The In Death Collection Books 21-25 - J. D. Robb [139]
“Can’t.”
Eve rushed to where Deena lay on the floor, still holding the screaming baby. “We’ll get you out.”
“Get her out. Get the children out. Can’t override. Multiple sources and levels. Not enough time. Please get them out. I’m already gone.”
“Police and medical assistance is on the way.” Eve glanced back toward Roarke. “I hear them coming. Kids in the adjoining rooms. Get them out.”
“Take her, please take her.” Deena struggled to pass the baby to Eve.
She fumbled to hitch the infant under one arm. And saw Deena was right. She was gone. Where her clothes had been singed by the blast, burned skin was exposed, some to the bone. Blood was already seeping out of her ears, her mouth. She’d never make it out the doors.
“Diana, and the little one?”
“Safe.” Eve looked at Roarke for confirmation. “They got out.”
“Give them to Avril.” Deena clamped a hand on Eve’s arm. “Please. Please, God, give them to Avril, let them go. Deathbed confession. I’m giving you a deathbed confession.”
“No time. Roarke.”
She pushed the baby at him. “Get those kids out. Now.”
Warning, warning, all personnel must evacuate. This facility will self-destruct in eight minutes.
“I killed them all. Avril knew nothing about it. I killed Wilfred Icove, Sr. Wilfred Icove, Jr. Evelyn Samuels. I intended . . . Oh God!”
“Save it. You’re right, you’re gone. I can’t help you.” She heard children crying, screaming, feet pounding, and kept her eyes on Deena’s face. “We’ll get everyone out.”
“Gestation.” Deena gritted her teeth, hissed against the pain. “If you take them out of the tanks, unhook the tanks, tamper . . . they’ll die. They can’t . . .” Blood slid out of her eyes like tears. “They can’t be saved. I was going to do what Wilson did, knowing that. But I couldn’t. You have to leave them, save the rest. Please let them go. Avril . . . She’ll take care of them. She—”
“Are there any others, in this facility?”
“No. I pray no. Just care-droids this time of night. Wilson . . . Wilson must’ve shut them down. Killed Icove replicas. Son of a bitch. I’m going to die where I was born. I guess that’s okay. Tell Diana. Well, she’ll know. The little one . . .”
“Darby. Her name’s Darby.”
“Darby.” She smiled even as her eyes began to film over.
Her hand slid off Eve’s arm.
Warning, warning, this facility will self-destruct in seven minutes. All personnel must evacuate immediately.
“Eve, the nurseries are cleared out. The response team’s taking the children up. We have to move. Now.”
Eve got to her feet, turned. She saw Roarke still had the infant. “The Gestation area. She said it couldn’t be tampered with or they’d die. Prove her wrong.”
“I can’t.” He gripped her arm, pulled her out. “The life support, the artificial wombs, are integral to the system. If it’s disengaged, the oxygen’s cut off.”
“How can you—”
“I looked. I’ve already checked. If there was time, there might be a way to bypass. There isn’t. We couldn’t get them out, Eve, we couldn’t get the chambers out and up in time, even if we could bypass. We can’t save them.”
She saw the horror of it in his eyes, the same cold horror that was balled in her gut. “We just leave them here?”
“We save her.” He shifted the baby awkwardly, and with his hand gripping Eve’s began to run. “We move now, or we’re all buried here.”
She ran, past the husks of what she’d killed, through the shattered bodies of boys who’d been created to kill. She smelled death, and her own blood, Roarke’s blood.
They’d shed it, and still it hadn’t been enough.
Nothing stops the vicious and the ugly, she remembered. She’d said it herself.
Warning, warning, red line for safe evacuation has been reached. All remaining personnel must evacuate immediately. This facility will terminate in four minutes.
“I wish she’d shut the fuck up.”
She kept up the limping run. Her hip was now an insane symphony of pain. A glance at Roarke showed her his face was bone-white and clammy under the smears of blood.
She saw the elevator ahead, its doors shut.
“Can’t leave them unsecured.” Roarke’s voice was labored, and Eve was nearly