Dream Sky (10 page)

Using all of his concentration, he punched in the code. The tiny screen flashed, and two underlined spaces appeared, waiting for him to input the number of minutes to delay. He typed
2
and
0
, and smiled at the box.

Perfect.

He headed down the ladder, already feeling a bit more sober.

Nine minutes later, Klausmann hopped onto the back of his truck, taking a seat next to his buddy Gisler. As they started to pull away, Klausmann reached into his bag for the bottle of whiskey. That’s when he remembered he’d left it on the floor.

No big deal. He had two more full bottles in his bag. He pulled one out, cracked the seal, and, being the team player he was, passed it around, unaware he had forgotten the final self-destruct step. After inputting the time delay, the
ENTER
button needed to be pushed, something Klausmann had not done.

So, instead of commencing the self-destruct countdown, the system waited exactly one minute after Klausman entered the length of the delay and then reset itself.

2:03 PM IST

“I
THINK WE
have waited long enough, yes?” Darshana said.

Arjun studied the Pishon Chem compound. It had been four hours since the last group of trucks had driven away. Forty-five minutes after that, they had seen a third military cargo plane rise above the city and turn north.

Since then, all had been quiet.

He nodded. “We need to be careful, though.”

“They are all gone.”

“That may be, but think of what these people have done. Think of what they may have left there in case anyone shows up.”

“You think they may have contaminated everything?”

“It is possible. We will have to wash down afterward, and destroy any clothes we have on.”

They took with them only items they could afford to discard, and left the rest of their things in the building they’d been watching from.

It felt odd to enter the compound through the open front gates. The only other time either of them had come in that way had been in the back of one of the Project Eden vehicles after they were captured in the city. Arjun almost expected guards to rush out of the gatehouse, guns drawn, shouting at them to drop to the ground. But all they could hear were the birds calling to each other high above and the background buzz of insects that seemed to be growing louder.

They knew from what they’d seen in the city that the spray containing the Sage Flu virus left a sheen behind that lasted for several days. But as they passed several of the compound’s buildings and dozens of cars that had been left behind, they spotted no sheen.

They came next to the dual holding areas where the people who’d shown up at the survival station had been put—infected in one, uninfected in the other. Both pens were empty, their gates hanging open. And still no sheen.

They moved on to the buildings that had been used as barracks, first by the locals who had falsely thought they’d been hired to help eradicate malaria-spreading mosquitoes, and then by the fake UN soldiers brought in after the outbreak. Once again, no sheen.

“Should we check inside?” Darshana asked. “Make sure no one is here?”

Arjun looked at the building again. He didn’t like the idea, but she was right.

With a nod, he approached the door and cautiously opened it. On the other side was a hallway, lit only by the sunlight Arjun had just let in.

“Hold it open for a moment,” he said, letting Darshana take the door.

He stepped inside the hallway and searched the walls until he spotted the light switch. The fluorescent tubes flickered for a moment before staying on.

“Come on,” Arjun said. “I am not doing this alone.”

All they found were rooms that had been abandoned in a hurry. As they stepped outside again, they each sucked in deep breaths, cleansing their lungs of the imaginary bad air they’d been breathing.

Their next destination was the administration building. It was at least four times as large as the barracks, and according to Sanjay, had a living area on the second floor where the bosses of Pishon Chem had resided. As they neared the building, Arjun examined the walls and saw this building had not been sprayed, either. When Project Eden pulled out, they had apparently been too busy to worry about dousing the facility. Either that or, in the chaos of leaving, the thought hadn’t occurred to the people in charge.

Arjun opened the door and saw the hallway lights were still on. He exchanged a look with Darshana and knew she was wondering the same thing. Was someone still there?

“We have to go inside,” he said.

“I know,” she replied.

Neither of them moved.

After a few seconds, Arjun said, “If you would like to check alone, you are more than welcome.”

She snorted a laugh, and the tension dropped a few notches.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said.

Together, they stepped across the threshold.

Sanjay had told them the ground floor was mostly offices and meeting rooms and storage closets. It was also the floor where Sanjay had found the flu vaccine. That was one of the things Arjun and Darshana were supposed to be on the lookout for. Sanjay hadn’t thought any would be left behind, but it was best to check.

Their main mission, though, was a little less defined.

“Look for anything that might be of interest,” Sanjay had told them over the sat phone after they reported the base was being evacuated.

“Like what?” Darshana had asked.

“If I knew, I would tell you. Information, equipment we can use here, medical supplies. Look around, see what you can see.”

Arjun and Darshana made a quick trip through the first and second floors and determined both were unoccupied.

When they discovered a set of stairs leading down to a basement, Darshana said, “I am not going down there.”

“Neither am I.”

They closed the door and moved a heavy desk in front of it in case someone was down below.

As they began a more meticulous search, it soon became apparent that what equipment Project Eden hadn’t taken with it had been destroyed. Monitors and telephones and security cameras and computers had been smashed throughout the facility. As for the medical supply room, the only things left there were empty shelves and trash on the ground.

Arjun was beginning to think the only thing he and Darshana would be leaving with was the knowledge Project Eden was indeed gone, but then they found the narrow staircase in the small room on the second floor, leading up to an unexpected third level. The stairs were not quite vertical but close enough that holding on to the railing was a necessity. At the top was a trapdoor. Darshana, having taken the lead, pushed it up a few inches so she could peek through the opening.

“No one,” she said, then shoved it the rest of the way open and climbed out.

Arjun poked his head through a moment later and looked around. At first glance, it appeared to be a single, doorless room, with a chest-high counter running along two walls, and metal racks along the others. Most surprising was that the equipment Arjun could see was still intact.

As soon as he climbed the rest of the way out, Darshana shut the trapdoor to give them more floor space.

“They did not destroy anything,” Arjun said.

“I know,” she said, as shocked as he was. “But why not?”

Arjun shrugged and turned in a circle, taking in the whole space.

The racks were full of different types of equipment, none of which he could identify. He was an accountant before all this happened, and while he could make his way around a computer, he was not an IT guy. On the counter were a couple of blank monitors, a keyboard, and a headset. Out of curiosity, he walked over and rubbed his finger across the touch pad. Both monitors popped to life, a box in the middle of one requesting a password.

The computers were still on.

Arjun pushed the chair to the side so he could get a better look. There was a thud on the floor as one of the legs hit something. He glanced down and saw a half-empty bottle of whiskey on its side, rolling back and forth. He picked it up so they wouldn’t step on it, and set it on the counter.

“Do you know a way around the password?” Darshana asked.

“No. Do you?”

She shook her head.

They left the computer alone and carefully examined the rest of the room. There weren’t any windows but there was a door on the back wall. Arjun opened it and took a look outside. It was the roof of the main building, with nothing more interesting that a few vents and a decrepit piece of old machinery. 

“What are these for?” Darshana asked.

She was pointing at a group of cables just inside the doorway. While most other wires were on the floor, these ran up the wall and disappeared through the ceiling.

Curious, both Arjun and Darshana stepped outside. They had to move several feet away before they could see what was on top of the room. Two satellite dishes and a heavy-duty-looking antenna. They had seen the equipment from their observation post a few blocks away, but Arjun had paid them no attention at the time.

“This is a communications room,” Darshana whispered.

They stared at the dishes as the reality of what they’d found settled in.

“We need to go back for the satellite phone,” he said. “Sanjay needs to know about this.”

9

WARD MOUNTAIN NORTH, NEVADA

12:42 AM PST

“D
AD, WAKE UP.”

Ash’s eyes flew open, his hand already searching for the gun he kept by his side when he was out in the field. But he wasn’t out in the field. And his gun was in the cabinet across the room. He was at Ward Mountain.

“I’m sorry,” Josie said, keeping her voice low. She hovered over him, dressed in a pair of sweats with her hair in a ponytail. “Crystal says she needs to talk to you.”

“What time is it?”

“About twenty ’til one.”

Great. Two hours of sleep. Good sleep, too, some of the best he’d had since before he’d been hurt.

He pulled back his covers and slowly swung his legs off the bed. The pain of his injuries was becoming more manageable, but was still a long way from disappearing.

“My shirt,” he said, nodding toward the chair.

Josie tossed him the T-shirt and he slipped it on. Before he could push himself to his feet, she was already handing him his pants, her head turned away so she wasn’t looking at him.

“Uh, thanks,” he said, and pulled them on.

The living space he’d been assigned with his kids consisted of two small studio apartments linked by a door. The bathrooms were located at the front of each room, creating a small hallway that kept the main door separated from the living space.

Crystal was waiting in the public corridor when he stepped outside.

“You’re up late,” he said.

“We’re a little short-handed,” she replied, looking tired.

Ash tried to pull the door closed behind him, but Josie had moved in the way.

“Why don’t you go back to sleep, honey?” he told her.

“I’m okay,” she said.

Realizing he wouldn’t be able to get rid of her, he looked back at Crystal. “What’s going on? Did Pax call in?”

“He did a couple hours ago, but didn’t have time to talk.”

“Everything all right?”

She hesitated. “He ran into a bit of a problem, but sounds like it’s all okay now. Not why I woke you up, though.”

“Okay. Why?”

“It’s our new contact in India. Sanjay?”

Ash had been briefed about the group outside Mumbai, so he nodded.

“We’ve got him on the line, but I think someone a little higher up should talk to him.”

“Okay, sure. Want to tell me what’s up?”

“Better if you hear from him.”

He glanced at his daughter. “I’ll be back in a while. Go on ba—”

“I’m coming with you,” Josie said, stepping out of the room and pulling the door closed.

He could have argued with her but saw no reason to, so the two of them followed Crystal back to the communications room, where she motioned for Ash to take the seat at her station.

She put on her headset and, after a quick tap on her keyboard, said, “I’m back. Thanks for waiting…Yeah, just a second.”

Ash donned the auxiliary headset.

“What about me?” Josie asked.

Crystal looked over at the girl in the station next to hers. “Hannah, borrow your extra headset?”

After the headphones were secured and plugged into Crystal’s computer, she handed them to Josie.

“Sanjay?” Crystal said. “I’d like to introduce you to Captain Ash. He’s one of the main people here and works closely with Rachel.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Sanjay.”

“Are you in the military?”

“Not anymore. As far as I know, there is no military.”

Crystal looked at Ash, and, with her mic on, said, “Sanjay’s people have found something they thought we might be able to help them with.”

“Okay,” Ash said. “What is it?”

“Sanjay?” Crystal prompted when Sanjay didn’t jump in.

“Are you sure you are not military?” Sanjay asked.

Something was clearly bothering Sanjay, but Ash didn’t know what it was, so he decided to give the most honest answer he could. “I was military. I would still be military if not for the Sage Flu. But I’m not anymore. I’m just trying to do my part to keep things from getting worse.” When there was no immediate response, Ash said, “Maybe you can tell me what your concern is.”

“The only military people we’ve seen have been the ones who claim to be with the UN.”

“There is no UN, and I have
never
been with the people who made that claim.”

Another pause. “Of course,” Sanjay said. “I was only caught off guard. I apologize.”

“Don’t. It’s understandable,” Ash said. “Why don’t you tell me what you found?”

“Do you know about the survival station here?” Sanjay asked.

“He’s not aware of the most recent update,” Crystal interjected. She looked at Ash. “The Mumbai station was abandoned earlier today.”

“Everyone’s gone?”