“What’s your name, honey?” Reece enquired.
“Elizabeth, but everyone calls me Lizzy.” There was a sweetness to the child that was almost painful to witness.
“I’m Clarice.” Reece sat down, distressed that a child was in this predicament. How was this even legal? Likely it wasn’t, which meant the government no longer cared about individual rights. Were they really willing to tear up the Constitution just to try and defeat Lazarus? Who was she trying to kid, that was exactly what was happening here.
“I saw them bring you in,” Lizzy said absently. “You slept a looong time.”
“I must have been very tired. How long have you been here?” Reece asked, almost instantly regretting the stupidity of the question. There was no way to tell the passage of time here.
“Too long,” Lizzy said sadly. “I was the first one here. I was scared because I don’t like to be alone.” Lizzy looked down at her hands, the fingers fidgeting with each other. “I’m not alone now, but I’m still scared.”
“Have they said anything to you?” Reece asked, the child just looking at her blankly. Reece had always felt awkward around kids, she couldn’t explain why. A grown adult she could run rings round when it came to small talk, but kids were different. Out on the streets, it was always Rodriguez who talked to the children they encountered. He was great at it, but then he’d had ample experience being a father. She wanted to ask Lizzy about her injury but felt that now wasn’t the time to approach the matter.
Reece had been adamant that she had never wanted children of her own, the very idea just totally alien, even abhorrent to her. It was as if that part of her genetic makeup was absent from birth. She couldn’t remember once ever getting broody when confronted by a small gurgling baby, and would often go out of her way to avoid being handed the little bags of poop and wind. And now here she was incarcerated right next to a child with nothing to occupy her time but conversation. Peachy.
A thumb snuck its way into Lizzy’s mouth, and she uncrossed her legs so she could hug her knees into her chest. Perhaps Lizzy detected Reece’s reticence, but there was more to it than that. Reece had been a cop long enough to spot someone who had clearly been traumatised, and her anger grew at the injustice of it. Reece might not have been fond of kids, but she hated to see them suffering.
“Well at least you’re not alone now,” Reece promised, trying to smile. It was then that Reece saw that Lizzy also had a Venflon in the back of her hand. She put her palm on the glass with the hope that Lizzy would do the same, but the child ignored the gesture. So much for that attempt to bond. What had the creeps done to the poor child?
One of the doors to the chamber their cells were in opened again and Carson walked in. He was dressed presently in army fatigues, rather than the full combat NBC suit that he had used in Reece’s kidnapping. That would be the word she would use now for what had been done to her by these fucks. Although she had never seen his face, Reece knew it was her abductor because of the almost arrogant way he walked and the fact there was a name tag on the breast of his uniform. He walked over to Reece’s cell and stood outside, his face a blank canvas. Maybe, Reece thought to herself, I should have kept my insubordination in check around this guy.
Carson’s presence caused Lizzy to cower away even more. Reece thought she heard the child whimper and it was obvious to Reece that Lizzy was in fear of the man.
“You’re awake at last,” Carson said, almost insultingly.
“Drugging someone against their will tends to have side effects.” Reece stood up and squared up to him, not wanting to give the Marine the satisfaction he so likely craved. It was hard to comprehend that her country’s military could tolerate people like this. That was the patriot in her talking though. Every army on the planet would have men like Carson because as despicable and detestable as they were, they always served a purpose.
Carson was taller and had the classic V-shaped torso. In better times, he might even have been described as handsome. But all Reece now saw was the vileness within the man’s heart. The eyes were cold, just like the dead stares she had seen dozens of times from those who had fallen foul of the law. Reece knew this man was capable of almost anything, and the one thing you never showed to people like that was weakness. Many of them were cowards at heart, but Reece didn’t think that applied to Carson. He was someone who would follow orders and get the job done no matter how inhumane he had to act.
“That was done for your own safety. I don’t have to explain myself to you.” There was no air of defensiveness in his voice.
“Yes, you do. You can’t keep people locked up like this. You realise you are breaking like a thousand laws here?”
“It’s not me making the decisions. I follow orders just as you will too. And as for the law, Martial Law gives me a certain flexibility.”
“I’m not in the army,” Reece reminded him.
“I’m a marine, not army.” He seemed satisfied that he had managed to score a point against her.
“Yeah so was my father. And he would be ashamed to see you wearing that uniform.”
“Your father was in the corps?” Carson sounded surprised. “Well, he should have raised you to respect authority better.”
“He raised me just fine. You can hardly expect me to respect someone who goes around terrifying little girls.” Carson’s gaze drifted off her briefly, the piercing eyes almost trying to penetrate the now cowering Lizzy. He looked back at Reece.
“You can think what you like about me, but things will go a lot smoother for you if you keep quiet and do as you are told. You don’t seem to appreciate how vital you are to combatting this virus. That makes you property of the United States government.” Carson stepped just that little bit closer to the thick Perspex. “We own you.”
“Is that a fact?” Reece felt it, the anger bubbling up inside. She knew she would control it though, locking it away until the time was right. Now probably wasn’t the time to go off on one, but the temptation to tell Carson just what she thought of him was strong. “Then why not make me a partner in this instead of locking us all away?”
“We don’t have time for shit like that.”
Two more soldiers entered the corridor, the same ones who had brought in the facility’s new guest moments earlier. Reece felt herself tense, but it wasn’t her they were here for. They stepped up to Lizzy’s cell and waited for Carson’s command.
“Come on Elizabeth, the Professor wants to see you.” Carson didn’t have a single gram of compassion or warmth in his voice.
“NO!” Lizzy suddenly screamed. The door opened, and the two soldiers forged in. Despite her kicking and screaming, Lizzy was easy to overpower, and they dragged her out into the corridor, the child in pure hysterics now.
“Oh you bastards,” Reece shouted. “Get your hands off her.” One of the soldiers gave her the briefest of looks, and Reece saw a hint of distress there. But he carried on all the same, reinforcing what Reece had known all along. Normal people were capable of committing the vilest of acts.
“We aren’t going to hurt her,” Carson said. His face was stone.
“She’s just a child,” Reece begged.
“No, she’s much more than that. She’s the first immune we encountered. Much of what we have learnt so far started with her.” Carson turned and walked away. “Don’t worry Reece,” he said as he left, “the Professor will have lots for you to do. I guarantee you won’t be bored.”
***
It was twenty minutes before Jessy woke up. Her memory was vague about what had happened after her rescue. There was the madness of the helicopter, and then the sudden sharpness in her neck when the relief of rescue was washing over her. Had someone injected her and if so, what the hell for? Her alarm transformed to muted terror as she saw the cell she was in and the confinement it represented.
“Can you hear me?” the woman in the cell opposite her asked. With effort, Jessy resisted the wave of nausea that flowed through her as she sat up, and p
ut a hand up to tell the woman she needed a moment. Jessy had worked most of her adult life for the US government, and she never thought the country she loved would be capable of this, whatever the hell this was. Tentatively Jessy stood up and walked over to the door of her cell.
Everything looked so space-age and sterile.
The woman opposite was sat in a chair and was talking through the hatch of her door. It took Jessy several seconds to figure out how her hatch worked, and she pulled over her own chair so that she could talk without bending over. The only other person she saw here seemed to be dead to the world just as she had most likely been.
“My name’s Clarice,” the stranger said.
“Jessy. Do you know where we are?”
“I can have a guess. I was told I was being brought to Fort Detrick, so I’m thinking there. I can’t explain all this though,” Reece said, waving her hands around her.
“Fort Detrick? That’s home to the Army’s Infectious Disease Research Institute.” Reece seemed surprised at Jessy’s knowledge.
“What were you, out in the world?”
“Believe it or not, for a very brief moment, I was the White House Chief of Staff to a now dead President.” Not just a dead President, but a man who deserved better than what had happened to him.
“Jesus,” Reece responded, genuinely shocked. If someone in Jessy’s position could end up here, then there really was little hope of anyone getting out any time soon.
“What about you?”
“I’m just a Sherriff’s Deputy who was kidnapped from Houston.”
“What do they want with us, do you know?”
“I’m going to take a stab and say you are immune like me.” Reece saw no denial in Jessy’s face, so she continued. “I think we are to be used as lab rats. Poked and prodded so the powers that be can try and cure Lazarus.” Reece regretted the words, seeing how they distressed Jessy. “Sorry, that was a shitty thing to say.”
“It’s okay,” Jessy reassured her. But it wasn’t okay, not by a long shot. She’d worked her whole life to do what she could to preserve the rights of the country’s citizens, and it had all been for nothing.
“I’m guessing everyone that they drag in here will be immune to the virus.” The fact that there were only four though, that concerned Reece. The United States had over three hundred million people living in it. The crisis had been going on for several days now. How could there only be four people immune to this nightmare?
“I was bitten, but here I am,” Jessy said in agreement. “I thought the soldiers had come to rescue me because of who I was, because of the position I held. Seems like I was right, but for the wrong reason.”
“Where were you when they took you?”
“I was in the White House bunker,” Jessy said sadly. “I was there when the President-elect died.” She’d never even had a chance to say goodbye to the man.
“Who’s in charge now?” Despite the various whispers she had heard from the soldiers and her fellow patients, the news of what was happening in the world hadn’t really filtered into the confines of the Astrodome.
“The Attorney General was made President. She’s probably the worst person for the job.”
“That’s Jacqueline Fairchild, right?” Jessy nodded. “Wasn’t she the one who insisted on having all the statues in Federal buildings with naked breasts covered up?” Fairchild had caused much mirth and outrage when she had gone on a crusade against the statues in Federal buildings that were showing a little bit too much flesh. It had backfired spectacularly against her when the now President had proposed the measure, the late night talk shows getting hours of comedy material out of the woman’s puritanical zeal. For almost a week, stand-up comedians only had to say her name to get a laugh. And now that religious fruit bat was in charge of it all. Jessy had no problem with religion, hell she was a lapsed Catholic herself. It was just those select individuals that took things to the extremes that were the problem.
“That’s her. My boss had been onto the President before him to get her replaced, but she was a big hit with the conservative right.”
“Any idea how any of this is legal?”
“It probably isn’t,” Jessy said. “At least not under the Constitution. But the country is in a state of emergency, which pretty much means that those in power can do what they like. If Julian…” Jessy suddenly found the words choking in her throat, remembering the man who had almost been a father to her. Reece gave her time to fight back the tears that were threatening. “If Julian was still alive, I hate to say it, but I doubt he would do things any differently.”
“Julian Ryan, the Vice President?” Reece confirmed.
“Yeah. Greatest man I ever knew. He would have made a great President. And he was, but for less than a day.” Jessy had lost so much in such a short space of time, it was difficult for her to process it all. The last time she had been able to talk to her parents had been a scrambled affair over a bad phone line. Were they safe now? What about the rest of her friends and family?
They were interrupted by the main door to the containment area opening yet again. A single soldier entered, the one in whose face Reece had seen a hint of regret. He had Lizzy draped over one of his shoulders. Jessy was surprised by how hostile, and animated Reece suddenly became.
“What did you do to her?” Reece was on her feet now, palms pressed hard against the cell walls. She had raised her voice enough to be heard, but she wasn’t shouting. Not yet, at least.
“Relax,” the soldier said, “she’s fine.” Reaching Lizzy’s cell, the soldier opened it and deposited the child onto her cot. There was a gentleness to the action that seemed to calm Reece somewhat. Whatever part the soldier was playing in all this, Jessy didn’t think he wanted to see the child harmed. That was reinforced when the soldier used his hand to carefully sweep the hair away from Lizzy’s face. “She just fainted is all.”
“How can you do this to a child?” Reece continued, the words more resigned than angry now. The soldier almost reluctantly stepped back from Lizzy and exited the cell, the door closing. He had an embarrassed look on his face.
“Marine, what’s going on?” Jessy asked the question.
“Sorry, ma’am,” the soldier answered. “I’m instructed not to give you any information.” He briefly looked up at the nearest cameras to him. It wasn’t just the prisoners who were being watched it seemed.
“Can I at least know your name?”
“Private Howell ma’am.”
“No Marine,” Jessy pressed, “your name.” Howell hesitated, as if to consider if he was even allowed to tell anyone who he was.
“Richard,” he said.
“Thank you, Richard. I’m Jessy, and this is Clarice.”
“I know, I’ve been briefed as to who you are,” Richard said, retreating further down the corridor. “I have to go now, ma’am.”
“That’s okay. I understand.” Howell nodded and turned, leaving them alone with the sleeping child. Before stepping out of sight, Howell turned and said the words that needed to be said. “I’m sorry for all this. I truly am.”
When Howell had left, Jessy’s face darkened. Whoever was responsible for all this was somehow going to pay.
***
He hadn’t signed up for this shit, but there was no denying that drastic situations needed drastic measures. Carson did not object to being seen as the bad guy. It was a small price to pay for getting the mission done, and that was something Carson would always do, or die trying.
From finishing near the top of his class at Annapolis, Carson had worked his way up the ranks through Force Recon and into a joint CIA task force hunting Taliban in Afghanistan. It was there that his total ruthlessness and uncompromising nature became recognised and he found himself co-opted to the darker side of the US intelligence services. He had no life but to serve his country, and when he was told to jump, he would always answer how fucking high.
No matter what the job given to him, Carson never wavered a
nd never questioned the orders he was given. It was, therefore, a no brainer that he should be put in charge of overseeing the military aspect of what was secretly known as “Operation Redemption”. For once, the military bureaucracy acted quickly and decisively, and Carson found himself in command of a facility that wasn’t even supposed to exist. Above ground, he was just another Marine Major, but down here, his word was law when it came to security and operational matters. The only person with greater power was the head of the research team, Professor Schmidt, a woman with an iron will and a heart that was clearly made of the coldest and purest of ice.
Carson found he admired the way she could remove the weakness of human empathy so as to do everything in her power to defeat Lazarus. To Carson, the virus was an enemy of unquestionable danger, and there was only one way to deal with such a foe…total war with no hindrance or deterrent allowed. Yes, he did not like the prospect of civilians being detained like this, especially the kid, but this situation risked being the end of all things. If they didn’t defeat Lazarus, then every one of them would be dead. Carson would have sacrificed his entire family if it meant saving the human race and successfully completing his mission for his country. He wasn’t just patriotic, he was fanatical.
In fairness, his soul wasn’t as stunted and cold as his persona implied. He had learnt long ago that he had to keep a distance from those who might die under his watch so as not to get chewed up inside when those inevitable deaths occurred. With time he became very adept at locking his mind away from the results of the actions he was forced to take. He didn’t have to like what he was told to do, he just had to follow orders in the same way he demanded those under him adhered to his commands.
The Lazarus Strain Chronicles (Book 3): The Fall Page 13
