V Plague (Book 11): Merciless (30 page)

There was a click, then the circuit went dead.  Lowering the phone, I looked up at Rachel who pointed toward the far end of the runway.  A handful of slowly moving figures were stumbling around.  They were too far away to have heard us, so I didn’t worry about them at the moment. 

Rachel turned a slow circle, traversing the Mark 19, checking around us.  Finding nothing, she looked down at me and smiled. 

“You look happy,” I said.

“I guess, in a strange way, I am,” she said after a moment’s reflection. 

“In the middle of a dead country, with infected prowling around looking to have us over for dinner?”

“We’re alive and we’re together,” she explained, shrugging.

I thought about that for a bit, pulling out one of the packs of cigarettes I’d taken off the dead Russian.  Lighting up with the USMC Zippo, I leaned against the side of the Hummer to watch the males walking around the runway.

“Hard to argue with your point,” I finally said.

Stood there, thinking about things and tempted to pull out the file and start reading it.  I didn’t have enough light to see, and needed to be paying attention to other things, so I left it where it was.  Tucked inside the back of my waistband.

“Why are they turning?  The Canadians.”  I asked.  “Didn’t you say that shouldn’t happen?

“I said it was very unlikely.  Apparently I was wrong,” she said, still scanning our surroundings with the weapon.  “You have to remember that this is an engineered virus, not something normally occurring in nature.  The Chinese must have found a way to harden it so that it can survive without a host.”

I shook my head, trying to comprehend something I knew nothing about.

“Think of it this way,” Rachel continued when I didn’t respond.  “They made it a weapon.  Created something that can live in the environment for an extended period of time, waiting for a viable host to come along and breathe it in.  The whole area was probably blanketed in it when we landed.”

“How did that happen?  It can’t move around on its own, can it?”

“No.  No, nothing like that.  A virus moves by being transmitted from host to host.  That’s why our modern world was so dangerous, in regards to a pandemic.  An infected individual, not showing any symptoms, gets on a plane in Africa.  Within less than a day, he or she can be in Asia, Europe or America.  Then they become infectious and begin shedding viral components.  The virus just jumped half way around the globe in a matter of hours.

“In this case, there was probably a significant outbreak here.  There are infected roaming around right now.  I have little doubt they’re leaving the virus on every surface they touch.  Maybe not even touch.  Probably just by breathing, since it’s airborne.  So it was present on the runway when we landed.  And that big plane probably stirred up everything when it landed.  Created a viral cloud, hanging in the air.  We opened the door, and… well…”

“Yeah,” I said, sighing.  “I get the picture.  Think it will ever die out?”

“No idea,” Rachel said, turning another circle to check our surroundings.  “Joe could probably tell us.  But I’m optimistic.  The scientists said they were safe in the Arctic because it couldn’t survive the cold temperatures.  Perhaps the coming winter will wipe it out.  At least what’s in the environment, just waiting to infect someone.”

“Then the infected just start spreading it again.  Right?”  I asked.

Rachel nodded after a moment.

“So, what are we doing?”  She changed the subject.

“Waiting for a call back from Pearl,” I said.  “Jessica’s reviewing archived satellite footage to see if she can find Irina.”

“What do we do when we find her?  Sorry, I know I already asked that, but we need to think about it.”

“Admiral Packard is sending a plane to pick us up.  We go to Nevada when we find Irina,” I said.

“Then what?”

I shrugged my shoulders, crushing the butt out under the toe of my boot.  Looking up at Rachel, I saw her completing another circuit with the weapon.  Then the sat phone began vibrating, dancing across the Hummer’s hood.  I lunged, snagging it an instant before it would have fallen off and crashed to the tarmac.

“Found her, sir,” Jessica said when I answered.

39

I brought the Hummer to a stop a mile short of our destination.  Normally, I would have driven closer, but I was worried about alerting our target to our presence.  Other than a low sound created by the wind blowing through the empty city, the environment was completely silent.  The rattle of the vehicle’s engine would carry a long way with no other noises to mask it.

Our destination was an eight story hotel in downtown Omaha.  Jessica had successfully tracked Irina after she’d lead the infected away from us outside of the air base’s fence.  She had driven north slowly, keeping the females interested enough to stay on her trail.  Once she had covered two miles, she accelerated away from them and began looking for a way to get on the freeway that would take her back to the airport.

She’d found two different on-ramps, both of them completely clogged with wrecked and abandoned vehicles.  Continuing on, she began working her way north on surface streets that paralleled the highway, apparently satisfied with the slow progress she was making.  She didn’t seem to be in any hurry, which I could understand given the circumstances.

As she pressed into the downtown area, the streets narrowed and she had to slow to navigate around roving bands of infected and abandoned vehicles.  That’s where she ran into trouble.  Approaching an intersection, she’d been unable to see the waiting ambush.  Slowing to steer around a wreck, she’d been unprepared for the pickup that suddenly roared out of a side street and slammed into the side of the Cadillac she was driving.

Three men dashed forward at the instant of impact from where they’d been hiding behind an overturned police car.  While Irina was still stunned from the crash, they smashed out her window, opened the door and pulled her out of the vehicle.  She had tried to fight, but they’d quickly subdued her.

Restrained, she was loaded into a waiting SUV and driven directly to the hotel.  Jessica lost sight of them when they drove into an underground parking garage, but she was sure no one had come or gone since they arrived.

“I should have been with her,” Rachel said when I relayed what I’d learned.

“So you could be taken, also?”  I asked.

I was feeling guilty, too.  Guilty for having sent Irina off, but also for what I’d said to Rachel when she hadn’t gone with her.  Tactically, I’d been correct.  But neither of them were trained soldiers.  And if I was being honest with myself, neither of them were men. 

Yes, that’s sexist as hell, and both of them would take offense at the thought.  But it’s also a sad reality in the new world we found ourselves in.  A world not unlike the majority of human history.  The strong will prey on the weak, and when it comes down to brute force, men almost always win a battle with women.

Rachel must have read my mind.  She gave me a look, then reached out and took my hand.

“It’s no one’s fault, other than her attackers,” she finally said.  “Let’s go get her back.”

I nodded, glad to have a target to vent my frustration on.  I’d climbed behind the Hummer’s wheel and Rachel joined me in front after securing the gunner’s port in the roof.  Jessica had stayed on the phone with me as I drove, guiding me to where Irina was being held.  When I pulled to a stop, she had told me she’d be watching, wished me luck and disconnected.

Rachel and I stepped out and I swapped rifles with her.  There was no doubt she was becoming quite adept with the weapon, but there was also no doubt that I was the better shot.  She agreed with me and willingly traded away her sound suppressed rifle.

I shot several males as we made our way deeper into the downtown area of the small city.  They weren’t close, or necessarily even a threat, but I didn’t want them to notice us and start following.  I’d seen enough times how others would be attracted if even just one infected was on the trail of some prey.  I didn’t understand how it worked, but knew it would happen.

So, when we came across any males, I’d pause and quietly dispatch them before continuing.  I was surprised we weren’t encountering females, but they had most likely all been drawn to the noise from the air base and the airport.  I wasn’t going to look that gift horse in the mouth!

We covered the mile in slightly less than half an hour.  This was slow, but you can’t move stealthily through an urban environment with any amount of speed.  While I was antsy to get to Irina and make sure she was safe, it wouldn’t do any of us any good if we alerted her captors to our approach by exciting every infected in a ten block radius.

The hotel occupied most of a city block, immediately adjacent to a large park.  Across what was probably once a broad, manicured lawn, a small lake glistened in the night, reflecting the moonlight.  We were crouched behind a low wall that separated the sidewalk from the entrance to some sort of municipal building and had a good view of the area.  As I scoped out the hotel, Rachel faced the rear to make sure no one and nothing was sneaking up on us.

Methodically, I scanned the roofline, searching for a sentry.  I didn’t see one, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have a man posted up top.  He could have been on one of the other sides, taking a smoke break or a piss, or even a nap.  There are few things in life worse than being assigned sentry duty, especially at night.  It’s damn difficult to stay alert and focused.

Moving down from the top, I scanned each window.  It took some time to check every one, and I found each to be completely dark.  Again, this was only one side of a four sided building, so I didn’t put much stock in the results other than it didn’t appear there was anyone to see us approach the structure.

“We’re moving,” I mumbled to Rachel.  “Keep an eye behind us, and for God’s sake, don’t fire that rifle unless you have no choice.”

“No shit,” she sassed back, reminding me she might have done this a time or two before.

Climbing over the wall, we hurried across a broad street and onto the hotel grounds.  Dead, brittle grass crunched slightly under our feet, but we were as silent as we could be.  Reaching the exterior wall, I put my back against it, Rachel doing the same right next to me.  Catching her eye, I pointed to our left, the direction of the loading dock.

Moving at a slower pace, I hugged the wall and came to a stop a foot short of the rear edge.  Taking a moment to listen, I peeked around after hearing nothing other than the wind. 

A loading ramp, three large dumpsters and a stack of damaged furniture waiting to be disposed of.  Beyond the pile was a set of steel doors that most likely accessed the maintenance and working areas of the large hotel.  I briefly wished Johnson was with us to open them, then stopped myself from wasting time on frivolous thoughts.

Reaching behind me, I tapped Rachel to let her know I was ready to move.  I felt an answering touch on my arm and rolled around the corner, dropping a few feet to the concrete ramp.  I heard her soft footfalls behind me and dashed across the open space and up a short set of steps.  Avoiding the collection of broken chairs and tables, I pulled up next to the doors.  Rachel was right with me.

Easing forward, I placed my ear against the closest door and listened.  Nothing.  Complete silence.  My own heartbeat was all I could hear.  Cautiously, I grasped the knob and very gently exerted pressure.  It didn’t turn.  Crap.

There was a time when I’d been taught how to pick a lock.  It came with the territory of being in special operations.  But it had been a very long time ago, and frankly I’d never been very good at it.  To successfully pick a lock requires a delicate touch and patience.  I have neither.  Especially when an ounce of plastic explosive will open most doors.  But I didn’t have any, and even if I did, it would have made too much noise.

“Are you wearing a bra?”  I mumbled to Rachel.

“What?”

“A bra.  Are you wearing one?”

I glanced over to see her looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

“I need some thin wires to pick the lock,” I explained, glad it was dark so she couldn’t see me blushing.

Without hesitating, Rachel lowered her rifle, reached under her shirt and five seconds later handed me her bra.  How the hell do women do that?  It’s never been that easy when I was trying to remove one from someone who was wearing it.

Using my knife, I cut open the bottom of the cups and ripped out the two lengths of underwire.  I worked on one of them for a few minutes, putting the proper kinks into one so it could manipulate the lock’s tumblers.  The other would remain straight, and if I could manage to get all the pins to drop, would help me turn the cylinder.

Setting to work, sweat was soon dripping off my brow from the concentration, despite the cold wind blowing across me.  Several times I thought I had succeeded, only to find the lock wouldn’t turn.  Fighting frustration, I lowered my hands and shook them out.

“What’s wrong,” Rachel asked.

“Never been very good at this,” I said.

“Then let’s find another way in,” she said.

“The more we prowl around looking, the greater the odds someone inside will spot us.  Or we’ll run into more infected than we can quietly handle.  I’d rather go in this way if we can, but I’m about ready to admit defeat and move on.”

“What’s the problem?”

“It takes the right touch.  Have to be able to feel each pin drop.”

“Can I try?”

I looked at Rachel in surprise. 

“You ever picked a lock?” 

“No,” she said.  “But I did a couple of surgery rotations.  I know I’ve got good hands.  Just tell me what to do and I’ll give it a shot.”

What the hell.  She couldn’t do worse than I was.

“OK,” I said, changing places with her.  “The kinked wire is to trick the pins into dropping.  There’s five, maybe six, but probably five pins you have to control.”

Rachel looked at the bent wire as I spoke.

“Think of the bends as the points on the teeth of a key.  When you feel a pin, push against it, and if you’re in the right spot you’ll feel it move into place.  Get them all and use the other wire for leverage to turn the cylinder and unlock the door.”