Apache Dawn: Book I of the Wildfire Saga (10 page)

“Shit
, knock it off!” hissed Cooper with a wince.
 
He gingerly flexed the pink, new skin around the incision points where the surgeon had reconstructed his butchered right knee.
 
“Damn
bullet
didn’t hurt half as much as that surgery did…”

“Man, you already turning into a wuss?
 
Here I thought you were a
SEAL
.”

Cooper drained the beer and turned the bottle upside down as proof.
 
“This helps.
 
C’mon
Master Chief
, reload me.”

“Easy there, Hoss,” said Charlie with his hands up defensively.
 
“So,” he said, passing Cooper another beer.
 
“What’s up with Oakwood?”

“Oak
rock
,” replied Cooper after the first gulp.
 
“They’re legit, man.
 
Straight up spooks and operators, only.
 
They pay top-shelf, have the best toys you can get outside of…I was about to say ‘us’, but I guess I should say ‘you guys’, now.”

Charlie nodded.
 
“I know, I checked ‘em out too.
 
VIP security, foreign dignitaries, a little dirty work over in the Sandbox…”

“You spying on me, Master Chief?”

“Wipe that grin of your face−hell yes, I been spyin’ on you.
 
Besides, LT asked me to.
 
And…” Charlie said before swallowing a mouthful of cold beer. He raised his finger, “For the record,
you
taught me everything I know about raising hell and saving the day.
 
I feel, y’know,
obligated
to make sure they don’t just put you out to pasture…now that you’re an old fart and all.”

“Well,” Cooper started to say, then saw a blur of motion out of the corner of his eye.
 
Acting on instinct, his right hand whipped out and the beer flew from his hands to intersect the football aimed at Charlie’s head.
 
“Head’s up!”

Charlie sputtered a curse through the beer foam that exploded in his face.
 
“What the
hell
, man!”

“Now, who’s looking out for who?” laughed Cooper.
 
“’
Old fart
’, my ass.
 
I’m 38 and I got the reflexes of a 20 year old.”

“You ruined a perfect spiral, Coop!” complained the athletic young man coming through the pool gate on the other side of the backyard oasis.
 
Charlie’s little boy squealed at him from in the pool.
 
He waved to the mother and child in the water.
 
“I should be playin’ for the 49ers!
 
You see that, little man?
 
Perfect spiral!”
 
The boy’s reply was unintelligible but enthusiastic.

“Hi Jax, come on in,” said Aliana Marshal with a smile.

“Hey Allie, how you—”

“Jax!
 
You son of a—” bellowed Cooper with a wide smile on his face.
 
What was supposed to be just a quiet afternoon was turning into a surprise retirement party.

“Hey, watch the mouth, sailors,” warned Aliana from the pool.
 
Her voice was stern but a smile lit her face.

Cooper felt his cheeks flush.
 
“Sorry, ma’am.”
 
When he got up from the chair, Cooper was instantly enveloped in a bear hug.
 

“What are you doing here?” he asked, handing Jax a beer.

“Well, we didn’t really get a proper send off, now did we?” Petty Officer First Class Jackson Miller said over the top of his beer.

Cooper turned to look at Charlie with a raised eyebrow.
 
“Hey, you never said we couldn’t throw you a retirement party, and
I’m
the Master Chief now…”

“In
three days
you are.
 
What about the others?”
 

“Oh, they’ll be along.
 
They got some more supplies to round up,” replied Jax.

“Steaks, beer, strippers, you know,” said Charlie in a deadpan voice.

Cooper laughed out loud and nodded toward Aliana.
 
“Did
you
know about this?”

The pretty grin he got in reply was all the answer he needed.
 

“Man, lemme see that scratch you got,” said Jax, bending low to examine the healing knee of his teammate.
 
“Hmmm,” he said in a deep rumble, finger on his chin as if he were an inspecting doctor.
 
He looked up and flashed a wide grin.
 
“Does it still hurt?
 
‘Cause the last time I saw you, you were screaming like a teenaged girl at a boy-band concert,” Jax said in his Texan drawl and slapped the knee in question.

Cooper yelped.
 
“Is
everyone
gonna do that?
 
Christ
…”

“Let that be a lesson to you old man, never abandon your command on sick-leave.
 
We
will
get our revenge!”

The shared laughter was interrupted by a screeching female vocal set to house music, with a heavy bass back-beat.
 
“Hey, who stepped on the cat?” asked Jax, looking around innocently.

“Hush!” called Aliana from the pool as she walked over with Charlie, Jr. on her hip.
 
She paused to look at the male faces ogling her.
 

“Really
,
guys?” she asked in a tired voice.
 
She handed her son over to Charlie, who traded her a towel and the squawking cell phone.
 

“Hello?” she asked, wringing the water from her hair.

“You are one lucky, S-O-B, Master Chief,” whispered Jax with a slow drawl straight out of west Texas.
 

“Don’t get any ideas.
 
Allie—
and
her sisters—are above your pay-grade, sailor,” said Charlie.

Jax waved off Charlie’s comment and squatted next to Cooper.
 
“When you gonna find yourself a good white girl and settle down, Chief?”

Cooper sighed.
 
“Maybe never.
 
I don’t think I’m the marryin’ type.”
 
He grinned and punched Jax on the arm.
 
“That was for Dashiqi.
 
She says you’re her ‘baby daddy’.”

Jax laughed.
 
“Nice…”
 
He grew serious and rubbed his chin.
 
“I haven’t seen her since…hey, when was the last time I went out with your mom?”

“Burn!” hooted Charlie.
 
He high-fived Jax.

Cooper stopped laughing when he saw Allie turn around slowly and walk over to Charlie.
 
She looked confused.
 
Cooper sensed immediately something was wrong.
 

“Um…it’s Kevin.
 
He’s at work and wants to talk to
you
.”

“Your brother?” asked Charlie, arms full with a wet, squirming two-year old.
 
“What’s he want me for?”

She traded the phone for the giggling toddler.
 
“I don’t know, but he’s really scared.
 
And now I am too. Something has him spooked.”
 
She put on a smile for her son then glanced at the clock mounted to a post by the pool.
 
“It’s
somebody’s
nap time!
 
Yes it
is
, mister cranky-pants…”
 
She looked at her husband and the smile vanished.
 
“I’ll go put him down.
 
Let me know what’s up.”

“Sure, babe,” said Charlie.
 
He put the phone to his ear.
 
“Kevin?
 
Hey, what’s up, man?
 
Everything—” he stopped mid-sentence.
 
After a moment, he looked at Cooper and Jax.
 
“Okay.
 
Whoa, whoa, hold up man,
slow down
.
 
One at a time.
 
What are you talking about?”
 
He pulled the phone away from his head and hit the speaker button.

“—what I was telling you last Christmas?
 
At the party?
”
 
The voice on the phone was scratchy due to the connection, but the stress was palpable.

Cooper glanced at Jax, who shrugged.

“
About the flu bugs those guys in Europe were tinkering around with?
”

“Oh…ah, yeah,
yeah—
you said something about they were trying to test to see how many mutations it would take for the pig flu or something to be…uh…easily spread from human to human.
 
That was right before I spilled the eggnog on you…right?”

Cooper and Jax sipped their beers and tried not to laugh.

“Right
,” the voice said, dripping with scorn.
 
“
And all that not even a decade after the Blue Flu.
 
Crazy bastards.
 
We knew it was a bad idea.
 
We even got the Administration to put some pressure on over there to stop them from publishing results.
 
Again.
 
That limp-wristed response we put out the first time seemed to do the trick, but none of us here actually thought they stopped the research.
 
I think we were right.
 
And now…Well, I think something
really
bad is happening
.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Charlie, his face taking on the visage of the veteran operator: a face of stone cold determination.
 
Charlie the husband, the playful father, was gone.
 
Cooper put his beer down and lowered his sunglasses to look at the phone.
 

There was some static and a double click on the line, then some noises like Kevin was shuffling papers.
 
“
Look, I don’t think I have much time.
 
They’re trying to round up as many H5N1 vaccines as possible.
 
We don’t really have all that much left, so we’re going to recall our guy in Wyoming.
 
He’s the Source.
 
With what’s happening out west, I
gotta
believe this consolidation is connected
.
 
I’ll send you some info.
 
You still got that Gmail address?
”
 
Two more clicks sounded over the line.

“Yeah, it’s still there.
 
But what’s happening out west?
 
What guy—what do you mean,
the
source
?” asked Charlie.
 
He raised an eyebrow to Jax who nodded and walked across the pool deck to the outdoor TV, his flip-flops slapping the wet concrete.
 
Cooper rolled on his side and pulled a tablet out of his bag.
 
While Jax selected one of the 24-hour news channels, Cooper did a quick internet search.

“
Look, you can put it all together, just like I did, okay?
 
You’re a smart guy and this line isn’t secure.
 
I know we haven’t been the best of friends and all
…”

“Oh, hey, Kevin, about last month, I—”

“
Listen, Charlie, would you just
forget
about that?
 
Jesus, this is
serious!
 
Just…just do me a favor, okay?
 
Watch out for my sister.
”

Charlie was taken aback.
 
“Of course, man, she’s my wife!”

“
I know—I didn’t mean…oh, hang on
,” there was some noise in the background and a barely audible murmur, but the tone was unmistakably insistent.
 
“
Oh, my God—
”
 

The phone shrieked, a high pitched squeal, and the line went dead. Charlie looked at the phone in irritation.
 
Signal lost
blinked on the display.

“Okay,
that
was weird,” said Charlie as he shut off the pink, jewel-encrusted cell phone.
 
He placed it on the table as if it were week-old roadkill.

“Hey, check it out, guys…I found something,” called Jax from across the pool in a shaded part of the porch that contained the outdoor entertainment center.
 
Charlie and Cooper walked over to join him and removed their sunglasses.
 
“Look at
that!
” he said, pointing the remote at the TV.

The screen showed a view of a hospital in downtown Los Angeles and lines of people that snaked through the parking lot.
 
Tents emblazoned with red crosses had been set up throughout the lot, but the crowd spilled across the grass to the circle driveway by the emergency room entrance.
 
The terra-cotta colored, arrow-shaped hospital was surrounded by cars parked haphazardly on the nearby streets, like they had been abandoned.
 
Police cars and fire trucks added flashing lights to the scene and emergency personal scurried here and there.
 

“…
Scene at area hospitals reminds many of the early days of The Pandemic, ten years ago
…” scrolled across the bottom of the screen.