Eden Plague - Latest Edition (15 page)

“More,” he gasped, working between bites.

She pushed her desire away, tried to concentrate on the problem at hand. The scientist within her said,
It’s just the adrenaline and brush with death, supercharging my libido. The instinct to procreate, plus the Eden Plague
. The woman within her said,
I don’t care, I want him and he wants me.

 “Give him more dextrose,” she said, gesturing at the IV, trying to distract herself.

“That would be too much. It could make him hyperglycemic. He could go into shock.”

“No,” she disagreed. “The Eden Plague is taking hold of him already. Look, his wounds are closing. He just needs to be fed. Give him more, now.” Her tone brooked no argument.

His mind’s eye flashed back to the bizarre lip-lock she had given Larry. That confirmed it. She had passed the XH, the…the Eden Plague she called it. Just like a bite, only a bit gentler. He was right, this stuff would put him out of a job. He didn’t have time to care about that right now. He switched out the empty for a full bag. “This is the last one of dextrose. Just whole blood and saline left.”

“Wait,” she said. She stuffed one more piece of protein bar into Daniel’s mouth, then hung the saline drip on a drawer handle next to her. Standing up, she ran to the other side of the big laboratory, rummaging in a glass-fronted medical refrigerator. Larry looked like he was stabilized, breathing easier and not bleeding much.

She came back with four one-liter IV bags of something nonstandard, a pale pink liquid Daniel didn’t recognize. It had “NS” handwritten on it in marker. “It’s a nutrient solution they use for the primates, when they do tests. It’s better than dextrose. It’s IV food in a bag. Only for Eden Plague carriers.”

He waited for the last of the dextrose to drain, then switched the bags. The pink stuff started down the tube, and they knelt there, watching Larry. After a moment Daniel felt her staring at him. He looked up into her shining blue eyes, confident for the moment that the Eden Plague was doing its work.
Thank you
, he mouthed to her silently.

She blushed.

“Larry’s gonna make it,” he said over the link, his voice hoarse. “Anyone else need medical attention?”

“Neg.”

“Negative.”

“No.”

“Excellent.” Because he wanted to keep staring into those azure orbs, to lose himself there. He wanted to do it forever.

Daniel opened up an MRE, Meal Ready-to-Eat standard field ration, started sharing it between himself and Elise. It was twelve hundred calories in a package about the size of a bag of potato chips, but they ate it all fast.

Zeke gave Vinny a summary situation report, then came over to the rest of them. By then everyone was gathered around Larry, who seemed to be out of danger.

Daniel thought about giving him a dose of morphine but decided against it. If Elise could deal with the pain of being shot, Larry could too.

“We have to extract,” said Zeke urgently. “That last bastard had a radio and a phone in the security room there. No doubt he made some kind of a call. If they are brave and stupid they’ll react with their helo. If they are smarter, they will get together something we can’t handle. Either way, we don’t wanna hang around. Larry, can you move?”

Larry’s eyes were open by then. He opened his mouth, coughed, and said, “Yeah, I think so. Hey, pretty lady.”

Elise pressed her lips together in a wan tearful smile. “Hang in there. You’ll be fine now.”

They helped Larry to his feet, leaving the shreds of his armor and most of his clothing in a bloody heap on the floor. Daniel handed him an MRE, then opened another one.
Mmmm, chicken a la king.
He could have eaten raw chicken at this point. He laughed to himself.
Actually yes, I could. Salmonella is no threat anymore
.

Skull dragged in the hog-tied man they had caught sleeping, slung him next to the other one. “What about these two?” he asked, gesturing at the immobilized men on the floor.

Spooky walked over to them with his P90 aimed.

“No!” Daniel yelled.

“Shut up, Markis” warned Skull. He swung his HK Daniel’s direction, an implicit threat. “It’s not your call.”

Daniel stood up, stepped up to Skull. His forward motion stopped with the flash suppressor of the HK in his chest. One twitch of the man’s finger and he might be dead. He wasn’t at all sure his armor could stop a high-powered rifle bullet at point-blank range.

Their eyes locked.

“I’m making it my call. This guy’s not the enemy, he’s just doing a job.” Daniel reached up to grasp the barrel with his left hand, shoved it aside. Then stared Skull down.

“They almost killed Larry,” the thin sniper grated, his eyes cold and fixed.

“But they didn’t. And we saved his life. Nothing to avenge.” Daniel stepped into Skull’s personal space, put a hand on his chest, pushing him inexorably back. He stumbled, and Daniel shoved his skinny frame. He sprawled on his back. Daniel pointed a finger at him. “Next time you aim a weapon at me, you better shoot me, or I’ll shove it up your ass.”

Skull spread his hands, backing down for the moment. But Daniel could tell it wasn’t over between them.

“He’s right,” rumbled Zeke, reluctantly
.

I hope he means me
, Daniel thought.

“Nobody kills anybody if we don’t need to,” Zeke went on.

Daniel let his breath out with relief. Elise stepped up behind, staring at the unconscious man on the floor. “It’s Miguel,” she said softly. “He’s a slimy bastard and rapist. This is the first time I’ve regretted the virtue effect. Part of me wants to teach him a lesson he’ll never forget. But I have a better idea.” She reached over to open a drawer and pulled out a syringe. She filled it with blood from her own arm, then plunged it into each of the prisoners in turn.

“Great, you’re rewarding them for being assholes?” Skull asked disgustedly.

“Actually,” she said, “this is the best revenge. The virtue effect will make him regret his own misdeeds, and he won’t repeat them. Maybe it will keep other people safe from him later. And he’ll be useless to the Company now. They both will be.”

“That’s smart, and kind. Forgiving.” said Daniel approvingly.

Elise brightened with his praise. She reached to embrace him, putting her head against his chest.

Skull snorted.

A note of envy in there I think,
Elise said to herself.
Whatever.

Zeke broke the moment. “That’s enough of that. Time to get out. Listen, you,” he poked Miguel, “tell your masters that we got the healing stuff. If they want it kept under control for a while longer, they’ll stop coming after us. Otherwise, maybe we’ll just release it into the water supply. Or start biting people.”

Elise shook her head, started to say something.

Daniel held up a hand to stop her. Rogett was still out cold and Miguel was blindfolded, and he didn’t want him to see Zeke or hear any commentary, because he knew Zeke was bluffing.

Or thought he was.

He also didn’t think the bluff would work. Governments, or government employees, generally don’t react well to blackmail.
We’ve bloodied their noses, embarrassed them, stolen their secret formula, and the person or people behind the whole thing will want it back.
The only question was, would he or she still try to do damage control, or would it be confession time, bump it up to higher authority and turn it into an official reaction by the whole Agency or worse. Daniel really didn’t want that. “Sure wish we could destroy this lab,” he remarked. “That would slow them down a bit.”

Spooky said, “We could burn it. Best we can do. We have to go.”

“Oh, I got something better,” answered Larry in a gravel voice. “I got claymores. And thermite. In the bag in the first closet.” Claymores were command-detonated explosive mines. Not ideal for blowing up buildings, but good enough as a field expedient. Thermite was a high-temperature incendiary that would melt its way through damned near anything.

Zeke nodded. “Excellent. Set them up. Find the fire suppression system and turn it off. Skull, Spooky, get some flammables. Miss Wallis, are there records?”

She pointed at one wall, where several computers sat, with rows of disks and a humming commercial-grade hard drive.

Daniel walked over, started dumping all the recordable data media and drives he could find into a pile onto the floor. “Make sure we pour some accelerant over here,” he said.

Elise came over to the computers, opening a drawer and reaching far into the back. She came up with something in her hand, something small, about the size of a pack of cigarettes. “Flash drive. It’s got a secret copy of almost all of our work on it, just in case.”

In case of what, Daniel wondered? He supposed in case of something like this.

“Take this and go over there.” She handed him the flash drive and pointed toward the door.

Daniel was puzzled, but complied, moving away.

She picked up a strange heavy device with a handle and a thick three-prong cord on it. She plugged it in and flipped a switch. It started to hum with a noise that made his teeth hurt. “Electromagnet,” she said. “It’ll wipe everything.” She started running the thing over the computer cases and hard drives. He saw now why she sent him and the precious flash drive away.

Skull came in with a five-gallon jerry can of diesel and started pouring it all over everything. The guy in the hood began to scream through the gagging tape when he smelled it.

Probably thinks we’re going to burn him.
Daniel watched Skull carefully.

Zeke shoved Skull out of the way, dragged the man outside.

Spooky kicked Karl, who was either still unconscious or shamming. “One of you strongmen grab this one, please. I am no weightlifter.”

Daniel left Elise to her magnetic wiping and grabbed Karl by a leg. Then dragged him none too gently out into the parking lot and left him with the other one by the Jeep.

It was quiet outside, except for a faint buzzing sound, like a weed-eater heard from two yards over. Or a helo a few miles out. It was getting louder.

“We got company coming, fellas,”’ Daniel said. “ETA maybe one or two minutes. I can hear a bird inbound.”

Zeke answered for everyone. “Roger. Rally at the ORP, go go go.”

“Wait, I have to let the chimps out!” cried Elise. She ran for the other room, frantically opening cages. She led the two apes outside, holding each by a hand.

“We have to leave them, you know,” Zeke intoned. Elise looked pleadingly at him but he shook his head. “They’ll be fine, they will want them for the future research program. Just lock them up in the other building.”

Elise nodded tearfully and quickly did so. The childlike primates did not want to let her go but she had no choice.

The six of them streamed for the rally point, flames licking at the laboratory behind them. They heard two explosions inside, rattling the walls and spitting dust and debris out the doors. Larry’s claymores and thermite had done their work.

Zeke counted heads as they arrived, then led everyone quickly through the woods by moonlight. Daniel stayed right behind Elise. A couple of brief minutes later they got to the rubber boat.

The buzzing of the helicopter was closer, but the only thing they knew was it was coming from the east, and the trees blocked their view. They couldn’t embark on the raft until they were sure the helo wasn’t a threat. They heard it making a couple of passes near the burning lab, then it turned toward them.

It raced overhead, suddenly visible as it passed above the treeline and then out over the water. It looked like an OH-6 or Hughes 500 variant, commonly called a ‘Loach,’ or ‘Little Bird,’ probably the best light helicopter ever made. It made a sharp turn south, paralleling the shoreline two hundred yards out.

Suddenly, tracers spat from the helo’s open door, striking the rented boat. Two assault weapons on full auto responded from the little squad on the beach, reaching out to intersect the insectlike device in flight. The tracers started to shift toward them, then the bird staggered in the air and lost power. Smoke started pouring from it, and they could see flames. A moment later it made a hard splashdown in the water beyond the boat, pieces of rotor flying.

“Stupid,” said Zeke, pain in his voice. “Dammit, why did they do that?” It sounded like the Eden Plague was plaguing his conscience as well.

At least it isn’t just me,
Daniel thought
.

“Arrogant,” responded Spooky. “Be glad they did. Is one less variable.”

“We have a bigger problem,” said Skull, standing up and walking out of the trees onto the rocky beach. “Look.”

Their rented boat, their way off the island, was already listing noticeably. The helo’s shooter must have holed it badly below the waterline before it was knocked down.

“Dammit,” said Larry, staring. “What now?”

“What are you doing, DJ?” Zeke asked. “We can’t save the boat.”

Daniel was singlehandedly dragging the rubber raft toward the water. “How about the people in the helo!” he screamed. “There might be survivors!”

Zeke stared at him for a second, then grabbed the other side of the raft and helped him get it to the water’s edge. “Spooky, you and DJ paddle out there.” Zeke ran back to the treeline. “Elise, is there a boat in that boathouse?”

“Yes there is! An 18-foot powerboat. Let’s go get it!” she said eagerly. She started back into the woods in the direction of the dock, Skull and Zeke following right behind. At the boathouse she tried the door, then kicked at it in frustration. Zeke kicked it powerfully, opened for real. They dashed inside to get the boat there running.

Daniel and Spooky rowed out to where the Loach had hit. Wreckage was still floating, and there was one guy clinging to a piece. They dragged him into the rubber boat and he lay there gasping. Spooky kept a weapon pointed at his nose. They looked around but couldn’t find anyone else. Daniel kept his mouth shut. They’d saved one man anyway.

By this time they heard, then saw, the powerboat screaming around the south end of the island at thirty knots or more. Daniel hoped they didn’t hit a submerged rock at that speed. As they got closer he could see Skull driving, with Elise in the back. He soon pulled in close to shore.