The Tide (Book 5): Iron Wind

by Anthony J Melchiorri

  “How are you going to do it?” Meredith said, echoing Dom’s question. “We’ll use their Titan, of course.”

  ***

  Alizia had a few of her people turn the makeshift command center and dining room into a workable barracks for the Hunters by dropping off sleeping bags and a few spare bedrolls. Dom settled next to Meredith. He radioed Chao and Samantha to apprise them of the situation.

  “Yeah, we can handle any security issues you face remotely,” Samantha said once he’d finished briefing them.

  “Excellent,” Dom said. “We’ll try to get you access to their intranet, too. Let’s pull as much data as we can.”

  “You got that right, Captain,” Samantha said. Dom imagined her gulping an energy drink when she was silent for a beat. “Chao’s got some other news for you.”

  Chao’s voice broke over the comm link. “Frank’s on his way to Cape Verde with Shepherd, Rory, and Rachel.”

  Dom couldn’t help pumping his fist. “Fantastic news. How did he manage that?”

  “The Portuguese Air Force still had control of Lajes Field. Our military hightailed it out of there a couple weeks ago. Probably part of Kinsey’s plan to concentrate his remaining forces.”

  “Timeline makes sense. What did Frank have to do to convince them to help?”

  “Not much, according to him. They were happy to help anyone trying to make a difference. They’ve been cut off by their own government and haven’t heard a peep from the EU or the US. But they did ask us to do something for them when we find out who the hell is behind this mess.”

  “Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

  “Tell them where to drop some goddamn bombs,” Chao said with a laugh.

  “Seems like a good deal to me,” Dom said. He let the tension relax from his shoulders as he settled against the cold stone wall. It was always reassuring to have allies in the world, no matter their strength or size. “Does Frank have an ETA?”

  “Assuming refueling in Cape Verde is as easy as it was in the Azores, late tomorrow.”

  Dom nodded, glancing at the map on his smartwatch. “Good. I’m sending you all the location of our presumed target. We’re planning to hit it at 2100 hours. I want Frank to prepare the Huey and take it out to meet us.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “Any other news on the Huntress?”

  A long beat of silence stretched over the comm link. Dom knew what the calm before a storm sounded like. A sharp intake of breath from Chao. A sigh. Then...

  “I’m going to let Lauren explain.”

  -42-

  Later that night, Dom lay awake, his thoughts churning like white-water rapids.

  The Oni Agent was airborne.

  Kara had it. Sadie it. Every member of his crew. Even the damn dog had it.

  And for all he knew, everyone out here might be infected. How long would it take for the Oni Agent to weasel its way out of their bones and force them along the slow march to becoming Skulls?

  His hand found Meredith’s in the darkness, their fingers intertwining.

  “It’ll be okay,” she said quietly. “Lauren will take care of your girls.”

  “I shouldn’t have left them,” Dom said, his voice heavy. “I shouldn’t have dragged us into this godforsaken jungle.”

  “Stop beating yourself up,” Meredith said. “Maybe we’ll find something in those computers tomorrow. These people created the Oni Agent, right? So maybe they have a cure, too.”

  “Maybe,” Dom said. “I’m looking forward to wringing their necks until we’ve gotten every scrap of intel.”

  “Save some for me.” Meredith squeezed his hand, and he traced a thumb along her knuckles. She rolled over and brushed a kiss across his lips. He let himself be lost in her embrace for a moment, but all too soon he gently pulled away.

  “We should get some sleep,” he said.

  She sighed and settled in next to him, one arm draped across his chest. “We never seem to catch a break, do we?”

  There was nothing he could say to that. With the threat of an airborne Oni Agent and their most dangerous mission just ahead—not to mention half a dozen Hunters sleeping nearby—even a single, stolen moment of happiness felt like a luxury they could ill afford.

  Soon, Meredith’s breathing slowed into a soft, even rhythm. Eventually, after a few false starts, he drifted off too. He hadn’t realized he had fallen asleep until a storm of voices woke him. He jumped upright and checked his smartwatch. It was 0600. Meredith jolted awake beside him, and they both reached for their holstered pistols.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Miguel asked, his bloodshot eyes peering around the room.

  The door burst open, and members of the CDF rolled in. Dom thought something was wrong until one of them turned and smiled.

  “Good morning,” he said in stilted English. “Breakfast at your leisure. Alizia requests your presence in one hour. She has allotted you each ammunition that she says will fit your weapons.”

  The smell of warm beans and rice was enough to draw Dom from his bedroll. He forgot about his sore muscles for the moment and sat at the table. No one said a word as they scarfed down their meal. He felt a little guilty, hoping that no one had to go hungry because of the Hunters’ presence here. Soon, they would be back on the Huntress. Back with his daughters. Back where he belonged.

  The rest of the day was a blur of activity. Loading magazines. Cleaning weapons. Going over plans until they were ingrained, step-by-step, into each of their minds. As the hours wound down toward evening, there was little else he could do to prepare for what lay ahead. He checked his pack for the fourth time in the CDF’s armory.

  “You sure they’ll release a replacement Titan tonight?” Dom asked Alizia.

  “I cannot be certain. But the last four were released between twenty-four and forty-eight hours after we killed one.”

  He took a deep breath and glanced at Meredith. She was back to her warrior-queen persona with a half-head of hair braided away from her face and a fierce smile on her lips. “You ready?”

  Meredith tightened the straps on her pack and secured her rifle’s strap. “One hundred percent.”

  “Miguel, you know when to call me,” Dom said.

  “Three days after our first date—no more, no less, Chief.” Miguel smirked but turned serious when Dom shook his head slowly. “Soon as we see the Titan’s door open and Mommy and Daddy kick him to the curb.”

  “Close enough.” Dom laid a hand on Miguel’s shoulder. It was usually Renee who led Bravo. With her gone, Miguel was the most senior of the Hunters. “I’m counting on you tonight. They’re all counting on you.”

  “Wouldn’t lead you or them wrong, Chief.”

  “Kick some ass out there.”

  Miguel held his fist out, and Dom tapped his knuckles against Miguel’s.

  Kofi sidled up to them. He had an AK-47 strapped across the Skull chest plate he wore, along with a bandolier of magazines and grenades. “Don’t worry, Captain. If this man is no good, our people will be more than happy to pick up the slack.”

  “’Fraid there won’t be any slack for you to pick up,” Miguel said, grinning again. “But you’ve got the right spirit. You might make a good Hunter yourself.”

  Kofi’s nose wrinkled as if he was offended. “Hunter? I am a vegetarian. I can’t believe you would suggest anything like that.”

  “You serious, man?” Miguel said.

  Kofi burst out laughing, and Dom turned, leaving the two men to bond. The adrenaline rush before a mission did funny things to people. Dom turned serious. Meredith went a little bit Thunderdome. And Miguel turned into even more of a joker. At least Miguel and Kofi were too caught up in the tradition of bravado, psyching each other up, to be scared.

  Dom joined Meredith and Alizia at the armory’s entrance. “Let’s do this.”

  Alizia led them into the main tunnel. They passed the makeshift hospital chamber. Those serving as nurses and doctors nodded at Alizia, Dom, and Meredith. Sev
eral elderly individuals moving about the room with the aid of canes held out their hands. They closed their eyes, offering prayers and blessings. These people, no matter how injured, how busy with their own jobs, seemed to sense something important was about to happen.

  Hope swelled in Dom’s chest. Somehow, just knowing that they would carry with them the well-wishes, prayers, and thoughts of an entire underground community made this mission seem even more important. This world was protected by the goodness and dedication of a select few. Dom felt proud to be walking with Alizia. Proud that she had offered to help, and proud to work side-by-side with another segment of humanity resisting the onslaught against the world. There still might be a lingering doubt, a voice in his head ingrained by his years in covert ops telling him to keep one eye on her. But his instincts, too, had been honed over the decades, and after everything he’d learned from his time with her and the CDF, he found himself yearning to trust her, to know that she really did share the same goals as him of bettering this world.

  Soon Alizia guided them to narrower tunnels. The low ceilings forced them to duck as they walked. Dom’s broad shoulders scraped the walls. He fought back the creeping sensation of claustrophobia and pushed on into the darkness.

  “This way,” Alizia whispered, shining a small penlight to the right. They passed another two intersections until they reached a tunnel so small it forced them to their bellies. One by one, they crawled along the gradually ascending tunnel.

  Humid wind rushed past Dom. It sucked away the cool underground air he had come to enjoy. With the wind came the sounds of birds and drone of insects. They were almost to ground level again. Then Alizia’s penlight went out.

  “We are here,” she said in a low voice. She rolled back a stone the size of a manhole cover. Once Dom and Meredith exited, she replaced it and pointed westward. “The door we will enter is that way.”

  They dropped low and lay flat on their bellies once more. Dom didn’t want to take any chances in case there were cameras along the perimeter. The dense ferns, shrubs, and vines growing among the snarls of roots gave them enough cover if they proceeded cautiously. But that also meant two kilometers of crawling, which was why they had taken off earlier than the rest of the Hunters and the CDF.

  Time passed at an agonizingly slow rate. Dom’s joints ached. He was getting too old for this kind of shit. Way too old. Miguel and Jenna should be out here crawling around in the mud and leaves like slinking reptiles. But only he and Meredith had the decades of experience needed for a mission as risky as this.

  And when he offered a quiet nod to ask if Meredith was okay, she nodded back, even breaking a slight smile. Hell, she seemed to be almost enjoying herself. Maybe after years of sitting at a desk, she relished the chance to get her hands dirty again.

  ***

  Meredith watched the spindly legs of the giant spider walk over her skin, straight up her arm, heading toward her face. Please, please, please, don’t do that. But the hairy bastard couldn’t read her thoughts. And even if it could, Meredith guessed it wouldn’t give a shit anyway. She tried her best not to scream as the little monster crawled up her cheek. She wanted to swat it, to bat it off her face. To yell and curse at it.

  But she couldn’t. She reminded herself the thing was no worse than the harmless little spiders that used to make their home on her condo’s porch. Just...bigger. The scent of the wet air stoked her memories of home. The webs on her porch had always glistened after a rain, making intricate, beautiful art. When the rain splattered against the roof, she would sit inside, listening to its gentle drumming as she read a book curled up on a chair.

  Except that was just some nostalgic fantasy. She almost laughed aloud. How often had she actually had the downtime to relax like that? Meredith had spent the majority of the last decade at work, cooped up in her office while Dom and his people were out in the field. She had often wished to join them on a mission, just to get a taste of the old life.

  Be careful what you wish for, she thought as she crawled through the mud.

  The tickling continued as the spider roamed over her. It wasn’t that she was afraid of spiders, but damn. This thing was huge. The beast traveled over her helmet then down her back. She twitched her shoulders, trying to shake it off.

  How long had they been moving? Even through her gloves, it felt like her hands had gone raw. Her rain-sodden fatigues were chafing against her legs and arms. Every inch forward seemed like another eternity. They were progressing slower than the moss growing up the tree trunks.

  Meredith looked ahead to the shadowy form of Alizia. The woman still wore her Skull armor, yet she didn’t rattle like one of the creatures when she moved. She was quieter than a serpent. If this woman really was leading them to the enemy’s base, neither Meredith nor Dom could have done any better. Alizia truly did know the jungle as well as she’d claimed.

  After what seemed like hours, Alizia paused. She made a slow, subtle gesture to direct Dom and Meredith to her side. They crawled over. With only her eyes, Alizia indicated a spot up ahead. Through the meager opening between tree trunks and leaves, Meredith caught movement. Her heart jackhammered against her ribcage. Three men in gray uniforms stood beside a door swathed in camouflage netting.

  This was it. This was really it. The base outside of Bikoro existed, and they were about to infiltrate it.

  Then she willed her pulse to slow.

  About to infiltrate was an overstatement. Now came the waiting game. Only when the Titan was released to replace its dead brother would the Hunters and the CDF execute their distraction. Then Meredith, Dom, and Alizia could sneak into the base. No more crawling. No more spiders.

  But for now, waiting. Lots of waiting. Hours of it.

  Insects bit and stung her, crawling over her exposed skin and wriggling beneath her clothes. They were sucking her life out like so many miniscule vampires. And she couldn’t swat at a single one.

  At some point, her muscles and joints locked up. She wiggled her toes against the insides of her boots, desperate to keep the blood flowing. Eventually her stomach rumbled in hunger. Alizia and Dom’s guts joined in the chorus, as if all three of their bodies had rebelled and were trying to compromise their position. The hours dragged on, and the deepest of nighttime darkness swallowed the forest. Meredith pressed her tongue against the back of her throat. Dry. She moved her mouth slowly. Dreadfully slowly.

  Finally, her lips tugged at the nozzle coming from her pack, and she sucked in a little water. She tried to ration it out, mentally keeping track of sips. When her stomach grumbled again, she wondered how long they would have to go without so much as a nibble of a protein bar. Her eyelids felt heavy, reminding her of her restless sleep the night before.

  The ground trembled, and leaves rained down on them from the trees. For a wild moment, Meredith thought that her stomach had caused it. Her fingers shook from the pounding of adrenaline. This was it. The massive doors at the other side of the base were be opening, releasing the Titan into the wild.

  -43-

  Kara snapped a tube in place on the nozzle of a glass flask. “This connects to the vacuum pump, right?”

  “Right,” Navid said, his nose scrunched in concentration. “And this”—he connected a round-bottom flask with three necks attached to other tubes and glass appendages—“will be where the magic happens.”

  “Not magic,” Kara said. “Science!”

  Navid laughed. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. “Sorry, but that sounds a bit cheesy.”

  “Fine, set up the synthesis yourself.” Kara narrowed her eyes and backed away from the fume hood where they were working, trying to appear stern.

  “I didn’t mean to offend you.” Navid’s eyes grew wide with worry. “I just—”

  Kara tapped him playfully on the arm. “I’m just giving you shit. Got to do something to lighten the mood.”

  Navid let out a long sigh. “Thank God. You’re scary when you’re angry.”

  “I’ve heard
that before.” Kara grinned proudly. She watched Navid turn on a compressed air line, and the liquid in the three-neck, round-bottom flask bubbled. “Is that it?”

  “That’s it. We’re good for now.”

  They took off their lab gloves and washed their hands on the way out of the lab.

  While Divya and Sean worked in the isolation portion of the laboratory, only Peter and Lauren tended to the patients. They were changing Spencer’s bandages now.

  “Hold up,” Kara said. “Let’s see if they need any help.”

  Navid’s ears grew red, and he scrubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Oh, man, yeah, you’re right. We should do that.”

  They walked through the aisle between the patient beds. Every hour more of the beds were filled, and soon they would run out. A grim silence filled the bay. Most patients slept in feverish fits. Sweat glistened across their faces and soaked into their beds. An image of Sadie in one of those beds flashed through Kara’s mind. She wondered how long it would be until the Oni Agent grabbed her, too. How long could a healthy immune system fight this new airborne strain? She shivered.

  A hand brushed her arm. “It’s okay,” Navid said, as if he could read her mind. “We’ll be fine.”

  She forced herself to relax. Thinking about her sister always had this effect on her. She hated appearing weak. Especially in here, in front of Navid and Lauren, where she was supposed to be helping. She didn’t need them to worry about her. Didn’t want them to. They had bigger things to worry about.

  Connor was sleeping in Tammy’s arms, snoring softly. Kara frowned. He wasn’t supposed to be doing that. Lauren and her crew had already strapped the woman’s arms down in case the chelation agent failed.

  Kara’s thoughts turned to her mother. Maybe she was still stuck in their home’s basement, wasting away, nothing but hunger and hatred in her prion-addled mind. The cold grip of terror tightened on her chest. Worse was the possibility her mother had escaped and was one of the monsters devouring the few survivors clinging to existence out there.