that you and yours have recently had the misfortune
to come across."
"These operations fall into a division known as
White Umbrella, and mostly have to do with bioweap-
ons research. There are very few who know all of the
ins and outs of White Umbrella's business, but the
ones who do are extremely powerful. Powerful, and
committed to creating all sorts of unpleasantness.
Chemical weapons, fatal diseases .. . the T and G
series viruses that have been so troublesome as of
late."
That's an understatement, Claire thought nastily, but was intrigued in spite of herself. To finally know
something about what they were up against...
"Why?" Leon asked. "Chemical warfare isn't all that profitable, anyone with a centrifuge and some
gardening supplies can come up with a bioweapon."
Rebecca was nodding. "And the kind of work
they're doing, applying rapid fuse virions to genetic
redistribution - it's incredibly expensive, and as haz-
ardous to work with as nuclear waste. Worse."
Trent shook his head. "They're doing it because they can. Because they want to." He smiled faintly. "Because when you're richer and more powerful than
anyone else on the planet, you get bored."
"Who gets bored?" David asked.
Trent gazed at him for a moment, then started
talking again, blatantly ignoring David's question.
"White Umbrella's current focus is on bio-organic
soldiers, if you will - individual specimens, most
genetically altered, all injected with some variation of
virus intended to make them violent and strong and
oblivious to pain. The manner in which these viruses
amplify in humans, the 'zombie' reaction, is nothing
more than an unexpected side effect; the viruses
Umbrella creates are designed for nonhuman use, at
least at this point."
Claire was interested, but she was also getting
impatient. "So when do we get to the part about why you're here, why you don't want us going to Europe?"
she asked, not bothering to keep the anger out of her
voice.
Trent looked at her, his dark eyes suddenly sympa-
thetic, and she realized that he knew why she was
angry, that he knew all about her reasons for wanting
to go to Europe. She could see it in the way he gazed at
her, his eyes telling her that he understood - and she
suddenly felt deeply uneasy.
He knows everything, doesn't he? All about us. . .
"Not all of the White Umbrella facilities are the
same," he continued. "There are some that deal strictly with data, some only with the chemistry, some
where specimens are grown or surgically pieced to-
gether - and a very few where these specimens are
tested. And that brings us to why I'm here, and why
I'd rather you postponed your plans."
"There's an Umbrella testing facility about to go on
line in Utah, just north of the salt flats. Right now, it's
staffed by a very small crew of technicians and . . .
specimen handlers, and is scheduled to become fully
operational in about three weeks. The man overseeing
the final preparations is one of White Umbrella's key
players, a man named Reston. The job was supposed
to have been handled by another fellow, a despicable
little man by the name of Lewis, but Mr. Lewis had an
unfortunate and not entirely unplanned accident. . .
. . . and now Reston is in charge. And because he is one of
the very important men behind White Umbrella, he
has, in his possession, a little black book. There are
only three of these books, and the other two would be
nearly impossible to get hold of. . ."
"So what's in it?" John snapped. "Get to the
point."
Trent smiled at John as if he had asked politely.
"Each book is a kind of master key; each has a
complete directory of codes used to program every
mainframe in every White Umbrella facility. With that book, one could conceivably break into any lab or
test site and access everything from personnel files to
financial statements. They'll change the codes once
the book is stolen, of course - but unless they want to
lose everything they've stored, it will take them
months."
No one spoke for a moment, the only sound that of
the plane's insistent hum. Claire looked at each of
them, saw the thoughtful expressions, saw that they
were seriously considering Trent's implied propos-
al. - and realized that it had just become highly un-
likely that they would be going to Europe after all.
"But what about Chris, and Jill and Barry? You
said they were okay - how do you know that?" Claire asked, and David could just hear the barely hidden
desperation.
"It would take a very long time to explain how I
come by my information," Trent said smoothly. "And while I'm certain you don't want to hear this, I'm
afraid you'll just have to trust me. Your brother and
his companions are in no immediate danger, they
don't need you at the moment - but the opportunity
to get Reston's book, to get into that lab, will be gone
in less than a week. There's no security detail right
now, half the systems aren't even running - and as
long as you stay away from the test program, there are
no creatures to contend with."
David wasn't sure what to think. It sounded good, it
sounded like exactly the opportunity they'd been
hoping for ... but then, so had Caliban Cove. So had
a lot of things.
And as for trusting Mr. Trent. . .
"What's your stake in this?" David asked. "Why do you want to hurt Umbrella?"
Trent shrugged. "Call it a hobby."
"I'm serious," David said.
"So am I." Trent smiled, his eyes still dancing with that twinkling humor. David had only seen him once
before, hadn't exchanged more than a dozen words,
but Trent seemed just as strangely happy now as he
had then; whatever it was that made him tick, it was
certainly bringing him a lot of pleasure.
"Why have you been so cryptic?" Rebecca asked, and David nodded, saw that the others were doing the
same. "The stuff you gave to Jill, and to David, before - all riddles and clues. Why not just tell us
what we need to know?"
"Because you needed to figure it out," Trent said. "Or, rather, it was necessary that you appeared to
figure it out, all by yourselves. As I said before, there
are very few people who know what White Umbrella is doing; if you seemed to know too much, it might
come back to me."
"Then why take the risk now?" David asked. "For that matter, why do you need us at all? You obviously
have some connection to White Umbrella; why not go
public, or sabotage them from the inside?"
Trent smiled again. "I'm taking the risk because it's time to take a risk. And as to the rest ... all I can say
is that I have my reasons."
He talks and talks, and yet we still don't know what
the hell he's doing, or why ... how exactly does he
manage that?
"Why don't you tell us a few of those reasons,
Trent?" None of it was sitting well with John, David saw; he was scowling at their stowaway, looking as
though he might have to be talked out of punching the
man.
Trent didn't answer. Instead, he pushed himself off
of the seat and picked up his coat, turning to look at
David.
"I realize you'll want to discuss this before you
make your decision," he said. "If you'll excuse me, I'll take this opportunity to visit our captain. If you
decide against collecting Reston's book, I'll step aside.
I said before that you had no choice, but that was my
dramatic side showing, I suppose; there's always a
choice."
On that, Trent turned and walked to the front of the
cabin and slipped behind the curtain without a back-
ward glance.
FOUR
JOHN BROKE THE SILENCE ABOUT TWO SEC-
onds after Trent left the cabin.
"To hell with this," he said, looking as pissed off as Rebecca had ever seen him. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not all that happy about being
played like this - I'm not here to be Mr. Trent's boy,
and I don't trust him. I say we get him to talk about
Umbrella, tell us what he knows about our team in
Europe - and if he gives us one more say-nothing
answer, we should drop-kick his evasive ass out the
damned door."
Rebecca knew he was royally ticked, but she
couldn't help herself. "Yeah, John, but how do you really feel?"
He glared in her direction - and then grinned, and
somehow, that broke the tension for all of them. It
was as though they all remembered how to breathe
again at the same time; the unexpected visit from their mysterious benefactor had made it hard for a
few moments to remember much of anything.
"We've got John's vote," David said. "Claire? I know you were worried about Chris..."
Claire nodded slowly. "Yeah. And I want to see him again, as soon as possible..."
"But," David said, coaxing the rest of it out.
"But - I think he's telling the truth. About them
being okay, I mean."
Leon was nodding. "I do, too. John's right about him being slick - but I don't think he was lying, about
anything. He didn't tell us a lot, but I didn't get the
impression that he was bullshitting us with what he
would say."
David turned toward her. "Rebecca?"
She sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry, John, but I agree. I think he's got some credibility; he's helped us
before, in his own weird way, and the fact that he's
here, unarmed, says something..."
"... it says he's a dumbass," John muttered darkly, and Rebecca punched him lightly on the arm, realiz-
ing suddenly, intuitively, why John was so reluctant to
accept Trent's word.
Trent wasn't intimidated by him.
She was sure of it; she knew John well enough to
know that Trent's indifference would absolutely push
his buttons.
Choosing her words carefully, keeping her tone
light, Rebecca grinned at him. "I think you just hate the fact that he's not scared of your big scary self,
John. Most people would've wet their pants with you
towering over them."
It was the right thing to say. John frowned thought-
fully, then shrugged. "Yeah, well, maybe. I still don't trust him, though."
"I don't think any of us should," David said. "He's keeping an awful lot to himself for someone who
wants our help. The question is, do we seek out this
Reston, or do we continue with our original plans?"
No one spoke for a moment, and Rebecca could see
that no one wanted to say it - to acknowledge that if
Trent was telling the truth, there was no reason to go
to Europe. She didn't want to say it, either; somehow,
it felt like a betrayal of Jill and Chris and Barry, like,
"we've found something better to do than come to
your aid."
But if they don't need us...
Rebecca decided that she may as well go first. "If this place is as easy as he says ... when would we ever
have another chance like this?"
Claire was biting at her lip, looking unhappy.
Looking torn. "If we found that book of codes, we'd have something to take with us to Europe. Something
that could really make a difference."
"If we find the book," John said, but Rebecca could see that the idea was growing on him.
"It could be a turning point," David said softly. "It would knock the odds against us down from a million
to one to perhaps only a few thousand."
"I have to admit, it would be fine to turn over
Umbrella's private files to the press," John said. "Download all of their shitty little secrets and pass
them out to every paper in the country."
They were all nodding, and although she thought it
might take a little more time to get used to the idea,
Rebecca knew that the decision had been made.
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