She ran to the girl and brushed back her hair. Sadie’s bloodshot eyes stared at her glumly. Kara pressed the back of her hand to her little sister’s forehead. Heat poured from it.
“I don’t feel good,” Sadie said. “And I don’t think Maggie does either.”
Kara rushed her sister to one of the last empty beds. Maggie groaned as she tried to stand on her back legs to get into the bed with Sadie. But the dog couldn’t muster the strength. Navid scooped her up and placed her at Sadie’s feet. The dog curled up, letting out a long sigh.
Sadie’s eyes closed. Kara grabbed her hand.
“Am I going to turn into a monster?” Sadie asked. “I don’t want to. I don’t want...”
Her words trailed off as exhaustion took hold, and Kara squeezed her hand tighter. Someone clasped Kara’s other hand.
She turned to see Navid, his face wrought in concern. “The Phoenix Compound will work. It has to.”
He spoke with a new confidence. One that hadn’t been there moments ago. She wanted to argue with him, to question his newfound certainty. To tell him to stuff his lies and false reassurances.
But looking at Sadie’s face, seeing her chest rise and fall with shallow breaths, she decided to believe Navid was right.
He had to be.
***
Frank piloted the Huey over the jungle. If he stared long enough into those trees, he could see the occasional Skull looking back, wondering when fresh food was coming its way.
No snacks for you, he thought as he followed the Congo River toward Bikoro.
“We going to get there in time?” Shepherd asked from the rear cabin. He had an M240 mounted on one side of the chopper. On the other side, Rachel manned a similar setup. Rory sat in one of the empty seats, checking over their stowed rifles and ammunition should they need to land and leave the chopper. Frank hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“If Dom and company can hold out a little longer, we should make it there in the next half hour,” Frank said.
“Assuming we have the correct coordinates,” Shepherd said.
“Assuming that, yes,” Frank said. “I don’t think Bravo would’ve gotten that wrong, though.”
“Not doubting their abilities or competence,” Shepherd replied. “But I don’t see anything out here besides a jungle and a river. Where the hell is this facility?”
Frank’s patience was wearing thin. Between Shepherd’s grumbling and Rory’s constant nausea, he felt like a stereotypical dad threatening to turn the car around if everyone didn’t settle down. “If they avoided detection for years, I wouldn’t expect it to be obvious.”
They flew on with the rushing wind, only the heavy thump of the rotors and the chopper’s engine breaking the silence between the ragtag crew. Then Frank saw something over the horizon—a flash of orange light.
“Did you see that?” Shepherd asked.
“Yes, I saw the very bright light,” Frank said with a touch of sarcasm.
More flashes. Then tendrils of dark smoke slithered into the sky.
“That’s definitely not natural,” Frank said. “Bet those are our people.”
Shepherd pressed a button on the radio. “Bravo, Charlie. We’re under thirty minutes out from your position. Sitrep?”
Miguel’s voice broke over the comm, sounding ragged and out of breath. “Goddamn good to hear from you. We’re struggling out here, fighting off both Skulls and assholes. CDF have taken some casualties. Andris used up the rest of his C4 blowing up a couple of stubborn Goliaths, and now he’s pouting. Says he can’t wait until Frank gets here with more.”
“What’s the status on the Titan?”
“Dead,” Miguel said. “At least, the first one is.”
Shepherd frowned and pressed the call button. “Come again? I didn’t catch your last. There’s more than one Titan?”
A hollow chuckle crackled over the line. “Yeah, you could say that.”
***
Meredith covered her face as shards of glass hit her. The Titans battled in a gargantuan display of power and horror. It was like watching two ancient gods grapple in hand-to-hand combat. Meredith had never felt smaller or more afraid.
The Titans stomped over the floor, crushing computers and lab equipment. The spikes jutting from their backs scraped the walls, and when one tossed the other into the side of the chamber, it tore down a catwalk. Soldiers plummeted from it. Their bodies were soon trampled by the warring Titans.
“We’ve got to get past them!” Meredith said, pointing to a door beyond their tree-trunk-sized legs.
Gunfire exploded from one of the catwalks. Meredith ducked beside Dom instinctively. But the first salvo hadn’t been directed at them. Rounds pinged off the skeletal armor of the Titans.
“Don’t they know how to stop their own monsters?” Alizia cried.
Another door opened several stories above them. A soldier emerged carrying gray cylinders that looked to be RPG-32s meant to disable tanks and armored personnel carriers. One of them mounted an RPG on his shoulder, and the screaming of the rocket-propelled grenade was followed by billowing smoke and fire. Flecks of bones and chunks of red flesh rained down on them. The hit Titan wavered, now missing a considerable portion of its chest and shoulder. The second beast used the opening and drove the other creature into the wall while pummeling it with its fists. Another RPG screamed overhead, blasting into the second Titan.
“Now’s our chance!” Dom yelled above the din.
Meredith, Dom, and Alizia sprinted between the Titan chambers. Creaking glass forced Meredith to look up. She felt an emptiness in her stomach as she stared at the fractures forming in yet another tank. The same sounds came from a second, then a third.
All the Titans were awake.
Glass shattered. Soldiers cried out. Gunfire cut into the water near Meredith’s feet, and she ducked behind one of the fragmenting chambers.
Another RPG blasted into the first Titan’s ruptured chest. The creature began to fall. Dom and Alizia reached the door under the shadow of the falling giant, but Meredith was almost a dozen yards away from the exit. There was no way she would make it in time. She caught a glimpse Dom’s face as he realized it too. Then the dead Titan crashed against the floor, sending up a wave of blue liquid.
“Meredith!” Dom bellowed.
“I’m alive!” She wondered how long that statement would hold true. The other Titans’ tanks gave way, shedding glass and fluid. She hid behind the dead Titan’s arm to avoid a fresh onslaught of gunfire coming her way. “But I need some cover!”
“On it!” Dom yelled.
He and Alizia let loose a salvo, causing the soldiers to recoil. The other dying Titan stumbled. Its bloodied claw reached for the men who were attacking it. Meredith took advantage of the unexpected help and clambered over the chest of the dead Titan. She slid down the other side. Dom grabbed her elbow and hauled her clear of the beast. The Titan’s crimson blood intermingled with the blue suspension liquid, becoming a sickly purple soup.
She and Dom joined Alizia at the exit. He smiled and brushed a smudge of something from her cheek. “You ready to get out of here?”
“More ready than ever,” Meredith said.
Dom rammed the door open, leading with his shoulder. The liquid at their feet rushed into the corridor. Behind them, the other Titans began to free themselves, roaring as their glass prisons shattered.
“They’ll destroy each other and this place better than we ever could,” Alizia said with a devilish grin.
“As long as they don’t destroy us,” Meredith said, slamming the door shut.
Their boots slapped against the puddles on the metal floor. They were close to their goal now, and every step brought them closer to the truth.
If they were fast enough.
If they survived.
“Bravo, any sight of choppers taking off?” Dom asked as they began to climb up the stairs toward the helipad.
“Not yet,” Miguel said. “Engines are roaring, t
hough. You gotta hurry.”
“Copy,” Dom said. “Charlie, what’s your ETA?”
“Fifteen minutes until we hit Bravo’s position for a brief layover. Another stop at your helipad, then we’ll be reaching our final destination at the Huntress after a beautiful sunrise ride over the Congo.”
They reached a curve in the hallway. As they came around it, gunfire exploded. Over the waves of lead plunging into the walls, Meredith heard the beat of helicopter blades. They couldn’t waste more time in another gunfight.
“I got this,” Meredith said, unclipping an M84 grenade. “Flashbang going out.”
She pulled the pin and threw it down the hall. It bounced once as she took cover behind the bend in the hallway. Squeezing her eyes closed, she waited until she heard the muffled explosion of the stun grenade before darting out to open fire. Dom stood at her back, covering her. They unleashed a torrent of rounds into the blindly firing soldiers and then barreled past their writhing bodies.
Glaring white lights and churning air flooded from the open door at the end of the corridor. Spotlights covered two Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopters as people loaded cargo crates into their side doors. More crates and oil drums were stacked nearby. The people in this silo-shaped underground helipad moved about like bees buzzing around a hive.
Dom flashed a hand signal, telling without words what Meredith needed to do next. She rushed to the first crate. Dom and Alizia took positions behind nearby ones. Meredith surveyed the men and women stacking metal cases into the choppers. They were foot soldiers carrying out orders. She didn’t care about them. Her eyes quickly found the two who stood out from the crowd. One man loomed above the others. His head was shaved bald, and he wore a black beret with a patch on the front of it that Meredith couldn’t quite make out. She noticed the same patch on the left shoulders of those working around the man. His chest puffed out each time he yelled something at one of his underlings. He had no other insignia on his uniform—nothing to give away his rank or allegiance. He didn’t need any badges to show he was in charge.
Near him, a doctor or scientist in a white coat pushed a wheelchair. A wizened old man of Asian descent sat in it. Tubes snaked out of his nostrils to an oxygen tank, and an IV line was taped in place over his left hand. It led to an IV bag secured to his wheelchair along with a couple of other machines Meredith guessed were keeping this man alive. Barely.
“I think we found our VIP,” Meredith whispered.
The man in the beret pointed at the door they’d come through just moments before, barking more orders.
The soldiers around him immediately dropped into firing positions. Their rifle muzzles roved back and forth, seeking a target. The man in the beret sent three soldiers to flank the right side of the crates and another three toward the left. Another six crept up the middle of the helipad. Meredith, Dom, and Alizia were slowly being boxed in on three sides.
Footfalls echoed from the hall behind them. The shadows of more soldiers stretched down the corridor. The ground began to shake, and cacophonous bellows erupted from deep within the base. It wouldn’t be long before the Titans joined the party.
-47-
Lauren surveyed the medical bay. So many patients. So much confusion and worry. One by one, the signs of the airborne Oni Agent were showing up in the crew members. And one by one, she and her team were forced to put them in medically induced comas. She wondered how soon it would be before Peter, Divya, or Sean could no longer help. How long before their eyes pulsated with burst blood vessels and their fevers intensified to the point of delirium? How long before the Oni Agent took them all?
“Goddammit!” Peter yelled. He slammed his fist on the lab bench, rattling the keyboard and monitor he was using. Was his anger a natural reaction to the stress they were all under, or was he starting to lose himself to the Oni Agent? “This research is useless. I haven’t found anything, Lauren!”
A deep, dark pit formed in Lauren’s stomach. It threatened to swallow her whole. The fact that they had found nothing relevant in the medical and research records Chao and Samantha had recovered could mean only one thing.
If the Bikoro facility hadn’t documented these changes in the agent, then she and her team had inadvertently provided the unique environment for the Oni Agent to evolve. Treating it with the chelation therapy and using antibiotics liberally had resulted in an agent far more resistant to their treatments than even its diabolical creators had managed.
“What have I done?” Lauren asked, slumping onto a stool. She pulled her fingers through her hair. She imagined feeling her nails grow out and scrape her skull with the budding points of claws. “I’ve screwed us.”
“No, no,” Peter said, scratching at the stubble on his cheek. “It’s not your fault. It’s not our fault. We didn’t create the agent. And how could we have guessed it would change so quickly? This is beyond our abilities, Lauren. It’s beyond what we ever dreamed.”
“Beyond our wildest nightmares.” Lauren pressed her palms against her eyes. She had failed the Hunters. She had failed Glenn. Her throat tightened as she imagined him returning to the ship to find they had all turned. “We have to tell Dom they can’t return to the Huntress. They cannot get infected. If they do...then all of this is for nothing.”
Peter looked ready to protest. But then his expression softened, and nothing but sorrow filled his eyes. “You’re right.”
“I’ll have Chao and Samantha relay the message. But only when the Hunters’ mission in Bikoro is over. I don’t want them to be more distracted than they already are.”
“Sounds prudent,” Peter said, sounding more like his usual slightly uptight self.
Lauren’s mind stormed with thoughts. So many lives hung in the balance. She remembered how Ivan and Scott went from colleagues to bloodthirsty monsters. And now she would bear witness, for as long as her mind and body held out, to the complete annihilation of the crew by the agent.
Navid and Kara were working beside Divya and Sean with the patients. Making them comfortable. Treating their symptoms. It was the best they could do. Faced with almost certain defeat, still they chugged on as if there was hope, as if they could make a difference. Sadie lay on her hospital bed, impossibly small and fragile as her body struggled to fight off the infection. Maggie was curled at the girl’s feet, experiencing the same pain and confusion as her human family.
Lauren turned away and scrolled through the data on her computer once more. None of the new documents appeared to be any more helpful than the last batch. But she resolved to fight the Oni Agent until the end.
A small beep sounded from the synthesis equipment Navid had set up. The first batch of the Phoenix Compound was done. It went against everything Lauren had been taught to use a drug in a human patient without extensive testing. But they had no choice.
Peter stood, walking cautiously over to the lab bench as if the glass flasks and tubes were vipers, coiled and ready to strike. “Do you want to do the honors, or shall I?”
“I will.” Lauren reached under the hood for the flask where the microparticles containing the finished Phoenix Compound were held. She unhooked the flask from the rest of the apparatus and eyed the liquid inside. If this didn’t work, then everyone aboard the Huntress would be dead—or worse—before Dom and the Hunters returned.
***
Gunfire exploded in the distance, punctuating the roar of the choppers. Dom ducked into a tower of crates. The man in the beret grabbed a Russian-made Vityas-SN submachine gun from the chopper nearest him. He aimed the weapon over the cargo crates. He yelled commands at his troops, though his words were lost to Dom in the din of the helicopters.
Dom had half-expected the man to take off with whatever he was loading onto those two choppers. But if he hadn’t yet, that meant there might be something vital in the remaining crates, something that the man didn’t want left behind. And if something was important to them, then it was important to Dom.
First, they had to escape the trap closing in o
n them.
Although the soldiers clearly knew intruders were somewhere nearby, Dom, Meredith, and Alizia still hadn’t been spotted. It was their only advantage. But it wouldn’t last long. If they didn’t act soon, they would be cornered—and likely slaughtered—while the big Russian escaped with the crates and the elderly Asian man.
At the very least, he wanted to know who the hell they were. “Huntress, Alpha. We’re surrounded. Things are about to get dirty. Did you get a vid capture of the man in the beret and the one in the wheelchair?”
“Roger, Captain,” Chao said. “Facial recognition search says the big one is Pyotr Spitkovsky. Not sure if it’s an alias, but we’ll find out soon. Didn’t get a clear enough view of the man in the wheelchair to find a match.”
“Copy. Shit’s about to go down. Make sure Frank gets his ass over to us with reinforcements, got it?”
“Aye, aye, Captain. Frank’s en route to picking Bravo up now.”
“Good. Over.”
Meredith’s eyes narrowed as she shouldered her rifle. “Any bright ideas?”
“Got more flashbangs?”
“One,” Meredith said.
“I’ve got three.”
Alizia let a toothy grin cross her face. “That sounds like a bright idea to me. Flash, shoot, done.”
“I want the guy in the wheelchair and the Russian, Spitkovsky, alive,” Dom said. “If anyone has answers, it’s them.”
Dom motioned for silence and then handed Alizia an M84. At his signal, they each pulled the pin and threw their grenade at the soldiers nearest their respective positions. Dom tossed the fourth toward the choppers, hoping it would catch Spitkovsky off guard and slow their progress in loading the two helicopters. The grenades clunked against concrete, and several of the soldiers yelled warnings to their comrades.
Dom and the others covered their ears. They waited for the high-pitched pop and flash of light and then popped up to open fire. Dom’s gun rattled, bullets ricocheting in the hallway. The soldiers marching down it found no cover from the relentless storm of lead. Four who hadn’t reacted in time to the flashbang went down without ever seeing Dom. Two others uncovered their eyes, fumbling for their rifles.
The Tide (Book 5): Iron Wind Page 31
