Cliff Ryder - Out of Time

They gained a bit more distance when Liang managed to jump a curb, cut around a bus stop and force the larger car to stop and turn around before they could complete their turn. Pedestrians dived in all directions, and Alex saw the very frightened face of an old woman pass way too close to his window as they rushed past.

A large warehouse sat dead ahead. A series of recessed loading bays opened from one side, stretching from one end of the street to the other.

Alex saw that there were large trucks nosing out of all but the fifth bay and Liang targeted bay number three, moving as fast as he could.

The small car was no more than ten feet from slamming into the front bumper of the semi ahead and Alex had clutched the dashboard with both hands when the pavement dropped away and the front end of the car tilted downward. He screamed, but Liang ignored him. Then the ground dropped away suddenly, and the little car roared down at a steep angle, driving impossibly under the truck.

Liang slammed on the brakes. The car slid, shuddered and came to a halt. Liang turned to him and smiled.

“Service bay.”

Alex was white and shaking as he glared at Liang. “Damn,” was all he could manage.

The black sedan followed, brakes squealing, and the bay door they had come through dropped closed, sealing them in.

“Move!” Liang chuckled. “Quickly!”

Alex and Liang dived out of the car as another truck, deeper in the bay, began rolling forward.

Liang dragged Alex through a door and into a passageway on the side of the service bay, just as the truck slid past and sealed the entrance. Alex heard their pursuers cursing and screaming, but there was no way they could reach the door. They were trapped like sardines in a can. The two men inside the car dived out, started yelling at the truckers. The drivers, as if confused, moved the trucks a few feet one way, then reversed, as if they didn’t know what to do.

Alex followed Liang through the passageway and under the service bays until they reached the office. A small man stood behind the desk. He looked enough like Liang to be his brother, though the glasses made his face look shorter and rounder than Liang’s. He tossed a set of keys to Liang and they exchanged blessings. The next thing Alex knew, Liang was hauling him toward the door and pushing him toward a low-slung red coupe.

The pursuing car was still trapped between the trucks, its driver and passenger yelling frantically at the drivers. Liang raced the engine and tooted the horn, then piloted the red sports car onto the main avenue and sped away.

Alex didn’t bother looking back, but sagged in the seat with relief. For the moment, they were safe.

Brin stood in the elevator, letting the recycled air and Muzak wash over her. She had been working so intently for so long that she had scarcely had time for anything else. The shift in focus had been a welcome relief, though. If she’d had to sit around and wait, worrying over Alex until he came home, it would have driven her mad. Her carefully worded request to Hershel Rand about his possible contacts in China had gone unanswered, but Brin had known it was a long shot.

In fact, her nose had been buried in research for so long that when Hershel called her, she needed a moment to even remember that she’d asked him.

His voice had been full of tension and sourness when he demanded her presence in his office immediately—in regards to her request about Alex.

It wasn’t like Rand to be quite so surly, and it had pissed her off, but she knew better than to ignore him and any information he might have found out about Alex was crucial. When he was in a mood like this, there was nothing to do but placate him and hope for the best.

Her heart wasn’t in it—she wanted to get back to the lab. She didn’t want to think about Alex until she knew what was truly going on with him and why he’d lied to her.

If she was truthful with herself, she was furious over the entire thing.

She shook her head and turned her thoughts to Rand. Was he calling her up there to reprimand her for even asking? It had to be something important for him to call her away from his own pet project, but what could it be? He’d been distracted and hard to work with ever since the package had arrived from China.

Elaine’s desk was unattended again. It was starting to seem like a trend. Rand’s door stood ajar. Brin marched in, her knuckles dancing briefly with the door as she passed. Rand was staring at his monitor—squinting, actually.

“Something I can help you with?” he asked distractedly, not even bothering to look up from his screen.

“I don’t know,” she growled as she dropped heavily into the leather chair. “You called me.”

“What?” He looked up then, ripped the glasses from his nose and let them fall to the desk. His expression was pained. “Oh, Brin. It’s you. Shut the door, would you?”

Brin rose, crossed the office and pushed the door shut. “No Elaine today?”

“She’s taking a personal day.” There was no humor in his voice. His expression was strained, almost menacing. “I received your e-mail about Alex, and as it turns out, we’ve been having something of a security problem ourselves as of late. I remember you once mentioning to me that he was in security consulting, so I was hoping you could help me clear it up.”

Suddenly, Brin felt like the bad child, awaiting her fate in the principal’s office. “I’ll do what I can,” she said.

“I’ve been in closer touch with our Chinese branch since the shipment arrived. I know we have things locked down here, but apparently they aren’t having the same luck over there. Imagine my surprise when the head of security in China, a man named Dayne called to let me know a mercenary of some sort or perhaps a corporate saboteur tried to blow up our facility over there. They caught him, thankfully. He sent me this video. I’d like you to watch it and give me your opinion of things.”

He pointed the remote at the large plasma screen on the wall to his right, and pushed the play button.

The video began abruptly with a scream. Brin nearly came out of her chair, barely stifling a scream of her own. The video played out, a high-definition rendering of Alex’s torture at the hands of Dayne. Brin sat on her hands to stop the shaking, tried to choke back the well of tears that had nearly stopped her breath and pooled in her eyes. She didn’t want to watch, but her eyes were glued to the screen. Finally, she could take no more. “Stop it!

Stop it!”

Rand cut off the video, froze it in midframe for her to contemplate. “Is there anything you’d like to tell me about your husband, Brin?” His voice was softer now, barely above a growl. It was certainly menacing. “Maybe something you forgot to mention when you applied for your security clearance?”

“Is Alex dead?” she asked.

“Is he dead?” Rand laughed. “He’s screaming pretty loudly on this film, so I would say not. Not yet, anyway. What happens next is up to you. If you help me with the final details of our little project, Alex may survive—though Captain Dayne is notoriously protective of our interests. If you don’t help, I may have no choice but to let Captain Dayne off his leash.”

“What project?” She was near hysterical now, her hands trembling and her head swimming. She had to reach Alex somehow. “The nanoagents?

I’m already helping. The research is nearly finished.”

Rand typed a few keystrokes and brought an image up on the screen. “Yes, that is what they call them, isn’t it? They’re just prototypes, of course, but it’s very close to being a fully functional delivery system. The nanoagents are just the front end of a new technology we’re branching into.

They represent the most efficient biological weapon in the history of science. I’m really surprised someone as brilliant as you didn’t see it from the start.