The Z Directive (Book 2): Mutation

by Thompson, Chris

  “Well, you really done fucked up,” the voice announced. He had a strong Spanish accent, but other than that, Jack could determine nothing about him.

  “Who the hell is that?” Tyrone and Bridges asked in unison.

  “Identify yourself,” Jack instructed tersely, watching as the boney pierced the underside of the car once more then swung out, hanging underneath the opening it had created. The elevator made heavy clunking sounds, dropping a few inches before holding in place. Jack pointed to the girders and stood, advancing towards them as Smith and Tyrone shifted carefully to the edge of the car’s roof.

  “Call me Hades.”

  “Is that supposed to be intimidating?” Jack shot back.

  “Uh, no. You know about the Ambrosia? Food of the Greek Gods? Jeez, don’t you people read?” Hades asked snarkily. Jack was about to step off the elevator when the sound of rending metal announced that the boney was attempting to move around the car; whatever it was doing, it was causing the elevator to jostle uncertainly as the weight was distributed in ways the designers hadn’t intended.

  “What do you want?” Jack asked, stepping off onto the gunmetal gray girder, wrapping his arm around the vertical part before extending out his arm to assist Tyrone as the elevator shook again.

  “Oh, the usual. World peace, a fat bank account, maybe a supermodel girlfriend are at the top of the list, but right now I’m settling for killing every son of a bitch that works at Bolvinox. Luckily for you, Major Jack Ramsay, that means our aims align at the moment,” Hades explained.

  With Tyrone and Smith carefully balancing on the girders with him, Jack levelled his weapon and fired several shots at the system where the cables were attached to the top of the elevator. Seeing his intention, Tyrone wrapped one arm around the central strut and took aim also, helping Jack fire until the shots tore through the cables. There was a loud pinging sound and the car dropped a few feet, aided in part by the extra weight of the boney, but the emergency brakes kicked in and brought the falling car to a screeching halt. The doorway was half exposed, the top of the elevator car roughly half way down the elevator doors, allowing Jack to see the arrayed horde of the undead attempting to clamber onto the car’s roof.

  “That was a good idea, now you just need to blow out the emergency brakes,” Hades complimented. “Or, I could just...” he trailed off.

  Suddenly, the emergency brakes deactivated and the car began to plunge quickly down the shaft, a number of the infected in the doorway falling out, groaning and howling as they followed it. Jack watched as the elevator shaft doors began to close, though with some difficulty. At best, they managed to come to a stop about three-quarters of the way.

  “You did that?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah. It’s like magic, right?”

  “This guy is almost as big a smartass as Bridges,” Smith commented.

  “How about I send down the other elevator car for you so you can get off the substructure?” Hades asked rhetorically. Above them, a loud clunking sound indicated movement, and when he looked up, Jack saw the other car coming down towards them.

  “And what do you want in return?” Jack asked.

  “Oh, I’m sure we can think of something,” Hades responded.

  “How are you in our communication system?” Bridges asked.

  “Well you patched yourself into the Bolvinox line so you could chat with that beautiful sounding Captain Hall. As I own the system at the Redshield Facility, it wasn’t difficult for me to gain the ability to talk with you all.”

  The elevator car came to a stop just in line with Jack, Tyrone and Smith. As Jack started to step off, the elevator moved down a few inches then stopped again. Hades laughed over the headset.

  “Sorry! I won’t do that again, promise.”

  Jack, still holding the support strut, cautiously leaned out again to step onto the roof of the car, this time the elevator remained in place. He stepped off, as did Tyrone and Smith, and they went over to the emergency hatch, and were able to brute force the hatch open, using their weapons as levers to force the flimsy lock to break, then descended into the car.

  “Okay, so talk,” Jack told Hades directly.

  “First things first. Emma? It’s a pleasure to see you again,” Hades stated.

  “Do I know you?” she asked.

  “I helped you escape the Whiteshield facility at Bluefields, so I’d say so. Without me you’d have been eaten like all those other disgusting people working on the virus. When I saw what you were up to and I realized our aims were aligned, it seemed better to save you than let you share their fate,” Hades explained.

  “Get to the point. What do you want?” Jack pressed.

  “You’re not one for small talk. Okay, I can work with that,” Hades said. “So, I want to destroy that facility you’re in, and up until recently, I was planning on killing those two scientists you’re now protecting in the security room on level two. I’ll let you have them so they can give you any intel they have, and I’ll help you escape the facility, but first you need to help me trigger the self-destruct system.”

  “And why would we do that? There’s information here that—” Jack was saying.

  “There’s nothing here that Doctor Reed didn’t already get on her download. No, this place needs to be destroyed.”

  “Why?”

  “I could say it's out of some kind of dutiful feeling to punish those responsible for the outbreak, but mostly it's about revenge. When they gave me Ambrosia, they said I was helping to pave the way for a new world - that my exposure to this substance would help them understand how to cure any disease and heal any wound. In truth, all we helped them to do was build the worst biological weapon in human history. Now they have to die to balance out the scale. Bolvinox, the people in your Coalition who are responsible, and anyone else who happens to show up, they’re all going to die,” Hades responded. The tone of his voice had grown darker the longer he spoke, leading Jack to wonder about the man’s mental stability, but in that moment there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

  “So you want us to blow up the place so they can’t come back and use it again? What’s to stop them building a new facility or using backed up information on the virus to start over? Your plan seems a little short sighted,” Tyrone chided.

  “I’m kinda hoping they’ll all be too dead to try to make the virus again. But if it comes up in the future, I’ll be sure to kill whoever those people are too,” Hades responded, his tone lighter than it had been. “I know, I know, you’re probably thinking I’m a bit of a psychopath, but really, the people I’m killing kinda really deserve it.”

  “And what if we don’t want to destroy this facility? What if we want to get the intel for our commanders?” Jack questioned.

  “Then that would be disappointing. I really, really want us to be friends, Major Ramsay, but I’m kinda in the headspace where if you’re not helping me then you’re not worth keeping alive.”

  “We need the data here to help us—” Emma started.

  “No, you don’t, Doctor Reed!” Hades snapped, but his flash of anger was over in an instant. He laughed, and then took an audible breath. “Sorry. Sorry about that. I tell you what, before I blow the shit out of the place, I’ll let you download all the data you want. Happy? Good enough for you? I’m being really fucking generous here and I’m feeling unappreciated!” Hades declared, his anger flashing again.

  “We’ll need to—”

  “Patch in Captain Hall? She’s been listening this whole time. Yoo-hoo, Captain!” Hades declared. There was silence for a few moments, then she spoke up.

  “We’re not in the habit of negotiating,” she declared.

  “And you’re not. We’re on the same team here, Captain! Really, as long as you get all the data this place has to offer as well as two prisoners, what’s wrong with me turning it into a giant crater? And think of all the damn zombies down here. It’s bad enough what’s happening out there, do you really want another two thousand
wandering around?”

  “Two thousand?” Jack questioned incredulously.

  “Fuck yeah, there’s at least that. Redshield was one of their largest holding facilities in the mid-west area.”

  Jack thought about it for a moment. If they’d known how many of the infected were located within the facility beforehand he might have suggested destroying it himself. Hades, while unstable, seemed to be interested in helping them and could provide vital intel on Bolvinox himself, as it seemed he was a part of the original program.

  “He’s probably right,” Jack announced.

  “Ramsay—” Hall started.

  “We don’t have the firepower to take out two thousand infected, it’d take a platoon to do that, maybe more, and we don’t have that kind of time. If Hades lets us download all the data we can, let’s us extract the two prisoners and lends us his continued assistance, I think blowing the shit out of the place is probably a good idea.”

  “I knew we’d get along well, Major Ramsay,” Hades commented. “So how about I send you down to the fifth level now—”

  “No, back to the second. Ridgewell is our expert, we’ll need him to rig the self destruct device, and we also need time to download the data.” Jack interrupted.

  “Ramsay—” Hall started to argue.

  “Yeah, fine. But just remember, Major Ramsay, I’m in complete control of the security system there. I prevented those scientists from escaping and I made sure the infected broke containment. If you try to fuck me in any way, I’ll make sure you have a bad time,” Hades threatened.

  The elevator started to move without Jack pressing a button. He looked at Tyrone and Smith, all three of them wore the same concerned expression. Jack tapped off his communicator, the others following suit quickly.

  “You think we can trust this guy?” Tyrone asked.

  “Not at all,” Jack told him. “But given what he’s capable of, I’d rather not have him actively working against us. Ridgewell and Bridges should be able to prevent him from gaining remote access to the self destruct system once they get it running again, so we can be sure he won’t set it off early.”

  “It makes me wonder, if he’s in control of the system and someone knew about it, maybe they disconnected it to stop Hades from destroying the facility,” Smith suggested.

  “As long as we can detonate it on our terms, and all the data is secured before that happens, I guess it beats having to clear two thousand infected,” Tyrone announced.

  “For sure, but don’t get too excited,” Jack cautioned. “We still need to get down to the fifth floor, and I’m sure shit’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

  Chapter Nine

  HALL PARKED HERSELF on the edge of Maxwell’s desk. She slipped the earpiece off and rubbed the bridge of her nose, the pain of a tension headache forming right there and echoing behind her eyes. In the General’s absence, she’d suddenly been buried by an avalanche of reports, update requests and intel. She’d managed to climb her way out with relative ease, of course. Hall was an excellent officer and she’d delegated work to subordinates when necessary, handling what she needed to handle herself as efficiently as possible, all the while keeping an eye on Jack’s mission. She turned, looking at the ashtray where Maxwell stubbed out his copious cigarettes then at the large empty chair she knew she would need to fill until he returned. If he returned, she thought morbidly. There was a beeping on her tablet, drawing Hall’s attention to what was seemingly a permanent fixture in the crook of her arm now.

  A new report had appeared, and she swiped to it, opening the file. It was a hit on the facial recognition request she’d put in for the soldier Jack had taken a picture of with his headcam while in the hospital securing Emma... a couple of days ago now. What it told her made her feel apprehensive at first, then increasingly concerned. The man in question had been Oscar Williams, a Canadian soldier assigned to the Coalition two years prior. The thing that was upsetting Hall, however, was that he wasn’t listed as deceased: he was still on active service. Hall stood up and tapped on his unit information. Oscar Williams was a part of Coalition Task Force Charlie, the third of the operational units the Coalition controlled. Task Force Charlie was also the group formerly under the command of General Haddenfield. It occurred to Hall to bring up Carl Sutton’s file, and when she did she learned he had also been a member of Task Force Charlie. Worse still, Hall remembered that prior to his death, Jared Brown had been assisting them on a mission in Czortzia. One member of the group would’ve meant nothing, two a strange coincidence, but three people wasn’t right to Hall’s mind.

  Hall went back to the report on Oscar Williams and noticed a curious thing. The report had originally been uploaded twenty four hours earlier, and yet she’d only just received a notification for it. Digging into why this would be the case, she observed that a hold had been put on the file by someone with a clearance higher than hers. Hall didn’t need to look any further than that. To her, the only question that remained was why Maxwell had chosen to keep the information from her, and what he was doing about it that had caused him to leave the base. She slipped her earpiece in and opened a line of communication to the flight master.

  “This is Pierce,” she heard a moment later; the gruff voice of the older man who had oversight over all air vehicles in operation around the Fort Elridge area.

  “This is Captain Hall, I want you to check General Maxwell’s flight path immediately.”

  “Uh, I’m sorry ma’am, but he didn’t file a flight plan.”

  “Then I want you to ping the transponder on his helicopter and tell me its location and bearing.”

  She heard audible tapping over the headset, then Pierce cleared his throat before speaking.

  “Ma’am, it appears he ordered the transponder to be deactivated.”

  Hall felt a flash of anger towards the man, though in truth the anger belonged firmly to her superior.

  “So you’re telling me you allowed the commanding officer of this base to leave without filing a flight plan and with the transponder on his helicopter deactivated? If he doesn’t return are we to call in a psychic to divine his location?” she snapped.

  “Ma’am,” Pierce started, “it’s General Maxwell. If he gives an instruction it has to be followed regardless of what it might be.”

  “I don’t suppose he has an escort?”

  “No.”

  “Do you have fuel information?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you can extrapolate his maximum distance from that, correct?” Hall snapped.

  “Standby,” Pierce said, sounding a little ruffled. “His flight had enough fuel for him to travel for one hour before he’d need to turn back.”

  Hall mused on this, thinking that put him in range of Dewbury, Springfield, and a half dozen other smaller locations. He hadn’t given her any clues as to where he might have been going, but Dewbury seemed plausible - it was where their operations were focused after all. But Dewbury was still a sizable place, and without a more concrete location, she couldn’t task any units to protect him during... whatever it was he was doing. She closed out the line with Pierce as he started to ask if there was anything else he could do, then began to draw up a general notice for all deployed forces to be on the lookout for General Maxwell, stopping herself after only a few moments. If the Coalition was breached in part or as whole, then putting out an alert might compromise his safety. Hall felt an uncharacteristic sense of uncertainty over what she should do next. She felt loyalty to her commanding officer and a desire to keep him safe, but then realized that to do that she might have to abide by his instructions and allow him to complete the task he had set himself, no matter how dangerous it might be. With that thought, Hall closed out the message she’d been drafting. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, then reconnected herself with Ramsay and his team.

  EMMA ROLLED HER NECK in an effort to alleviate a little of the tension that had settled there. No matter what, she could always feel ten
sion there lately, and being in a Bolvinox facility wasn’t helping her to calm down. She’d started leafing through the data on the few remaining lab computers and found there was a lot of information there. Whether it would turn out to be duplicated data which she’d stolen from Bluefields or unique to the Redshield Facility, she couldn’t tell. There were some reports she recognized pertaining to the basic information of Genetic Material X as well as information on the virus - referred to here as the Z-A One strain - but there were also reams of other test data she didn’t have time to go through. Bridges had started downloading onto a high capacity portable drive he’d brought for just that purpose.

  “It’s not as cool as smuggling out a flash drive on a chain around my neck of course, but I’ll make do with what I can,” he had told her, smiling as he did so. She hadn’t cared all that much for Bridges when they first met, but during their brief encounters on base as well as their time on this mission, she was beginning to appreciate his sense of humor.

  Jack had arrived back, and although his presence did help her calm down a little, he was busy preparing his team for what they needed to do. A team that now included the somewhat unhinged Hades. He was providing them with information on the fifth floor - information Emma didn’t need to know as she knew she’d be staying on the second floor - so she had taken her helmet off and was enjoying not having the heavy, somewhat uncomfortable thing on her head. She didn’t mind not being included directly in the fighting, because as much as she liked to think of herself as a badass with a gun and a fire axe, she knew she wasn’t the best marksman. Added to that, she didn’t want Jack to have to worry about her while he was trying to deal with the infected, and whatever mutations they’d changed into, in an effort to escape the facility.