V Plague (Book 17): Abaddon

by Patton, Dirk

  “Sorry, sir.”

  “Captain West?” I asked, making an educated guess.

  “I’m not comfortable talking about this, sir,” Lieutenant Tread said, his face shutting down.

  “Then listen to what I have to tell you,” I said, proceeding to fill him in on what I knew about the current state of affairs in Hawaii.

  He listened carefully, his expression giving nothing away.

  “So, there’s likely going to be some hell to pay when we get there,” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Only one way to deal with a traitor, Lieutenant. I’m talking to you because you’re going to have to pick a side. Very soon.”

  He stared at me for a long moment before responding.

  “Captain West told you all of this?”

  “Told me enough, without getting into details on the phone. Now he’s in custody.”

  “Ummm, sirs?” We looked around as Jessica joined us, tablet computer in hand. “I can fill in the blanks.”

  “Chief?” I asked in surprise.

  “Been in the middle of it from the beginning, sir. All of this is Captain West’s doing. Sending Commander Vance and me to Groom Lake to get this thing flying so we could come get you. And this, too,” she said, tilting her heads at the crates.

  “Chief, this is classified equipment,” Tread said in warning.

  “Yes, sir. Now, we don’t have long. Why don’t I brief you two before we land? I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be hectic once we do.”

  She took a seat and began opening files on her tablet. We positioned ourselves on either side of her, squeezing in to see the small screen and hear the tiny speaker.

  Less than fifteen minutes later the wheels thumped onto a runway. We were all thrown forward against our seatbelts as Vance engaged the thrust reversers and slammed on the brakes. For as large as the aircraft was, it slowed quickly and he spun us around before coming to a complete stop. With a whine, the rear ramp began to descend and warm tropical air flowed in.

  “Sir, you might need these.” I’d already unbuckled and was heading for the top of the ramp when Lieutenant Tread spoke. I turned to see him holding out two pairs of sunglasses. “For you and your friend. So you don’t startle anyone else. Hard to keep a low profile if everyone you meet freaks out.”

  He had a sloppy grin on his face and I thanked him as I accepted his gift. Passing a pair to Lucas, I slipped them on, finding my enhanced vision was hardly affected by the dark lenses.

  “Say it,” Mavis said, looking up at me with a shit-eating grin.

  “Say what?”

  She giggled before answering.

  “You look like the guy from that old movie with those shades on, so say it. I’ll be back. Say it!”

  I sighed, shook my head, took her hand and headed down the ramp. Dog hurried to be by my side and Rachel followed close behind. Reaching the bottom, we paused and watched four Hummers and a pair of canvas covered deuce and a halfs race toward us.

  “Friendlies?” I asked Vance when he came to stand next to me.

  “Yep. Sent a signal when we left Australia. Took them longer to drive here than it did for us to make the flight.”

  “Sound like you’re in love.”

  “Always been partial to fast ladies,” he said, patting the skin of the aircraft.

  Despite myself, I grinned, then it was time to get serious as the small convoy pulled to a hard stop. Releasing Mavis’s hand, just in case I needed to use a weapon, I watched as doors began popping open.

  A couple of men I didn’t recognize, then Captain Black stepped out into the night followed by a stunning woman. Looking down the line, I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. Colonels Blanchard and Pointere. Finally, Master Chief Gonzales and Nicole. I didn’t know who to greet first.

  That was solved for me when a tall, lanky man stepped forward and after giving me a quick inspection, stuck his hand out.

  “Welcome back, Major. Tom Chapman.”

  “Corps?” I asked, eyeing his hair as I shook his hand.

  “Retarded Colonel,” he nodded with a smile, meaning he was retired. I liked him immediately. “We’d better get loaded up before the locals start wondering about a jet landing in the middle of the night that they can’t see.”

  64

  It was a long drive up the side of a jungle covered mountain to reach our destination. Before we’d left the airfield, the Marines had loaded the crates from the plane into the back of the deuce and a halfs. Watching them handle the heavy and awkward containers with ease, I wondered where the hell the suits they were wearing had been hiding. They could have come in real handy over the past year of battling the infected.

  Chapman and Vance had a brief conversation and the pilot had stayed behind. As we were driving away, the jet’s big engines had started up and a few moments later it had roared off into the night sky. I assumed the Colonel had given him a more private and secure location to take the aircraft.

  Reaching what I learned was Chapman’s home, though it had more of the feel of an FOB or Forward Operating Base, we were shepherded into a large shed where a couple of long tables loaded with steaming platters of food had been set up. Catching the first whiff, my stomach growled so loudly that Mavis burst into giggles.

  Once everyone was fed, all non-combatants were escorted to private accommodations. What that meant was Titus, Natalie, Ziggy and Lucas’s children were sent to bed. None of them complained.

  I had Mavis go with them, much to her annoyance, but Rachel refused to leave. And there was no reason to send her away. She’d more than earned the right to be involved in whatever was going on. Lucas had stuck around and I pulled him aside before we got down to business.

  “Not your fight, unless you want it to be.”

  “Never been one to go to bed with the kiddies when there’s fightin’ to be done,” he said.

  “You up for it?” I asked. “I’ll always be happy having you watching my ass, but don’t you have some more healing to do? Maybe it’d be a good thing for you to go spend some time with your family.”

  “That what you’d do?”

  “This is my family, now,” I said, looking around at Rachel and the men I’d fought shoulder to shoulder with. “Not trying to get rid of you, mate, but there’s still plenty of ass kicking to come.”

  After several long moments of thought, he nodded, clapped me on the shoulder and left to find Ziggy.

  “Let’s get started,” Chapman called, silencing several conversations.

  I moved to take a seat next to Rachel, surprised Dog had chosen to stay with us and not accompany Mavis. Martinez and Anna were on the far side of her, looking confused as no one had told them what was going on.

  “We have a traitor,” the Colonel said bluntly. “Traitors, actually. There’s a damn nest of them. There’s no one in this room that hasn’t seen and heard the evidence. Before we continue, is there anyone here who has reservations about this conclusion.”

  He glanced around, but no one spoke up.

  “Very well. Here’s what we’re going to do.”

  I listened to him speak, outlining a simple plan to remove the traitors and seize control of the military. It was doable, but also entailed a lot of risk. He wasn’t addressing operational details, rather outlining the necessary actions to achieve our goal. After sitting patiently, I decided it was time to address the elephant in the room.

  “That all sounds good, Colonel, but what happens once we clear out the traitors?”

  “Explain, Major,” he growled.

  “Who takes command? No disrespect to anyone present, but who is left that will be followed by both enlisted and officers without question? We’re talking about taking out a large percentage of the senior command structure. Who steps into that void and won’t immediately have every swinging dick second guessing their fitness to be there?”

  “There are senior officers we can trust,” he said.

  “I’m not
talking about trust,” I countered. “I’m talking about leadership. We’ve probably got a battle with the Russians coming and the outcome is going to seal our fate. We have to get the damn evacuation to the mainland in gear or we’re going to lose tens of thousands of people we can’t afford to lose.”

  “What are you suggesting, Major?” Colonel Blanchard spoke up.

  I took a breath and glanced at Rachel. We’d talked about this on the flight from Australia. While she was less than happy, she’d agreed it offered us an option that wasn’t currently on the table.

  “Admiral Packard.”

  There was stunned silence as everyone sat there staring at me.

  “Sir, he’s not ever getting out of that hospital bed again,” Captain Black said. “I’ve talked to the docs. He’s dying.”

  “Maybe not,” I said.

  “Maybe you’d better get to the point,” Colonel Pointere said.

  I took a breath and reached up to remove the sunglasses I was still wearing. There were a couple of curses and the scrape of chairs as everyone who hadn’t seen me got to their feet. All but Master Chief Gonzales.

  “Most of you have met the Master Chief’s friend, Nicole,” I said. “Those that haven’t, know of her. Well, the same thing happened to me.”

  They stared back at me and I saw a mix of emotions spread across their faces. Fear and revulsion were the two most prevalent ones.

  “What’s this got to do with the Admiral?” Captain Black asked.

  I turned to Rachel and she stood and began speaking. We’d decided this part was better coming from her since she was known to everyone in the room as a doctor.

  She talked about how my permanently damaged optic nerve had been healed by the infection. Then she graphically described Lucas’s injuries and how rapidly they’d improved after receiving a blood transfusion from me. Her words were met with more stunned silence.

  “You’re not really saying you want to use the Admiral for a Guinea pig, are you?” Captain Black asked, sounding shocked.

  “No, I’m saying there may be an opportunity to save him. Maybe not. I have no idea if it would cure his cancer and heal his wounds from the assassination attempt. But you said it yourself, Captain. He’s never going to leave that hospital bed. What if he could? What if he resumed his rightful command and this was all dealt with quietly? How many of our men and women, who would question which side to take, will be saved?”

  Looks were exchanged and I could see that they were considering my proposal. Time to seal the deal.

  “I’ll go see the Admiral. Ultimately, it’s his choice, not ours. If he agrees to try, we’ll know within a day if it’s going to work. If it doesn’t, we proceed as the Colonel outlined. But if it does...”

  No one spoke up to support my idea. But then no one was shooting it down, either.

  “We have nothing to lose, sirs,” Jessica said in a loud voice from the back of the room, blushing when every head swiveled to look at her.

  “I trust Major Chase,” Blanchard said a beat later. “He’s an insubordinate pain in the ass, and he’s about as unconventional as I’ve ever seen, but he gets results. If he thinks this could restore the Admiral to health and we don’t have to go to war amongst ourselves, I say we give him twenty-four hours.”

  I met Blanchard’s eyes and nodded my thanks.

  “Agreed,” Colonel Pointere said.

  “If it will save the Admiral, I’m all for trying,” Captain Black added.

  65

  Three hours later, I stood in Admiral Packard’s hospital room. Rachel, Jessica and Pointere were with me, the Colonel having cleared the way with the Marine guards.

  The Admiral looked worse than I’d expected. Shrunken and fragile. His skin was the color of parchment paper, nearly blending perfectly with the white sheet. But he smiled brightly when he opened his eyes and saw me.

  “Major. You survived!”

  His voice was whispery and rough, like sandpaper on rusty iron.

  “I did, sir. And since you were good enough to hang on this long, maybe I can do something for you.”

  His eyes narrowed, then he smiled again when Rachel moved forward. She sank onto the edge of a chair and set about explaining to him what we wanted to try. When she looked up and gestured, I removed my shades. The Admiral’s eyes went wide in surprise.

  “I’d look like that?” he asked, lifting a shaking hand to point at me.

  “Well, sir, probably a whole lot better,” Rachel said with an impish grin. “He’s kind of beat up and doesn’t have any hair.”

  Packard started to laugh but it quickly became a strangled cough. It lasted for nearly a minute before he was able to finally draw a breath. Exhausted, he nodded his head.

  “Thought I was ready to die,” he whispered. “Turns out I was wrong. Do your best, Ms. Miles. What’s the worst that can happen? It kills me?”

  Rachel smiled at him and gently patted his arm. Turning, she nodded at Pointere who stepped forward and handed her a small ice chest. Chapman had a decent medical suite set up at his compound and she’d already taken two pints of blood from me. The IV bags rested in a bed of ice and she didn’t waste any time getting them connected and flowing into the Admiral.

  “Don’t let the hospital staff interfere,” Rachel said to Colonel Pointere. “They’ll try to remove them if they come in.”

  “My Marines have orders,” he said. “No one’s coming through that door unless I say otherwise.”

  “I’ll be back, Admiral,” Rachel said, giving Packard a smile.

  Jessica quickly moved to the vacant chair at the Admiral’s bedside as we stepped out into the hall. The squad of Marines guarding the room ignored us and we headed for the elevator.

  “Jarring isn’t it?”

  Rachel was looking around as we waited for the car to arrive.

  “His condition?”

  “I meant suddenly being back in civilization.”

  I nodded, understanding exactly what she was feeling. Anyone who’s ever gone off to fight has experienced it when they come home.

  The elevator car arrived and we rode down to the ground level. I didn’t know what Rachel had in mind, but a cigarette was calling my name and I was headed for the closest exit. Stepping out into the early morning air, I breathed deeply and paused in surprise.

  “What’s wrong?” Rachel asked, looking around for a threat she’d failed to notice.

  “The air,” I said. “It’s off.”

  “What?”

  “I can smell death coming. It’s on the air. The plants aren’t healthy any more. They look fine, but they’re not. Smelled it when we arrived but didn’t understand until just now.”

  With a shudder, Rachel moved close and circled her arms around one of mine as I lit a cigarette.

  “We need to go see Joe,” she said a minute later. “Especially if this works on the Admiral. Maybe he can isolate whatever is causing the beneficial effects. Can you imagine the impact this could have on rebuilding? Heal injuries that would normally be crippling for life. Maybe cure diseases. Who knows what else.”

  I nodded without saying anything.

  “You promised me,” she said, the warning in her voice very clear.

  “I did. And I will go see Joe.”

  She stared at me a moment then leaned in and kissed me.

  “What about you?” I asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Hospital.” I hooked a thumb in the building’s direction. “Odds are pretty good there’s an obstetrician in there.”

  “Later,” she said. “Let’s take care of this first. I’ll get seen while you’re off dealing with traitors.”

  I nodded then stripped the burning tobacco from the cigarette butt and shoved it in my pocket. Back inside, we were heading for the elevator when Rachel suddenly tugged my arm and led me down a different corridor. We came to a stop outside a heavy door with a small placard affixed to the surface. It was the hospital chapel. Another sign that was easily
put up and taken down announced that the chaplain was available.

  “What are we doing?” I asked.

  Rachel turned to face me, took my hands in hers and stared into my eyes.

  “Will you marry me?” she asked with a bright smile.

  You could have knocked me over with a feather. This was the last thing I could have imagined. But I answered without hesitation.

  “Yes.”

  Throwing her arms around my neck, she kissed me hard then stepped back to arm’s length.

  “Now?”

  She tilted her head at the chapel door.

  “Now?” I asked in surprise, then shrugged. Why the hell not?

  Smiling at her, I grasped the handle but it didn’t budge.

  “Sorry, folks.” We looked around at a hospital security guard who was walking past. “Father Henry is always forgetting to take the sign down when he leaves. Won’t be here until this afternoon.”

  “Thanks,” I called as he walked away.

  Rachel and I looked at each other and grinned.

  “Don’t go changing your mind,” she said as we headed for the elevators.

  “I can change my mind?” I asked as if that were a great idea.

  Rachel punched my arm and we got into the car and rode up to the Admiral’s floor. The Marines admitted us into his room and we both came to a stop in surprise. He was sitting up, talking to Jessica, and his cheeks were flushed with color.

  “Even faster than Lucas,” Rachel said in awe.

  “Maybe Lucas was in worse shape,” I offered.

  “Maybe,” she said as Pointere stepped close.

  “This is incredible,” he said softly. “Thirty minutes and it’s like he’s already half healed!”

  “He’ll get worse for a while,” Rachel cautioned. “High fever as his body adjusts. That’s when his eyes will change. When he wakes up, hopefully, he’s healed or most of the way there.”

  66

  Thirty-six hours later, I stood in Admiral Packard’s hospital room, watching as he adjusted his uniform. He stood tall, moving with the fluidity of a much younger man. Turning to face me, I was once again impressed with the startling blue of his eyes.