Hot Zone (24 page)

37

Early evening in Amsterdam found Dick Finn sitting in his hotel bar, rubbing his tired eyes as he enjoyed a scotch on the rocks. Julia Cramer pulled up a stool beside him and ordered a gin and tonic.

"You look tired, Dick. You're working too hard."

"
You're
working me too hard Jules. Bob and I have been burning it at both ends looking for a good reason, any reason to convince you guys to make those frogs stop the testing."

"Your argument was rather compelling today I thought. Stupid but compelling." Cramer said.

Finn looked into his scotch glass nodding his head, he knew he'd taken a big risk. He'd done it for Dalton. "Sometimes you have to take chances Jules."

Cramer took a sip of her drink and let out a big sigh. "Dick, we are not going to call a cease order on the French. It's not our problem the Americans breached the exclusion zone and it's certainly not the Legions fault the U.S. Navy got nosey. But I wanted to tell you that we did vote on it, we spent most of the afternoon deciding whether we would go ahead with the order or not."

Finn nodded his head, "And what was your vote?"

"It was a unanimous decision, Dick."

"You guys don't realize what you've done. In less than a day the French are going to detonate the most powerful atomic bomb since Hiroshima in the same location as those SEALs and whatever it was they found down there. You're going to kill them Julia, you know that right?"

"Dick. They shouldn't be there. And they should know the test is coming up. The pentagon has information on these things. They had to know they'd have ships in the area at the time. I am sure the SEALs are aware of their time limit to get out of there.

"So that's it then?" Finn asked.

"That's it Dick. Case closed."

Finn shook his head in disgust as he stood, dropping cash on the bar. He leaned into Cramer and said: "I hope so Julia, because if they don't know about the test it's on your watch. You'll have to deal with the consequences then, not me."

And with that Finn walked away.

Finn dialed Bob Dalton before his shoes hit the side walk. He was fuming right now. He couldn't believe Julia Cramer, his long time friend, had railroaded his request right out of the court within a matter of hours.

Dalton sounded groggy on the other end of the line. "Dalton."

"Bob, it's Dick. You're not going to believe it. They turned it down,
she
bloody turned it down."

For some unknown reason to Finn, Dalton didn't seem surprised.

"Dick, did you honestly think they were going to call the order on the speculation that something and someone maybe out there. We think the SEALs are missing, but we're not sure. They could be sitting on the deck of the Kitty Hawk right now eating ribs for all we know. Anyway, they aren't supposed to be there. It's their own fault if they get caught in the blast radius, is it not?"

"Jesus, Bob, you sound like Cramer."

"Dick, I appreciate what you did, going out on a limb for me, for New Zealand, you certainly didn't have to. But for now it looks like we've done all we can do. We're done here."

"Yeah. It's too bad."

"All we can do is pray for those SEALs and hope they get out of the area before the blast. Either way Dick, do me one favor."

"What?"

"Keep what you know about the SEALs to yourself. Don't make this public, what you know. It won't get you anywhere and won't achieve a thing, the battle is lost, let it go and prepare for the next one. We've got that East Timor hearing scheduled in two weeks and we have to be ready for that."

"I hear you Bob. We'll talk soon, sorry again, I did what I could."

"I know Dick, dinner on Friday okay. We'll talk then."

The line clicked and went dead on the other end. Finn placed his cell phone back in his pocket briefly and began walking the streets of Amsterdam with his mind racing. Dalton's words rang true.

He should let it go, he'd already stepped out on a limb and it had achieved nothing. Maybe it was the fact the SEAL team consisted of three Australians that caused him to care so much, the thought of letting any Aussie die needlessly did not sit well with him, not as it did Cramer.

Just let it go Dick.

But he couldn't let it go. He pulled his cell phone out and dialed his secretary. "Astrid, get me Lieutenant Longwell from the US Navy on the phone please and patch him through to my cell. Keep trying until you get him, it's urgent."

He wouldn't let it go.

38

In the generator room, Ice and Jordan were deciding their next course of action. With the Frenchman on their tail, or perhaps even ahead of them now what they did next was crucial.

Ice was working his military mind into a notebook of potential moves and the possible outcome from each. He still could not believe that he had come down here with his team on a rescue mission and had ended up in a fire fight with the French Foreign Legion.

With the rescue part over it was time for him to get his team out of the French facility in one piece. He studied the map in the Frenchman's journal, the three domes they had seen while diving were clearly marked. He also noticed that there was a mining cavern which had the "track" that he had noted. He did not write where it lead which concerned Ice.

Jordan sat intently, listening to the horrifying sounds of the birds on the other side of the door. She was intrigued by the creatures, scared, too. She wanted to see them up close. To Jordan, seeing creatures no one had ever seen before on the surface, live flying birds existing on the bottom of the ocean was like a live archaeology expedition where the fossils were anything but.

"Ice, what if I went out there. I could see if he's hiding out. I can also get a good look at those creatures. I think there's enough overgrowth out there that I can hide safely enough. What do you think?"

Ice's first reaction was to say no and tie Jordan up in the room. He was taken by surprise at her sudden will to want to risk herself in order to study the creatures and in doing so risk a confrontation with the Frenchman. It was a huge risk but it was what she was here for and he wasn't going to turn her down.

Making sure the gun was loaded and the safety was off he handed it to Jordan and said: "Don't leave the greenhouse, if you get into any trouble, fire this, just don't do it into the ceiling, there's a little bit of water above us."

"And if I see the French guy?"

"Don't let him see you."

Jordan walked to the door and quietly turned the handle unlocking the bolt.

"Jordan." Ice said

"Yeah."

"Let me make sure it's clear for you."

Ice nudged the door open, just wide enough to get a glance around the greenhouse. Confident the Frenchman was not there somewhere staring back at him he reached out to Jordan and let her slip past him.

"Jordan."

She turned, "Yeah."

"Be careful out there. Five minutes, not a second longer."

She nodded, closing the door. Ice moved his attention back to the journal and began reading the rest of the entries.

* * *

Jordan slipped into the overgrowth providing her instant invisibility from the monster birds.

They continued to hoon and shriek, this time however Jordan noticed something different about the sounds they made; they were the sounds of pain.

The light!

It was the only reasonable explanation. They hadn't experienced light before; their eyes had evolved over the decades to harness the darkness which explained their bright yellow color.

Moving slowly and quietly through the overgrowth she couldn't help but be drawn in by the enormity of the plant life. By any logical right these plants should not have even been able to survive in these conditions, yet these plants seemed to thrive.

Tropical varieties Jordan had never seen before burst from the ground. There were three large tables she could make out that had been completely engulfed by the potted plants that had once sat on the tables. The leaves on all of the plants were overtly large, they had a leathery, dry texture, to the point that Jordan had to feel them to believe they were real.

Coming to a break in the growth Jordan eyed two of the birds writhing on their backs on the ground. She edged herself over behind a large fern, hoping it would hide her from the birds.

Then something Jordan found to be very strange happened.

The birds stops writhing, stopped shrieking and flipped onto their feet. In the sitting position they were six-feet tall, black, evil and menacing. Jordan stepped back, shocked at this, the branches and leaves on the tree she had been hiding behind rustled. Two birds turned their heads and stared directly at her. Fearing any sudden movement might set them off, Jordan froze, held her breath and prayed.

The birds began walking awkwardly towards her, their top heavy bodies swaying about on their chicken legs. Closing in on Jordan they poked their heads through the leaves, one of them coming face to face with her, its beak was no more than an inch away.

A sickening flow of air snorted out of the nostrils of the bird. Jordan had to summon every ounce of courage she had not to move in the face of death, she didn't even want to blink her eyes. She felt sick in the pit of her stomach, an overwhelming feeling that the worst possible thing was about to happen to her raced through her veins.

The bird nudged the side of Jordan's face, as if tempting her to move, feeling her out. She still resisted every urge in her body to run. She knew she wouldn't get ten yards before it caught her. The bird's big yellow eyes blinked rapidly as it grunted and continued to nudge her. The bird snorted again then moved his attention to the blood soaked wrapping around her gashed arm.

He can smell the blood, oh my god, he can smell my blood!

She was in the middle of trying to put her mind in a happy place when she heard a distinct thud.

The kind of noise you make when you trip and fall.

The bird turned its head in the direction of the sound, seeing the second bird race off through the trees the bird turned back to Jordan, snorted and with one strong whoosh from it's large wings went airborne, flying through the trees after the sound.

Seconds later, Jordan, who was still petrified to move heard the sickening wails and curses of the Frenchman being torn apart by the birds, and she knew immediately that the he had been killed.

Taking her only chance she moved as fast as possible without making a sound. She had to get back to the generator room, she wasn't going to last much longer against these creatures without the benefit of Ice's expertise.

"Ice, let me in." She whispered through the thick steel door. "Quickly."

Not a breath later Jordan found herself back inside the room. Ice had opened the door and pulled her inside in one move, so quickly she didn't believe it had happened.

"Are you hurt?" He asked checking her out.