The Tide: Breakwater (Tide Series Book 2)

by Melchiorri, Anthony J

  “I’ve made a huge mistake, haven’t I?” Dom asked.

  Meredith cocked her head and gave him an inquisitive look.

  “I brought her here and expected her to be safe. But there’s no way in hell she’s going to sit tight aboard the ship. Every time I’ve told her to stay hidden, stay safe, she’s charged right into the fight.”

  “You need to find a job for her,” Meredith said. “Something worthwhile, something impactful.”

  “She’s not going to become a Hunter.”

  “I’m not implying she should. I’ve only known her for a short time, but even I can tell she’d argue until her face turned blue to become one.”

  “She doesn’t have any military training.”

  “Not debating that either,” Meredith said. “But you know, I once wasn’t that different from her.”

  “True, it took quite a bit of convincing for the CIA to get you out of the field and back into the offices and labs.”

  “Exactly. But you know how they tricked me?”

  “They convinced you you’d be more valuable managing operatives than being one yourself.”

  “Right.” Meredith chuckled. “So if you want to shield her from this world a little longer, you know what you need to do.”

  Dom had opened his mouth to respond when heavy footsteps echoed from the corridor and into the medical bay. He stood as Glenn stopped at the entrance.

  “Captain, sorry to interrupt, but we’ve made contact with a vessel and we need your authority to proceed.”

  “Scientists? Researchers?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Glenn said. “It’s an SOS from a nearby cruise ship.”

  Dom started to follow Glenn out of the room. He paused. “Meredith, you want to join?”

  “I don’t want to impose on your operations.”

  “Not an imposition,” Dom replied. “You’re no longer sitting in your desk chair in Langley. We need you out here in the field again.”

  “Well, aye, aye then, Captain.”

  The trio rushed down the corridor toward the electronics workshop, where Lauren paced near Chao, Samantha, and Thomas. Renee stood behind the empty desk where she’d been on phone duty with Glenn.

  Static crackled from the radio at Chao’s station. “This is the passenger ship Queen of the Bay. Repeat, this is the passenger ship Queen of the Bay. We are requesting medical and armed forces support, law enforcement, anybody.”

  Chao turned to Dom. “Do we engage or not?”

  “Go ahead.” In those two words, Dom knew he’d set a potentially dangerous precedent. Before he’d left for Fort Detrick, he’d told his crew to remain as ghost-like as possible and avoid too many interactions with civilians. Their armory and medical supplies were limited and would become even more constrained since they could no longer resupply with the same ease as before the outbreak. Each time they reached out to help cost time and resources they could use to solve the larger matter at hand: finding a cure.

  “Queen of the Bay, this is the Huntress. We read you loud and clear. What’s your status?” Chao asked.

  “Huntress, we have—or rather had—over five hundred souls aboard. We lost a hundred or so due to the infected, and we’re afraid more are turning.”

  “Copy that.” Chao turned away from the mic. “So what next?”

  “Let me talk to them.”

  Chao handed Dom a headset.

  “Queen of the Bay, this is the captain of the Huntress, Dominic Holland. Have you contained the infected?”

  The radio operator hesitated. “We think so, but there may be civilians still trapped with them.”

  “Can you expand on that?”

  “We ordered everyone above deck and closed off the interior decks, but we had to act quickly before the infected killed more.” The man’s voice grew shaky. “We have men, women, and children aboard. All are civilians we managed to evacuate before Annapolis fell to those monsters. We desperately need your help.”

  For a moment, Dom considered the thousands of others that probably needed their help somewhere, somehow. He shook the thought away. At least they could help these people here and now. “Okay, Queen of the Bay, give me a moment to confer with my crew.”

  “Copy.”

  Dom took the headset off. “If they have more than a dozen people that need medical attention, we’ll be unable to handle those numbers aboard our ship.”

  “So you want us to go with?” Lauren asked.

  “Yes,” Dom replied. “I want Divya, Peter, and Sean to join the boarding party and bring whatever supplies you think we might need. You can stay to take care of the patients and research.”

  “Captain,” Lauren said, “send me instead of Divya.”

  Dom scrunched his brow. “I need you here. Where it’s safe.”

  “I know, but Divya’s still healing. If the ship’s compromised and we run into any danger, it could be devastating to her recovery. Plus, Divya’s about as good a scientist as me.”

  “About as good isn’t good enough. She’s talented, but I’m trying to be pragmatic. We can’t lose you.”

  “How about this: at the first sign of real trouble, I jump in the Zodiac with the rest of my team and hightail it. Promise.”

  Dom considered her compromise for a second. “I don’t like sending you along.” He sighed. “But if I do, you better be true to your word. Get your ass back to the Huntress if things start to go downhill.”

  “You got it, Captain.”

  “All right then. They’ll probably also have plenty of people who need the chelation therapy for Oni Agent infections. You think we have enough supplies to go around?”

  “Probably not,” Lauren said.

  “I assumed as much. Gather up everything you can, while leaving us enough supplies to subsist on.”

  Lauren said nothing and hesitated a beat.

  “I know you’re worried,” Dom said, “but as soon as we do this, we’ll do our best to resupply our medical stocks.”

  Lauren nodded.

  “You’re going to have to trust me,” Dom said.

  “Aye, Captain.” Lauren started to take off but turned back to Dom. “One more thing before you all run off. Everyone who’s had a dose of the chelation therapy needs to undergo a lab workup. I need to keep an eye on any potential side effects before they crop up and make things more dangerous for anyone out in the field.”

  “You got it,” Dom said. “Renee, Glenn.” The two Hunters nodded. “You two gather the remaining Hunters.” He added up the number in his mind, a painful reminder that he’d already lost one, and two others had been rendered nothing more than aggressive shells of their former selves by the Oni Agent. Renee still wore bandages from their Skull encounters in Frederick. “Make sure you both consult with Lauren. Whoever she clears, we’ll meet in the armory for standard boarding equipment.”

  They saluted and ran out into the corridor with Lauren tailing them.

  “Thomas—”

  “Stay back and babysit the ship, am I right?” Thomas finished, already chewing on the end of an unlit cigar. It was the only sign Dom needed to tell the man was nervous about this mission.

  “You know it,” Dom said. “I’ve got a hot date and I’m not sure when I’ll be home tonight, so help yourself to the fridge.”

  Thomas patted his stomach. “Always do.”

  “Chao, do we have a precise location for the Queen?” Dom asked.

  Chao used his mouse to expand an upper-deck camera’s view from the Huntress. “I’ve got a visual on them. They didn’t make it far from Annapolis.”

  “Perfect. If all goes well, this will be a short ride in and out, back in time to sleep in our own beds.” Dom put on the headset again. “Queen of the Bay, the Huntress will also be sending a medical team. If you have any medical personnel or passengers with medical education, assemble them at the stern of your ship. We’re going to need you to help us help you.”

  “Understood.”

  “We’ll see you in le
ss than an hour. If you should need anything, stay in contact with my communication operators, got it?”

  “Copy. Thank you.”

  Dom handed the headset back to Chao. He wondered how many SOS calls like this they would respond to. How many other people were out there looking for help?

  “While we’re on our dinner cruise, I’ve got something for you and Samantha.”

  “Anything for you, boss,” Samantha said, cracking her knuckles.

  “I like the enthusiasm,” Dom said. “General Kinsey ordered the withdrawal of all active duty armed forces from populated areas and has sequestered anyone he can to high-value targets—whatever those may be. But those orders only apply to units with the ability to retreat.”

  “All right,” Chao said, “so what are you getting at?”

  “Two things.” Dom held up a finger. “First, we’ve got law enforcement officials in the surrounding areas who may be able to help us with what I’ve got in mind. Plus we’ve got the entire Naval Academy in Annapolis. I’m not sure if they’ve withdrawn yet, but I want you to make contact with them.”

  “What’s the second thing?”

  “I want you two to identify an area that’s easily defensible, somewhere to direct refugees and evacuees to.” If the US military wasn’t going to do it, Dom would. “Not everyone’s lucky enough to be holding out in a ship like us. And if the Queen of the Bay is any indication, we could be busy for days trying to rescue civilians. We need somewhere organized and ready to protect against the Skulls.”

  “So you want us to assemble a joint operations force and set up a bioweapon-free safe zone,” Samantha said. “And I suppose you want that done before you’re back from this little errand.”

  “That’s correct. And if we clear the Queen of the Bay, that ship will be great for ferrying civilians to the new safe zone.” He held up his index finger. “Ah, one more thing. It would also be nice if you identified a way for us to resupply our medical stock.”

  “Just medical supplies?” Chao asked.

  “It wouldn’t hurt to restock the armory, either.”

  “What about identifying neuro research labs for Lauren’s research?” Chao asked.

  “Definitely. If you need help, feel free to enlist whoever’s left aboard the ship. Tell them it’s on my orders.”

  “Will do.” Samantha stretched her tattooed arms.

  “And what about me?” Meredith asked.

  “If you’re ready to get back in the field—and if Lauren clears you—we could use another Hunter.”

  ***

  The crazy sprinted at Navid and Abby. It lost traction on the hospital’s kitchen floor and slammed into a counter. Navid used the momentary advantage to run after Abby and out of the kitchen door. As soon as he shut it, they pushed an overturned patient bed in front of it. The door shuddered. The crazy beyond it howled and hissed.

  Other chilling voices began to rise up out of the quiet hospital in response.

  “Let’s go!” Navid said.

  They dashed down the hall. Navid’s pulse raced as he rounded a corner with Abby by his side. At the other end of the corridor, a large shape burst out of a room. It looked like an overweight man, but the wail that came out of its mouth was anything but human. Navid and Abby spun on their heels and sped in the other direction. They passed by the entrance to the cafeteria.

  Hands slapped against the windows of the cafeteria’s entrance, and more cries escaped from under the door.

  “Outside!” Abby managed between gasping breaths. She directed them toward the front of the hospital.

  Navid didn’t look back. The sounds of clicking footsteps followed them as they ran toward the lobby. More creatures—many in hospital gowns, others in scrubs—turned toward them when they made it to the atrium. Their hunting cries joined with the yells of the other crazies. At least two dozen blocked their way outside.

  Abby’s mouth dropped, and her eyes went wide. She froze in horror. The monsters started to run at them.

  “Move!” Navid yelled. He dragged her with him toward another hallway and turned left at an intersection. The cacophony of wails and screeches chased after them. His lungs burned. He shoved through a door to another stairwell. This one was bathed in darkness; no emergency lights pierced the shadows. Outside, the crazies churned down the hallway, past where he’d turned left. Maybe they’d lost them.

  Navid jumped when a face pressed itself against the window of the stairwell. Two bloodshot eyes stared at him above a crooked nose. The teeth chattered, and the crazy slapped the door.

  “Let’s go!” Navid and Abby took the stairs two at a time.

  “Where?”

  Navid racked his mind. There would be no going outside. There would be no going back to the kitchen or cafeteria. The crazies stood between him and the graduate student office.

  But there was one other place they could go. The place where they had usually spent over eight hours a day, back when the world wasn’t full of twisted abominations.

  “The lab!” Navid said. “Let’s get to the lab!”

  They dashed up the stairs until they came to another landing. Navid slowed. The sounds of the crazy struggling with the door downstairs followed them, but he no longer heard the telltale pounding feet. The hunting cries of the swarm of crazies seemed lost in the distance. They ran up one more flight of stairs, and Navid led them out into another hallway.

  This one was empty. No trash strewn about. No lurking crazies. Only silence and darkness. Navid breathed a sigh of relief. They crept toward the door to the Neurodegenerative Drug and Drug Delivery Research lab, where he and Abby worked. He jiggled the door handle, but it didn’t open.

  “Locked,” he said. Abby shot him a worried expression. “No problem. Just a second.” He dug into his pocket and took out a keychain. “Still got these.”

  He unlocked the door, and they went inside. He checked between the lab benches and lab equipment, but no crazies showed themselves.

  “It’s clear,” he reported.

  “Good,” Abby said. She started shoving a bookshelf in front of the lab’s door. “Let’s block this off.”

  They pushed another shelf to the makeshift barricade and pulled the heavy cart with the liquid nitrogen tank to reinforce the shelves. Any loose, heavy objects soon found themselves stacked against the door. After ten minutes of reinforcing their barricade, Abby slumped next to it and wiped the sweat from her brow.

  Navid trudged to one of the lab benches and tentatively twisted one of the handles of the faucet. No water. But he felt a small sense of victory when he saw a squirt bottle full of tap water used to clean lab scoopulas, forceps, and other small tools. Every lab training video and course he had taken advised him not to drink it, but his thirst told him he didn’t have a choice.

  He took a sip of the room-temperature water and then offered it to Abby.

  “Thanks.” She gulped down a third of the bottle before handing it back.

  Navid dropped to the floor beside her. “Too bad we don’t have anything to eat.”

  Abby smiled and reached into her pocket. She took out a handful of granola bars. “It won’t last long, but we got something.”

  They shared one bar, agreeing to ration the rest while they figured out their next move.

  “So what do we do now?” Abby asked.

  Navid pulled her close to him, and they sat, sides pressed together. “We wait,” he said. “We wait, and we pray.”

  -14-

  Glenn watched from the cargo bay as the Zodiacs sped off. A foamy wake followed the small craft.

  The words Lauren had delivered still stung: “You aren’t cleared. Your bone density biomarkers are showing abnormally high bone loss.”

  He felt frail and weak despite the muscles he’d worked so hard to maintain. Beneath them, according to Lauren, his skeletal system had suffered from the chelation therapy.

  Thomas sidled up beside Glenn. He stared after Dom and the others. “Tough to see them go while we st
ay, huh?”

  Glenn nodded solemnly.

  “Now you know how I feel every time Dom demands I stay here while he plays cowboy.” He patted Glenn’s back. “You look like you could use a rest. The therapy hit ya that hard?”

  “I’m a lab experiment.” Glenn shrugged. The Zodiacs turned into small flecks fading into the horizon. “Lauren said since I was one of their first patients, they overestimated the dosage I needed. They thought I’d need an extra-large dose given my size.”

  “Is it permanent?”

  “No, Lauren thinks as long as I continue to exercise moderately, it’s just a matter of time.” The bay doors started to close with a mechanical grind. Glenn’s eyes adjusted to the dim lights of the cargo bay. “I hate sitting on the sidelines like this.”

  “Join the club.” Thomas gave him a knowing grin before exiting through a hatch to the interior decks.

  Left alone, Glenn’s thoughts returned to the other Hunters. It wasn’t just the warriors on this mission; Lauren and her medical team had gone, too. Maybe it was a foolish, antiquated notion, but he wanted to be there to help Lauren. He wanted to protect her if things turned sour—which, with the Skulls, seemed inevitable.

  He prayed he was wrong, and he pulled open the hatch Thomas had gone through. He vowed to make himself useful. But if he wasn’t going to be cleared to fight in the near future, he needed to find a new job. He could keep talking to Amir down in the brig. The Iranian mechanic might have new tidbits of info to help uncover the mystery of the Oni Agent’s outbreak. After all, Amir had been the only worker aboard the IBSL who had been saved from the Skulls and the rig’s destruction. He had to know something. But each conversation with the man seemed to end with the same response: “I don’t know.”

  As Glenn strode through the empty passageway, he strolled by the medical bay. He knew Lauren was under immense pressure to develop a cure or a vaccine while having her team perform an endless battery of experiments in those occasional moments they weren’t trying to save someone’s life.

  A thought struck him, and he whirled around. He barged into the medical bay and went to a shelf of textbooks near the entrance to the laboratory. He saw Divya working beyond the clear acrylic partition in the lab, but her focus remained on the plastic dishes and tubes on a lab bench.