Red Angel

by C. R. Daems

  RED ANGEL

  by

  C. R. Daems

  Red Angel

  Copyright © 2015 by C. R. Daems

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from C. R. Daems.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9911060-8-0

  ISBN-10: 0991106083

  Edited by Cherise Kelley

  Check out all my novels at:

  crdaems.com

  and

  talonnovels.com

  CHAPTER ONE

  A Red Angel

  CHAPTER TWO

  Growing up

  CHAPTER THREE

  A new beginning

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A new beginning—again

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Intriguing patterns

  CHAPTER SIX

  Graduation

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Night visitors

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Homecoming

  CHAPTER NINE

  Priority One Access

  CHAPTER TEN

  Chasing missiles

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Chasing Smugglers

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Meeting at Holy Star

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Inquiry at Oxax.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Breaking the information network

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Returning Heroes

  CHAPTER ONE

  A Red Angel

  I felt like I was on fire and scrambled to kick my blanket off. Sweat ran down my forehead into my eyes and down my cheek. It tasted salty. I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. In the dim light, the walls seemed to move—bulging outward then closing inward. My head spun and my eyes felt like they were on fire.

  "Mommy! Mommy!" I shouted, but she didn't come. I was so hot I couldn't breathe. When I tried to pull my night shift over my head, it was soaking wet. I whimpered in panic. Had I wet the bed? Mummy would be mad. I felt the mattress. It was soaking wet, everywhere. Maybe if I changed …

  My legs folded under me when my feet touched the floor, and I fell onto my hands and knees. "Mommy! Help!" I screamed, but my voice sounded far away.

  The door to my bedroom looked alive—throbbing like my heart. I crawled toward it, determined to find Mommy. I stopped, gasping and panting; sweat trickled down my chest and belly.

  I woke lying on the floor by the door. The room was a misty grey from the morning light. I clawed my way onto my knees and reached for the door handle. Strange brown blisters were on my hands and arms. "Mommy! Help me," I screamed, but it came out a croaky whisper. When I finally managed to turn the handle and pull, the door knocked me backward.

  "Bad door." I said, and tried to kick it, but my leg felt too heavy to move. When I finally got up on my hands and knees, one of the brown blisters had torn open and blood dripped down my arm onto the carpet. The hallway seemed to have grown and it took hours to crawl to the living room. When I reached it, the sun was up and the light from the windows lit the room. Mommy sat on the couch and Daddy lay stretched out with his head on her lap. "Mommy! Help!" I whispered, too tired to shout. No one moved. I crawled to them and shook Mommy's leg. She felt cold, and I leaned my forehead against her leg. I sighed with pleasure. After a while, I managed to use her legs to pull myself upright. "Mommy, it's me. Anna." Mommy stared over my head, not moving, and looking pale—like Grandpa Ianus in the box. Mommy had said he had gone to Heaven. I screamed, "Come back. You can't leave me! Take me with you." I lay with my head against Daddy’s and cried.

  I was on fire. When I looked out the window, the lawn was covered in white. Smiling, I staggered toward the front door, fell, but began crawling, determined to get outside. After several tries, I managed to open the door and crawl out and into the snow. It felt wonderful. I giggled as my shift began to freeze.

  I woke to a tickling sensation. Something was inside my night shift. It slowly slid up my leg, onto my belly and then my chest. Finally, a small red head appeared out of the opening at my neck

  "Hello, are you the angel who is going to take me to see Mommy and Daddy and Grandpa Ianus?" The little red face didn't answer, just weaved back and forth with its tiny black eyes looking into mine. Its forked tongue lightly touched my lips, nose, and cheek. Then it wrapped itself around my neck and its fangs sank into my neck. "I'm ready to go, Red Angel."

  * * *

  I heard voices, but couldn't see anything. It didn't sound like Mommy or Daddy or Grandpa.

  "Hey, Doc, she's over here." A man stood looking down at me, dressed in a white suit that covered his entire body and head except for his face, which was covered with a funny-looking mask.

  "I want to see my mommy," I demanded. He had to be an angel and this Heaven, I decided. Another man approached wearing the same white suit. He picked up my arm, turned it, and sighed.

  "Load her into the ambulance." He turned away from me and lowered his voice, but I could still hear. "I hate it the worst when the Coaca Virus strikes children. Judging by those blisters, she's in stage four. Nothing we can do but make her comfortable until she dies." He sighed heavily.

  The other man leaned down and scooped me up into his arms. I could see his eyes looked sad. I wanted to tell him I didn't mind dying and going to Heaven—my mommy and daddy were there—but I didn't want to go to the hospital.

  "You're supposed to take me to Heaven!" I said, angry now that I realized I was still on Oxax. The little red head appeared next to my right eye. I stared back, waiting for an answer.

  "There's a snake around her neck," the man holding me shouted and dropped me .

  The shock when I hit the snow-packed ground made black spots jump before my eyes and shocked the breath out of me. I gasped for air, and when I could breathe again, I croaked out, "Red Angel, I want to go now!"

  The little red head ignored me, wrapping himself around my neck with his head lying on my shoulder. I wanted to thrash in rage, but my arms and legs were too heavy to move.

  "That looks like a blue krait, although I've never seen one with a red head," the doctor man said, looking down at me as he squatted a few feet away. "Maybe that's the best thing that could have happened. That krait's bite will kill her fast. She’ll suffer less than …" He sighed again. "However, the krait is probably contagious now, so you'll have to take her and the snake to the hospital."

  "How?"

  "I don't know. I'm a doctor, not a herpetologist. Maybe you can slip one of our biosafety suits over her and the krait, preferably before the krait decides to leave. We don't want that snake expanding the plague when we almost have it contained."

  While I waited for the Red Angel to take me to Mommy, they put me inside a bag and zipped it closed. Then someone lifted me and put me on a stretcher. I wanted to see where I was going but couldn't open the zipper from the inside, and the man outside wouldn't help.

  "Please open the bag. I want to see where we are going," I pleaded, but he wouldn't.

  "We are taking you to the hospital. They will make you better," he lied. I had heard the doctor say I was going to die.

  "I don't want to go to the hospital. It's the wrong way. I want to go to Heaven, and the Red Angel can't take me if he is tied up," I said. For an adult, he wasn't too smart. I heard the doors close and lay there listening to the sirens wailing. I woke, feeling the stretcher being moved. They wheeled me past people talking
, into a room and lifted me onto a bed.

  "Careful when you open that bag. A blue krait is in there with the Paulus girl," the doctor man's voice said.

  "You're joking …" said a woman's voice.

  "No, I'm not."

  "Mattus, you're an idiot. Why didn't you kill the damn krait? It will kill her."

  "With Stage Four Coaca, she won’t last the night. The krait's poison may be a faster, more merciful way to go … anyway, the krait is probably contagious. I called security. I don’t expect you to handle the snake."

  Footsteps and new voices where I couldn’t see made me angry.

  "All right, let me see the girl. One of you two open the bag and let's see what we've got," a woman said, sounding like Mommy when she was mad at Daddy. The zipper was slowly opened, and an old lady stared down at me. Her round face went from a pleasant smile to surprise to angry.

  "Mattus, she's not in stage four, maybe three, and you left a krait in with her. You're not an idiot, you're incompetent," she said in a low, grim voice. Just then, the Red Angel poked his head out and laid it against my cheek.

  "Red," I demanded, and thought my voice sounded better. "Now! I want to go now."

  Just then, the doctor's face appeared, frowning as he stared down at me. "Renata … I don’t' understand it. She's not now, but when I found her she was in stage four. That krait, maybe? Look at her neck. It definitely bit her, but she certainly doesn't look to be suffering from krait poisoning—no swelling or even redness around the area."

  "You expect me to believe … Mattus, for your sake I hope you're right. If she dies ..." She shook her head slowly. "Security, I want that snake removed, but I don't want it harmed. Do you understand?"

  "We'll need to call someone who knows how to handle—" a male voice.

  "Do whatever it takes, but the snake is not to be harmed ... or you won't work here tomorrow," said Renata's voice. Then the zipper was pulled up and the inside of the bag became a murky darkness.

  "Red stays with me," I shouted, but no one answered, and the room became silent as the door to the room closed. "You better hurry," I said, reaching around and grabbing the angel and pulling him so I looked directly at him. His tongue brushed my nose with a feather-like touch that tickled. "Quit that! Say something! Do something!" I demanded and received another brush of his tongue. I let go of him, and he disappeared into my smock, sliding down my chest and belly, and finally wrapping himself around my leg, where he remained still. I kicked my leg several times—nothing. Tears slid down my cheeks. "Mommy, help. Red won't take me to you."

  I woke when I heard men talking, "Doctor Renata wants the snake removed unharmed," said a male voice. Soon afterward, the zipper was slowly pulled down until the entire bag was open. A thin man with dark skin and a stick in his hand stood staring at my leg.

  "There you are," he said, looking toward my legs.

  "Leave Red alone," I said, trying to sit up and scoot backward, but I fell back with my head spinning. The man ignored me. I tried to hit him, but my arm felt so heavy I could barely lift it.

  "Got you," he half shouted, and I could feel Red being pulled from around my leg. I cried as I saw the man drop Red in a box and quickly close the lid.

  "He belongs to me," I sobbed. The man ignored me, holding the box up and inspecting Red through a glass window along one side. "Beautiful. Definitely a blue krait, but that red head and tail are unique," he said, his voice fading as he walked away. "Mommy," I sobbed over and over again.

  The next two days, nurses came in often, poking me with needles, taking my temperature, and examining me from head to foot. They all wore white suits like the men who had found me. The only good thing was the ice cream and cookies and sweets they brought me when I couldn't finish my tray of food or didn't like the taste. That night, I woke soaking wet again and felt on fire. I screamed, which brought a nurse running into the room.

  "What is it, Anna? Did something scare you?" she asked and then her eyes grew wide, and she ran out the door.

  Sometime later, Doctors Mattus and Renata entered the room along with two nurses.

  "There. That's what she looked like when I saw her lying in the snow. Stage four," Mattus said in an I-told-you-so voice Daddy used when he won an argument with Mommy.

  "Could be she was stage two and now it's progressed to stage four," Renata said so quietly I could barely hear her.

  "Mommy," I moaned. "Where is he? Where is Red? I want Red," I choked out between moans. Sweat was running down my forehead and dripping into my eyes. I screamed.

  "Or that krait is a cure," Mattus said loudly.

  "Security, I want that krait brought to room 211," Renata said into a small phone like Mommy always carried. "I don't care where it was taken. I want it here immediately. Send armed guards if necessary. Use the emergency shuttle. I want it here Stat!" She turned to Mattus. "They have it at some lab across town. I hope you're right."

  The nurses put cold things across my body, arms, and legs, which felt wonderful—like the snow had—and I slept. I jerked awake as I felt Red twist around my neck. His mouth opened wide, showing a white fleshy inside and two long fangs. He struck my neck. I felt the touch but no pain. As he did, I heard gasps.

  "It will kill her."

  "Mommy, I'm coming," I sighed with relief. "About time, Red." I closed my eyes as darkness descended upon me.

  * * *

  I used bad words to Red all day, every day as the days passed and he hadn't taken me to see Mommy, Daddy, and Grandpa. I had lots of visitors, but they didn't talk to me as much as to each other. I was treated like a puppy: sit up, roll over, give me your arm, eat, sleep ...

  "This is a real dilemma," Renata said to the people standing in the room. "We can't take the krait away from Anna because the minute we do the virus begins attacking her organs and she goes critical."

  "So the krait isn't a cure," an older grey-haired man said. He looked grumpy.

  "No. The krait keeps the virus in remission, but it returns shorty after the krait is removed. We tried using Anna's blood with its antibodies, but it hasn't produced remission in those we tested and didn't produce immunity in the animals we gave a vaccine using the antibodies. Anna and the krait seem to have a symbiotic relationship. We think the krait feeds from her blood and in the process injects some poison that counters the virus for a day or two. After that, the virus becomes dominant again unless the krait injects more of the poison."

  "So you’re saying the krait provides her only a temporary cure. Have you tried sharing the krait with others infected with the Coaca Virus?" asked a grey-haired woman in a white jacket.

  "Yes. But the krait isn't hungry so it won't feed. And if we waited until it was hungry and it fed, Anna's virus would be active but the krait wouldn't be hungry for another two days. I don't know how long her heart could take the strain of repeated activation of the virus. It's academic since her krait doesn't appear interested in anyone except her."

  "And it's a nasty creature—" a young security guard said, holding up his hand. It served him right. He was one of the men who took Red away from me.

  "Victor is right. It's bitten several people over the months. We have antivenin available, but that is a nasty experience," Mattus interjected before the guard could continue.

  "That implies one krait per patient. Not very efficient, given the virus sometimes infects hundreds before we can contain it," the grey-haired man said. "And we don't know how long a krait lives."

  "True. We need to find some red-headed kraits and study them, since we can't have Anna's. Maybe we could breed them, or better yet, duplicate the toxins or organisms they inject to counter the disease," Renata said with a shrug.

  "And it's time Anna was released from the hospital. She needs a normal life and to begin schooling. You can't expect her to grow up here or in some lab. You've had her here for more than six months. That's enough," Adela said. She was a nice lady and visited regularly. She read me stories, played games with me, and answered my que
stions like Mommy used to. She had even explained that Red wasn't an angel who could take me to Mommy but necessary to keep me alive. That gave me a headache. If I died, wouldn't I go to where Mommy was staying? And didn't that mean that Red was keeping me from seeing her?

  "You're right, Advocate Adela. She needs to be monitored, but she doesn't have to be here for that. We'll leave it to you to find her a suitable home, so long as you coordinate with us so we know where she is and we can schedule regular checkups," the grey-haired man said.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Growing up

  Several days later, Adela came to take me from the hospital. She brought a small bag where we packed the clothes she had bought me over the months. After saying goodbye to everyone that stopped in as Adela got me ready to leave, she took me out to a strange black skimmer. I felt the urge to turn around and run back to the hospital that had been my home. It felt safe, whereas the skimmer felt scary. I’d never been in or even close to one before. Where would it take me? Would I like it there? Could I leave if I didn't? Did I have a choice? I froze in front of the open door.

  "Anna, I know it's frightening leaving the hospital, but I promise you'll like your new home. There will be other children to play with and for company," Adela said in her soft comforting voice. But it didn't sound like something I would like. I was an only child and wasn't used to having other children around. I preferred adults. Just then Red emerged from my shirt and wrapped himself around my neck with his head lying on my shoulder and pointing in the direction of the open door. I reached up and rubbed his body and somehow felt better. Red never answered me, but I found touching and talking to him helped relax me. Feeling a little better, I stepped in, decided on a seat next to a window, and sat. Adela came and sat next to me. The door closed and the vehicle rose into the air. I took a gasping breath and my hand went to Red as I watched the hospital grow smaller as we rose higher and higher. I wanted to scream but couldn't while struggling to breathe.