The Last Chamber (30 page)

Angrily, Joe raised up from his hiding spot and, aided by the low
flashes of gunpowder from the enemy guns, spotted both of the remaining men as
the launched a volley of hot metal into the woods near the shed.

He quickly lifted up his weapon and popped off three shots into the
closest man to what he assumed was Helen’s position. The second attacker was
trying to reload his weapon, a mistake given the fact that he was in a wide
open space between trees. Joe fired three successive shots, landing two in the
man’s chest and one in the abdomen. The target staggered backwards for a moment
before falling lifelessly to the ground.

“All clear, Helen,” he shouted out the window. “That’s all of them.”

Helen heard Joe’s voice, and was about to come out of her hiding place
when she saw something troubling coming down the driveway. She couldn’t tell
the make or model, but three SUVs were rolling towards the cabin. And they
looked like they were in a hurry.

“Joe, we may have more company,” she yelled back, staying hidden in
the shadows.

“Emily said she was sending support. Maybe that’s them.”

Helen shook her head, still leaning against the tree. “I don’t think
they could get here that fast. They’re still fifteen minutes out, at best. And
that’s if they are coming in through the air. We could be looking at longer,
Joe.” There was an air of resignation in her voice. “Joe?”

“Yeah?”

“If we don’t get out of this alive, you know I love you, right?”

There was a pause as the SUVs drew closer, the sound of tires on
gravel starting to fill the air.

“Yeah, honey. I know. And I love you too. But don’t say any of that
goodbye, crap. We’ll be fine.”

She smiled in the darkness. Helen couldn’t say what she wanted to. She
knew she was okay at the moment. But she worried about her husband. She’d been
training her whole life, since she was a little girl, exactly for something
like this. If she wanted, Helen could run deeper into the woods and stay hidden
until the trouble passed or until Emily’s team arrived. But she couldn’t leave
Joe. She would stick it out with him no matter what.

“You might want to get the AR back out Joe, pick a few of them off as
they get out. That should even the numbers.”

“Roger that,” he answered.

Helen moved stealthily through the darkness of the trees, getting into
a position where she could be most effective with a frontal assault. The three
SUVs were nearly at the end of the driveway. She hoped Joe was in position, but
she knew he would be. Joe was the most dependable man she’d ever met. She could
count on him for anything. And if he said he was doing something, he always
kept his word. That was one of the reasons she loved him so much. Though, she
regretted not telling him everything about her past. Maybe someday she could
disclose everything, about what she had done before they were married.

The SUVs came to a stop in front of the house and the doors opened
quickly. She notched another arrow and drew back the string on her bow, raising
it slowly to line up the driver of the nearest vehicle. Suddenly, a twig
snapped behind her. She started to turn around but a gloved hand wrapped around
her mouth as a gun barrel was pressed to her head.

“Drop the bow, now,” the gruff voice ordered. “And tell whoever is in
the house to drop their weapon.” She obeyed halfway, dropping the bow onto the
ground. But she didn’t say anything.

The barrel pressed deeper into the side of her head, causing her to
wince slightly. She cursed herself under her breath for being so careless.
They’d killed eight men. Which meant there must have been nine.

“Don’t feel like talking? Fine,” the man gripped her face tightly, almost
to the point where it felt like he might break her jaw. He forced her out from
her hiding place in the woods as he called out to Joe. “Whoever is in the house
needs to drop their weapons and come out with their hands up, or I will
splatter this woman’s brains all over the lawn. And bring the sample you stole,
too.”

Ararat, Armenia

The sun had risen early in western Armenia. Sunlight poured through
the cracks of the building, giving a little more illumination to the otherwise
dark sanctuary.

Sean hadn’t slept much. He’d grown accustomed to trying to sleep in
uncomfortable places. It was part of what he did, both before working for IAA
and at present. But his mind had raced with too many thoughts. In between
insomniac productions, he dozed off a few times, maybe aggregating a total of
two hours of sleep for the whole night.

Jabez and his men were already taking equipment out to the vehicles,
allowing cold bursts of air to rush through the door each time it opened.

Dr. Firth was still sleeping when Sean made his way over to the older
man and nudged him from his slumber. “Time to go, Doc.”

Firth had woken slowly, seeming peaceful at first. Once fully awake,
he quickly returned to his grumpy self. “What kind of food do we…” he started
to ask but Jabez tossed him a plastic bag with something that looked like dried
meat. “What is this?”

“Goat jerky,” Sean answered for their new Arab friend. “I suggest you
eat some. We have a long day ahead of us.”

The professor looked down at the plastic bag with an air of disgust.
He apprehensively reached into the sack and pulled out a wide piece of the dark
red meat then sniffed it to make sure it hadn’t gone bad. Sean was relieved
when the man put the corner of the cut in his mouth and tore off a chunk, chewing
it slowly, still unsure if he would like it.

An impressed expression lit up Firth’s face. “You know, it isn’t half
bad,” he commented before putting the rest of the meat in his mouth.

Adriana was busily checking one of her two handguns, making sure everything
was clean and working properly. She slid a full magazine into the black grip
and clicked it into place.

“You think we may need that?” Sean asked. He was also armed, but
wanted to know what she thought.

“You never know. Do you?”

He shook his head. “Can’t be too careful.”

“In some things…you can.” She left him with that thought and a sly
smirk as she grabbed her bag and headed out into the cold air.

Outside, the snow had already been melting. A warm front had followed
the storm, so any accumulation didn’t last long. Sean imagined up in the
mountains that would not be the case. He knew their vehicles could handle most
types of weather, but slippery roads on high mountain passes didn’t sound like
something he wanted to test out any time soon. That was exactly what they were
about to do.

“We should be alright, even with the snow in the mountains,” Jabez
read his thoughts. “The roads are not paved, so the dirt and rocks will help
us. And the shoulders of the road angle up, so it will be difficult to slide
over the edge.”

Somehow, the man’s confidence didn’t resonate in Sean’s mind. The
whole thing seemed like a sketchy proposition, but they didn’t have any choice.
Time was running out.

He turned his phone on, remembering it had been off over the course of
the night. Most of the battery had been used and he didn’t want it to die
before getting a chance to recharge it in the SUV. After a few seconds, the
home screen came on and the device began searching for a satellite signal. As
soon as the connection was made, his phone began to ding. He had six voicemails
and eleven text messages.

“That’s a tad above average,” he commented silently.

“What is it?” Jabez stopped as he was carrying his backpack out the
door.

“I have several messages from Dr. Solomon at the Centers for Disease
Control in Atlanta. It looks like Mac and his wife were able to get a sample of
whatever it is to her. She says it’s bad.” He scrolled further through the long
text messages from his friend Joe. From the time they’d been introduced, Sean
had always called Joe,
Mac
.

“How bad?” Adriana had overheard Sean’s comments and joined the
conversation.

He looked up at her. “She says that it will make the Spanish Flu
epidemic look like the common cold. Worst case outcome, ninety percent of the
world’s population could be eradicated.”

“How could she predict that?” Jabez had to ask.

“I don’t know. But I know that Jenny knows more about that stuff than
anyone I’ve ever met. She must have run some tests in her lab. It goes on to say
that the World Health Organization has been alerted, but no one is going to
take any action until the morning. They think she’s overreacting.”

Adriana was clearly concerned. “Someone has to stop that company from
sending out any of those vaccinations.”

“Yeah,” Sean agreed. “She said Emily is sending a team down there to
blockade the building. But the world authorities need to take over. And Axis
can’t just hold a building siege for long. Eventually, the authorities will be
called in, and her team will have to stand down.”

Firth’s demeanor changed to one of being unnerved. “So, it’s true
about the virus?” His voice was filled with disbelief.

Sean turned his head and faced the professor. “Seems that way, doc. If
it makes you feel better, I wish we hadn’t been right about it.”

“It sounds like we may not have much time,” Jabez interjected. “We
must hurry to the canyon. If we can get there in time, we can destroy the
chamber permanently.”

Cartersville, Georgia

The cold steel barrel continued to press hard into Helen’s skull while
the man get a firm grip on her throat. He was much stronger than her so,
struggling was like trying to push a three-ton boulder up a hill.

“Don’t make me say it again!” he yelled, painfully loud in her ear.
“Drop your weapon and come out with your hands up. I know you’re sitting there
in the front of the house with your gun aimed at those trucks. If you don’t
come out right now with that vial and your hands in the air, I will execute
your wife, and we will come in and kill you next.”

Helen never feared much in life. She’d been raised in the country, and
as a country girl she had faced all kinds of things that would have caused most
people to wet themselves. But now, knowing that she was five inches away from a
bullet that could end her life, a twinge of fear entered her mind.

She didn’t want to die. But she wasn’t about to beg, either. Whoever
the man was holding her neck would not get that satisfaction.

“You may as well shoot me,” she forced the words through clenched teeth.
“He’s not going to give up that vial.” If the men believed the virus was in
their possession, no reason to let them think otherwise. And she certainly
wasn’t going to tell them where it actually was.

“Don’t worry, lady. We’re killing both of you anyway.” The gruff voice
had a sinister sound to it.

The man was probably former military gone mercenary. Killing, for
those types, was second nature. When the armies of the world no longer needed
their services, those people still needed to get their fix. Their bloodlust
would never be quenched, so it seemed. She’d met several in her line of work.
While she spent most of her time in an office, there were occasions when Helen
had bumped into people like that. She didn’t understand how they could enjoy
something as wretched as killing other human beings. She had done it out of
necessity, but never enjoyed it. Not like the man holding the gun to her head
probably did.

“You may kill us both,” she said, “but there is no way my husband is
coming out of that house and giving you that vial. You will have to pry it from
his cold, dead hands.”

Taking a cue from her statement, he yelled out again. “This is your
last chance! Come out with your hands up or your wife dies!”

Helen could feel the man tense as the finger on the trigger tightened
slightly. She didn’t say a word. Instead, she closed her eyes. Memories of her
life began to drift into her mind’s eye. Events and people from her childhood
swept by. Christmases, Thanksgivings, weddings, funerals, school, graduation,
and her own wedding day all came to her in a rush.

The last caused her to think about Joe. He’d been a good husband. He
was always loyal, always caring. She wished she could have told him more about
her previous life. He may have found it intriguing. Helen doubted he would be
mad at her for not previously revealing some things. That was another things
she loved about him. He always seemed to understand. In the darkness, she
imagined his smiling, bearded face. The vision brought a strange sense of
peace.

For a second, she wondered if Joe would drop his gun and come out with
hands in the air, like her captor had ordered. But Joe was no fool. He would
know that the second he did that, the mercenaries would kill them both. If she
were going to die, Joe McElroy would do whatever it took to avenge her death,
even if it meant dying.

She opened her eyes again, flicking them towards the SUVs that still
sat running near the end of the driveway. The people inside them were still
awaiting the order to exit and push forward.

“I guess your husband doesn’t care if you die or not, lady,” the man
grunted. “Personally, neither do I.”

A solitary tear formed in the corner of her eye. She knew that wasn’t
true. Joe loved her very much. The tear rolled down her face and fell to the
dry leaves below, making the subtlest of pats as it hit, just before a booming
gunshot rang out through the woods.