The Susquehanna Virus Box Set

by Steve McEllistrem

  Dr. Poole’s voice trailed off. She shook her head. “Call it.”

  The Elite Ops troopers packed up their med-kits and stood, soon rejoining their comrades in the search for any clues about the Susquehanna Sally organization. All the data they collected went to CINTEP’s Intelligence Gathering Unit, where CINTEP’s computers analyzed it.

  As they moved off, Lendra stared for a moment at the inert form of Hector Martinez. He lay in a contorted position, obviously in great pain at the time of his death. Too bad about that: Lendra now had only three CINTEP ghosts left to work with: Trogan Brosk, Ned Jefferson and Jeremiah Jones. Trogan Brosk, however, had disappeared last week while hunting down a terrorist cell in Rome. He had a history of stress-related erratic behavior and had only been reinstated to the ghost program three months ago, so Lendra didn’t know if his vanishing act was due to the pressures of the job or something more sinister.

  As for Jeremiah Jones—Sophie’s father—he had retired, making it clear that he no longer wanted anything to do with CINTEP or Lendra. Not that he was worth much in the field anymore anyway. He could barely move due to the constant pain in his joints—a result of being infected with the Susquehanna Virus. He’d once been the best of the ghosts. Elias Leach, the former head of CINTEP, had transformed Jeremiah from a gifted operative into a superior being: a transgenic creature with both human and animal DNA. For a time, Jeremiah had been the unstoppable agent Eli had sought, with incredible power, speed and healing ability. But he continued to evolve and now his immune system attacked his joints constantly, as fast as his transgenic body could repair itself, leaving him a helpless cripple. Yet, she could use his mind if only he weren’t so damned stubborn.

  The bottom line: she only had Ned left.

  “Major Payne has uploaded the last of the data files,” Jay-Edgar interrupted her thoughts. “We’re still analyzing them. They don’t seem to contain much helpful information though. Nothing connecting them to any other cells.”

  “No surprise there,” Lendra said. “We knew they were smart.”

  “It was clearly a production and distribution center for the virus,” Jay-Edgar said. “From a brief examination of the strain they were working on, it looks to be a known variety, though we’ll have to study it further. Major Payne wants to know if they can leave the building now.”

  Dr. Poole said, “I recommend you minimize their exposure to the virus.”

  “Have they completed their search?” Lendra said.

  “The longer they stay there, the greater their chances of becoming infected. Besides, the Indonesian authorities may provide us with any information we missed.”

  “After we invaded their sovereign territory? I don’t think so. But I agree that they shouldn’t stay any longer than necessary. How soon before the police get there?”

  “Perhaps ten minutes,” Jay-Edgar replied. “The only reason they’re not there yet is because their emergency call center is dealing with thousands of reports from across the city.”

  Lendra shook her head—so few weapons in her arsenal. “Keep them searching until the last minute. I want everything I can before they have to leave.” This is why we need to reinstate the ghost program.

  Dr. Poole said, “You’re thinking of turning Curtik and Zora into ghosts again, aren’t you?”

  “How did you . . .”

  “I’ve seen that look in your eyes before.”

  “They’ve already been infected and they’re both fine. They’re highly intelligent, superb physical specimens—both of them transgenic as well as having nano-tech enhancements. They’re extremely adaptable. And they need something to do. Better to use them for what they’re best at than train them for something beneath their unique skills.”

  “You’ve seen my reports. They’re not ready.”

  “We don’t have more time.”

  “Their conditioning on the Moon was strong. At times of stress, they’ll want to lash out. And there’s little in life more stressful than undercover operations. Brosk broke once before under the pressure. He might have again—unless he was taken.”

  “They’re young,” Lendra said, “and eager. At least Curtik is eager.”

  “That’s what worries me. His psychometric analyses show little loyalty, little discretion, and poor impulse control. I think he sees becoming a ghost as getting a license to commit brutal acts of violence.”

  Lendra pointed toward the building on the holo-projection. “Isn’t that what we need right now?”

  “As long as the acts of violence are the acts we want them to commit.”

  “Are you sure you’re not just prejudiced against him because he killed Jack Marschenko?”

  Dr. Poole closed her eyes and Lendra wondered if she’d gone too far. After a moment, Dr. Poole opened her eyes. “I live with that every day. I’m as much to blame as he is because I created him. It’s not that. No, I’m concerned that he’s too unstable.”

  “What better means of determining their ability to act properly in those situations than training them?”

  Without being consciously aware of it, Lendra reached up and grasped the small glass bulb that hung from her neck. Only when Poole stared at her did Lendra realize what she’d done. She pulled her hand away like it had been scorched. “I don’t keep neo-dopamine there anymore,” Lendra explained. “It’s just a necklace.”

  “Just a necklace?”

  “Perhaps a little more than that,” Lendra admitted. “But it’s none of your business.”

  “Oh, it’s my business, Lendra. Everything you do is my business. I don’t want to shut this place down, but I promised President Hope a full and accurate assessment and if I don’t give her one, she’ll shut us down anyway.”

  “I understand. Are you going to let me continue training Curtik and Zora?”

  “For now.” Dr. Poole stared ahead blankly for a moment and Lendra knew she was making notations to her interface. After a moment, Dr. Poole directed her attention to Lendra and said, “How are you holding up now that you’ve gotten what you wanted?”

  “I didn’t ask for this job,” Lendra said.

  “Don’t play coy with me.” Dr. Poole leaned forward. “We both know you wanted CINTEP. I studied your interviews with the President. I ran your psychometric analyses. I know the truth.”

  “My point is that I didn’t ask for the job. The President gave it to me because she knows I’m the best person for it.”

  “You’re under incredible stress. I need to know if you can handle that. We must stop Susquehanna Sally. And we must find a cure for the virus.”

  “So why are you questioning my use of Curtik and Zora?”

  “Technically, they’re still in protective custody. And even though they were exonerated because of their youth and the compulsions inside them, they’re still dangerous. Can you imagine the harm they could cause if they went rogue? You’ve seen what they’re capable of. Do you want everything riding on them?”

  Lendra shook her head. “We have Ned. And perhaps you could talk to Jeremiah again.”

  Dr. Poole shook her head. “I’ve spoken with him. He won’t help you. He doesn’t trust you.” Dr. Poole rubbed her eyes. Her cocoa face looked almost gray in this light, tension lines surrounded her eyes. No doubt she needed sleep. The same held true for Lendra. She wondered what she looked like, grateful that there were no mirrors in the office. Even living here in the CINTEP building in the apartment next to Dr. Poole, with a one-minute commute, she wasn’t getting enough rest.

  Dr. Poole stepped over to Lendra’s desk, looked down at her and said, “How do you feel about that?”

  Lendra almost smiled—such an obvious question.

  “I understand why he’s angry with me, but he knows how critical the global situation is. In addition to the virus, which may kill us all, we’ve now got dozens of countries eager to destroy America. Time
is of the essence, yet he sits on his porch doing nothing.”

  “He’s allowed us to take samples of his blood on many occasions. And Walt Devereaux is closer to finding a cure for the virus as a result.”

  Lendra shook her head. “Devereaux’s overly optimistic. The virus keeps mutating. Or Susquehanna Sally and her organization keep modifying it. At any rate, the more the virus adapts, the more difficult it will be to eradicate.”

  “Devereaux will find a cure. Let’s get back to Jeremiah. How do you feel about him?”

  “I can work with Jeremiah. I can separate my personal feelings from my professional ones. That’s all that really matters.”

  “Hmm.” Dr. Poole again stared blankly ahead as she made more notations to her interface. “And how do you feel about CINTEP’s reduced role in world affairs?”

  “I’ve made that pretty clear,” Lendra said. “I told the President we could be an enormous asset. She’s chosen to limit our role to finding Susquehanna Sally. And she’s forcing us to compete against every intelligence agency in the world to get to Sally first. That’s . . .” She reconsidered her word choice. “I feel threatened and energized at the same time. Imagine if we succeed.”

  “Then you’ll become the kingmaker and puppet master Eli once was.”

  Lendra clasped her hands together and placed them on the desk. “I want us to be relevant once again. I want America back atop the world. We’re the best hope for the planet. Surely you don’t disagree with that.”

  “Isn’t that precisely the kind of attitude that got us into this mess?” Dr. Poole said. “That was Eli’s vision too. Look how that turned out.”

  “I’m not Eli. I don’t dream of running the world.”

  “Don’t you?”

  Jay-Edgar interrupted: “Major Payne says the local police are nearly there. He wants to leave.”

  “Get them out,” Lendra said. “What did they learn?”

  Jay-Edgar put up a picture of one of the terrorists, the young Asian woman Ned had followed from Rome about the same time Trogan Brosk had disappeared, the one who had led Martinez to the cell. “She was using the name Ivra Golonea,” he said. “We don’t think she was the ringleader.” Her image was replaced by one of the middle-aged woman in the lab coat. “This one was probably in charge. Definitely Eurasian. Using the name Elsa Lochstein—likely an alias. Maybe she was even Susquehanna Sally.”

  Lendra shook her head. “I doubt Susquehanna Sally is one person. From all the vids I’ve studied, I would say she’s a conglomerate of several people. However, this woman might very well have been one of the brains behind the operation.”

  “The Elite Ops are on the move,” Jay-Edgar said. “Major Payne wants to know what their next mission is.”

  Lendra took a deep breath. President Hope had lent CINTEP Major Payne’s Elite Ops squad after Trogan Brosk disappeared. They’d been searching for him in Rome when Ned and the Intelligence Gathering Unit had found Ivra Golonea, and they’d been diverted to this assignment. She probably had to return them to General Horowitz now.

  “Bring them home,” Lendra finally replied. Damn Jeremiah anyway. His skills were much better suited to a search for Brosk. But Lendra could only use the tools at her disposal.

  “What about Ned?” Dr. Poole asked.

  “I’ve got another mission for him,” Lendra said. “And I still think we might be able to convince Jeremiah to return. If we can’t appeal to his sense of duty, then perhaps we can target his fondness for Ned, and even for Brosk. If he doesn’t help, we could lose our last active ghosts.”

  Dr. Poole’s eyes narrowed. “What are you planning? Did you deliberately set up Brosk to be taken?”

  “Absolutely not.” Lendra paused for a moment. “He was following a good lead. I had to decide whether to go in light or heavy. I chose to go in light. A heavier approach might have scared off the people he was watching.”

  “So you’re trying to cover your ass.”

  “Perhaps a little,” Lendra conceded. “I should have given Brosk backup. But I don’t have the personnel for that. I can only work with what I have. That’s why I need to get Curtik and Zora up to speed.”

  “I don’t want you using Ned for bait.”

  “Of course not. Right now, he’s our best chance of finding Susquehanna Sally. And I don’t intend to use Jeremiah in the field. I’ll keep him here in the office, where he can be protected night and day.”

  While Dr. Poole stared at her, Lendra felt increasingly uncomfortable, as if she’d said something wrong, something that might get CINTEP shut down. But Jeremiah, priceless commodity that he was because of his immunity to the virus, would be safe doing analysis down the hall.

  “I still don’t think he’ll help us.”

  “He might if we tell him we’re going to use Curtik and Zora too.”

  “Ah, there it is,” Dr. Poole said. “That’s the ruthlessness I’ve been waiting for.”

  Lendra’s cheeks felt warm. She said, “He’s the greatest asset we’ve got. I’m not just going to let him walk away if I can help it.” She turned to Jay-Edgar. “Where’s the greatest likelihood of a Sally home base?”

  “London. Added to what Major Payne just learned, the greatest intersection of travel patterns, infections—”

  Lendra stopped him with a wave of the hand. “You can summarize the data for me later, Jay-Edgar. I just want to know where to send Ned.”

  “It’s possible,” Jay-Edgar continued, “that the London indicators could be a statistical disparity.”

  “Or Susquehanna Sally could be trying to lure us into a trap,” Dr. Poole said.

  “One we might not be able to ignore,” Lendra said.

  “I would recommend notifying the British at once,” Dr. Poole said. “They’ll be much more cooperative than the Indonesians.”

  “No.” Lendra said. “We’ll run the operation from here.”

  “So this isn’t just about finding Susquehanna Sally,” Dr. Poole said. “You’re not coordinating with the CIA, FBI or NSA. Now you want to withhold information from the British? They might be able to help us.”

  “You’ve seen our Intelligence Gathering Unit, Doctor. It’s the best in the world. Do you really think the British can do better than IGU?”

  “I think that two heads are better than one.”

  “If the President hadn’t conditioned CINTEP’s continued existence on our finding Sally first—”

  “That’s not what she said,” Dr. Poole interrupted. “She may still shut us down. But she believes CINTEP can be useful if given a properly narrow agenda.”

  “Then we might as well become a branch of the CIA. Our successes have resulted largely from the fact that we’re not a government agency.”

  “So have our failures.”

  “I’m not Eli,” Lendra said. “I don’t have some grand vision of a world living in iron-fisted peace. I accept that other nations have their own ideas about where humanity should be going. Look, America is struggling. Our population feels insecure. Civil unrest remains high. It’s only going to get worse with these images from Indonesia. We’re going to have to use the Elite Ops to maintain order.”

  Two messages buzzed inside Lendra’s interface: one from Isabella, that Sophie was in the infirmary now; the other from President Angelica Hope’s office, requesting an update on the search for Susquehanna Sally. She closed her eyes for a moment before sending a reply to Isabella, telling her to wait for the on-call doctor’s report. “Get me the White House,” she said to Jay-Edgar. She refused to feel guilty about spending so much time away from her daughter. She was doing what had to be done—for everyone, including Sophie.

  Still, she longed for a taste of neo-dopamine.

  Chapter 6

  Curtik studied himself in the mirror. God, you are a handsome devil—dark hair, high cheekbones, a narrow nose, flawles
s skin and plump lips. He puckered up, blew himself a kiss. His brown eyes shone as he laughed. How could any woman resist you?

  He thought about sending a message to Benn and Addam via his implant, but decided not to. They were on Mars, while the rest of the cadets—except for Zora, whose parents were dead—were back with their families being re-integrated into society, whatever the hell that meant.

  Backing up a step, he did a twisting kick-punch. He was going to be a ghost! Just like dear old dad, only better. For a flash he felt sorry for Jeremiah. Then the familiar anger returned. He was no longer Joshua Jones, Jeremiah’s son.

  Tonight, he and Zora were going on a real mission, posing as a couple, getting out of this damn CINTEP tower and out into the streets of Washington, D.C. He’d only seen the city through the windows. Up until now, he’d either been stuck with Jeremiah in nowhere land or locked up here. Not tonight, though. Tonight, we dance. He reached up and ran his fingers through his hair. Then he caught sight of Zora in the mirror.

  “Don’t you knock?” he said as he turned to face her.

  “You never knock,” Zora said.

  “Well, that is wrong of me. I sincerely apologize. Besides, I never see you naked.”

  “And you never will. Are you finished admiring yourself yet?”

  “You’re such a bitch.” He looked Zora over. Slim, athletic, with liquid brown eyes, curly blond hair and skin the color of melted butter, she was dressed, like he was, in drab-looking clothes. Even so, her brown shirt and faded black pants clung to her lithe body, her pants fitting perfectly over her rounded ass. Curtik planned to kiss her tonight, in public somewhere, where she couldn’t object. He wasn’t in love with her, like she was with Jeremiah. Gag me! But he’d sure plow her.

  He stepped closer to Zora and looked down at her face, her plump lips and high cheekbones and straight narrow nose. She could be his sister.

  “Zora, honey,” he said, “you look absolutely fab.”

  “Don’t call me honey,” she retorted.

  “Oh, that’s right. You only want Jeremiah to do that. Has he called you honey yet?”