Madman's Monster

by Michael Louis Weinberger

  "He's one of them," the doctor sounded as though he was on the verge of panicking.

  Pollard seemed unimpressed, "So he works for Dimitri, so what? He practically said as much and we knew they'd be coming at some point."

  The doctor shook his head vigorously, "No, he's not one of Dimitri's people."

  Pollard looked confused, "How can you know that?"

  "The blood of Dimitri's people doesn't look any different than ours." The doctor pointed at the blood spot on the floor, "Blood that appears that color is a side effect of having been on a particular type of serum for decades. I spent a significant amount of time working on donors with that particular color blood. I'd know it anywhere."

  Pollard looked down to the blood splatter and then at me before asking, "So who is he?"

  Doctor Whelan fidgeted with his hands for a moment, then reached in his pocket and pulled out a large syringe.

  Pollard immediately reacted, "Wait, we need to know who he is and how many others might be with him."

  The doctor checked the level of whatever fluid might have been in the syringe and shook his head, "No, we're done here. Get your men to load as much as they can and then get out as quickly as possible."

  "What?" Pollard was clearly not used to being in the dark and not in complete control of the situation.

  On the far wall came the sound of a phone ringing. It's electronic tone beeped loud enough to break the doctor's concentration and he turned, unsure of what to do first.

  Pollard turned in the direction of the phone, "I heard you ask your people not to disturb us."

  The doctor nodded and, begrudgingly, pocketed the syringe and walked into the shadows of the room in the direction of the ringing phone.

  He picked up the receiver, "What is it?" and then went quiet as he listened to the voice on the other end.

  When the doctor spoke again he was shouting into the phone, "Get some people out there now! And set up some kind of perimeter defense around the outside of the lab, in other words do your damn job!"

  There was the sound of the doctor slamming the receiver down on to it's cradle and then his footsteps hurried over, "We're out of time! We need to get what we need and get out as fast as possible."

  Pollard was already moving to the door, "What? Why?"

  "Motion sensors in the jungle are going crazy. Maybe fifty or more unknowns headed our way."

  Pollard didn't argue, but turned back to look at me, "What about him?"

  The doctor didn't stop moving toward the door, "No time for the drugs now. Just shoot him."

  Chapter 53

  The camp had come alive with activity and Timberland's group called out orders to multiple squads dividing their company of mercenaries into two basic teams. An offensive unit was going out to head off the incoming threat, while a second team was given selective fall back and defensive positions, in case the first team couldn't stem the oncoming tide of hostiles.

  The mercenaries moved with experienced precision and were about to deploy into the jungle when the first explosions of gunfire caught them much sooner than they had expected. Blood erupted, as men began to contort and fall from the projectile’s impacting their flesh and any coordination the mercenaries had dissolved. The location of the gunshots, obscured by the surrounding jungle, subsequently gave the mercenaries little indication of which direction the fire was coming. The men who stopped to look for the attackers were gunned down while those who instantly and desperately scrambled for cover found themselves pinned down.

  It was also immediately clear that they weren't under an attack by a modern assault team as there didn't seem to be any of the quick repeated shots that would indicate semi-automatic, or even the automatic machine gunfire. Unfortunately, any initial confidence this might have instilled in the mercenaries never manifested itself, due to the fact that the shots had an extremely high degree of accuracy. Some of the men tried to return fire, but without any definitive targets there was no way to tell if the rounds they haphazardly sprayed into the jungle were meeting with any success.

  Panic took over and, as mercenaries are want to do when the chips are down, their ranks broke. They ran for the only solid structure in the camp, which was the concrete walled lab in the center of the development. Some of the mercenaries who tried to make a run for it were literally cut to shreds by sniper bullets that struck them from seemingly every direction. Their bodies twisted and jerked wildly as they were hit by the individual rounds from the left, right and behind, before their bodies fell lifelessly to the ground.

  Three figures broke from the jungle and ran after the retreating mercenaries. They fired no weapons, but moved with such speed that they caught the diminishing troops in a matter of seconds. Glints of light flashed, and blood flowed from multiple lethal wounds, as some of the men were rendered apart by unforgiving steel while others were crushed under the fist and heel of the giant who struck with enough force to splinter bone with his every blow.

  The only thing the mercenaries could appreciate about their attackers was the merciful swiftness of the death they dealt, and in a matter of minutes only the three figures of Lei, Chris and Zach were still standing in the compound.

  "Well that went better than expected." Chris was ambling around and still looking for someone to fight.

  Lei was checking the bodies, as was Zach, while Chris watched them curiously, "What are you looking for?"

  "These are all grunts," Lei called back.

  Chris frowned, "What does that mean?"

  Lei cursed, "It means these aren't the men we fought earlier at the village."

  A voice called back from the jungle in Thai. Zach shouted back an answer when a knife slammed into his back and sent him sprawling to the ground. Chris and Lei spun to see five men and two women walking out of the jungle where they had apparently taken cover during the firefight.

  Chris moved to Zach, "Who the hell are they?"

  Lei shook her head, "I don't know exactly, but we caught them in the process of attacking the villagers a couple days ago."

  Chris inspected Zach's back, "The knife was stopped by his shoulder blade, don't think it penetrated beyond it. Painful as hell, but he'll be fine.

  ***

  Less than two miles away Larson and Rogers sat in their Jeep. They had arrived and Rogers was shaking his head, as he stared at the screen of a laptop that was showing real time satellite images over a part of the jungle canopy.

  "It has to be them," Rogers said as he touched the screen where the thermal imaging pictures were being relayed to their screen. , "Only a fire fight looks like that on thermal."

  Larson nodded his head in agreement, "So what do we do?"

  "I don't know about you, but I don't want any part of whatever death bugs they were developing out there."

  "You mean the biologic?"

  "Damn right I do."

  "So you just want us to sit here?"

  "Nope," Rogers tapped a few keys on the keyboard and hit "Enter". He then closed the laptop and reached for the key in the Jeep ignition.

  Larson grabbed his hand, "What the hell are you doing?"

  Rogers wrenched his hand away and then slammed the back of his fist into Larson's nose. Blood burst from his nostrils and eyes as the nasal bone shattered under the force of the impact. It took a few seconds for Larson to shake off the pain and disorientation that the blow had delivered, but once his vision had cleared he found himself looking into the barrel of Roger's 9mm Browning sidearm.

  "I'm sorry Major, but you saw what we're up against. This isn't about recovery anymore. It's about containment."

  "What?" Larson's voice sounded as though he was in the throes of a terrible sinus cold as he tried to speak, "What did you just do?"

  Rogers frowned, "I did what needed to be done. Think about it. Can you actually say you would allow any chance for that biological horror those fools developed to escape? To escape into the hands of God knows who?"

  Larson understood the protocol, but c
ouldn't believe that Rogers would so be so willing to sacrifice Zach and the others.

  "Pat, you can't just..."

  "I can and did. It's out of our hands now."

  Larson stopped fumbling at his nose and looked at the man that had been one of his closest teammates back in the day, "What's out of your hands?"

  “In fifteen minutes the Navy is going to launch a series of air strikes on the exact location where the thermal revealed the gunfight. They will destroy the jungle canopy and all standing structures that remain. After that we have another fifteen minutes to be at least five miles from that spot."

  Larson's brain suddenly clicked in to what was about to happen, "Oh my God. The Navy is going to drop a MOP on a friendly nation?!"

  At 20 feet long, a massive 15 tons in weight, and packing over 5,300 pounds of explosives the MOP or Massive Ordinance Penetrator bomb can penetrate up to 200 feet into the earth before detonating its ordinance. This made it not only the largest, non-nuclear, bomb ever created, but the ultimate “bunker-buster” as well.

  Rogers laughed, "We already made our deal with the Thai government as a part of a contingency plan." Rogers stepped from the Jeep and started to walk around the front of the vehicle all the while keeping the gun trained on Larson. "If it's any consolation, it's a relatively surgical strike. Everything located underground, including the stored pathogens will be vaporized by the blast and then covered in God only knows how many tons of earth as the ground settles back down afterward."

  Larson found himself asking, "What about the collateral damage?"

  "Our experts say it will be minimal, although there will, of course, be some. Oh, and you will probably want to know that the concept of dropping the MOP on foreign soil will be covered by the story of a terrorist cell that blew itself up while trying to transport a stolen nuke through the Thai jungle. Back home the public will cry out for us to increase our vigilance against the terrorist threat, now that they suddenly seem to have access to nukes and such." Rogers smiled ironically, "A win-win for the good guys."

  "And I suppose you and your new friends in the CIA are the good guys?"

  Rogers rolled his eyes as he stood in front of the passenger door, "Oh knock it off. You know damn well we're the good guys. You just don't like the idea of leaving anyone behind. It's against your nature. I understand and respect that about you, always have, but now we aren't dealing with the typical battlefield scenario you trained for."

  Larson's face was starting to contort in anger, "Bullshit."

  "No Major, no bullshit. Think about it for a second. If you were sent in to destroy the biologic stockpile and had to sacrifice yourself for the mission to be a success, then would you do it."

  Larson didn't answer and simply glared at Rogers.

  Rogers nodded, "That's what I thought. Now tell me, would any of us from the old unit?" Rogers waited and when Larson kept quiet he answered for him, "Of course we would. Wouldn't even have a second thought about it either. Well that's what's happening now. Your new friends are making the noblest sacrifice they can to the world, even if they don't know they're doing it."

  Rogers opened Larson's door with his free hand, "Move into the driver's seat."

  Larson hesitated, but he knew the truth of what Rogers was saying...even if he hated it, and begrudgingly slid into the driver's seat.

  Rogers climbed into the passenger seat, keeping the gun trained on Larson as he moved, "Okay, start the engine and get us as far away from here as you can. The clock is ticking you know, and I'd prefer not to get caught in range of the air strike if I can help it."

  ***

  Lei tried the door to the lab, but found it locked.

  Chris noticed and said, "Probably a good thing. They undoubtedly have the door covered by anyone and everyone inside."

  Lei shot a frown at him in frustration, but knew he was right, "So what do we do?"

  Chris turned to look at the quiet standoff that was happening just behind them. On one side were seven expertly trained and unorthodox mercenaries while on the other side was the singular entity that was Zach. Chris looked at the big man's back and could feel the strength flowing from him. The wound to the shoulder blade had barely bled and, as painful as a broken shoulder blade should have been, Zach showed no signs of feeling the pain. He stood tall and confident, as he faced down the group that milled restlessly across the clearing from him.

  Chris turned back to Lei, "What do we do?" Chris reached for his rifle and pulled the clip to check his remaining ammunition. Finding it empty he sighed, "Well, there goes the easy way," and dropped the rifle to the ground. Chris stepped forward to stand next to Zach, reached behind his back and pulled his Karambit blade from the special sheath that was tied to his belt.

  Lei smiled and her eyes widened at the prospect of what was about to happen. From a special holster attached to her side, which was normally meant for spare clips of ammunition, she removed a small metal box. She opened it and removed a small vial of liquid, carefully unscrewing the cap. The cap was a makeshift paintbrush and Lei dabbed a small amount of the liquid first onto the fingernails of her right hand then switched hands and repeated the procedure.

  Chris glanced away from the small group of mercenaries in front of them to see what Lei was doing and laughed, "Yeah, good time to make sure your nails are done up right.”

  Lei winked at him, "Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."

  Chris rolled his eyes, "Sure. You ready?"

  Lei's smile spread across her face, "Bet your ass I am, but that still leaves us with the small problem of the locked door...assuming we survive of course."

  Chris shrugged his shoulders and watched the group pacing back and forth, brushing up against one another as they moved, all of their hands held pairs of similar combat knives, "One catastrophe at a time, right?"

  Chris didn't turn to face Zach but he slapped one hand on the big man's chest, "Ready big guy?"

  Zach didn't make a sound or even flinch and the quiet made Chris look up to Zach face. The giant's eyes were so red that there were no signs of his pupils in his sockets. It reminded Chris of the black eyes of a shark, but red and just as terrifying.

  The without any warning Zach lunged forward and sprinted toward the mercenaries. A collective shout arose from the group as three charged forward while two-darted left and two more darted right in an attempt to encircle their enemies. Chris watched as Zach closed the distance with the three mercenaries while Lei had darted left to prevent the two others that had bolted in that direction from getting behind Zach. Chris wasted no more time and ran right in a mirror image of what Lei was doing. Zach met the three mercenaries head on as each extended one of their knives toward various vital parts of his anatomy, but the big man hunched down lower as he ran and, at the last possible moment, launched his body forward, leaping in a near horizontal lunge into the trio with tremendous force and speed. His shoulder hit the first mercenary before the man could alter his course and with enough force to shatter the man's spine. The sound of the backbone shearing apart was like a gun going off and seemed to shake the surrounding trees. The mercenary's body folded around Zach's shoulder as if were made of twine instead of flesh and bone and was lifted off his feet and carried along with Zach's leap. The other two men staggered, stopping their forward momentum, and darted out of the way as Zach's body flew past them. Zach rolled with the impact as the mercenary on his shoulder fell away limply, either disabled or dead...didn't matter which as either option meant he was out of the fight.

  Lei caught up to the two she had pursued, and blocked their path. Initially they were wary, but when they saw that she was unarmed their courage returned a thousand fold and they split up to attack from the front and rear simultaneously. Lei let out a laugh as the first one charged in with combat knives waving in the air in front of her face. Lei instantly realized it was a mere distraction, albeit a lethal one if she didn't take care to avoid the blades, as the woman that had circled behind her came in low and tr
ied to cut the back of her legs. Lei let her come and dodged a right to left swipe of the combat blade that flew horizontally in front of her eyes and let herself fall backward to the jungle floor as the woman's knife sliced the air cleanly where the back of her thighs had been.

  The female mercenary was so surprised by the move and the lack of impact with her knife that she lost her balance and had to roll forward to keep from falling on her face. Her partner realized what she was doing and jumped over her rolling form and lunged forward with the tip of his knife like a fencer. Lei had rolled backward and came up to her feet as the man had jumped over his partner and she reversed her direction and shot forward a split second sooner than the man was able to get his footing. She moved in from a low point and brought her right hand up, her fingers in a claw shape as her fingernails sank a centimeter into the flesh of his neck and then tore through the surface of his skin until they exited the far side of his neck.

  Blood flowed in copious amounts as the man spun away from her. Lei made no attempt to pursue him as she turned her concentration on to the woman. The man covered his neck with his hand and glared in surprise at Lei. He lifted his hand away to see it coated in a thin layer of his blood, but realized instantly that there wasn't enough blood to indicate his jugular vein or carotid artery had been damaged by the attack. The woman came out of her roll and spun back to face Lei. Her face turned from a mask of combat rage to one of surprise as she saw Lei's face spattered in small droplets of blood that she was joyfully wiping away with her hand and then licking off her palm like a cat. Seeing no wound on Lei, the woman's head swiveled to her partner who was just looking up from his hand.

  "I'm okay," he said, "get h..."

  The man's voice caught as his chest suddenly seized and his throat felt like it had collapsed upon itself. His eyes flew open in panic as he realized he couldn't get the breath of air he had just pulled into his lungs back out again. The woman stared as the veins in her partner's neck bulged with the effort of his attempt to push out the air that was trapped inside his chest as he fell to his knees. By this time the man's face had turned bright red and was now darkening to purple as he tried to let out a scream, but only the slightest of hisses made its way out of his mouth.