Cutter turned to him. “Yeah, I bet you would—what the hell’s a Marauder?”
Gauge shook his head as he started to walk away. “Come on, boss, over here.”
Together, they passed the twin vehicles to meet with Moray, who was inspecting what was being packed into a series of matte-black crates. Everything had been laid out neatly on folding tables for him to inspect, which he was doing. Much of what was present, Cutter recognized the functions of, but the names and details did not easily come to mind. Gauge stepped a little faster and pulled ahead while Cutter peeled off to meet with Moray.
“Seems you are sparing no expense,” Cutter said.
“None at all. It’s only money.”
Cutter found himself nodding at the statement. It made sense to him in a fundamental way. There were many in the world who chased money as their primary goal in life. He’d always figured that having too much money was more of a curse than a blessing. It didn’t spend all that well when waiting in line to meet St. Peter. But not having enough sucked just as hard.
Cutter indicated toward the G-63s. “Looking at those—how many did you invite to come along for the ride? They fit…maybe four each.”
Moray straightened and let the clipboard he held sag to his side. “We’re taking a small team, Jack. If we go in with too many, the natives will spook.”
“So? Then it’s going to be me, my team, yourself, and who else?”
“Ajay will be accompanying us as navigator and acting as our translator. I’m also bringing my chief of security.”
He’d met Moray’s chief of security, Hal Rogers, over a year ago after the operation in Russia. The guy came from South Africa and struck Cutter as competent, quiet, and humorless. He wasn’t yet ready to trust the man. Neither did he trust Moray fully. That would take more time. Hell, they hadn’t even worked out who was in charge of the overall operation, which made Cutter a bit nervous. He may not like being the leader all the time, but every time when he hadn’t been the guy in charge, things had gone south—and people had died.
“You’ve had all your shots?” Moray asked.
“What?” Cutter cocked his head to one side. He wasn’t quite sure what Moray meant by that, and before he could say anything, Moray was signaling to someone behind Cutter.
Cutter glanced over his shoulder just in time to see a woman hurrying toward him. She set a metal case on the tabletop beside them, and he watched as she opened it, wondering what she was doing. She was quite interesting to look at, almost to the point of distraction. Blonde hair, large black-framed glasses, button-nose, pouty red lips. Maybe late twenties? Maybe thirty?
She stooped over the silver case, opened it, and drew out a very intimidating hypodermic needle. She flicked it with a finger while pushing on the plunger.
“In your arm or in your ass?” she said bluntly.
Cutter almost choked as he swallowed. He liked the sight of her, but in the same instant he realized what she was about to do, he suddenly wanted nothing at all to do with her.
He hated needles.
He retreated a step.
“Oh, come on,” the blonde woman said. “Not a big baby like the rest of them, are you?”
“I’ve had all my shots,” he said.
“I doubt it,” she fired back, then nodded. “Turn around.”
Moray folded his arms over his chest. There was a barely repressed smirk on his simian face. “You have nothing to fear from her, Jack. She’s my personal physician, Lexi Walsh. Lexi, meet Jackson Cutter.”
“Hi,” she replied. “Now drop your trousers and underwear.”
Cutter rotated, and did as he was told, also lifting up his shirt tails to fully expose his butt cheeks.
“Have some class, boss,” Morgan said as she came up from behind. “No one wants to see that.”
“Speak for yourself,” Lexi said as she jabbed him with the needle, causing him to wince. “I think he has a rather nice butt.”
“If you say so,” Morgan said. “Jack, are you—?”
“Morgan, this is Lexi. Lexi, Morgan,” Cutter said. He felt the doctor moving closer and could smell her perfume.
“You can pull up your pants now,” Lexi whispered in his ear from behind.
He pulled them up, but didn’t necessarily want to. He spun to face the two women while adjusting his belt and glancing at each in turn. Neither would look at each other. It told him all he needed to know about what Morgan thought of the good doctor. She liked her. The vibe he was getting from Lexi told him that, she too, had a certain attraction to Morgan. Then he shook his head, realizing the childishness of his thoughts. What am I? Twelve?
Lexi fetched another needle. “Your turn,” she said to Morgan, not bothering to look at her.
Morgan backed off, hands raising. “Whoa, there. You aren’t going to go stabbing me with one of those.”
“You too afraid?” Cutter asked. “It’s just a little needle.”
Morgan frowned at him. She gave him an evil look and then unbuttoned her shorts. She pulled them down just enough to expose a small patch of skin.
Women, he would never understand them.
As Morgan pulled up her shorts, still ignoring Lexi, she said, “Now go find Lumpy and give him his shot.”
“Lumpy?”
“Mr. Gauge, I assume,” Moray added.
Lexi left with the metal case in hand. Gauge had vanished somewhere into one of the back rooms. Cutter didn’t bother to follow, but a part of him wanted to see how the big guy reacted to such a large needle.
“Jack,” Morgan said, diverting his attention. “Have you seen the tech they have here? Some of it I never would have believed possible. They’ve got self-regulating NVGs that you could walk from complete darkness into a well-lit room and not even notice the difference. Amazing. And these bug-zappers…they’re incredible.”
“Bug zappers?”
“Yeah, they’re some kind of EMR system meant to repel flying pests.”
“They are one of our newest systems,” Moray added. “If you’ve ever been to the Amazon, the biggest threats are often the smallest insects. Biting flies and mosquitos can drive a person insane. Frankly, I hate bugs, so that’s why we’ve spent so much to develop the AURA system.”
“How do they work?” Morgan asked.
Moray led them to a table and grabbed a small black device no bigger than a flip phone. He slid an orange switch to one side and clipped the device to his belt.
“Is it working?” Morgan asked.
“Yes, and it will envelop you in an electromagnetic field that repels all insects up to about a meter in range.”
“Until the battery goes dead,” she added.
“No, not quite. See this?” Moray unclipped the device. On its side was a tiny solar cell they both had to lean in close to see. “You can just leave it on all the time, and it will charge itself during the day. The internal piezo crystal design draws very little current, so—”
“Chases off the goddamned mosquitos, then?” Cutter asked, backing away.
Morgan and Moray both said in unison, “Yes.”
“Good, because I don’t like mosquitos. What else you got?”
“They got plenty, Jack,” Morgan said excitedly.
When Cutter looked at them both, he could tell Morgan and Moray were birds of a feather when it came to high-tech gadgets. He could take it or leave it on the hardware and figured he could live with the mosquitos and biting insects if it came right down to it. He’d spent plenty of time in nasty environments where he’d had to deal with all manner of bugs and creepy-crawly things, but that didn’t mean he necessarily enjoyed it.
He picked up one of the mosquito-repelling devices and examined it closely, then set it back down.
“What about guns?” he asked.
Morgan smiled at him thinly, bowed her head, and left them both behind as she headed off to examine more of the high-tech gadgets arranged on the table way off to her right.
“What was that a
ll about?” Moray asked.
“She doesn’t much like guns.”
“Oh? She had…never mind. Follow me.” Moray led Cutter through a steel-clad door and down a hallway, then turned right. Cutter stopped cold and whistled his surprise. Inside the room were racks and racks of very black, very dangerous-looking weaponry. Next to one of the racks was Gauge, who was grinning almost ear to ear as he toyed with one of the various M4s from the wall, examining it with a practiced eye.
“He’s just a kid in a candy store,” Cutter said, to which Moray let out a slight chuckle.
“We have plenty more, Mr. Cutter. When we get in-country, we’ll have to be careful about what we display. The native populations don’t take well to foreigners, especially well-armed foreigners.”
“Pick us out something good?” Cutter asked Gauge.
“Yup, already have.” He nodded and tossed one of the larger M4s to Cutter. “Twelve point five barrel, Black Dog suppressor—whisper quiet. Trijicon ACOG—with popup, and look here at this—it’s sporting standard M203s. Nice.”
“Indeed,” Cutter said. “I still prefer a simple H&K MP-5K.”
“Is that what you wish to have?” Moray asked. “I can arrange for one if that is necessary.”
“Yeah, bring a couple along—just in case. For now, these will do. It makes Gauge happy to see that I’m using something with a larger caliber than puny 9mm, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, sir-e, boss. Yes. Sir. E.”
- 7 -
FINE DINING
Cutter tried to ignore the chattering requests coming from both Reyna and Morgan. He sipped from his iced tea, wishing it were a beer, or maybe something stronger. He’d also sworn off cigarettes, which kept his trigger short and mood sour.
He, Morgan, Gauge, and Dr. Martinez sat arrayed around a table in a small chain restaurant at the far edge of town, closer to where Atlanta’s skyscrapers ended and the sprawling suburbs began. While there were plenty of other places to eat downtown, none of them fit with Cutter’s expectations. All he wanted was simple, cheap, fast, and most of all—private.
New troubles had been weighing on his sobered-up mind, and the only way to face them was head on. While many of the so-called ‘team leaders’ he’d met during his time on earth believed the leading role meant being the one with all the answers, he’d always gone about it a bit differently. He thought it was far more important to be surrounded by quality people, and to stay out of their way and let them do their jobs the best they could. He’d also learned there always had to be someone who made the really tough decisions. Making those decisions meant sticking to them and not wavering under pressure like most did. His confidence in his own decision making had been shaken a bit recently, but his stubbornness hadn’t completely been snuffed out.
He also was well aware there was a time and a place for disagreement, and that time and place was right before everyone committed to the cause. Once committed—no going back. All his people knew this. That’s why he’d hired them in the first place. Loyalty. There was no substitute for it anywhere in the universe.
That same loyalty took trust, and trust took time to develop. His issue now with those seated around the table with him was whether or not they could put their trust in Dr. Reyna Martinez. He knew it was a tall order, but his instincts told him he could trust her even though the way she’d acted in Russia had complicated that. He’d been knocking boots with her for going on a solid month so far, and was still not quite sure about her. Intimacy was one thing. Loyalty was another.
“You think we should take this job?” he asked those assembled around the table with him—Gauge, Reyna, and Morgan.
“Money’s good,” Gauge said. “I like their style too.”
“I have no objections,” Morgan added. “I’m with you—whatever you decide, Jack.”
Which was the way of things, Cutter knew. There were people who just wanted to follow others. Morgan was such a person. She was smart, talented, and loyal, but she always wanted to defer to others when it came to decision making. She’d always said she had bad judgement. Cutter wasn’t so sure it was her judgment that was bad, just her self-confidence. While he could have taken advantage of the fact she was so subservient to him, he was certain she would have wised up and told him all about it in her own way. She might be a follower, but she still spoke her mind. Plus, if she ever did tell him off, her language was so far from colorful, that it wouldn’t amount to much. He often wished she would swear more. That might make her seem more—human.
Gauge, on the other hand, was both a loner and a follower, which made him an interesting combination in his own right, and was loyal to a T.
This all made Morgan and Gauge part of Cutter’s extended family. Now there was one new member who was on the verge of joining the family. But was she interested joining them? That he didn’t know.
“Reyna?” Cutter asked.
She sipped her water and set it back down. “I’m suspicious of them.”
Cutter cocked his head toward her and asked from the corner of his mouth, “About what, specifically?”
“I do not think this is a treasure hunt. Not for gold, at least. It doesn’t appear to me they are truly seeking a lost city. I do not know why yet. Based on my past dealings with Mr. Moray, however, I suspect he is searching for something…entirely different.”
Cutter had been having the same suspicions all along. He just felt he should not be the one to voice them first. He was pretty sure he could guess what was going on. After Russia, he’d been considering the possibility and how much he wanted to know the answer to that particular riddle. Here was the golden opportunity to do that. The lost city was probably a myth, and would remain a myth. The real target was something else.
He glanced around the table. Gauge and Morgan were both nodding in agreement, which told Cutter that they had been thinking along the same lines but didn’t want to say anything. After what they’d been through together, he understood that the allure of uncovering the mystery—zombies or no zombies—was almost irresistible.
But was it worth the risk?
“What makes you so certain?” he asked.
“There are no more giant lost cities waiting to be found,” Morgan said, taking over the conversation. “The tech we have today is far too sophisticated to just let one slip by. Sure, there may be buried or hidden secrets, or even remnants of lost civilizations that haven’t been discovered yet, but a missing, fully realized, fully intact city in the middle of a jungle…? I seriously doubt anyone could miss that.”
A part of Cutter hoped she wasn’t entirely correct, but he knew that she more than likely was. Being the first to find a lost city deep in the heart of the jungle? That did appeal to him greatly. But it also seemed ludicrous.
Morgan opened the case on the laptop in front of her, and the dark pupils of her eyes reflected the colorful image on the screen. “I’ve been looking at satellite images of the area where the general coordinates Moray gave us led to, Jack. There’s nothing special there to speak of. I’ve even reviewed images from the mill-sats in place, including the infrared bands, which are capable of penetrating the jungle canopy. There is just nothing there.”
“Could it be underground?”
“Doubtful. There are not many cave formations anywhere in the area. If you stripped back the jungle canopy, what is under it is mostly a vast desert. Any depression in the landscape which could lead to a cave, or underground structure, would be flooded most of the time from all the rainfall. I’m telling you, Jack, there’s nothing there. No city. No way.”
“I get it.” He shook his head, side to side. “I think the salient point is simple. Why in the hell do they want us to go there?”
“Salient, Jack? That’s a big word for you,” Morgan quipped.
“It’s about one of those artifacts,” Gauge injected, rubbing the stubble at his jaw.
Gauge was right. It wasn’t much of a surprise to any of them. Why them though? That was the bigger question.
Why not some other team? There had to be more to it than Moray was letting on. What that was and how much danger lay ahead remained unknown. However, Cutter intended to find out. But if they came up against anything that put his team in serious jeopardy, he would pull the ripcord and bail on the mission early. Their lives mattered to him far more than anything else, including his own miserable existence.
He looked at each in turn, needing to say nothing more.
Morgan nodded.
Gauge nodded.
After pausing for beat, Reyna nodded.
“It’s a go, then.” Cutter almost ordered a round of beers to seal the decision but resisted. He was doing his level best to keep his cravings under control. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it was necessary if they were going to pull off this mission with any reasonable chance of success.
He turned to check on the status of their food. It had taken the kitchen way too long to cook up a couple of burgers and a salad. Then his eyes widened a bit when he spotted new arrivals just entering the restaurant.
“What the…?”
Behind one of the new arrivals, was two men, neither of whom Cutter recognized. But he certainly recognized the woman who was leading them.
- 8 -
WARNING
Cutter locked eyes with the new arrival to the restaurant, feeling a bit of disgust in his gut. Then he put on an artificial smile and gave the woman in the pantsuit a finger-twiddling wave. She passed by a hostess pulling menus from a holder for her without a saying word and marched her way to Cutter’s table flanked by two large men dressed in cheap suits.
“Mrs. Harpy,” Cutter said as she stopped at the edge of his table. “Nice to see you again.”
“That’s Special Agent Harper, Mr. Cutter.”
“Oh? I’ve had it wrong all this time?” Cutter shook his head. “Sorry about that. Secret Agent Harper. I’ll remember next time. What is it we can do for you then?”
The agent scanned the table and her eyes locked on Morgan Crow. “I don’t know how you are able to keep skirting the law, Ms. Crow. That stunt you pulled was quite inventive, but we saw through it right away.”
Zombie Team Alpha: Lost City Of Z Page 4
