their way beneath the school, under the lake at the bottom of the falls, and then to a sewer grate near Eaton’s apartment.
When she said this, Jarli realised how exhausted he was. He had been up all night. It was 7 a.m. Only five hours until Viper’s deadline. Four until Fisher would drop a thermobaric bomb on the town. Every distant sound made Jarli flinch.
The smell of dirt and stone brought back bad memories. A year ago, he and Anya had been trapped in this maze of tunnels for a while. Anyone who got lost down here would die of thirst before they found their way out.
Jarli swallowed his discomfort and climbed down the ladder, holding up one of Scanner’s arms. Anya climbed beside him, carrying the other, while Eaton hefted his legs from below.
Soon they were in the TUNNEL. It was so much colder down here. The floor was rough and sloped downward. The walls were jagged, the low ceiling held up by ancient wooden beams. They shuffled downhill, carrying Scanner.
Jarli noticed a lump of yellow clay, apparently glued to the ceiling. Black lines were threaded across it, like cheese wire.
‘Uh, you see that?’ Jarli asked Anya.
Anya looked up, and paled. ‘Miss Eaton? There is a demolition charge attached to the roof.’
Eaton glanced at it. ‘Looks like a way to collapse the tunnel in an emergency.’
‘Left over from the mining days?’
‘No. Viper must have placed it there as a security measure.’
Jarli felt a stab of panic. ‘So we could get buried alive in here?’
‘If it goes off. We should keep moving.’
‘How long will it take to get to your car?’ Jarli asked, following her.
‘We’re not going far,’ Eaton promised.
‘Plowman is trapped,’ Anya said, grunting under Scanner’s weight. ‘That means he cannot release the toxin. Therefore we only have to worry about the warhead. Correct?’
‘No. The botulism will be dispersed over the town either way.’
‘Why?’
‘Plowman is a brilliant roboticist,’ Eaton said carefully. ‘He’s more than capable of setting up an automatic dispersal device. Right, Jarli?’
Jarli nodded. ‘He would have loaded it onto one of his drones so it could cover the whole town with particles. You saw the size of that crashed drone—it could easily carry the canister. He probably programmed one before he gave himself the surgery.’
Anya looked perplexed. ‘He performed the surgery upon himself? Did he break his own arm, too?’
It did sound unlikely when she said it out loud. But, thought Jarli, what other explanation was there?
‘He used an autonomous robot to do the surgery,’ he told Anya. ‘Like Miss Eaton said, he’s brilliant.’
‘But why would he want to destroy Kelton? It does not make sense.’
‘Bess and I were working on a theory,’ Jarli said. ‘We thought maybe Viper was an ex-soldier.’
‘Why?’
‘Because he tried to kill Aaron Fisher, the Minister for Defence. And because he had burns all over his face. We thought he might have been wounded on the battlefield because of something the minister did, and wanted revenge. But Plowman was never a soldier, and the theory doesn’t explain why he would want to destroy Kelton.’
‘I guess you were wrong,’ Eaton said casually.
Jarli’s phone beeped. LIE
Anya and Jarli exchanged a glance.
‘You don’t think I was wrong?’ Jarli asked.
Eaton turned away. ‘Well, it sounded like a good theory. But like you say, Plowman was never a soldier.’
‘You were, though,’ Jarli said.
‘I was a surgeon in the army,’ Eaton said. ‘Not a soldier. I treated a lot of people with burns like that, but I never crossed paths with Plowman.’
For a moment, the only sound was the shuffling of their footsteps on the tunnel floor.
Then Scanner muttered something.
‘Dad!’ Anya cried.
They lowered him to the ground. Scanner’s eyes were open, but they were rolling wildly, like he was still dreaming. His brow was beaded with sweat, despite the cold.
‘Dad! Can you hear me?’
‘Sophia?’ Scanner’s voice cracked. He spoke slowly, like he was still half in a dream.
Anya touched his face. ‘No, Dad, it is me. Anya.’
Jarli’s phone rang. He was going to ignore it, but then he realised it could be his Dad, or Doug.
It wasn’t. When he pulled the phone out of his pocket, a picture of Bess was glowing on the screen.
Jarli answered the phone and put it to his ear.
‘Jarli,’ Bess said. ‘Where are you?’
‘I’m in the old tunnels. Why?’
‘Are you alone?’
‘No. I—’
At that moment, Scanner’s eyes finally focused . . . on Eaton.
‘You,’ he said. ‘You’re the doctor who put the chip in me.’
‘It’s Eaton,’ Bess said urgently. ‘Can you hear me, Jarli? Eaton is Viper!’
Jarli turned to look at Eaton.
She was already pointing a gun at them.
FETCH
Jarli stared at the gun. It was a compact pistol, but even so, he didn’t know where she had been hiding it. He felt dizzy.
‘Miss Eaton!’ Anya sounded aghast. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Keep your distance,’ Eaton said, backing away.
‘You work for Viper?!’
‘No.’
Jarli’s phone didn’t beep. Eaton’s statement was technically true. Jarli was starting to realise that many of Eaton’s statements were only technically true.
Bess was still on the phone. ‘Oh, no! Is Eaton there? Jarli, get away from her. She’s Viper!’
‘She’s Viper,’ Jarli repeated, numbly.
Anya’s mouth fell open.
Eaton levelled the gun at Jarli. ‘Hang up. Put the phone away.’
Jarli pretended to push the end-call button. He dropped the phone into his pocket. Hopefully Bess could still hear everything, although he didn’t think that would save them.
‘I knew someone would figure it out eventually,’ Eaton said. ‘I should have guessed it would be you. Back off.’ She swivelled the gun towards Anya, who had been slowly creeping up on her.
Anya stopped, and put her hands up.
It all fit. Giving someone a new face wouldn’t be too different to repairing an injured one. With the right equipment, removing a memory from somebody’s brain might be even easier than removing a bullet. And after seeing all those soldiers die unnecessarily, holding a grudge against the selfish and incompetent defence minister made sense.
It had been Eaton who first told Jarli that Viper was a man with a scarred face, leading him off-track. And every time Viper was up to something, she had always seemed to be nearby.
Jarli remembered how she had turned up at Kelton’s hospital with a bunch of flowers, only to find it surrounded by police. Just visiting a friend, she’d said. At the time, Jarli’s phone had said she was lying—because she was really there to remotely control the surgical robot inside.
Eaton had no expertise with robots, as far as Jarli knew. But he remembered what she had said to Plowman, back at her apartment:
We’ve met before. You helped me with a technology problem. You don’t remember?
Plowman had built her robots for her. Then she had erased his memory of it.
And Jarli’s, too.
‘We trusted you,’ Jarli said, sickened.
‘And I let you live,’ Eaton said. ‘Several times it would have been easier to kill you all, but I didn’t. You’re welcome.’ She glanced down at Scanner, who still seemed to be unable to get up. ‘If I’d known that my head of security was secretly helping you, I might have made a different call.’
The last year was racing through Jarli’s head, like a video played at 32x speed. At school, Eaton had given him and Bess a way to escape from some bad guys . . . who turned out to be good guys. She had helped him and Anya sneak into the hospital . . . to stop the police from filling it with gas.
‘Every time I thought you were helping us,’ Jarli said, ‘you were really helping yourself.’
‘I’m not interested in having this discussion.’ Eaton pulled her phone out of her pocket.
‘You told me that Plowman was Viper,’ Jarli said. ‘Why didn’t my app go off?’
‘I never said that.’ Eaton operated her phone without taking her eyes off Jarli and Anya. ‘You made up your own mind.’
Jarli thought back to their conversation. It was true—Eaton hadn’t told him Plowman was Viper. She had only led him to that conclusion: Viper is brilliant. Rich. Good with computers and robots. Anti-government. Seems to know everything. Does that sound familiar?
‘But why destroy Kelton?’ Jarli asked. ‘What did we ever do to you?’
‘Nothing,’ Viper said. ‘That’s why I warned everybody to leave.’
‘But—’
Suddenly Scanner rolled over and scrambled towards Viper’s legs. He somehow had a KNIFE in his hand. Viper jumped back, startled.
Jarli’s mind was racing. Scanner must have recovered from the anaesthetic. But he had been hiding it for the last few minutes, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
He hadn’t waited long enough.
Viper pushed a button on her phone.
‘Argh!’ Scanner dropped the knife and clutched his hand. Something was glowing orange under his skin.
‘No!’ Jarli cried.
‘Dad!’ Anya screamed.
Scanner started shaking all over. Foamy drool leaked from his mouth.
Viper had activated the poison capsule.
Anya launched herself at Viper with a flying kick. Viper ducked aside, and Anya crashed into the wall.
‘Listen to me, Anya!’ Viper shouted. ‘The snake venom has entered your father’s bloodstream. He’s dying.’
Jarli had seen this before. Viper had killed a corrupt cop right in front of him, using the same method. Once the capsule had been activated, the cop had died in minutes.
Anya swung a wild fist at Viper’s face. Viper stepped back out of range, and levelled the gun at her.
‘But you can save his life,’ she said.
Anya froze. Jarli held his breath.
Viper pocketed her phone and pulled out a capped syringe. ‘This antivenom will save your father—if he gets it in time.’
Anya looked from the syringe to the gun and back. ‘What do you want?’ she asked coldly.
‘Fetch,’ Viper said.
She threw the syringe over Anya’s shoulder. Jarli jumped sideways, trying to catch it. He missed, and the syringe flew past him, disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel. He heard it bounce once, twice, and then silence.
By the time he looked back at Viper, she was already running the other way, deeper into the coal mine.
Jarli and Anya sprinted towards where they had heard the syringe land. Jarli hoped it wasn’t broken. The antivenom inside was their only hope of saving Scanner’s life. There wouldn’t be time to get him to the hospital, which would have been evacuated anyway.
Jarli used the torch app on his phone, illuminating the rough floor. Anya was doing the same.
‘Where is it?’ she demanded. ‘Do you see it?’
Something glinted over near the wall. ‘There!’ Jarli yelled. He snatched up the syringe and tossed it to Anya.
Anya sprinted back to her fallen father. Jarli followed and crouched down next to her.
‘I can do this.’ Anya uncapped the syringe. ‘He trained me for it. You chase Viper. Do not let her get away.’
The fury in her voice was frightening.
‘I’m on it,’ Jarli said, and he took off after Eaton.
TEN SECONDS TO COMPLY
Jarli ran through the darkness, keeping his head down to avoid the low beams holding up the ceiling. The tunnel twisted and turned, sometimes doubling back on itself like a tangled pile of rope on a boat, slowing him down. And he couldn’t see Eaton up ahead, nor hear her footsteps.
Maybe that was a good thing. She had a gun, and probably other tricks up her sleeve. Jarli had nothing except his phone. What was he supposed to do if he caught her?
But if he didn’t, she would destroy the town. The place he’d lived his whole life. His only hope was to follow Viper to wherever the botulism canister was hidden, disable it somehow, and contact someone from the government to tell them, all in less than four hours. They wouldn’t drop a thermobaric bomb on the town if the botulism was already taken care of . . . would they?
It didn’t seem like much of a plan. Jarli kept running, trying to breathe quietly so he could hear Viper, and so she wouldn’t hear him.
He suddenly realised Bess was still on the phone. He took it out of his pocket and pressed it to his ear.
‘Bess,’ he whispered. ‘Anya is trying to save Scanner’s life. I’m going after Eaton.’
‘What?! Why?’
It was a good question. ‘Because if I don’t, she’ll destroy the town. Or Fisher will drop a thermobaric warhead on it. That’s what Scanner said.’
‘That’s insane. Jarli, you have to get out of there.’
‘I can’t! I’m the only one who can stop her.’
‘Call the police. Or the media, if you don’t trust the cops. Dana Reynolds.’
‘The cops will never find the botulism in time. But I can follow her right to it. I hope.’
‘Jarli—’
‘I don’t have time for this.’ An unexpected tear stung the corner of Jarli’s eye. He and Bess never argued. ‘You call the police. Please. Tell them what we know. And then call Reynolds. The world needs to know the truth. She can expose Viper, and maybe stop Fisher from dropping the warhead.’
‘Your life is more important than the truth,’ Bess insisted.
‘Viper might try to kill us to keep her secret. If everyone knows who she is, she might not bother.’
It didn’t feel like much of a plan—hoping the criminal mastermind ‘wouldn’t bother’ killing them. But it was the best he could do.
‘Fine,’ Bess said. ‘I’ll call the police, and Reynolds. But you have to get out of there.’
‘Tell my Dad—tell my family I love them,’ Jarli said. ‘And . . . I love you, too. You know that, right?’
‘Well, duh.’
Jarli hung up, before the goodbyes could get out of hand.
He suddenly realised he couldn’t hear Viper anymore. Maybe he’d already lost her. Maybe Kelton was DOOMED. He kept running, because it was his only hope.
Then he came to a fork in the tunnel. Had Viper gone right or left? There was no way to tell. Fifty-fifty chance. Jarli went right.
Soon there was another fork. Twenty-five, twenty-five. His odds of catching up to her were getting worse and worse. And then:
‘I can hear you following me.’
Viper’s voice echoed through the gloom, from a long way away. Jarli bit his lip. Had it come from the tunnel on the left or the right?
‘Go back,’ Viper shouted, ‘or you will die. Check your app—am I lying?’
Jarli’s phone didn’t beep. But he clung to the hope that she was bluffing. She didn’t know he was there. Not for sure.
‘You have ten seconds to comply.’
Jarli kept scanning the shadows.
‘Nine.’
She couldn’t shoot him if she couldn’t see him.
‘Eight.’
The passageway was tight and narrow. She’d have to get close to have a clear line of sight.
‘Seven.’
Still impossible to tell where her voice was coming from.
‘Six.’
Left, or right? Or behind him somehow?
‘Five.’
Jarli pressed himself into a shallow nook in the wall.
‘Four.’
Not much of a hiding place.
‘Three.’
Her voice seemed to be getting further away, rather than closer.
