by Mark Kelly
Using the sudden commotion as cover, the goateed guard made a move for the door. Lucia jerked her gun away from King John and fired, missing the man but striking the wall a few inches above his head. He ducked down and then froze when she shot at him twice more.
“Shut up and do not move!” Lucia shouted.
Aside from the whimpering of the two girls, the room went quiet again.
Lucia pressed the barrel of her gun up against King John’s temple and stared at the roamers. “If anyone moves, I will kill this cabrón, and then I will kill the cabrón who moved and the person next to them.”
“Get the fat man’s gun,” Lucia yelled at Megan.
Megan grabbed the gun and brought it to Lucia. “W-what should I do with it?”
Lucia was about to tell her to put it on the floor when she realized she had forgotten about Dylan. Her eyes darted about, searching for the little bastard. He was standing behind her next to the locked fire exit door looking shell-shocked. Unsure if she could trust him, she called him over, but he stared vacantly at her and didn’t move. She could sense the fear in his eyes and was about to give up on him when he sucked up his courage and ran to her.
“Why are you helping them?” she asked.
“I wasn’t,” he said, looking around nervously as if admitting it would get him in trouble. “I lied. There aren’t any supplies. After you chased me in the forest, I went back to spy on you guys. I heard one of the soldiers say she wanted to set up an ambush to get the roamers, but that wouldn’t work because they almost never go out in a big group. I thought if I could get them all to leave the hospital at once then Abrams and the others could attack them and free the girl.”
“You came in here on your own?” Lucia asked, realizing that was exactly what he had done—just like she had.
“Why?”
He looked at her with sad eyes. “I don’t want to be out here by myself anymore. Abrams brings me stuff, but he never stays. Sometimes, I do things to trick him, to make him stay a little longer, but he always leaves. I heard what you guys said about the girl. If that’s true, then maybe once everyone is cured, I’ll be allowed onto the base.”
Lucia surprised herself by giving him a quick smile. “You did a good thing. Get Saanvi and bring her to the door near the table.”
Hearing her name, but still dazed from the drugs in her system, Saanvi tried to climb to her feet. Dylan dropped his backpack and helped her up. He threw an arm around her, and they stumbled to the locked fire exit together.
“Who has the keys to the door?” Lucia asked King John.
“Fuck you.”
“You wish,” she said and asked again, this time shouting out the question to the entire room.
When no one answered, she grabbed hold of King John’s shirt collar with her free hand and pointed her gun slightly away from his head and pulled the trigger. The noise from the gunshot was deafening. When he recoiled in fear, she yanked him back into the chair and pressed the warn barrel against his face.
“I won’t ask again. Who has the keys?”
He pointed at the goateed guard and she shouted, “Throw me the keys, or you both will die.”
As the guard reached into his pocket, the sound of shouting and gunshots came from outside the room. Lucia guessed it was Baker and the other soldiers fighting their way into the hospital. As the fighting grew nearer and louder, it emboldened the roamers. Several of them stole furtive glances at the weapons on the floor. It wouldn’t be long until they had the courage to do something.
“Now—all of the keys,” Lucia shouted, growing irritated at the guard’s clumsy attempts to separate the padlock key from the key ring in his hand.
He hurriedly unclipped the entire set from his belt and tossed the key ring into the middle of the room.
“Go get it and open the door,” Lucia directed Megan. “Do it quickly.”
While Megan retrieved the keys, Lucia pushed King John forward in his chair and yelled at him to get up. Using his body as a shield, she stepped backward, keeping an eye on the roamers.
“Is it open yet?”
“Got it,” Megan said after what seemed like an eternity.
“Go now!” Lucia yelled as the door to the corridor burst open and a handful of roamers streamed in, firing their weapons at the soldiers who chased them.
Lucia watched in stunned disbelief as Dylan ran past her towards the gunfire. “What are you doing?” she cried out to him. “Where is Saanvi?”
“Outside, but I need my pack.”
“Forget about—”
King John twisted on his heels and swung a roundhouse punch at her. Lucia felt a ripple of air as his fist crossed in front of her face. Instinctively, she pulled the trigger, grazing his side with a bullet. He bellowed in rage and lunged at her. She pulled the trigger twice more, hitting him in the chest, and they fell to the floor together.
From her position beneath King John, she saw Dylan reach the chair and grab for his pack. He was about to run for the door when a bullet struck him, knocking him to his knees. He struggled to his feet with a surprised look on his face. Lucia watched as round after round struck him, causing his body to jerk like a puppet on a string. He fell to the floor and crawled towards her still holding his backpack.
In a blind rage, she started shooting wildly at the roamers in the room. When the slide on her pistol locked back, signaling the gun was empty, she threw it aside and struggled to free herself from the weight of King John’s limp body. The goateed guard smiled when he saw she was trapped. He raised his rifle and pointed it at her.
Not willing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cower in fear, Lucia raised her middle finger and shouted, “Que te jodan.”
The guard might not have understood Spanish, but he understood her message and scowled.
A thunderous volley of gunfire broke out. Baker and Dines crashed through the hallway door followed by Abrams and the rest of the soldiers. The goateed guard turned to shoot, but Baker saw him first and put two rounds in his chest.
He was mine—number three on the list, Lucia thought, only slightly disappointed.
Caught by surprise and overwhelmed, the remaining roamers gave up. Baker spotted her and ran across the room. He heaved King John’s body aside and helped her to her feet. “We came as soon as we heard the gunshots. Where’s Saanvi?” he asked.
Lucia pointed to the door to the patio.
They both turned as Abrams rushed across the room towards Dylan. Lucia ran over and joined him. She dropped to her knees and took Dylan’s hand in hers. Dylan’s face was pale. He looked up at her and Abrams and spoke in a barely audible voice.
“Did I help? Did I do good?”
She bit her lip and nodded.
“Tell my father that I know he did what he had to do. Tell him…”
“You can tell him yourself,” Abrams said softly. “Save your energy. Don’t speak.”
The general’s son pressed his lips together in a grateful smile. His chest heaved once and he closed his eyes. Lucia felt Baker’s hands on her shoulders. She reached up and squeezed them as she looked down at Dylan. Goodbye, Little Mouse…Lo hiciste bien…You did well.
30
We’re Coming
Mei watched from the sidewalk as Abrams and Baker walked solemnly towards General Leduc, who stood ramrod straight at the bottom of the stairs leading into the administration building.
The three men exchanged crisp salutes and began to talk. She was too far away to hear the conversation, but Leduc’s body language spoke louder than words. His stiff posture sagged for the briefest of moments and then, just as quickly, he recovered. He shook their hands, spun on his heels with military precision and marched back up the stairs and into the building.
The two men waited respectfully until he was out of sight before they returned to where she and the others stood. The silence hung heavy. Leduc had banished his son for the good of the base, but right or wrong, he would live with the results of that decisi
on for the rest of his life. She gazed at the people around her—her friends; more like family—and wondered what she would have done if she had been in Leduc’s position.
“How is Saanvi?” Robert Langdon asked, breaking the awkward silence. He and his daughter, Beth, had come down from the lab to make amends with Leduc for the problems James O’Neal had caused when he kidnapped the girl.
“She’s still in the infirmary, but in remarkably good shape for someone who has been through everything she’s been through,” Mei said.
“When can she come home?” Emma asked.
Mei glanced at Simmons, who spoke for the both of them. “Emma, she might not come home with us. Mei and I have talked about having Saanvi stay here on the base where she can be better protected.”
Emma shook her head and said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Professor Simmons. They didn’t do a very good job protecting her the first time.” From the look on Lucia’s face, Mei could tell that she agreed with Emma but would never admit to it. “Besides,” Emma said, “Saanvi’s like my sister… not my real one, of course. I don’t have one and we don’t even look remotely the same, but she’s like family. I think she should stay with us.”
“Well, that’s the other thing,” Simmons said. “I was going to tell you later, but we’re considering moving everyone from the farm to the lab. The living conditions there are better and I’ll be able to get more work done on the bioreactor. If you want to visit Saanvi, you can take one of the lab’s boats. It’s a short trip down the river.”
Emma frowned. “What about you? Are you coming with us too?” she asked Baker.
“No, when Mei and Saanvi saved Taxson’s life, I promised myself that I would find John Raine and bring him to justice for what he did. We’re leaving in a few weeks.”
Mei made a worried clucking sound as she shook her head. “I don’t think Taxson is going to be ready to travel that soon. It will be a few weeks before he can even get out of bed, let alone ride a motorcycle.”
Baker smiled. “Taxson isn’t coming with me.”
“Who, one of you two?” she asked, looking at Abrams and Dines.
“Fuck, no. Are you crazy?” they replied in one voice.
“Who then?”
“I am going with him.”
Stunned, Mei turned to Lucia, whose cheeks reddened at the unwanted attention.
“I tried to convince her otherwise,” Baker said, “but it was a short conversation. I said, No, and she said, Shut up, I’m coming with you. I really didn’t have any choice.”
Mei felt a thickness in her throat. She and Lucia had been virtually inseparable since leaving Bellevue. They’d been through so much together that she couldn’t imagine life without Lucia around.
“Wait just a second,” Emma exclaimed, breaking out into a broad grin and pointing her finger at Lucia and Baker.
“Are you two—like a couple?”
Lucia stiffened and edged away from Baker.
“I’m not sure what we are,” Baker said, grinning, “but I guess you could say that we’re a couple; there are two of us, and by definition, isn’t that what a couple is?”
Emma scrunched up her face in confusion.
General Leduc’s assistant, Cox, dashed out of the administration building and ran towards them. He stopped in front of Baker and handed him a satellite phone. “Our tech just dropped this off. There was a short on the circuit board and he was able to patch it. It’s fully charged and working now.”
Baker stared at the phone for a long moment. Then he called a phone number he retrieved from its memory and activated the speaker.
“Baker?” a voice barked. “Where the hell have you been? You better have good news. Is Simmons dead?”
Simmons’s face darkened. He opened his mouth to speak, but Baker shook his head and quickly disconnected the call. “My God, that’s him,” Simmons said. “I can’t believe the bastard is still alive. Do you really think you can find him?”
“I found you, didn’t I?” Baker replied as the phone in his hand began to ring. He turned it off and looked at Lucia.
“We’ll find him, won’t we?”
She nodded.
Book III
Altered Genes : Resurrection
31
Afterword
Thank you for reading the second book in the Altered Genes series. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. If you did, you can find the third book at most retailers through the link below.
Book III
Altered Genes : Resurrection
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32
Preview - Altered Genes : Resurrection (Chapter One)
“Brinng…Brinng…”
John Raine looked over at the dingy brown wooden bookshelf in astonishment. The Iridium Satellite phone sitting on the top shelf was ringing and vibrating in its charging station.
He craned his neck and stared at it, unsure if his ears were deceiving him. It had to be Baker. Only Baker and the other hunter-killer team leaders had this number, and everyone but Baker had dropped off the face of the earth months ago.
Raine jumped up from his chair, snatched the phone from its charging station. The LCD displayed:
Incoming Call
Private
He pressed the green answer button and spoke into the phone. “Baker? Where the hell have you been? You better have good news. Is Simmons dead?”
There was the rustling of wind noise and then the sound of someone beginning to speak.
Call Disconnected
“Damn it.”
Using the keypad, Raine fumbled through the directory until he found Baker’s number. He pressed re-dial and waited.
Call Failed
Frustrated, he tried once more, and then again before a knock on the door distracted him. Annoyed by the interruption, Raine placed the sat-phone back in its cradle and made a note to try Baker later.
“It’s not locked,” Raine grumbled, sitting down behind his desk.
His office door opened and a head popped through the crack. It was the colonel’s errand boy; a snot-nosed private with a crew-cut that showed every bump on his malformed skull.
The kid looks like one of the inbreds from the movie Deliverance, Raine thought as he stared transfixed by the odd sight.
“Sorry to interrupt, sir, but Colonel Pickett says you gotta switch offices. He needs this space. 2nd ID is back.”
“What do you mean back?” Raine asked in disbelief. The 2nd Infantry Division had been based at Camp Red Cloud in the city of Uijeongbu, South Korea. As far as Raine knew, they had all been killed when the North Koreans went nuclear in retaliation for the American attack on their infrastructure.
The private grinned like a cheshire cat. “The colonel got approval from the vice-president to send a Herc over to pick up what’s left of them—Seventy-three are coming back,” he added proudly.
Raine shook his head in disgust. Seventy-three out of ten thousand—what a monumental waste of resources. Only the army with their stupid ‘leave no man behind’ creed would do something as dumb as sending a C-130 Hercules aircraft seven thousand miles around the globe to pick up a bunch of grunts.
“It was the right thing to do, sir,” the private said unapologetically. “We look after our own.”
Raine grunted. “Hmmph, why here? Why not Fort Hood or Bragg or even Campbell?”
“There’s nowhere else to put the men, sir. Hood and Bragg are full, and Fort Campbell was quarantined a few days ago. The bug got inside the fence.”
The bug—Raine hated the term. That was Alice’s fault. The C. diff bacteria s
he genetically altered for the false-flag operation against the North Koreans wasn’t supposed to mutate. It was only supposed to infect a single hospital in England and then die off leaving just enough evidence to pin the outbreak on the Koreans. But the bacteria was unstoppable. It spread like wildfire and everything went to shit.
At first, the president showed restraint, but as the pandemic spread, he authorized non-nuclear cruise missile strikes on all of the known ROK leadership bunkers in retaliation for what he thought they had done. Unfortunately, the missile strikes missed the bunker Dear Leader was cowering in, and the North Koreans retaliated with what was left of their nuclear arsenal.
In total, twelve thousand American troops and nearly seventy-five thousand civilians died. After that, the president had no choice. He retaliated with a single 1.2 megaton B83 nuke, and Kim Jong-il and most of the residents of Pyongyang were killed instantly.
None of that mattered to Raine. As long as he and Alice were safe, he couldn’t care less about anyone else; including what was left of the 2nd ID.
“Tell the colonel, I’m too busy to move,” he said dismissively. He opened a report on his desk and pretended to read it.
“Does the colonel know about that, sir?”
Raine glanced up at the private who had a smug grin on his face.
“About what?”
“That.”
The man pointed to the sat-phone’s charging station. Its green LED blinked on and off, indicating it was using valuable electricity to charge the phone’s battery.
Raine grimaced.
Unauthorized use of electricity was a crime under the recently revised Uniform Code of Military justice. The sat-phone didn’t take much juice, but he had never bothered to get approval and even he wasn’t immune to the colonel’s wrath.
