Spore Series | Book 5 | Torch

by Soward, Kenny

  Of course, a lot depended on how he felt about that. It was probably a question for tomorrow, or next week, or even next month. With the cure in sight, they had all the time in the world.

  She hugged the soldier tightly, relishing the moment. It was still way too early for them, but she smiled a secret smile, hoping her blossoming dreams might come true.

  Chapter 23

  Lexi, Little Rock, Arkansas

  Lexi opened her eyes to the sounds of light rain pattering on the top of the van. She stretched her lean body on the hard mattress and curled her toes, twisting back and forth like a cat before settling onto her right side.

  It had only taken her a minute to figure out that the table and bench seats could be converted to a bed. Since that time, she’d used it every night as she followed her prey south into Arkansas.

  She laid there staring at the van wall in a pair of shorts and her tight-fitting sports bra. She absently tapped at the plastic visor of her mask. It was getting old, wearing it. Her face and eyes itched, and she was tired of taking an hour to sterilize a hotel restroom, to eat a meal, or take a simple drink of water.

  She’d taken the RV for granted, and she felt like a dog pursuing it when she should have been inside with Burke on their way to California.

  She smirked. For all she knew, California was a myth. Sure, Burke had allowed her to video conference with her son, but that didn’t mean he was out west or even alive anymore.

  All she could do was keep up the pursuit.

  Lexi replayed the last few day’s events in her mind. She’d followed the RV to Dayton, watching as Jessie and Bryant spoke with the home’s owner before hitting the road again.

  She’d briefly considered stopping in and questioning the man who lived there. He was likely a relative of hers. Possibly her brother. But the RV left in haste, so Lexi had regretfully followed it out of the subdivision and back to the road.

  On the way to Memphis, the black RV had taken a detour through Dyersburg only to turn back south after finding the bridge blocked. It had been a surprising move until they’d finally pulled into Memphis and been assaulted by raiders there.

  The Stryker’s appearance had shocked her. The subsequent battle between the armored truck and construction vehicles dropped her jaw.

  Ultimately, she needed Burke to survive, so she’d added some cover fire to the mix. They probably saw her, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was her son. The small, round face she hadn’t seen in almost a month. His sudden and unexpected disappearance from her Miami apartment just as the spore cloud hit the city. And after escaping that hell, the message from Burke telling her to report to Redpine.

  She’d been devastated.

  Lexi shook her head and sat up. The fact that she hadn’t seen Burke’s treachery coming filled her with a resentful fire. She should have moved to Vietnam like she’d planned ages ago, but the lure of beautiful Miami had kept her trapped in its grip. She’d done two jobs for the man before he’d deemed her a necessary asset. Then he’d taken her son.

  That was all behind her, and all that mattered was finding him. In hindsight, Burke’s goons had likely saved Pedro’s life, getting him out of the city ahead of the chaos.

  Lexi pulled on her fatigue pants and boots, tied them tight, and found her light jacket. She climbed into the driver’s seat and started the van, enjoying the throaty grumble of its engine. Surprisingly powerful, but with the handling of a pontoon boat, she’d grown fond of driving it.

  She pulled from beneath the grove of trees and edged onto the service road. Turning south, she wove between the crowding branches and their pale leaves. The gray fungus hung down like swamp moss in a bog.

  A mysterious feeling of peace passed over her, and Lexi’s hands relaxed on the loose and playful wheel. At first, she’d been reluctant to return to Redpine, not sure if her presence would cause Burke’s handlers to grow more paranoid. Later, it seemed like the best idea in the world. If she hung around long enough, someone would make a mistake.

  Plus, she couldn’t live outside in the van forever.

  She lifted a radio from a cup holder, switched to the correct channel, and pressed the talk button. “Redpine, this is Lexi. I’m coming in. Repeat, I’m coming in.”

  She tossed the radio back in its holder and turned the custom van onto the paved road leading to the fortress facility. She hit the incline hard, punching the gas and listening to the vanishing echoes between the stone walls.

  Lexi lifted her eyes and saw the guards staring down at her, probably wondering who drove the wicked-looking van.

  Turned out the old man had pretty good taste after all.

  She stopped inside the round courtyard with its two massive doors. A fleeting moment passed when she thought they might remain shut to her. Maybe Jessie and Bryant had somehow gained control of the facility and barred her entry, though they couldn’t be certain she was connected to Redpine at all.

  And then she heard a loud click as the doors unlocked and opened smoothly on well-oiled hinges. With a grin, she cruised through a short, dark tunnel. The engine became muffled in the enclosed space, but it grew again when she entered the courtyard.

  The rough-hewn motor pool yawned around her. The lights cast a paltry yellow glow on the gray walls and floor. She spotted the blue and black busses on her right and the Stryker parked on her left next to Redpine’s Humvees and Jeeps.

  She turned the wheel and pulled in beside the armored truck. She put the van in park, removed the keys, and rested her head against the seat.

  “It’s good to be home,” she murmured. Then she popped the door and rolled out.

  As she walked to the van’s rear, she stretched her torso and cracked her neck. Her body was stiff from fighting and being on the road, sleeping on the uncomfortable mattress. She popped the back doors and removed two duffel bags, slinging them over her shoulder.

  The weighty weapons bent her sideways before she hoisted them higher and straightened. Lexi stepped to the Stryker, marveling at the fire-scored armor and big tires. The mounted gun had punched through that bulldozer’s blade in an impressive display of power.

  She stood by a security keypad on the rear door that glowed faintly blue in the dark lot. Then she typed in 1, 2, 3, 4, and Enter. The pad turned red, indicating a wrong pass code.

  She clicked her tongue. “Too bad.”

  Lexi strolled confidently to the entrance. No one greeted her, and her arrival brought no welcoming committee or fanfare. She put her palm against the hand reader and spread her fingers wide. The doors clicked sharply and slid open.

  She entered the clean lobby with its big Redpine emblem on the wall. She stepped over to it and ran her dirty hand across the tree, making a smudge on the pristine surface.

  Then she turned to the side door leading to the decontamination chambers. She separated her things and put them in the appropriate bins. She stripped off her grimy fatigues and undergarments and tossed them into hampers.

  She strolled through white chambers of foam sprays and cold rinses. She hugged herself, gasping as goosebumps rose across her shoulders and thighs. She welcomed the cold, chemical cleanse. It invigorated her skin, piqued her brain, and made her feel alive.

  In the last room, she lifted her mask free and was greeted by the sweet, soapy scent of flowers. She tossed the mask into a bin and stepped to a gel dispenser. A couple squirts into her hand, and she rubbed it onto her face to ensure no spores still clung to her skin.

  Things were cushy in the dressing room. Soft white light and rubbery floors. Padded bench seats. Bins full of fresh, clean clothes.

  Lexi found a stack of towels and grabbed one off the top. She bent forward, wrapped it around her hair, and tossed it over her shoulders as she straightened. She used a second towel to pat herself dry.

  Lexi thought about her options as she dressed in the standard issue cotton clothes everyone wore. Should she play nice with Jessie and Bryant? Should she go straight for Burke? If so, what would she
do with him when she had him? He was living on borrowed time, and her son’s life depended on him staying alive. Even if she took him, how could she get him to release her son?

  Regardless of what she decided, Burke was the key.

  Lexi removed the towel and tossed it in a bin. She shook her hair out and left the decontamination chamber, taking a hard-right down a long hallway to the elevator banks.

  She put her hand against the reader, and a moment later the doors opened. She stepped in, hit the button for the security team barracks, and waited.

  The car dove deep into the mountain, hundreds of feet through solid rock. Then it reached bottom and dinged. The doors spread to reveal Captain Jens Mueller standing in the recreation room.

  A dozen soldiers lounged in the area, talking, playing video games, or watching old soccer matches on a wall screen. More than a few tossed skeptical side glances in her direction.

  A faint smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she exited the elevator and stood before the steel-eyed former soldier.

  “Hello, Lexi. Glad you made it home safe.”

  “I doubt anyone is glad I’m here,” she scoffed, “but it’s actually good to be back. I understand we have some new visitors at Redpine?”

  “Indeed. A group of US soldiers and a pair of CDC employees. Also, a busload of children, of all things. Something tells me you have experience with them.”

  “I’ve been tracking Jessie and Bryant from Dayton, Ohio. The kids came in with the CDC people.”

  “I take it you failed at whatever Burke wanted you to do?”

  “I had a subpar performance, but he screwed himself down the stretch.” Lexi’s lips pulled to the side. “Where are they?”

  “Wing 3. You aren’t thinking about walking in there and shooting the place up, are you?”

  “Not yet.” Lexi bit her bottom lip, eyes drifting off in thought. She hoped she looked annoyingly cute. It always got on Mueller’s last nerve.

  “Good, because they have Burke, and they’re guarding him well.”

  “I figured. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do.”

  The captain bristled. “Well, please keep me posted before you do anything brash. The last thing we need is for you to bring the facility down around us or get Burke killed.”

  When she didn’t respond but continued staring into the security wing’s rec room, Mueller’s face twisted in anger.

  “I would urge caution with these people, if I were you,” he said. “They’re clearly resourceful and tough, or they wouldn’t have made it this far with you on their heels. And they know everything about us, which is unnerving.”

  “They might have gotten some information from Burke or the RV’s computer database,” Lexi mused. “Have you tried changing all the passwords in the system?”

  “We did, but Burke was the only one who had full administrative access. We can control life support systems and the public cameras, but none of the communications screens in the rooms.”

  “That’s too bad.” She clicked her tongue.

  “His paranoia will be our downfall.”

  Lexi gave a sudden smile as a picture began to form inside her head. She patted the captain on the shoulder as she walked past. “Don’t worry, Jens. Things are going to work out. I just know it.”

  Chapter 24

  Kim, Redpine Facility, Little Rock, Arkansas

  Kim and Bonnie spent the first day reviewing Tom Flannery’s notes. They looked at the B-18 solution Tom created and how the protein inhibitor wreaked havoc on the fungal cell wall, giving the body relief from the constant attack.

  “That’s some amazing thinking,” the chief scientist leaned forward. “We’ve done this with viruses, but it has been notoriously hard to make effective advancements against fungi.”

  “Tom’s work was a huge advancement in the fight,” Kim acknowledged, sitting back from her screen.

  “How did he do it?”

  “The day the spores hit, a CDC employee named Samantha Rogers made it back to the lab before I did,” Kim pulled a frown and tapped her index finger on the desk. “She was infected. Tom put her in quarantine and tried to save her life with some antifungals we had on hand.” She shook her head. “But Asphyxia was too strong, especially in the early stages. He worked for two straight days to find a solution and finally came up with B-18.”

  “He had to test it on her, didn’t he?”

  Kim nodded. “It was all we had. The city was collapsing around us. People were dying by the thousands.”

  Bonnie shook her head sympathetically, and her eyes took on a distant look. “You poor people. Here we were sitting safely in Redpine, complaining about our situation when everyone else was out there suffering.”

  “Were you in Redpine when the spores hit?”

  Bonnie snapped out of it, looking away. “We were close. Burke ordered us to the lab that first day.”

  Kim nodded, not wanting to press her with more questions before they had a chance to finalize the serum.

  They analyzed the compound details, and Bonnie offered some tweaks that might limit the serum’s side effects. Once they had a final formula, the scientist saved their work and compressed the file.

  “I’ll send this down to Max Hargrave. He’s our chief chemist, and he can create our first batch. Do you think twenty vials will be enough?”

  Kim’s jaw fell open slightly. “That would be amazing,” she nodded. “But won’t we need blood to make it?”

  “We can produce the serum here using our test animals,” Bonnie smiled. “Don’t worry, they are treated well. Once we have the serum with the polyclonal antibodies, we’ll run it through our purification process to remove any impurities. We’ve done this for thousands of projects. We also have a monoclonal In-Vitro technique, but it takes a tremendous amount of time.”

  “That’s how Paul and I kept us alive,” Kim said. “Without animals, we used our own blood. But the serum was weak, and we had to have more frequent injections.”

  “What we’re going to give you will be ten times stronger,” Bonnie assured her, “and without the side effects.” She turned to her computer. “I’ll put the order in with Max, then we’ll look at Paul’s work.”

  “That easy, huh?” Kim sat back in her chair and shook her head.

  “That easy.” Bonnie smiled and pulled up the Redpine messenger system, looking for Max Hargrave online.

  *

  On the second day, the pair delved further into the vaccine. Coffee cups freshly refilled, they were back at their computer desks, building a model they called A-Vax.

  Kim fabricated the first layer using the Branch software with a 3D graphical interface. The program was predictive, and it would warn them if they misplaced a protein or molecule. With her chemical background, Bonnie filled in the blanks with more molecules to boost the recipient’s immune system.

  By mid-morning, they had created the building blocks of the new vaccine.

  Bonnie relaxed back. “This is going to be a general solution. Without testing for age or condition-specific recipients, there will be more danger for side effects.”

  “We’ll have to take that chance,” Kim said, sipping her coffee. Her mind buzzed with information, and she was blown away by their progress. “I’m so thankful to you. Your software cut down days and weeks of modeling time. I’m embarrassed to say it’s decades beyond what we had at the CDC or Paul’s lab.”

  Bonnie looked as tired and excited as Kim. She’d rolled up her sleeves and replaced her pumps with a pair of standard issue slippers. “That might be true, but it only highlights how accurate you were, using, no offense, more primitive equipment. You folks were spot on. Especially Paul.” She raised her cup in a toast. “I was wrong about him. He was a genius. And I’m sorry he’s no longer with us to see the fruits of his work.”

  Kim blinked at the scientist. Tears swelled and burst from the rims of her eyes, and a wistful smile spread on her lips. She raised her own coffee cup and clinked it aga
inst hers. “Thank you.”

  They sipped as Bonnie went on about her lab. “We’ve always been able to throw together suitable treatments for many diseases. It’s the red tape that slows us down.” She lowered her voice as if hiding a secret. “We’ve even got an Ebola vaccine sitting on a shelf. It shows tremendous promise, but we can’t seem to get it in front of the FDA. I suspect someone’s clogging up the works. I think it was Burke.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Kim frowned. “You make some medications people buy for cancer treatment, right?”

  Bonnie nodded sorrowfully.

  “So Burke would stand to lose a lot of money if he put an Ebola vaccine on the market.”

  The scientist nodded again, blinked, and sipped her coffee.

  “It sounds like you’re familiar with Burke’s tactics.” Kim said. “He’s caused so much pain in this world.”

  “Enough negativity for now.” Bonnie placed her cup down. “Let me give my husband access to the files. Let’s see if he has any input.” With a few strokes of the keyboard, the deed was done.

  The pair sat back and continued building the model, speculating on how to reduce side effects. They tweaked the triggers necessary for humans to create antibodies.

  Anthony Brewer stopped by at midday, pushing a lunch cart for them. He revealed a plate of French fries and a burger for himself, spaghetti and meatballs for Bonnie, and chicken alfredo for Kim.

  “Thank you! I’m so hungry.” Kim clapped her hands once, shoved her keyboard away, and set her plate down.

  Anthony pulled up a chair and ate his lunch off the cart. “I studied the A-Vax model.” He looked back and forth between the women. “It’s impressive.”

  “We’re hoping you had some input.” Bonnie twirled pasta on her fork.

  “I do,” Anthony said. “Pull up the box of proteins and let’s add a few things.”