Divided We Fall (19 page)

“Keeping them in,” the man said. “The general has gone mad; we
heard he attacked an Army base. Some of the contractors came back, but they
took heavy losses and failed to do whatever they went out there after. The general
went crazy over it. I’m telling you, sir, he’s lost it; you gotta take me with
you.”

Cloud put up his hand and looked at the man’s shirt, seeing his
name. “Okay, Robinson, that’s enough.”

Sean looked at his wrist and checked his watch. “Sir, the locks?”
he said.

Cloud looked at the monitors then back at Robinson. “I need you to
open the blast doors.”

“But, sir…” Robinson said.

Cloud walked to the chair and leaned over the man. “I need you to
open the blast doors.”

Robinson swallowed hard and pointed to the far consoles. “I can do
it, but the alarms and strobes will sound; I can’t override them,” he said.

Cloud nodded. “Good, I want you to sound the evacuation alarm as
well. Open every door, unlock every lift.” 

The man moved across the consoles. There was a large plastic case
on hinges that he swiveled back and revealed three large metal dials and a
number of switches. He looked back at Cloud. “Sir, I can open the blast gate,
elevators, and doors and almost everything else except the lower levels.”

Sean looked at Cloud. “What’s down there?”

“The general and the laboratory,” Cloud said. “Robinson, get the
doors open, and then you’re coming with us.”

The man flipped the dials and toggled the switches, and then the
loud tone sounded—high and low beeps. A strobe light above the door began to
flash a blue LED light. Robinson walked to a wall where, encased in the
concrete, was a metal door; he opened it, revealing a keypad just like the one
over the entry door. The man pulled a card from out of his shirt, swiped it
over the reader, and entered a series of numbers. The keypad began flashing
red, and he entered another combination. The blue strobe over the door turned
to red and the tones changed to a siren.

“It’s done, sir,” Robinson said. “That’s the order to evacuate.”
The man walked to a center console to a phone that had already begun ringing. He
grabbed the handset and ripped it from the wall. “With no answer to confirm or
deny the alarm, they will have to comply with the evacuation.”

Cloud grabbed the man by the shoulder and led him to the door.
“Stay with us, do exactly what we say, and you’ll be okay; stray from that and
Chief Rogers will shoot you dead. Do you understand?”

Sean moved ahead. “Sir, let’s cut him free now; we don’t need him
anymore.”

Cloud shook his head. “We need him to get to the lower levels. The
lifts at the end of the passageway require two keycards to enter; if we wait on
the Rangers, all the lab work might be destroyed or moved.”

Cloud did not wait for a response; he opened the door and stepped
into the now brightly lit hallway. The evacuation alarm had activated all of
the lighting. Bright light spilled over the whitewashed concrete walls. Doors
opened in the corridors as uniformed men and women left rooms and stepped in
the passageway with confused faces.

“Gas leak! Everyone out!” Cloud yelled as he ran past them, headed
for the lifts.

Sean and Brooks ran to keep up with Cloud and Robinson as they ran
deeper into the bunker complex. The hallways slowly became more and more
populated with people who took no interest in their presence, most completely
ignoring the armed, uniformed men running toward them. At the end of the
corridor was a large row of elevator doors. The doors opened and more people
rushed out, most in uniform but not all.

Cloud turned and followed a branch the led off to the right. The
corridor was dark except for a faint light illuminating stainless steel doors
at the end. “Those were the lifts to the upper living spaces; we need the
secure lift to the lower level.”

Cloud ran until he was right on top of two stainless steel doors
recessed into the walls. He guided Robinson ahead to a card reader between the
double sets of doors. The man nervously pulled the card attached to a lanyard
from around his neck and swiped the keypad. Robinson entered his code, and the
pad began flashing green. Before Cloud could do the same, the keypad froze
solid and the lift began to buzz.

“Someone’s coming up,” Robinson said, backing away.

The doors clicked and slid open. Sean and the others found
themselves looking into the faces of four men in black uniforms, M4s on
tactical slings hanging to their front. Two more men in the back wore white lab
coats and carried heavy black bags. Sean and Brooks brought up their weapons,
examining the men. Without hesitation, one of the men in black jumped to the
left, firing his rifle. As he moved, the rounds impacted the floor, bits of
concrete exploding and splintering. Sean fired his own rifle as the rest of the
men leveled their M4s and tried to fight.

Brooks leaned left and fired a short burst, taking down two guards
quickly. Sean turned and shuffled to the right while draining his submachine
gun into the corner of the lift, where he knew the first man had jumped. As
Sean moved, he saw his rounds hit true, ripping through the guard’s torso.

The last remaining guard dropped back against the back of the
lift. He took one of the men in lab coats behind the neck and held a pistol to
his head; the second lab worker dropped and cowered to the floor. “Back off…
you know who this is, right? You want the cure, so you won’t want him dead.”

The man pushed forward, keeping the hostage in front of him, the
pistol still pressed to the man’s head. He turned the man to try to navigate
away from Sean and out of the lift. Sean kept his weapon up. “Sorry, friend; I
have no idea who that is,” Sean said. He let his empty MP5 hang from its sling,
drew his sidearm, and aimed it at the guard. “You have three seconds to drop
your weapon.” Sean let his index finger activate a laser. A bright red dot
illuminated on the guard’s forehead. “One, two.” Sean pulled the trigger and a
single suppressed round hit exactly where the red dot had rested. The man in
black’s head snapped back, and his body dropped to the floor.

Cloud rushed forward and pulled the hostage away. “Chief, this is
Doctor Simmons, our lead in the Primal research.” Cloud stepped away from the
doctor and over the dead guard, lifting one of the black bags. “Is this it?”
Cloud said.

The doctor nodded. “It’s everything. Aziz is dead… Reynolds
ordered him killed and took the digital copies; these are the backups and
vaccine vials. These men were taking us to Reynolds’ helicopter.”

“Is he still down there?” Cloud asked.

“Yes, but we don’t need him; the vaccine is in here,” Simmons
said, pointing at the bags.

Cloud looked up at the flashing red strobe light and blinked in
its glare. He took in a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders. “Robinson, lead
these men out. There’s a battalion of Rangers that should be here by now;
they’ll get you to safety.”

Sean reached into the lift, grabbed one of the black bags from the
floor, and tossed it into the corridor. He moved into the lift and stood next
to Cloud. He dropped the magazine on the MP5 and quickly reloaded it. Brooks
moved past the others and went to join him. “No, you have to make sure the cure
gets to Ericson,” Sean said.

“Chief, I can do this alone,” Cloud said.

“Just hit the button so we can get his over with,” Sean said,
pointing to the single backlit button on the wall of the lift.

Chapter 27.

He walked ahead following Cloud along the dark corridor. The air
was different here, much cooler and more damp, musty with the odor of mildew.
This part of the corridor was empty and dark, only the distant end lit with
bright lights. Sean could see activity at the far end of the hall; men in black
uniforms rushed back and forth, running from room to room.

“They are taking everything with them,” Cloud said, watching the
shadows that darted from one room to another, gathering bags on a large cart.

Sean kept his eyes trained ahead, his posture becoming tactical;
his knees bent as he stalked forward through the dark, the MP5’s stock finding
its way into the pocket on his shoulder. “Where are they going with it?” Sean
asked. “Would the general know we were coming?”

“Probably another hide site. There are more like this one; the general
would know where they are and how to gain access. I’m sure he had his
suspicions that this day would come.”

“Would he be welcome there, will the other sites take him in?”

“With the cure and a private army… yes,” Cloud answered.

Men at the end of the hall finished piling their loot on the large
cart; they gathered around it, carrying their weapons on slings. They began
pushing it toward the lift in Sean’s direction. Sean dropped into the alcove of
a doorway; Cloud fell in behind him, pushing close. “What’s the play, Colonel;
we could go back and disable the lift, trap them down here.”

 “No, can’t risk it; this has to end here,” Cloud said.

“There are a lot of ’em and I’m guessing they won’t lie down like
your boy upstairs,” Sean said.

Cloud put his hand on Sean’s shoulder, watching the cart move
closer. “You can go, Chief… I got this.”

“Yeah, doesn’t work that way. Get ready to drop your NODs, sir.”
Sean let his weapon hang on the sling, backed deeper into the alcove, and
removed two grenades from his vest. Taking one in each hand, he pulled the pins
and looked back at Cloud. “We go fast and hard; this is going to get messy.”

Cloud swallowed and nodded his head. “Just do it.”

Sean looked around the corner; the cart was within fifty meters. He
let the first grenade’s spoon fly free then cooked it for a two count before
tossing it down the hall. He then followed it up with the second, pulling back
into the alcove just as the explosion ripped and echoed while throwing a thick
cloud of concrete dust and smoke up the tunnel. Sean stepped back into the
dark, leveled his suppressed MP5, and fired a quick burst, blasting out the
florescent lights in the ceiling.

He pulled his optics down over his eyes and pulled Cloud out into
the corridor. Men lay scattered on the floor; those who were not dead moved
around coughing and tried to orient themselves in the dark. Sean illuminated
them with the green laser from his weapon, firing quick shots in their bodies. He
paused, scanning those that lay around the cart. “If it moves, kill it!”

Ahead, someone fired a tracer round that burned past him, the 5.56
gunfire extra loud in the confined space. Sean sidestepped to the right and ducked
while firing a volley in the direction of the muzzle flash. They moved past an
open door, and Sean turned, seeing movement inside. He grabbed Cloud, halting
him, and snatched a grenade from the colonel’s vest; he tossed it into the room
and closed the door, the blast throwing it back open.

“Where is he?” Sean said. Taking aim at a man patrolling ahead
with a flashlight, Sean fired a single shot to the man’s chest—dropping him to
the floor—then another round, killing him. Cloud fired more shots at men who
were following the point man, hitting one, while Sean dropped the other two.

“We need to get moving; they are going to get smart on us soon,”
Sean said. “We won’t be able to hold them all off if they coordinate.”

Cloud ran ahead and turned into a break off the tunnel then cut
again, moving to the left. Gunfire erupted behind them as the guards panic-fired
into the dark where they thought Sean still lurked. Cloud halted Sean with a
fist as he approached an open vault, a large box of paperwork keeping the door
from shutting. Cloud pivoted and looked into a narrow hallway—the inner door
was also ajar.

Sean followed close behind Cloud through the airlock and into a
dimly lit command center. Sean looked at the large screens and maps hanging on
the walls, rows of empty workstations, and powered-off flat-paneled monitors.
“Damn, you all commanding a moon mission down here?” Sean asked.

Ignoring the comment, Cloud stayed ahead of him, keeping his
weapon up. Sean frowned as he followed the colonel down the walkway leading
along the back wall of the command center. At the end of the walkway on the
left was a glass breakout room; light leaked out from the windows. Cloud moved
away from the wall and closer to the consoles. The door to the breakout hung
open; Cloud made a wide turn and stepped inside, Sean staying just behind him.

Cloud moved into the room and stopped at a large wooden conference
table. Sean posted up in the doorway so he could both see inside and cover the
walkway. At the end of the conference room, an old man in a partial Army dress
uniform stood up and backed away from a bank of cabinets; his face showed shock
as he looked at Cloud.

 “You son of a bitch. I thought you were dead, James.” The man
clapped his hands while smiling; he took a step forward, stopping when Cloud
raised the barrel of his weapon.

“Why did you do it? Why did you send them after the girl?” Cloud
asked. “You have the cure; why couldn’t it be enough?”

The general stopped and leaned over the head of the table. “You
know why, James. It’s like the thirteen colonies out there, all making decisions
independent of one another. We cannot have everyone doing their own thing. We
need something… something big to pull us all back together.”

“So you would hold the cure and pick who lives and who dies?”

“No, but I could leverage it as currency. Influence
decision-making, at least until we are all united again. It’s the only way we
survive, James. United, we stand… Divided, we fall.”

Cloud lowered his head, shaking it. “It’s over, sir.”

The general stood, pounded his fists into the hardwood table, and
shouted, “This isn’t over; it’s only the beginning!”

“We have Simmons, we have the research, and we have the girl.
Colonel Ericson will be delivering it to Fort Sam Houston; he promises me we
will distribute it globally as soon as possible. Once we stop the spread, we
can begin the eradication of the infected. The nation’s politics can work
themselves out.” Cloud lowered his weapon and dropped his head. “I’m done.”

General Reynolds stepped away from the table and reached for his
jacket hanging over a chair. “Dammit, Cloud, get back here. It’s not too late; we
can still fix this.”

Cloud turned his back and walked to the door.

“We’ve come too far, done too much to quit now. James, don’t you
walk away from me!”

Reynolds pulled at his jacket, spinning his chair; a black 1911
became visible in a shoulder holster under the jacket. Sean spotted the weapon
as the general took it in the palm of his hand. Sean stepped forward, taking
aim and attempting to fire—Cloud was in his line of sight. Sean yelled a
warning and dove forward, tackling Cloud, both men firing weapons as he fell.