Threat Level Alpha

by Leo J. Maloney

  And then two microwaves to Kattab’s left exploded. The doors flew apart and flames shot out, catching the terrorist’s left side, from his hip to his face. He screamed and dropped his weapon. Then he crumbled to his knees, which was the only thing that saved him from the burst of the last two microwaves.

  Somehow Karen appeared next to the man. She was on the floor and was able to get one hand on the butt of the AK, managing to slide the weapon in Alex’s direction.

  However, as Alex grabbed for the gun, she saw Kattab bringing his pistol around to fire at Karen. Alex was barely able to aim her own Colt and get off a shot before he did. Her bullet found its target.

  “Stay down and find cover!” Alex shouted to Karen as she grabbed the AK and slid behind a lab table. There was one more terrorist on the lab floor. And by now she was sure the two Chechens on break were there as well. She heard the terrorist shouting in his own language as she called out, “Everyone get down!”

  Then she heard one of the men let loose a spray of automatic gunfire and turned to see he was firing at the ceiling, issuing a warning to the students as he tried to gain some semblance of control.

  Just then there was a loud boom as one of the pressure cookers went off. A few seconds later, the second one exploded.

  She dispensed with caution, leaping to her feet and into a firing position. Aiming and firing with one motion, she put four shots into the air. Without even looking around, she dipped to a crouch and scrambled away from her previous position, heading for the molecular biology area.

  Students were screaming but the final two terrorists weren’t making any noise, so she wouldn’t be able to find them by sound. She’d have to look. A shot rang out, then another. Students screamed and it sounded like at least one of them had been hit.

  More shots. More screams.

  Alex couldn’t wait any more. She peeked out from around the machine she was using for cover, and could see only one of the terrorists. He’d taken cover behind an incubator. She had made a point of working with all of the machines in the microbe area when Karen had ordered that everything in their section be thoroughly “cleaned.”

  The incubators resembled large refrigerators, and she knew that—like a refrigerator—its sides and door were not very solid, just two thin layers of sheet aluminum with a bit of insulation between them. And since they were empty there was nothing inside them to stop a bullet.

  Switching the AK to full auto, Alex sprayed the front of the incubator. There was a brief scream from behind it, but she didn’t hear his body fall. She’d hit him but possibly not fatally.

  She didn’t have trouble finding the last remaining uninjured Chechen; he was standing against one of the far walls, shuffling to one side to try to get to an exit. Unfortunately, Alex didn’t have a clear shot because he had surrounded himself with hostages. There were five students between Alex and the terrorist.

  The black-clad man kept one hand on the student in front of him, which left him one hand to manage his rifle and keep it pointed forward. Alex recognized the student; it was Avery.

  That made Alex laugh as the gunman shouted at her in Chechen. Did he really think he was safe hiding behind Avery? Alex was prepared to shoot right through him but decided that there was too much of a risk of hitting one of the other students.

  The terrorist continued to shout gibberish at her. She didn’t understand the language but she understood his meaning. He wanted her to put down her gun or he would start shooting hostages.

  Putting down the gun would never happen, but she couldn’t use it either.

  There was, however, one thing she could do. She held her AK tightly with one hand and sprinted for the terrorist, screaming the whole way. The students scattered, now more afraid of the charging, armed Alex than they were of the Chechen.

  She was glad to see fear in the terrorist’s eyes and his sudden realization that he couldn’t aim with Avery in front of him. The man tossed his now useless hostage aside and as he did Alex threw herself into a slide, bringing up her rifle.

  Somehow, she managed to keep her AK pointed in the right direction as she slid to a stop while his bullets whizzed above her. Then she took final aim and fired. Alex completed the whole movement smoothly, as if she had practiced it a hundred times, though she knew its success had more to do with luck and adrenaline.

  Unfortunately, luck had only gotten her so far, and the AK clicked empty.

  There was a look of shock as the terrorist realized he was still alive, and then he gave a feral grin as he realized her gun was empty. He swung his own rifle down to take aim.

  Alex reached for her Colt. The odds were heavily against her but she made the effort anyway. Just as she did so she saw the odds get worse. The Chechen she had injured was rising up from behind one of the lab tables. Even if the one getting a bead on her missed, this one would be able to finish the job.

  When the inevitable shot rang out she winced, automatically bracing herself for the bullet, but it never came. Instead, remarkably, the top of the Chechen’s head exploded.

  Alex turned her head to see her father racing toward her, his gun still out. Just behind him was an older man who Alex thought she recognized. The other also had his pistol out and fired several shots in the direction of the last terrorist.

  And then the gunfire stopped and Alex tried to clear her head. Somehow, her father had appeared out of nowhere and made a head shot while at a full run, from a hundred yards away.

  * * * *

  Morgan skidded to a stop and brought down his Walther. Alex was still lying on her back and twisting her head to look up at him.

  “Are you hit?”

  “Dad,” she replied, confused.

  “I’m here. Are you hurt?” He wanted to scoop her up but was afraid of hurting her further if she’d been shot. “Are you hit?” he repeated.

  Alex spun around to her knees. “No.”

  And then he was on his knees and hugging her.

  “You’re really okay?” he asked. After where she had been for the last week it was almost too much to hope for.

  “Yes,” she said, grabbing him tightly.

  “You did it Sweetie, you saved all these people,” he said.

  “No, not all of them,” and then she buried her head in his shoulder and let out a single sob.

  “You did great,” he said as he brought them both up to a standing position.

  She turned to Dobrynin and said, “Are you…”

  “He’s with me,” Morgan said. He turned to Dobrynin and said, “Scan for any hostiles.”

  The Russian took off.

  “Are there any more?” he asked, pulling away to look her over. She was wearing a lab coat over her street clothes, but she really appeared to be okay.

  “I don’t think so. I think they are all dead. There were six of them and you got the last one,” she said, wiping her eyes.

  “Six?” he asked, scanning the room.

  He counted five black-clad bodies.

  Alex was clearly worried and scanned the lab herself. She studied a charred section of the warehouse and said, “Kattab.”

  Then she was racing over there, where there was a bloody smear on the floor but no body.

  Alex followed the trail to a door in the far wall, a door that was just starting to close. Alex and Morgan got there before it did and burst inside.

  A burned and battered man in black was hunched over a metal suitcase that lay on the ground.

  “Kattab!” Alex called out as the man fell away from the suitcase, which she saw contained some sort of console.

  “You’ll never get out in time.” He said, coughing up blood. “Now you will all die.”

  “You first,” Alex said, drawing and firing her pistol in a single, smooth motion.

  Chapter 35

  Morgan saw the cables leading out of the suitc
ase and knew what it meant.

  “They’ve wired the lab,” Alex said. It wasn’t a question.

  Morgan raced to the console.

  “Can you disarm it?” she asked.

  He scanned it. He might be able to, but not in the fifty-two seconds the digital display said they had left. Still, it was worth a try. They certainly didn’t have any better options. As he examined the timer he tapped his ear comm.

  “Bloch. The threat is neutralized but do not enter. The lab is wired. Repeat, do not enter.” He scanned the room around him and saw leftover C-4. “Plastic explosives.”

  Forty seconds.

  “Get out of there, Cobra!” Bloch shouted.

  “No time. I’ll try to disarm it,” he said. But he didn’t know where to begin. The simplest method would be to just start pulling on wires. Unfortunately, that would almost certainly set off the C-4.

  Shepard’s voice screamed into his earpiece. “Send me a picture. I’ll talk you through it,” he shouted.

  Twenty-four seconds.

  “There’s no time. I’m sorry Shep,” Morgan said.

  He heard a guttural shout from Shepard and then the line went dead.

  Nineteen seconds.

  “Let’s run for it Dad,” Alex said, her eyes bright.

  Morgan grinned. That was his girl.

  At least they would both be on their feet. Morgan took his daughter’s hand and they both ran out the door and onto the lab floor.

  “Everyone get out,” he bellowed.

  By his calculations, they would be about halfway to the exit when the place blew. However when he guessed there was just under ten seconds left, there was great rumble and a crash.

  It’s early, Morgan thought.

  But it wasn’t the bomb. Something crashed through the far wall of the lab and then the lights went out.

  About now, Morgan thought, when his internal clock told him that it was time.

  Surprisingly, there wasn’t a flash or a boom. Just darkness.

  But not complete darkness. Emergency lights came on around the lab and there was a hole in the wall that let some light through the space where a Hummer had crashed through.

  Shepard leapt out of the vehicle and scanned the floor, desperately calling for Karen O’Neal. She raced across the lab and then she was in his arms.

  Remarkably, they were all still here. Whatever Shepard had done had worked.

  The Tach team came in flashlights out. He heard Spartan telling everyone they were safe and to head for the front exit. Then Morgan saw his own personal angel, Jenny, walk straight for them, with Diana Bloch trailing behind her.

  “Mom?” Alex asked. If possible, she seemed even more confused than when she first saw Morgan.

  “We’ve been looking for you,” Morgan said. “We’ve all been looking for you.”

  And then Alex was rushing for her mother, who pulled her into an embrace. Morgan was there a moment later, and then it was the three of them.

  There were people moving around them, plenty of noise and activity, but it faded and for the next few minutes, for Morgan it seemed like they were the only three people in the world.

  * * * *

  Morgan was aware of people still moving around him. He could see Schmitt nearby, Spartan corralling the civilians, and Lily Randall keeping a close eye on Alex.

  As soon as he could, he ushered Alex and Jenny outside, and after a short period of time Spartan brought the civilians out. They had identified a large amount of C-4 set all around the perimeter of the building. Though Shepard had somehow foiled the immediate threat from this fail-safe system, there was still a tremendous amount of explosives in the building.

  Spartan and the others kept everyone moving to put some distance between them and the lab. Four of the students were on stretchers, two of them alive and two in body bags.

  Morgan noted that Dr. Apocalypse had survived. He had been tending one of the machines in the lab and had to be dragged away from it by two agents.

  Soon additional support personnel showed up, and Morgan saw a couple of suits that told him the first Feds had arrived.

  Bloch approached the Morgans who had stayed close to Shepard and Karen. “Everyone who was in the lab has been told to stay until they have been cleared by the CDC,” she said.

  O’Neal stepped forward. “But there is no danger of infection. No live virus was completed. There is no biological threat,” she said.

  “I understand but the CDC is insisting on a quarantine period,” Bloch said.

  Morgan took one look at his wife and daughter and said, “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m very serious, which is why I need all of you to get on that helicopter right now,” Bloch said, pointing to a Renard copter that was sitting nearby.

  The Morgans, Shepard, and O’Neal were flying over the desert. Morgan knew that their early departure would cause Diana Bloch no end of hassle and he appreciated the gesture, though, in reality, he understood that she’d done it more for Jenny and Alex than for him. Whatever the reason, he was glad to have his family together and eager to get them home.

  The helicopter took them to a small, local airport where a Renard company private jet was fueled and waiting for them. Morgan noticed that his ear comm was out, and for that matter, so was his phone. He turned and spoke to Shepard for the first time since he’d seen the younger man come crashing through the side of the lab. “Shep, how did you do it?” he asked.

  Shepard shrugged. “I pulled the prototype EMP weapon off the fighter you and Cougar recovered. We had it in the lab anyway and I thought it might come in handy.

  “It will be a nice toy to have going forward,” Morgan said.

  “Of course, now that we both have it we’ll all be working on countermeasures and hardening our circuitry, but it did the job today,” Shepard said.

  “True, but you did cut it pretty close, Shep.”

  To that Shepard smiled. It was the first one he’d seen on the younger man’s face since the crisis started. “Well Morgan, you’re not the only one who likes to make an entrance.”

  Morgan was finally able to relax. He saw Jenny and Alex huddled together, and Jenny was muttering to their daughter. Even Morgan could see that something had happened to Alex in the lab, something that wasn’t just the operation, something that wasn’t just the mission. She didn’t have the shell-shocked look of someone who had been through something extreme. This was the look of grief.

  She’d lost something, or more likely someone, in the desert.

  The jet made suspiciously good time to Logan airport and then there was a car to take them back to their house.

  Jenny prepared Alex’s room while Alex washed off the last few days. She was tough, he knew that—she was, after all, a Morgan—but this would take some time.

  He’d suffered a few personal losses on missions. They were harder than the professional setbacks or the physical ones and took longer to heal. Jenny was already helping and they would do what they could when Alex was ready to talk.

  * * * *

  Two days later, Peter Conley came in through the kitchen door while Morgan was having breakfast.

  “I hear you’ve been busy,” Conley said.

  “You too,” Morgan said. “Your vacation in Manila was all over the news. Remind me to explain to you the meaning of ‘undercover.’”

  “Strangely, your trip to the desert was not reported anywhere,” Conley said.

  “Like I said, undercover,” Morgan said, smiling.

  Somehow, the Feds had kept the truth under wraps. The official story of the kidnapping of the Berkeley students and their professor was that they had been taken by Chechen terrorists, whisked away to a secondary location, and held hostage.

  According to the official report, they were rescued by a joint U.S.-Russian task force. Three of
the students were killed and only two injured.

  Some of that story was even true.

  Morgan marveled that they could keep a secret that big. No doubt, the surviving students and their families had been sat down by men in suits and coached.

  Amazingly, no one had talked about the virus yet.

  Eventually someone would, of course, but by then they would be white noise on the conspiracy theory circuit.

  The important thing was that the threat was neutralized and Bloch had assured them that all of the data on the Russian program had been completely destroyed.

  But the truth was that three young people were dead. One of them had died during the battle with the terrorists. Morgan knew now that Alex had gotten close to that student, a boy who had died trying to help. The first two had died during the first forty-eight of the kidnapping, when the terrorists had shot two students for not following orders, or not following them fast enough.

  Because of their own bloodthirsty nature and because they couldn’t be bothered to bury the young people, the Chechens had used their biohazard fire pit to dispose of the first two bodies. If the terrorists had not done that, Morgan knew that Zeta might never have found the lab, or found it in time.

  And then Morgan and Jenny would have likely lost Alex forever.

  On the other hand, Alex and Karen had pretty thoroughly destroyed the terrorists’ operation by the time Zeta arrived. Morgan had been able stop the terrorist who was trying to kill Alex but ultimately it had been Shepard who had saved every single person in the lab from death by C-4.

  Conley disappeared into the den where he sat with Alex for about a half hour. When he emerged he was somber and said, “Bloch is waiting for us.”

  It was time for both of them to debrief the boss. Morgan had insisted that Alex’s own debriefing would wait a few more days.

  Karen had already provided most of the detail that Bloch had needed for her own report to Mr. Smith and rest of the Aegis Initiative, which supervised Zeta Division.

  However, there were a number of questions that remained and Morgan would do his best to answer them.

  “Morgan, I stopped by the shop on the way over here. Did you know you that a Russian has taken over your business? When I was there he was shouting into your office phone.”