Then he’d blow the place to hell. Anticipation honed his senses as he entered an office. The combination to the safe was easy. He’d once watched Doc punch in the code, and he’d committed it to memory, filing it away in the back of his mind. One never knew when such a thing could be handy.
Several files were there, but he grabbed the one of most importance—the file labeled R1LN, which contained info about the virus. He stuffed the papers inside the pack he carried. Next, he moved to the computer, a little more difficult to navigate, but soon had what he needed downloaded to the thumbdrive. After shoving it in his front pocket, he set the timed explosive devices he had stashed in the pack he’d brought. This section of the building would be empty, so no casualties. A distraction for a fast getaway.
He slipped from the office and down the hall.
“Damian?”
Damian stiffened. He turned slowly.
“Doc,” he said in greeting. Tall and lean, she looked more like a runway model than a mad scientist. She had a nasty black eye and a bandage across her swollen nose. “That’s a good look for you, by the way.”
Her eyes were narrowed. “Somehow I knew this would happen when I got the call about that woman. I never pegged you as one who’d get involved with a civilian.”
“Regardless what you led Laura to believe you never had a shot in hell either.” Seconds were ticking away. In four minutes thirty seconds this section of the labs would blow to hell and Damian had no desire to be part of the rubble. “I’ve learned a few things about the operation you run here. I’ve decided to turn in my resignation.”
Doc walked closer. “There’s no walking away, Damian. You know that.”
Four minutes left.
“Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing, Doc, and I’d advise you to do the same.” He glanced around, they were still the only ones on this side of the building.
“What if I told you we have your new friend?”
His heart stalled, he clenched his fists. “What have you done with her?”
“She will be of great service to the cause.”
“The cause? What the hell are you talking about?”
“We wanted a healing agent for the soldiers we were creating, but found something infinitely more valuable. A virus we could set loose to do the damage without loss of American soldiers. You can’t tell me that’s not something you’d back. Lives will be saved, Damian. Families won’t lose loved ones in senseless wars.”
Two minutes thirty seconds.
“A virus which happened to escape, threatening billions of innocent lives. Families have already lost, you know how it feels to lose someone close to you.” Damian fought to temper the anger boiling in his blood.
Doc frowned. “A mistake, one I assure you will be corrected. Mary should’ve never gotten away from us. Max was careless.”
He shook his head. “Leave Max out of it, you take a fair share of the blame too. How does Laura play into all of this?”
“We’ll track down exactly what makes her immune and find a way around it. We can’t have survivors.”
He grew sick to his stomach. “So she’ll be treated like nothing more than a lab rat.”
Doc shrugged. “A sacrifice to science in a cause which should mean something to you.”
One minute. He had to get the hell out of the building. Doc stood a few yards away. He dove in her direction, her cry of alarm muffled in his hand. He dragged her from the building as she flailed against him. Sharp pain shot through his wounded shoulder.
The explosion blasted the air, shattering the night. Damian fell on top of Doc, protecting her from flying shrapnel. A hot piece of metal lodged in his thigh, more in his back, but his adrenaline pumped, numbing the pain. Flames shot skyward, alarms wailed, and soldiers swarmed the area.
He yanked Doc upright, ducking behind a utility vehicle, shoving his gun against her ribs. “Now tell me where Laura is or I swear to God your life ends here.”
“In Laboratory Two.” She nodded in the direction of another building.
Damian pulled zip ties he’d taken from a soldier out of his pocket and tied her hands. Then tore off a strip of his shirt and gagged her with it, leaving her stashed out of sight, then made for the building.
Laura, Laura, Laura a chant in his mind while he weaved through panicked soldiers to Lab Two. He made short work of the lone guard at the door to the room where she was held.
He threw open the door and narrowly missed having a metal lab stool bashed over his head.
Laura dropped it and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh my God, I heard the explosion. I didn’t know what’d happened to you.”
“Time to go.” He guided her down a hall and out a back entrance.
“Oh my God, Damian. You’re bleeding again.” She paused, staring at his back.
“We don’t have time for this.” He grabbed her hand to pull her forward.
“No!” she screamed, jumping in front of him, her cry cut short by the sharp staccato of gunfire before she sank to the ground.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her even as he lifted the Glock and used his directional hearing to aim and take out the attacker. After the soldier fell, the Glock dropped from Damian’s hand. A growing circle of dark stained the back of Laura’s black shirt and she laid face first in the dirt. He sought for the emotions he should feel. Anger, agony, disbelief, but found nothing, only a ringing in his ears left behind by the explosion. He sank to his knees and rolled her onto her back.
Her eyelids fluttered, and she met his gaze. Her chest rose and fell as she struggled to breathe.
“You promised to stay out of trouble.” His voice sounded hollow, far away.
“But not…” She took a wheezing breath, then another. “…if you were in…a bad situation.”
Rendered immobile and at a complete loss for his next move, he stroked her hair. Her image blurred, and hot tears streamed from his eyes. Shouts sounded, and instinct warned him to leave. But his limbs wouldn’t obey.
If he lost Laura...
Fuck it all, if he lost Laura nothing fucking mattered.
She coughed blood then gasped for air. “I…I can’t breathe. Damian, help.”
Her plea cut through the fog. She slumped lifeless as he scooped her up, grabbing his Glock and firing toward the soldiers charging his way. Two fell and the third took cover as Damian jumped inside a Humvee. He revved the engine and gravel spit around the tires as he sped into the night.
* * * *
The steady beep beep beep drew Laura from sleep. She blinked against gummy eyelids, frowning at the incessant noise.
Warmth covered her hand. She focused on the sensation, realizing fingers held on to it. She looked through the haze, trying to make out a figure standing nearby.
“Laura, baby, can you hear me?”
Her throat hurt, but she tried to answer anyway. “Uhhh.”
“Laura, it’s Damian. You’re in the hospital with a collapsed lung, but the doctor says you’ll be fine.”
The words stumbled through her brain. She felt floaty, a pleasant feeling, and she gave over to it.
When she woke again, soreness gnawed her chest. She opened her eyes and grimaced against the flood of light hitting her eyeballs. It took several tries to figure out where she was. Not her bed. Not at her parents.
The hospital? “Oh God.”
She tried to sit up, but pain lanced through her and hands pushed her back to the pillow.
“Take it easy, you’ll be in here a few days.” The familiar baritone voice teased her memory.
“Damian?” She focused on him standing over her. God, she sounded like a woman who’d smoked for ninety years. “What’s happened?”
“You’re in the hospital, you have a collapsed lung.”
She dug through her memory, but came up empty-handed. “How?”
“Retrograde amnesia, you may not actually remember how it happened, but you took a bullet for me, Laura. And I’ll never forgive you for th
at.” He softened the words with a smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes.
She remembered running through the building where Damian had rescued her, but nothing else. She frowned.
He looked panicked. “Are you hurting? We can up the painkillers. I’ll get a nurse.”
She grasped his hand. “No, I’m high as a kite as it is.”
It did hurt to breathe, and she felt like an elephant sat on her chest, but she wanted to be awake. If awake, she got to be with Damian. “What did you tell the doctor?”
“You were a victim of a random shooting. Cops are out looking for the perpetrator now.”
She grinned, but the tubes running over her face made it difficult. And she was thirsty. “Water.”
Damian obeyed, grabbing a Styrofoam cup and filling it from a plastic pitcher. He held it to her lips. “Not too much.”
The water tasted awful, but it soothed her burning throat.
He took the cup from her. “I’ve got a confession.” He searched her eyes. “I had to tell the staff you’re my fiancée so they’d allow me in ICU.”
The butterflies returned, and she indulged them a moment. “Not so fast, partner. I need wooing.” She met his grin with one of her own.
He took her hand again. “How about a real date then, when you’re out of the hospital?”
“Will I have to fight a zombie?”
He chuckled. “No, I promise, no undead.”
“Will I be karate chopped by a tall, attractive woman?”
His chuckle turned to a laugh. “No, no other women but you.”
She mulled the idea over. “Will we end up in another seedy motel?”
He made a low sound that sent shivers through her. “Now that I can’t swear against, we had such fun inside them.”
Being shot didn’t seem half bad at the moment, not with Damian at her side and a crapload of painkillers circulating in her system.
“What about Project Terminal?”
His smile faded, and he looked to the closed blinds. “I’ve got the information I needed from Headquarters, now there’s Strong Stock to contend with. I’ve called Dr. Maxwell Straight, she worked with Doug and left shortly after he did, she’s agreed to meet me there. And to find the tracking device that’s implanted somewhere inside me.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “She? And what terrible parent would name a girl Maxwell?”
He met her incredulous look and shrugged. “From what I understand, it was her father’s name and he passed away before she was born. Why? You jealous of me meeting with another woman?”
“Yes.”
His smile reached his eyes once more. “I promise I never want on your bad side. I’d face down an army before pissing you off.”
Laura harrumphed.
Damian leaned in and kissed her lips. “You’re beautiful, determined, and won’t take bullshit from anyone, even if they have a gun on you. I know we haven’t known one another long, but how could I not fall for a woman like that?”
She blinked, sure she’d misheard. “Fall?”
He took a deep breath. “I love you,” he blurted.
She closed her eyes, the drugs were kicking her ass. “I thought you said you loved me.”
He seemed frightened. “I-I did say it. I said I love you.”
Her lips curled up, and she opened her eyes. She felt like floating away. “I love you too.”
His dark eyes didn’t waver from hers, and she felt the warmth of them down to her soul.
“Okay, good.” He blew out a breath. “I thought you were going to punch me.”
She loved his teasing. And she loved him. She’d known it before they’d raided Headquarters, it’d been the reason she couldn’t let him go alone. It was why she took the bullet for him, even if she couldn’t remember doing it.
“Your family will be here sometime around morning. I found their number in your cellphone. And after talking to your mom, I see where you get your temper. I got cussed out in German, and it’s an aggressive enough language in normal conversation. I’ll probably make myself scarce before they get here, if you don’t mind?”
“Oh God, run for your life.”
Damian’s rich chuckle filled her ears, before his face fell solemn. “I thought I’d lost you, Laura, and I couldn’t see how I’d keep going.”
She laced their fingers, a bond which miles and zombies would never break. “I’m right here, and I’ll always be right here, Damian.” Her eyelids drooped, but she had to say it one more time. “I love you.”
As she drifted on the currents of sleep his lips brushed hers. “I love you too, baby.”
About Olivia Starke
Olivia Starke calls the Ozarks home. One of the most beautiful areas in the country, she loves hiking trails with her dogs, kayaking on the numerous waterways, and enjoying southern Missouri’s fresh air and sunshine.
She’s also ‘Mom’ to four dogs, a growing number of kitties that show up at her door, and four VERY spoiled horses that do little to earn their keep. Not that she’d ever hold that against them.
She’s a HUGE fangirl of Doctor Who and to a lesser extent Supernatural, and has a pretty interesting love triangle (or square?) going on in her head between the Doctor and the Winchesters.
Olivia’s Website:
www.authoroliviastarke.com
Reader eMail:
[email protected]
About the Project Terminal Series
Book 1: Project Terminal: Legacy
Now Available
Book 2: Project Terminal: Devil’s Virus
Coming Soon
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Project Terminal: Legacy Page 6