“We didn’t think much of it because when we were in Afghanistan the local kids followed us on a regular basis. We forgot that this is a different kind of enemy. Anyway, once we crossed the 5 we were just south of the church. We took cover behind some buildings, and I sent out three two-man groups to scout the area around the building that had the large satellite dish installed on the roof. One of the patrols had reported back that he saw several ABs on the outside of the building in white coats carrying clipboards. I made a call that those two ABs should be our targets. The rest of us were waiting for the last patrol to return when we heard gunshots erupt in the direction of where the patrol had gone.”
Jackson couldn’t look the other two men in the eye anymore. ”From this point, everything went to hell. I had to make a call. Rush to the aid of the two soldiers who had made their way to the north or rush at the two identified targets before they disappeared in the building. I chose to grab the men in the white coats. I am still questioning whether that was the right choice.”
Blake interrupted and placed his hand on Jackson’s shoulder. “In battle, there isn’t a right or wrong call; there’s only the call we have to live with.”
Jackson looked up and gave Blake a weak smile. “We were able to get close enough to the warehouse to see a couple of AB technicians talking outside the building. Things went bad fast, and before we could grab them I had lost a few of my men. Because of their heroic efforts, we managed to knock out and grab two of the white coats.
“We made it back to the truck and had just started to head back when the explosion went off. I remember glass flying everywhere and shouts and screams coming from the back. I kept the pedal floored, but things are kind of fuzzy after that. I think it’s just a miracle from God that I was able to drive us back somehow.”
The commander and Blake glanced at each other, wondering what to say. The commander cleared his throat and spoke first. “You made the right calls. It isn’t easy to leave men behind, but sometimes it is necessary. You can go back to the infirmary and get some rest now. You’re dismissed.”
After Jackson left the office and was out of earshot, the commander turned to Blake. “What do you think?”
“I have been in the situation before, and it is never easy. But I guess we will know if it was worth the sacrifice once we find out what the prisoner knows.”
“Agreed. I hear that you have become adept at extracting information out of AB prisoners. I would like you to see what he knows.”
“Yes sir. I will check with the doctor and see if the prisoner is sound enough to be questioned. If he is, I will start within the hour and report back what I find out.”
Blake left the room and walked to the camp doctor to inquire about the state of the prisoner.
“He is stable and waiting for you in the interrogation room.”
As Blake stepped inside to the room where the prisoner was located, he saw him tied to a chair in the corner. His demeanor was extraordinarily calm. The blood-stained white lab coat he had been wearing earlier had been removed, and he was covered in assorted bandages on the upper part of his torso.
Blake walked up to the AB man and looked him up and down. He looked up at Blake; his glasses had slid down his nose. The little man spoke in a high-pitched voice. “Would you mind sliding my glasses up so I can see you better?”
Blake was surprised at the calmness in his voice but complied with his request and adjusted the man’s glasses in hopes it would make it easier to get the answers he was looking for. It made his dark yellow eyes seem even larger.
“Thank you,” the man said. Blake almost felt compassion for him but then remembered what was at stake. The man tried to adjust his position in the chair he was tied to. “So what can I do for you?”
Once again, Blake had to remind himself what he was dealing with. “What are you and your kind building behind the old white church?”
A slow smile spread across the man’s face. “We are creating a way to communicate with the creators. We want to let them know that we are here and await their coming with open arms. They will help us with the final purging of the unclean on this planet.”
This sent a chill down Blake’s entire body. He was also surprised that the AB offered up the information so freely. “And when will this message be sent?”
“We are just waiting for one last part. It should be here tomorrow – one day to install, and then the message will be sent.” The man seemed to glow. “I am so honored that I could be part of all this. There isn’t anything that you can do to stop us. It is our destiny. We are ready to die for our cause. Can you say the same?”
“Who are the creators?”
“They are the ones who created the gift.”
“Where are they located?”
The man pointed up. “They are out there.”
“What is the message that you plan to send?”
“That is up to Lord Dameon, but I know it will be wonderful.”
Then the little man looked at Blake intensely. “Do you have a family?”
“Yes, why?”
“How does it feel to know that once the creators come they will be exterminated?”
Blake could feel the frustration grow inside him. Blake stood so he could walk out of the room, but an impulse overtook him, and he backhanded the AB across the face.
The infected man’s smile never diminished, even though blood was trickling down the side of his jaw.
Blake quickly made his way to the commander’s office to brief him on what little he had learned. Just after he entered, a soldier from the front gate came rushing in. He was panting heavily and gave a quick salute when he saw the two men.
“Sir, one of our missing soldiers just wandered through the front gate.”
“Thank you. Have him escorted to my office as soon as he is checked out by the medical staff,” the commander replied.
The soldier saluted and sprinted back to the front gate.
“So Blake, what did you learn?”
“Not much. It just kept rambling on about the creators, their gift, and sending a message to them.”
“Did he say what the message was?”
“No, but he made it seem like it is the most important thing in the world. Oh and one other thing – it said that they are close to having the transmitter complete. It also believes that once the message makes it to the creators, they will come here and wipe us out.”
“Thank you, Blake. That couldn’t have been an easy assignment. We really need to find out more about the message. You might want to hang around and see what the missing soldier has to say.”
“Yes sir.”
After the soldier was given a quick once-over by the medics, he was hastily helped to the commander’s office, where he was given a large drink of water. Blake entered the room as the commander began questioning him.
“Son, we had a report that you had either been captured or killed. How did you escape?”
“I didn’t, sir. They let me go. They wanted me to deliver a message to you. They have two nuclear bombs. I saw them with my own eyes. They say that they have the knowledge to detonate them and will set them off if you launch any kind of attack against them.”
“Was there anything else?”
“No sir, that’s all.”
“Very well, go get yourself thoroughly checked out at the medical tent and get some food.”
“Yes sir.”
The soldier was escorted out. Blake and the commander glanced at each other with concern on their faces.
“We had better inform Pacific Command and update them on our latest findings”, the commander said.
As they were waiting to be put through, there was a sense of urgency in the air with the possibility of aliens coming to wipe them out and the ABs having nukes.
“So Captain Reynolds, if you were in charge, what would you recommend we do?” Major Williams asked.
“Well, sir, I would throw all of your eggs in one basket. Seeing that it seem
s like they are gathering in one place anyway, I would hit them with everything that we have. Retrieve the nukes, destroy the communication tower, and kill the son of a bitch that is leading them.”
“I have to say I agree with you.”
The general was quickly briefed. He let both men know that he would get back with them in thirty minutes.
Both soldiers quickly left the office to get some food before the general got back with them.
The light on the video screen came on, and the general appeared. “Commander, Captain Reynolds. I have just gotten off the phone with Washington. We have been ordered to suspend all operations on the west coast and focus all of our efforts to bring down the communication center that you and your teams have discovered and retrieve the nukes. Air support won’t be involved because of the two nuclear bombs. We don’t want to take a chance of hitting them since we don’t know where they’re located at this time. Also, we can’t use heavy artillery for the same reason. This will have to be an old-fashioned ground assault.
“It will be a three-pronged attack. The naval forces will come in from the coast. All available personnel, military and civilians, in the San Diego area will attack from the south, and all the soldiers at Camp Pendleton and our forces north and east will converge on your position to start their assault from there. The attack will commence in twenty-eight hours once all the troops are in place. I want every civilian capable of fighting to be included in the plans. If we fail and they send that message, or the nukes go off, we have no future to worry about.”
Blake cringed; he knew this would include Tara.
“Captain, you are the most familiar with the area, so I am giving you a battlefield promotion. You are now a major. Congratulations, I know that you will do a great job. I am putting you in charge of leading the ground forces that will be attacking the northern front.”
“Yes sir,” Blake replied questioningly.
“I want status reports every four hours on your preparations.”
“Yes sir,” replied the commander.
The screen shut off. The commander turned to Blake. “You need to get some sleep. Report back here at 0600.”
Blake entered his tent, set the alarm on his watch for 0530, and quietly slipped onto the cot alongside Tara. He knew that sleep would be hard to come by tonight.
Day 12: USNS Mercy/Captain Nellis
After the Mercy put out to deeper waters, the medical staff was ordered to meet in the main conference room. At the front of the room stood Captain Nellis and Dr. Fuller. The captain tapped the microphone to get everyone's attention.
“You are all aware of the attack that happened onboard our ship this morning. Many brave men died in the defense of this ship and protecting Ensign James, whom we hope holds the solution to this mess. We honor those who have died, and the best way to honor them is to save this planet. I was informed by Dr. Fuller that Ensign James is out of surgery and should make a full recovery. His blood and what’s in it is what we truly need at this time. Dr. Fuller will now give us the plan of action for the day.”
Dr. Fuller stepped up to the head of the table. “First, we need to isolate the antigen from Ensign James’s blood. Next, we need to see how it will react to the AB's blood. Once we have determined the effectiveness of the antigen, we need to figure out a way to distribute the antigen to any given area, if not to the entire planet. We will split up in two teams: one to come up with the treatment, led by myself, and the other to come up with a way to disperse it. Dr. Lee will lead that team. I want status reports every two hours on all your progress. Are there any other questions?” No one spoke. “OK, dismissed.”
Stacy and one of the lab assistants had left Ensign James alone in his room where he was resting after surgery. They had hoped to get about 50 milliliters of blood, but with the amount he had lost during the fight, they decided it wouldn’t be prudent to draw so much. Twenty would have to do for now.
Stacy and her lab assistant stepped into the lab to take two different samples. First, some of the infected blood they had collected. The other sample had some of the bacteria growing in a culture that had been dispersed when the meteor exploded and caused the infection. From what they had determined from their studies over the last few days, the bacteria spread and replicated as well as the nanobots, which used tissue from the host. Instead of metal and circuits, the nanobots had a cellular structure similar to tissue. They also noticed that each nanobot was perfectly reproduced from the original bot.
For the first experiment, Stacy put a drop of infected blood onto a slide. They then put a drop of James’s blood onto the same slide to see what happened as they watched through the microscope. At first, it appeared that nothing was going to happen, and Stacy cursed under her breath. As she was about to roll back and prepare another slide, she noticed some movement in the infected cells.
The blood from the infected cells lost its cohesion and dissolved into the surrounding liquid. This didn’t surprise her, seeing that the blood had come from one of the dead infected donors.
She had more hopes for the next test because it came from a living sample. She scraped a small sample and put it on the glass slide. Under the microscope, she could see the bacteria growing and spreading. At the center of each infected bacterial cell was the tiny nanobot replicating. It was programmed to grow and change its host. She then put a small sample of the antigens extracted out of James’s blood on the glass slide and watched through the eyepiece of the microscope. Almost immediately, the antigens attached themselves to the cell walls of the bacteria. Once attached, the macrophages and neutropils in James’s blood identified the cell as foreign and started to break down the cellular wall. The nanobot in the cell seemed to detect that it was under attack and tried to fill the holes in the cell wall. However, the macrophages worked harder. By the time the macrophages had finished attacking, the entire contents of the cell spilled out. Without the cell wall, the nanobots quit moving as if they had died.
Stacy yelped for joy, which startled her assistant. “It works! Now we have a way to fight back.” She faced her assistant. “Run and get the captain.” The assistant rushed away without a word.
It was only a few minutes before the assistant and Captain Nellis sprinted through the door. Stacy couldn’t control her excitement before she explained.
“Each of the infected has a way to fight the infection. However, the bacterium is suppressing the host’s immune system using the nanobots somehow to make the body think that it is a natural part of the host. Then it’s left to uncontrollably spread throughout the body. What I have discovered is that once the infected blood cells come into contact with James’s antigens, the host body’s immune system recognizes that the infection is foreign. Then it attacks the foreign cells like it would with any infection.
“I suppose if a person is newly infected they might be cured by this discovery, but unfortunately, most of the infected people have had the nanobots in them too long. With the infection being focused on the brain, most likely it will simply shut down, and the host will die.”
Captain Nellis nodded. “That is unfortunate, but at least now we have a fighting chance to save what is left of humanity. I will inform Pacific Command of your results. Dr. Fuller, what is the next step?”
“I suppose we need to test our hypothesis. We need to inject an infected person with the antigen from James’s blood and see what happens.”
“Very well. I will have our returning SEAL team capture an AB and bring them on board for testing.”
Dr. Lee put his hand on Stacy’s back. “Good work. You might have just saved the world.”
After the SEALs received their orders to capture a live infected, they put a plan in place to fulfill their mission.
Through their binoculars the SEALs noticed some movement not too far ashore. They crept close to the movement to see what looked to be a small girl, about eight or nine years old. She pulled a cart down the street, struggling with the weight of whatever was inside.
They crept behind a large bush by the street where the little girl was heading. Once she passed the bush, they jumped out and grabbed the girl. She screamed and snarled, but the SEAL covered her mouth. The girl chomped on his hand in retaliation.
“Ow!” the SEAL yelped. His companions laughed. With his free hand, he slapped the AB girl across the face and knocked her unconscious. The other SEAL turned and gave him a stern look.
“This used to be a little girl – now she’s just another AB enemy,” he said as he picked her up and placed her over his shoulder.
The trip back to the boat didn’t take long. The girl’s hands and legs had been tied tightly so that when she woke up she wouldn’t be able to offer any resistance. The spot where the girl had bitten the SEAL’s hand was still red. Once they were next to the ship, their boat was hoisted onboard by several Marines, and the girl was escorted to the main exam room while she protested.
Dr. Fuller and the captain entered the room. The prisoner stared at Stacy with small yellow sad eyes. The dirty little girl was wearing a pink skirt, and her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail. Her mouth was gagged. Stacy looked at the Marines that stood guard behind her.
“Why is she gagged?” she asked.
“She was spitting at us!” they protested.
Stacy turned to the captain. “I don’t know if I can do this. She’s so young.”
John walked over to the infected girl and placed his hand on the back of her head. “Remember, this thing isn’t even human anymore. If given the chance, she would kill you where you stand.”
“I know, but it still doesn’t seem right.”
“Just focus on how many lives you’ll be saving. Shall we get started?”
Stacy walked to the table and picked up a small syringe off a cart. It contained a small amount of the extracted antigens. Stacy reached for an antiseptic pad and cleaned off an area on the girl’s arm. She knew that if the injection was successful, the girl would likely die, but Stacy still felt like she needed to treat the little girl like a human and sterilize the injection site anyway.
AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) Page 18
