The Tide (Book 5): Iron Wind

by Anthony J Melchiorri

  “Didn’t a bunch of Japanese ministers commit suicide after the attack? I don’t think they’re behind this.”

  “Exactly,” Chao said. “There’s no evidence that the Japanese government is involved—just this one individual. We’ll start getting this translated. The entries look like they’re part of a journal or lab notebook or something.”

  The pounding at the door quieted. Dom didn’t like it. “Alizia, back away from the door.”

  “Oh shit,” Samantha said. “Just intercepted a message. Whoever was in that chamber is on the move. Being escorted by half a dozen guards.”

  “Damn,” Dom said. “But if the target is no longer here, why the hell did they send reinforcements?”

  “Christ!” Chao shouted. “We lost the data connection from the microscopy lab. Hard disconnect. Someone must’ve pulled it out!”

  Before Dom could respond, something clinked against the door.

  “Find cover!” Dom bellowed. He dove behind the hospital bed and flipped it on its side. Meredith ran to a support pylon, and Alizia ducked into the alcove near the wheelchair.

  A low pop sounded, followed by a growling roar. White sparks flew around the edges of the door, and then the whole thing erupted from its pneumatic locks. It careened into the room and crushed the kitchen table. Splinters exploded from the destroyed furniture like shrapnel as smoke clogged the entryway.

  Dom’s ears rang. He saw Meredith mouthing something, but he couldn’t make it out. Gunfire lanced into the room, chewing up the walls and plunging into the hospital bed. A round crashed into a stanchion near Dom, spraying his face with bits of concrete.

  He returned fire, half-blind, sighting up a silhouette shifting through the smoke. A quick squeeze of the trigger sent three rounds blasting into the moving shape. He was rewarded with the clang of a gun falling to the floor and a man rolling out of the gray clouds, his eyes locked open and his fingers outstretched.

  One down.

  Alizia shouted curses in French as she unloaded a magazine into the darkness. Rounds pinged off the cement walls. Her blind firing led to another pained groan. Then three men surged through the smoke, their rifles barking, causing Alizia to shrink back. The wheelchair beside her was torn up by their salvo.

  Meredith whirled around the pylon, catching the men by surprise. Bullets took down two of them before they could so much as turn on her. The third was protected by his downed comrades. He threw himself to the floor and aimed at Meredith. Dom couldn’t get a clear shot at his torso or head, so he fired on the solder’s gun instead. The man dropped his rifle. Dom finished him with a shot through his throat.

  The smoke cleared. Dom ran to a support column near the exit. He peered down his optics, scanning the hallway. Another four guards were waiting outside. One fired on him, and he drew back. Bullets cracked into the cement, fragments bursting around him.

  “Cover me!” Meredith said.

  Alizia leaned out and hosed the hallway with rounds. Dom joined her as Meredith sprinted to the doorway. With her new vantage point, she took down the first guard. His body flopped to the ground, and Dom took advantage of the others’ surprise by moving up beside Meredith, firing all the way until he brought down two more guards. Before they could silence the final soldier, he screamed something in Russian over his radio.

  Dom’s Russian was a little rusty, but he was pretty sure they were screwed. Covertly sneaking around the base no longer mattered, but his resolve to find their missing target had grown.

  The clatter of more footfalls echoed down the hallway. Reinforcements weren’t far. Dom’s mind raced. He pictured the map Alizia had drawn on the table. If he’d been in charge of extracting a key asset from a compromised facility, there was one place he would have headed first.

  “Huntress, Alpha One. Do you have eyes on the helipad?”

  “That’s an affirmative,” Chao replied. “I can override the security to the helipad and highlight the most direct route there for you on your smartwatches.”

  “Do it. Any word from Frank?”

  “He had to land the Caravan in the water, but everyone’s alive and well. He’s got the old Coast Guard Huey, and he’ll be in your vicinity within the hour.”

  “Good,” Dom said. He changed his magazine. Alizia and Meredith kept the guards hunkered down with well-timed shots. “How’s the data looking?”

  “It’s hard to tell how deep we are into their systems,” Samantha said. “We haven’t had time to parse what we’ve got. We’ve been too busy combatting firewalls and other counter-hacking measures.”

  Dom was thankful that the talented computer specialist kept the techno-jargon to a minimum for once. “Anything to help combat the new strain of the Oni Agent? That’s got to be our first priority.”

  “No, afraid not,” Samantha said. “I tried delving through some of their medical data, but we’ve still got to translate it, too. It’s a mess, Captain.”

  “Damn.” Dom paused. He heard more noise from the corridor, leaned out, and fired. Rounds pinged, glancing off walls and support columns. More men charged down the hall. Two fell immediately to a barrage levied by Dom, Alizia, and Meredith. He ducked back into the room. “I’m not sure how much more time we have here, and we can’t hold these guys off for long. We’ve got to do something drastic.”

  “Got it,” Samantha said. “Drastic is my specialty. I can cut their power, but we’ll lose data transmission.”

  “No good,” Dom said. “How about fire suppression? Can you selectively activate that?”

  “Uh, let me see...yes, yes! Tell me when, Captain!”

  “Now!”

  White foam sprayed over the soldiers, blanketing them from head to toe. They screamed, clawing at their faces in alarm.

  “Let’s go!” Dom boomed. He stepped from behind the column, his rifle chattering. Meredith and Alizia followed. Bullets lanced into the foam-covered soldiers before they could clear their eyes. One fell in their path, and Dom leapt over him. His ears rang from the enclosed gunfire and persistent wail of alarms blasting throughout the facility. More footfalls sounded from somewhere within the latticework of catwalks, but his muffled hearing made it difficult to pinpoint.

  Then a new sound broke through his ringing ears. A roar that shook the catwalk beneath their feet.

  “Christ,” Meredith said. “As if this couldn’t get any worse.”

  “Demons. There!” Alizia said, pointing over the catwalk. A squad of soldiers yelled at each other in Russian and then fired down a dark corridor. Their muzzle flashes cracked like vicious lightning. A hellish chorus exploded against the sound of gunfire.

  Skulls hurtled out of the shadows. Their scything claws dug into the soldiers, ripping them into shreds of sinew and flesh. Their agonized cries lasted for only a few seconds before they were silenced. One Skull lifted its head back and howled. Strings of red hung from its yellowed teeth.

  More soldiers descended on the crowd of Skulls. Flames licked out of the corridor.

  “Bravo,” Dom asked. “How many Skulls are headed our way?”

  “More than we can count, Chief,” Miguel said. “Not exactly sure what’s going on, but the Titan is holding the doors open. Got some nasty wounds, but the Skulls, Droolers, and Goliaths are attracting most of the fire.”

  “Everyone up there safe?” Dom asked.

  “So far. Hunters and CDF are in the trees. We’ve been out of the battle since we got the Skulls riled up.”

  “Can you draw them off our position without risking yourselves?” Dom asked.

  “I’ll think of something.”

  “Good,” Dom said. “We’re headed to the helipad. Meet you on the other side, brother.”

  “Be careful you don’t break a hip, Chief.”

  Gunfire and Skull yells filled the chamber. Dom crouched beside Alizia and Meredith as he studied his smartwatch. A grenade exploded in the tunnel the Skulls were pouring from. The tide of Skulls seemed to temporarily abate, but that didn’t slow Dom�
�s racing heart.

  “Here,” he said, pointing to the map on his watch. “We take this door, follow the corridor through this bay, and then we’re at the helipad.”

  “You make it sound easy,” Meredith said.

  “We’ll make it easy,” Alizia said through gritted teeth. She placed a fresh magazine into her AK-47.

  They barreled down the catwalk. The gunfire intensified behind them. An enormous bellow rocketed up, followed by the sounds of bodies smacking against concrete. A Goliath had bulldozed its way through the makeshift blockade. Skulls filed in as it smashed several of the soldiers still struggling to keep the creatures back. Behind them strode a smaller beast that hissed and spat. Its gurgling was barely audible over the din of its comrades, but Dom had trained himself to recognize the warning signs. A vile spray coursed from the creature’s maw, dousing the remaining soldiers. Their agonized screams drowned out the Skulls momentarily as the Drooler sauntered forward and let out another blast of burning acid.

  “Good God,” Meredith said. “Glad to be up here right now.”

  “There’s the door!” Alizia said, charging ahead. She rammed into it, flinging the door open. Their footsteps resounded off the metal walls of a long chamber. White coats, cleanroom suits, and gloves were stacked at the end of the hall. A decontamination chamber separated by acrylic doors confirmed what Dom suspected.

  He glanced at the smartwatch again. “Is this thing right? We’re supposed to be heading into a bay, not a lab.”

  “This is strange.” Meredith studied the signs on the decontamination chamber. “These indicate positive pressure with respect to the outside environment. I would’ve thought they were trying to keep the Oni Agent or whatever inside the lab. But apparently they’re more concerned about keeping outside contaminants from getting in.”

  “Too bad for them,” Alizia said, opening the door to the decon chamber. A red light flashed a warning. A robotic voice droned on in several languages. English came last.

  “Warning. You are risking contamination of Protocol C-12. Warning. You are risking contamination of Protocol C-12. Please, do not proceed.”

  Alizia pushed through the next door. Warm air rushed out, buffeting Dom as he and Meredith followed. It brought with it the sterile smell of labs and hospitals, along with a harsh white light. But other than the smattering of lab equipment along the walls, it looked very different from any lab Dom had seen before.

  “Holy shit,” he said, a hollowness settling behind his sternum.

  Enormous glass cylinders made a semi-circle in the middle of the floor. Metal scaffolding reinforced them, and a tangle of tubes and hoses protruded all along their circumferences. Each cylinder was several stories tall. Two were empty. But in the other eight, sleeping Titans were held in suspended animation. They floated in the same blue fluid as the embryonic monsters Dom had seen in the smaller lab, and their eyes remained closed, pinched tight as bubbles drifted from their nostrils.

  “This place is a goddamned monster factory,” Meredith whispered.

  “We need to destroy them,” Alizia said. “These things can’t keep being released. We won’t survive.”

  Dom nodded. They were well past the point of silent subterfuge and data theft now. He ran to a bank of terminals at the feet of the slumbering giants and slammed in a transmitter. “Huntress, Alpha One. We need to shut down these units ASAP.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Chao replied.

  “Also, you’re recording our cam feeds, right?”

  “Yep,” Samantha said.

  “Good. I want Kinsey to see this.” Dom studied the computers. One of the monitors displayed Cyrillic characters. Nothing he could recognize, but it was yet more evidence that the Russians were involved.

  “The translations are coming out wonky,” Samantha said, “but I think I located a command that’ll do the trick.”

  “Does it shut down these facilities?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Samantha said, “but judging by the number of prompts that come up after you select ‘terminate,’ it seems like it’s pretty important.”

  Dom didn’t hesitate to give the order. There were some things that just shouldn’t exist in this world, and the Titans were at the top of the list.

  Dom, Meredith, and Alizia peered around the vast chamber. A few scientists were working at another bank of monitors near a different entrance. But with the size of the chamber and the huge cylinders between them, the scientists might as well have been in another city.

  “Do we stick around to watch the fireworks?” Meredith asked.

  “No,” Dom said, regretting he couldn’t stay to witness the destruction. “We need to get to the helipad. If their VIP is flying out of here, I want it to be our chopper he’s on.”

  “Then let’s not waste any more time.” Alizia started to wind between the Titans’ chambers.

  The nearest Titan’s eyes opened. It moved in slow motion within the fluid, but its speed made it no less powerful. The giant monster pounded one fist against the side of the chamber. Fissures formed all along the length of the tube. Water seeped out slowly at first and then burst in huge sprays. The pressure of the liquid was too much. Glass and fluid exploded everywhere, showering Dom, Alizia, and Meredith.

  Dom grabbed Meredith before the current of blue liquid swept her across the floor. His fingers latched around her wrist, and he fought against the rushing water, leaning into it. Together, they caught hold of one of the many stanchions intended to support the Titans’ chambers, stretching up like the skeletal remains of some metal beast. Alizia was too far away to reach. She flailed in the water until she too found a handhold.

  The scientists began to scream. They ran frantically between computer consoles and doors. Several guards opened fire on the freshly awakened Titan. Another three sprinted from the catwalk, fumbling for grenades. The Titan shook itself off and lumbered as if it were drunk. Its claws clanked against metal as it grabbed hold of a beam below the catwalk. It groaned under the creature’s weight. Rivets screamed and popped. Dust sifted from the ceiling.

  With one violent swipe, the creature knocked the soldiers off their perch. Their bodies flew through the air, bounced off the wall, and landed in the now-ankle-deep liquid. The Titan’s eyes scanned the lab, peering at the bodies and then at the chambers holding its brethren. One of the other Titans’ eyes opened, and it locked gazes with the freed one.

  Dom couldn’t tell whether it was recognition or hunger he saw in their expressions. The freed Titan’s jaw opened, and it let out a grating yell that boomed against his eardrums.

  Then the monster charged.

  -46-

  Kara wiped the sweat off her forehead. Navid gave her what seemed like a forced smile as he helped another crew member into a patient bed. Already the bay was looking like it had after they had evacuated the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

  Except now every single one of them was infected with the Oni Agent.

  “Is it getting hotter in here?” Kara asked Navid. She dabbed a cloth over Connor’s head. He had finally cried himself to sleep. She knew full well what it was like to lose a parent to the Oni Agent, and she prayed this boy wouldn’t have to learn.

  “Hotter?” Navid said. His face seemed a much paler brown than usual, and his eyes looked bruised and heavy. “I hope that’s all it is. You doing okay?”

  “Sure,” Kara said. A shiver snuck through her flesh. She wasn’t certain if it was fear or something more sinister at work. She cast a sidelong glance at Lauren and Peter. While Divya and Sean had enlisted Kara and Navid to help them take care of patients, the two senior members of the medical team were sifting through data. Chao and Samantha provided a constant stream of documents from the Bikoro facility. Most came through butchered by translation, but Peter and Lauren still doggedly searched them for any information on treating the airborne variant of the Oni Agent.

  “The Phoenix Compound will work,” Navid said, almost as if he were trying to convince himself as much
as her.

  “All we have is a few cell experiments and computer simulations, and then we’re just going to throw it in people. That would never fly in the real world, right?”

  “You’re right.” Navid let out a sad laugh. “But this is the real world now. The FDA doesn’t exist anymore. No one has the time or money for animal testing. I can’t believe the whole drug development process I learned in school no longer applies, but I don’t think we have a choice. Lauren’s going to have to use the first batch of Phoenix Compound on these people.”

  “When will it be finished?” Kara asked.

  Navid checked his watch. “Got maybe ten minutes left.” He rubbed his wrist absently, gazing at the patients groaning in their beds. Divya and Sean flitted between them to give increased dosages of the chelation treatment. But everyone here had already received that therapy once before. All they were doing now was delaying the inevitable.

  “You think this will work?” Kara said.

  “I hope so.”

  “I’m not interested in hope. I’m trying to be realistic.” Kara hung another IV bag onto a pole, readying it for Divya. “I mean, if Lauren doesn’t find anything from Bikoro and the Phoenix Compound doesn’t work...”

  “I know,” Navid said. He stuck a syringe needle through the rubber stopper of a bottle of the chelation therapy and pulled back on the plunger. His eyes narrowed as he focused on the small lines in the syringe. “Ready!” Sean grabbed the needle and treatment from Navid. He nodded his thanks before moving swiftly to another patient. He turned back to Kara and said heavily, “If this doesn’t work, if nothing works, then we’re screwed.”

  “Yeah,” Kara said. “We’ll end up like them. Like my mom.”

  “Like Abby,” Navid agreed.

  The hatch to the med bay opened. Maggie waddled in. The dog’s tongue lolled from the side of her mouth, and she walked with what looked like a pained gait. Her tail swiped slowly left and right, no longer enthusiastic. Sadie followed. The sight of her sister made Kara gasp.