Emergence (Book 2): Infestation Page 11

  On the Reagan, her conflicted emotions for Reisner were as tumultuous as the waves in the Pacific, and she had been waiting for the right time to talk with him apart from the others. Or at least, she kept telling herself that. She wasn’t sure what she would say, because she barely wanted to acknowledge her own feelings, let alone hang them out in front of a man who was her boss and who seemed interested in Munroe. Connelly gazed back over her shoulder at the conference room door. Or was he? Shit—he must be if he’s hanging behind with her again. What the hell. Get yourself together, woman. You’ve got work to do and this can wait…again. She kicked a small gray stone with her boot, sending it across the driveway, then continued walking towards the supply depot. Who needs a relationship right now—especially in this godforsaken world.

  ***

  With the room to themselves, Reisner leaned back on the conference table and looked at Selene. “So, you somehow always manage to wrangle yourself into my plans.”

  She turned and smiled. “Is that a bad thing?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “I think you have but aren’t sure what to do with such intel, as you would say.”

  She moved closer to his hand, resting her fingers over his. The chemistry between them seemed like it flooded every inch of the room. He felt his pulse quicken and knew his face was probably flushed. Reisner wanted to reach out and pull her closer, but it wasn’t the right time. If felt like there was never a right time. He needed to stay focused on what was ahead and the safety of his team. Reisner lightly squeezed her hand then stood up and moved towards his pack.

  “We should get going.” He slung his AR and gave her a half-smile, wondering about the crazy circumstances that had brought her into his world. Before the pandemic, he never would have envisioned himself being attracted to someone like Selene, yet he found himself inextricably drawn to her at each encounter. He gripped the shoulder strap of his rifle, choking back his feelings.

  She tapped her fingers on the table, raising her eyebrows. “When we’re back at that hospital ship later, maybe we’ll have more time to talk, away from all these distractions.”

  Reisner let out a sigh. “I’d like that.”

  Selene glanced at the wall map, staring at L.A. “What was that man Pacelle talking about when he made reference to a cyber-attack by the Chinese?”

  Reisner seethed out an exhale, wanting to stomp his boot into Pacelle’s head for blurting that comment out. “There was a large-scale power outage along the entire East Coast. Everything is shut down, most likely due to a cyber-attack a few days ago.”

  “And you think the Chinese—” She paused, her eyes narrowing then darting along the floor. “The first outbreaks from the virus were in Fujian Province. And Hayes’ research vessel, the Atropos, was anchored south of the Chinese mainland.”

  Reisner eased up his grip on the shoulder sling, tension seeming to drain out of his face. He could see the wheels turning in Selene now, and hoped he wouldn’t have to delve into the mission to the Atropos and all of its implications.

  “So, this was a sanctioned CIA operation—to infect the population of China.”

  He shook his head, but he could see Selene’s face going rigid. “Not sanctioned—it was the delusional, misguided efforts of two people.”

  “But here you are, trying to clean it all up. You know, McKenzie is just going to hang you and your team out to dry once this mission is over.”

  Reisner held his chin up. “Maybe, but right now, all that matters is stopping this virus.”

  “Which one are you talking about?”

  “Exactly.”

  The rumbling of the Blackhawk’s engines outside brought his attention back to the mission. Time to get moving. He reached down and grabbed Selene’s duffle bag, thinking it suddenly felt heavier than it should.

  Chapter 20

  “It all started so fast,” said Valerie in a West Virginia accent as she stared into the faux flames of the fireplace of the two-story Colonial mansion they had stayed in for the night. Runa was listening intently while still keeping his vision focused on the front courtyard below. “I was on my usual morning shift at the Waffle King, taking breakfast orders like always, then the next thing I know, there’re all these people running down Main Street, getting attacked by those things.”

  Valerie lowered her head between her knees while Jody extended a cup of hot soup to her. She smiled and cradled the red mug that had a faded image of a rooster on the side. “I killed one of ’em—this big fella named Eric. He had been a diesel mechanic up the road. Next thing I know, he crashes through the front window and bites the nose off the manager and starts chewing on his neck. I ended up cracking him in the head with the fire extinguisher, which caused all these worms to burst outta his skull.” She shook her head. “I knew then that the antichrist was on our doorstep. He sent these legions of unholy creatures to walk the earth.”

  Runa raised an eyebrow from his perch beside the upstairs window, which overlooked the two-acre lawn before a spacious driveway. If by ‘antichrist’ you mean David Siegel, deputy director of the CIA, then you’re absolutely right. And if he were only alive right now, I’d be the first to drive a fucking wooden stake through his black heart.

  Valerie took a sip of her soup then set the mug down. Jody moved up beside her and inspected the gauze on the woman’s neck. “Looks like this is healing up fairly well, and the antibiotics we got yesterday are helping.”

  Valerie patted her on the forearm. “Thank you, dear. You’re very kind to take care of me all this time.” She looked around at the others. “All of you—I wouldn’t have made it if I hadn’t stumbled across your farmhouse after escapin’ from the restaurant where I’d been hiding for a few days.”

  Runa looked at the forty-something woman, her sandy-blonde hair hanging down over her shoulders. He glanced at her hands, which bore testament to a hard life. Her nails were worn down, but not from recent events. Her fingers were too furrowed and strong—a stark contrast from the well-manicured female staff at Langley, who spent all day inside. Valerie mentioned growing up in the woods, hunting and fishing with her family, and Runa figured she had lived in one of the poor rural areas in the Appalachians by her lingo and mannerisms. She’ll have a lot of practical skills to contribute to the group now that she’s up and moving again. Runa always assessed a person’s worth based upon their ability to bolster or detract from a team, even though he caught himself noticing the sway of Valerie’s hips on more than one occasion. He chuckled to himself as he resumed his watch upon the lawn. Even now, with doomsday upon us, we still can’t overcome our biological urges. Nature just designed us to keep plodding along right up until the last man and woman, I bet.

  While Valerie continued to talk, Jody walked over and leaned on the spacious windowsill beside Runa.

  “Everyone is pretty worn out,” she said. “It would be good if we could stay here another day and rest up.”

  “That sounds like a good idea.”

  Jody looked down then back up at Runa. He could tell something was on her mind. “I know that look—Will used to do that too when he first started working with me. What’s eating at you, Jody?”

  “It’s actually about Will—something I’ve been wondering about for a long time, but it just started to make more sense when you told me about his job.”

  “Go on.”

  “There was a period in his life, about four years ago, when he took a leave of absence from work for several months. I remember it well because he came around and visited more.” She looked at the rustling tree branch outside the window. “But he was so dark and withdrawn. He always said it was connected with a big upheaval at his job, and how he was re-evaluating his life, but the pain…” She paused, her eyes darting around the floor. “The pain in him was like nothing I’d ever felt before. It was almost like he—”

  “Like he lost someone dear to him,” Runa said with a long sigh. His shoulders slumped back as his voice lowered. “Tha
t was a difficult time in Will’s life—maybe the most difficult other than your dad’s passing.”

  Jody raised an eyebrow at the latter comment. “Geez, you two go back farther than I thought. I feel like he has this whole other family apart from me.” She moved closer, imploring him with her look.

  “Agents always get close with their team, but they’re never a substitute for their families—especially someone like you. He loved you dearly.” He pressed his huge hand against hers. “I mean loves you.” Runa looked across the room, over at the others near the fireplace, and could see them still enamored with Valerie’s stories.

  “Will has always been a laser-focused individual, as you probably know. His training, his job, his assignments—he devoted himself two hundred percent to anything he undertook, no matter how mundane. He just wanted to be the best.” He folded his arms and looked out through the window at a robin flitting from tree to tree. “Such a trait is admirable, but there eventually comes a time when someone appears in your world who makes you rethink your priorities in life. In Will’s case, it was a young agent named Mira Grant.”

  “A woman—an agent,” said Jody, her eyebrows scrunching together. “Are those common?”

  He canted his head. “There are a handful of female operators but they are the exception.” He thought of Connelly and wondered how she was faring and whether she was even alive. “Mira was not only the exception but she was an exceptional field agent who had surpassed all of her classmates before I assigned her to Will’s team.” He stood up, placing his hands in his pockets, his eyes staring at a crack in the floorboards. “As the months went by, Mira and Will went from, shall we say, being colleagues to something more. Eventually, it got to the point where he asked me to reassign her to a static position at Langley so she wouldn’t be on the frontlines any longer.”

  Jody frowned. “Always the protector, big brother.”

  Runa’s face went flat and his eyelids seemed to sag. “Only things went to hell on their last mission together in…” He paused, realizing how little it mattered now if he withheld the operational details. “In Belarus. Their evasion route was compromised and they ended up in a brutal firefight with the security forces there.” He took a deep breath, letting out a measured exhale. “Mira was killed, along with another individual. The whole mission was botched because of faulty information about their escape route. An investigation was later launched, but in the end, it was discovered that it all came down to human error on the part of one of our intelligence analysts, Andre Pacelle—at least, that’s what the investigators concluded. I personally don’t think it was connected with one single factor. It was partly bad intel from our Belarusian contacts and human error on our end. Pacelle was deemed the fall guy by the Agency, as someone had to be held accountable according to the director. Will was never the same after that, and he was too clouded in his judgement to see the larger picture, instead casting most of the blame on Pacelle.”

  “God, how did he keep all that inside for so long?”

  “You were the one who pulled him through, Jody. He used to say that his only solace in life was spending time with you. Though he couldn’t open up about what had happened, you have to know that you’re the sole reason he was able to pull himself up from the depths of despair. The time he spent with you and the much-needed break away from the Agency helped him put his life back together.”

  She dragged a sleeve across her moist eyes. “And his team—the one he’s with now—they all look out for each other, right?”

  He thought about Porter, Nash, and Connelly and the last time they all met before they left on the ill-fated mission to the South China Sea. “He’s in good hands.”

  Jody placed her fingers on his, giving him a firm squeeze before she got up and walked into the other room to be alone. He knew it was a lot to process. There were so many hidden compartments Will had sealed off from her, and now she was having to learn about it second hand while mulling over her brother’s fate.

  Runa cleared his throat, feeling a sour taste in his mouth from rehashing that story, especially the mention of Andre Pacelle’s name. It was a name which had fueled Will’s rage for too many years. He hoped placing Connelly on Will’s team would enable him to finally overcome that last hurdle of anguish that he knew still lingered in Reisner’s being, and which would come to the forefront working again with a female operative.

  Chapter 21

  General Lau was driving in a convoy on the streets a mile from the bunker outside of Nanjing. He wanted to see for himself the destruction and get a glimpse of how the creatures responded to the midday heat. He had heard numerous reports about their activity lessening in the afternoon, and it seemed like an ideal time to confirm this for himself. Plus, he just wanted a break from the stifling recycled air in the bunkers with their artificial living conditions.

  The once bustling metropolis was still, except for the sound of some sewer rats rummaging through the shell of what was once a bread delivery truck, as Lau’s jeep drove past an intersection. The three trucks in front of him were filled with soldiers, each vehicle equipped with a .50 caliber machinegun while an armored personal carrier with three dozen men was in the rear. Overhead were two helicopters keeping pace with his unit, their shadows floating over the crimson-blotted streets.

  As they drove past a derelict gas station, he motioned for the driver to stop. He stepped out, followed by his son Han, who was holding an MP5 rifle. Lau walked confidently over the shattered glass of the parking lot as his son followed one step behind him. The other soldiers affixed their weapons on the surrounding avenues while a dozen men stood in a half-arc on either side of the convoy.

  Lau walked inside the shattered remains of the gas station, pausing to look at a mangled arm lying on the ground. The ring finger revealed a gold wedding band with an ornate etching. The bite marks around the shoulder indicated it had been completely sheared off by several greedy mouths. He kicked away some beetles lapping up the congealed red liquid then looked at his son.

  “Reminds me of another war, long ago—only that one saw us fighting the enemy with our knives when the bullets ran dry. Then eventually with our hands.” He held his fingers up at his son, smiling. “There are warriors and there are peasants and then everyone in between, like the poets, dreamers, and artists, who the world could always do without even before this pandemic.” He kicked the stiff limb on the ground. “I’m guessing this was no warrior.”

  “Not everyone is meant for battle, sir. Without the peasants, who would feed the army? And without the artists there would be no one to record the rise of humankind from our lowly beginnings.”

  “Now, you are sounding like a philosopher—another worthless profession.” Lau frowned then turned away, walking inside the garage adjacent to the main store. “You probably still think we should send out search parties to look for other survivors.”

  Han quickened his stride, moving up alongside his father. “Yes, I do. There has been talk of hundreds of people still alive outside of Beijing as well as other cities. If we can—”

  “And how do you propose to feed all these people once they are back at the bunkers?”

  “We have more than enough food, and there are still untouched distribution centers around the country.”

  “And that is exactly what we will use to feed our remaining forces in the bunkers for the next few years while we reclaim our land. Long-term survival takes short-term sacrifices. That is just a fact of war.”

  Lau walked past a truck in the service garage with its hood open. Around the side was a corpse lying face down with an arm missing. Han raised his sleeve up to his mouth to avoid the stench while Lau leaned over, inspecting the fly-ridden body.

  “Interesting—this poor fool was attacked and bled out, but did not become infected like the others.” Lau removed a bronze officer’s dagger from his belt and stuck the point into the right kidney. There was a slight hissing sound as the fluid was released from the bloated body, followed
by a rivulet of blood racing down to the concrete.

  Lau studied the ruby-colored footprints around the corpse, reconstructing the events that had unfolded. “It would appear that after he was bitten, the creatures left him alone.” He swirled his dagger around inside the kidney as if he was stirring a bowl of soup. “Have one of the medics collect this blood sample. I want to examine if further when we get back. There has to be a good reason why this man wasn’t consumed. I have some experiments to perform on an alpha creature that my men captured yesterday, and then I will see what results this man’s blood yields.”