The mumbles rose to angry shouts and chanting. The men began to surge toward the entrance of the building.
Josh grabbed Aya by the arm and led her towards the exit. “Aya, whatever these men do, go to the fence. Get outside. Buri is waiting for you.”
The woman gave him a frightened nod.
The crowd of men uttered a bloodcurdling war cry and surged out of the building. Josh kept a tight hold on Aya, protecting her from the rushing mob. He heard gunfire from outside.
They rushed out of the building. Josh pushed her away. He pointed to the western edge of the fence.
“That way … go!”
Aya turned and sprinted for the fence. Bullets nipped at her heels.
Josh whirled around. The crowd of men had brought one of the Delta Blue guards to the ground. They were beating him to a pulp as he thrashed beneath them.
Another mercenary staggered from the throng of men. He was firing at Aya with his rifle, but his shots went wild, sending puffs of dirt into the air.
Josh fired back, striking the man in the leg with a three-round burst. As he fell to the ground, more of the prisoners piled on top of him. They beat and clawed at his face.
Josh rushed over and began pulling men off the wounded soldier. “Wait, don’t kill him! I need him alive!”
The crowd parted. Josh kicked the man’s rifle aside. The soldier’s face was battered and bruised, but he was still alive. He gasped for breath and groaned as he tried to sit up. Josh planted his foot on the man’s chest and forced him back onto the ground.
He turned back to the prisoners. “Everyone, go! Get to the fence! I promise these men will pay for what they did to you.”
The men in the crowd exchanged a few glares, then turned and jogged toward the fence after Aya. The rest of the prisoners filed out of the building after them.
Josh reached down and tore a security badge off the wounded mercenary’s vest.
“Okay, asshole. One question. Do you have access to the VSAT system?”
The man nodded. “Yes … yes, I do. I can get you in, I swear!”
Josh smiled. “Good answer.”
INCORRECT LOGON - VSAT ACCESS DENIED
The VSAT terminal beeped as the error message flashed on the screen.
The mercenary quickly typed in another code. Josh pulled back the charging handle on his rifle. “If you can’t help me, you’re dead weight. Got it?”
“They … they rotate the code!” the man stuttered. His words were slurred by his swollen lips and mashed teeth. “They must have changed it after you were captured.”
Josh glanced toward the door of the communications room. It was closed and locked behind them. The battered mercenary claimed he had shut down the cameras in the room, but Josh had no idea if he was lying. They had made it into the main building without incident, but if he couldn’t get a message out soon, it wouldn’t matter.
“How many of you are still in the complex?” he asked.
“I … don't know. Less than ten. Plus Bernatto. Everyone else is heading to the oil fields with Takuba’s men.”
“It's about to be less than nine if you don’t access this system ASAP,” Josh growled.
The man typed in another code and hit enter.
“INCORRECT LOGON - VSAT ACCESS DENIED. YOU HAVE EXCEEDED LOGON ATTEMPTS.”
The alarm whooped to life. Spinning red lights flooded the room with a crimson glow.
The mercenary looked up at him. “I can bypass the lockout, but I can’t stop the alarm … Bernatto will know we’re here! He’ll flood the room with the Gemini Virus! We have to get out of here!”
Josh hefted the rifle. “No. Try again. You want to live? Then access the system. Now!”
The man turned back to the VSAT terminal. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. He entered another string of letters and numbers on the keyboard and pressed enter.
“LOGON VERIFIED. ACCESS GRANTED.”
The logon screen dissolved away, leaving a blinking cursor.
The door to the room began to shake and rattle. Men were pounding on it from the other side.
Josh prodded the man with the rifle. He slid a piece of paper in front of him and gestured towards it.
“That’s the VSAT link for the CIA stationhouse in Juba. Start the connection. Now.”
The mercenary stood up. “This is over. My men are outside, there’s nowhere to run!”
Josh stepped back and aimed his rifle at the man. “You're right, there is nowhere to run. And you’re still in here with me. Start typing. Now!”
The man stepped towards the door. “Hey, I’m in here!” he shouted. “It’s Galloway, he—”
The men outside opened fire. Gunfire tore through the office door. Josh threw himself to the ground as the mercenary staggered backwards. He fell back into the chair. Bullets thudded into his body and sparked across the table.
Josh grabbed the leg of the chair. He pulled the man’s corpse in front of the VSAT terminal. More slugs thudded into the man’s body. A few shots ricocheted near the communications equipment, but the mercenary’s corpse shielded the terminal.
The gunfire stopped. Josh muttered a silent curse and knelt in front of the table. He typed in the link information and waited. The satellite signals suffered from minor latency, and it took about five seconds before the cursor blinked back to life. A progress bar flashed on the screen, counting down.
VSAT CONNECTION INITIATED.
More gunfire perforated the door. Josh threw himself back to the ground. He scurried away from the table and rolled over onto his back. He aimed the rifle at the door and returned fire.
He saw movement through the holes in the flimsy panel. Men fell to the ground. Josh kept firing. His muzzle fire flashed bright orange in the dim crimson light of the room.
The rifle clicked empty. He tossed it aside and staggered to his feet. Leaning over the terminal, his fingers raced across the keyboard.
PRIORITY ONE:
UNMARKED MIL-17, OUTBOUND NEAR THAR JATH.
DESTINATION UNKNOWN.
BWLIBRA - REPEAT, BWLIBRA.
He paused. The brief cryptonym “BWLIBRA” would alert the stationhouse that the message concerned an imminent biological attack.
He heard the men moving into position behind the door. The mercenary had been right … there was nowhere for him to go.
Rebecca …
There was no time. No time for regrets or last words. No time to even think. He typed a few more words.
ALERT D/NCS: CAINE ONBOARD. HOPE YOU'RE SMARTER THAN HE IS. SORRY I CAN’T BE THERE FOR YOU.
GALLOWAY OUT.
He reached for the enter key.
Another hail of bullets exploded through the door. Josh grunted as he felt red hot pain lance through his shoulder.
He dropped to the ground. More bullets struck his legs and stomach. He felt warm blood seeping through his shirt.
The men began pounding on the door again. The flimsy barrier buckled and began to bend under the onslaught.
Josh groaned in pain. Reaching up, his trembling fingers grabbed the edge of the desk. He pulled himself up to his knees.
His message blinked on the screen. He stabbed his bloody finger down on the enter key.
SENDING MESSAGE. A progress bar appeared on the screen, counting down the latency period of the VSAT connection.
The door burst open. Another hail of gunfire ripped into Josh’s back.
He fell away from the table, onto the floor.
Five Delta Blue men stormed into the room. They covered him with their rifles but said nothing. Josh spit blood onto the floor. He looked up at the terminal.
MESSAGE SENT flashed on the screen. Josh grinned and rested his head on the floor.
The men parted as Bernatto stepped into the room. He looked down at Josh and shook his head.
“Galloway. I warned Grissom we should have killed you days ago. You were his fallback in case we couldn’t pin things on Caine. He underestimated you.”
>
Josh gasped for breath. His eyes fluttered in his head. “Bernatto … tell you … something …”
Bernatto pulled a pistol from a shoulder holster. He held it at his side.
“Tell me what?” he asked.
A tremor ran through Josh’s body. “There … there will be a reckoning. Caine … he’ll never stop. He’ll … He’ll come for you.”
Bernatto stared back at him. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Caine will be dead soon. Just like you."
Josh looked into his eyes. “T-tell yourself what you … what you like, Allan. But you know. I see … in your eyes. You know he'll find you again.”
Bernatto raised the pistol. "Coming back here was stupid, Galloway. We beat you. You should have accepted that and ran. You could have escaped, made it to safety."
Josh shook his head. "Not … not wired to be second best." He smiled. "See you … in hell."
Bernatto fired.
Josh’s head snapped back. He slumped to the ground and closed his eyes.
Chapter Forty-Two
The helicopter shuddered in the strong wind as it swooped low across the plains. Takuba paced back and forth, balancing himself with the cord that ran across the roof. As the minutes ticked down, the man seemed consumed with nervous energy. His eyes darted around the interior of the cargo bay. He moved with rapid, twitching strides, glancing out the windows at the parched landscape below. His manic gaze settled on Nena. She glared at him as he ran his fingers through her long, dark hair. His lips curled into a sadistic grin.
“Such lovely hair. Do you remember her, Tom? That beautiful girl?” He glanced over at Caine.
Caine remained silent.
Takuba waved a finger at him. “I can see in your eyes, you do. You remember what I said to you?”
“You said your spirits would protect you,” Caine said.
Just keep him talking, he thought. The fingers of his cuffed hands darted to his waistband. They brushed against the cap of the tactical pen.
Takuba nodded. He slid his fingers down Nena’s cheek.
“Yes. And they put a curse on you. Now, years later, here we are. So you see, I was right.”
“What have you done to the Gemini Virus?” Caine asked. “You changed it, mutated it somehow.”
Takuba dragged his eyes from Nena’s face and looked over at him. “The Chechen’s work with the Russian Mafia, the Rudov family. They traffic in women. I made a deal with them, behind Grissom’s back. My men and I provided them with prisoners. Young girls, taken from the villages I liberated. In exchange, they modified the Gemini Virus to my specifications.”
“You’re not a liberator,” Caine snapped. “You’re just another madman who blames mass murder on the voices in his head. You pimped out your people, innocent children, for what? To be Bernatto and Grissom’s errand boy?”
As he spoke, his fingers made tiny, precise movements behind his back. The bottom of the pen turned a fraction of an inch.
“Bernatto and Grissom know nothing,” Takuba boasted. “I stole their greatest weapon from under their noses and made it my own.”
“But you rendered it useless,” Nena said, inching away from him. “The new cell walls will survive the refining process intact. The virus will not be released from the bacteria.”
Takuba laughed. “You see? She is both smart and beautiful. You are right, my lovely. The virus will not be released when the oil is refined. Gemini will live, hibernating within the gasoline. The kerosene, the diesel … any product made from South Sudan’s oil will hold the kiss of death inside, waiting to strike.”
Nena gasped and her eyes opened wide. “No … the bacteriophage will survive, but the cell walls will be weakened.”
“What do you mean?” Caine asked. “I thought you said the virus wouldn’t be released?”
The bottom of the pen rotated another fraction of an inch. His probing fingers felt the threads of the screw become exposed. Almost there …
“The virus won’t be released in the refineries,” she said, staring in horror at Takuba’s grinning face. “It will be released all over the world. Anywhere the refined products are sold and burned, the cell walls will finally decay, and the virus will escape.”
“Europe, China, America,” Takuba snarled. “A cloud of death, choking the entire world. A world that has stood by and watched while my country is defiled by war and bloodshed. All for a taste of the black blood that flows through her veins. In Sierra Leone, men kill for diamonds. In the Congo, it is timber. Here, it is oil. Everywhere in Africa, there is wealth and resources. But it is the foreign powers who grow rich, while Africans starve and die.”
"You may be right, Takuba. But your hands are just as bloody as anyone else’s,” Caine said.
Takuba nodded. “Yes, yes, this is true. When you first met me, I was a monster. How could I be anything else? As a child, I was taken from my home by monsters. Beaten, tortured by monsters. I was forced to murder my father, my own flesh and blood. The horror of it all … it weighed on my soul. Left me an empty shell, a vessel for evil spirits. But now? Now, I am a savior.”
“You are insane,” Nena whispered. “You will kill millions of people!”
“When I woke from my coma, I was reborn. I had a new purpose. I cared nothing for this rebellion. The squabbling between tribes, the feuds between governments … It is all a farce, a silly joke. The only way to free my people is to end foreign meddling in my country once and for all. If the oil is the root of all evil, then I will turn the oil itself into a poison. Once my men take the key oil fields, we will flood the pipes that lead into the north with the infected oil. Gemini will grow and thrive within the pipeline, and soon it will be too late to stop it.”
Caine felt the bottom of the pen slip off into his fingers. Underneath, a short, knobby length of metal protruded from the pen. Working quickly, he maneuvered the metal key into the lock of the handcuffs. The cuffs had been applied by the Delta Blue mercenaries and Caine had recognized them as U.S. law enforcement models. They used a standardized lock and key system.
The key in the top of the pen would be able to open them, if he could manipulate it without being noticed.
“Even if your plan works, you’re dooming this country to starvation,” Caine said. He stared into Takuba’s wild, manic eyes. “Without oil profits to prop up its economy, South Sudan will fall into chaos. Famine, disease, riots … You’re not setting anybody free. You’re just burning the whole country down.”
“The LRA taught me one thing, Tom. War can be a holy act. It is the healing hand of God. Those who die are the rotten flesh he cuts from an infected land. The survivors… they are the pure. They are his chosen. When crops becomes diseased, overgrown with corruption and sickness, then you must burn them down. You must start over with fresh seed.”
Takuba reached behind Nena’s back and unlocked her handcuffs. She screamed as he yanked her to her feet.
Caine’s eyes followed him as he dragged her to the center of the cargo bay.
“Like me, my country must be reborn. And for that, it has to die first. Only then will my people be free.”
“Leave her alone, Takuba,” Caine shouted. “It’s me you want! I’m the one who came here to kill you!” His fingers worked out of sight, twisting the key back and forth in the cuff’s locking mechanism.
“No, my good friend. You are not here to kill me. The spirits brought you for a different purpose. Just as they did years ago. When I was taken as a child, the LRA marked me. They cut the sign of the holy cross into my flesh. They told me if I anointed my cross in blood, before each battle, the spirits would protect me. God would make me invincible. That night, Tom, after I killed that girl, I traced the cross in her blood across my beating heart. And they were right. The spirits saved me. God shielded me from the bullet that should have killed me.”
Takuba threw Nena to the ground. She groaned as she struck the metal floor of the helicopter. The madman stood over her and drew his machete fr
om its leather sheath. Reaching up to his collar, he tore open his shirt. Caine stared at the crisscrossed scar that ran across his flesh. The mark of the cross cut across his chest and ran down his stomach.
“Now, it is time once again. Before I go into battle, I will mark myself with the blood of this half-breed bitch. And once again, you shall bear witness. Once again, you shall be cursed!”
He raised the machete into the air.
Caine struggled to fit the end of the pen into the lock. His face flushed red, and his eyes blazed with emerald rage.
“Takuba!”
Suddenly a high-pitched beeping came from the open door to the cockpit. The helicopter tilted to the right, and Nena rolled across the floor. She slammed into the cargo pallet and groaned in pain. Takuba reached up to steady himself as the aircraft swung back in the other direction.
He turned to the cockpit. “What is happening?” he bellowed.
The pilot turned and looked back. “Helicopters, sir, two of them! South Sudan Air Force. Their cannons are locking onto us!”
Galloway! Caine thought. He must have made it back to the refinery, sent out a warning. South Sudan Air Force is moving to intercept!
The helicopter swung through the air again. Gunfire screeched across the left side of the cargo bay. Heavy slugs tore through the metal walls of the aircraft and buried themselves in the floor.
“Lower the ramp!” Takuba ordered. “We must shoot them down. Quickly!”
One of the Ghost Jackals lurched past Caine. He flipped open the latches of a long plastic case that lay on the floor. Caine watched as the soldier threw open the lid and removed one of the MANPAD missile launcher systems. Moving to the back of the aircraft, he slammed his fist against a red button mounted to the wall. The hydraulic hum once again whined through the cargo bay as the rear ramp lowered down. Wind billowed through the aircraft.
Caine squinted as sunlight flooded into the cargo bay. Turning his head, he caught a glimpse of another helicopter swooping past the open ramp. The tall, narrow-bodied craft was unmistakable, even from a distance. Russian-made MI-24P gunships, sold to South Sudan by Ukraine. A pair of short, slanted wings were mounted to either side of each attack helicopter. Rockets and gunpods peeked out from under the wings. The gunships were fast, maneuverable, and heavily armed.
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