A Darker Shade of Dead

by Bianca D’Arc

  Poor kids. They’d died too young and in one of the most awful ways Matt could imagine. He took his shots, believing he was performing an act of mercy.

  Matt had plugged darts in six of the nine tangos he’d counted and reloaded twice.

  “There are more of them coming into sight in the woods,” came Sandra’s frantic voice over the phone earpiece.

  “How many?”

  “Too many!” she barked, then seemed to settle down. “I see at least six more in addition to the four that are now on the edge of the trees.”

  As he scanned the huge backyard, zombie Tim finally disintegrated. He’d been only a few feet away from Matt when he went from menacing death dealer to a gooey mound of refuse on the grass. The other five creatures Matt had darted would be going shortly, but there were more to deal with while he avoided the ones he’d already shot. A tricky situation, to be sure.

  Matt tongued the lip mic on the radio that connected him to the team.

  “What’s your ETA, Si?”

  The combat team had been a little too silent in his other ear while he’d been talking on the phone earpiece with Sandra and shooting darts at anything that moaned.

  “Almost there. A minute. Minute and a half, tops. We’re double timing it.”

  “Be advised, I’ve darted five of fourteen tangos. One is down for good and there may be more out of visual range of my equipment. Sandy’s spotting for me.”

  “That’s a lot of targets,” Simon commented noncommittally. He was, like most of the men on his team, nothing if not cool under pressure.

  “You’re coming up behind, so I’m only firing once they clear the trees and I can identify them with certainty.”

  “Thanks. I’d really rather not get a dart in my ass tonight.”

  Simon’s sarcastic reply made Matt grin even as he took more shots in rapid succession at new targets when they emerged from the tree line. The toxin in the darts disintegrated tissue on a cellular level. It was as destructive to live human beings as it was to the zombies, so darting one of his own people meant certain death. This was one case where friendly fire would be one hundred percent lethal. They all had to keep their wits about them.

  Matt had to readjust his position in the yard to avoid the creatures he’d already darted who hadn’t disintegrated yet, but he had the situation under control for the moment. More creatures emerged from the trees and Matt reloaded again. He was going through his stock of toxic darts quicker than he’d anticipated.

  “Matt, three more just showed up on my screen,” Sandra said in his other ear.

  Matt turned off the mic on the combat radio earpiece and replied to Sandra.

  “You should be seeing Simon and the other combat troops showing up on the perimeter shortly. Keep an eye out. They’ll be moving normally, so they should be easy to spot.”

  “Thank God.” He could hear the relief in her voice. “I’ll let you know when I see them.”

  True to her word, Sandra let Matt know the moment she saw the cavalry show up on her monitors. She watched in awe as they coordinated their movements and took out the creatures one by one. It was really amazing how they worked together.

  She watched the events unfold on the screens like she was watching an action flick. Only this was real and the stakes were high—life and death—you couldn’t get much higher than that.

  Sandra breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the last of the zombies disintegrated. The men searched the area looking for more, but none were found. After about a half hour, Matt came back to the house after setting up the combat troops in a protective attitude on the perimeter surrounding the entire home.

  She met him at the door, finally disconnecting the call that had been her lifeline, her link to him while she was in the safe room and he faced the danger outside. She rushed into his arms for a much needed hug as adrenaline continued to surge through her body. The last hour had been a little too exciting and the night wasn’t even half over yet.

  Matt gave her a passionate, lingering kiss, but he broke away before she could get too attached. He turned to the monitors and took a quick look before motioning her toward the door.

  “Simon’s in the kitchen. I want to discuss a few things with the two of you before we decide where to go from here.”

  Sandra was surprised she was going to be consulted on a safety issue but went with Matt as he walked down the short hall to the kitchen. Simon was at the window, peering out from the darkened room.

  “I won’t put on the lights, Sandra. Is that okay with you?”

  “It’s fine.”

  She figured he didn’t want anyone who might be somehow peering at them from the outside to know exactly where they were in the house. Sandra didn’t understand how anyone could be spying on them with all the combat troops spread out over the property, but security was Matt’s bailiwick. She’d do whatever he believed would keep them all safe.

  She leaned against the kitchen table, which was just visible in the ambient light from the small night light left burning in the hallway. Simon leaned against the counter and Matt stood between them.

  “Sandra, I don’t want to scare you, but by now you have to realize that you’re being targeted much more persistently than we expected. Do you have any idea why?” Matt’s tone was grim and she hated the idea that he might doubt her loyalty. Especially after last night.

  “Other than the fact that Dr. Rodriguez is a complete jerk who can’t take no for an answer, I have no idea.”

  “Matt, do you think this welcoming party being sent to your house tonight is because of her?” Simon asked. Sandra couldn’t see his face but thought his tone held suspicion as he nodded toward her.

  “I can’t think of any other reason for a mass attack on my home, can you?” Matt turned the question back on Simon.

  “I can think of a few reasons the bad guys would want you out of the way, Commander, but the most likely scenario given what’s come before is that Sandra’s being targeted.”

  “Question is, how did our enemies know she was out here? How’d they get that intel so fast?” Matt wondered.

  “The obvious answer is that she’s being followed.” Simon shrugged. “Maybe they followed your car when you brought her out here.”

  “Possible, I suppose, but unlikely. I’d like to believe my skills aren’t so rusty that I wouldn’t have noticed a tail.” Matt frowned in the dim light.

  “Nobody’s perfect,” Simon reminded him. “Still, I know your skills, old friend. Even though you’ve been riding a desk the past few years, I don’t think you’d ever let yourself get that rusty. So we’re back to the question—how’d they find out Sandra was here so fast?”

  “And how do they always seem to know where to target her?” Matt’s brows drew together in a frown. “There have been too many attempts on her that were too close for comfort. They always seem to know exactly where she is. Why is that, Sandy?” He turned questioning eyes on her.

  “I swear, I don’t know.” She didn’t like the way he was looking at her. Correction: the way they both were looking at her. She could make out their features, even in the dim light, and they both looked at her with clear suspicion.

  “Maybe she doesn’t.” Simon offered the unexpected olive branch.

  “How so?” Matt asked quickly.

  “I’m not sure but I think we should let Mari have a look at her. I remember her telling me about the original research team and their various specialties. I think one of Rodriguez’s previous experiments involved really small subdermal implants. Maybe there’s some kind of tracking device under Sandra’s skin.”

  “You got a battery of shots before they’d let you work on the experimental team, right?” Matt looked at her, and she thought maybe she saw a little glimmer of hope in his eyes. Or was she just fooling herself? She wasn’t sure.

  “Yes,” she answered, thinking back. “As a matter of fact, Dr. Rodriguez administered them. Son of a…Do you think he implanted some kind of tracking device with
out my consent?”

  “From what Mari told me, it’s possible,” Simon answered.

  Sandra shot to her feet. “Get me to the lab. I want it out!”

  “Calm down, Sandy. We’ll go when it’s safer. In the morning.” Matt’s tone was gentle and reassuring. “For now, we hunker down here until we’re sure the woods are clean.” He reached out and took hold of her hand, drawing her to his side. “Si,” he looked at the other man but didn’t let go of her hand. “Set up a perimeter. We’re holding position here for the rest of the night. I doubt, after that display, that there could be many more zombies elsewhere on base. I think they must’ve sent them all here. Let’s make sure there are no stragglers.”

  “Yes, sir.” Simon straightened and headed toward the door. “Should I call Mari and give her a heads up for the morning?”

  Matt squeezed her hand and sought her gaze before answering. “Do it.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.” Simon went out the back door and shut it behind him.

  The silence stretched as Matt held her gaze.

  “You don’t trust me, do you?” Sandra had always believed the direct approach was best in most situations. “Do you think I called Rodriguez or something, to tell him where I am? Do you think I’m playing you?”

  “I know you didn’t call him.” The look on his face was inscrutable, but resolution and belief resonated through his tone.

  “You believe me?”

  “I believe you didn’t call him. As for the rest?” He let go of her hand and sighed. “I know you’re still hiding something from me, Sandra. Can’t you trust me enough to tell me what it is?”

  Oh, God. There it was. He wanted a truth that she feared would change his mind about her for all time. Men had died because she’d allowed those first creatures to escape the lab that awful night. Chances are, some of those men had been Matt’s friends. She couldn’t forgive herself for her cowardly mistake, so how could he?

  Matt watched her face carefully. Panic flashed in her eyes and his heart ached. He knew she was telling the truth about not calling Rodriguez because he’d watched her all day. He wouldn’t tell her that. He wanted her complete trust first before he gave his.

  Perhaps that was a bit selfish, but Matt couldn’t be too careful given the dire nature of this mission. He’d given her more leeway than he should have already. He was tempted to give her everything after the sweet way she’d given herself to him. He had to fight against his instincts. He wanted to trust her. He really did. But he needed to know what she was hiding. At the very least, he needed to be certain it wasn’t something that could blow up in their faces before this was all over. He needed to be confident that whatever it was that she didn’t want to tell him, it wasn’t as vital as she was making it out to be.

  “I’m not hiding anything.” Her answer was too fast to be true.

  “Try again.”

  He held her gaze and dared her to lie to his face a second time.

  Two loud thuds sounded on the back door before Simon poked his head in. Spotting Matt, Simon made his report.

  “Perimeter’s secure, Commander. And I gave Mari the heads up.”

  Sandra scampered out while Simon talked, and Matt saw her close herself in the bathroom. The lock on the door sounded with a faint click. Matt sighed. She was running from him. Running from the truth. He’d let her run a little longer, but a showdown was coming and they both now knew it.

  “Very well.”

  Matt decided to give Sandra space. He went into the safe room and checked in with the various units of the team. The combat unit was all around the house. The cleanup team was already on alert. They’d have a big job to do after the All Clear had been sounded to clean up the remains of all those creatures Matt and the rest of the combat squad had reduced to steaming piles of goo earlier.

  The members of the science team were accounted for. Simon had just checked in with his fiancée and Sandy was currently holed up in his bathroom. Just one more group to check.

  Lew Kauffman had been charged with keeping an eye on the prisoner. Matt had left orders for Kauffman to call when the prisoner woke up, which he probably should have by now. Matt dialed Kauffman’s number and waited while the call connected and rang. And rang. And rang.

  “Shit.”

  Matt stuck the combat earpiece back in his ear and opened the mic.

  “When’s the last time anyone heard from Kauffman?” he demanded without preamble.

  “Archer here, Commander,” came the snappy reply. “I spoke to him just before we got your SOS. All was clear at that time, sir.”

  “How did you contact him? He’s not answering his phone,” Matt reported. “It’s not even going to voicemail. It’s just ringing off the hook.”

  “That’s not good, sir. Kaufman’s solid about comms. Something’s wrong,” Simon added.

  “I was afraid of that.”

  Matt set about contacting the remaining combat-trained members of the team who weren’t immune. There were a couple of Special Forces guys in support positions in addition to Kauffman.

  The report came back almost immediately. Not only had their prisoner escaped, but Lew Kauffman had been left for dead. They were taking him to the base hospital where Mari would meet him and take charge of his treatment. They’d do everything they could for him, but it was difficult to say at this point if he’d make it.

  Matt disconnected the call with a heavy sigh. A slight movement at the doorway alerted him to Sandra’s presence.

  “You through hiding from me?” He didn’t even bother to turn around and look at her. He was too tired of all this crap. Not only was she driving him crazy, but his mission was falling apart before his eyes; he lost a prisoner and possibly one of his Special Forces brothers this night.

  “I wasn’t hiding.” She edged into the room, leaning against the wall by the door, her hands behind her back, looking at him as he swiveled his chair to face her.

  “Could have fooled me.”

  “What’s wrong?” Her eyes narrowed and she moved closer to him, concern in her expression.

  “We lost the prisoner and Lew Kauffman is in the emergency room at the base hospital.” He gave her the news straight up. No sense trying to sugarcoat any of it. “They’re not sure he’s going to make it.”

  “Oh, no.”

  Matt was pissed off. Somehow Rodriguez had known where they’d stashed the prisoner, even though they’d made a strong effort to hide him on the large base. And now one of Matt’s team members was fighting for his life.

  “Somehow Rodriguez knew where we were keeping his man.”

  “More evidence that he might’ve tagged both his employee and me somehow.” Sandra sounded worried but she was right.

  “The sooner we get you checked out, the better, but I’m not moving from this location until after sunrise. We’re the safest here for now. In transit, we’d be sitting ducks.”

  “I don’t want to wait that long.” She was rubbing her arm distractedly. “I’ve been thinking about where and how Rodriguez could’ve inserted a transmitter. All I’d need is a receiver tuned to the right frequency—or maybe a metal detector would be easier—to find it. If it’s there.”

  Matt stood. This was something he could do. He had all kinds of electronic equipment in the house. Lots of spare parts he could cobble into something useful.

  “Give me a few minutes. I’m pretty sure I can come up with something.”

  “Really?” She looked excited. Her gaze followed his search through a few boxes he’d stowed under the desk. He nodded absently in answer to her question.

  He found what he wanted and cleared a small space on one of the tables. It would only take some minor adjustments. He got out his toolkit—a collection of miniatures that worked well on the tiny electronics pieces—and set to work. After a few minutes, Sandra came over and perched at his side, watching with a worried but hopeful expression on her pretty face.

  A few minutes later and he’d jury-rigged a small receiver
enough to try it out.

  “Where did Rodriguez inject you?”

  “Here.” She pointed to a spot on the back of her hip.

  “What’s your best guess? If he’d tagged you, would the thing stay in that general area, or would it travel?”

  “Depends on its size,” she answered as if thinking aloud. “But anything moving around could prove dangerous if allowed to travel the bloodstream. It could easily cause a blockage. Again, it would depend on size. I’ve heard of nanotechnology, but what we’re talking about here is years beyond where the tech is now from my understanding.”

  “So you’re saying it’ll most likely still be in the same area if he put a tag under your skin without your knowledge.”

  She nodded in agreement. “That’s the most likely scenario.”

  “All right then.” He patted the table in front of him. “Sit up here and let’s try this out. It’s a short-range receiver with limited power, so proximity is helpful.”

  She leaned against the table in front of him and allowed him to pull the stretchy waistband of her leggings down a bit. Matt tried not to let the sight of her soft skin and the feel of her warm, curvy body under his hands distract him. They had work to do. Fun and games could come later. They definitely would come later if he had anything to say about it. The taste of her he’d gotten earlier had only whet his appetite for more.

  “How does it work?” she wanted to know.

  He held up the small box and began turning the knobs. “I’m going to go through a range of frequencies to see if we can pick up any sort of signal. If we get lucky and hit on the frequency, we’ll have confirmed there’s a transmitter. Once we know that, we can also use this to determine its location. Then we can do our best to get it out of you.”

  “Sounds like a good plan.” She looked downward, watching the receiver with anxious eyes.

  “It is—if it works. Keep your fingers crossed.”

  It took more than a half hour and an agonizing sweep through multiple frequencies until they hit on the signal.

  “Son of a bitch,” Matt mused when the radio he’d doctored started to ping. He moved away, then back. The signal got louder the closer he was to Sandra.