Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One

The Dragon Factory
Tuesday, August 31, 3:06 A.M.
Time Remaining on the Extinction Clock: 32 hours, 54 minutes E.S.T.

I fired three shots, two at the Berserkers, hitting one of them in the head, and then I pointed the gun at the door and blew the lock off. I threw my shoulder against it and saw a sight that nearly tore the heart out of my chest.
Grace was on her knees, half-collapsed over the front of a big office desk. In the pale glow of a laptop screen I could see that she was covered in blood. Her face was painted red; her back was slick and wet. Hecate Jakoby was crawling slowly along the floor toward the desk and she, too, was bleeding. Otto Wirths lay dead on the floor, and Cyrus Jakoby was climbing back to his feet, blood streaming from his arm and chest.
And one person stood on his feet.
I knew him as Hans Brucker and Gunnar Haeckel. But those men were dead. This was an exact copy. Another clone. And he held a pistol in his hand.
“Joe.,” said Grace in a ragged whisper. “The code. ”
The assassin shot her.
I think I screamed. I don’t remember. I could feel the gun buck in my hand. I saw the assassin duck backward into a closet, saw splinters rip loose from the doorjamb. I staggered into the room, screaming as Grace slid down to the floor.
I wheeled into the doorway of the closet, but it was empty. There was an open trapdoor in the floor and splashes of blood all around it. I’d hit him. But he was gone.
I spun back into the room and shot Cyrus Jakoby in the stomach. He fell backward and collapsed. Hecate stretched up a long arm from the floor toward the laptop. I shot her in the head. My slide locked back, my gun empty.
I could hear the Berserkers coming.
If I had any chance of saving Grace I had to do something. I looked wildly around. There was an adjoining office, and I stumbled to it. It was almost identical to Hecate’s. Probably her brother’s. I staggered back to Grace and pulled her to her feet. She was nearly unconscious. I grabbed the laptop with the other hand and somehow dragged us all into the next room. I eased Grace down into a chair and then rushed back, scooped her gun up off the floor as the Berserkers began crowding into the room. I shot the first one in the forehead, but I could see that there were more of them in the hallway.
I retreated to Paris’s office, slammed and locked the door. There was a security crossbar on the door and I dropped it in place. Almost immediately the Berserkers began pounding on the door. The whole frame shook. I knew it wouldn’t hold.
I staggered over to Grace. There was harsh white light coming in through the window. One of the soldiers outside had set off a flare. Gunfire was constant.
Grace was slumped in the chair. She had been shot twice in the back, and the exit wounds on her stomach and chest were dreadful. I tore off my Kevlar and ripped my shirt to rags to staunch the flow of blood. Her head lolled and for a horrible moment I thought she was gone, but when I pressed my fingers against her throat I could feel a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.
“Grace” I said, pitching my voice sharply enough to wake her from the stupor of shock. “Grace, stay with me, babe. come on. stay with me.”
She opened her eyes a little and licked her lips. “That’s. Major. Babe.,” she said with a smirk.
“Yes, it is, honey; yes, it is.”
The pounding on the door was incessant.
“Joe. the laptop. ”
It was on the desk and I pulled it close. There were two words in a little gray box.
Message sent.
“Grace. did Cyrus send the code?”
“I-don’t. ” Her voice disintegrated into a fit of coughing. Blood flecked her lips.
“Grace, honey, stay with me. Help’s on the way.”
I hoped to God that I wasn’t lying to her. I could hear helicopters in the air now, which meant that help was arriving from outside the EMP blast zone. Soon hundreds of troops would be landing. But was it all for nothing?
“Joe,” she whispered, “listen.. ” She reached up with a weak hand and gripped the front of my shirt, tried to pull me close. “Joe-if the. code. was sent. there’s. ”
She broke off into another fit of coughing. I used another strip of cloth from my shirt to dab the blood from her lips. I wanted to scream. I wanted to do anything to get out of this room, to get her to a medic.
“. Joe. if the code was sent. there’s still time.”
“What do you mean, Grace? How can we stop it?”
“Cancel.. code.. ” More coughing, more blood. “Cyrus knows. If not. MindReader.. ”
The Berserkers were knocking plaster out of the wall. The whole room shook.
“Take the flash drive. to Bug. tell him.” Her eyes drifted shut.
“Grace, come on. don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me.. ”
Her eyelids fluttered open. “I’ll. never leave you.. ”
But she did.
Her eyes closed and she settled against me. Her head lolled forward and she died right there with her cheek pressed against mine. I screamed her name. I screamed and screamed until I tore blood from my own throat.
But all the screams in the world could not bring her back from the infinite sea of darkness in which she now swam. I could actually feel her leave. It was like a whisper against my lips. Her last breath, exhaled as I held her.
I pulled her against my chest and rocked her back and forth as one by one all of the lights that held back my personal darkness flickered and went out.