“And show us the best route from our FOB to Paris,” Fitz added.
“I have your word you will get us out of here?” Mira asked.
Fitz nodded and held her gaze. Mira swiped her long gray hair over her shoulders and leaned down over the map. Michel followed her with his hands on his hips and the AK-47 dangling from a strap over his shoulder.
“About five months ago the French military retreated to Paris,” Mira said. “They cleared and held onto several arrondissements. Those areas were their final stronghold.”
“They put up a good fight,” Michel said. “My dad was there. He was a hero.”
Fitz looked at the boy who was standing proudly despite the AK-47 weighing down on his shoulders. Disheveled red hair stuck out in all directions as he stepped into the light. Freckles dotted his sharp nose. He reminded Fitz a lot of his brother at that age.
Mira smiled at Michel, and Fitz forced himself to do the same thing even though his heart ached for the kid.
“Your father was very brave,” Mira said. “If he had known you were still alive, he would have come here instead.”
Michel nodded solemnly, and she looked back to the map.
“This area,” she continued. Her finger slowly crossed the map from their location in Lisieux to Paris, and then south to Orleans. She traced a circle around the Saint-Laurent and Dampierre nuclear power plants. “The government blew up these plants as a last resort. I remember the disaster at Chernobyl. The radiation here…it is worse than that.”
Mira traced another, larger circle that reached from Bourges to the south all the way to the outskirts of Paris. It was an area of nearly fifty thousand square kilometers.
“Jesus,” Fitz whispered. “That’s like setting off a small nuclear weapon.” He nodded at Rico to make note of the area so they could avoid it.
“Doesn’t radiation kill the juveniles?” she asked.
Mira clicked her tongue and folded her arms across her chest. “A nuclear bomb would have been better. The leaked radiation, it did not kill all of these monsters. It transformed some of them. Before, I was in communication with resistance in the area. They told me of the things they saw. Their transmissions have all stopped coming now.”
Rico’s voice sounded high and thin as she asked, “What did they see?”
“They reported things I don’t discuss with the children. Wormers, Pinchers, and Black Beetles.”
Fitz looked at Rico and tried to process this information. If what Mira was saying was true, then the 24th MEU was going to have more than just juveniles, Reavers, and battalions of grunt adults to think about.
“The mutated army has been moving northwest, out of the nuclear zone,” Mira said. She pointed to the Parc Naturel Regional Du Perche. “If there is one area to avoid, it’s this. Stay very clear of it. There are other creatures there that have no name. An EUF recon unit was deployed to document them. I listened to the comms. They encountered some sort of creature with bark for skin. Your commanders should set the entire forest on fire.”
Mira continued to point out areas to bomb and places where new breeds of monsters had been reported. The picture she painted was grim. France was completely overrun.
When she finished, Fitz thanked Mira and then gestured for Rico so they could speak in silence.
“The leaked radiation,” he whispered. “Why would it not kill these juveniles?”
Rico shrugged. “Maybe it killed some of them but wasn’t strong enough to kill the others. Maybe that’s why they mutated? I have heard of juveniles back home surviving the dirty bombs.”
Fitz scratched at his chin. “I’ll relay this to Bradley so it can be passed up the chain of command. Some scientist like Kate will probably make the call whether to continue with the plan to drop the dirty bombs during Operation Reach.”
They both looked up at a voice at the door across the room. Fitz reached for his M4 and MK11 that were propped up against the wall of mosaics behind him. Rico’s hand went for her M9, but they both paused as Stevenson poked his big head through the open door, wearing a mask of worry.
Fitz straightened his back in anticipation of even more bad news.
“Whatever was on the roof is gone, but we’ve got new movement outside, sir,” Stevenson said. “Dohi is reporting motion in the gardens.”
“Variants? Reavers?” Rico asked.
Stevenson shook his head. “Don’t think so.”
Fitz turned back to Mira. “What else is in this area?”
The woman unfolded her arms, her shoulders sinking. In the dim light, she looked far older. How she had kept these kids alive was beyond Fitz. Maybe this church was sacred—maybe God or St. Thérèse had protected them.
Fitz was starting to think the place was cursed.
“Dohi said the ground is moving out there,” Stevenson said.
Mira narrowed her eyes. “What did you say?”
“Wormers,” Michel said. He was already pulling his loaded AK-47 from his shoulder. He spoke in a low but confident voice for a thirteen year old and then signaled to three of the older kids in the back of the room. They all started checking their weapons.
Wormers? Fitz imagined juveniles with tails, wiggling across the ground, sucker mouths popping as they neared their prey. It didn’t sound that scary.
Rico chewed her gum violently like it was an overcooked piece of steak. “Reavers, Wormers, Pinchers, Black Beetles. Shit, you got all the creepy-crawlies here.”
“Great, that’s excellent,” Stevenson said. “More monsters that want to eat us.”
“More to kill,” Tanaka said. He reached back to check the draw on his blades.
Fitz considered going topside to see things for himself, but first he had to get any remaining intel from Mira.
He gestured at the map. “What’s the best route to Paris?”
Mira looked at Michel and nodded for him to stand down. Then she pulled the map back to her. She used a pen to draw a diagonal line that snaked from the FOB north east of Lisieux all the way to Paris.
Michel walked around the table, one hand holding his rifle, the other scratching his filthy face. That’s when Fitz noticed the red Superman cape the boy was wearing. The rifle had covered it up earlier.
“I have a better idea,” the boy said. “I think we should take your truck out there and drive to Paris as fast as we can.”
Mira put her hand on the boy’s caped shoulder and spoke rapidly in French. The comm link fired into Fitz’s ear before she could finish. He held up a hand and pushed his earbud in.
“Ghost 1, Ghost 3. Something outside you’ll want to see.”
“I’ll be up shortly, Ghost 3.” Fitz said. He then opened the line back to Command to relay the intel and request evac.
“Lion 1, Ghost 1, do you copy, over?”
Static hissed into his earpiece.
Fitz tried a second time, but got the same white noise.
He caught Rico’s worried gaze, and then very calmly said, “Come on, Apollo. Everyone else, stay down here. I’m going to check this out.”
Kate could hear the air raid sirens though the lab walls. She waited on a bench next to Ellis in the safe room designed to protect them from airborne contaminants. Red beams circled the dark room from an emergency light in the center of the ceiling, which cast blood-colored shadows into the corners. Kate cupped her head in her hands and breathed deep. She exhaled slowly, looking for any calm she could find.
“If it’s bad, Beckham would come for you,” Ellis said. Kate wanted to believe him. He kept trying to reassure her, but neither of them had any idea what was going on outside. All she knew was there was a “bandit.” It could be a juvenile, someone infected with Hemorrhage, or something even worse.
“We really need to get back in there,” Ellis said. “We left the specimen samples in the radiation delivery machine.
It’ll ruin them, and we have a limited supply.”
He stood and pressed his finger against the keypad. It beeped angrily back at him. “We’re freaking locked in here?” Ellis kicked the door. “When the hell is someone going to tell us what’s going on?”
It wasn’t like Ellis to lose his cool, but they were both under a lot of stress. Kate stood and caressed her stomach while Ellis sent another weak kick at the door and slumped against the wall.
The wall-mounted speaker above his head buzzed. Banks of LEDs clicked on, spreading a white glow over the room. Kate rushed forward and pushed her thumb to the comm. “Hello? Can anyone hear us?”
“Kate! It’s me.”
Her heart leapt at the sound of Reed’s voice. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, yeah. You and Ellis holding up okay?”
“No. We’re locked in. What’s happening, Reed?”
“The Monterey is back. I sent choppers to check it out. So far we can’t reach anyone on board.”
“You’re not sending a team out there, are you?”
His response came after a second of hesitation. “We’re still analyzing the situation.”
“You are not going out there, Reed.” Her voice was firm. “You and I both know that ship is compromised.”
“I know, and I won’t. Try not to worry. You’re in the safest building on the island. I’ll come get you in a couple of hours unless something develops. If anything happens, I’ll come get you immediately, okay?”
“Okay. Just do me a favor and have someone unlock the doors. We have work to do.”
Reed spoke to someone out of earshot, then said, “It’s done.”
Ellis pressed his finger back to the identification keypad. The door clicked open and he stepped into the vestibule. Kate stayed next to the comm, waiting for the words she needed to hear.
“I love you,” Reed said.
“I love you too. Be safe.”
Kate followed Ellis back to the lab. They had a hundred things to do, and all of them had to be done right now. The most important task was figuring out what they had found in Europe. It was only a matter of time before Fitz’s team faced one of the creatures. Assuming he was even still alive. Kate slapped the thought aside as soon as it entered her mind. She couldn’t dwell on worry. Not now.
“So we’re in the clear?” Ellis asked.
“For now. Reed says this is the safest place on the island.”
“I sure as hell don’t feel safe here,” Ellis said with a shake of his head. He changed the subject as they approached the lab doors. “That creature in the database is a juvenile, that’s certain, but it’s a different type of species than any we have discovered. Which begs the question—does this thing only seem like a new because we haven’t found it over here yet?
“My thoughts precisely. I’ve wondered the same thing about these Reavers. Why don’t we have them here?”
“My theory is that juveniles have had longer to develop in Europe than they did here. That means epigenetic changes could have activated genes we haven’t even identified yet. The wings and everything else we’re seeing has to be due to that. Right?”
“I’m not sure. Those things could be here and are just hiding out, or they’re content and well-fed in whatever part of the country they’ve evolved in. Hopefully we’ll know more in a few hours,” Kate said. She stopped to put her finger against the recognition panel outside their lab. It chirped and the pad blinked green. Next she bent down and pressed her eye against the sensor. A red light scanned her pupil.
“Welcome back, Doctor Lovato,” said a robotic voice.
Kate stepped into the clean room with Ellis. They were suited up and at their stations within fifteen minutes—a new record.
Ellis went straight for the radiation delivery machine and Kate crossed over to her computer. She keyed in her information and scanned through the DNA sequencing data. It pulled up a list of animals with genes that matched the juveniles in Europe. The first was a brown bat with a spear-tipped nose; the next, a massive armadillo.
She pulled up her report and added the information. Time passed quickly as she worked. Not since developing Kryptonite had she found herself so completely focused on her work. Maybe it was because, for the first time since the outbreak, she was using her skills to do something other than develop a bioweapon.
When she had finished typing, she read over the document. A half dozen new Variants had been identified and entered into the database throughout the world in the past week, bringing the total to over fifty. Kate’s shoulders rounded under an all-too-familiar sense of hopelessness pressing her down like a heavy weight. She pushed back against the urge to give up. The world needed her, maybe more than it ever had before.
Kate brought up the reports and photos of the many different Variants they had catalogued before the deployment of Kryptonite. There were the Variants in the desert with camel humps, others in arctic climates covered in fur. Those in temperate woodlands had developed a bark-like skin that let them blend into their surroundings. Some in tropical climates had gills. Perhaps the oddest of them all was the thin green monster with triangular forearms that looked remarkably similar to a praying mantis. Then there were the Alphas, the massive and terrifyingly intelligent creatures that were able to coordinate attacks and command armies of lesser Variants. The Bone Collector was there. So was the White King.
And yet, somehow, their offspring had evolved into even more terrible monsters.
“Kate, you’ve got to see this.”
“Give me a minute, please. I’m finishing up the report.”
He twisted to look at her from the radiation delivery machine. His face told her the report could wait. She hurried over, moving as quickly as her aching back and swollen feet would let her. Ellis pecked at the machine’s keyboard with a purpose.
“I used tissue samples from juveniles in the US and the juveniles in Europe. Then I ran panels of chemical analyses and exposed the samples to a broad range of radiation, just like we did months ago.”
“And?”
He stepped away and gestured toward the computer monitor. The screen was divided into two frames.
“US sample is on the left. European is on the right,” he said. “Take a look.”
Ellis clicked the button to activate the radiation delivery machine. The two dime-sized samples started to cook. The sample from the United States began to vibrate from the gamma radiation. But the one from Europe sat idly in the dish.
A hissing came from the machine, and Kate’s eyes went wide as she stared at the image on Ellis’s screen. The US sample had melted. Ellis increased the rads on the European sample. They waited for several minutes before it began to react. By that point, the specimen on the left was nothing more than a sizzling mess of red flesh.
The sample on the right began to bubble, but instead of melting, the exterior hardened into a crusty layer, much like an overdone steak. Tiny, needle-like structures poked out of the surface. In a matter of minutes, the sample had mutated into a chunk of blackened, spiky flesh.
“What on Earth?” Kate whispered.
“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Ellis stepped closer to Kate. “The European juveniles are sensitive to radiation, too. But instead of compromising their flesh, it mutates them.”
Kate gasped. The EUF had been blowing up nuclear power plants to kill off massive pockets of the breeding monsters, and Operation Reach planned to drop thousands of radioactive bombs on strongholds.
“If the military proceeds with Operation Reach, they are going to create an army of mutated monsters we won’t be able to stop.”
Kate felt the baby kick. Leave it to Reed Beckham’s son to understand how much this changed the war effort.
“Come on,” she said. “We have to get a message to Vice President Johnson and the EUF before it’s too late.”
&nbs
p; -17-
Beckham nearly dropped his binoculars when he heard that Team Ghost had survived Operation Beachhead. He’d been watching the USS Monterey from the glass window of the Plum Island CIC with Horn and Mayor Walker. He turned to smile at Lieutenant General Rayburn. A few faces looked up from the piles of paper on the table across the room, but most of the dozen soldiers seemed focused on their tasks.
Beckham felt like he had just dropped his rucksack after a forced march. He knew what an uphill battle Team Ghost and the rest of the military still faced in Europe, but at least his friends hadn’t been lost in the massacre.
“Sounds like they’re on a new mission, but I wasn’t able to get any information,” Rayburn said.
“Thank you, sir, for letting us know,” Beckham said.
Rayburn nodded. It may have seemed a small favor to some, but for Beckham this spoke volumes about Rayburn’s character. The lieutenant general had gone out on a limb to determine the fate of Team Ghost. That also told him that Rayburn wasn’t too salty about having to hand off security details.
Beckham brought the binos back to his eyes to watch two Apaches hovering over the water north of the destroyer. He had already scanned every corner of the Monterey, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. He handed the binos to Rayburn, who in turn gave them to Walker.
“Command, this is Badger 1,” one of the pilots said. “No sign of contacts below.”
“I don’t know what to make of it,” Rayburn said.
“I know exactly what to make of it,” Horn said. “Wood’s got multiple sleeper cells out there. He had more than one unit hiding on that ship.”
Walker approached the window. “I say blow it out of the water.”
“That’s one hell of a valuable ship,” Rayburn said, stroking his jaw.
Horn looked at him like he was crazy. “Ain’t worth jack shit if it’s been compromised…sir.”
Rayburn didn’t seem put off by Horn’s attitude, but Beckham had hoped his friend would know better than to blow his top around the lieutenant general. For now, at least, they needed to try to work with him.
Extinction Aftermath (Extinction Cycle Book 6) Page 22
