I know what the code is. I just don’t want to admit it.
I plug in the date that the article with my picture was printed. The one marking the worst day of my life. The one that drew him to me.
The keypad blinks green. The elevator whirs to life and descends. Slowly at first and then so fast, I brace myself on the side.
The doors open to darkness. I can’t see, but I can sense the vastness of the space I’m about to enter. I step out, and the lights flicker on. It’s still dark, but there’s enough light to reveal I’m stepping onto a path hewn from rock. It smells like I’m outside, but there’s no sky.
I’m shivering, and not because I’m cold. I continue in bare feet, finding a set of stairs and descending.
Lights blink on as I walk. The rock underfoot turns into a bridge-like platform glowing with blue-green light, suspended over a cavernous space. Currents of air waft over me. There are shapes in the darkness, over and around me. The bridge leads to a landing that gives access to a towering case containing a black suit of body armor. I stop to study the visored helmet and thick-plated torso and shoulder coverings. I’ve seen this sort of body armor before, in prototype sketches from the secret weapons lab Mina found.
The bridge continues to another landing in front of cases that hold rows and rows of tools and weapons. There are guns like I’ve never seen before, with misshapen barrels built to hold ammunition that I can’t even imagine. Some guns are loaded with different-sized harpoons. Some are shaped more like hand cannons. And that’s just what’s on display. There are cases and cases that must be filled with all types of ammunition, bombs, and grenades. I bet there’s a case for canisters of the special gas Rex used to knock Gregory Martin out before he stabbed him.
There’s a twinge in my gut as if I’ve been stabbed. I’m surrounded by weapons and tools of destruction. This is worse than I could’ve imagined.
On my right is a case for different knives, boomerangs, and metal throwing stars. Some of them are the knives Rex probably used to kill Martin and carve up his other victims.
I’m panting like I’ve run a mile. It’s overwhelming, this evidence of a legacy of violence. Rex took all his billions and poured it into R&D to help him stalk and destroy his prey.
A part of me feels vindicated. I knew his depravity ran deep. But I had no idea it could be this massive, this monstrous.
Another part of me wonders if I’m his next victim.
I thought I had reached the point of no return before, but now I’m here on the literal cliff’s edge, facing the abyss and feeling the rocks crumble to dust at my feet.
There’s no use in stopping now. I’ve breached Rex’s lair. I might as well go on. I reach the end of the bridge and step onto a hexagon-shaped platform.
“Initiating welcome sequence.” A cool robotic voice makes me jump. I whirl and face a bank of screens. At least a hundred of them are suspended in a cluster that extends around half the platform.
The screens light up one by one. Each one shows a different view—a city street, an oak-filled park, a glittering high-rise with each window reflecting the sun. A vast network of surveillance covering the city of New Rome. People are walking their dogs, streaming in and out of shops, stopping at stands to buy coffee or hot dogs, oblivious to the surveillance.
I stand and shiver, facing the evidence of Rex’s hypervigilance. He has the means to surveil an entire city, and he has.
And then the screens blink off. When they come back on, they all bear the same image. Each one reflects my wide eyes and fear-filled face.
If I wasn’t before, I’m hyperventilating now.
“Welcome, Swallow,” the computer greets me. I bite back a scream.
I don’t realize I’ve been walking backward until I bump into a console. A bank of lights illuminate more of the recesses of the cave. There are more cases—of suits of armor and guns—as well as platforms holding whole cars and motorcycles.
There’s a rustling sound in the farthest corners of this vast cave. Something like birds—or bats. I dig my fingernails into my palms, seeking a bite of pain to keep me from screaming.
I can sense someone watching me. A darkness gathering in the gloom. And I know it’s him.
A shadow swells behind me, morphing into a figure who leaps from one suspended platform to another. Fear jolts through me.
I whirl and run back the way I came. The platform vibrates as my feet pound past the cases of weapons and armored suits. I can feel the darkness stalking me, following me, a predator reaching its claws out to snatch me.
I can’t let him catch me. I’ve crossed a line and learned his deepest, darkest secret. After this, there’s no turning back. It’s all over.
He won’t ever let me go.
My foot slips, and I skid into the platform railing. A shadow swoops over me. I duck, my breath tearing at my throat, and race for the elevator door.
I’m almost to the last set of stairs when I’m ripped off my feet. A hard arm holds me around my middle, and a dark voice rasps, “Going somewhere, little bird?”
28
