The veins in Alan Miller’s neck were standing out as his fury mounted. Desh knew his best bet was to keep him here until his team arrived, hoping against hope this would happen soon, before Kira’s treatment transformed her brother.
“Even though the colonel is injured,” continued Desh, “with his mind enhanced, it must have been easy for him to best your men at Putnam’s farm and free Metzger and Griffin. I told him to give a pill to the major and come after me.” Desh raised his eyebrows. “You see, I hid a homing device on myself that the colonel could use to track me. And your men were good enough to arrive at Putnam’s in military choppers so the major could borrow one. The colonel’s mind is now back to normal, no doubt. But just one Ross Metzger, enhanced, along with a military helicopter, is more than a match for your mercenaries.”
Instead of responding, Alan Miller appeared to be listening for gunfire. But after a deafening barrage that had seemed to go on forever, everything was now utterly silent. This seemed to totally unnerve him, and he shoved the gurney near the wall, dragging his sister along with it. He pulled out a gun and crouched behind his two prisoners, his back to the wall, using their bodies as shields.
“What’s the matter?” taunted Desh. “Not so sure of your mercenary force anymore?”
Before Desh completed his sentence, Connelly and Metzger entered the room. Metzger moved with the elegance of a ballet dancer and took in the scene with superhuman acuity.
Alan peered around his sister. “Take one step closer and I’ll kill them both,” he threatened.
Metzger looked bored. “Thanks. It will spare me the trouble,” he said.
Alan’s eyes narrowed and it was clear the wheels were turning in his head. “Look, Major,” he said amicably, “we can team up, you and I. Surely in the state you’re in now you can see the logic of this. Why hitch yourself to my sister’s wagon? I already have more power and money than God. Once we begin to leverage the secret of extended life, you and I will be the most powerful people on the planet.”
“Ross, please,” pleaded Kira Miller. “Kill him! Don’t worry about hitting me. He took a gellcap and he’ll be enhanced any second. This is your chance!” she insisted emphatically. “Remember what Matt said: the vast majority of your life will be lived as you were, unenhanced. And that Ross Metzger couldn’t live with himself if he teamed up with this psychopath.”
“Shut the fuck up, you bitch!” thundered Metzger.
Kira flinched and drew back from the fury of his words.
Metzger pulled the trigger and put a bullet cleanly between Alan Miller’s eyes. He slammed back against the wall and then fell forward, face first.
Kira gasped in shock. The shot had missed her by the thickness of a piece of paper.
No one moved. No one even breathed. All eyes were on Ross Metzger.
The major calmly lowered his gun. “Sorry about that, Kira,” he said matter-of-factly. “You were in the way of a clean shot. I calculated that if I shouted a curse at you, your head would twist just enough for me to kill him.”
Kira stared at him in bewilderment, her eyes blinking rapidly. She glanced at her brother on the floor and then turned her head to take in as much of her surroundings as she could. All was quiet.
Could it be? After all this time, was it now really over? It had happened so fast. Metzger’s actions had been so decisive; so final. The immense pressure that had been bearing down on her psyche for so long was so crushing that its sudden removal was surreal; disorienting. She took a deep breath and let the reality seep into the deep recesses of her consciousness: her interminable waking nightmare had truly ended. It had ended with a venomous curse, and a single shot delivered with superhuman accuracy. Several tears escaped from the corners of her eyes and raced down her cheeks.
The major turned to Desh. “David, while I am more ruthless than I was, I’m not like Griffin or you. It isn’t testosterone related. I believe I’ve come through the transformation with more of my soul intact even than Kira did the first time. I have some theories but you wouldn’t understand.” He paused; or had his simulacrum pause at any rate. “Kira, I’m sorry about your brother.”
Kira Miller took a long, hard look at the body lying on the floor and then firmly turned away, as if determined to close the book on this part of her life forever. She turned to Metzger and shook her head resolutely; only her eyes betraying her deep pain. “That’s not my brother,” she said bitterly, drying her tears with the back of her hand. “My brother died in a fire a year ago.”
50
The grounds were still smoking from the carnage that had taken place there, and the outside world was now eerily silent, as if even birds and insects had been cowed into silence by the bloodshed they had witnessed.
“I’ve got to hand it to you David,” said Kira appreciatively. “You’re certainly full of surprises.”