Fast (17 page)

            ‘Because we needed more information. We aren’t even sure what countries are involved. We didn’t know what kind of weapons Gould agreed to make. Or where they planned to use them. Or how close Gould was to finishing. Cairns is an experienced counter-intelligence operative, but Gould is unaccustomed to intelligence operations. If we watched Gould, we had a better chance of learning the truth.’

            Vanessa nodded as she grasped the logic of the operation. ‘So you let Gould continue working, hoping that in the meantime your intelligence network will uncover the scope of the terrorists’ plan.’

            Coleman nodded. ‘Until Gould stole your genetic templates. That’s a big risk on his part if he hasn’t finished whatever he was making for the terrorists, which means he must
already
be finished. Gould left here with nothing but the paper smock he was wearing. So whatever he was working on, whatever he had done with your genetic templates, was still here somewhere in the Complex. That acted as an operational catalyst. It sent us into a scrambling rush to secure this facility and find out.’

            ‘How can you be sure Cameron Cairns is in charge of these gunmen?’ repeated Vanessa. ‘If what you’re saying is true, a lot of countries could be responsible. Have you seen Cairns here?’

            ‘I recognized one of his men upstairs,’ answered Coleman. ‘The man we encountered in the pool room was Lieutenant Krisko ‘Bora’ Borivoj. Bora was a lieutenant in a special branch of the Czech military suspected of state-sponsored terrorism. Bora works directly under Cameron Cairns. He’s the only man that Cairns trusts. My suspicion is that Cairns is coordinating the operation from the administration hub while Bora acts as his attack-dog on the ground.’

            ‘
That
was Bora up in the pool room?’ cut in Marlin. ‘You sure?’

            Coleman nodded. ‘I looked him right in the face for about three seconds before he opened fire on us. It was definitely him. No mistake.’

            ‘I’ve heard some pretty wild stories about Bora,’ said Marlin. ‘And I mean some crazy stuff, like he’s some kind of superman.’

            Forest nodded without taking his eyes from the stairwell. ‘I’ve heard that too. He’s some kind of natural super-soldier.’

            ‘I’ve got a question,’ said King, unfazed by Bora’s reputation. ‘How the hell is Bora moving so discretely around the creatures when our people are getting wiped out where they stand?’

            Coleman nodded. ‘Good point. I think I have the answer. When I heard the stories about Bora I did some research. One thing I discovered was about his childhood. Bora was deaf as a child. He contracted bacterial meningitis and almost died before his mother reached the hospital. He pulled through, but lost his hearing profoundly. He didn’t recover any hearing until he was fifteen years old.’

            ‘How’s that relevant?’ probed Vanessa.

            ‘Lots of ways,’ replied Coleman. ‘Deaf people can be highly skilled at reading involuntary body language. Every move the human body makes is telegraphed by subtle body movement, so some deaf people can train themselves to interpret what you are about to do by observing tiny changes in your posture. In some cultures, they were used to determine if people were lying. More important to us, some deaf people have been found to become highly attenuated to environmental vibrations.’

            ‘Vibrations,’ realized Vanessa, snapping her fingers. ‘You think Bora might be able to read the vibration signatures moving through the Complex.’

            ‘It’s one explanation for why he’s here,’ confirmed Coleman. ‘It would be a handy talent right about now, wouldn’t you say? If anyone is naturally equipped to move around this Complex under the nose of the creatures, it would have to be Bora.’

            ‘Well, that’s a reassuring thought,’ grumbled Forest. ‘As if he wasn’t bad enough, now he has super powers.’

            ‘He doesn’t have super powers,’ corrected Coleman. ‘He’s just a man. But we need to remember that he could be operating on a very different sensory level to us.’

            Coleman paused after delivering the sobering information about their enemy.

            ‘All this comes down to one question. What does Gould and a force of political terrorists want from the Biological Solutions Research Complex?’

            Vanessa answered immediately. ‘They can only be after one thing.’

            Coleman was taken aback by her fast response. ‘And what’s that?’

            ‘They’re here to steal the genetic blueprints to the most devastating biological weapon of mass destruction that has ever been imagined. They’re here to steal the future of the world.’

#

On board the USS
Coronado
Command Ship, Vice Admiral Frederick A. Tucker, Commander of U.S. Navy Third Fleet, drummed his fingers impatiently on the round wooden table.

            Tucker sat in the Advanced Collaborative Prototype Chamber, what the ship’s crew referred to as the ‘Disney Room’. The room was designed to facilitate distraction free decision-making, right down to it silent air-conditioning and perfectly ergonomic chairs. Across from Tucker stood ten, twenty-one inch monitors and two rear projection displays. The screens channeled up-to-the-second planning information from every work center in the ship. At a glance, Tucker had every imaginable piece of strategic data at his disposal.

            They called it the Knowledge Wall.

            But right now, it wasn’t giving him any knowledge.

            Tucker felt frustrated.

            The mission was progressing badly. As Fleet Commander for the Navy’s forces in the eastern Pacific, Tucker’s responsibilities included the Marines and weapons inspectors that had this morning deployed to the Biological Solutions Research Complex.

            Tucker’s problem was that he had no idea what the hell was going on in there.

            And that should not be the case.

            Not on this boat.

            The USS
Coronado
represented the most advanced command ship in the world. Its mission was to protect the western approaches of the United States. To that end, the
Coronado
had been fitted with additional superstructure for command ship duties and designated the Navy’s Sea-Based Battle Lab.

            Tucker shared the table with the
Coronado’s
usual Commanding Officer, Captain Dirk Boundary, and her Senior Chief Electronics Technician.

            The latter, Chief Warrant Officer Phillip Daniels, was in charge of the ship’s C4I operations. C4I stood for
Command Control Communications Computers and Intelligence Capabilities.

            In short, Daniels was the man who could see over the horizon.
Daniels had just finished making his report, and it wasn’t good news.

            Only three of the Pave Hawk helicopters had checked in by radio after deploying their Marines.

            That was just the start of Tucker’s concerns. The radio jamming zone around the Complex was another massive pain in the ass.

            After securing the Complex, deactivating the radio jamming assets and establishing communications should have been the Marines’ first priority. With the formal authorization of UN sanctioned Weapons Inspectors, the radio blackout should have been lowered enough for the Special Forces to establish a secure communication line to the
Coronado
.

            And
that
should have happened twenty minutes ago.

            The Marines had an Executive Communications Pack. The pack incorporated an inbuilt satellite radio. As a last resort, a single fire team could have just
humped
the damn satellite radio out of the jamming zone and established a communications line.

            Neither had happened, and this worried Tucker.

            Almost an entire platoon of Special Forces security experts had been swallowed by the most advanced research complex on the face of the planet. A research complex suspected to be producing biological weapons of mass destruction.

            The implications started ringing very loud alarm bells in Tucker’s mind.

#

Cameron Cairns strode across the habitation level. He walked surrounded by an entourage of alert gunmen.

            Behind Cairns, two men carried the heavy metal chest.

            Behind those gunmen came Gould.

            Halfway across the level, Cairns raised his hand to halt the party. A sound had caught his attention. The sound of the creatures. The very same creatures that were
supposed
to be diverted by the concentrated source of vibrations emanating from the pump stations. Not far away, one or more of the creatures were violently tearing something or someone apart.

            Cairns turned on his right heel and raised an eyebrow questioningly at Gould.

            Gould shifted nervously, dropping his gaze and wringing his veiny hands together. ‘I warned you that it might not distract them all. We should keep moving. The pumps won’t distract them for long.’

            Cairns snorted in disgust. He watched Gould squirm some more.
So much for Gould’s clever diversion. The nervous little fucker’s terrified of his own creations. He doesn’t realize the real danger is standing right in front of him.

            Cairns signaled for the party to start moving again. The creatures didn’t make an appearance. Whatever occupied them was clearly a larger source of vibrations than Cairns and his men.

            Apart from the unpredictable nature of the creatures and having to work with Francis Gould, Cairns felt satisfied with his operation’s progress.

            The race against the Americans went well.

            The race started the moment Gould was blamed for stealing Sharp’s genetic material. The Americans had rushed to mobilize their Special Operations Forces and weapons inspectors. Cairns knew the Americans would send several Special Forces units. They would be an advanced team, deployed rapidly to start preliminary investigations. They would try to secure the Complex with minimum disturbance after a rapid insertion to occupy strategic positions.

            It proved a close race, but Cairns had beaten them by twenty minutes.

            Twenty minutes was more than enough time for Gould to release the creatures he had created from Sharp’s first stolen batch of genetic templates. Cairns had to admit that Gould had delivered on his promises so far. He had produced the creatures as he claimed he could, he had concealed them in the Complex undetected, and he had remotely activated the creatures with the pheromone.

            The creatures’ affect on the research staff was certainly as devastating as Gould had boasted.

            In the resulting chaos, Cairns’s job had been easy. The entire Complex evacuated. Apart from level three, the facility stood wide open and waiting.

            As Cairns reached the west elevator, Bora came over his radio, ready to make a status report.

            ‘Bora,’ said Cairns. ‘I trust the Special Forces have all been eliminated.’

            ‘Not yet,’ answered Bora. ‘One team eluded us in the pool room. We anticipated all the creatures being diverted, but two of them surprised us.’

            Cairns fixed his stare on Gould. Gould’s creatures had interfered with Bora’s orders.

            ‘Where’s the rogue unit now?’