Genesis - Keith R. A. DeCandido [46]
"Red Queen has locked onto us. She knows that we're here."
Alice frowned. "Who's the Red Queen?"
"State-of-the-art artificial intelligence," One said. "She's the computer that controls the Hive."
Rain wondered when the stupid bitch was gonna get her memory back. She was tired of listening to people who should know better having to have their hands held.
"So this isn't a military base," Alice said.
One almost smiled. "Umbrella could buy and sell the military twice over."
"Yeah," Addison muttered, "I bet the pay's a lot better, too."
Just as Rain was ready to give Addison a good punch, they entered a hallway that was sealed off. There were three or four entryways, all of which were covered by Umbrella-brand PlastiGlas.
Which was a good thing, seeing as how the lab spaces they were covering were flooded. Water spouted out through some pinholes in one of the labs, but still, it looked like someone sealed the rooms and then activated the sprinkler.
Jesus.
Doing his usual stating-the-fucking-obvious thing, Kaplan said, "This is gonna slow us down." He showed One the schematic on his wrist-top. "Our route to the Queen takes us straight through these labs."
"Rain, J.D., see how bad the flooding is. Kaplan, find us an alternate route."
Grateful for the chance to go off with J.D. and leave the assholes behind, Rain went ahead, stepping through the spouts.
"This is messed up," she said as they went forward.
J.D. shrugged. "What-the-fuck-ever. Just another job. In, out, beers at Barre's Bar when we're done."
"Fuck, I'm sick of that place. They got shit tequila."
Grinning, J.D. said, "You oughta try a real drink some time."
Rain didn't even look at him. "You drink fuckin' Budweiser, J.D., I ain't takin' no lecture on booze from you."
J.D. laughed. After a minute, Rain returned it.
Yeah, that was it. In and out, and hope those two assholes get their memory back soon.
Thirteen
KNOWING HER NAME WAS ALICE ABERNATHY should've made her feel better.
It didn't especially.
According to the head of the commando team—who just went by "One" for some odd reason—Alice was head of security for the Hive, which was a neat trick, considering she'd never heard of it, or the Umbrella Corporation. On the other hand, the corridors had an oddly familiar feeling as she walked through them. Maybe it was the truth.
Frustratingly, she had no way of verifying anything. Her memory was still Swiss cheese—she knew, for example, that the World Series was a baseball game, and she remembered who won it last year, but she could not picture the sport or remember how it was played.
She just hoped this damn nerve gas wore off quickly.
The man she was pretending to be married to was named Spence Parks. The cop, according to his ID, was named Matt Addison. He still hadn't explained why he was here.
Then again, no one had asked him, either.
"What happened here?" Spence asked.
Alice noticed that Matt moved closer, and One gave him a suspicious look.
"Five hours ago, Red Queen went homicidal. Sealed the Hive and killed everyone down here."
"Jesus."
"You can't be sure of that," Matt said. "There must be hundreds of people working here."
"Five hundred and twenty-three," One said coldly. He went on: "When we realized what was happening, my team was dispatched to shut her down."
"Why did she do it?" Alice asked.
"That we don't know. But outside interference is a possibility." That last sentence was spoken while looking directly at Matt.
Matt was about to say something, but then he suddenly jumped.
"Jesus!"
His sudden movement startled Alice. She stepped back, and saw what Matt saw.
A body.
It was a woman, blond hair from the looks of it, floating in the water on the other side of the glass. She wore all white, and her skin had gone pale enough to match the outfit.
According to the ID badge still pinned to her lab coat, her name was Anna Bolt.
Spence looked at Alice with concern. "Hey—you okay?"
Alice grunted in reply.
Removing his leather jacket, Spence said, "Here."