“Stop! Stop, boys!”
Rick shakily got to his feet. He wiped his nose with his sleeve. The gesture hardly made a difference; his face was covered by blood. He snatched the necklace from Navid’s hand. With a single gesture from Rick, his men backed away from Adam like well-trained hunting dogs. One man was already dead. He had a long gash down his arm from Navid’s attack and a split in his abdomen that revealed the inner workings of his anatomy. A second lay clutching his throat as blood oozed from between his fingers. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he managed to speak.
“Help,” the man gasped, his face awash in pallor. “Help.”
“Mac, can we fix that?” Rick asked a man with a bulging belly and a long, bushy beard. Mac shook his head.
Rick pulled his pistol from his holster and shot the injured man, ending his moaning. A third raider, his leg sliced by Navid’s frantic attack, cowered against the wall.
Rick pointed at him next. Mac lifted his shoulders in a gesture of indifference. “I can probably fix that. But if he’s got nerve damage, he’s not going to walk again.”
“A man who can’t walk right is no use to us.” Rick raised his pistol to the man’s head and fired. With deliberate slowness, he circled Adam’s body. The Hunter’s chest rose and fell in shallow jerks. His face was an unrecognizable mess. One arm was bent at an odd angle, and an ear was hanging off by a thin thread of flesh. “Can’t fix that either, can we, Mac?”
“Wouldn’t want to if we could.”
Another deafening bang.
“No!” Kara yelled. Sadie collapsed beside her sister, her whole body convulsing in sobs. Maggie yelped and backed against the column she was tied to.
“Bastard...you...fucking,” Navid said, spitting blood with every word. One of his eyes was already swollen over. He pushed himself up to a sitting position, his insides churning like whitewater rapids. Not Adam. Not like this.
Rick forced a harsh laugh. “You take one of mine, I take one of yours. Only problem is you took three, the way I count it. Debt’s not repaid yet.” He aimed at Kara.
“No, take me!” Navid yelled. He held his hands out and half-crawled in front of Kara. “Shoot me and let them go!”
“Don’t, Navid!” Kara said.
Rick lowered the gun and leaned in close, speaking low in her ear. “By the time we’re done with you, you’ll wish I had pulled the trigger.” He shoved her down. Sadie crawled to her and draped herself across her sister’s chest.
“Mac, you get first dibs.”
Mac was grinning from ear to ear, rubbing his belly as he approached Navid, Kara, and Sadie. “This could be fun.” Tugging his beard, he bent over and studied each in turn. Kara spit in his face, and he jumped back. “Feisty.”
Navid started to shiver. The remnants of adrenaline were fading, replaced by shock. He couldn’t attack them again. That course of action had already gotten Adam killed and condemned the rest of them to their fate. The heavy weight of despair fell over him. If only Kinsey had never tried to capture the Huntress. If only they’d never sheltered in Mt. Vernon. If only the Hunters had arrived just two hours earlier.
And then an idea sparked in his brain.
“Wait!” Navid yelled. “Wait!”
Rick cocked his head. “Wait for what, boy?”
“Don’t you want to know why we were just sitting here in Mt. Vernon?”
“Frankly, I don’t give a shit.”
“You might want to start,” Navid said, “because if you don’t, if you lay one more hand on any of us, I guarantee you’ll all end up dead.”
Rick bent over Navid and sneered. “And why’s that? You going to haunt me? Or maybe you got a bomb vest under that shirt, brown boy?”
Navid didn’t take the bait. “It’s got nothing to do with me. You want guns. You want ammo. I know where you can get some.”
“Navid, don’t!” Kara said, anger tingeing her voice.
He tried to give her a look that said trust me, but he wasn’t sure how well it worked given the state of his face. “Her father is the leader of a paramilitary outfit. Weapons, food, medicine. They’ve even got a ship. They’re supposed to rendezvous with us here.”
“And I suppose Santa is fucking the Easter Bunny in the parking lot, too, huh?”
“Whatever.” Navid shrugged, trying to appear far more confident than he felt. “Don’t believe me. I assumed you wanted to live.”
“If he ain’t lying, could use more supplies,” Mac said. “Military’s been giving us all kinds of trouble. Might be this fella has what we need to get ‘em off our backs.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Rick stared at Mac until the man backed down. Fiddling with his broken claw necklace, he started circling around Navid again. “If, and this is a big if, I believed you, how in the hell would we contact this bitch’s daddy? I want to work out the terms with them before we make a deal.”
“We have a radio, asshole.”
“Fine,” Rick said. “Let’s call these military men of yours.” He glared at each of them in turn. “But if I find out you’re trying to play me, you’ll be wishing you were him.” He gestured to Adam’s lifeless, bloodied body.
-17-
A scream echoed down the passageway leading to the medical bay. Lauren startled and ran to the hatch. It sounded like Samantha, but that couldn’t be right. She’d once seen an unsecured crate land on Samantha’s foot, breaking three toes, and the techie hadn’t so much as whimpered. What could possibly be so bad to make her scream like that?
“Hold it,” Smith said. “Where the hell are you going?”
“Someone’s hurt,” Lauren said.
“You stay here.”
“But they might need my help.”
“If they need your help, they know where to come, don’t they?” He directed Lauren with his submachine gun. “To the lab.”
Lauren began walking slowly, but her mind was racing. Before she’d reached the lab, heavy footsteps sounded along the deck and two soldiers burst through the hatch. Between them, Samantha hung limp. Blood covered her right forearm, obscuring the tattoo of vines and roses. Her face was twisted in a grimace.
“What happened?” Lauren asked. She glanced between the soldiers. “What did you do to her?”
“Didn’t do a goddamn thing,” one of the soldiers said. He let go of Samantha’s shoulder and pushed her forward. Samantha flopped into an empty chair, cradling her injured arm.
“She did it to herself,” the other soldier said.
Lauren used a cloth to clean the blood away and examined the wound. It was a relatively clean, straight cut.
“Soldering accident,” Samantha said, gritting her teeth.
That inspired more questions than it answered. Samantha was a talented technical specialist. Things weren’t adding up. But Lauren ignored her confusion and grabbed a packaged suture set. She dabbed the wound again with sterilizing alcohol and began stitching the wound shut.
“I was working on a project,” Samantha said. “Slipped and cut myself. Clumsy, huh?”
Lauren nodded, murmuring her agreement, but she still didn’t understand what was going on. She finished suturing the wound and placed a bandage over it. With a few strips of surgical tape, she secured the dressing and patted Samantha’s other arm. “All good.”
Samantha finally seemed to relax. She clasped Lauren’s hand. “Thanks, Doc. Really appreciate it.” There was something small and plastic pressed between their palms. Samantha gave Lauren an earnest smile before she let her hand go.
Curling her fingers over whatever Samantha had placed there, Lauren returned the smile. “Of course. Don’t cut yourself again, okay? Not your best idea.”
“Good thing we have you to save us, then, isn’t it?”
The soldiers grabbed Samantha’s upper arms and guided her out of the med bay’s hatch. Lauren quickly shoved her hands in her pockets and stalked back to the lab. What had Samantha given her? Her mind raced through a thousand different possib
ilities. What could be so important that she would injure herself just for the chance of delivering it? Her hand was wrapped around the handle to open the hatch when one of the guards tugged her shoulder.
“Doctor,” Smith said, his brow furrowed. Lauren’s stomach flipped. She was accustomed to science and medicine, but not subterfuge. Had she already given herself away? “Another patient’s asking for you.”
“Huh?” The spell on her mind was broken. “Who?” She’d already checked the Weavers and Alex, along with Ivan, Scott, and Thomas. They should all be fine. She spun and saw a shirtless Hunter was standing in the hatchway with a military escort. White bandages clung to his shoulders and chest. She knew they covered nasty Drooler-inflicted burns from a previous mission.
Terrence’s face seemed paler than usual, and beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead. Lauren pressed the back of her hand against his temple and frowned. “You’re hot.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Terrence said, forcing a wry grin. “But don’t you have a thing going on with Glenn?”
Lauren shook her head. “Are you in pain? How are your injuries?”
“Just exhausted,” Terrence said, slumping into the exam chair Samantha had just vacated. “Muscles, bones, everything. Like I’ve just run a marathon or two. Except all I’ve been doing is sitting in the brig.”
Lauren used an ear thermometer to take his temperature. The digital readout showed 101.5degrees Fahrenheit. Definitely a fever. Prior to the Oni Agent outbreak, she’d have assumed this was a sign Terrence’s wounds had become infected. But now, these symptoms might be harbingers of a nascent Oni Agent surging through the Hunter’s blood vessels. “Any headaches?”
Terrence’s eyes went wide. He seemed to understand the implication at once. “A little bit.” He rubbed a hand over his shaved scalp. “Right here. Is it...?” His words trailed off.
“Don’t know.” She shifted her gaze to the guards and then back to Terrence, trying to make her assessment of Terrence’s health appear routine and innocuous. The former Ranger hadn’t been scratched by any Skulls as far as she’d been told. He’d suffered burns from the Drooler, but that was it. Could a trace amount of the Oni Agent survive the intensely acidic environment of the Drooler’s spray? Could the burns have provided another route of transmission? She certainly hoped not. Hydrochloric acid was strong enough to destroy most normal viruses and bacteria. But the nanobacteria in the Oni Agent weren’t normal. “I’m going to give you a couple of shots, and you should be all clear.”
“Even if—”
“Yes, even if this turns out to be the worst-case scenario.” She gave Terrence a tight smile.
Lauren moved to a cabinet where she’d stored a few doses of chelation therapies. She didn’t want to outright mention the possibility of an Oni Agent infection; she didn’t trust the paranoid guards not to overreact and do something rash. And the last thing she needed was more attention. She patted her pocket to ensure the object Samantha had given her was safely stowed and then returned to Terrence’s side with a syringe. She inserted the needle into a bulging vessel in his arm and administered the treatment. After placing a small bandage over it, she rummaged through a cabinet and took out a pill container. “Take two of these in about six hours, then another one every twelve hours until the bottle is empty. You should be back to normal in a couple of days.”
“Minus the burns,” he said.
“Minus the burns,” Lauren agreed. The guards reached for him, preparing to escort Terrence back to the brig, but Smith held up his hand.
“Hold up a second.” Smith gestured for the Hunter’s escort to keep him in place and then turned to Lauren. “What exactly did you just treat him for?”
“A possible infection,” Lauren said as matter-of-factly as she could. “I suspect his burns—”
“I don’t buy it,” Smith said. “I’m no doctor, but you take pills for antibiotics. Why do you need to give the man a shot?”
“Well, there are plenty of antibiotics in pill form,” Lauren said. “But I didn’t want to take any chances so I gave him ceftriaxone. It’s usually administered intravenously and has broad-spectrum activity, which means it’ll help knock out whatever bacteria might be floating around in Terrence.”
“Okay,” Smith said. Lauren could see the gears in his head turning and prayed her answers had satisfied him. “This man’s seen some action against those Skulls, right?” Smith gestured to the extensive dressings. “Doesn’t look like he just tripped and hurt himself.”
Lauren said nothing. She waited to see where Smith was going with this.
“And you told me you all had a way to stop this Oni Agent before it took over your body.” Smith paced closer to Lauren and narrowed his eyes. “So if I were a gambling man, I’d be willing to bet you just loaded him up with your secret serum. And if I check that vial where you got the medicine from, it wouldn’t be antibiotics, would it?”
Lauren’s eyes darted from the guards’ weapons to Terrence and finally back to Smith’s too-clever gaze.
“From what I’ve seen, you’re a decent medic, but I don’t want some guy like this stuck in the brig with everyone else. If he Skulled-out on us, that’d be an awful mess to clean up,” Smith said. “Throw the guy in the Isolation Ward.”
The military escort opened the hatch to the ward and shoved Terrence inside. The hatch slammed shut again with a terrible clang. Lauren mouthed an apology to him through the acrylic window. Terrence shrugged and claimed one of the open beds between Ivan and Scott. A hand grabbed Lauren’s shoulder roughly and pulled her back around.
“I told you not to pull any funny business,” Smith said. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...” He let the words hang in the air and gave her a meaningful, serious look.
“I wasn’t trying to—”
“Back to the lab,” Smith said. “And get to work. I’ll be watching.”
Lauren stepped through the hatch to join Divya, Sean, and Peter. Each was toiling over lab benches as they examined specimens on microscope slides or pipetted solutions between vials. She felt the guards’ eyes hot on the back of her neck. They’d be observing her every step now, but the object in her pocket was feeling heavier by the minute.
***
Dom found it difficult to concentrate on stealth knowing his daughters’ lives might be in danger. He crashed through the foliage with the others hot on his heels. They needed to get to Mt. Vernon fast. Any lone Skulls they ran into on their trek along the river went down with a barrage of bullets or swift knife strikes.
Adam’s warning had been both ominous and short. All attempts to hail him again had gone unanswered.
A burst of static came over the comm link. Dom held up a fist, and the Hunters slowed. “Adam, is that you? This is Dom, do you read?”
More static.
“Adam, do you read?”
A voice crackled, weak and winded. “Dad, it’s me.” Kara sounded frightened.
His heart pounded. “What’s wrong?”
“These men. They murdered Adam. They’re going to kill the rest of us.”
Anger and dread flowed through Dom. He’d lost crew members to the Skulls, but to other humans? Dom had worked so hard to deliver his daughters from harm. He’d be damned if some marauding group of assholes harmed a hair on their heads. “Are you and Sadie okay?”
“Hurt, but we’re alive,” Kara said shakily. “We—”
“Listen up,” a new voice said. “This ain’t no time for a chat. You want to see your daughters and that jihadi boy, you gotta pay the tax.”
“Who the fuck is this?” Dom asked, his voice quaking with unrestrained anger. The Hunters shot worried looks between each other.
“Someone who wants to talk. Frankly, I’m surprised you’re real. Guess this A-rab was telling the truth.”
“I’m losing my patience,” Dom said. “What do you want?”
“You have weapons and ammo. We want ’em. You give us what we want, we might let the girls live.
Hell, maybe even the boy.”
“You already killed one of my men, asshole. How do I know we can we trust you?”
“You absolutely don’t.” The man laughed. “And that’s the beauty of it. You don’t know me. You don’t know my people. So it’s up to you if you want to take the risk, sure. You wait around too long, these pretty little girls of yours are gonna be dead long before you find their bodies.”
Dom was silent for a moment, scanning the faces of his Hunters. Meredith seemed the most composed, but he knew her calm façade hid a racing mind and a fierce heart. Right now, she’d be working through a dozen different plans to get his daughters and Navid back—and get revenge for Adam’s death. It was that kind of careful analysis and thinking that he admired in her. “Fine. You’ll get everything we’ve got. How do you want to do this?”
The man explained how he wanted to make the trade. He gave Dom little room for bargaining. “Be here in one and a half hours. If you’re late, your daughters die.” Silence for a beat. “Actually, they won’t be dead. But you’ll wish they were.”
The comm link line fizzled into static.
“We’re not seriously going to negotiate with them, are we, Chief?” Miguel asked. “I get that we didn’t kill Kinsey’s men because they were just following orders. But these people...”
“They killed Adam,” Jenna said with a snarl.
“I want to smash some fucking skulls,” Glenn said, “and I’m not talking about the Oni Agent kind.”
“I second that,” Renee said. “I think Kinsey’s men thought they were acting in the right. I’d probably think the same thing if I were them. But these guys sound like monsters.”
Dom battled with the emotional turmoil raging in his head. Intense, fiery rage warred with debilitating, freezing fear. He wholeheartedly agreed with the other Hunters, but he wouldn’t rush into anything without a proper plan.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Dom said. “We’ll give them a chance. Just one chance to walk away from all this. And if that doesn’t work...well, we’ve never negotiated with terrorists, so I see no reason to start now.”
The Tide: Deadrise Page 13
