The gates were blocked, protected by spiked strips, several barriers, and tall iron doors, atop which, like on the walls of a medieval fortress, soldiers stood aiming their weapons not just anywhere, but directly at the windshields of the APCs. Colonel Aquilles looked around with a practiced eye, instantly spotting two snipers in the towers behind the trees, their scopes trained on the fuel tanks. He felt uneasy. There was a sense that the Institute had other forms of defense as well…

  And a way to escape.

  The vehicles were converging. Another rolled up, blocking the main entrance and training its side-mounted machine guns on the windows. A second climbed a nearby hill, coming to a silent stop beneath the cover of dense brush. There were now five of them, and those were only the ones Aquilles could see. He also knew several more vehicles were blocking the right and left flanks, already training their artillery on the Institute and preparing to blast it to splinters. They were supported by helicopters, three already circling under the leaden sky, and four more stationed on hidden pads in the forest surrounding the hill, ready to take off at a moment’s notice.

  The forest trembled, bending under the torrent of rain. Trees rustled violently, and whole clusters of leaves were swept along the muddy mess that had once been the path. The door opposite the passenger seat swung open. Aquilles jumped down, nodded to his aide, and grimaced as his heavy army boots squelched deep into the mud. The road was a complete ruin, he could see that from the light-gray slush dripping off the APC’s treads. Around him, doors slammed, canvas covers were pulled back from artillery mounts, and troopers with rifles at the ready leapt out and ran toward the gates, taking up positions in seconds. Sirens wailed.

  Aquilles looked closer. Another man had appeared on the wall, dressed in a military uniform and a bulletproof suit. He critically surveyed the army that had surrounded the Institute and shook his head.

  “Hey!” one of the soldiers barked, stepping forward. “Hey, you there!”

  “Greetings to the soldiers of the Treaty! What brings you here, dear sirs?” the man on the wall asked with a benevolent smile. “These are the premises of HADES, and however we’re happy to receive visitors, I have to admit, this is rather impolite—to knock on our doors with killswitches engaged. So I must inquire, what is the reason for such an aggressive approach?”

  “Cut the bullshit, Montellini,” Aquilles said, stepping closer and craning his head. “You’re well aware, I’d bet my head, that one of your employees, your favorite biology professor, has made a terrible mistake this morning. We just want to give you a chance to fix it for him with as little bloodshed as possible. All this equipment is here just to make our point… hmm… more solid, I would say. I also hope that it will assist us in reaching mutual understanding a bit faster.”

  “Oh, really?” the four-eyed on the wall asked mockingly. “I always believed that firearms only assist in folly. You don’t really want another terrible mistake to happen, don’t you? When it comes to the purpose of your visit… What if I dared to say that you, Colonel, are not authorized to handle the justice yourself in this matter? It is being solved between HADES and the commandment of the Treaty armed forces, and I’m afraid they won’t be happy to see you here flexing your muscles. This smells of a huge scandal, Colonel. Don’t make a mistake yourself. The price might be the one you can’t afford.”

  Aquilles burst with hoarse laughter. The man on the wall watched him in silence, the faint smile slowly creeping away from his face.

  “You’re bluffing, Silvester, and we both know it,” the Colonel said at last. “We both know the leadership of HADES won’t help you here. You’re outcasts, wasting the company grants on chasing shadows. No one will care if you disappear. The Zone will keep its secrets.” He made a long pause, letting his words sink in.

  “Now listen carefully. Give me the boy, and the artifact. And we will put this incident behind us. And if you won’t… Well, you can try to protect yourself. But first, look around carefully. Are you ready to take this fight?”

  The scientist did look around. Then glanced again at Aquilles and said hoarsely:

  “I’m afraid I don’t know what you're talking about. But you’re more than welcome to come in for a discussion in a more peaceful environment. Without pointing guns at each other.”

  “That’s fair,” the Colonel nodded and grinned. “I can come in. Even disarmed. But I want to speak with Dr. Salzman. Don’t tell me now you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  Montellini lingered for a few seconds.

  “All right.”

  “Step back,” Aquilles said, handing his pistol to the aide and moving forward. He ducked under the barrier, stepped over the strips with spikes, and looked up at the sky before squeezing through the narrow gap the gates had been opened to. Helicopters circled tirelessly overhead. The rain was growing heavier.

  ***

  “Greetings, gentlemen.”

  Aquilles gazed around. In the small study, there were four of them.

  “Professor Montellini, thanks for joining us. Dr. Salzman, long time no see! Ah, and another old familiar face—Mr. Edward Gordon, better known in the Zone as Gunslinger! We last saw each other during the Southern War, five years ago… or has it been ten already? Glad to see you in good health!”

  The guard chief smirked and nodded. Montellini looked calm, his face expressionless. Salzman was pale, alert.

  No one smiled. Lightning flashed outside the windows; a few seconds later, a dull roar of thunder followed. The room was lit by a small, dim lamp hanging from the ceiling. In its light, the faces looked grey and lifeless.

  With a silent gesture, Montellini invited everyone to sit.

  “Greetings, Colonel,” said Salzman. He was motionless, almost numb; his fingers, clutched together, turned white. But his voice sounded confident. “It’s been a while, huh? What made you move to this God-forsaken place again? Such a backwoods here. Zone’s outskirts, the Second Perimeter… No marauders, almost no therizers, boring! You had always preferred working in the south, hadn’t you?”

  “Many reasons.” Aquilles smiled. The gaze of his only eye swept across the companions.

  “Searching for a path to the center, are you?”

  Aquilles smiled.

  “I know what you’re doing here, Albert,” he said. “You’re playing with fire, and it’s a risky game. I bet the company does not know about your true intentions; otherwise, they would have stopped you long ago. But I can see through you. Like I always could, back during the Big Southern War. You forget that I know you too well.”

  “The company knows more than you know, Colonel,” Montellini interrupted. “The project is sanctioned from above. Colonel, are you speaking on behalf of the Treaty?”

  Aquilles held a long, heavy look at him.

  “Yes and no,” he finally replied in a cold tone.

  “Excuse me, how should I interpret that? If your answer is “no”, I am afraid that I have the right to tell your people to… ehm…”

  “To fuck off,” Edward finished, grinning sullenly. The Colonel smiled back.

  “Still holding an old grudge, are you, Gordon? You’re a good soldier, but you always work on the wrong side. Mind you, Treaty pays well to contractors. Better than this nearly broke enterprise that you hold on to, like it’s the last available job in the world. Why risk your life for them, Gordon?”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Your boys killed my boys back then, during the war,” Edward replied coldly. “I’m not switching sides. Besides, Treaty sucks. It’s because of your damn governments that I have to work in the Zone. For the love of God, I’m not doing anything for them, no matter how well they pay.”

  “Too bad,” Aquilles shook his head, still smiling. “You’re way too idealistic, Gordon. You need to be a bit more pragmatic to survive here. But the choice is yours. Now, where were we?” He turned toward Salzman. “Dear doctor, you know why I’m here, don’t you?”

  “I thought you were dead, Aquilles,” Salzman said slowly. “I have not heard of you in a while.”

  “Oh. It’s not so easy to kill me, you know?”

  “The Worms,” Salzman continued, his expression now concentrated. “You’d made a pact with them, had you? That’s why they had appeared in the north? I should have guessed.”

  “You’re smart, Albert,” Aquilles smirked crookedly. “You guessed correctly, only too late. Tell me, how did you find Thorne? And how did you find the Diavant?”

  “I have some means.”

  “Let me also play the guessing game. The girl, right? How do you call her, again?”

  Salzman’s lips twitched. The Colonel’s one eye flickered eerily.

  “You’re well informed, Colonel.”

  “I can connect the dots. That’s what I’m paid for.” Aquilles sat back with satisfaction.

  “It’s not so difficult to find your dossier for the one who has access to the military databases,” he said with a sigh. “And it’s not difficult to find that you have no siblings. You call her a niece, ah?”

  “It’s none of your business, Aquilles.”

  “In fact, you have no family whatsoever,” the Colonel continued, ignoring his remark. “Such a rough fate. A young daughter passed away tragically only at the age of ten. Poor child. Skin cancer, was it? Born shortly after you decided to retire and returned from the Zone back to the outside world… Your wife could not bear the grief and ended her own life… Is that what brought you back after all these years, Albert? Is that why you’re trying so hopelessly to get to the center? You think that the Zone can bring the dead back to life?”

  “I don’t think so,” Salzman filtered through his teeth, holding the Colonel’s gaze.

  “I know it can.”

  The silence felt electrified.

  “Anyway, Colonel,” said Montellini, discharging it. “Let’s get back to the important things. Let me assume that you do speak on behalf of the Treaty. Let me then inform you that the Treaty’s armed forces are now clearly abusing their authorities. The Institute and its territory belong to HADES, and you have no right to stand here pointing guns. There’s been an accident this morning, and Dr. Salzman caused some damage to the Treaty’s armed forces, which will be repaid. Now, you’re trying to start a new conflict. We’re in the position where we’re ready to defend ourselves.”

  “Ah, Professor Montellini!” the Colonel grinned. “Great observation, thank you. I don’t think we have met before, have we? But your name is well known in the Zone. You have made your career researching artifacts and their use in healthcare. A great topic to obtain governmental grants and flip the money, I agree. Now you’re employed by HADES, and the money flows from the company into the Zone, sponsoring illegal therizers, supporting the smuggling of artifacts to the outside and weapons to the inside… And it’s your money that forces hundreds of young people to venture into this hell, hoping to make an easy fortune, and then perish in excruciating throes, killed by mutants, anomalies, or radiation. Don’t you feel their blood on your hands, Professor? Do you know how many of them died, trying to earn money from your grants?”

  “Do you know how many children were saved thanks to the medicine obtained from the artifacts?” Montellini replied evenly, undaunted. “And Dr. Salzman’s daughter could have been one of them, if the Treaty had not interrupted our research in the South!”

  “Children saved!” Aquilles burst into laughter. “Bullshit. Do you believe in it yourself? A bunch of published papers does not mean you can treat cancer or AIDS. Your medicine is not yet clinically approved. It might even turn out that it kills people, but you’ll find it later… You’re no fool, Montellini. HADES pays you well, and you’re bound by the contract. But tell me, is it really worth the risk? Why don’t you just get yourself a professor’s position in a university far away from here, and spend the rest of your life having fun with your PhD students, doing your science in a safe lab environment? You could do so much more for those poor children there than here, in these, as your colleague expressed it… backwoods.”

  “We have our mission and our values, Colonel,” Montellini said calmly. “And we believe in them. Our mission tells us that the center of the Zone and its bowels is what can become a salvation for humanity.”

  “The Zone is a foul ulcer on the Earth’s face!” Aquilles roared, his face distorted with a grimace. “And its center can only be of one use: to destroy the whole thing forever! It claimed so many lives in these twenty years that can’t be compensated by any number of lives that were, presumably, saved by its resources! And you both know it very well. Albert, your daughter died because of the Zone, and you know it, and it’s foolish to believe the Zone will give you back what it took!”

  He stopped, catching his breath. His eye was now burning with anger, veins on his neck pumped with blood. Montellini looked at him now with unhidden disgust.

  “Listen, all three of you,” Aquilles said, lowering his voice. “I tell you as an enemy to an enemy, okay? You don’t understand what game you’re playing. You have already lost. The move you made today was the wrong one, and it will cost you a mate, even though now the pieces seem to stand in your favor. Now, give me the boy and the artifact. You can have the girl to yourself. I don’t know how you’ve found her, but it’s a prize deserved. Give me what I’m asking for, and I'll let you go, all of you. Just don’t show up in the Zone, keep yourself out of trouble. As you said yourself, it’s a backwoods here. Why risk your life over and over? It will be destroyed. I swore by my life that I’m going to put an end to this hell. And if you dare stand on my way… Well, you’ll suffer the consequences.”

  Salzman clenched his jaw. He remained still, his eyes fixed on the Colonel’s, his clutched fingers white. A suffocating silence filled the room, all sounds seemed to recoil into the distance. It was the sound of Montellini’s voice that broke it.

  “We won’t give you anything, Aquilles,” the director said firmly.

  Aquilles turned his gaze to him.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I am appointed by the company here to lead the team and to protect the research. And if necessary, I’m willing to protect the Institute against you. I don’t believe your actions are authorized here, Colonel. Which means, we can respond without any legal consequences.”

  “Your time in the Zone has finished, Montellini,” the Colonel warned. “A long ago.”

  “It’s not up to you to decide that.”

  “So, you refuse?”

  “That’s right.”

  “You put not only your life at risk, but also the lives of some other innocent people here. Mr. Gordon? How about your brave mercenaries up there on the watch towers? Are they ready to take a blow, delivered because of this stubborn fool? Will they engage in a fight with the Treaty forces? Or will they surrender, because they have no reason to die for HADES?”

  “Dr. Salzman is my friend, and I owe my life to him,” Edward replied coldly. “I am ready to return my debt, if it comes down to kicking your ass, Aquilles. And my boys, they don’t care. They are paid to shoot whatever I tell them to shoot.”

  “No one likes the Treaty here, Aquilles,” Salzman said, smiling. “Edward’s lads will be happy to bust a few caps into your smug faces.”

  “You want another war? Like back in the South? This is it, you realize?”

  “You got it, Aquilles. This is another war,” Montellini said. His eyes were now burning with determination. The Colonel grinned.

  “Your choice. The die was cast.”

  He rose, nodded, turned, and briskly walked out to the staircase, where two guards of the Institute were waiting to accompany him to the exit. Salzman produced a cigarette, lit up, dragged deeply. His fingers were trembling.

  “Thank you, guys,” he said hoarsely, not looking at them.

  Edward stood up, clapped the scientist on the shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, Al. Fuck them. We fought them off together in the South, and we can do it again.”

  He left the room. Salzman turned his eyes to Montellini, who was sitting still, looking at the windows blurred from rain, lost in thought.

  “For a moment, I thought you were going to give in,” Salzman said quietly.

  “I was. But then I looked into his eye, and I changed my mind, because I figured something.”

  “What was it?”

  “He was not planning to let us go, even if we gave him the boy. He is a sadistic psychopath, and he is determined to destroy the Institute.”

  “I felt the same,” Salzman agreed.

  “If it were anyone else from the Treaty, I’d surrender,” Montellini continued. “But they sent Aquilles. That means, we’re doomed.”

  “Have you informed the center yet?”

  “I’m going to make another call right now. But I have a very bad feeling, Albert.”

  Their eyes met, and Salzman flinched, astonished by the deepest desperation he saw in Montellini’s face.

  “They sent Aquilles. That means, the leadership has already decided everything, and we’re nothing but lambs designated for slaughter.”

  In the silence that fell, Salzman felt the walls shaking and heard the distant rumble.

  And it was not the sound of thunder anymore.