Warriors from the Ashes

by William W. Johnstone

  Five seconds later, the grenade exploded, the heat from the phosphorus set off the other munitions, and the bunker exploded, sending slugs and shrapnel slicing through the surrounding jungle with a tremendous explosion of fire and sound, flames shooting a hundred feet into the air.

  Bergman and some of the other officers, who rarely went into town, along with everyone else remaining on the base, came running from their houses to try and fight the blaze.

  When Jersey and Anna heard the explosion, they waited for the guards that were always in front of the buildings to run toward the disturbance. Then they slipped through the area marked OFF LIMITS, and crept up to the large, stucco building covered with signs saying ABSOLUTELY NO ADMITTANCE.

  Jersey took a pick-set out of her pocket and went to work on the locks on the door. It took her less than two minutes to open the door, and she and Anna slipped inside the darkened room.

  They pulled small flashlights from their pockets, and proceeded through the maze of rooms until they came to what looked like a laboratory in the rear of the building.

  The room was filled with long counters covered with bottles and Bunsen burners and microscopes, all the equipment of a well-appointed college chemistry lab back in the States.

  “Jesus,” Anna whispered, “they must have spent a fortune on this stuff.”

  “You look around here and see if you can figure out what they’re working on. I’ll roam around and see if I can find an office with some papers that might tell us more,” Jersey said.

  Anna continued to search the room, looking in all the microscopes, but finding nothing that would give her a clue as to what was going on.

  Jersey went through the house room by room, until she came to another locked door made of metal. “This looks interesting,” she mumbled to herself as she once again got out her picks.

  When she opened the door, she noted it was surrounded by a rubber seal. “Uh-oh,” she said, “this doesn’t look good.” The only times she’d ever seen doors like that were in biological warfare centers.

  As she stepped into the darkened room, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stir. Something was definitely wrong here.

  She flicked on her flashlight, and almost gagged at what she saw through a large glass partition in the rear of the room.

  Six bodies were lying on cots. Two of the people were obviously dead, the others as close to death as it was possible to be and still be breathing. Their bodies were covered with sores and pustules, and seemed to be rotting away as she watched.

  She quickly turned away from the grisly sight and looked around the rest of the room. In a corner was a large commercial-type refrigerator, also with a lock on it.

  She knelt before the door and again picked the lock, opening the door to find it filled to capacity with bottles of murky liquid, the tops sealed with paraffin.

  “Shit,” she whispered, “this must be the bad stuff that caused whatever it was in that other room.”

  She reached into the back of the refrigerator and plucked a bottle from the rearmost row, hoping it wouldn’t be missed, then relocked the door and left the room, relocking that door behind her also.

  She found Anna in the lab, still trying to find some clue as to what the men were working on.

  “Anna, come on, let’s get out of here,” Jersey said. “I’ve got the goods.”

  “What is it?” Anna asked.

  “I don’t know, but it causes a hell of a reaction in whoever is exposed to it,” Jersey answered.

  They went out the front door, and were in the process of locking it behind them when a guard appeared out of the darkness and attacked them. He dove against Jersey, slamming her against the door she was locking. As he raised his hand with a knife in it, Anna chopped across the back of his neck, breaking one of his vertebrae and killing him instantly.

  As he slumped to the ground, Jersey turned around with a look of horror on her face.

  “Don’t worry, Jerse,” Anna reassured her. “I took him out.”

  Jersey’s face blanched white as she looked at a wet stain on the front of her shirt. “That’s not what I’m worried about,” she said in a hoarse voice.

  “What is it?” Anna asked, getting spooked by the fear she saw in Jersey’s eyes.

  Jersey bent and placed the dog tags with Mingo Higgins’s name on them in the dead guard’s hand, then looked up at Anna.

  “I think we’ve just loosed the hounds of hell!” Jersey said through a throat closing with dread.

  TWELVE

  Claire put down the microphone and turned to General Bradley Stevens, Jr., with a grin on her face.

  “That was Perro Loco. The equipment and matériel we sent finally arrived. He’s unloaded it and is in the process of beginning his assault toward Mexico City.”

  “Have you heard anything from Bruno Bottger?” Herb Knoff asked from his chair in front of her desk.

  She shook her head. “No, but I’m expecting a call any day now. When we last spoke, he was in the final process of training some new recruits. He should be about ready to add his men to those of Loco’s for the move against Mexico City.”

  “How are you going to set up their cooperation?” Stevens asked. “You know they’re both egomaniacs. They’ll probably end up fighting each other more than the Mexicans.”

  Claire leaned back in her chair, an enigmatic smile on her face. “I thought I’d set it up as a contest.”

  “Contest?” Herb asked.

  “Yes. I’ll simply suggest to Loco and Bottger that they keep their respective troops under their own control, and that they should each take a different route to Mexico City, one up the coast and one inland. That way, the first troops into the city will get the majority of the spoils and credit for taking the city.”

  “That’s brilliant, Madame President,” Stevens said, a smile of appreciation on his face. “It also serves the additional purpose of keeping the two leaders from getting too close personally, and will prevent them from having the time to conspire against you.”

  Claire nodded. “Oh, I have no illusions, General,” she said. “I’m quite certain both of these men have designs on betraying me eventually. They both have too much ambition to be satisfied with merely ruling Mexico.”

  “If you believe they plan to betray you, why use them?” Stevens asked.

  “They are merely a means to an end, Brad,” she answered. “Attack dogs to take some of the heat off our troops and keep us from having to divide our forces in our attack on Raines and the SUSA.”

  “But, isn’t that dangerous?”

  “Life is dangerous, Brad. I’m counting on the two of them destroying each other long before they can become a threat to us here in the U.S.”

  “And if they don’t?” Herb asked.

  “The fighting to take Mexico City will weaken both of them, and the subsequent fight against Raines’s southern border will weaken them even further,” she answered, “if not destroy them completely. What is left should be easy pickings for our forces after we destroy Ben Raines.”

  “Why are you so sure we’ll beat him this time?” Herb asked.

  She glared at him. “Having doubts about my plan, Herby?” she asked, venom in her voice.

  “No, it’s just that every time we’ve gone after Raines, he’s managed to survive. I don’t want to underestimate how difficult this is going to be.”

  “I’m not underestimating the bastard,” she said irritably. “Whatever I think of him personally, I have come to believe he is a brilliant field commander when it comes to waging war. But”—she held up her hand—“never, in the history of combat, has a country been able to successfully prosecute a war on two fronts. Even the Germans in World War II couldn’t do it.”

  “Speaking of the second front, when do you want our forces to attack the SUSA’s northern borders?” Stevens asked.

  “I think we should now begin to move them into position, very slowly so as not to attract too much attention, but hold off our offensiv
e until Raines is forced to commit some of his battalions to his south, probably after Mexico City itself comes under attack.”

  “Will do, Madame President.”

  After the general left the room, Claire turned to Herb, a gleam in her eye. “Well, Herby, now that business is taken care of, do you have any suggestions for how we can while away the time until Bottger contacts us?”

  Herb smiled, and glanced toward the door to Claire’s bedroom on the opposite wall. “Oh, I think I can come up with something, if I’m pressed.”

  Claire began to unbutton her blouse. “Consider yourself pressed,” she said with a lascivious grin.

  Sergei Bergman stood at attention before Bruno Bottger’s desk, his neck red with worry about how the man would receive the news he was about to give him.

  “Yes, sir,” Bergman said. “I’m certain the fire and explosion in the ammunition bunker was a diversion so the laboratory area could be broken into and searched.”

  “Do you think this ties in to the killing of the two guards several days ago?” Bottger asked, leaning forward with his elbows on his desk.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Go on, Sergei,” Bottger said, leaning back in his chair and reaching into the humidor on his desk for a cigar.

  “Although the scientists say they can find nothing disturbed in the lab, the guard that was killed at the front door did have a set of dog tags clenched in his fist.”

  “So, you think that possibly the guard attacked the burglars before they managed to get inside the facility?” Bottger asked.

  “Yes, sir, that is my presumption.”

  “And who did the dog tags belong to?”

  “A recent trainee named Mingo Higgins.”

  “His history?”

  “He was involved in the abortive rebellion against President Osterman’s rule. When she came back, he was forced to leave the country and seek other employment with us.”

  Bottger pursed his lips around the butt of the cigar, then removed it and stared at the red-hot ash on the end. “And did it not occur to you that a man who was at least sympathetic to Ben Raines and the SUSA might be a danger to us?” Bottger asked, steel in his voice.

  “No, sir. The man’s record is replete with instances of cruelty and criminality that make him completely unsuitable in Ben Raines’s eyes.”

  Bottger slammed his hand down on his desk and stood up. “Records can be doctored, you fool!”

  Bergman dropped his eyes to the carpet in front of him. “Yes, sir, I’m well aware of that. But this Higgins was given no access to sensitive material. In fact, he was in training as a simple foot soldier.”

  “Even a flea can cause a dog trouble, Sergei,” Bottger said. “Are you sure this man acted alone?”

  “No, sir. In fact, I would be surprised if he didn’t have accomplices.”

  “Are you taking measures to ferret out these traitors?” Bottger asked as he turned his back and walked to stare out of his window.

  “Yes, sir. I’m personally reviewing all the records of the recruits that have come to us since we moved here.”

  Bottger turned around, the cigar sticking out of the corner of his mouth. “Sergei, I want results on this, and I want them fast. Pick up Higgins and take him down to interrogation.”

  Bottger cut his eyes to Rudolf Hessner, who, as usual, was standing in the corner of the room observing everything that went on. “Rudolf, I want you to personally go to the lab and interrogate the scientists. Make them go over everything in the lab to make sure nothing was disturbed.”

  “Yes, sir,” Hessner said, nodding his head quickly.

  “If the secret of the plague we’re working on gets out, it could ruin my entire plan to take over the North American continent.”

  “I will make sure nothing was taken, Herr Bottger,” Hessner said as he walked rapidly out the door.

  THIRTEEN

  As soon as she realized she was contaminated with the biological weapon they’d found in Bottger’s lab, Jersey stepped away from Anna and held out her hands.

  “Stay as far away from me as you can, Anna,” she said, pointing to the stain on the front of her fatigues.

  “Is that . . . ?” Anna asked, a look of horror on her face as she stared at the dark spot.

  Jersey nodded. “Yeah. The good news is, whatever the nasty stuff is those bastards are working on in that lab, we now have a sample of it.”

  “But that means . . .”

  Jersey nodded, and began to move at speed through the jungle toward a stream that ran along the edge of the training fields. “It means I’m probably going to get it,” Jersey replied shortly, her voice showing none of the terror she felt.

  Anna followed Jersey through the thick undergrowth as close as she dared.

  Finally, when they reached the sluggishly moving water, Jersey stripped out of her clothes, even removing her dog tags, and threw them in the water.

  “What are you doing?” Anna asked, puzzled by Jersey’s strange actions.

  “Remember the phrase they taught us in Biological Warfare class? ‘The solution to pollution is dilution.’ That means the only chance I’ve got to prevent this BW from spreading throughout the entire camp is to dilute whatever bug is in there with plenty of water.”

  As she finished speaking, Jersey slipped off the bank and into the stream.

  “Cover me with your side arm,” she called softly to Anna, looking around for crocs as she scrubbed at her skin under the water to try to wash off the chemical solution, though she knew in her heart it was impossible to decontaminate herself in such a manner.

  Anna pulled her Beretta out and searched the water for any signs of life. “You think that’s going to work?” she asked.

  Jersey shook her head as she climbed from the stream, water coursing down her naked body. “Naw, it won’t help me keep from getting sick, but it may keep you guys from getting it.”

  She took off through the jungle, still naked. “Come on, we haven’t got long before they discover that body in the lab. We’ve got to get the hell out of here.”

  When they got back to the base barracks, Anna slipped inside and quietly woke Coop, Harley, and Hammer, whispering to them to come outside.

  She led them around the side of the building to where Jersey was waiting, standing naked in the shadows.

  “What the . . .” Harley said as they saw her condition.

  “Keep your distance,” Jersey said. “I’ve been contaminated with whatever biological weapon these guys are working on. Our only chance to prevent them from using it is to get me back to Santos and the ship before I die so the doc can use me to make some sort of vaccine.”

  Coop noticed her shivering in the cool night air and walked over to her, slipping his T-shirt off.

  “Coop, stay back!” she said.

  “Screw that,” he said, his lips curling in his trademark grin. “You’re cold and you’re naked. Here,” he said, handing her his shirt.

  After she slipped it on, he stood there with his arm around her, trying to warm her and stop her chills.

  She looked up at him. “But you’ll get it too,” she said softly.

  He shrugged. “Then Doc’ll have two specimens to work with. It’ll double his chance of getting enough blood to make a vaccine.”

  Harley and Hammer stepped over to Anna and asked her what had happened at the lab. She told them everything, including the fact they’d left Mingo Higgins’s dog tags on the dead guard.

  Harley nodded. “Good. That may give us a few extra hours. As soon as they discover those tags, they’re gonna come for Higgins.”

  “While they’re wasting time interrogating him, we can be making tracks for Santos,” Hammer added.

  Harley glanced at Coop and Jersey. “Hammer and I will gather up what clothes and weapons we can for the trip and we’ll meet you out here in five minutes.”

  “It’s gonna take us a day or two, so bring some rations too,” Coop advised.

  Harley nodded, and he a
nd Hammer and Anna disappeared into the barracks.

  After they were gone, Coop squeezed Jersey’s shoulder. “How long do you think we have before we get sick?”

  “Most BWs are designed to work fast. I’d say we’ll begin to experience our first symptoms within twenty-four hours.”

  “Any idea just what it is we’re dealing with here?” he asked.

  “No, there wasn’t a clue in the lab. But,” she added with a shiver, “you can bet it’ll be bad.”

  “You think we’ll be able to make it twenty-five miles through the jungle if we get sick?”

  “We’ll have to,” she answered. Then she looked up at him and caressed the side of his face with her hand. “Coop, thanks,” she said.

  “For what?” he asked, a surprised tone in his voice.

  “For the shirt, and for being with me,” she said.

  Even in the moonlight, she could see him blush.

  “Oh, well, I couldn’t have those horny bastards looking at you like that. It wasn’t right.”

  She smiled. “I noticed you didn’t turn your eyes away.”

  He glanced down at where her breasts pushed against the thin cloth of his T-shirt, her nipples clearly visible.

  “Hell, no,” he said. “I’m a gentleman, but I’m not completely stupid.”

  She looked over her shoulder and saw no one watching them. She turned her body into his and put her arms around him. “Did you like what you saw?” she asked, her face turned up to his, her breasts pushing against his chest.

  As he returned her gaze, she felt his answer as his body responded to her closeness.

  “More than anything I’ve ever seen,” he said, leaning his head down to kiss her gently on the lips.