by Julie Rowe
Max couldn’t see Akbar’s face, Ali’s was the one he could see clearly, but Akbar’s hesitation was the only sign so far that the man had any empathy left in him at all.
“Keep them out of the way and they won’t be harmed,” Akbar said after a few seconds. “Any soldiers with you must disarm now or they will be killed. If they try to fight, they’ll be killed, but not before one of the children is killed in front of them first.”
So much for empathy.
The ultimatum was enough to make Max sick. His fists clenched so tight the joints were white against his skin.
The soldiers around him swore, turning the air blue.
“He’s not sane,” Max said to the men around him. “He’s exhibiting psychopathic behavior, which means he’ll have no hesitation in hurting or killing anyone, and no guilt afterward. If you provoke him, he will kill you first and not bother with questions.”
“Sounds like he’ll kill us anyway,” Hunt said.
“No.” Max thought about it. “He wants something or he wouldn’t be here looking for my surrender.”
“What does he want?”
“I have no idea, though...” He thought back to Dr. Sophia Perry’s clash with Akbar. “He might want my professional expertise in some way. He tried to force one of my doctors to genetically alter a rabies virus into a superbug.”
“Did she?” Hunt asked.
“No, she blew up her lab instead. Nearly blew up Akbar too.”
Hunt grunted. “Too bad she missed.”
“So, as soon as you’re of no use to him, we’ll all die—is that what you’re saying?” Thompson asked.
“In this plan-for-the-worst-hope-for-anything-better situation, yes.”
“Fuck.”
“What is your decision, Max?” Akbar called out.
“I agree to surrender. My men, as well,” Max shouted at the madman. “How do you want to do this?”
“You come out first, walk ten feet, then disarm. After you’ve been searched by my men, you may join me and your men may come out one at a time.”
“Fine. I’m coming out.” Max followed his words with actions, leaving the safety of the building. He stopped approximately ten feet out and set his Beretta on the ground. He put his survival knife there too. Then he stood and walked toward Akbar with his hands in the air.
A militant came toward him, searched him thoroughly, then frog-marched him to stand by Akbar, not quite close enough to touch.
Akbar had his right hand wrapped around Ali’s arm and a handgun in his left.
Max looked her over, but didn’t see any new evidence of abuse or mistreatment.
“I have not hurt the woman,” Akbar said. “Nor will I, unless you provoke it.” He smiled. “Thank you for surrendering. You’ve saved me a great deal of money.”
“You put the bounty on me?”
“Of course. I had to keep you busy while I created my masterpiece.”
Whatever sanity Akbar had retained after the death of his family, it was all gone now.
Hunt came out of the building and was searched, followed by Thompson, Jessup, Tom, Warren and Holland.
“I had heard she was a fierce fighter.”
Max watched Akbar tighten his grip on Ali’s arm. The bastard was going to leave bruises.
“She’s the best shot I’ve ever seen,” Max said softly. “And she teaches some hand-to-hand to soldiers in training, but this...” He looked around. “This isn’t training.”
“Women,” Akbar said, disdain coating every word, “are better suited to intellectual and family pursuits.” He smiled faintly. “Dr. Perry surprised me when she blew up her lab. I hadn’t expected that.”
There was an underlying tone of curiosity in Akbar’s voice that finally gave Max something to work with, something to distract him from Ali’s deadly threat. “I was furious when I found out what she had done,” he said, shaking his head. “Her reason for doing it only made me madder.”
Akbar tilted his head to one side and leaned slightly toward Max. “What was the reason?”
Oh, yes, he really wanted to know.
“You attempted to use emotional blackmail to get what you wanted from her. Fear isn’t a good motivator to someone who’s as pragmatic as she is. She has little patience for that sort of emotional outburst.”
Akbar stared at Max, unblinking for several seconds before saying, “I almost wish she was here rather than you.”
Max shrugged. “She’d just blow something else up.”
Akbar’s stare finally left him and the terrorist glanced at the line of Special Forces soldiers kneeling with their hands behind their heads.
“There are only six of them,” Akbar said. “There should be more.”
“One of the men died of the flu last night,” Mac explained. “Others died of injuries sustained in a firefight.”
“Where are their bodies?”
“Inside, wrapped up.”
Akbar’s dead eyes didn’t flicker or flinch. “Show me.”
Max led the way into the old hospital. Akbar followed, his grip on Ali’s arm unchanged. Several armed militants came with them, and the rest stayed outside to guard the Special Forces soldiers.
Max took them to the room with the bodies. Akbar’s men unwrapped the dead with little care.
Akbar ignored Nolan’s bloody cadaver and leaned down to examine Bull. “Symptoms before death?”
“Cough and fever. He complained of shortness of breath, took a couple of cold pills and went to sleep. He never woke up.”
Akbar looked down Bull’s shirt. “You didn’t autopsy him?”
“I didn’t deem it necessary. We’d already seen enough dead bodies to know what killed him.”
“And that is?”
“A cytokine storm. An overreaction of the body’s own immune system to the presence of the virus in the lung tissue.”
Akbar stepped away from the body and faced Max. “How infectious is the disease?”
“Why are you asking me questions to which you already know the answers?”
“One never knows how an infection is going to behave once it’s out in the world. Twice now, my weapons have not performed the way I would have liked. What is it you Americans say? Third time’s the charm?”
“What do you want from me, other than a pathologist’s report?”
“Where is your field lab?”
Max had never wanted to kill another human being, until now. Whatever had happened to Akbar when his family died had destroyed the human in him and left only an animal. A cunning animal. One he had to treat with extreme caution, because he still didn’t know what Akbar really wanted from him.
“This way.” Max indicated that they had to leave the room, and walked out first. His lab wasn’t far, just a short walk down the hallway and into the operating room he’d taken over.
Akbar stepped through the doorway, looked around slowly, then released Ali, shoving her at one of the armed men with them.
He examined the workspace Max had set up, taking his time, but touching nothing. When he got to the package they’d received only hours before, he asked, “What’s this?”
“Supplies.”
Akbar glanced at Max, then walked over and calmly slapped Ali hard enough to knock her to the floor.
Stay down, stay down.
Akbar stood over her like he was preparing to do more harm. “Don’t make me ask again.”
Shit.
“Syringes, stabilizing agent and the current influenza vaccines for North America and Asia.”
“You believe the current vaccine provides some protection?”
“I don’t know. The man who died had been vaccinated, but he’s the only one so far. None of the people in this village had bee
n vaccinated, so I felt it was worth trying.”
“You wanted to vaccinate the local people?”
“Yes.”
“When did you do this?”
“I haven’t yet. I’d sent out Stone and a local woman to find healthy people who were willing to be vaccinated.”
“Test subjects, Max?” Akbar asked with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you condemned such actions?”
“Not test subjects like when you tested your anthrax on that unknowing village in Afghanistan,” Max said with some heat. “These people will be fully informed and I’ll only vaccinate those who agree to it.”
Akbar watched him as if he were a bug he wanted to step on. “They will not be vaccinated at all.”
Son of a bitch. “What do you plan on doing with them?”
“Nothing.” Akbar sounded like a benevolent leader. “Since so many people here have died, I’m sending some to a nearby town and others to the city.”
His plan was so simple, it would probably work. “You want them to spread the disease.”
Akbar’s response was a sneer. “Disease has always been part of the human condition. I’m simply allowing it to purge the weak from the strong.”
“Is that what you say to the militants who’ve been helping you? Funding you?”
“The truth is a powerful thing.”
“Your truth.”
“Everyone’s truth.”
“No, yours is tainted by tragedy, and you won’t be satisfied until the whole world suffers with you.”
Akbar turned away, his hands curling into tight fists. He looked at the package again and Max could almost hear the gears in his head turning. “Tell me about this stabilizing agent.”
Back to the questions and answers. He glanced at Stone, but she was looking at the floor, giving an amazing performance as a defeated female, helpless and hopeless. Akbar wouldn’t hesitate to brutalize her again to get what he wanted. “I’m attempting to create a vaccine from samples of the virus. I can’t do that without a stabilizing agent.”
“How far into the process of creating a vaccine are you?”
“I’ve just begun. I injected the virus into those eggs a few hours ago, but they need another twenty-four hours to incubate before I can harvest any of it.”
“Very good, Max. Very, very good. How many doses will these eggs make?”
“Two or three.”
“That’s all?”
“It’s the same method the pharmaceutical companies have used for years to produce their yearly flu vaccine.”
“Is this your first batch?”
If he was going to lie, it had to be convincing. “No. My first batch didn’t produce enough for even one dose. I didn’t let them incubate long enough.”
Akbar stared at the eggs for several moments before saying, “I wish to see this process. I will have more eggs collected.”
“Didn’t you use a process like this to produce the virus you wanted?” Max asked. How the hell had he done it otherwise?
Akbar didn’t answer him. He turned to one of his men. “Collect several dozen eggs.” The man left the room.
“What is your estimated fatality rate of the flu?” Akbar asked him.
A hard knot formed in the pit of Max’s stomach. Akbar wasn’t having a conversation with him. There was no give and take, no exchange of information.
Akbar was interrogating him, violence a vibrating threat in his posture and clenched fists.
“I don’t know. People have been dying too fast for me to get any real numbers. I don’t even know how many people lived here to begin with. The refugee camp shot any estimates to hell.”
That wasn’t the answer Akbar wanted either. “An estimate, Max.”
Max scowled, uncaring if Akbar got angry with him. “My very unscientific fatality rate estimate is between thirty and forty percent.” An idea occurred to him and he spoke before he could censor himself. “How did you introduce the virus to this place? And when?”
Akbar’s reptilian gaze was unwavering. “You think you can discover a way to beat me, to combat this virus and save the world?” He shook his head and walked casually over until he was standing next to Stone where she still sat on the floor. “You can’t stop the spread of this disease. You can’t save yourself or anyone else. This virus will finally bring about justice. For me, my dead wife and children, and every man who agrees that the Western powers, the United States, need to be shown that they are as powerless as we are.”
Max could feel the blood leaving his face. “Why? Killing more people won’t bring your family back.”
Akbar sneered. “If we aren’t safe from grenades, rockets, hunger and disease, neither are you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ali stared at the floor as she listened to Akbar grill Max, careful to remain motionless. Catching the attention of a man without a conscience could be deadly. She just hoped Max was aware of the tightrope he was walking in his conversation.
“But this virus won’t just kill Americans—it’ll kill people in every country, everywhere in the world.”
“Where were those people, those countries, when my family died? No one stepped forward to stop you from interfering in the affairs of others, in countries you had no business invading.” He paced away, then back again, crowding Ali, almost kicking her. “Your leaders lie to you and what do you do? Nothing. Nothing.”
“What happened to your family was a horrible mistake,” Max told him hoarsely. “Killing a third of the world’s population won’t bring them back.”
“The world will suffer as I have suffered, and when it’s over everyone left alive will know my name and the names of my wife and children.”
It was an almost unimaginably appalling legacy, and this time, it might just work.
Akbar walked over to Max until they were only a few inches apart. “You are powerless to save anyone.”
“Then I have no reason to cooperate with you.”
Akbar laughed, and it sent a shiver of fear down Ali’s spine. “Don’t you?” He strode over to her and she braced herself for the violence to come.
Akbar grabbed her by the back of the neck and yanked her up to her feet, displaying a strength that wasn’t obvious in his slight stature. He shook her hard, her teeth rattling, and squeezed her neck, cutting off the flow of blood to her head. The pain was enough to make her whimper, and she had to force herself to not fight him.
She could’ve gotten out of his hold a dozen ways, killed him with a dozen more, and might have been able to incapacitate one or two of his armed men before the others shot her, but that would get her and Max killed.
Max needed her alive.
So she hung, stiff but not fighting, in Akbar’s grip.
“You will follow my orders or I will kill this woman, your soldiers and the civilians you’ve brought here under your protection, one at a time in front of you.”
For a moment the only sound Ali could hear was Max’s breathing, deep and fast.
“What do you want me to do?” The words came out of Max’s mouth broken. She wanted to beg him to stay strong and not give in.
“Show me how you create a vaccine.”
“Fine, fine,” Max said, his voice cracking. “Let her go. She’s helping me with the work.”
Akbar dropped Ali, and she let her body flop onto the floor like she had nothing left.
“She will stay in this room, under guard. Do you require anything besides the eggs?”
Ali tilted her head so she could see Max’s face out of the corner of her eye. His face was pale, his eyes dark with strain.
“I have everything else.”
“Prepare the materials. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Akbar paused in the doorway. “If either of you attempts somet
hing heroic, these men will kill you.” He left.
Max swallowed hard and approached the counter. He stared at it unblinking for a moment, then said to her in an undertone, “Are you okay, Ali?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “My neck is sore, but I’m able to help. What do you want me to do?”
“Could you help me unpack the supplies we just got? I need to sort through it for more syringes and stabilizing agent.” He showed her what the agent looked like. A glass bottle with a blue cap, containing about half a cup of clear fluid. The syringes were small, only two milliliters in capacity.
There were other things packed into the Styrofoam package. Vials of flu vaccine, alcohol wipes, one hundred doses of an antiviral medication that was widely available in the United States but hard to get in this part of the world, a sharps container for used needles, miscellaneous first aid supplies and a few MREs.
They had a couple of goons watching them, but could they hide some of this stuff?
Akbar strode into the room again. He came over and looked at the supplies, picking up a vial of the vaccine and a box of the antiviral medication.
He grabbed all of the vaccine and left with it. A few seconds later he came back for the medication and left with that too. He was gone a lot longer this time. Long enough for Max to complete his preparations before needing the eggs.
They sat down on the floor to wait.
“What did he do with the vaccine?” she asked softly.
“I suspect he destroyed it.”
“Threw it in the fire.”
“The medication, he might actually keep for his own use or for some of his men.”
“Max,” she began. “What does he want?”
“I think he wants to understand how dangerous this flu is. Perhaps he stumbled on it and now needs to know how to reproduce it.”
“How can he fool around with something this deadly and not know what he’s doing?”
“He’s a chemist. He knows enough to get the job done.”
“But the job is done, isn’t it? He’s got his killer pathogen. If he’s achieved his goal, why does he need to understand it better?”
Max didn’t respond right away. “I don’t know.” And that made him look worried.
