Survival Gene. Science Fiction Novel

Cocksure idiot! I’d had a clear view of them both. I should have figured it out and disabled him before I was forced to kill him! Or found a safer vantage point to start the attack and avoided this altogether.

He remembered that there was a park at Virginia Key that skirted the road. If Andrew and Emily had hidden among the trees, the criminals would have had to follow them on foot. It would have been easier to injure them either in a leg or an arm.

“Damn!” he exclaimed as he banged his fist on the wheel.

“What’s wrong?” Emily asked with caution.

“I hate this job. I should have quit long ago. Did you know that those people were going to attack me?”

The girl rounded her eyes. “Me? How?”

“You said you knew them. According to you, they were ordinary guards from a vegetable company.”

“I just saw them a couple of times when I went there with my father. They stood at the entrance and opened doors for us!”

Emily’s tone was convincing, but he knew she couldn’t be trusted. It was possible that she had known about the attempt on Andrew’s life or even ordered it herself.

I’ll sort it out later. Now I must solve a more important problem.

They entered the wide causeway of the Virginia Key island.

Occupied with his own thoughts, Barkov didn’t pay attention to the familiar surroundings – sand beaches to the right and the harbor to the left.

“Good heavens! The boats are lying alongside!” Emily exclaimed suddenly.

“So what? Haven’t you seen a marina before?”

“They are lying literally! On the soil!”

Barkov looked left. At the location where the smooth blue-green water surface had been seen before, there were bumps of slimy sea bottom covered with algae. The harbor had turned into something like a swamp. Snow-white boats stuck in it, tilted and resting on each other like a pile of beached sea creatures.

Andrew cast a glance to Biscayne Bay on the right, the other shore identified by dim contours of Miami skyscrapers. The width of the nearby beaches had increased noticeably – from usual fifteen meters to two hundred or even more. Oh my, is that the low tide? It has never been like that before!

“I know what’s happening!” Emily exclaimed even louder now. “When water pulls away from shore like this, it’s the first sign of tsunami. We must go somewhere higher – now! Drive faster, please!”

Andrew’s skin prickled – she was right. Before a tsunami, water recedes far from the shore making the seabed visible. Earthquakes are often the cause of that. Now they faced two signs of an oncoming disaster.

“Computer!” Barkov pronounced loudly.

A semitransparent screen flared up above the gauge panel and a pleasant female voice replied, “I’m listening.”

“Is a tsunami possible in the Miami region?”

“Unfortunately, the forecast is unavailable at the moment. Repeat your request later.”

It meant that the connection with the central server was broken.

After waiting for a couple of seconds in expectation of further commands, the screen finally went out.

“To go somewhere higher’ on Virginia Key and Biscayne Key wasn’t possible. Both islands were absolutely flat. The tsunami wave height could be a few dozen meters, so the only chances to survive would be on the top floors of high-rise buildings. There was no such construction on Virginia Key, but there was one on Biscayne Key. It was the 70-floor condominium where the man that Andrew was going to visit lived.

Barkov pressed the pedal harder, hoping he could make it in time.

Chapter 6

In the center of a multi-colored flowerbed surrounded by manicured green bushes there was a stone plate with inscription White Reef Condominium. Bypassing the flower bed, Barkov stopped the car under a portico with columns in the form of sea horses and had a look around. This place gave a clear view of the ocean. The water was quiet to the very horizon.

It seems we still have some time.

Andrew turned off the engine and looked at Emily.

“We’ve arrived. Listen to me carefully. We need a man whose name is Lippo Lorenzetti. He’s a hacker. He lives in the penthouse. His job is rendering services to various companies, namely hacking their computer systems.”

“Why do they need such services?” Emily expressed surprise.

“To search for vulnerabilities. He steals commercial secrets of a customer and then explains to the customer how he has done it. They then pay him to improve their security. The government hires him for that too. Washington needs to ensure the protection of the President’s secret data. In our case, Lippo’s task will be getting the data and delivering it to us. You’ll pretend to be a secret agent. And your name is… say, Rosalinda.”

Emily frowned. “No way!”

“Why? Are you scared of the consequences? Our lives are at stake here, you know.”

“I don’t like the name Rosalinda. Katherine is better.”

Andrew shook his head. We’re facing death from an asteroid, tsunamis, assassins and the government’s secret plans, and she objects to a name! “As you wish. Only I will talk. Your task is to accompany me. Keep silent and nod. No initiatives, no ideas, no disputes. Is it clear, Katherine?”

She pressed her lips and nodded in silence.

Barkov fastened the holster to his belt, thrust in the gun and left the car. A young parking valet was already standing near the door with an affected smile on his face. Giving him the Ford keys, Andrew made his way to the entrance. Emily followed him.

Looking back at the ocean once again and making sure that its surface was still quiet, Barkov entered the door.

The spacious hall of the condominium was stylized like the seabed. The floor was carpeted with a thick pile rug that resembled algae with decorative crabs, starfish and shellfish scattered on it in an artistic order. Tables in the form of closed shells surrounded with chairs resembling open shells were situated on the perimeter of the hall. Only one table was occupied by a young man and a woman who were conversing quietly. In the center of the hall there was the bridge of an ancient ship with a large wooden steering wheel in the middle. To all appearances, it was a concierge counter. However, there was no concierge at the moment.

“How beautiful!” Emily exclaimed as she gazed around. “And the air is cool here. It seems as if we dived into the ocean!”

“If the tsunami strikes, we’ll dive actually.” Andrew went to the doors with the inscription “Elevator Lobby’.

Andrew wanted to find the concierge and to warn him or her about the possible disaster and necessity to evacuate people. But what if the pending disaster would be caused not by a tsunami? The water might have receded from the shore for another reason. What if people should instead be concerned about another powerful earthquake, not a giant wave? In this case, they had to run away from buildings instead of climbing them.

Let seismologists and rescuers think of it. I’ve got another task to resolve.

The elevator lobby door opened and a concierge dressed in a black suit with a mindphone on his lapel came out.

“Can I help you?” he asked courteously looking at Barkov’s holster.

Andrew showed him the badge. “Lieutenant Andrew Barkov. We need to go up to Mr. Lorenzetti’s place.”

“Just a minute.” His mindphone clinked, which meant it had established a connection with a certain apartment that the concierge had chosen mentally. “Hello!” said the man distinctly. “Is this Mister Lippo Lorenzetti?”