Pale Horse (A Project Eden Thriller)

by Battles, Brett

  2:21 PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME

  DOUG MINOR: Jose, you there?

  JOSE RAMOS: What’s up?

  DM: Want to show you something. This aired just a few minutes ago on a station back east:

  JR: Hold on.

 

  JR: They’re probably right. Some kind of publicity stunt.

  DM: I’m not so sure about that. Did a quick check around. There’s some noise online from other places about similar boxes.

  JR: A big campaign, then. So what?

  DM: Look at this:

  DM: And this:

  DM: Two other shipping containers. Found in last couple days. First in Australia, and the second in Cleveland. Both exploded.

  JR: Okay, a bit creepy. But has anyone proved that they’re connected?

 

  JR: Doug?

  DM: Holy shit! Turn to PCN.

  PCN NETWORK BROADCAST

  5:26 PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME

  “…AT THE MOMENT.”

  The speaker was Fredrick Price, PCN’s number one evening anchor. The image being broadcast was shaky and slightly out of focus, and was centered on a long, dark rectangular box sitting at one end of a large lot. There were no people in the shot, but there was movement, low and steady across the ground.

  “What you’re seeing is a law enforcement reconnaissance robot being used by the Richmond Police Department in Richmond, Virginia. The container it’s approaching drew suspicion this afternoon when an employee at the nearby grocery store noticed that the top was open and something inside was making noise.”

  The image cut to a taped interview with Kyle Jones, the grocery store employee. “It just seemed kind of weird, you know. So I went and got my boss.”

  Offscreen, a reporter from the local television station said, “Has it been here long?”

  “Yeah. A couple days, I think. But I just thought it belonged to one of the other stores here. It’s not the first time we’ve had one of those in back. But when this one started making noise, I knew something was wrong. My boss and I, we asked around. The other stores didn’t know anything about it.”

  “So you called the police?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Can’t be too careful these days. You know, we’re not too far from the capital. You never know what one of these terrorist might be up to. Oh, sorry.”

  “Did you take a look inside?”

  “Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t go anywhere near that thing. Roger, he works in produce, he walked over to check it out, but he couldn’t see anything other than a few drops of water on the ground.”

  The image switched back to the robot as it rolled to a stop near the container.

  Fredrick Price said, “In a move police say is strictly precautionary, residences in a four-square-block area surrounding the shopping center have been evacuated until it can been determined whether the container poses a threat.”

  THE OUTER BANKS, NORTH CAROLINA

  5:32 PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME

  TAMARA WATCHED THE PCN broadcast in disbelief.

  She had been hoping Matt was wrong, and that this had all just been some big mistake. But the image of the robot approaching the shipping container erased all doubt. Project Eden had done the unthinkable.

  She forced herself to look away from the TV and over at Bobby. He was sitting at the dining table, hunched over his laptop.

  “So?” she asked.

  “The links are still active.”

  “All of them?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  That was a surprise. The video had been uploaded to a half dozen sites for over fifteen minutes. Usually Project Eden techs would have taken them down by now.

  “How many views?” she asked.

  “Around a hundred so far. I’m sending out links to anyone I can. As long as it stays up, I think we have a chance.”

  She tried to give him an encouraging smile, but failed. She turned back to the television.

  Yes, maybe they would have a chance, but a chance at what? Saving a few thousand, or, if they were lucky, a few million? When weighted against the numbers of those who would die, it was a drop in the bucket. As scared as she’d been by what Project Eden represented, she’d always thought that the Resistance would find a way to stop them. That’s what always happened in these kinds of situations, right? The bad guys might seem dominating, but, in the end, the side of good would come out on top? She’d been taught that from an early age, both in history and in books and movies.

  Good always prevailed.

  ”Always,” she whispered under her breath, hoping voicing it would make it come true.

  YOUTUBE VIDEO

  POSTED 5:14 PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME

  VIEWS BY 5:40 PM—109

  “MY NAME IS Tamara Costello. I am a former reporter for PCN. Last spring, during the Sage Flu outbreak, it was reported that PCN cameraman Bobby Lion and I were victims of the virus. As you can see, that was a lie. But it was not the only one.

  “The outbreak was blamed on a rogue army officer, Captain Daniel Ash. While Captain Ash was present, he had nothing to do with it. The virus was released by an organization known as Project Eden, but it was merely a test, a very successful one. Project Eden’s plan has always been to release the virus worldwide.

  “This video is only being released because we have learned that is what’s happening right now. We believe there will be dozens, if not hundreds, of different methods used to spread the disease. We have recently become aware of one that involves shipping containers loaded with the virus and moved into populated areas. If you are near one of these, it’s probably already too late. For everyone else, I’m going to tell you what you need to do to stay alive…”

  IM CONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT

  BETWEEN DOUG MINOR, FREELANCE WRITER, AND

  JOSE RAMOS, EDITOR FOR THE BEYOND BLOG NETWORK

  2:43 PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME

  DOUG MINOR: I’m starting to get a little freaked out:

 

  JOSE RAMOS: This has got to be some kind of joke, right?

  DM: I don’t know. But that woman, I remember her. I looked it up and she is supposed to be dead.

 

  JR: Think I’ll post this on a couple of our sites. Let people decide if it’s a bad joke or not.

  DM: Good idea. Look, going to run to the store and grab a few things, then come back home and lock myself in.

  JR: Seriously? Think you might be overreacting.

  DM: Hope so. But what’s it going to hurt? I work here anyway. Are you at the office today or at home?

  JR: Office.

  DM: Maybe you should think about leaving.

 

  JR: Maybe.

  13

  ICEBREAKER DANUS MARKO, ARCTIC OCEAN

  4:50 PM CENTRAL STANDARD TIME

  OLIVIA’S PEOPLE HAD seemed indifferent to Ash, Chloe, Red, and Gagnon when they climbed aboard earlier, but they had at least allowed one of their people trained in first aid tend to Gagnon.

  The pilot still had not regained consciousness, but, after being given a shot of morphine, seemed not to be in as much pain. The four of them were then taken to an unused stateroom that was barely large enough for the two single beds inside, and the door was locked behind them.

  Exhausted, Ash and Red put Gagnon on one of the beds. Ash told Chloe she could have the other.

  “And what are you two going to do?” she said.

  “Stretch out on the floor,” Ash replied, finding it hard now to keep his eyes open.

  “Really?”

  She looked at the ground and he followed her gaze. The space between the beds was narrower than the beds themselves.

  “Move Gagnon all the way to the wall,” she suggested, then glanced at Red. “You can share with him.” Her gaze moved to Ash. “You can share with me
as long as you don’t try any funny business.”

  “Not feeling very funny.”

  “Good.”

  Ash barely remembered lying down beside her. The next thing he knew someone was shaking his leg.

  “Get up,” a male voice said.

  Feeling no better than he had when he’d fallen asleep, Ash forced his eyes open. Standing at the end of the bed were two men.

  “We need you to come with us,” the closer of the two said.

  Chloe stirred. “What’s going on?” she asked, her eyelids barely parting.

  “I guess I’m going somewhere,” Ash told her, groaning as he sat up.

  “Both of you,” the man said.

  With one of the men in front of them and the other behind, Ash and Chloe were guided through the ship to a room next to the bridge. Inside, a man and a woman were sitting at a long table.

  Ash recognized them immediately. The Resistance had nicknamed them Adam and Eve, when the two were seemingly just innocent lovers who’d sneak occasionally onto the grounds of the Resistance’s California facility known as the Bluff. Turned out they were really setting things up to rescue Olivia from the Bluff’s detention level. Ash hadn’t seen them with Olivia’s people on Yanok Island, so they must have remained on the ship.

  The two escorts stayed in the hall, shutting the door as soon as Ash and Chloe passed inside.

  “Please, sit down,” the woman said.

  They did.

  “You’re Captain Ash, aren’t you?”

  “Just Ash,” he said.

  “Something to drink?” the man asked.

  “Water,” Chloe said.

  The man retrieved two bottles of water from a cabinet along the wall and gave one to each of them.

  “I hope you’ve been able to rest a little.”

  Ash shrugged while Chloe simply took a drink of water.

  “We apologize for not waiting earlier,” the man said, sitting back down. “We didn’t think anyone was left alive.”

  “We were actually surprised you were on the island in the first place,” the woman added. “How did you get here?”

  Ash remained silent.

  “As we understand it,” the man said, “you two were the last ones to see Olivia.”

  “That’s right,” Ash said.

  “We’d like you to tell us what happened to her.”

  “She didn’t make it out.”

  “That’s not really an answer. Was it the explosion?”

  “That certainly made it hard for her to leave,” Ash replied.

  Silence fell over the room for a moment, then the woman leaned forward. “Was she able to do what she had come to do?”

  “You mean, did she release the Sage Flu virus?”

  As one, the man and the woman straightened in their chairs, surprised.

  “Release?” the woman asked.

  “Isn’t that why you were there? To initiate Project Eden’s plan, while sending the Project itself into chaos? Well, congratulations. You succeeded.”

  “She activated the KV-27a virus?” the man asked.

  Chloe leaned forward. “You didn’t know she was going to do that, did you?”

  The other two exchanged a look. The man pushed his chair back and stood up. “Thank you for the information. We’ll let you return to your room now. If you get hungry, the kitchen is just down a few doors from where you’re—”

  “Hold on,” Ash said. “You thought she was just going to take out Bluebird? She didn’t tell you what she really had planned?”

  “I’m sure you’re still tired. We can talk more later.”

  “We can talk more right now!” Ash shot up onto his feet, and leaned across the table. “We’re right, aren’t we? You didn’t expect this.”

  It was the woman who broke first, unable to keep the fear from her face. “She told us she just wanted to destroy them, and ruin their plans. That they deserved to fail for turning their backs on her.”

  “Well, she took them out, all right.”

  “Don’t you see? The only place the release could have been activated from was Bluebird. If it had been eliminated without the virus being released, there would have been no way for anyone else to do it, and the Project would have died. But if she activated the virus, then the Project is still very much alive. It’s far larger than just those who were at Bluebird. They’ve been working on this for decades. They’ve prepared for nearly every possibility. Just because the head’s been cut off doesn’t mean the body is going to die.”

  Ash stared at her for half a second. “We have to let people know.” It was something that should have been done hours ago when he and the others had first come aboard the ship. He had been operating under the assumption that those on the boat had full knowledge of what Olivia was up to.

  Precious time had been wasted doing nothing.

  “And tell them what?” the man asked. “That they’re all going to die? Them knowing what’s coming isn’t going to change that.”

  “I need to get in touch with the people who sent my friends and me here. They have plans in place. Things that will help. But the longer we wait, the less they’ll be able to do.”

  Doubt clouded the man’s eyes. “Whatever they have planned won’t work. We told you, the Project is prepared for every possibility.”

  “I won’t just do nothing!”

  The man opened his mouth to speak again, but the woman touched his arm, stopping him. “He’s right,” she said. “We have to try.”

  __________

  THE COMMUNICATIONS ROOM was located at the back of the bridge. They all squeezed inside with the operator, a woman named Wetzler.

  Because of the nature of the vessel, the room had been equipped with gear that was specifically designed to work in extreme weather conditions and at very long ranges—a radio with an extremely powerful transmitter, two backups, and a specialized satellite phone that worked even through a thick cloud cover. The storm, though, would still make any connections tenuous.

  They had to try the sat phone four times before Ash finally heard the other end ring.

  A voice cracked through the static. “…is this?”

  “Hello?” Ash said. “Matt, is that you?”

  “…old…et him.”

  “Hello?” Ash said.

  No response.

  “Hello?”

  He could only hear the hiss of the line, and was about to hang up so they could try again, when—

  “…is Matt. Who’s this?”

  “Matt! It’s Ash.”

  “Can hardly…ear you. Who are…”

  “Ash. It’s Ash.”

  “Ash? My God, where are…ou?”

  “Doesn’t matter. The virus. It’s been set off.”

  “We know. Reports from…place. Doing what we can.”

  They were already on it. Which meant signs of the virus’s dispersal must have shown up. “Matt, Pax and the others are stranded on Amund Ringnes Island. The plane’s not going to be able to get them. It, uh, broke down.” Telling him that it had crashed would only create unnecessary conversation.

  “How ab…you?”

  “We’ve been able to hitch a ride on a boat. Tell Brandon and Josie I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  There was silence on the other end, and Ash assumed whatever Matt was saying was lost in the connection. The Resistance leader then said, “Be careful.”

  “We will.”

  Ash hung up, and looked at the others. “They already know.”

  The room was silent. Until moments before, the release of KV-27a had been represented only by Olivia punching a code into a computer.

  Now it was real.

  THE BUNKER, MONTANA

  4:06 PM MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME

  MATT HUNG UP the phone.

  “That was Ash?” Rachel asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Thank God he’s all right. What about the others?”

  “He didn’t say.”

  She was quiet fo
r a moment. “I think that’s a good sign. He would have said something otherwise.”

  Matt nodded, though he wasn’t as sure as she was. “He told me to tell his kids he was on his way back. I…should have told him about Brandon.”

  “No. You did the right thing. There’s nothing he can do from where he is.” She put her arm around her brother’s shoulder. “Brandon’s going to be okay.” She squeezed him, and smiled. “I’ll tell Josie her dad’s on the way back. That’ll make her feel better.”

  But Matt barely heard her.

  He should have told Ash. If it had been Matt’s son, he would have wanted to know.

  He forced himself to focus, and turned to Christina. “Still no sign?”

  Christina had been monitoring the security cameras in case the helicopters returned, or Hayes and Brandon showed up.

  “Nothing,” she said.

  “Maybe I should send out a team,” he said to himself.

  “No,” Rachel said. “It’s too soon. The others may be waiting for us to show ourselves. You can’t afford to risk everyone’s life like that. Jon knows what to do. He’ll take care of Brandon.”

  Matt grimaced, not wanting to hear the words, but knowing she was right.

  14

  MONTANA

  4:26 PM MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME

  BRANDON HAD KEPT a steady pace, stopping only briefly now and then to make sure he was still going in the right direction.