“I have a better idea,” the boy said. “I think we should take your truck out there and drive to Paris as fast as we can.”
Mira put her hand on the boy’s caped shoulder and spoke rapidly in French. The comm link fired into Fitz’s ear before she could finish. He held up a hand and pushed his earbud in.
“Ghost 1, Ghost 3. Something outside you’ll want to see.”
“I’ll be up shortly, Ghost 3.” Fitz said. He then opened the line back to Command to relay the intel and request evac.
“Lion 1, Ghost 1, do you copy, over?”
Static hissed into his earpiece.
Fitz tried a second time, but got the same white noise.
He caught Rico’s worried gaze, and then very calmly said, “Come on, Apollo. Everyone else, stay down here. I’m going to check this out.”
Kate could hear the air raid sirens though the lab walls. She waited on a bench next to Ellis in the safe room designed to protect them from airborne contaminants. Red beams circled the dark room from an emergency light in the center of the ceiling, which cast blood-colored shadows into the corners. Kate cupped her head in her hands and breathed deep. She exhaled slowly, looking for any calm she could find.
“If it’s bad, Beckham would come for you,” Ellis said. Kate wanted to believe him. He kept trying to reassure her, but neither of them had any idea what was going on outside. All she knew was there was a “bandit.” It could be a juvenile, someone infected with Hemorrhage, or something even worse.
“We really need to get back in there,” Ellis said. “We left the specimen samples in the radiation delivery machine. It’ll ruin them, and we have a limited supply.”
He stood and pressed his finger against the keypad. It beeped angrily back at him. “We’re freaking locked in here?” Ellis kicked the door. “When the hell is someone going to tell us what’s going on?”
It wasn’t like Ellis to lose his cool, but they were both under a lot of stress. Kate stood and caressed her stomach while Ellis sent another weak kick at the door and slumped against the wall.
The wall-mounted speaker above his head buzzed. Banks of LEDs clicked on, spreading a white glow over the room. Kate rushed forward and pushed her thumb to the comm. “Hello? Can anyone hear us?”
“Kate! It’s me.”
Her heart leapt at the sound of Reed’s voice. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, yeah. You and Ellis holding up okay?”
“No. We’re locked in. What’s happening, Reed?”
“The Monterey is back. I sent choppers to check it out. So far we can’t reach anyone on board.”
“You’re not sending a team out there, are you?”
His response came after a second of hesitation. “We’re still analyzing the situation.”
“You are not going out there, Reed.” Her voice was firm. “You and I both know that ship is compromised.”
“I know, and I won’t. Try not to worry. You’re in the safest building on the island. I’ll come get you in a couple of hours unless something develops. If anything happens, I’ll come get you immediately, okay?”
“Okay. Just do me a favor and have someone unlock the doors. We have work to do.”
Reed spoke to someone out of earshot, then said, “It’s done.”
Ellis pressed his finger back to the identification keypad. The door clicked open and he stepped into the vestibule. Kate stayed next to the comm, waiting for the words she needed to hear.
“I love you,” Reed said.
“I love you too. Be safe.”
Kate followed Ellis back to the lab. They had a hundred things to do, and all of them had to be done right now. The most important task was figuring out what they had found in Europe. It was only a matter of time before Fitz’s team faced one of the creatures. Assuming he was even still alive. Kate slapped the thought aside as soon as it entered her mind. She couldn’t dwell on worry. Not now.
“So we’re in the clear?” Ellis asked.
“For now. Reed says this is the safest place on the island.”
“I sure as hell don’t feel safe here,” Ellis said with a shake of his head. He changed the subject as they approached the lab doors. “That creature in the database is a juvenile, that’s certain, but it’s a different type of species than any we have discovered. Which begs the question—does this thing only seem like a new because we haven’t found it over here yet?
“My thoughts precisely. I’ve wondered the same thing about these Reavers. Why don’t we have them here?”
“My theory is that juveniles have had longer to develop in Europe than they did here. That means epigenetic changes could have activated genes we haven’t even identified yet. The wings and everything else we’re seeing has to be due to that. Right?”
“I’m not sure. Those things could be here and are just hiding out, or they’re content and well-fed in whatever part of the country they’ve evolved in. Hopefully we’ll know more in a few hours,” Kate said. She stopped to put her finger against the recognition panel outside their lab. It chirped and the pad blinked green. Next she bent down and pressed her eye against the sensor. A red light scanned her pupil.
“Welcome back, Doctor Lovato,” said a robotic voice.
Kate stepped into the clean room with Ellis. They were suited up and at their stations within fifteen minutes—a new record.
Ellis went straight for the radiation delivery machine and Kate crossed over to her computer. She keyed in her information and scanned through the DNA sequencing data. It pulled up a list of animals with genes that matched the juveniles in Europe. The first was a brown bat with a spear-tipped nose; the next, a massive armadillo.
She pulled up her report and added the information. Time passed quickly as she worked. Not since developing Kryptonite had she found herself so completely focused on her work. Maybe it was because, for the first time since the outbreak, she was using her skills to do something other than develop a bioweapon.
When she had finished typing, she read over the document. A half dozen new Variants had been identified and entered into the database throughout the world in the past week, bringing the total to over fifty. Kate’s shoulders rounded under an all-too-familiar sense of hopelessness pressing her down like a heavy weight. She pushed back against the urge to give up. The world needed her, maybe more than it ever had before.
Kate brought up the reports and photos of the many different Variants they had catalogued before the deployment of Kryptonite. There were the Variants in the desert with camel humps, others in arctic climates covered in fur. Those in temperate woodlands had developed a bark-like skin that let them blend into their surroundings. Some in tropical climates had gills. Perhaps the oddest of them all was the thin green monster with triangular forearms that looked remarkably similar to a praying mantis. Then there were the Alphas, the massive and terrifyingly intelligent creatures that were able to coordinate attacks and command armies of lesser Variants. The Bone Collector was there. So was the White King.
And yet, somehow, their offspring had evolved into even more terrible monsters.
“Kate, you’ve got to see this.”
“Give me a minute, please. I’m finishing up the report.”
He twisted to look at her from the radiation delivery machine. His face told her the report could wait. She hurried over, moving as quickly as her aching back and swollen feet would let her. Ellis pecked at the machine’s keyboard with a purpose.
“I used tissue samples from juveniles in the US and the juveniles in Europe. Then I ran panels of chemical analyses and exposed the samples to a broad range of radiation, just like we did months ago.”
“And?”
He stepped away and gestured toward the computer monitor. The screen was divided into two frames.
“US sample is on the left. European is on the right,” he said. “Take a look.”
Ellis clicked the button to activate the radiation delivery machine. The two dime-sized samples started to co
ok. The sample from the United States began to vibrate from the gamma radiation. But the one from Europe sat idly in the dish.
A hissing came from the machine, and Kate’s eyes went wide as she stared at the image on Ellis’s screen. The US sample had melted. Ellis increased the rads on the European sample. They waited for several minutes before it began to react. By that point, the specimen on the left was nothing more than a sizzling mess of red flesh.
The sample on the right began to bubble, but instead of melting, the exterior hardened into a crusty layer, much like an overdone steak. Tiny, needle-like structures poked out of the surface. In a matter of minutes, the sample had mutated into a chunk of blackened, spiky flesh.
“What on Earth?” Kate whispered.
“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Ellis stepped closer to Kate. “The European juveniles are sensitive to radiation, too. But instead of compromising their flesh, it mutates them.”
Kate gasped. The EUF had been blowing up nuclear power plants to kill off massive pockets of the breeding monsters, and Operation Reach planned to drop thousands of radioactive bombs on strongholds.
“If the military proceeds with Operation Reach, they are going to create an army of mutated monsters we won’t be able to stop.”
Kate felt the baby kick. Leave it to Reed Beckham’s son to understand how much this changed the war effort.
“Come on,” she said. “We have to get a message to Vice President Johnson and the EUF before it’s too late.”
-17-
Beckham nearly dropped his binoculars when he heard that Team Ghost had survived Operation Beachhead. He’d been watching the USS Monterey from the glass window of the Plum Island CIC with Horn and Mayor Walker. He turned to smile at Lieutenant General Rayburn. A few faces looked up from the piles of paper on the table across the room, but most of the dozen soldiers seemed focused on their tasks.
Beckham felt like he had just dropped his rucksack after a forced march. He knew what an uphill battle Team Ghost and the rest of the military still faced in Europe, but at least his friends hadn’t been lost in the massacre.
“Sounds like they’re on a new mission, but I wasn’t able to get any information,” Rayburn said.
“Thank you, sir, for letting us know,” Beckham said.
Rayburn nodded. It may have seemed a small favor to some, but for Beckham this spoke volumes about Rayburn’s character. The lieutenant general had gone out on a limb to determine the fate of Team Ghost. That also told him that Rayburn wasn’t too salty about having to hand off security details.
Beckham brought the binos back to his eyes to watch two Apaches hovering over the water north of the destroyer. He had already scanned every corner of the Monterey, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. He handed the binos to Rayburn, who in turn gave them to Walker.
“Command, this is Badger 1,” one of the pilots said. “No sign of contacts below.”
“I don’t know what to make of it,” Rayburn said.
“I know exactly what to make of it,” Horn said. “Wood’s got multiple sleeper cells out there. He had more than one unit hiding on that ship.”
Walker approached the window. “I say blow it out of the water.”
“That’s one hell of a valuable ship,” Rayburn said, stroking his jaw.
Horn looked at him like he was crazy. “Ain’t worth jack shit if it’s been compromised…sir.”
Rayburn didn’t seem put off by Horn’s attitude, but Beckham had hoped his friend would know better than to blow his top around the lieutenant general. For now, at least, they needed to try to work with him.
“We could board with a Special Ops team. Clear any hostiles and then send in the Medical Corps to scrub it down,” Rayburn suggested.
Beckham and Horn both replied no at the same time.
“Way too risky, sir,” Beckham added. “We tried to salvage the Truxtun. It did not end well.”
Rayburn nodded once. “Alternate course of action?”
“My recommendation is to keep the ship in sight,” Beckham said. Then he remembered that his role was no longer to offer recommendations but to make decisions. When it came to the safety and security of the island, he was in charge. “If it comes closer, we’ll sink her. Chances are it’s crawling with infected. Wood wants us to waste our troops and ammo on the Monterey so we’ll be easier to kill when he comes for Plum Island. Our best move is not to play his game.”
Walker glanced over from the window. “Have you heard what he’s been saying on the Freedom Waves?”
“Yes, and it is all lies,” Beckham said firmly.
“I’ve spoken to some of my counterparts at other SZTs, and most of them agree with him about President Ringgold.”
“And what do you believe, Mayor?” Beckham asked.
“I believe Wood is a terrorist,” Walker said. “But I also believe we might have to rethink our negotiation policy. I won’t risk the lives of the innocent souls on this island for the sake of one woman in a West Virginia bunker.”
Horn crossed his tattooed arms. “Is that so?”
Rayburn cut in. “We don’t negotiate with terrorists. The only choice we have is to kill the son of a bitch.”
A tense minute passed before Beckham jerked his chin toward the war table. He walked over and put his prosthetic hand on the smooth surface, remembering all the meetings they had held here before. Jensen, Smith, Chow, Jinx, Riley…so many of his brothers had sat here with him. Now they were buried in the island’s overflowing graveyard. The pain continued to eat Beckham’s insides. His blood pressure had risen during the discussion, and he could feel his pulse pounding in his ears.
“Boss?” Horn said.
Beckham pulled out the chair at the head of the table and sat down. He gestured for Rayburn, Walker, and Horn to take seats with the other soldiers who were reading reports. It was the first time Beckham had sat at the helm of the war table. He looked down at the seat that had once been filled by Lieutenant Colonel Jensen. His friend had given his life to protect the island.
Now it’s my job, he thought.
“Gentleman, we’re here to discuss the safety of Plum Island,” Beckham said. He took a second to scan the faces around the table. This meeting wasn’t just about securing the island; for Beckham, it was about getting a read on the lieutenant general and mayor. He’d already decided not to trust Walker, but he wasn’t sure about Rayburn.
Beckham pointed to the USS Monterey and said, “ROT is growing stronger. We’re not just facing a group of terrorists threatening our very fragile existence. We’re talking about a civil war. The things Lieutenant Wood has been saying about President Ringgold aren’t true, but people at the SZTs are listening. Some of them have already made up their minds to side with the enemy. That cannot be allowed to continue.”
Several men exchanged glances around the table. Beckham took note of their names and then continued.
“Our primary job is to protect this island, but our duty is also to protect and support the President of the United States. Under her guidance, we have built and secured over seventy-five SZTs. She has answered the calls from our allies that are still battling the monsters overseas. Working with Vice President Johnson, she has helped eradicate the majority of the Variants here at home. Now she needs our help.”
Beckham stood and let his words sink in, scrutinizing the reactions to his speech. Walker nodded enthusiastically, as if he’d been on Beckham’s side all along. Rayburn remained stone-faced, and his soldiers kept silent.
Was it possible that Wood had a sleeper agent here on the island? Or even in this room? Beckham pushed the questions aside for now and continued.
“Expect the worst and then plan for it. That’s what I’ve always told my men. Tonight we will reassess our defenses. Not just against Variants, but against an invasion by ROT. There are still vulnerable areas of the island not covered by patrols or guard towers. Fences and cameras won’t prevent an attack. I want every available man and woman who can fight assigne
d to those areas,” Beckham said.
Rayburn pointed to a map. “My men have already identified all the weak points.”
“I’d like to conduct my own analysis, sir.”
Rayburn’s nostrils flared above his mustache, but he didn’t reply.
Horn shifted in the seat next to Beckham. Rayburn hadn’t formally objected to the change in chain of command, but he clearly didn’t like being questioned.
“I also want recon boats,” Beckham said, using his prosthetic to point at four locations surrounding Plum Island. “If Wood decides to use the Zumwalt in an attack, we won’t see it coming on radar. We need lookouts to warn us.”
“Sir?” Said a tentative voice.
Beckham looked across the table at a young man with short-cropped brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a Medical Corps uniform.
“Go ahead,” Beckham said.
“Sir, I’ve heard a rumor…” He trailed off, glancing uneasily at Rayburn and Walker. Beckham gestured for the young soldier to continue. “Well, sir, people are saying that Team Ghost killed Colonel Zach Wood in cold blood. Isn’t it possible his brother is specifically hunting for you and your men?”
Beckham felt Horn’s gaze, but he didn’t look to his friend. A moment of silence passed. He used it to think of Fitz, Kate, and everyone else Lieutenant Wood could connect to his brother’s murder. If it came down to it, Beckham would turn himself over to the ROT leader if it meant saving the people he loved. But he had the feeling the terrorist would happily strike the entire island with a barrage of ballistic missiles just to make his point.
“This is about more than one man’s search for revenge. If Andrew Wood is anything like his older brother, and it seems that he is,” Beckham said, “then we have to assume he wants the worst for anyone who stands opposed to his vision of the future.”
He glanced out of the large glass window overlooking the ocean. The Monterey continued to drift through the calm water, drawing ever nearer to the shores of Plum Island. The island had seen more than its share of tragedy and betrayal, but Beckham had believed they could rise from the ashes better and stronger than before. For a little while, he had thought they might be able to build something good here.
The Extinction Cycle (Book 6): Extinction Aftermath Page 22