Chapter 24
Mara screamed when he had gone, falling to her knees and sobbing so hard she couldn't breathe. Her chest felt heavy, like a two-ton javelin was now resting solidly on top. There was a stinging over her chest, like her heart had been ripped out by hand. She lay on the ground for a moment, the loss causing her to hyperventilate.
When she finally gained composure, she pulled herself to her feet, setting the baseball-sized bomb on the control panel and going to the duffle bag Lorran had pulled the bomb out of. After some shuffling, she found a few loose pieces of paper and a pen, and began furiously scribbling her last notes.
Once finished, she folded them neatly and placed them underneath the mats that had torn him away from her. If anything looked like it could withstand the blast, they could.
She wiped her eyes, a strange and emotionless resolve falling over her as she pulled an assault rifle from the duffle bag, finding piles of other weapons as well.
She felt a numbness wash over her as she began the countdown on the bomb. One minute. She turned, leaving it on the control panel as she slowly knelt.
She kept the rifle aimed at the main entrance, and pulled a cigarette from her pack. With a sense of shock, she realized that she hadn't had one in almost two months.
She took a long drag, feeling it burn her throat as the screeching of tires met her ears. Within seconds, hoards of Scotland Yard, British military, and Rowen security were pouring into every entrance. They surrounded her and the beaming mat, giving her a circle of about twenty feet.
Three men led the charge—one was obviously the chief of Scotland Yard, the other two were familiar…
Jack and Lewis Davidov, the Chair and Vice-Chair of Rowen Corp.
"That's it!" Jack cried, pointing to the control panel. "That's the technology Khan stole from us!"
An officer of Scotland Yard bravely took a step forward, and Mara raised the assault rifle.
"Take roots, redcoat, unless you're lookin' for a bunch of holes in that suit," she said, feeling extreme disgust with herself even as she spoke the words.
The young man stopped, looking back at the chief.
"Where are they, Ms. McGivers?" the chief asked, training his gun on her.
The count in her head gave her twenty seconds, if she was on-par with the timer.
"You say they stole this technology," she began, kneeling slowly. "When, if it was they who created it, it would be their intellectual property to begin with."
She lowered the gun to the ground, smoothly taking another drag of her cigarette with her free hand. The chief was obviously confused by her abrupt surrender, but lowered his weapon and stepped forward.
Jack and Lewis Davidov went immediately for the control panel, their eyes missing the bomb thus-far.
Five.
"Cuff her," the chief said, motioning to a nearby officer and pulling out his cell phone, apparently to call it in.
Four.
"What is this…" Jack Davidov said as he approached
Three.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God!" Lewis cried, scrambling to run as he and his father noticed the bomb.
In the final seconds, Mara's mind thought of one thing and one thing only. Even if she had had more time, she wouldn't know why her entry-level college English literature class popped into her head, but she could think of only one reason.
Two.
"This is the way the world ends," she mouthed, tears falling down her cheeks as the officers and Rowen employees panicked all around her. She wasn't great with distances, but even then, she knew that very few of them were going to make it out of blast-range. One of them tried to get her to her feet and drag her out with him, but she was limp in his hand, only bothering to continue the quote.
"This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang…"
She registered a small beep and a click on the bomb, and her senses dulled as the final contentment set in.
"I'm sorry, Khan."