“As it turns out, absolutely nothing, my dear. Your friend the colonel did it to himself.”
“Did what to himself?” snapped Desh.
“When my people boarded the RV, your colonel friend was hiding in the bedroom. Thought he’d be cute and wear electronic earplugs and goggles and toss out a stun grenade. He figured he would recover his sight and hearing before we did.” Putnam shook his head in amusement. “He didn’t count on the vibration knocking him off his feet. His head slammed into the corner of an end table. Killed him instantly.” He paused, milking the moment. “It wasn’t pretty.”
The four intruders traded horrified glances. Even Kira and Griffin, who hadn’t known the colonel very well, looked ill at the loss of such a good man.
Putnam made a show of looking at his watch. “You have five minutes to come out with your hands raised,” he said. “After that my men will come in after you.” The corners of his mouth turned up in a cruel smile. “But I really have to go now, my dear. If I’m late resetting that little device in your head, I might end up with brain splatter on my drapes.” He raised his eyebrows. “Can’t have that, can we?”
Kira raised her gun and pointed it at Putnam. “Don’t take another step!” she growled.
“Or what?” he said scornfully. “You’re going to shoot me?” He shook his head and laughed. “You’re going to give yourself five minutes to live? You’re going to kill the only chance you have to keep the lid on Pandora's box? I don't think so.”
A bullet exploded from Kira’s gun and tore through Putnam’s chest, slamming him back against the door. “Think again,” she whispered, her face a mask of rage. She walked toward him and emptied the entire magazine into his body.
“Kira, what are you doing!” screamed Desh.
“He had to die,” she spat hatefully.
Kira Miller turned away from the body and gathered herself. “David, take Putnam’s escape tunnel and get out of here. Using my treatment the three of you can stop Putnam’s plot. I know you can. But with the leverage he had over me, I was hurting our chances. Beat this bastard and then carry out your vision. You’re a good man. I have confidence in you.”
Desh said nothing, but reached out to hold her. She melted into his arms and several tears escaped from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.
“David,” she whispered, still in his arms, “I’m going to give you the GPS coordinates to my flash drive. If for some reason you aren’t able to stop the virus, I’m counting on you to give the secret of longevity to the world.”
Kira Miller wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and focused with all of her heart on unlocking her memory. Not because some external force was demanding it, but because she wanted to give it freely. To this man. A man she had come to trust and admire. Her instincts in choosing David Desh had been perfect. Had things been otherwise, who knew where their relationship might have led.
She gasped. Like a dam bursting, her memory came flooding back into her mind.
Kira cupped her hands around Desh’s ear and whispered the coordinates. She repeated the coordinates several times until Desh was able to whisper them back to her. Even if he forgot them, she knew, his enhanced mind would remember them with perfect clarity, along with the exact feel of her breath in his ear and her exact pronunciation of every number.
Now she knew that her life extension discovery would live on, even if she didn’t. And Desh would only reveal it if Putnam’s plan couldn’t be stopped. She was certain of it.
Kira pushed Desh away as several more tears began to slide down her face. “You need to keep your distance,” she said.
It was 9:59 and the second hand on Desh’s watch was sweeping around the dial at a sickening pace. “Kira, you’re the most extraordinary woman I have ever known,” said Desh with absolute sincerity.
She forced a brave smile for the benefit of Desh and the two other members of the team. “Thanks. I just hope I was wrong about that afterlife thing,” she said.
And with that, Kira Miller closed her eyes and awaited oblivion.
46
Kira’s three companions closed their eyes with her. Precious seconds continued ticking.
An explosion rocked the room.
It was intense beyond reason. The flash from the explosion was as bright as a supernova and blinded everyone in the room, even through closed eyelids.
Desh realized he couldn’t hear and then instantly realized something else: the explosion had been from a stun grenade, not from the device in Kira’s head.