Extinction Age (9 page)

“Here’s the plan. I’ll go in first and zap the fucker in the
face,” Lombardi said with one of his legs halfway into the padded suit. “Dr.
Ellis and I will then tighten the chains so it won’t be able to move. That
should give Dr. Lovato a chance to take a bone marrow sample.”

“Sounds like a pretty shitty plan to me, Sergeant,” Kate
said. “No offense. We were watching last time you tried to sedate it.”

“Either of you got a better idea?”

Ellis looked at the Taser with narrowed eyes. “Not really.
But I will take one of those.”

Lombardi grinned, revealing a bottom row of crooked white
teeth. “I can arrange that.” He reached down and tossed the Taser to Ellis.
Then he grabbed his armored vest and continued suiting up. He finished by
pulling on an armored wrist piece that had teeth marks from an earlier attack.

There was something about Lombardi that made Kate nervous. He
seemed sloppy. Inexperienced. Beckham would never have joked in such a
situation. As the thought went through her mind, Kate realized that working
with Beckham and his team had spoiled her. Not everyone was a Delta Force
Operator, after all. Anxious to get started, she decided to let it slide.

Kate readied the biopsy needle and took in a breath.
Nothing
to it
, she told herself. Insert the needle in the patient’s bone, remove
the center of the needle, and move the hollowed needle deeper into the bone.

Only this wasn’t a normal patient. This was a monster.

Kate shivered inside her suit. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Follow me,” Lombardi said. He led them out of the armory and
down the steps to the adjacent building. A patrol of soldiers passed, their
tired eyes scanning the underbrush. They moved sluggishly, fatigue breaking them
down with every step. They seemed to barely notice the three medical personnel
in riot gear.

Lombardi opened the door when they got to Building 4 and
gestured for her and Ellis to go inside. Kate’s skin prickled as soon as she
entered the facility. She could almost hear the claws scratching across the
ceiling and the popping joints of Patient 12—the Variant that had nearly killed
her. The armored suit suddenly felt paper thin. She hesitated inside the lobby,
peering down the hallway. Two soldiers patrolled the wing with assault rifles.

“Well, come on,” Lombardi said, waving them forward.

Ellis stopped and walked back to her. “You don’t have to do
this, Kate. I’m sure Sergeant Lombardi and I can take care of it.”

She shook her head slowly. “No, I’m fine. You need me.”

“You sure?”

Kate brushed past Ellis, their armor scraping. “Okay then,”
she heard him say as she walked toward Lombardi. The sergeant was already at
Cell 3.

“Stay right outside this door,” Lombardi told the two guards.
“If anything happens, you have permission to take the patient down.” He took a
peek through the glass and then turned back to Kate and Ellis.

“Okay, remember the plan?” he asked.

“You Taser the fucker in the face,” Ellis said. “Then we
tighten the restraints and Kate gets her sample.”

Lombardi gave a thumbs up and crouched next to his bag. He
pulled a second Taser and unfolded it with a slap to the side of his leg. It
extended into a two-foot long weapon.

“Follow me,” he said.

Kate fell into line behind the men. The sooner they got the
sample, the sooner she could start working on another bioweapon.

Lombardi unlocked the door and pulled it open. The naked
female Variant lay on its back. It twisted viciously against its restraints,
rattling the chains over the ground. The monster’s lean muscles stretched and
lines of blue veins stretched with them.

A screech followed as the creature homed in on the team with
its single, yellow eye. The creature hunched, pushing its body up with its
shoulders. Bandages on its shredded right leg leaked a pus-like yellow jelly,
and the wound on its left arm bled freely.

Kate followed the men inside the room with one hand on
Ellis’s shoulder and the other on the needle. Lombardi circled the monster, the
tip of his Taser sliding across the floor.

The Variant twisted its head, whipping thin strands of blonde
hair over pale translucent skin. It snarled and snapped at Lombardi’s foot. He
parried the attack with his Taser and shocked it in the middle of its forehead.

A high-pitched howl erupted from the monster’s mouth. The
sound intensified until it was so loud it hurt Kate’s ears. She dropped the
needle and cupped her hands over her helmet.

Lombardi hesitated as the creature jerked on the ground. Then
he bolted forward and shocked the Variant again. This time he hit it between
its breasts. Saliva and blood exploded from its mouth, peppering his visor. The
Variant sucked in several deep breaths, gasping to fill its lungs.

Now was their chance. Kate scooped up the needle and patted
Ellis on the back. He was already moving to the right. Lombardi crouched down
and tightened the chain on the Variant’s left arm and then its left leg. Ellis
followed suit, and in a matter of seconds they had the monster stretched across
the floor in an X shape. Both men prepared to strike with the Tasers.

“Come on!” Lombardi shouted.

Kate approached with a guarded half step. The creature
snapped at her with jagged, broken teeth as she grabbed for its left arm.

Kate jerked backward. She felt her heart rise toward her
throat, pounding so hard it threatened to jump out of her chest. The monster
was studying her, and for a moment Kate saw a hint of fear, a fragment of
humanity. It vanished when the thing chomped again, the fear giving way to rage.

“Move it, Doc!” Lombardi shouted.

Kate pulled off the plastic tip of the needle and grabbed the
Variant’s arm again. This time she didn’t flinch as it clacked its teeth
together.

She inserted the needle into the bone, removed the center,
and moved the hollow needle deeper. The monster let out a low whine, the tone
almost melancholy. Kate withdrew the needle, retreated to the wall, and placed
the sample in a secure plastic box.

The Variant thrashed and screeched as Kate darted through the
open door, past the soldiers, and down the hallway until she was at the
entrance to the building. She didn’t even glance over her shoulder to see if
Ellis and Lombardi were following. When she got outside, she placed the box
carefully on the ground, pulled off her helmet, and took in a long breath of
fresh evening air.  

“Is that you, Kate?” came a voice below.

Kate brushed a curtain of hair from her face. Beckham stood
on the walkway, looking up with a furrowed brow. He was decked out in combat
armor, a rifle slung over his back.

“What the hell are you wearing that suit for?” Beckham asked.

She took a second to catch her breath and said, “I could ask
you the same thing.”

He glanced down and then looked away. “I have to go back out
there.”

Kate followed his gaze to the north, where the
Truxtun
had last been seen. It only took a second to realize where he was going.

“You said you were staying for a while,” she said.

“I have to, Kate, I’m sorry.” His eyes flicked to the box on
the concrete landing. “What were you doing in there?”

Kate huffed. She wanted to hear something from him; an
apology, an explanation, some display of emotion—anything but questions.

“Were you inside of one of those cells? With a Variant?”
Beckham asked.

“Does it matter?”

“You put your life in jeopardy, Kate, without even telling
me—and
you’re
going to lecture
me
?” He shook his head. “How about
you do your job, and I’ll do mine. Things will work better for us that way.”

Kate’s heart ached. He was right, she should have told him.
But he should have told her too.

“When were you going to tell me about your mission?” Kate
asked, her voice softening.

“What do you think I was on my way to do right now?” He
straightened his helmet with a tap of his hand, and turned to walk away.  

“Don’t go, Reed. Please, don’t,” Kate said, walking down a
single step.  

“I can’t let my men go without me. I
won’t
,” Beckham
corrected. “I won’t abandon them.”

“What about…” her voice trailed off and she searched his eyes
for an answer. It wasn’t that Beckham didn’t care, Kate realized. The problem
was that he cared too much.

 “I’m sorry, Kate. I’ll be back in a few hours,” Beckham
said. He offered a short nod and then hurried away.

-9-

D
arkness shrouded Plum Island. Another precious
day humanity would never get back had passed. Countless more lives, lost. The
scars from the previous night still lingered. Beckham noticed every single sign
of battle as he strode across the tarmac with Fitz, Jensen, and the others.

After two hours of downtime and a fight with Kate, he was
having second thoughts about the mission. Maybe he needed to sit this one out
and let someone else take his place. He was injured and exhausted.

A simple sidelong glance at his team reminded him they were
all in the same boat. Every man wore the same solemn, tired look. Beckham was
just doing a better job of hiding it than they were.

There was no one else to take his place, and he wasn’t about
to let Chow go out there on his own. The memory of the mission to Bragg was
still fresh on Beckham’s memory. In the search for his family, Horn had broken
a cardinal rule—he’d let his emotions get the best of him. Beckham had done the
same thing by giving chase in New York when Jinx was taken. Chow was liable to
make the same mistake on the
Truxtun
. Beckham couldn’t stop him from
going now, but he could monitor his actions. Just like he’d monitored Horn’s at
Bragg.

To add to the stress, Beckham felt growing dread from the way
he’d left things with Kate. She deserved better. He’d been a prick, but he
would make it up to her when he got back.

The distant chirp of crickets followed the teams across the
tarmac to the choppers. As soon as they arrived, Beckham and his squad began
their final preparations. He tightened the strap of his helmet and checked his
optics.

“Listen up,” Jensen said. He licked his lips and waited.

All around Beckham, the other men stopped what they were
doing and faced the lieutenant colonel.

“Situation is still the same. Ops has been hailing the
Truxtun
all day—still no answer. Recon hasn’t found anything. Guess they heard a dog
barking, but that’s about it,” Jensen said.

“A dog?” Fitz asked.

“Yeah, a dog. Four legs and a tail,” Jensen said.

Fitz blushed and Beckham grimaced. Tensions were too high. The
knot in his sour gut tightened. Maybe the mission wasn’t a good idea after all.

“You know the drill. Once we clear the ship, I’ll call in
Echo 1 and 2. We’ll load up on all the weapons and supplies we can manage to
jam into the birds. Got it?” Jensen said.

Beckham locked eyes with Jensen, ready to protest, but he
backed down at the last second. Now wasn’t the time to question the mission. He
should have done that hours before, during the briefing. His job now was to
follow orders and achieve their objective.

“Yes, sir,” Beckham said after a brief pause.

“All right, men, let’s mount up,” Jensen said, his voice
filled with a dangerous enthusiasm. He grabbed his weapon and jumped into Echo
1.

The rotors on both choppers made their first pass, whooshing
overhead. Beckham jogged after the others to Echo 2. He took a seat next to
Fitz and immediately traced a finger over his vest pocket. Inside was the
tattered picture of his mom. He patted the pocket carefully, worried that he
would damage his last copy.

Chow took the seat next to Beckham and pointed the tip of his
M4 to the metal floor. Closing his eyes, he whispered something under his
breath and then exhaled.

Good
, Beckham thought. Maybe Chow had his emotions
under control after all. He bumped his fellow operator on the arm with a
friendly fist.

“In and out. Easy as shit,” Beckham said. “Get some ammo and
grub and get back safe. Then we honor Jinx and the others. Give them the
funerals they deserve.”

Chow slowly nodded. The chopper rose into the air and Beckham
leaned back, resting his helmet on the metal wall, praying the
Truxtun
was an unguarded treasure chest free of Variants.  

The domed buildings shrank as the chopper pulled away from
the island. Somewhere down there, Kate was working on another weapon that was
supposed to save the world. She’d put her life in jeopardy to get a sample from
a Variant, and although the thought of her getting hurt made him furious, he
wasn’t mad at Kate for doing her job. Neither of them was good at delegating
the most deadly work, especially when protecting the lives of others was
involved.

As the facilities vanished from view, he feared that what
made them alike would also be what drove them apart.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kate
snapped.

Ellis held up his hands defensively. “I’m sorry. Jeez.”

“I can’t believe he’s going back out there,” Kate said. “He
hasn’t even been back for twenty-four hours yet. And I can’t believe Jensen is
attempting the salvage run.”

Ellis pursed his lips as if he was unsure what to say. He
took a step toward the entrance to the lab, but hesitated.

“Don’t you think the mission is ludicrous?”

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about it,” Ellis replied.
He put his hands on the hips of his CBR suit.

“Well, now I’m asking,” Kate said.

Ellis exhaled inside of his helmet, hot breath puffing
against the visor. “Yeah, I think it’s stupid, but I get why they’re doing it.
We need supplies, and there’s no telling how long that ship’s going to be there
before the Variants or someone else raids it.”

Kate pulled her key card and waved it at the entrance to the
lab. The security panel beeped at them, and the glass doors whispered open. She
was boiling from her conversation with Beckham, but deep down it was more than
that. Her heart truly hurt. She’d known him for just over a month. He’d saved
her life and she’d spent the most passionate night of her life with him, but
she was starting to realize that he would always put his men first. She wasn’t
sure she could live with that.

“Let’s get started,” she said. She crossed the lab carrying
the box containing the biopsy of bone marrow from the Variant.

“I’ll prep the culture dishes and prime them,” Ellis said.

Kate buried her thoughts of Reed and focused on the task at
hand. She met Ellis at the center lab station and opened the box containing the
sample of bone marrow. Before she knew it, she’d lost herself in her work.

After the dishes were primed for the mesenchymal stem cells,
they fed them into a high-throughput screening system. The robotic system would
deposit the cells into plastic dishes with tiny wells. The cells would then
incubate and run automatically. The machine’s plate reader would determine
whether or not a reaction had taken place in each well. If there was a unique
protein in the Variant’s stem cell surface, the machine would tell them.

“You think this is really going to work?” Kate asked.

“I sure hope so. If we can identify a unique protein, then I
think I can come up with some antibodies that will target the cells.”

Kate finished loading the population of isolated stems cells
into the HTS machine. She activated the system manually and took a step away
from the controls.

“Even if we can identify this protein and antibodies to
target the cells, how are we going to deploy it as a weapon? When I designed
VX9H9, we still had pilots and a working military. That was weeks ago. I’m not
sure General Kennor could even—”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Ellis said. “First we
need to find the protein. Then we’re going to have to make antibodies, and then
we’re going to need to test it on the Variants. Plus, we’ve got to come up with
a payload for the antibodies—something for them to deliver that will kill the
Variants’ stem cells. After we accomplish all of that, we can worry about who
will deploy it. If worse comes to worst, maybe the military could use it on
individual cities, one at a time. Taking them back from the Variants without
having to send in troops.”

Kate didn’t find Ellis’s plan all that reassuring. A lot of
people were going to die in the days or even weeks that it would take. But he
did have a point—they could only do one thing at a time, in sequence. Until
they found the protein, there was no sense in worrying about anything beyond
that.  

“Looks like we’re all set here,” Kate said.

Ellis crossed his arms. “Now we sit back and wait for the
results.”

Beckham had been on plenty of
warships before, but he’d never seen one run ashore. The five hundred foot,
nine thousand ton ship looked like a beached whale, its bow firmly planted in
the beach. A mountain of sand and rocks ran along both sides of the hull where
it had carved a path.

“Area clear of hostiles,” one of the pilots said over the
comm. “Prepare for insertion.”

Beckham scanned the LZ to double check. “You got eyes on
anything?”

“Negative,” Fitz replied.

“Looks dead down there,” Chow said.

Peters crouch-walked over to the fast rope and grabbed hold
as the chopper descended into position over the stern. Echo 1 was already
hovering over the bow. Beckham watched Jensen’s team drop onto the deck and
disappear from view.

“Peters, you got point. Chow, you’re on rear guard. Fitz,
you’re with me,” Beckham said. He quickly fell into line behind Peters, tapping
him on the shoulder. The Marine slid down the rope and moved into a covering
fire position as soon as his boots hit the deck.

Beckham paused to touch his vest pocket one last time and
then grabbed the rope. When his boots hit the ground, he planted them, squared
his shoulders, and swept the stern for contacts while he waited for the others.
 

Fitz came next, his metal blades landing with a click.

“Eyes up,” Beckham said, flashing a hand signal toward the
ladder leading to the next level. He passed a RIM-66 surface-to-air missile launcher
and trained his weapon on the next deck. Peters was already running up the
steps. He vanished from view before Beckham could tell him to slow down.

“Hold position,” Beckham whispered into his headset. He
continued to the ladder and worked his way to the top. Peters was waiting in
the center of the helo pad.

“Slow your ass down,” Beckham said when he caught up. He
glanced back at Chow and then Fitz. He didn’t want either of them on point.

“I’ll take lead,” Beckham said. Peters scowled. The kid had
an attitude problem—kind of like Riley, but without the humorous side.

Beckham pointed at a door leading into the ship. “On me,” he
said. He slowly led the team across the deck. When they reached the door, he
grabbed the hand wheel and twisted it a hair to ensure it was unlocked.

“Bow is clear,” Beckham heard over the comm. “Alpha
proceeding to bridge.”

“Roger that,” Beckham replied. “Bravo entering ship. “

He stepped to the side as Chow took his place at the hand
wheel.

 “Execute,” Beckham said.

Chow rapidly turned the hand wheel and opened the door to
allow Beckham inside. He flipped on his night vision and moved into an empty
passageway. There was no sign of a struggle and no bodies. Beckham knew better.
The three hundred sailors were somewhere on board, and someone had cut the
power. He took in a breath, testing it for the scent of Variants, but the sour
fruit smell was absent.

“Clear,” he said as he cautiously advanced. “Alpha, you got
eyes?”

“Negative so far, ‘bout to enter the bridge,” came Jensen’s
reply.

“Copy that.” Beckham continued working his way forward with
his weapon aimed at each closed hatch. Halfway down the passage, he stopped to
check one of the handles. This one was locked, so he continued past it.

Labored breathing and the click of Fitz’s blades reverberated
off the bulkheads and overhead as Bravo advanced. Beckham stopped at a
T-intersection and balled his hand into a fist. He edged around the corner,
eyeing the passage to the left. Sensing it was clear, he pivoted into the center
and swept his rifle to the right and then down in an arc as he spun to the
left. Both sides were empty.