He squints one eye at me. The other is starting to swell shut. “You didn’t...”
“Let it out?” I say. “We’re not crazy. That’s your department.”
“You know nothing about what we do,” he says.
The elevator stops and the doors open, but I don’t step out. There are, no doubt, security cameras in the hallway. I was concerned the elevator would have them, too, but since no alarm has been sounded, I don’t think that’s true. I put my foot in front of the door to keep it from closing or returning to another floor. Alessi draws her sidearm and peeks into the hallway. Since she doesn’t start shooting, I assume we’re in the clear.
I probably shouldn’t, but I decide to blow Brice’s mind. “You work for GOD, but I doubt the Good Lord looks highly upon what the Genetic Offense Directive actually does, which is basically playing god, coming up with new and horrible chimeras. Weaponized biology. Like Kaiju, capital K, who died on Island 731. Or the Tsuchi, which killed so many of your men on the island that you had to fire bomb it, a tactic you repeated in Oregon because your men, the BlackGuard, did a shitty job. You should really have a talk with that Silhouette guy. He tends to let targets slip through the cracks. And yeah, I’m supposed to be dead, too, which is the real reason you’re so surprised to see me, not because you admire my awesomeness and envy my kaiju, lowercase K, mojo, but that’s probably also true. And to top all that off, you’ve got Nemesis’s body stashed inside your hangar outside, and if that’s true, you’re really screwed.”
Brice looks equal parts confused and surprised. I’ve hit the nail on the head and didn’t even know the hammer existed. Or something. To his credit, he doesn’t try to deny anything. “Why...would we be screwed if Nemesis’s corpse were in the warehouse?”
“And here I thought you were a smarty pants.” I can’t help but grin. “Because she’s not dead, and she really doesn’t like bad men who do bad things. Maybe you noticed that when she destroyed half the East Coast to take vengeance on a single man.”
“I can assure you, she is quite dead.”
I was just guessing that Nemesis was in the hangar, but he’s just confirmed it, and despite his insistence that she is deceased, I know what Maigo and I felt. I turn to Alessi. “We need to do this fast.” Then to Brice. “Lead the way, mon capitan. I don’t think I need to tell you what will happen if you give us a hard time. You’ve already had a taste of the triple threat.”
Brice sneers. “I have always loathed your sense of humor.”
I’m not sure if he’s talking about my few appearances on national news, or footage they have from spying on us, but I don’t ask. The more it seems like I’m in control of the situation, the better. I wipe the smile from my face. “I think you’d prefer me funny, than not. Now lead the way.”
We enter the hallway doing our best to look casual. Alessi has the taser positioned behind her back, and I’m standing behind her to block the view of it, but any keen-eyed observer will see the fresh shiner around Brice’s eye. But even if they do, security has their hands full with the loose Tsuchi.
There’s three doors on the left side of the hallway. Brice heads for the one in the middle. When he reaches it, he swipes his keycard and the door pops open. We step inside and stop, shocked by what’s on the other side. The first thing that surprises me is the scope of the place. The bright white room stretches from one side of the building to the other. But I quickly forget the size when I see the line of clear domes, each containing a horrible creature, the likes of which I’ve never seen, or at least, never seen in this combination. But I do recognize the creature closest to us, not from personal experience, but from Hawkins’s description. The crocodile spins toward us, moving fluidly in two feet of water. As we walk past, its mouth opens, unfurling two long tentacles that slap against the curved glass. Had there been no partition between us, it could have snatched me and yanked me into its gaping mouth.
“This place is a freak show,” Collins says, mirroring my thoughts.
Brice leads us to a lone desk at the center of the room, holding a single, thin laptop. All of it white, like the room.
“A little too space-age hipster in here for my taste,” I say, but I’m ignored.
Brice stops beside the desk, probes his swelling eye with his fingers and asks, “What now?”
“Log in,” Alessi says.
Brice starts tapping keys. “Even if I log in, the system is text based. You’re not going to find what you’re looking for.”
I glance at the screen and see something like a DOS prompt appear, but nothing really familiar. They’ve got their own operating system. Of course they have their own operating system.
“Are you saying you’re not going to comply?” I ask, the threat in my tone says the rest.