The Will Slater Series Books 1-3

by Matt Rogers

Al-Mansur cocked his head. ‘Yes. How did you…?’

  ‘I’ve seen it. I’ve met the man. Did you know they carried out tests up there?’

  ‘I heard they tested it on a live subject.’

  ‘A wolf. I saw that too.’

  Al-Mansur paused, and furrowed his brow. ‘No. One of their own.’

  Slater gulped back the gravity of the statement, realising that the infected animal must have been tucked into an alcove within the cave, contracting the lethal infection by chance alone.

  A by-product of a horrific bioweapon test.

  That explains Sayyid’s reaction when he entered the cave, he thought.

  He hadn’t anticipated another infected subject.

  Not on his mountain.

  ‘This is happening tonight, isn’t it?’ Slater said.

  He watched the expression on al-Mansur’s face change. Now the man was being asked to divulge sensitive information that could pose a threat to the operation being carried out.

  A threat to his daughter.

  ‘Give me everything I need to know,’ Slater said, ‘and I’ll personally assure that your daughter makes it off the mountain alive.’

  ‘She’s not on the mountain. I don’t know where she is. It’s indoors. I’ve seen videos.’

  ‘I’ll find her.’

  ‘How do you propose to do that?’

  ‘Because if you tell me what I need to know, I’ll have the necessary information to put a stop to this. Then I’ll have all the time in the world to go hunting for your child. I’m a man of my word. But this is beyond anything you could have imagined, al-Mansur. This is a cataclysmic event, judging by what I’ve seen and heard. It needs to end.’

  The man said nothing.

  ‘You have no allegiance to Sayyid.’

  ‘I have no allegiance to you, either.’

  ‘I’m the one standing here, with a gun trained on you. What do you think they’ll do with your daughter if you wind up dead — killed in your own house? What kind of incompetence will that show? You think they’ll let her go free?’

  Al-Mansur paled, the blood steadily draining from his face with each passing question. He opened his mouth like a gaping fish and shuddered involuntarily.

  It didn’t take much longer than that.

  ‘So?’ Slater said.

  ‘It’s happening this evening.’

  ‘What’s the protocol?’

  ‘Sayyid is set in his ways,’ al-Mansur said. ‘And they’re fairly primitive. He wants to be the one to send the final orders. He’s been fantasising about this day for decades, I imagine. He wants to be the one to drop the hammer.’

  ‘Via satellite phone?’

  ‘Yes. It’s the only way they can communicate up there. He has a direct line to the man in London.’

  ‘What are the orders?’

  ‘He changed them yesterday. I wondered why, but now it makes sense. Maybe he thinks the animal was a divine sign.’

  Slater understood.

  ‘Dhi’b?’ Abu said, putting the pieces together simultaneously.

  Al-Mansur nodded.

  ‘What does it mean?’ Slater said, but he already knew.

  ‘Wolf.’

  Slater grimaced, remembering the trauma the wild animal had suffered. He couldn’t fathom extrapolating that anguish to a city of eight million people.

  ‘There’s no way you can contact the bomber yourself?’ he said.

  Al-Mansur shook his head. ‘Not a chance. Sayyid wouldn’t hand over that kind of control. I’ve been the brains and the brawn, but never the leader. I do as he bids.’

  ‘You can guarantee he’s up there?’ Slater said. ‘If I make it to the encampment, and it’s deserted, and the operation carries out as planned, and I find out you’ve deceived me — what do you think I’ll do?’

  Al-Mansur shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I’ll spend every waking breath tracking down one of the members of the tribes,’ Slater said, leaning in, venom in his tone. ‘I’ll tell them you tried to give them up. I’m very convincing when I try. I’ll make sure they tear your daughter to pieces. Understood?’

  Al-Mansur stiffened, his expression ghost-like. ‘Understood. They are on the mountain. I swear it.’

  Slater nodded. He backed away from the chair and rested the AK-15 in Abu’s hands. ‘Tie him up, and stay here. You’ll be no use if you come along. I don’t think that ankle’s going to heal for months.’

  Abu glanced down at his mangled limb, looking queasy. ‘Nor do I.’

  ‘See what you can do with that set-up.’ Slater motioned to the row of computer screens. ‘Feed me any information you can. It’s not a quick drive to Qasam.’

  ‘You’re going alone?’

  ‘You see another option?’

  Abu shrugged.

  Slater turned to al-Mansur. ‘If you had to bet the life of your child on exactly when Sayyid is going to set this thing into motion, what would you say?’

  ‘He was adamant about dusk for some reason,’ al-Mansur said. ‘So — dusk in the U.K.’

  ‘Two hours,’ Abu muttered. ‘And counting.’

  ‘Fuck,’ Slater breathed. ‘I need to go. Right now.’

  Suddenly nauseous at the ramifications of failure, he steadied himself against the doorway. Before he left he scrutinised al-Mansur, a complicated man to decipher in any situation. The Brigadier-General had sounded sincere when he spoke of his daughter, but now he sat in the swivel chair with a certain aura of relief surrounding him.

  He was pleased that he had been spared.

  It set Slater off.

  Hands free of weapons, he walked right up to al-Mansur, bending down so that their faces were inches apart.

  ‘Have you seen what the virus does?’ Slater said, menace in his tone.

  ‘I’ve heard reports,’ al-Mansur said.

  ‘But have you seen it? Up close. In the flesh.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Have you tasted the air around something that’s bleeding from every orifice? It has a certain scent.’

  ‘No,’ al-Mansur said, suddenly reserved, as if he knew where the conversation was headed.

  ‘You don’t understand what you’ve done. You’re passing it off like it’s nothing. If it was your manpower and your political influence and your resources that enabled this to go ahead, then you’re the lowest of human filth on this goddamn planet.’

  ‘I had no choice.’

  ‘You always have a choice,’ Slater said. ‘You could have directed those resources into getting your daughter back. I believe it was my friend here who told me you control half the north-western military sector.’

  ‘He does,’ Abu said.

  ‘Don’t you think you might have been able to put up a decent fight against the tribes with that kind of manpower?’

  ‘They would have killed her.’

  ‘I’m afraid I don’t buy it.’

  ‘Believe what you want.’

  ‘You want this to happen, don’t you?’

  ‘I…’

  ‘Say it.’

  Al-Mansur shrugged. ‘Somewhat.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Life gets boring out here. Sometimes you’ve got to spice things up. Besides, I agree with Sayyid. It’s time to send a message.’

  Slater withdrew the IWI Jericho he’d pocketed off one of the dead tribesmen and tucked into his waistband outside the mansion.

  ‘You said…’ al-Mansur hissed.

  ‘I’m a man of my word,’ Slater said. ‘I’ll find your daughter. But that doesn’t mean she has to come home to a monster.’

  He seized a handful of the man’s straggly hair, holding his skull in place, so that al-Mansur was useless to resist. He pressed the cool barrel of the Jericho to the man’s temple.

  He pulled the trigger.

  41

  1800 hours Yemen time

  1600 hours London time

  Two hours until discharge

  Slater and Abu stood side by side on th
e sweeping front terrace of the mansion, looking out over a sea of devastation in the courtyard before them. Beyond the front gates, the sun melted seamlessly into the opposite horizon, lowering the temperature to a pleasant warmth. Already the sky had begun to darken, fingers of dark blue snaking their way across the heavens.

  Slater battled a sudden chill.

  Night was falling.

  It was all or nothing.

  ‘The drive will take you just over an hour,’ Abu said, keeping his voice low.

  ‘You can speak up,’ Slater said. ‘Everyone here is dead.’

  He studied the motionless corpses sprawled across the mansion’s grounds, including the fresh addition directly in front of them. Just as he had suspected, the tribesman he’d choked unconscious had come to his senses and lay in wait for Slater to emerge from the giant building. Thankfully, the brief dance with the darkness had dulled his senses.

  It had taken a simple reversal of the jambiyah in his hand to gain control of the dagger and slice the blade across the arteries in the man’s throat.

  Then it had been over quickly.

  ‘I’m struggling to process everything right now,’ Abu admitted.

  ‘So am I,’ Slater said. ‘I keep thinking I’m going to wake up from this. But it just keeps getting worse.’

  ‘How’s the shoulder?’

  Slater grimaced and adjusted his jacket over the blood-stained wound. ‘It’ll be fine.’

  ‘You need medical attention.’

  Slater scoffed. ‘You should see what I’ve had to deal with in the past. Besides, you’re worse off.’

  Abu nodded, unable to protest that. He kept all the weight leaning against the nearest column, refusing to glance down at his disgustingly twisted ankle. There were certainly bones broken in the foot. His right arm had begun to swell beyond comprehension. Slater guessed he had torn muscles.

  ‘I will manage,’ he whispered. ‘What if more reinforcements come?’

  Slater kept his eyes on the bodies. ‘I’d say that was as many reinforcements as al-Mansur was going to get. If there’s more, just hide. It’s more effective than fighting.’

  ‘I can’t even fight in perfect condition,’ Abu said. ‘What do you think I’ll be able to manage now?’

  ‘Like I said. Hide.’

  Slater looked down at the two most important objects for the coming conflict.

  The AK-15, reloaded with a full magazine, held poised and at the ready in his right hand.

  The satellite phone he’d used to contact Abu in his left.

  ‘If you fail,’ Abu said, ‘how will I know? It’ll be radio silence.’

  ‘You have access to the Internet through those computers,’ Slater said. ‘You’ll know.’

  ‘What if you drop the satellite phone along the way?’

  ‘If you don’t hear from me, then I’m dead. I won’t let this go ahead — no matter what.’

  ‘Were you telling the truth to al-Mansur?’ Abu said, bowing his head. ‘About his daughter?’

  Slater paused and considered the question. ‘I’m a man of my word. I’ll do whatever I can to find her.’

  ‘She didn’t deserve to get wrapped up in this.’

  ‘How do we even know he has a daughter?’ Slater said. ‘It could have all been a ploy to get me out of the house.’

  ‘I caught a bulletin in the Yemeni newspapers close to a month ago. It was a press release from the Brigadier-General, informing the public that his child had been sent overseas to allies for a journey of self-discovery. I imagine he wanted to quash any rumours that his daughter had disappeared. It’s likely Sayyid made him do it. She is real.’

  ‘I want you to know that she’s not my top priority,’ Slater said. ‘If you’d seen what this Marburg virus can do in person, you’d understand. Every ounce of my focus has to be locked onto stopping the attack from taking place. I hope you can accept that.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘I need to go.’

  Slater tucked the satellite phone under his opposite armpit, freeing a hand to extend toward Abu. The man took it with a firm grip, and they shook for a long, drawn-out beat. Underneath the conversation, both of them recognised that this would likely be the last time they saw each other. The fallout from the chaos at al-Mansur’s compound would be staggering. Slater imagined that attention would mount as soon as reinforcements entered the area.

  For now, everyone appointed to protect the mansion had been cleaned out.

  For now.

  ‘Goodbye, my friend,’ Abu said.

  ‘See you around?’ Slater said.

  The man smiled wryly. ‘I don’t think so. You know that too.’

  ‘If you didn’t approach me in that courtyard,’ Slater said, ‘none of this would have happened. Everything would have unfolded for them as planned. If I manage to stop it, I owe it all to you.’

  Abu shrugged. ‘Let’s not focus on who owes who. We both helped each other.’

  ‘What will you do when this all blows over?’

  ‘Return to my family. They’ll be expecting me back from Hadhramaut shortly.’

  ‘Will you tell them what you did?’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘No-one will ever know…’

  Abu nodded. ‘Best to keep it that way.’

  The man raised the satellite phone in his hand. ‘I’ll be available on here for the next two hours. If you need anything. Then I’m gone. There’ll be troops swarming this place by the morning.’

  Slater nodded. ‘Of course. Get home safe.’

  Abu glanced down at his mangled foot and shrugged. ‘I’ll try my best. Now get going.’

  ‘Yeah…’

  Slater stepped down off the terrace and crossed the courtyard, his boots crunching against the gravel track. He selected a vehicle at random — they were all practically identical, complete with rusting rear trays and beat-up, dust-stained cabins. He threw open the door of the nearest ride and tossed the phone and rifle into the passenger seat. He noted that the rear window had shattered — all that was left was a giant gaping hole in the back of the cabin.

  The keys were still in the ignition.

  ‘You know this is suicide,’ Abu called from the porch. ‘He’ll have every tribesman ready to die to protect him.’

  Slater cast an arm in a wide semi-circle around the compound. ‘You sure it’s suicide?’

  Abu noted the sea of corpses. ‘Maybe not.’

  ‘Take care of yourself, Abu,’ Slater said. ‘Safe travels back to your family.’

  ‘Make sure this thing doesn’t go off. You never know what might happen. What if it doesn’t get quarantined in time? What if it spreads worldwide?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  Slater slammed the door shut and fired the pick-up truck to life. He navigated around a cluster of dead tribesmen near the front gates, and peeled straight through. He caught a final glimpse of Abu in the rear view mirror as he drove out of the compound, standing awkwardly on the front terrace, unmoving.

  The man was scared.

  Slater didn’t blame him.

  The suspension bounced and jolted as he made it onto the main track and set off in the direction of Qasam. A sweeping sheet of darkness had fallen over the Hadhramaut Valley, adding to the sheer isolation of the region. With dust rolling off the tyres on either side and a complete absence of human civilisation ahead, Slater shrugged off a sudden chill. He was heading into no man’s land, an oppressive, empty plain as barren as an alien planet.

  He rolled with the emotions and leant more weight on the accelerator.

  He hoped to cut the drive to an hour.

  He would need all the time he could get when he plunged into the mountains.

  42

  Diana hadn’t moved from her seated position in the hallway for close to an hour now.

  She had gone back inside, briefly. Both her mother and Steve had largely ignored her — it seemed like they had realised the slap had taken things too far. She didn’t
want to go back to reception, either — Beryl seemed too concerned with her living situation. Being thrust into foster care didn’t appeal to her.

  She just wanted to be alone.

  The man from the flat at the end of the corridor had briefly emerged. He’d been sweating — Diana wondered why. He had seen her, and smiled again. She liked his smile. It reminded her of happier times, of she and her mother living on their own. There had been problems back then, but none of them had seemed daunting.

  Now, everything about her situation terrified her.

  She knew she couldn’t carry on living in the same flat as Steve. Her mother’s boyfriend had slowly shifted from annoying to downright abusive, and she hated the way his eyes lit up when he got angry.

  It was like he enjoyed it when he hit her.

  Diana didn’t know much, but she knew a bad man when she saw one.

  She wanted to get away, but she didn’t know how.

  Where to go.

  What to do.

  Who to trust.

  The window at the very end of the hallway — right next to the stranger’s front door — faced across the street to the opposite apartment building. Diana had watched the light steadily fade away as the sun hurried toward the horizon, slowly plunging the face of the other building into dusk.

  She’d been told not to go outside when it got dark.

  By who?

  Her mother. She didn’t particularly trust her mother right now. She was doing nothing to protect her little girl, simply standing back and letting Steve do as he pleased.

  Diana hated that the most.

  Steve was a bad person, but she had always thought favourably of her mother. Slowly, that trust had begun to slip away. She tucked her knees into her chest and began to rock back and forth as the corridor lights flickered on one by one.

  Half of them didn’t work, creating long shadows across the fetid carpet.

  Above everything, she was confused.

  She’d always had an anchor in her life, someone to tell her everything would be okay even when all was falling apart around her. Now she had nothing. Beryl meant well, but Diana didn’t want to spend all her time down in reception. She was probably annoying the woman…

  Inside her flat, the arguing started up again.