Navarro chewed the logic over and nodded. “What you say makes sense.”
“The question then becomes,” Austen said, in an ominous voice, “who was the last to adjust the environmental controls?”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ted Preble staggered on his feet. Zhao moved to steady him as he braced against his cane.
“I…that is…it would have been me,” he stammered. “Earlier this morning…I adjusted things after I got my results. But how could I have missed…I mean, this organism grows in a low oxygen environment, not a high one!”
Blaine’s face went red as Preble’s turned pale.
“You son of a bitch!” he cursed. Blaine pointed to the older man’s quivering hands. “You misadjusted the controls and nearly got us all killed!”
Austen rounded on Blaine. “That’s enough, Ian!”
“Enough? I’d say that you’ve both done enough to wreck this entire operation!” Blaine took a step in her direction. His eyes glowered at her menacingly. He held his hands at his sides, balled into white-knuckled fists.
Navarro reached out to place his hand on top of Blaine’s collarbone, close to his neck. He didn’t grasp or place any pressure on the man’s shoulder. He simply rested his fingers atop the man’s protective gown.
But his deep voice was a textbook example of a Quiet Threat.
“Mister Blaine,” he said. “Do not. Give me. An excuse.”
Those words cut through the man’s anger and snuffed it out. Blaine turned, glaring at Navarro in disbelief.
“I’m the one paying you. You work for me.”
“You hired me for this mission,” the big man corrected him. “You put Leigh in charge, remember? Technically, that means I work for her.”
Blaine gathered himself up as Navarro removed his hand.
“Fine. But what are we supposed to work with now?”
“That’s a good question,” Austen acknowledged, resisting the urge to run her gloved fingers through her hair. “Is there anything left? What about the autopsied body in Module E?”
“We can’t…can’t get more from that source,” Preble said, in a voice as shaky as his two affected limbs. “The organism was on its last legs before I took my samples. Apparently, a corpse doesn’t retain the right temperature for our bug to survive and prosper.”
“I don’t want to wait around and see if it formed spores or some other protective mechanism in the body. Are we sure there’s nothing left to work with?”
“No live colonies…but we do have forty Nostocales subtypes in Module E’s freezer. The ones that I teased out and preserved in acrylic.”
Austen looked down at the floor for a moment. Her forehead creased as she contemplated an unpleasant decision. Finally, she let out a sigh and raised her head.
“All right, this is a step backwards. We’re going to have to split our duties from here on out to make up for it.” She glanced over to Blaine and Preble. “I know you two aren’t going to join each other’s fan clubs right now. But I need you two working with those remaining subtypes.”
Blaine let out a bitter laugh while Preble hung his head. “Working on the subtypes? Where? Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but our lab’s been turned into a barbeque.”
“We have spares for some of the equipment,” Austin insisted. “And if you return the body to the outside morgue, you’ll have a free table to use.”
“A free table? An autopsy table, you mean. One that’s hardly sterile anymore!”
“That’s right. You have a gurney to move the body out. You have cleansers to sterilize the table again. We’re all going to have to improvise a little. Get used to it.”
Blaine stiffened his jaw as if biting back a reply.
“Fine,” was all he said.
“I want you and Ted to find out ways that we can use to slow or stop this thing’s growth. ‘Less than ideal growing conditions’ won’t cut it.”
Preble nodded. “We’ll find them.”
Austen moved to glance over at Zhao. “Amy, I have something specific in mind for you. I want you to visit the villages that Nostocales burned through with General Votorov. This part of the world isn’t densely populated, but there was road and horse traffic between the villages. Somehow, this didn’t blow up into a full pandemic yet. If it’s something besides luck, I want to know what stopped it.”
The young woman looked apprehensive. “You want me to go with all those army men? But I’m…I mean, I haven’t done field work on my own before. I’m not experienced.”
“Like I said, we’re all going to have to improvise a bit. This is how you get experience. And besides, I’m not going to send you out alone. Navarro’s going to be your chaperone.”
Austen threw a quick glance in Nick’s direction. He cleared his throat.
“Of course, I’ll be there,” he said. “In fact, I’m planning on bringing at least a couple more members of my team along. There’s something about our Kazakh friends I’m still not at ease about.”
“That makes two of us,” Zhao agreed, with a shiver. “The way Votorov looks at me…I think he wants to drink me down like a shot of vodka.”
“Actually, that’s probably to our advantage,” Navarro said, with a rough laugh. “If he likes you that way, you’ll probably be able to pry any information out of him you want with a smile at the right time.”
That didn’t reassure the young woman. “Leigh, are you sure there’s nothing else you want me to do instead of heading out there?”
“Well,” Austen considered, “you could accompany Helen and me back down into the mine.”
Zhao quickly shook her head. “Forget I said anything!”
“Are you serious?” Navarro asked, amazed.
Austen nodded. “It’s the only way to get more samples.”
“And I’ve been down there more than anyone else,” Lelache pointed out, with a catlike grin. “I’m not looking forward to the trip, but I’ll make sure that the mission is accomplished.”
A chime came from the overhead speaker.
“We’re going to have visitors in a couple minutes,” Redhawk stated. “October sent word that Colonel Chelovik is on the way. Apparently General Votorov is ready to take us to those ruined villages.”
“Tell him we’re on our way,” Navarro responded. He motioned to Austen to step aside for a moment. “Leigh, are you sure about this? I’m still getting a weird vibe from these Kazakh guys. And I sure as hell don’t like the idea of you heading back down into the Karakul, even if Lelache is with you.”
“We don’t have much of a choice,” she insisted. “Look, I appreciate the concern. I know the risks, believe me. But time is of the essence now. After that fire…Ted and Ian aren’t going to be able to work as quickly with what they have right now. A fresh culture of Nostocales might be the key to finding a cure or keeping it from spreading.”
Navarro gave Leigh a careful look. He decided that arguing wasn’t going to change her mind.
“You’ve got something to prove to yourself, I can see that,” he finally said. “But I’m still worried about that warning from DiCaprio. Treat the unknown with care. Watch your back. Not everything is as it seems. Any ideas at all about what that means?”
She shook her head, resigned.
“No. But like I said, we’re out of options.”
Navarro watched as Austen turned away, his stomach tying itself in knots as she picked her way through the still-smoking ruins of the laboratory. Lelache followed in her wake as they headed towards a second trip down into the Karakul’s hostile depths.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Lelache pulled the curtain across the spare gowning compartment’s opening. She held her breath for a moment and listened. All she heard over the ever-present venting system was the dim sound of her colleagues talking. It would have to do.
She ran a finger along the glassy face of her wristwatch to call up a texting screen. Once there, she tapped in a message.
LONGEST LIVING STRAI
N G240. GROW AT 72C. 12.6% O2.
It only took a few moments for the terse reply.
Be ready when you hear the signal.
“Helen? You in here?” Austen’s voice called.
Lelache drew the curtain back. “Un moment! I am starting the gown-up process. You want to take the hardsuits down again, correct?”
“I’m sure as heck not going anywhere near that Nostocales colony in a glorified smock,” Austen declared. She walked past, heading for Module F for the second time in as many days. “Come on, I want to take advantage of the sun while we have it.”
Lelache nodded and followed along. She watched the taller woman’s back, eyes bright and as watchful as a predator.
* * *
Once again, Colonel Aleksey Chelovik entered the room without ceremony, followed closely by October’s imposing bulk. The colonel stood at attention and cleared his throat before speaking.
“You meet us along main road in five minutes,” he said, his limited English grating against the ear like broken glass. “General is ready. Escort is ready. Refusal is–”
“–Not an option,” Navarro said heavily. “We got that the first time. Tell the general that we shall be there.”
Chelovik nodded brusquely, turned, and left. Navarro looked to October.
“You and I are going to be accompanying Doctor Zhao,” he stated. “She’s a bit skittish around the General, so let’s keep her between us when we head out.”
October let out a gruff bark of a laugh. “Votorov has taste for the delicate.”
“That’s one way to put it, my friend.”
A shrug. “This is a poor place to be stationed for a lonely General. I go to see this ‘escort’ they have ready.”
With that, October adjusted his heavy gray jacket. He shifted his assault rifle’s strap to a more comfortable position as he walked out the door. Redhawk waited until the door had firmly closed before speaking up.
“We’ve got problems you need to know about,” he warned, and Navarro moved to the man’s side. Redhawk’s fingers flew over his keyboard until the horizontal signal graph came up again. Multiple spikes punched through the center line this time. “Check it out. We’ve had six more micro-transmission bursts in the ZRV band since we last talked. Three of them in the last five minutes.”
Navarro’s fist clenched and unclenched, fingers twitching as if to suggest mayhem. Redhawk doubted if his commander even noticed the motion consciously.
“Someone’s doing a lot of talking from inside our perimeter,” Navarro said. “Dammit, who’s doing it?”
“That’s just it. These bursts aren’t coming on the same frequency.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are three separate frequencies buried in here. It’s been a cast-iron bitch to separate ‘em out, but I’m sure now.”
Navarro scowled. “ZRV microbursts are hard enough to encrypt and untangle. One person wouldn’t be jumping around using three frequencies. We have three people talking behind the teacher’s back, don’t we?”
“Looks like,” Redhawk glumly agreed. “The question is, which three?”
The two men started slightly as Amy Zhao stepped into the C&C. She carried a thin metal suitcase in each hand, and she’d changed into a heavy jacket like the one worn by October. The loose-fitting outfit made the slightly built Asian woman look as if she was wearing a set of drapes.
“All right, I’m ready,” she announced brightly, as she hefted the suitcases to show them off. “I’ve got a biosafety outfit in one case, my sampling equipment in the other. Where’s our ride?”
As if in answer, they heard the grumble of approaching engines. Redhawk swiveled on his seat to look back at his security monitors. He raised his dark black eyebrows in surprise.
“They didn’t send a car,” he said. “The General’s brought a small convoy.”
“Let’s go,” Navarro said, as he moved to hold the door open. Zhao managed to maneuver her way through and he followed, blinking against the brighter sunlight. His breath steamed in the cold, dry air as he surveyed the motorcade that rolled up towards their makeshift C&C.
An ungainly, open-topped variant of the Russian UAZ 4x4 headed up a trio of vehicles. To Navarro’s eyes, it looked as if someone had just ripped the roof off a Chevy Suburban and painted it in camouflage colors.
Two heavy KAMAZ trucks rolled up slowly behind the smaller 4x4, their engines throbbing and throwing off diesel fumes. A single Kazakh soldier sat in each driver’s position. However, a half-dozen men’s heads were visible through the thin fabric walls screening the final vehicle’s rear compartment.
October walked alongside the impromptu convoy, followed by one of Navarro’s four-man squads. The men were bundled up against the cold in their gray-camo jacket, each with their weapons close to hand.
“Our friends had space to take us,” October announced, before Navarro could ask what was going on. “Mendez’s squad was on point, so, I chose to take him.”
Navarro nodded. “Maybe the General’s taking my advice of keeping his people at the front. Let us pick up the slack of guarding the expedition here.”
“Maybe.” October’s nose twitched as he added. “Still too many Kazakh ‘guards’ for my taste. More guns on our side, the better.”
“There’s that, too.” Navarro looked around his friend’s bulk and spoke to the squad’s leader, a grizzled man with a short, well-clipped beard. “Mendez, how are we doing?”
“Colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra,” came the salty reply. “But we’re ready to roll out, if that’s what we’re doing.”
“Yeah, it looks like it. You’re getting a truck, but it’s still their driver up front. Keep frosty and watch these jokers.”
“Frosty’s not going to be a problem out here. Got it.”
The three vehicles ground to a halt and sat amidst a rising cloud of sour-smelling dust. A grim-faced Colonel Chelovik sat across from the driver in the first of three rows of seats. Immediately behind him, General Votorov beckoned for Zhao to sit next to him. The young woman grimaced as she contemplated the prospect.
“Don’t worry about him,” Navarro whispered in her ear. “I’ll be sitting behind you. If he gets frisky hands, just let me know and I’ll remind him how to treat a lady.”
“Thanks,” she whispered back, and they walked up to the Soviet-style jeep.
“Dobroye utro,” Votorov said expansively. His breath fogged out in a mist of alcohol scented vapor. “Come. We see the sights together.”
Navarro took Zhao’s cases and placed them in the rear row before taking a seat next to them. He found the Russian excuse for a seat belt to click into place, and settled in. Though it was fairly comfortable, he felt more secure with the weight of his 9mm pistol nestled securely in its holster.
He craned his neck to watch Mendez’s squad clamber aboard the middle truck in the column. The driver looked surprised as October crowded into the passenger’s side seat. October’s teeth flashed as he attempted a friendly grin. It didn’t seem to settle the man’s nerves. If anything, the driver simply looked nervous.
“Pognali!” Votorov said, slapping the top of the seat between Chelovik and the driver. “Let’s go, let’s go!”
The convoy lurched forward, in a creak of rusty suspensions and the roar of heavy motors. In less than a minute, they passed the oil-stained concrete of the base’s motor pool and then the outer gates. The ride turned into a steady jounce along stretches of badly maintained concrete.
Navarro watched as the base receded behind them. The gate finally vanished amidst the tangled strands of scraggly pine and winter-browned underbrush. Above the trees, hazy sun shone through the shadowy cloud column rising from the depths of the mine. He had no overt reason to worry, but his gut still churned.
Once again, a line from DiCaprio’s message flashed through Navarro’s mind.
Watch your back.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The mine elevator made a jolting
lurch as it began its journey back into the depths of the Karakul. Austen stumbled as it did so. Even Lelache had to quickly grab onto a side rail as the car began the long descent.
John Redhawk’s voice sounded in her ear. It surprised her for a split second, until she remembered the limited-range broadcast from the hardsuit helmet back to the C&C.
“Everything okay?” the man asked. “I’m showing you and Lelache on the monitor here. Your pulse went up a notch.”
“We’re fine,” she assured him. “The elevator’s getting rickety, that’s all.”
“When October gets back, I’ll tell him to bring an oil can to lube the gears on that thing.”
That surprised Austen. “When he gets back? Where’s he off to?”
“October took one of our squads to accompany Navarro and Doctor Zhao to the fieldwork sites. They’ll return soon enough.”
“Sounds good,” she said.
Austen bit back a rising swell of trepidation. She’d volunteered Nick to go along with Zhao because the man was the most trustworthy. But now she had the feeling that everyone was getting too spread out. That feeling nagged at her even as she sought to dismiss it.
The sweeping view of the Karakul opened before them with a rush of air. Once again, the oddly festive coloring of the rocks glittered before them. Pink, ochre and burnt umber lined the almost vertical slope, like a frosted cake that went a mile deep.
Leigh kept her thoughts to herself until the elevator came to rest at the bottom of the mine. The front bars of the elevator cage rolled up. Even in the sunshine dribbling in from above, the door’s rattle chilled her bones.
She tapped her fingers together as she stepped out of the cage. “Redhawk, can you still read us?”
The Devil’s Noose Page 15
