Escape From Dinosauria (Dinopocalypse Book 1) (8 page)

Kenshin bowed his head.

“Is that it? Is that all you got?” Doctor Israel stood.

Kenshin listened.

“This is bullshit, Kenny. They gave me a Noble fuckin’ Peace Prize, man. Stephen Hawking bought my book. Stephen fucking Hawking. Do you understand how big that is?”

“Yes.”

“Look, man, I made all this. Right? This is
mine.
All of it. Then you and Tanaka swooped in with your schemes. Said you had the capital. Said we could take this to the next level. Mass production. Food replication. Nobody believed me. Said it was all a fantasy. Nobody believed. But
you
believed. We could save the world with this. We could
do
it.”

Kenshin breathed in deeply through his mouth.

“Millions of dollars. All the women I could want. Anything I wanted. Just have to hang out here until the job was finished. I’ve got money in the bank. Offshore accounts. Everything’s offshore from this place. Everything’s offshore. My entire life. You and Tanaka said I would have everything I could ever want. No, not even millions. Billions of dollars.
Billions.
”

This was supposed to happen. Many of these same words had bubbled beneath the surface of his skin when he saw Tanaka the last time. One of the dinosaurs had been modified by Kresevich’s tampering and Kenshin had caught on. He caught on to a lot more than that as the investigation led him deeper into a dark hole from which he and Tanaka could never recover. As careful and as thorough as he was, he ultimately failed. His failures led to this moment.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Doctor Israel said. “This is a clusterfuck. Do you know what that means? That means you can take your piece of shit sword and shove it up your ass, or into your stomach because I know ninjas kill themselves once they’ve fucked up. Yeah, Kenshin. You can go kill yourself. Do us all a favor.”

Another deep breath.

“You know what? You’re a liar.
You’re
the one who’s trying to kidnap me.”

Deep breath number three.

“Ha. Yeah. You betrayed Tanaka. You went nuts. Look at you. You’re
insane,
man. You’re the only one who knows even one percent of what I know. You’ve kidnapped me. Yeah. You’ve kidnapped me.”

The accusation hung in the air. Long silence. Kenshin tried to differentiate the smell of the earth from the smell of blood. He was soaked in the gore of innocents, dinosaurs, and men he had trained.

“You’re just going to sit there,” Doctor Israel said.

“No. I have shed blood. Many people died today. You are right. This is my fault. I underestimated Kresevich and became lazy. Somewhere, I made a mistake. The consequences are dire. But I may still fight for the future. I may still fight for Tanaka’s dream.”

“Tanaka’s dream?” Doctor Israel screeched his words. “What about
my
dream? Huh? None of this would have been possible. None of it. I have changed the world. I have changed the world and you assholes ruined every fucking thing I worked my ass off for.”

Kenshin slowly stood and Doctor Israel backed up.

“Tell me why,” Kenshin said.

“Why what?”

“Why you decided to become a scientist?”

“You already know, man. You did the research. You know my story. We about to get philosophical?” Doctor Israel spat a wad of phlegm on Kenshin’s foot.

Kenshin looked into the young man’s moist eyes. “When we are challenged, we must remember why.”

A shrill, agonized voice sounded from down the tunnel. A hunched figure approached, and as the face came into view, a hurt that could only be felt in his heart froze him in place.

“Oh, I remember why,” Izanami said.

Tanaka’s wife. He knew the sound of her laughter and the sweet happiness that filled the air when she was beside Tanaka. This damaged voice of hers could not belong to the same person. The Izanami he knew would never have betrayed the man she loved for the idea that she could become the perfect woman.

Clutching her stomach, her eyes shimmering with gold light in the darkness, her once lustrous black hair was nothing more than a few wayward strands clinging desperately to her skull. The flesh on her perfect face looked as hard as brick wall, the softness having faded into a scaly mask. Her breasts sagged mightily in her shirt, dragging her down like weights hanging from her body. Her knees and ankles were twisted awkwardly, and one arm seemed to be shorter than the other.

“No way,” Doctor Israel said. The fear in his voice was real.

“You’re right,” Izanami said, “Kenshin is an asshole.” She turned to her former friend. “Tanaka trusted you. You said it was a good idea. You said we could change the world.”

Kenshin shook his head. “I am ashamed of myself, but I did not make your decisions for you.”

“What the hell is happening?” Doctor Israel shouted. “The genomes…all the nanomachines corrupted and everyone I…everyone…the injections…”

“I’m going to live forever!” Izanami laughed. “And yes, I took more injections. More and more. I wanted it. I wanted it more than anything.”

“I didn’t promise you that shit,” Doctor Israel said. “I have always said it would slow cell deterioration. Your body wouldn’t break down as you aged, and your skin wasn’t going to wrinkle…those were the things I promised.”

Kenshin knew that Kresevich had stolen many of the enhancement injections. Tanaka used to talk with him over dinner about the probability that they could become immortal, that there might be another phase of Doctor Israel’s genetic discoveries they hadn’t uncovered yet. Kenshin had listened. Immortality was never their goal. But in his heart, he knew his old friend was getting the idea from somewhere else. He found it hard to believe, and even when he learned that Izanami was taking more and more of the injections, he puzzled over it: why would she suddenly become so greedy? Where would she get the idea that the injections could preserve her life into eternity?

“I was going to just keel over and die, right?” Izanami said. “Anyone could be as beautiful as they wanted for as long as they wanted. Ugliness is the human race’s greatest curse.” She coughed and leaned forward, her breasts seemingly dragging her toward the floor. “We could be gods. Each and every one of us.”

“You’re fucking nuts, lady,” Doctor Israel said. “That was never part of it. No. People who were injured in a battle or accident…people who…fuck…I never said anything like that. I never said we could…”

Izanami laughed.

And laughed.

And laughed.

Kenshin backed up, and Doctor Israel did the same.

Tanaka’s wife attempted to step forward, but her body arched and vomit poured out of her mouth and splashed the tunnel floor. Convulsing violently, she attempted to sputter words that sounded nothing more than garbled noise. One of her arms twisted inward as if it had been burned and began to wither away. Her body jolted up as her knees twisted awkwardly; bones snapped, and her face pushed forward into the dark. With a grinding jaw, her lips carved a menacing sneer into her face.

“What’s happening to me?” Izanami asked, her eyes bulging, head twitching. “Am I becoming pretty, like you promised? Will I be pretty forever?”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Doctor Israel whispered.

“ERRRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGKKKKK!” Izanami growled, head thrown back, shoulders hunched.

Kenshin never expected her to suddenly bound forward like a feral cat and pounce on his chest. He wrestled with her twisted arms, drool melting from her clenched jaw and falling in clumps onto Kenshin’s face.

Doctor Israel charged into her with his shoulder and bumped her off. She lay on her back, her spine twisting and contorting her while she pawed uselessly at the air.

“Let’s go,” Kenshin said.

He hit the remote for the C4 and collapsed the tunnel. Izanami’s roars increased in volume and followed them into the tunnels, which grew darker with each step.

“What’s the plan, Kenny? Do we have one?”

“The entire resort will be locked down by now. Kresevich is going to isolate each point of attack.”

“He doesn’t know about this place?”

“No.”

“You’re sure about that.”

Kenshin stopped walking. “No.”

“Izanami. Damn. I gave her a couple injections. Like everyone else. But the genetic codes are all linked together. If Kresevich hacked the nanomachines in the dino DNA, there will be a lot more…a lot more like her.”

“That’s the point.”

“Yeah? Well, fuck him. Let’s kick his ass. He’s ruined me. He’s ruined everything. I’ll punch that motherfucker right in the dickhole.”

Only a moment ago, the world’s most celebrated biologist was blaming Kenshin for the disaster; now, the young man had discovered that he was alone, and if he wanted to survive, he would need Kenshin’s help. Doctor Israel had always been practical, and he hated wasting his time. He made things happen.

“There’s nobody who can help us?” Doctor Israel asked. “No way off this island?”

“We are alone,” Kenshin said, thinking about it. “I had only hoped that we could somehow reverse the process—”

“You’re kidding me.”

“There may be someone who will help us. I know Tanaka has given up. I know he is beyond my help, but he has tried to bring his own help. There is one possibility.”

But there wasn’t a lot of time.

10

Heaven was a hot shower after a good fight, and she was there now. She watched the blood-pink water disappear down the drain as she scrubbed the blood from her body, putting in some extra effort to get the stains underneath her fingernails. Jamie had been in one hell of a fight over the last few hours, one that involved machine guns, confused emotions, and baby dinosaurs. The dinosaurs just added to the confusion.

The world had made sense before her plane landed at the airport, but now everything had turned upside down. She felt this way before, the first time she won a major fight. There were cameras, microphones, voices. People were asking questions. There were bright lights. Someone grabbed her ass. She had been a major underdog against Tara Nash, who was only two fights removed from a title shot. Too many people surrounding her, and all she wanted to do was go home and go hunting with her brothers. She imagined herself hunkered down in a tree stand, tasting the cool autumn air, watching the cement-colored morning clouds roll over the sky.

Jamie stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. She stepped into the luxurious bedroom and immediately turned to the pamphlet that she had left on the nightstand. The room was pitch-dark and she could still smell the blood. Maybe the smell would follow her forever.

She was going to read it cover to cover. Glowing light from the resort’s many buildings and attractions provided just enough brightness through her room’s window to see the cover. She wasn’t in the mood to turn on all the lights yet. The room was quiet and she liked it that way; the idea of a bright light seemed like a
loud
idea. She had enough brightness and noise for one day. She had taken a long nap, and now the early evening had left her alone with this pamphlet.

These people were going to clone dinosaurs and create a never-ending supply of meat. A never-ending supply of big game. Science in the interests of mankind. The NRA and big gun vendors had to be rubbing their hands over this. Animal rights activists might be happy, too, but it seemed another breed of activists had guns of their own and were interested in holding people hostage to free the dinosaurs. Or destroy them. She really had no clue what the hell went down at the airport.

Someone was sitting on the bed.

A man.

The first thing she thought of was the guy looked like Spock from
Star Trek
. She hated
Star Trek
.

The second thing she thought was he was too far away to have been waiting for a chance to hurt her. And he was the one who smelled like blood.

The man put his hands up and slowly stood from the bed. “Please, I am here only to speak with you.”

“Fucking pervert. Did you get a good look?”

In the glow of the bathroom light from behind her, she caught a better glimpse of the tall, slender man who seemed completely at ease. His black hair was tied in a knot against the back of his skull, and he offered a patient, slow smile.

“I am alone. I waited for you here. My name is Kenshin. Your life is in danger, Ms. Rock, and I want to help you.”

“You’re not the first creep to cook up some bullshit story to get a peek.”

Maybe everything that happened to her in the past four hours had finally pushed her over the edge. She didn’t know why she did it, but she dropped her towel and stood there with her hands on her hips.

“There it is. Get your pictures for whatever website you work for and get the fuck out.”

The slender man bowed gently. “Ms. Rock, it is not my intention to embarrass you. Please cover yourself. I wish only to help, and in return, Jordan can help me.”