strange Dr. Kinneson, Karen stumbling along next to him. John and Rebecca were already standing in front of the middle passageway, weapons still in hand. The chamber shook as outside, a muffled thunder roared. Without speaking, the three of them started down the gloomy tunnel in a tired but determined jog, ready to face the human monster behind the many tragedies of Caliban Cove.
They turned the first corner, Karen hanging onto his shoulder with a cold and sweating hand and the researcher was just rounding a bend farther ahead, a good hundred meters away. Steve caught a glimpse of fluttering white and the heel of a black loafer, and then he was out of sight, clattering footsteps moving away.
Great. Lost in a goddamn sea cave labyrinth because Dr. Strangelove has a schedule to keep...
Karen let out a low moan of soft distress and Steve felt the cold, hard knot in his stomach clench tighter, his fear of getting lost nothing next to fear he felt for Karen. She was leaning on him more heavily, her feet dragging against the dank limestone floor.
David, John, Rebecca, please hurry, please don't let Karen get any worse...
He pulled her along as quickly as he could, con- cerned about catching up to Kinneson, worried about the others putting themselves in danger, afraid for the desperately sick woman who clung to his side. Except for meeting Rebecca, it had to be the worst day of his life. He'd only been with the S.T.A.R.S. for a year and a half, and while he'd been in threatening situations before, they didn't come close to what he'd experi- enced in the few short hours since they'd been knocked out of the raft. Sea monsters, zombies with guns and now Karen. Smart, serious Karen, losing her mind, maybe turning into one of those things. We're so close to getting out of here and it may still be too late... As they reached the turn in the tunnel, Steve realized that he couldn't hear Kinneson's footsteps anymore. He staggered around the corner, thinking that he should call for him to wait up, not to get too far ahead and he stopped cold, his gut plummeting to somewhere around his knees. Kinneson stood two meters away, holding a.25 semi-automatic, his face and eyes as strangely blank and lifeless as a manne- quin's. He stepped forward and pressed the small bore into Steve's stomach, hard, jerking the Beretta out of his holster and then stepping back. The flat-eyed doctor moved to one side, now holding both weapons on them as he motioned for Steve to move in front of him.
"Watch him carefully, Steve..."
Steve held on to Karen's side, fumbling through his thoughts for ways to stall, to reason with Kinneson, his body tensing to spring even as his brain screamed at him to go along, not to get shot -
-what would happen to Karen? "You will come to the lab," Kinneson said tone-lessly, "or I'll kill you." It was the inflectionless voice of a computer, com- ing from the blankly merciless face of a man who suddenly didn't seem human, not at all. "We know what you did here," Steve spat. "We know all about your goddamn Trisquads, we know about the T-Virus, and if you want to get out of this without..." "You will come to the lab or I'll kill you."
Steve felt a helpless shudder run through his body. Kinneson's tone hadn't altered at all, his gaze as fixed and emotionless as his voice. Steve noticed the lines then, the deep, spidering lines that swept away from
his cold brown eyes, sat at the corners of his slack and
expressionless lips.
Oh my God... "You will come to the lab or I'll kill you," he repeated, and this time, he raised both weapons holding them inches away from Karen's sagging head. Steve knew she was dying, knew that there was a good chance she'd lose against the virus and becomea violent, insane creature before the night was through -but I have to protect her for as long as I can. If I sacrificed her to save myself and there was even a chance that she could've been cured...
Steve wouldn't, couldn't do it. Even if it meant his own life. Holding Karen tightly, he stepped ahead of the thing and started to walk.
Enough time had passed. If the intruders had done what they were supposed to do, they would have split up, some of them heading mistakenly for the pen, some accompanying the good doctor