The Tide_Ghost Fleet

by Anthony J Melchiorri

  “There’s no way Dom will fail,” Navid said as he toiled beside her. “All this is going to be for nothing.”

  “It’s a precaution,” Lauren said. “But I hope you’re right.”

  Similar scenes were taking place all around the R&D laboratory. While most of the staff had already left the facility and were being bused to presumed safe zones, the remaining scientists were loading up vital parts of their experiments that they couldn’t afford to lose. Felix Becker had personally come to preside over the evacuation.

  Lauren privately agreed with the second half of Navid’s statement. If the nuclear launch succeeded, there would be little hope for the progress that had been made here. Frankfurt would be nothing more than irradiated soil. Lab samples and experimental biological weapons were no good without laboratories to conduct experiments and plants to churn out fresh batches of the Phoenix Compound and whatever other weapons Becker had cooking here.

  Becker was marching between the rows of scientists and techs packing up their supplies. He spoke both in German and English to appease all those working in the lab. “Hurry, hurry, hurry! We must depart at once! Even if they destroy this facility, they will not destroy us. They will not destroy our work. We will rebuild. We will fight back!”

  “Guy’s a regular military general,” Navid said under his breath. “Most of the labs around the world are filled with Skulls. It’ll be hell cleaning out a new place that’s even half as well equipped as this one.”

  “Sure, it’ll be hell.” Lauren screwed on the cap to another Dewar flask. “But we’ve been through hell. What other choice do we have?”

  Navid had no answer for that. The young scientist knew better than most people what it was like out there. He probably didn’t relish leaving the safety of the fortified lab and venturing out into the unknown.

  There was another problem with Becker’s evacuation plan. If they didn’t get all the samples to a new facility with electricity and a reliable liquid nitrogen generator, all the work they were trying to save right now would go bad in a matter of days.

  “They should just ship all of the samples back to the US,” Lauren said. “At least the NIH and Detrick are still standing.”

  “Maybe.” Then Navid stood straighter, as if realizing something for the first time. His eyes went distant, focused on something far removed from the German lab. “Do you think they’ll send us, too?”

  “To Detrick?”

  “Yeah.”

  “If we’re going to continue this work, we’ll have to go wherever the samples go,” Lauren said. “But I wouldn’t think about that right now. Focus on the task at hand.”

  Lauren wondered why he was so concerned about going back to the US. Was it because of his ill-fated trip there with Shepherd and Divya last time? Or did the nightmares of Boston still haunt him?

  Undoubtedly they did, but he didn’t look scared right now. Just... wistful.

  Then she understood.

  “Don’t worry,” Lauren said. “You’ll see Kara again soon.”

  His face turned red, and he suddenly became intensely focused on his work once again.

  One by one, they loaded the Dewar flasks into crates on the back of carts. Those carts flew out of the lab and returned empty. Lauren scanned the flasks and crates, trying to make sense of all the cryptic names and numbers on each. Did each represent another attempt at a cure? Or maybe a sample of infected flesh? Or were they biological weapons destined to eradicate the Skulls?

  “We’ve got one more bus waiting for all of you,” Becker said. “And a cold beer for each of you.”

  Lauren caught herself before she fell into a daydream of a crisp German lager. She hadn’t tasted a good beer in... Good Lord, how long had it been? She knew it was silly, but that promise carried her on despite the exhaustion. Maybe Becker was joking. Maybe there was no beer, no light at the end of the tunnel. But at that moment, she needed hope, no matter how small, that there was a promising future awaiting them. Even if it was just a future at the bottom of a frothy stein.

  They toiled for another twenty minutes, working mostly in silence. Becker helped load the last crates then ushered them all to leave the laboratory. He turned the lights off behind them as if that little bit of saved energy mattered in the long run.

  No one spoke as they ran down the halls. Their footfalls echoed on the tiled floor and against the now-darkened walls. There were no crowds of technicians moving between laboratories and offices and manufacturing floors. Just this last group—and with them, the knowledge that they had obtained. They carried more than just vials of frozen viruses and pharmaceutical compounds. They carried with them the hope that there was another tomorrow, a brighter future where Skulls didn’t stalk the Earth.

  A buzzing sound interrupted their silent march. Becker took out his satellite phone and answered it. He froze in the center of the hall, and his face went white. The phone clattered to the floor.

  “Mein Gott,” Becker said. “They’ve launched the missiles.”

  ***

  Dom gasped for breath. The Hybrid tore another claw into his shoulder. Every fiber of Dom’s body told him to scream, to surrender to the agony. Told him that the flap of skin hanging off his shoulder was more than enough reason to give up.

  But he would not surrender.

  Not to these monsters.

  He ground his teeth together, and water sheened over his eyes. The muscles in his jaws locked. But he did not scream. He wouldn’t give the Hybrid the pleasure. Instead, he took a page out of Mokri’s book. He laughed.

  “That’s your plan?” Dom asked. “Is torturing me what turns you on, you sick fuck?”

  The Hybrid roared and backhanded Dom. Sensing his fury, the Titan crashed against the ship. The Sahand rocked, and the sound of groaning metal reverberated throughout the bridge.

  “Europe will be gone soon,” the Hybrid said, snarling. “You will be gone, too. Your country will be gone, and even our Iranian friends will be gone soon, whether they know it or not. It is we who will rule.” He jabbed at Dom’s chest with one of his crooked claws. “There is no room in the world for people like you anymore.”

  Dom wondered if there wasn’t something more behind the Hybrid’s words. Did he mean people like him, as in a meddling American—or did he mean people as in humans?

  Glenn, Jenna, and Miguel were all staring at Dom from the opposite corner of the bridge. None of them appeared even a little scared despite the rifles pointed in their faces. He felt a twinge of pride in seeing their defiance even as the nukes flew and the Hybrids took over.

  He never imagined it would end like this. If he thought back to the oil derrick where he had seen his first Skull, he never in his wildest nightmares could’ve pictured himself at the mercy of one of those creatures with actual human intelligence.

  Maybe the admiral was right. Maybe the humans had lost this war. Maybe the efforts in Frankfurt and Fort Detrick and the NIH were too little, too late. Maybe the Oni Agent was destined to pervert the rest of mortal life on this planet until nothing remained but bone-ravaged hunters and their prey. Civilization had been irrevocably brought to its knees by something that was too small to even be seen under a microscope.

  Yes, that was the end of humanity. Even as he’d dismantled biological weapons threat after threat, Dom had always thought the end would be brought on by some power-hungry fool with their hands on nuclear weapons. Well, he supposed that was partly true now. Einstein had said that he didn’t know which weapons World War III would be fought with, but World War IV would be fought with sticks and stones. He was wrong. It would be fought with the teeth and claws of the Skulls.

  Then as if to emphasize his point, another Hybrid sauntered through the hatch. Another enemy here to ensure his team’s utter defeat.

  Wait a second...

  Dom’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t help the grin spreading across his face.

  “You’re wrong, you ugly bastard,” Dom said. “There is no room in the world
for things like you.”

  ***

  “Go, go, go!” Meredith roared.

  Dom was in the middle of the bridge, blood soaking his torn fatigues. A Hybrid stood over him. His claws dripped with crimson. The other Hunters were forced into a corner under the guard of a group of Hybrids.

  It had been hell trying to scuba dive through the churning waters as the Titan pushed its way through the murk toward the ship. But she, Andris, and O’Neil had made good on their promise to get to the Sahand. Even if it had been ludicrous to chase after the Titan to do it.

  But right now, as the trio burst into the bridge, she knew she had made the right choice. The Russians froze for a moment at the sight of O’Neil. Every Hybrid they had seen was an ally. They had never faced one like O’Neil. He threw himself at the group surrounding Glenn, Jenna, and Miguel.

  Meredith fired on the Hybrids like a machine, sighting one up and then moving onto the next. The blast of the gunfire echoed in the enclosed space, slamming into her ears. Pain coursed through her eardrums at the repeated shots, but she didn’t care. All her fury exploded out of the barrel along with the bullets. These assholes had hurt her family. They had hurt Dom. And if they escaped today, they’d hurt countless more innocents. For that, she would kill every last one of them.

  Hybrids and Hunters crashed against each other in a desperate battle for survival. Dom surged upward, bloodied but unbroken, smashing a fist into his captor. Though Glenn, Jenna, and Miguel had been relieved of their rifles, the Hybrids obviously underestimated the Hunters. Miguel unleashed a stream of acid from his prosthetic arm, dousing the nearest Hybrids. They went down, swatting at their dissolving armor and flesh, organs unnaturally exposed to the brilliant glare of the overhead lights. Glenn rushed headlong into another Skull and slammed the bastard against a bulkhead. Jenna ducked low as one of their captors swung his rifle around to fire on her. Bullets ricocheted against the consoles near her. She kicked the Hybrid’s leg, knocking him on his bony ass.

  O’Neil was a tornado of claws and teeth. He’d dropped his rifle and moved between the other Hybrids like a velociraptor on a killing spree. She’d never seen him so incensed by fury and hunger, and she wondered if the Hybrids’ pheromone tricks to influence the Titan had affected him.

  The Titan seemed to sense something was amiss, too. The ship crashed back and forth as if in the middle of a squall. But despite the violent shaking, the battle in the bridge continued. Meredith bashed a Hybrid in the face with the stock of her rifle. Blood sprayed from his nose. He slashed at her face with his claws. They connected with her cheek, raking lines of fire across her skin.

  “Hell no!” Meredith yelled. She’d already lost one ear. She wasn’t a vain woman, but she had to draw the line somewhere.

  She battered the Hybrid. Over and over, she slammed her rifle into his face. The bastard devolved into a mass of broken bone and pulpy flesh. As she struck him, she saw Spencer dying, the broken Huntress, Renee and all the other Hunters they’d lost. All the people who she hadn’t known until the Oni Agent had forced her from the office into the field.

  “Meredith!” a voice called to her. “He is dead! You can stop now, my friend.”

  Meredith wiped flecks of flesh and blood from her face. Her chest heaved. The other Hybrids lay sprawled across the bridge, dead. Andris was standing beside her, and he put a hand on her shoulder.

  “We won,” he said. “It’s okay.”

  “Thanks, Andris.” Meredith patted his hand once and then turned to look for Dom. He looked like hell, covered in bruises and blood. She ran over and wrapped him in an embrace.

  “Hey,” he said, leaning his forehead against hers. “My Valkyrie. Always showing up just when I need you the most to kick some ass.”

  They stayed like that for a moment, then Meredith turned her attention to his wound. She pulled supplies from her first aid kit and bandaged the ragged flesh of his shoulder. “Christ, Dom. Do you try to get injured worse every time I see you?”

  “I do my best,” Dom said. Then he looked at Andris. “We haven’t won yet. They still launched those nukes. Frankfurt is...”

  He couldn’t finish the sentence. No one else in the bridge could, either. They all knew what was at stake. Lauren and Navid were out there. The power stations supplying precious electricity to what remained of Europe were there, as were the facilities producing the Phoenix Compound and the new weapons Lauren had been developing with Mueller Pharmaceuticals. The German city was the last barrier between the FGL’s progress and their advance across the Atlantic toward the United States.

  Meredith joined Glenn at one of the consoles. “I don’t read Farsi,” she said, “but I see three dots flying away from this ship. That’s bad, right?”

  Glenn nodded, his face pale. “They launched all three nuclear missiles.”

  Her chest tightened like a Goliath was squeezing it. “What can we do? Any of these commands detonate the missiles or redirect them?”

  Glenn scanned the words, mumbling to himself as he translated. “It’s too late. There’s nothing else we can do here.”

  -37-

  “Thomas, please tell me the Huntress is in working order again,” Dom’s voice called over the comms.

  Thomas stood in the electronics workshop, listening. The blinking and buzzing of the equipment around him faded as he concentrated. He’d already ground his cigar into nothing but flecks of brown tobacco. It felt like a million tiny insects were crawling down the back of his neck and over his spine, but that was just the nervous sweat trickling over his skin.

  They had already shut down the air-conditioning systems. Alden had said it was too much of a drain on the backup generators they’d brought online. With all the computer and comm equipment in the cramped chamber, the electronics workshop felt like a sauna. Thomas half wondered when his flesh would start sloughing off from the heat and humidity.

  But the last thing he would do was abandon his post.

  “We’re doing what we can, when we can,” Thomas said. “Applying any thrust is going to be dangerous right now, but our weapons systems are operational.”

  “Good.” Dom’s voice shook. That didn’t make Thomas feel good. The man had faced Titans and Goliaths and Droolers and God-knew-how-many Skulls, but what was unfolding now seemed to scare the captain more than words could express. “What are the chances you can hit them with a surface-to-air missile?”

  Chao shook his head. “I’m not a weapons expert, but those missiles are out of range and no SAM we have could even hope to catch them.”

  “I was afraid of that. How about—” Dom’s feed fizzled to static for a moment. When it recovered, a gut-trembling roar reverberated through the workshop’s speakers. Then a high-pitched crunch like that of rending metal followed. “Shit, the Titan is going crazy on us. The last of the Hybrids are getting desperate. Thomas, we got to get out of here, but I’m not leaving this ship if there’s anything else we can do to stop those missiles.”

  Thomas looked to Chao.

  “Once those nukes were launched, communications with the missiles were cut off. The only communications they have with the Sahand is an isolated GPS unit that reports their position back to the ship.” Chao indicated a display that showed a map of the missiles currently in flight. “Other than that, the Sahand can’t talk back. Those things are long gone, Captain.”

  “What about Kinsey? Ronaldo?” Dom asked.

  The European front of this war would be lost to the FGL when those missiles landed. The scientists at Mueller had no chance of escaping the blast zone. Lauren and Navid would be incinerated.

  “US control over antiballistic missile facilities was lost earlier in the outbreak,” Thomas said. “There isn’t anything Kinsey or Ronaldo have to offer. The Bundeswehr did fire six counter-missiles, but this is experimental tech we’re dealing with.”

  If the unified German military forces couldn’t knock those missiles out, Thomas wasn’t sure who could.

  “Two thousand k
ilometers and counting until Frankfurt,” Chao said. “All three missiles are spreading now. We’ve got two headed to Germany, and one split off toward northeastern Europe.”

  They still weren’t sure what the third missile was targeting. Projections put it somewhere in the Baltic states or Russia. That didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense to Thomas right then, but he was more concerned with stopping them from landing at all.

  “We still got Samantha on the case,” Thomas said.

  He glanced at the tech. Her headphones were cranked up with the familiar beat of heavy metal music. Her eyes were locked on her computer screen, her fingers poised over her keyboard. A drop of sweat rolled down the bridge of her nose, but she didn’t seem to notice. Thomas wanted to ask her how much longer it would be before she cracked the missile navigation program. But he didn’t dare interrupt her work. Pestering her with questions wasn’t going to help anything. Either it would work, and half the world would be saved—or else there would be a second apocalypse. They would find out soon enough.

  “Fifteen hundred kilometers. Counter-missiles impact in five,” Chao said.

  Every muscle in Thomas’s body clenched.

  “Four.”

  The computers in the workshop fell silent. Or maybe that was Thomas’s senses narrowing on a single point, all focused on Chao’s screens.

  “Three.”

  The dots representing the missiles and counter-missiles were so close now. So goddamn close. All they needed was for one of those counter-missiles to explode and take the nukes with it.

  “Two.”

  Thomas inhaled. His fingers curled into fists.

  “One.”

  And then the dots intersected. They were too far to hear any explosions or feel any shockwaves. The most they might catch was a glimpse of light over the horizon about as bright as a falling star. For a brief moment, all of the dots over Germany were still visible: counter-missiles and missiles alike.