2089

"I wasn't so sure about you when Alec vouched for you." Dante's voice was a harsh whisper behind Gina's left shoulder. "'Cause he's a real shithead. But nabbing that key card from your Nazi supervisor was smart."

Gina didn't answer; she held her breath as she pulled the key card through the reader, hoping it wouldn't accept the card as much as hoping that it would. If security had changed the password again - or if Ms Cho had since noticed that her card had gone missing - they'd have about five minutes to run for the woods before security would be all over the place.

Gina had no idea if they would even realize that an alarm had gone off somewhere. Probably not. And maybe it didn't mean anything that the light went green and the door slid open... maybe it was all part of the trap.

But it was too late to turn back now. Dante was shoving her inside, and the rest of their group followed on silent feet.

Their cell leader's name wasn't Dante - he'd probably chosen the alias for the author of the Inferno, just like dozens of wannabe-revolutionaries before him.

Pompous idiot.

Still, this mission had been his idea, and he'd worked out every detail, and so far, everything had gone like clockwork - a truck with cages was waiting in the shadow of the trees, everyone had a stun gun, and they had acquired the layout of the lab, the schedule of the scientists and security, and a contact who not only provided them with both, but who also let them in through the front door. A mole.

Gina didn't know if she felt comfortable with that designation. It spelled almost like "traitor."

But she was working for a greater good, she firmly reminded herself, as she led her conspirators down the dark and silent corridors. Dante had forbidden them to use their flashlights, and so she had to rely on her memory - but after a year at GenSys, she knew her way around.

This was one of their smaller labs, where either less important, or less savory projects were run. The Animal Freedom Coalition had elected it for their next big campaign when they had learned that Gina had secured a job as assistant to Ms Sondra Cho, the head scientist of this satellite lab - she was testing some genetically modified virus on a batch of orangutans that she had brought over from Sumatra fifteen years ago.

Not even the inmates of the concentration camps had to suffer for fifteen years, Dante was fond of saying, and Gina wanted to slap him every time he used that comparison. Whatever one could say about GenSys, they didn't subject the apes to physical suffering...

... well, except when that one strain had killed four apes, but Gina wanted to believe Miss Sondra when she had told her that they had simply fallen into a coma when their livers failed...

... anyway, that would end tonight, thanks to the AFC. They would break out the apes, load them into their truck, and take them somewhere safe. Gina had no idea where that safe place would be, and Dante had refused to tell her so far, claiming that she couldn't tell the police what she didn't know, but Gina hoped that after tonight, he'd trust her enough to take her into his confidence. She'd prove herself to the AFC, and then she'd be allowed to plan their next move. One step up from being a mere foot soldier.

She yanked the key card through another lock, suddenly impatient to get to the kennel section and get it over with. Five minutes had already passed, but nobody came rushing down the corridors to arrest them, so she hadn't triggered any silent alarms. It made her more confident, but also more apprehensive. "Where do you want to take the apes after we-"

"Just focus on the mission."

Jerk.

"Well, fine, keep your precious secret," Gina hissed back. "Just keep them somewhere quarantined, because they could be contagious. At least promise me that you'll be that responsible."

"Yeah, sure! This isn't my first mission, Miss Noob!" Dante was just an indistinct shadow in the dark corridor, but Gina was pretty sure that if she kicked him, she'd find his nuts even in the darkness.

"If you ask me, mankind deserves an apocalypse," someone else muttered from the shadows. Gina had no idea who it was - she didn't know any of these people by name. It was how the AFC designed its organization; they referenced, with some weird pride, terrorist organizations as inspiration for it.

"Yeah, but nobody is asking you," Dante said, and waved for her to open the door to the kennel section.

Gina stood back as the others swarmed out and quickly stunned the apes before the animals could raise hell. She only stepped forward to help when they started dragging the unconscious orangutans on walkie pallet-trucks (another of Dante's organizational streaks of genius).

The longer she worked, heaving the heavy bodies onto the pallet trucks, the stronger the feeling grew that it shouldn't be this easy. That security should wake up and stop them. It was so... unreal. As if she was watching a movie, unable to look away from the screen.

And then the last body was carted out of the room, and she and Dante were alone, empty kennels yawning at them in the darkness.

Her leader thumped her on the back. "Good job, noob. Don't forget to wipe off your fingerprints from that keycard before you chuck it into the toilet."

"When's our next meeting?" Gina called after him.

Dante didn't even turn around, he just raised his arm in a sloppy goodbye. "Don't call us, we'll call you."

And then he was gone.

The silent darkness felt suffocating. Gina hunched her shoulders and tiptoed to a side exit, throwing away the key card as Dante had advised. She had thought of wearing gloves, so she was pretty sure that there wouldn't be any fingerprints on it, save for Ms Cho's, but nobody would suspect her of nabbing her own lab subjects.

The feeling of dread didn't subside even when she was back in her car. She had parked it a long way away from the lab, in the parking lot of some roadside bar that she didn't dare to enter despite her original plan of getting an alibi that way. Instead, she was sitting in the driver's seat, covered in goosebumps from head to toe all of a sudden, and fervently wished for Chris to be with her.

Chris.

They had some kind of long-distance relationship, although she couldn't really bring herself to even call it a relationship. It was more that Helen had never let the connection to her go silent, and so Chris had been saying hello from time to time, and somehow, they both just couldn't let go. Or something. It was complicated.

She called him. She didn't even care what time it was on the East Coast.

He didn't sound tired, just surprised. "Hey. What's up?"

Gina clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from clattering. "Just missing you."

She heard him scoff, or laugh, it was difficult to tell. "All of a sudden? What happened?"

She couldn't tell him. "I'm just... homesick."

"Well, hop into the next flyer and come over, then."

She wanted to. God, she wanted to drive directly to the airport. But it would look suspicious. "I need a very good reason to do that." She hoped it sounded teasing. She felt like crying any moment now.

"How about seeing me off before I board the Daedalus?"

"..."

"Gina? Are you still there?"

She gripped her elbows, hugging herself. "When... when did that get greenlighted?"

"Just a few days ago. I wanted to tell you, but you are a bit difficult to reach."

She had silenced her phone. She had totally forgotten about her phone, obsessing over the mission day and night.

"It's finally happening, Gina." Chris' voice sounded strange. Choked. As if he was holding back tears. "I can hardly believe it myself."

Her face was cold, and wet. This was all wrong. All of it. This night, and Chris, and... and everything. Something had taken a turn in the darkness, swung around in a slow, huge, inexorable move, and now they were all headed down a terrible, terrible path. She could feel it. She could feel it in her bones.

"Will you come and see me off?"

Gina swallowed. "I'm already on my way."