Plague World (Ashley Parker Novel) (33 page)

The entire group stared at Gabriel and me. I tried not to look at Crazy Eyes. Frankly, she creeped me out.

They crossed all of the lines between political parties, ideological groups, and even religions. I stared back at them, trying to soak in the fact that these people were the brains and money behind Walker’s. Finally I just shook my head.

“You have got to be kidding me. You people nearly took our country over the fiscal cliff because you couldn’t agree on a national budget, but you can cross the friggin’ aisle to launch a zombie apocalypse?” I shot a look at Crazy Eyes. “You don’t even
believe
in vaccinations. So what the fuck, people?”

The talk show host sputtered in wordless indignation, reminding me of a walrus without the cute factor, while Crazy Eyes and the rest broke out into indignant, chaotic babbling. One voice, however, managed to cut through the rest—a deep, almost harsh male voice that sounded horribly familiar.

“Well, well, Miss Parker,” he said. “Still ready with the smart-ass quips, I see.” The voice came from a chair at the far end of the table, one of those tall-backed “king of the boardroom” numbers, its back and occupant facing the other direction.

“And still disrespectful of your betters.” The chair spun, and its occupant swung into view.

Oh, crap.

Adrenaline coursed through me and my heart pounded in my ears as I stared at General Heald, the iron-jawed, craggy faced asshole most likely to be played by Charlton Heston in the movie.

He had tried to blackmail me into joining the DZN by threatening my boyfriend with vivisection. His plan had backfired when he’d become infected—through nobody’s fault but his own, but that didn’t stop him from blaming me.

His presence explained a lot.

“
You’re
a wild card?”

“Not quite, Miss Parker.” He picked something out of a dish on the table, holding it up as if contemplating it. But he really just wanted me to get a good look at it. It was a human finger.

Heald was a half-deader.

I am well and truly screwed.

He grinned at me, a truly unpleasant expression that had humor in it, but the type of humor bullies show to someone they think is weaker than them.

“What? Nothing to say?” he asked.

I stared at him, fists clenched.

“What do you want me to say?” I managed to keep my voice calm—refusing to give him the satisfaction of showing fear.

“Honestly?” he said. “I just want you to die.” He shook his head in mock bewilderment. “But that’s been far more difficult to accomplish than I would have thought. You’re either very lucky, or part cockroach. Too bad you’re not a patriot.”

“Oh, fuck you, Goldfinger,” I shot back. “We’ve been saving lives the entire time—no matter what shit was thrown against us. My team and I stopped the first outbreak. That’s what you wanted us to do in the first place, wasn’t it?”

“You know, General,” the presidential candidate said, rising out of his chair, “I think Miss Parker deserves an explanation. As she said, she’s been fighting for our country, and yet she doesn’t understand the big picture.”

“I voted for you,” I said, apropos of nothing. “Right now, I am seriously regretting that decision.”

He nodded solemnly. “I can see why you might be upset.”

I didn’t even try to suppress my snort of derision. He continued anyway.

“Our environment is suffering,” he said earnestly. “Humanity has lost its ability to coexist with Gaia—”

Gaia? Give me a break.

“—and our population far exceeds the available resources. The planet is being corrupted to the brink of destruction. Entire species are going extinct, and our polar icecaps are melting.”

A few of the group nodded their agreement, while others frowned or looked bored. Maybe the ideological lines hadn’t blurred as much as I’d assumed. Guess unleashing the zombocalypse wouldn’t have them joining hands and singing “Kumbaya.”

“Without something radical to reduce our population,” he continued, his voice rich and confident, “we were looking at global famine. Something had to be done, or we’d face pure anarchy—not in the distant future, but within our lifetimes.” He paused, looking at me as if for agreement.

“So you thought the best way to save the world was to unleash the walking dead,” I replied. “
Riiight…
Makes perfect sense.”

Heald made a growling noise that caused the hair to rise on the back of my neck, but my former candidate of choice held up his hand.

“Let me continue.” He took a step toward me. “You’re with the
Dolofonoitou Zontanous Nekrous
. You know that this virus—or whatever it is—has been around for centuries. Had nature been allowed to run its proper course, this could have happened on its own. And if it hadn’t been zombies, it would have been another super bug, resistant to antibiotics. Mother Nature isn’t kind, Miss Parker.”

“Maybe not,” I snapped, “but you people have turned her into a homicidal psychopath.”

He sighed and shook his head.

“Look. You just don’t understand. Resources are limited. After the world’s population is managed—”

“A very polite way to describe genocide,” I interjected.

His jaw tightened, but he continued doggedly.

“—we can then manage these resources. Distribute them fairly and insure everyone has what they need.”

“Naturally you folks will be the ones who decide what’s fair.” I didn’t bother trying to hide my disgust.

“Not only us,” the talk show host interjected. I was surprised it had taken so long for him to weigh in. He wasn’t big on letting other people talk. “We’re just the first group, and the most organized. Then again, we are Americans.” He stuck his chest out with pride, a patriotic puffer pigeon. I grimaced and turned back to my former favorite politician.

“How, exactly, do you intend to guarantee that you and your special buddies aren’t going to get sick like everyone else? In case you missed the memo, this shit has gone airborne!”

He bristled. “We weren’t expecting it to mutate so quickly, if at all, which is why it’s so important that we develop the cure.”

“Oh, give me a—” I stopped, and shook my head in disgust. “Seriously, did you ever consider that it might be better to develop a cure
before
you set this thing loose? And why the hell did someone try to burn down the lab at Big Red? What do you think Professor Fraser and Dr. Albert were working on?”

“Dr. Albert and his original lab partner, Dr. Arkin, have more than enough data to develop the cure,” Heald said coldly. “They’ll do their jobs as long as they’re provided with what they need. Professor Fraser, on the other hand?” He shook his head. “She can’t be trusted.”

“Yeah, she’s got a pesky little thing called a conscience.”

“Exactly. She’s only alive now because we need as many wild cards as possible, to provide a broad spectrum of blood samples.” The general eyed me with distaste. “I thought he could do without yours.”

“You go to—”

Suddenly the doors opened to admit a bunch of familiar figures, all under armed escort.

“Simone!” I said. The exclamation burst out of me, my relief getting the better of me. Gentry grinned, while Tony made a surreptitious Chang Sing hand salute, which I returned. Nathan gave me a nod, and Simone’s face brightened visibly when she saw me with Gabriel.

“Ashley, how—”

“Time enough later for a reunion,” Heald interrupted. “It’s time to…”

Then Griff sauntered in as if he owned the place.

Heald’s voice faded into the background as my vision clouded with red, the entire world shrinking down to the man who’d betrayed us.

I lunged for him, but before I got more than a couple of steps, my guard slammed the stock of his rifle against my back, clubbing me to the floor on my hands and knees. There was a rumble of protest from my teammates, Nathan letting loose with an impressive string of epitaphs.

I gave a low growl and delivered a vicious donkey kick to the side of the guard’s right kneecap, the resulting popping sound and scream of pain bringing a smile to my face. I followed up with a foot sweep, knocking his legs out from under him. I’d have leapt on top of him and punched his face in if several pairs of hands hadn’t seized me from behind, and dragged me to my feet.

They pulled my arms back until I thought they’d pop out of their sockets. The man I’d injured held his knee and glared up at me, involuntary tears of pain running down his face.

“Bitch!”

I smiled down at him despite the pain.

“Totally necessary.”

Then I turned my attention back to Griff, who leaned nonchalantly against the wall a few feet away from me, his expression unreadable as he looked straight at me.

“I am so going to kill you,” I promised.

Heald gave a bark of laughter.

“Tell me again why you saved her life?” He shook his head in disgust. Then he picked up something from next to his chair, and tossed it on the table with a loud clatter.

My katana. The one I’d been using since Redwood Grove.

My expression must have given away my confusion, because Heald laughed again.

“Our friend here showed me this as proof that you’d been killed.” He looked at Griff with irritation. “I should have known better than to take you at your word when a pretty woman is involved. Always thinking with your dick. That’s what got you in trouble in the first place.”

Griff gave a small smile.

“Hey, it’s not often that I get to sleep with someone who won’t die if the condom breaks.”

Um. Euww?

“You were supposed to kill her.” Heald glared at him.

“Messing with her head was one thing,” Griff replied. “But killing her? Not down with that. Besides,” he added with a shrug, “I like her.”

Heald leaned forward and glared.

“All you had to do is what you
love
to do—be a good little vector, and spread the virus.” Simone looked up sharply at that, staring at Griff as Heald continued, “There’s something appropriately Biblical about the sins of the flesh leading to the consumption of the flesh. But you couldn’t even accomplish that.”

“Guess I fucked up,” Griff replied calmly. He shrugged. “I don’t like doing someone else’s dirty work.”

Heald gestured to Gabriel.

“You’re almost as much a disappointment as Captain Drake here. And both of you falling short of your duties because of this—” He looked at me with utter contempt. “—this
worthless
little whore.”

I ignored him and continued to give Griff the death stare.

“So you’re the one who sold us out, and got all those innocent people killed at the Organ Pavilion.”

Griff’s eyes flashed with an indefinable emotion.

“No, my job was easy. I was supposed to mess with your head, keep you off balance so you couldn’t do your job. I did that. Then I was supposed to kill you, or at least make sure you died.” He shrugged again. “I didn’t.”

“You’re trying to tell me you didn’t rat us out?”

Heald started chuckling from his seat at the end of the table.

“No, Miss Parker. Griff didn’t ‘rat you out.’ That honor goes to someone else entirely.” He turned and addressed someone behind him. “Sarah, if you’d be so kind? And make sure to turn the speaker up.”

“Yes, sir.”

An attractive young black woman in dress uniform emerged from the shadows behind Heald’s chair, went over to a control console, and tapped away on the keyboard.

“Now that,
Miss
Parker, is someone who knows her place as a woman, and her duty as a patriot,” he said, smiling broadly as a face appeared on the large screen, pink hair clashing with a bright red T-shirt.

I didn’t bother with a snappy retort.

Holy shit…

I heard Simone’s gasp of shocked disbelief.

“Jamie?”

Jamie’s expression brightened visibly when she heard Simone’s voice.

“Simone? Is that you?”

“Y… yes, Jamie. I’m here.”

“You’re safe then! Ashley got you out!”

“What?” Heald sat up in his chair.

Jamie ignored him. “Ash, you there?”

“Um… over here. I’d wave, but…” The man holding me tightened his grip.

Jamie looked in my direction and beamed.

“You got the schematics!”

I stared in disbelief. “Um… yeah, I did.”

“Awesome!” Jamie smiled. “You’re getting Simone out of there, right?”

“Well—” I looked at Simone, who seemed to be in a state of shock.

“What the hell is going on?” Heald looked as if he might burst a blood vessel, his voice cutting through the room like a butcher knife.

Jamie looked at him and frowned.

“You told me she’d be safe. After the fire, you said if I fed you info, you’d leave Simone alone.” Her voice went hard. “Well, you lied, didn’t you? You didn’t think I’d find out that you’d brought the ’copter down?” Jamie shook her head. “It’s a good thing I didn’t know they’d switched helicopters.” Her expression suddenly shifted to genuine hurt, and she looked toward Simone. “Simone… Why didn’t you tell me about that? Don’t you trust me?”

Oh, fuck me gently with a chainsaw. She’s a bunny boiler.

Simone looked as though she wanted to weep, but she composed herself before she replied.

“I didn’t know myself, Jamie,” she said. “Nathan arranged it.”

Jamie nodded. “Got it,” she said, as if everything suddenly made sense.

“We had an agreement!” Heald roared. The others sitting around the table looked at him with varying degrees of distaste.

“You broke it when you tried to bring the ’copter down,” Jamie replied coldly. “I feed you info, you leave Professor Fraser alone. Pretty simple, right? You were supposed to leave her alone when you raided the pavilion.

You didn’t. So I sent Ash in to take care of things.”

Heald slammed his fists on the tabletop in a move so sudden and violent it made everyone jump, myself included.

“It’s always you, isn’t it, Miss Parker?” He glared at me with a hatred that burned. “
You
did this to me!” With one hand, he swept the dish off the table. It shattered against a wall, barely missing a prominent televangelist. Bits of meat scattered, and blood dribbled down the wall to the ground.