Genesis - Keith R. A. DeCandido [48]
So she wandered around the room. If she was supposed to be the head of security for this place, she probably knew what this room was really for. Maybe walking around would give her some kind of clue as to who she really was.
As she navigated among the crates, she noticed that they all had two readouts. On top was some kind of pattern that looked like a stereo sound system oscillation. It was steady, but she had no clue what it was actually measuring, since there was no bass beat to be heard.
On the bottom were one of two words lit up: stable and unstable.
To her relief, stable was the one lit on all the crates she could see.
She approached one of them. Each of the crates had a small window in it.
Peering inside, she saw—something. It was living, that was for sure, though it didn't look like anything she recognized.
But then, would she recognize it, even if it was something commonplace? It was fifteen minutes before she remembered what a bathrobe was, for Christ's sake.
Then again, this thing couldn't have been normal. It didn't have any eyes, for one thing, its skin was all scaly, and it had tubes running all in and out of its body.
Even if it was normal, it was pretty damn gross.
Then she remembered something else.
As the new password was entered into her monitor remotely by Lisa Broward, the Licker came onscreen. Alice knew that for a split second, it could be seen on Lisa's monitor, too, before the Red Queen shut her out.
One then scared the shit out of her by appearing next to her. She hadn't heard him approach—one moment he was just there.
He was peering into the window. "I said, keep it tight." He didn't even look at her.
"Sorry. I'm not sure I want to remember what went on down here."
Now he did look at her. In a softer voice than he'd used all day, he said, "I don't blame you."
It was the closest One had come to being human since she met him.
Or, she supposed, re-met him.
Whatever.
As she and One went back to the center of the room, not having found anyone or anything save the crates, Alice overheard J.D. and Rain talking, staring at one of the crates while they guarded Matt.
"What the hell do they keep in these things?" J.D. asked.
Rain shot him a look. "How do I know?"
Warner, Kaplan, Drew, Spence, and the medic all rejoined them in the room's center. "Anything?" One asked.
"No, sir," Kaplan said. The others just shook their heads.
"All right, we're proceeding to the Red Queen's chamber. Rain, J.D., stay here with the prisoner. Let's move."
Alice was grateful. Soon they'd be at the computer core, then they could shut her down and get the hell out of this madhouse.
Soon, it'd all be over…
Fourteen
ALICE WAS A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED—THE RED Queen's chamber was just another metal, sterile room. That seemed to be all they had in the Hive—metal, sterile rooms. No decorations, no color variations, just metallic sterility.
The room had one table in the center with three computer workstations, three huge metal doors, and little else.
Everyone seemed focused on the door in front of the workstations. Unlike the other two doors, this one had a window right at Alice's eye level. For lack of anything better to do, she wandered up to the door and stared in.
She saw another sterile corridor, but this one appeared to have glass walls. It was a narrow space that led to—surprise!—a big metal door.
Alice woke up in a house that was almost entirely well-polished old wood. Then she took a train that took her to a place that was almost entirely metal, glass, and plastic. Did Umbrella only work in extremes?
Meanwhile, Kaplan sat at the workstations, jumping back and forth from keyboard to keyboard like some kind of piano virtuoso.
That immediately rang an alarm bell in Alice's head. Piano virtuoso. She knew what that was.
So what the hell was a piano?
She stared through the window some more. The corridor was just as boring.
"What's taking so long?"
Alice turned around