Code Name: Luminous

by Natasza Waters

  Tony mulled it over for a split second. “That’s not what Kayla thinks. What did she say?” His gut was telling him something else, and if it’s what Kayla thought as well, he was going after that vehicle now.

  “No. She has another theory.”

  Tony’s tension grew, but he remained still although his heartbeat had shriveled to non-existent.

  Ghost raised his gaze to somewhere over Tony’s head, deliberating his thoughts. “It’s only a theory, Tinman.”

  The other SEALs milled about and checked their gear, talking quietly in smaller groups. Captain Cobbs took a position beside him, soon to be joined by the rest of Alpha Squad.

  “I want to hear her theory, sir,” Tinman said, bristling at the thought the Admiral held the information back.

  Ghost inhaled deeply and said, “It’s possible Lumin has been infected.”

  “Where are they taking her? Why leave the house?” He asked the questions, but the answer already sat like a slow burning torch in his stomach.

  Captain Cobbs’ lethal gaze landed at his front doorstep. “They’ve infected her, and they’re going to release her in a populated area.”

  The Admiral watched him with a steadfast glare to see his reaction. If he lost his cool, it meant he wasn’t in control. A mission was a breathing entity, and he had to keep altering course and thinking ahead. “We have to intercept if that has occurred,” he said calmly. “If Dafoe isn’t the head of this operation, we may have lost that opportunity, but the alternative isn’t in question.” The Admiral continued to watch him. What more did he want? The rest of the squad sensed it as well, and waited. “We’ve got fourteen men. Seven men to secure the house and get the answers, while the rest of us follow Lumin.”

  The Admiral and Cobbs shared a look and the Admiral nodded. “Proceed.”

  Tony called the men and explained the plan. Alpha Squad would trail Lumin. Another platoon of SEALs from DEVGRU had reported in from the Wholesale Food Factory. They’d found crates with vials of the Plague. The factory owner admitted he’d been given a large sum of money to store and disseminate the goods. Those locations were being investigated. The owner professed to not know what existed in the crates. He’d just been prepared to send it in trucks to the locations as instructed. None had left the factory, which was good news.

  Kayla called back and advised the vehicle had a course laid for Nevada. Maybe Dafoe was returning to his other lab, but he doubted it. With certainty, Tony’s dark thoughts swam closer to Kayla’s theory. They’d have to stop the vehicle by any means of force if it was bound for a populated area. Doubt seeped into his mind, and he wished Mace was here to smack him upside the head. Leading the squad was one thing, but did he have the courage to stop the vehicle if it meant taking Lumin’s life?

  His gaze strayed to Ghost. The man had never veered from his duty to his country. Tony had seen him do things that had stopped him in his tracks, questioning if the man had a soul. In close quarters situations he was ferocious. He’d seen pure terror in an enemy’s eyes when Ghost took aim. The Admiral was lethal, a killer with control and purpose. Would he kill Lumin?

  Captain Cobbs took a life without a flinch of emotion, his grey eyes keen as a wolf and his strike just as deadly. Ed, Nathan, Stitch, and Ditz; would one of them kill Lumin? Tony released a deep breath. He had to hunt the woman he’d fallen in love with.

  “Tinman?”

  He turned his attention to Ditz.

  “They’re westbound on I-40.”

  Tony’s eyes strayed to each face. “They’re bound for Las Vegas. We have to stop the vehicle.”

  Ditz broke off to communicate to someone else. Tony’s band of brothers were geared up, waiting for his command.

  “Wait one,” Ditz yelled out. He spoke again to someone on the radio. As he listened he nodded and his eyes met Tony’s. “Tinman, Admiral, the team has secured the house.”

  “Any information we need?” he asked.

  Ditz nodded but looked toward the ground when he said, “It’s confirmed. Lumin was injected.”

  “And we have the serum. Let’s retrieve her.”

  “No, Tinman. Ah, shit,” Ditz said, and then cleared his throat. “One of the viral specialists said she was injected with a new strain.” Ditz shook his head. “We were wrong about Bjornson. He was working on the antiserum to the newest strain.”

  “There are two viruses?” Ghost asked.

  “Bjornson escaped as we thought, and he has the only vaccine to the new strain. The first one has a shelf life. It dies off quickly, but the second one…nothing will stop it. That’s why Dafoe wants him.”

  Tony’s soul careened. “Are you sure Lumin was injected?”

  “I’m sorry, Tinman. Dafoe is gone and they don’t know where. The people in that vehicle are the weapon and they’re planning to infect as many as they can.”

  Tony gave the order to fallout and for everyone to board the helo. There was no sense in chasing them by vehicle. Fox alerted DEVGRU to deploy and search for Dafoe. The chopper lifted into the air. The squad at the other lab was given orders to prepare to block Highway 40 where it branched into Highway 93 headed for Las Vegas. Every man in the squad sat silently in the aircraft, and stared at anything but him. Dafoe had turned Lumin into an unwitting enemy, and she had to be stopped.

  The helo touched down in the desert off Highway 93. Military vehicles waited in the darkness for orders to stop all traffic. Tony watched the headlights on the highway as they approached. None of the vehicles tried to veer off. They kept coming. How would he stop himself from taking her into his arms? Why had he agreed to allow her to be used by the Navy?

  “Tinman, the vehicle is under a klick away,” Fox said. “Don’t worry man, we’ll get Lumin out of there.”

  He waited with twenty other men. His squad and two others from DEVGRU had joined them.

  “Half a klick,” Ditz called out.

  “Lock down the highway,” Tony ordered.

  Flares, trucks, and men swarmed the highway, stopping traffic. To the oncoming vehicle it would look like an accident. Before they realized it was a trap, they’d be secured. As the vehicle rolled to a stop, the entire squad surrounded it, weapons pointed at the occupants.

  Fox yelled, “Out of the vehicle. On the ground.”

  Three of the four doors cracked open. The driver got out with his hands in the air. “On the ground,” Tony yelled, and others did the same to the men who appeared.

  Lumin was still inside, and he held his breath. There was a scream, and a weapon fired. The back window cracked with the impact and blood splattered against it. One of the Tangos released a wail of grief and dove back into the car. He reappeared with a limp body in his arms wailing in another language, “My brother. My brother.” Tony recognized it as Dari, one of the most common languages of Afghanistan.

  “Don’t move.” One of the men from DEVGRU took a couple steps toward the vehicle and looked inside. “Get out of the vehicle, lady,” he yelled.

  “Hold fire,” Tony ordered. The SEAL could make an easy kill shot. “Lumin?”

  “Don’t come near the car, Tony. Please,” she cried out.

  He dropped his weapon and signaled for the other men to do the same. Putting one foot in front of the other, he positioned himself away from the vehicle but able to see inside. “My lady, I’m here. It’s okay.”

  “Tony move back. Five yards. You need to keep away.”

  Defeated, her bright blue eyes shone with fear.

  “There’s no vaccine for what they put in me, Tony. That’s why they were looking for Bjornson. He’s got it.”

  Tony lowered himself to his haunches. “We know, Lumin.” He’d never wanted to hold a woman so bad in all his life. Every muscle in his body strained to go to her. “Are you feeling the symptoms yet?”

  She nodded, and let out a sharp breath. “But we stopped it, right?”

  “Yeah,” he lied. Dafoe was a fanatic. He wouldn’t give in. He’d have a backup plan and access
to more of the virus.

  Lumin covered her face. As her tears fell, the feeling of loss overwhelmed him. Even as a boy with a mother who cared more about opening her legs to the stragglers she brought home from the bar than she did about her own son, nothing had ever affected him like this.

  “Lumin, I won’t let you die.” He said the words and at first he didn’t know if he was lying or not, but she raised her head and stared at him.

  “How? There’s no cure.”

  “Sure there is,” he said. “Love.”

  “What?” her voice warbled.

  “I love you, and when a SEAL loves a woman, there’s nothing that stands in the way of that. Not another man. Not doubt. Not even a virus. I will find Bjornson. I will save your life, and maybe you’ll agree to go to dinner with me again, and if I’m a lucky man, you’ll fall in love with me.”

  She smiled through her tears, and he smiled through his.

  A warning shout from several men came only a breath before gunfire started. Men in body armor rushed from three SUVs behind them. Glass, metal, and sand erupted with bullets ricocheting off every surface. The SEALs dove for cover, but there wasn’t much. “Get down, Lumin!”

  They hadn’t counted on this, but the Tangos obviously had, and they were ready. The SEALs fired back. He saw Ditz holler, grab his leg and fall to the ground. The firefight turned a corner when the muzzle of a grenade launcher appeared over the door of the first SUV in the line of cars on the highway.

  “Take cover,” he yelled. Dafoe’s men took out the transport vehicles which exploded into a fireball of flame as the gas tanks ignited. “Ditz is down, Admiral.” Ghost didn’t come back. Jesus fucking Christ. “Captain Cobbs, report.” Tony quickly checked his comm gear. “Fox, you copy?”

  Nil response.

  “Drop your weapons,” a voice called out that didn’t belong to the good guys.

  Tony’s guts untwisted when he heard Ghost say, “We can stand off all night, but within an hour you’re going to have the entire Nellis Air Force Base up your ass. Put your weapons down and surrender.”

  “We don’t surrender to Americans.”

  “Then stand clear of the vehicles so I can kill you faster.”

  “We want the woman.”

  Ghost’s voice came from a different angle. Tony knew what he was doing. He had no comms, he had to trust that Cobbs was instructing the squad to take an offensive position.

  “Lumin, stay down. I’ll be back.” She didn’t respond. “Lumin?”

  “Here.”

  She’d scrambled into the front seat. “Stay on the floor until I come back for you.”

  Tony slid on his stomach toward the next car, keeping himself hidden. If they wanted a firefight, they’d get one up close and personal.

  Ghost kept them engaged. “My men are prepared to die just like yours. Stalemate, friend.”

  Tony reached the right side of the car ahead of Lumin’s and saw Fox. They signaled to one another.

  “Aw, fuck,” Tony swore when three men showed themselves, each with a hostage in front of them. A woman and her two children stood rigid with fear as the terrorists held a gun to each of their heads.

  “The woman in exchange for their lives. Lumin’s dying already, but you can save this family.”

  The whip of incoming choppers, at least five of them, approached. Reinforcements had arrived.

  “Times up,” Ghost said from the darkness. “Cavalry has arrived. Step away from the woman and her children.”

  A vehicle roared to life and Tony knew it was Lumin’s. The car lurched ahead, made a sharp U-turn and headed south. The terrorists all opened fire on her vehicle and Tony with the rest of the team launched to their feet and fired on Dafoe’s men. They dropped one after another. One of the SEALs from DEVGRU started to fire on Lumin’s car and he yelled a cease fire.

  “What’s she doing?” Fox asked, watching the tail lights grow smaller.

  Tony dropped his weapon to his side. “Creating a diversion and taking herself out of the formula.” He grinned to himself. She was a warrior after all.

  Chapter Twelve

  Date: 07.26.2014

  Time: 0300UTC 1900hrs PST

  Mission: Code Name Luminous

  Lumin floored the gas pedal. Staring into the beam of her headlights, she concentrated on staying between the lines. Migraine-strength pain thumped so hard in her head it felt like her eyes would pop out. She snapped up the cell phone she’d picked out of the dead guy’s hand in the back seat. She swerved once, and shook her head to clear it. Darting glances downward, she dialed Tony’s cell number.

  “Lumin, where do you think you’re going?” he answered.

  “Away—from everybody, but I need to tell you something. When I was with Dafoe, he said General Caufield helped him. He said he was close to the President.”

  “Okay, sweetheart, got it. Now turn the vehicle around. Everything is under control.”

  “No, Tony.”

  “What do you mean, no?” he said sharply. “Lumin, get your ass back here. We need to get you to USAMRIID.”

  “There’s no point. There’s no vaccine. No cure. I’m going to find somewhere to hide. Away from people.”

  “You can’t hide, Lumin. I’ll put a chopper in the air now. You can’t outrun it.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Tony. I’m infected. There’s nothing you can do.”

  “I care about you, woman. Turn the fuc—flippin’ car around.”

  Lumin shook her head. The lines on the road began to slither like snakes. “Tony, I know I’ve said this enough, but I’m sorry. Sorry I brought this to you. I should have never called you.”

  “I can’t do my job if my lady is in danger.”

  “Tony, how many women did you screw between last December and now? I might be—unskilled in the bedroom, but I’m not stupid.” Tony covered the phone and spoke to someone.

  When he uncovered the phone he cleared his throat. “Maybe, but it’s not like I didn’t think about you, a lot. I just didn’t know what to do about it. We were together for a few short hours. I had workups for the deployment, and—shit, I know this sounds like excuses.”

  “That’s what it sounds like. Do me a favor and call Moira Porter. Tell her what’s happened. But she can’t tell Steven. He’ll go crazy trying to save the day.”

  “Maybe he should have been a SEAL.”

  “I’m sure he would have made a good one.” Lumin broke off and clutched the wheel with both hands, trying to blink away the dizziness.

  “Lumin? Lumin!” he shouted.

  “Please don’t follow me. I’ll make sure I go far away from people. I promise.”

  “What? You think I’m going to let you crawl in some hole and die alone? Why are you doing this?”

  “I’m a realist and you have to get real too. I’m going to die. Phone Moira. That’s all I’m asking you to do. Don’t make this into a big deal.” She could hear Tony running.

  “It’s a big deal to me. Now turn that fucking car around.”

  The sound of helicopter blades whirling got louder in the phone. “I don’t want you to get sick. Don’t follow me, Tony,” and she hung up.

  She had to ditch the car, and soon. There weren’t a lot of places to hide in the desert, but she could double back to Kingman. Maybe she could borrow another vehicle, but she had to do it without running into someone. The cover of darkness helped, but the clock had now started for her, and she wouldn’t survive.

  She reached the outskirts of Kingman and drove slowly until she spotted a Travel Lodge sign and turned into the parking lot. Getting out and striding across the lot, she looked toward the front of the building. Sound moved freely in the desert, and she heard the blades of a helicopter in the distance. Could she actually steal a car and get away with it? She needed an RV, not a car. In Las Vegas she’d seen RVs parked in the Walmart parking lot.

  Trotting back to the car, she headed for the downtown area. She couldn’t ask anyone for directions, an
d pulled over. Searching on the phone, she found its location and headed toward the address. She rolled into the parking lot with a slow crawl. The moon climbed the night sky and shed an eerie glow. She was hungry. When was the last time she’d eaten? No wonder she had a headache. Her muscles hurt like hell, as if she’d run a Tough Mudder race. Spotting a bottle of water tucked in the door pocket, she took a big gulp. Warm or not, wet went a long way to quench her burning thirst.

  A car drove in the opposite parking lot entrance and she slouched low in her seat. A young girl emerged from an old Honda Civic and quickly sauntered toward the front doors. Lumin watched the RVs, hoping a revelation would strike with a bolt of brilliance. If she stole one, a call to the police would have them chasing after her and she was surrounded by miles of open desert. Kingman wasn’t a big city, the authorities would find her. Options were narrowing, but she didn’t want to spend her last hours on earth in a plastic bubble in USAMRIID. She wasn’t irresponsible. No one would die because of close contact, but she had to think of something. The virus was taking over her body, and it seemed to be getting worse with every minute. How long would she have before she couldn’t think straight anymore? She was an hour away from Kaibab National Forest. Could she make it without being seen? She was so damn tired. Slipping her fingers across the bottom edge of the seat, she reclined and closed her eyes for a moment. The phone in her palm jingled and she clutched it.

  “Tony, give it up. Find the men responsible for this. Stop calling me.”

  “Lumin,” Kayla answered.

  She sighed, glad that she wouldn’t have to fight with the SEAL that had whisked her heart away from her. “Kayla, I know he told you to call me.”

  “Yes, he did, and for a good reason.”

  “You’ll understand, even if Tony can’t, but I don’t want to die in an air-tight room surrounded by doctors watching me like a lab rat.”

  “Neither did Nina, but she’s there, and you’re not going to die. The squad wouldn’t let that happen. My husband won’t let it happen. You don’t know us, and I’d probably feel the same as you, but I want you to trust us.”