The Rotting Souls Series (Book 4): Charon's Coffers

by Ray, Timothy A.

  “Hey, I’ve got to go. Sounds like something is going on,” she half-said into her phone, hitting the mic button on her earpiece. “This is Raines, what’s up?”

  “You taking a dirt nap or what? We’ve made contact, heavy resistance. Tell me you’ve gotten into their systems,” Weir snapped.

  “No, don’t hang up,” Todd pleaded, but it was faint and cut off as she hit the end button and pocketed her phone.

  Walking back towards the helo, she nodded her head at the hacker, “you have anything?”

  “Five more minutes,” Jenn snarled back.

  “That’s a negative,” she told Weir. “Is it Live or Dead?” Would Sean have had more of his defense department people stationed here? Was that who was firing on them? There was gunfire on the other end and she threw a concerned glance towards the main building in the distance.

  “We don’t know yet, that’s why I need eyes goddammit! Snake Eyes, get your ass behind that car! You’re gonna get smoked!” Weir suddenly yelled.

  “I’ve got it!” Jenn exclaimed, a smile spreading, then faltering completely as her eyes shifted Monica’s way. “This isn’t good.”

  Climbing into the back of the helo, she turned the laptop her way and looked at the screen, moving the lid so it was less reflective in the weak light. Her worst fears were realized. “Weir, you’re severely outgunned,” she said over the line and rapid gunfire was all the response she got. “Jenn, I may need to go help, I’ll need you to warn me if anything comes at me, okay?”

  Jenn nodded, “I don’t see what you can do, though. There’s got to be at least fifty of them and they look heavily armed. How are you supposed to get in there?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ve got to try,” she replied, taking up her assault weapon and checking the clip. Grapping a few extra from an ammo can, she twisted her neck until it popped, rolled her shoulders, and prepared to move forward. “Weir, I’m coming to you.”

  “Negative woman! Stay the fuck there. We are taking heavy fire. I don’t need to worry about you too,” the Captain yelled back.

  Shaking her head, she began to jog towards the gate, “well that’s too damn bad. I’m on my way.”

  Chapter 33

  Hostage

  Joseph

  Ninth Compound

  He struggled against his bindings, the sounds of battle echoing along the halls as men hurried past to join the fight. Alone in a white room with nothing but a table and a chair for company, he rocked his shoulders to try and loosen the rope, but to no avail. They had bound him with the precision of people that knew what they were doing.

  Looking at the blank white walls and wished for a clock, as the endless perception of time stretched so that he had no clue how long he’d been here, nor even what day it was. He had come to already tied up, no one around, and nothing but the occasional sound of traffic in the hall outside. Now, he could hear the sounds of battle and knew that the good guys had arrived, and was helpless to do shit about it.

  The door clicked open and Sean stalked in, “time to go.” Two men hovered behind him, soldiers the man kept on his payroll, and they strode forward and got him to his feet. “Seems like we have guests and I would hate for you to have to miss the show.”

  “Go fuck yourself,” he snarled, struggling against the hands holding him in place.

  The man on his left balled up his fist and struck him in the gut, forcing the air out of him. “Watch your mouth.”

  “Fuck you,” he cursed back, straightening his shoulders.

  The man hit him in the cheek, jerking his head to the right and making blood fly from his mouth. His brain felt fuzzy, but he fought against it. He would not give him the pleasure of passing out. “Just kill me and be done with it.”

  “Kill you? Where’s the fun in that? Oh no, my old friend, I’ve got something completely different in store for you,” Sean grinned, his eyes blazing. “Shall we?” he asked, leaving the room and walking the opposite direction of the men passing outside.

  Dragging him from the room, the two soldiers kept pace with their boss, and he felt the hatred flow out of him like he was a Sith Lord, not an officer of the law. “Tell me, does he pay you enough for you to ignore the fact that he’s the one that’s killed the world? Billions dead, because that maniac made it happen? Tell me something, what the fuck do you think you’ll have to spend it on? In case you hadn’t noticed, money ain’t worth shit anymore.”

  “I told you, he’s affected by the virus,” Sean told the men. “Can’t be trusted.”

  “That’s such bullshit!” he roared, struggling harder. “He’s the son of a bitch that started all this shit! Right here in this fucking lab! Look in his eyes, tell me you don’t see how psychotic he is!”

  The man that hit him jerked his shoulder, making it flare in agony, “why don’t you just shut the fuck up? He’s got a cure, a vaccine for this crap.”

  “Yeah, because he designed the virus in the first place!” he shot back. “He just happens to have a secret compound for making cures to diseases on the fly? Crap that even the CDC couldn’t do? That kind of shit takes months of research, not a week! Use your heads! Or are you just a bunch of brainless automatons?”

  “It’s not a cure designed to fight this particular virus, no,” Sean lied, looking to the soldiers with a reassuring smile. “That’s why we’re testing it. It was meant for something completely different, but my research scientists claim that with a little adjustment, it can wipe this plague out.”

  “Oh, you are so full of shit!” he thundered. “You think if that were true, the United States military wouldn’t have brought you in handcuffs and a muzzle? They would be kissing your feet, not preparing to put a bullet in your head!”

  Sean stopped, giving him his full attention. “You know the lengths to which the U.S. Government will go to in order to keep their secrets. Sure, they want this vaccine, but they don’t want anyone else to have it. Just think, the rest of the world wiped out while the brass just sits back and watch. A whole world available for the taking and all they have to do is wait it out. No more terrorism, no more Soviet or Korean threats, just an empty world of corpses and nothing but time on their hands.”

  “I’d call you crazy, but that doesn’t begin to define what you are,” he growled.

  Sean leaned forward, “want me to bite you, see what kind of man you become?”

  He jerked back, just as Sean snapped his teeth together, nearly missing his nose. “Back the fuck off.”

  Breaking into a deep-hearted laugh, Sean turned and began walking down the hallway once more. “Come on, time is wasting.”

  “I should have killed you when I had the chance,” Joseph growled at the man, then realized it sounded straight out of a movie. “Should have iced your ass and fed you to the pigs.”

  “Don’t blame me for your escorts’ stupidity. Always have a backup plan, remember?” Sean tossed back, opening a door and leading the way into a laboratory.

  There were rooms opposite where they entered with walls made of glass. Three soldiers were sitting on beds in three of them, the one closest to him on his feet and watching them enter with hate-filled eyes.

  “I will kill you,” Rankin said in a firm tone of voice. “You can bet your ass on that.”

  Joseph was led into the lone empty room and thrown against the hospital bed. By the time he turned, the door was already being shut and he heard a resounding click echo throughout the room. Air ventilation began humming above him and he glanced hurriedly for anything that could be used as a weapon, but held little hope. If there was any chance of that, none of the soldiers would be imprisoned beside him.

  Two doctors were working at a table across from them. He could sense Rankin’s presence on the other side of the glass, but ignored him, intent on watching what the doctors were up to. Damn fool had led them straight into an ambush, despite his warnings, and he felt his anger increase at the thought of his present predicament, and what might be coming next.

 
“How’s 2.0 coming?” Sean asked in a joyous voice.

  A soldier hovered in the corner of the room, a gun in hand, and it looked like he was there to make sure that the two scientists kept working. One of them bowed his head and said, “we think we’re finished.”

  Sean stepped forward eagerly, “you used the sample I gave you?”

  The man nodded, looking afraid to speak, eyes shifting towards the nearby soldier and the two on the other side of the room. “We did exactly what you asked. Please, don’t hurt our families.”

  Sean’s charm was not hindered by whatever was running through his veins as he smiled widely and clapped the man on the shoulder, “of course not! What would make you think such a thing? Now, let’s start Human trials, shall we?”

  “We shouldn’t,” the other doctor spoke up, her eyes glancing in his direction. “We don’t know what—.”

  “Oh, I think we do,” Sean responded. “You know, I don’t really need you for this part. So, if you’d like to hang out in one of those cells until we see if our subject reacts as he should, by all means.” The man’s arms swept in their direction and the doctor before him cowered, silenced out of fear. “That’s what I thought. How long til we can begin?”

  “Thirty minutes,” the first doctor returned quickly, not wanting to suffer the same threat.

  Sean looked at his watch, then glanced at a monitor in the corner. “Not sure if we have that much time, but hey, what can you do? Just make it happen. Smith, go see if you can lend the others a hand. We need this shit wrapped up.”

  “Yes Sir,” the man that had been beating on him responded. With a quick look in his direction, Smith brought his weapon up and disappeared back the way they’d come in.

  “Let’s start with that one,” Sean declared, pointing in Rankin’s direction. “Best to start from the top down, right?”

  He didn’t know what was about to happen, but he knew he wouldn’t like it. If it were a cure, would those doctors be that scared? No, this was something else, something as insidious as the first virus the man created, maybe worse. Glancing in the directions of the gunshots, he prayed that someone got in here to stop it before whatever it was got unleashed upon the world and gave it a coup de grâce.

  Chapter 34

  29:15

  Monica

  Ninth Compound

  Sean thought it was a strength, always having a backup plan, but it was also his Achilles heel. She looked at the shed interior and smiled, “Weir, this is Raines. Got a minute?”

  “No!” a voice threw back at her. “In case you haven’t noticed, we are in the middle of a gunfight, and we’re not exactly winning.”

  “I get that, but I have something you need to see,” she tossed back, trying to let the urgency in her voice convince him where her words apparently were lacking. “Right now, Captain.”

  Jenn’s voice spoke over the com, her words calm and precise. “Captain Weir, we cannot be sure that our communications have not been compromised. I’d advise you to listen to Monica and keep whatever it is off coms.”

  “Fuck me,” she heard over the earpiece. “Snake Eyes, you’re in command til I get back. Need to do some recon.”

  Waiting patiently for the man to find her, not wanting to just give her location over the radio, she looked towards the main building, her weapon ready. At any second she might be discovered and any chance at ending this forever thwarted.

  The Captain appeared in the moonlight, his stance indicating that he wanted to attack her for making him leave his position. “This had better be damn good.”

  She silenced her mic and watched as he did the same, then turned towards the shed and shone a light within. “Got to love the man, he sure loves his redundancies.” A tunnel entrance came into view and she knew with absolute certainty that it would lead in the main building, as Sean always had to have a secret way in or out of the compounds he had constructed. “Leave a few to make it look like we’re still fighting, and bring some men through here. We can take them from the rear.”

  Weir’s mind worked, she could almost see the gears turning. His hand went for his radio but she slapped it away, getting a dirty look in response. “If they are listening, we lose the element of surprise the instant you push that button,” she warned him.

  He glanced in the direction of the ensuing battle. “If I pull too many off, there might not be enough to hold their positions. I don’t need to lose any more men tonight.”

  “So what do you want to do?” she asked, but already knowing his response. “The two of us?”

  He seemed to consider his options, then nodded. “I don’t see any other choice.”

  “Jenn? You got eyes on?” she spoke into her mic, flipping it back on. She was trying to sound cryptic and hopefully Jenn could answer without giving too much away.

  “I’ve got you,” the woman answered swiftly.

  She nodded, “then let’s do this.”

  Chapter 35

  27:38

  Joseph

  Ninth Compound

  “You were right,” Rankin conceded, the words almost lost through the glass. “Should have put that monster down back in Arizona.”

  He was looking through the cabinet under the sink, but everything in it had been stripped clean. The bed was the only object in the room, and he couldn’t think of how to make it useful as a weapon. Maybe take the bedrails off? “Doesn’t much matter now,” he muttered. “If I’m right, we’re going to be beyond caring soon enough.”

  He looked in Sean’s direction. He was sitting in front of a set of monitors, videos up on the screen, an earpiece held in place by his left hand. Whatever the bastard was watching, it had him distracted, maybe he could—

  “Why not just sit down. I’d hate to have to kill you,” his other escort said, having come to stand before him.

  “You’re going to kill me anyways. So why don’t you come in here and take a crack at it? Why wait?” he taunted. Going to the bed, he gripped the rail and brought it up to its upright position. It was held together with some screws, but very little else. It might not be effective against the man’s guns, but hey, it was something right?

  The soldier didn’t miss a beat, his gun arm twitching. “No one is trying to kill you. As he said, it’s a vaccine. Can’t you see? We are trying to save the world.”

  He paused what he was doing to look at the man. “No, he’s not. He won’t be satisfied until it all burns. Even now, he’s not happy with what he’s done. It’s not enough to kill it, now he wants to kick the dead horse. And you’re the idiot that’s letting him.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man spat.

  “Yeah, wait til he starts testing that shit they’re cooking up, then tell me I am the one that’s delusional,” he grunted, gripping the rail and giving it a hard yank. He could hear the metal groan, the bed shake, but for the moment it remained attached. It was designed to withstand the struggles of thrashing patients, it would take more than just one tug to break it free.

  A loud knocking came from the window. “I said knock it off.”

  “Oh, let him be,” Sean commanded from across the room. “Nothing he does will get him out of there, and we’ve got plenty of guns to ensure his cooperation. Get on the radio, tell Smith I want eyes on what that bitch Monica is doing. I can’t seem to find her, someone is scrambling my feeds, but I know she’s up to something. That bitch always is.”

  Monica’s here? There might be hope after all, his mind whispered, as he gave the bed another hard yank, this time a screw popping loose and almost throwing him to the floor. “You know why she’s here, don’t you?” he asked, distracting himself from the pain in his shoulder. “She’s not going to rest until you’re dead.”

  “She’s just a woman,” Sean answered dismissively. The man had always been misogynistic, a flaw not lost on any of the women that knew him and probably why the man lived alone. Maybe that’s why he wanted the world to end, he couldn’t get laid? Figures, civili
zation brought down by a man with hairy palms and a case of the blues.

  Chuckling, he gave the bed another wrench and the railing pulled free. Standing there, triumphant, he flashed a smile at the soldier glaring at him through the glass and flipped him the bird, then glared at Sean. “You underestimate her, you always have. And this time, I think you’re going to pay dearly for that,” he yelled at the monster in the corner of the room and shifted his finger in Sean’s direction. “I just hope I live long enough to see it.”

  Sean glanced at his watch, “then she’d better hurry, your time is almost up.”

  Chapter 36

  19:01

  Monica

  Ninth Compound

  It looked as if they were in a maintenance closet. The fake wall was pulled back to reveal a mop and some cleaning supplies, light from under the door seeping through and giving them partial illumination. She kept her eyes on that light and breathed slowly, trying to steady her heart rate. If someone passed, they’d see it, but only if it opened into a hall. If it were a cafeteria or something—

  The coms told them that things were getting desperate for their side. Ammo was beginning to run low and more than a few men were down. If they were going to act, now was the time.

  “Ready?” Weir whispered, hand on the door knob, eager to get moving as well.

  “Just stay with me, I’ve got enough to deal with without babysitting your ass,” she winked.

  His gaze remained steady, then the corner of his mouth lifted, “noted.”

  She had proven her worth after all and the respect shining in the man’s eyes gave her the confidence she needed to go forward. The knob was twisted and they were thrust back into the light. Her eyes started to adjust as she moved into the hall, weapon up, checking both sides for activity. The sounds of gunfire were coming from their right, so with a quick nod, Weir moved in that direction while she kept an eye on their flank.