V Plague (Book 11): Merciless (17 page)

“Mister Prime Minister.  You cannot allow this man to dictate your actions.  He has repeatedly demonstrated that his only desire is to destroy.  Kill.  He has no regard for life.  If you allow him in, what’s next?  Does he take control of your government with the threat of his finger on the button that releases the nerve agent?”

“I understand your position, Admiral.  However, Australia has not been attacked.  This has been a conflict between Russia and the United States.”

“Australia hasn’t been attacked?”  Packard exploded, finally losing his temper.  “What do you call the threat of the murder of your citizens if you don’t comply with his demands?  That is an act of war, sir!”

“He only wants to be allowed into Australia where he may live in peace,” the PM responded arrogantly.  “Once he and his fellow Russians are safe, their military will stand down.  The fighting will end.”

“
Are you fucking kidding me?
”  The Admiral thought to himself when he heard the politician’s words.

“Admiral?  Are you still there?” 

Packard had gone silent, seething internally.

“Yes, I’m still here,” he growled.

“I understand this is hard to accept.  But the conflict is over.  It must be, if the human race is going to survive.  It’s time to move on and begin rebuilding what has been lost.  Australia will provide any and all assistance needed by the United States.  Food.  Medical supplies.  Materials.  We are still your friend and ally.

“But, please make no mistake.  I will not allow millions of my citizens to die, simply so that you may continue a war that is now pointless.  Do not approach the Russian fleet, Admiral.  Any such action shall be deemed as an act of war against Australia, and retaliation shall be swift.”

“I understand,” Packard said into the phone, accepting there was no point in continuing to argue with the politician. 

“Thank you for your understanding and cooperation, Admiral.  It really is the best course of action forward at this point.  Thank you for taking my call.”

There was click and the PM was gone.  Packard continued to hold the phone to his ear for several moments.  The urge to rip it off his desk and smash the device on the floor was almost irresistible. 

“Sir?”

He looked up to see his aide patiently waiting.  He hadn’t even noticed the man reenter the room.  Calmly, he replaced the handset on the phone.

“What did you find out?”

“We have a recording of the conversation, but can’t locate the origin of the call.  It was bounced off of three separate Russian satellites before being relayed to a ground based station in Siberia, then over a fiber optic link.”

“Get me a transcript of that call, and gather my senior staff immediately,” Packard ordered.

21

“We got a problem up here, Major.”

I pushed my radio’s earbud deeper into my ear when I heard Long’s voice.

“Talk to me,” I said.

The big truck came to a stop in front of me, at the top of the exit ramp.  I hit the brakes, bringing the Cadillac to a halt a few feet from its rear.  All around, infected continued to pound on the body and glass, trying to reach us.

“I can see the perimeter fence around Offutt, and there’s a shit-ton of infected pressed up against it.”

“Can we push through them?”  I asked.

“Probably, but that’s not the biggest problem.  Russians.  I count five Hinds at the far end of the runway.”

“What are they doing here?”

“Can’t tell, sir.  Too far away.  Can make out the helos, and a bunch of what look like infected all around them, but if there’re Russian troops on the ground I don’t see them.”

“Fuck me running,” I muttered.

“What?”  Rachel asked.

“Russians on the base,” I said, looking out my side window at a female who was licking the glass as she pounded on the door.

“How many?”

“Five helicopters worth,” I said.  “If they were fully loaded, that’s 40 men.  The guys can see infected wandering around the aircraft, but no soldiers visible.”

“What do we do?  We can’t fight the infected and that many Russians,” Rachel said.

“Irina, any idea what they’d want here?”  I asked, ignoring Rachel.

“No,” she answered after a moment of thought.  “But isn’t Offutt your USSTRATCOM headquarters?”

“It is,” I said, not liking any of the ideas I was having about why the Russians were here.

“If the intelligence gathered by the GRU is correct, then there are two reasons I can think of,” Irina continued.  “Other than submarine launched, all American ICBMs can be controlled from here.  Or disabled.  Also, there was a large inventory of nuclear warheads located here.  I do not know why those would be of interest, however.  Other than that, the possibilities are almost limitless.”

“What are we doing, Major?  Got more infected headed our way,” Long said over the radio.

“If we take the exit, are there surface streets that are clear?  Can we open some distance between us and the infected?”  I asked.

“There’s a road around the perimeter at the bottom of the ramp.  Once we’re on it, we can circle the base and leave them behind.”

“What about fuel trucks?  Can you see any?”

There was a long pause before he answered.

“No, sir.  None visible, but most of our view of the flight line is blocked by hangars.”

“OK.  If we’re on the perimeter road, how visible are we going to be to the Russians?”

“Hard to say without knowing where they are, sir.  But if they’re in the area where they landed, once we get down the ramp I don’t think there’s much chance of them noticing us.”

“Alright,” I said.  “Let’s move.”

Long didn’t answer, and a couple of seconds later the truck lurched forward and shoved the last remaining vehicle out of our path.  I followed, steering close to the abandoned cars to scrape some of our unwanted riders off the sides of the SUV.

The freeway was elevated at this point, sweeping up to create an overpass.  As the truck went down to the street below, we got a good view of the air base.  Far in the distance, I could see a small handful of helicopters near a large collection of buildings.  At this range I couldn’t tell they were Hinds, but trusted that the Rangers in the truck had used a scope for a better look.

At the bottom of the ramp, Long made a sharp left to drive under the freeway.  The massive front bumper on the truck plowed through a tightly packed contingent of infected.  I accelerated, staying close so they didn’t have time to regroup and force me to bull through. 

Ever since I had rescued Rachel in Arkansas, I’d been nervous about ramming into a group of infected without benefit of a stout push bar.  The last thing I wanted to deal with was an air bag suddenly inflating in my face because I had struck a solid phalanx of bodies.

Clearing the freeway, Long turned right onto the perimeter road and I stayed tight behind.  The infected were thick, apparently having been drawn to the area by the noise of the Russian helicopters landing.  They had piled up against the fence, now turning and heading to intercept us.

Fortunately, the truck had more than enough power and weight to shove even large groups aside with ease.  But that didn’t prevent females from climbing onto the back and sides.  By the time we pushed through the main body, there were so many clinging to the exterior of the big rig that I couldn’t even see its bodywork.

“What are we going to do about them when we stop?”  Irina asked, leaning forward until her head was between Rachel and me.

Her position made me think of Dog, and I almost said something before catching myself.  I’m sure the last thing any woman would want to hear was that she had reminded you of a dog. 

I missed the big fur ball.  I knew he was safe with Igor, with someone who would take care of him.  But, he’d been a nearly constant companion since the day after the attacks, and had become part of my new family.  It just didn’t feel right without him.

“We shoot them,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

Offutt Air Force Base may only have one runway, but it’s large.  It took several minutes to drive around the end of the base and approach an area that was screened from the helicopters by a series of hangars and squat, brick buildings.

“This looks good,” I said to Long over the radio.

“Copy that, sir,” he said, brake lights suddenly flaring.

I braked hard, warning the girls to make sure their rifles were ready.

“You’ve got a bunch of riders,” I said to Long.  “Stay in the cab when you stop and we’ll clean them off for you.”

“Copy,” he replied, the truck rolling to a stop fifty yards ahead.

“We’ve only got one suppressor,” Rachel said, holding her rifle up.

Shit!  I’d gotten so used to carrying a rifle equipped with a suppressor that I hadn’t even thought about all the noise we were going to make shooting the infected.  If we started firing, we’d not only attract any infected that weren’t already aware of us, we’d also announce our presence to the Russians.  Glancing in the back seat, I confirmed that Irina’s rifle was also missing a suppressor. 

I wanted to get in quietly.  Wanted to find out what they were up to before finding a fuel truck.  Sitting there in the idling Cadillac, I tried to think of a way to pull that off.

“Everything OK back there, sir?”  Long asked after nearly a minute.

“Sit tight, Sergeant,” I said.  “Our weapons aren’t suppressed and I don’t feel like alerting the Russians that we’re crashing their party.”

The females were still crawling all over their truck.  I did a quick count, then added the three that were hanging on to the SUV.  Fifteen.  At least that I could see.  There may have been some on the front of the truck that were hidden from my view.  Taking a deep breath, I acknowledged to myself that there was only one way to do this.

“You two have your Ka-Bars with you?”  I asked.

“Yes sir, we do.  What are you thinking?”  Long asked after a pause.

“Only one way to do this quietly,” I answered.

“Are you kidding,” he asked loudly, then added, “Sir?”

“Wish I was, Sergeant.  Unless you’ve got a better idea.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”  Rachel asked, staring at me as if I were nuts.  “Three of you can’t take on that many with just knives!”

“Like I asked Long,” I said turning to her.  “You got a better idea how to do this quietly?”

Rachel looked at me with her mouth hanging open.  After a bit, she turned to Irina, perhaps for support.  Irina met her gaze and shrugged her shoulders.

“Didn’t think so,” I said, smiling. 

Rachel shook her head, and started to say something else, but I held my hand up to stop her when Long’s voice sounded in my ear.

“Guess we’re going all Viking on their asses, sir,” he said, the doubt clear in his tone.

I grimaced as I drew my knife, wishing I had the Kukri I’d left behind when surrendering to the Russians.  Not only was it larger than the knife, it had the right kind of shape for slashing.  Stabbing was slow and laborious, and also carried the risk of a blade getting stuck on bone.  A hard strike with the Kukri could do just as much, if not more, damage with a significantly lesser chance of having a problem. 

“Better do something quick,” Irina said from the backseat.

I glanced up at the rearview to see her turned and staring out the back window.  Shifting my gaze to the side mirror, I saw a large group of females approaching.  They weren’t close, but they were coming fast and there were a lot of them.  Far too many to even consider being in the open with only a knife as a defensive weapon.

“Sir, you ready?”  Long asked.

“Wait one.”

I turned to look at Rachel, making sure she was paying attention to me and not focusing on the charging females.

“Here’s what I want you two to do,” I said, drawing Irina’s attention.  “Rachel, keep your rifle in case you have to use it.  That group behind us needs to be drawn off.  When we get all of these put down, we’ll take shelter in the cab of the truck.  Stay here until the females are almost on you, then slowly drive away.  Lead them past us.  Take them on a tour of town, lose them and head back to the airport.  We’ll meet you there once we get a fuel truck.”

They both nodded and I met Rachel’s eyes briefly as I radioed the two Rangers and gave the
Go
order.  Popping my door open, I used it to shove one of the females away from the Cadillac and leapt out.  She was already charging, as was another who had climbed onto the hood and launched herself at me.

Spinning, I slammed an elbow into the face of the one charging as I raised the knife in my other hand.  The leaper impaled herself on the blade, the steel going in the notch of her collar bone at the base of her throat.  With a violent twist, I flung her away, a gout of blood splashing across me as she was torn open.  Her body hit the ground and rolled.

Continuing the motion, I reversed the Ka-Bar in my hand and stabbed into the first one’s ear.  The third was on me now, and, fortunately, was a small woman.  I reached out and locked my free hand on her neck as I struggled to remove the blade from the dead female’s head.  It was stuck tight, and I had to abandon it as the one I was holding nearly broke my grip.

She was small, but she was strong as hell.  Struggling with her reminded me of trying to control an animal.  Pound for pound, she was significantly stronger than I was.  It took everything I had to hold her at bay, then I got the leverage I needed.  Lifting, I raised her off the ground, twisted and slammed her headfirst onto the asphalt, crushing her skull and breaking her neck.

Using both hands, I wrenched the Ka-Bar out of the other female’s skull and dashed forward to help Long and Johnson.  They were each in a world of shit, but had thought to both exit from the same side of the cab. 

Now, they stood back to back, punching and stabbing the females that were desperately trying to pull them down.  There were four bodies on the ground, but they were overwhelmed and taken down when several infected charged in at the same time.

Arriving, I slashed open a leaping females throat, then thrust my blade into the back of the head of one on top of the pile that was smothering the two Rangers.  Yanking her aside, I grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled another head back, dispatching the bitch with a quick stab through her ribs and into her heart.