Стефани Перри - Caliban Cove

Useful information, if you happen to know how many of the squads there were to begin with. He ignored the inner sarcasm as they reached the metal door, Karen leaning back to turn off the over-head light.

They pulled out weapons and took deep breaths, preparing—and David felt a familiar sensa-tion wash over him, one that he’d experienced before in tight situations but had never been able to name. It wasn’t a feeling so much as a state of existence—and although not a religious man, it was the closest thing he’d found to a belief in fate, a sense that there were patterns at play beyond the realm of human influence. Whatever was going to happen, whatever was al-ready happening even as they readied themselves to step back outside—all of the deciding factors were now firmly in place, interlocking like pieces of a puzzle. He felt it with a certainty that denied reason. It was as though a great wheel of chance that deter-mined outcome, that would show them life or death, success or failure, had been set into motion and was now spinning toward its inevitable conclusion—only instead of slowing down, the wheel would turn stead-ily faster, speeding up as it revealed to them what the cosmos had planned.

In the past, he’d often found comfort in the sudden awareness of that spinning wheel, the undefinable sense that the outcome had been decided and all anyone could do was watch it unfold. When he’d been a child and his father had been on one of his drunken, abusive rampages, the belief in a bigger picture had sometimes been the only thing that saved him from total despair. This time, though ... this time, it felt like a terrible thing, a dark and whirling carnival ride that they had boarded by mistake, not realizing the truth until it was too late—that they couldn’t go back, and there was no avoiding whatever lay ahead. We hang on, then. We do what we can.

David stepped to the door, flicking the Beretta’s safety off. Whether or not they had any control over what was to come, Rebecca and Steve were waiting. The test room was quiet except for the soft hum from the machines marked with blue numbers, nine through twelve, and the occasional rustle of a turning page as Rebecca went through Athens’s journal. Steve sat on the edge of a table and watched her read,

his thoughts restless and uneasy as they waited for the others to show up. His chest ached mildly, both from the small caliber round he’d taken earlier and the anxious build of worry for John and Karen. After a quick look at the other rooms in the building, they’d both agreed that the test room was the place to wait. It seemed that block B of the Umbrella facility was mostly devoted to surgical aspects of the bio-weapons research, the rooms all white and steel, ominously stark and unpleasant. Although the building was as stuffy and warm as the others they’d been in, Steve had felt a physical chill as they’d passed the empty operating rooms—as if the chambers themselves had taken on the characteristics of the T-Virus creatures. Cold and lifeless and some-how mindlessly black with purpose. .. . Rebecca looked up, her eyes flashing with excite-ment. “Listen to this:

‘”They’re still waiting for our feedback on expansion ever since Griffith revved up the amp time. ‘We’ve got the space for up to twenty units, but I’m going to hold strong on a max of twelve; we wouldn’t be able to concentrate on training more than four squads at a time. Ammon said he’ll back me up if there’s any hassle.’”

Steve nodded, half dismayed and half relieved by the information. They’d already knocked one of the Trisquads out of the running, plus seriously wounded or killed a couple of the individuals on another team; that was good. On the other hand, it meant that there were still a couple of the squads roaming around out there—

• unless they’re currently “engaged” with David and the others. . . .

He scowled inwardly, grasping for something else to think about.

“Do you know what that means, ‘revved up the amp time’?”

Rebecca nodded slowly, worry creasing her brow. “I’m pretty sure he means that Griffith sped up the amplification process. Amplification is the term for a virus’s spread through a host.”

That didn’t sound like something he wanted to think about either. By some unspoken agreement, they hadn’t talked about the possibility of John or Karen being infected since David had left. “Great. You find anything else in there?” She shook her head. “Not really. He mentions the Ma7s a couple of times, but nothing more specific than that they’re a T-Virus experiment that didn’t work. And he’s definitely kind of an asshole.” “Kind of?”

Rebecca smiled briefly. “Okay, that’s an under-statement. He’s a money-hungry, amoral bastard.”

Steve nodded, thinking about the partial report they’d found on the Trisquads—and for that matter, the very existence of the facility. Calling the T-Virus victims “units,” setting up operating rooms and apti-tude tests to run them through like rats in a maze—

• it’s like they can’t acknowledge that they’re per-forming their experiments on human beings, on real people....

“How could they do this?” he asked softly, as much to himself as to Rebecca. “How did they sleep at night?”

Rebecca gazed at him solemnly, as if she had an answer but wasn’t sure how to say it. Finally, she sighed. “When you specialize in one field, particularly when it’s a field that demands linear thinking and a very defined focus on only one tiny element of some-thing—it’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s frighten-ingly easy to get lost in that single element, to forget there’s a world outside of that element. When you spend your days looking into a microscope, sur-rounded by numbers and letters and

processes... some people get lost. And if they were unstable to begin with, the ambition to pursue that element can take over, making everything else unimportant.” Steve saw what she was getting at and was im-pressed anew with how thoughtful she was, how clearly she communicated herself....

... all that and a smile that lights up a room; if—when we get out of this, I’m moving to Raccoon City. Or I’ll at least find out if she’s seeing anyone.... There was a sound from somewhere in the building, footsteps. Steve pushed himself off the table and walked quickly to the door.

He leaned out into the corridor and heard David’s voice calling through the empty block.

“In the back!” Steve shouted, then waited, anx-iously watching the corner in the hall for David to walk into view, John and Karen both healthy and smiling beside him. Rebecca moved to stand next to Steve, and he saw the same concern and hope written across her delicate features.

Instinctively, he groped for her hand, feeling a tingling jolt as their fingers touched, half expecting her to pull away—but she didn’t, leaning against him instead as she held his hand gently, her skin soft and warm on his.

John’s booming voice preceded him down the cor-ridor, loud and full of bright good humor. “Get your clothes on, kids, you’ve got company!”

She dropped his hand quickly, but the look that she flashed him more than made up for it—a sweet and wistful expression that made his heart skip a beat—but there was a maturity there, too, a realization of the circumstances they were in, an acknowledgment of priorities.

No more until we’re out of here.

He nodded slightly, and they turned to wait for the others.

TWELVE

REBECCA COULD STILL FEEL THE LINGER-ing warmth of Steve’s hand in hers as David, John, and Karen walked around the corner, John grinning broadly.

“Sorry to crash, but we figured you guys could use a little chaperoning,” he said. “Nothing like young love, though, am I right?”