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The voice comes again. Closer this time.
'Sparrow.'
My finger's on the trigger before I think. The rune flares hot up my forearm, hungry. It knows what's down there. It wants it.
Ash freezes beside me. His rifle's up but his hands are shaking. 'What the hell is that?'
'Stay behind me.' I move forward. My boots scrape concrete. The tunnel curves left and the emergency lights flicker like they're about to give up. The air smells wrong. Copper and ozone and something sweet underneath. Rot, maybe. Or chemicals I don't have a name for.
The rune burns hotter. My whole arm's buzzing now. I can feel it pulling at my nerves, like it's trying to steer me.
'Ivy.' Ash's voice cracks. 'Who the hell calls you Sparrow?'
'No one.' Not anymore. Not since Grace died. 'No one alive.'
I round the corner and there he is.
Zero.
He's standing in the middle of the tracks, hands loose at his sides. No weapon I can see. The emergency light behind him makes his shadow stretch all the way to my boots. He looks exactly like he did three years ago. Same buzzcut. Same scar through his left eyebrow. Same way he stands with his weight on his back foot, ready to move.
Except for the tag.
GS-4 is burned into his right forearm. The skin around it's blackened and cracked. And his eyes—his eyes are wrong. They catch the light like an animal's. Reflective. Yellow-green.
'Sparrow,' he says again. His voice is rough. Like he hasn't used it in years. 'You came.'
I don't lower the gun. 'How do you know that name?'
'Grace told me.' He tilts his head. The movement's too smooth. Too controlled. 'Right before she died. She said if anything happened to her, I should find you. Tell you it wasn't your fault.'
My throat closes up. I force air through it anyway. 'Bullshit. You never met Grace. She died when I was sixteen.'
'I know.' Zero takes a step forward. I tighten my grip. He stops. 'You joined the squad two years later. You were good. Fast. But you always hesitated half a second before the shot. Marcus said it was because you were still seeing her face every time you aimed at someone.'
The rune screams. Not out loud. Inside my head. It wants me to pull the trigger so bad my hand's cramping.
Ash's breathing hard beside me. 'Ivy, what's going on?'
'I don't know.' I don't take my eyes off Zero. 'Zero, how are you standing here? You died. The lab burned. I saw the report.'
'You saw what Marcus wanted you to see.' Zero's mouth twists. It might be a smile. It might be something worse. 'We didn't die. We just stopped being human.'
'GS-4.' Ash's voice is steadier now. He's reading the tag through his scope. 'That's a Genesis Strain identifier. Fourth generation bioweapon. But those were all terminated after the treaty.'
'Terminated.' Zero laughs. It sounds wet. 'Is that what they told you?'
I take a step forward. The rune's burning so hot now I can smell my own skin cooking. 'What did they do to you?'
'Same thing they did to you.' He nods at my arm. 'They made us into weapons. Difference is, you got to keep your face. We got turned into things that crawl in the dark and eat rats and wait for orders that never come.'
My stomach turns. 'You're lying.'
'Am I?' He spreads his hands. The skin on his palms is split open. I can see bone underneath. 'Luis is dead. You killed him an hour ago. Did he look like he was lying?'
I think about the thing in the tunnel. The way it moved. The way it screamed.
'He tried to fight it,' Zero says. 'The hunger. The program. He lasted six months before he stopped recognizing his own name. I lasted longer. I'm stronger. But I'm losing it too.' He taps his temple. 'Up here. Every day a little more goes away. Soon I'll be just like him. Just meat and teeth and mission parameters.'
Ash shifts his weight. 'Then why are you talking to us? If you're turning, why aren't you attacking?'
'Because I'm not here to kill her.' Zero looks at me. His eyes are glowing brighter now. 'I'm here to warn her. Marcus didn't send you to clean up bioweapons. He sent you to hunt us down before we could talk. Before we could tell you the truth.'
'What truth?' My voice comes out hoarse.
'The lab didn't burn by accident.' Zero takes another step. I raise the gun higher. He doesn't stop. 'Marcus burned it. He burned us inside it because we found out what Genesis really was. What they were really making down there.'
The rune jerks my arm. I grit my teeth and hold it steady. 'Stop moving.'
'You want to shoot me.' Zero smiles. His teeth are too sharp. 'I can see it. The gun wants it. You want it. But you won't. Because you need to know.'
'Know what?'
'Why your arm is eating you alive.' He's close enough now that I can see the cracks in his skin spreading. Black veins crawling up his neck. 'Why Marcus gave you that weapon and sent you on suicide runs for three years. Why he dragged you back now, when you were finally getting out.'
I'm shaking. The rune's pulling so hard I can barely keep my finger off the trigger. 'Tell me.'
'Because you're the prototype.' Zero stops three feet away. 'The first one that worked. And if you finish this mission, if you kill all of us, the program goes live. They'll make a thousand more just like you. And Marcus gets his promotion and his budget and his war.'
Ash sucks in a breath. 'That's insane. The oversight committee would never—'
'The oversight committee thinks you're chasing rogue bioweapons.' Zero doesn't look at him. He's still staring at me. 'They don't know the bioweapons are the old team. They don't know Ivy's the beta test for mass production. They just know Marcus is the hero who's cleaning up a mess. And when this is over, he'll have proof of concept and a body count and a budget that'll make him untouchable.'
My mouth's dry. 'You're lying.'
'Am I?' Zero reaches for his collar. I tense. He moves slow. Pulls down the neck of his shirt. There's a scar there. Surgical. Clean. 'They cut us open and put the strain directly into our spines. We were the proof that it could be done. You're the proof that it can be controlled. And those poor bastards they're growing in the new lab right now? They're the product.'
I can't breathe. The rune's screaming. My whole arm feels like it's on fire.
Ash's voice comes from behind me. 'Ivy, we need to call this in. If he's telling the truth—'
'He's not.' But I don't sound sure. I don't feel sure.
Zero tilts his head again. 'Marcus is listening right now. Through the tracker in your partner's gear. He heard everything I just said. Which means he's already making the call. And in about five minutes, this tunnel's going to be full of cleanup crews with orders to burn everything. Including you.'
I glance at Ash. He's gone white. 'The tracker. Ivy, if he's right—'
'Give me your vest.'
He strips it off. I find the tracker in the lining. It's smaller than I thought. The size of a quarter. Still blinking green.
I crush it under my boot.
Zero smiles. 'There you go. Now you're a rogue asset. Welcome to the club.'
I turn the gun back on him. 'If you're really Zero, prove it. Tell me something only he would know.'
'Istanbul.' His eyes don't blink. 'You got shot in the hip. I carried you four blocks to the extraction point. You kept apologizing. Kept saying you were sorry for slowing me down. And when we got on the helicopter, you asked me not to tell Marcus you cried.' He pauses. 'I didn't tell him. I'm not telling him now.'
My hands are shaking. That mission was classified. No one knows about that except me and Zero. Me and a man who's supposed to be dead.
'Ivy.' Ash's voice is tight. 'I hear engines. Multiple vehicles. Coming from the north entrance.'
Zero nods. 'That'll be the cleanup crew. You need to move. There's a maintenance shaft fifty yards east. It'll take you to the old freight tunnels. You can lose them there.'
'Come with us,' I say. I don't know why I say it. The words just come out.
Zero shakes his head. 'I'm already gone, Sparrow. I can feel it. Another week, maybe two, and I'll be just like Luis. Hungry and empty and dangerous. But I can buy you time. I can make them think you went west while you run east.'
'No.' My throat's closing again. 'I'm not leaving you.'
'You already did.' His smile turns sad. 'Three years ago when you quit. When you walked away and tried to forget. I don't blame you. I wish I'd done the same.' He takes a step back. The light catches his eyes again. They're glowing brighter. Greener. 'Go. Find the lab. Burn it for real this time. And if you see Marcus before I do—' His smile sharpens. All those wrong teeth. 'Put one in his brain for me.'
The engine sounds are louder now. Ash grabs my shoulder. 'Ivy, we're out of time.'
I don't move.
Zero turns away. Starts walking back into the dark. 'East shaft. Fifty yards. Don't stop running.'
'Zero—'
He looks back one more time. The light's behind him again. I can't see his face. Just the shape of him. The shadow.
'They're still feeding you,' he says. 'Every time you use that gun, it drinks a little more. Every time it drinks, you lose a little more. One day soon you're going to pull the trigger and nothing's going to be left.' He laughs. It echoes in the tunnel. 'Guess we're all turning into monsters. You're just doing it slower.'
Then he's gone.
The rune flares one more time. Hot and hungry and angry that I didn't shoot. I can feel it pulling at the base of my skull now. Feel it whispering.
Ash yanks my arm. 'Move!'
I run.