Winter's Storm: Retribution (Winter's Saga #2) (28 page)

Margo curled a blanket around the sleeping coyote. “Meg is going to be so happy to see you, Maze. She’s coming home, you know! And we’re going to get her all better so you two can…” her voice caught in her throat. “Well, we’ll all be back together. We’ve always been our strongest when we’re together.” She blinked back tears and forced herself to think positively.

51 Infinite Possibilities

“
Hello?” a voice came from outside in the corridor accompanied by a soft rapping.

“
Hello? Is someone in there? Is everything okay? We heard…well, are you all right?”

More polite knocking.

When the wailing continued, everyone on the first floor of the hospital was alarmed. Determined to restore order to her hospital, the charge nurse from the first floor decided to investigate the sounds herself. Having earned her status with years of exemplary service to the Facility’s hospital, she was one of only a handful of staff who had been given a numerical code that would give access to the building’s stairwell down to the basement. This was to be used in emergencies only and in all her years of service at the hospital, she had never had a reason to use that access until today when the screams and wails continued to echo through the floor boards.

Knowing there was no other room in the basement except this one, the nurse had to assume the cries came from behind the door to which she now held her ear. When only muffled sobs answered her patient knocking, she decided she had no choice but to open the door.

She reached down and tried the knob. It turned easily in her hand and sprang ajar. The sobs continued, unaffected by the light streaming in from open door. Not wanting to startle the person inside, she spoke again, “Hello? I’m a nurse. Can I help you?”

The dark room became silent for a moment. Then the innocent nurse heard a guttural, animal-like growl reverberate from the far corner. She couldn’t see, but she could hear and it didn’t sound human or meta.

Though very much afraid, morbid curiosity commanded her hand flip on the light switch. The moment she did, she regretted it. What looked at first to be a bundle of clothes tossed into the corner was instead a man she didn’t recognize. In his arms, he held a girl. He was cradling her thin frame in his arms like a baby and rocking back and forth. When he lifted his face the nurse later swore it was the most horrifying sight she had ever witnessed, and the memory was seared into her mind even as she ran screaming from the room.

Upon subsequent interrogation by the Commander himself, she swore she hadn’t recognized the man. That she had never seen him before. She described what she saw and felt terrified tears stream down her face during the entire interview.

“
The man’s eyes were sunken deep into his skull and dead, black like a shark’s. He had chunks of hair ripped off his scalp leaving bloody, bald patches,” she said motioning to her own head.

Swallowing hard, the nurse continued, “Blood ran down his face and dripped on the body in his arms, but he just kept rocking back and forth like he was going to sing a lullaby to the woman. He looked monstrous.”

Shaking, she reached for the bottled water in front of her before finishing. “Beside him were vials. I recognized them immediately by their packaging.”

“
What were the markings on the vials?” the commander asked, though he knew the answer to his question even before he asked it.

“
They were vials of the Infinity Serum, sir. I’d recognize that symbol anywhere.”

The commander removed his piercing gaze from the nurse, clasped his hands behind his back and asked, “Was there anything else? Did he say anything to you?”

The girl was so scared her mouth went dry and her heart thumped hard enough to vibrate her vision. “Yes, sir. He laughed and screamed something I couldn’t understand—it—it was a different language!”

“
Say what you remember of it!” The commander was losing his patience with this witness.

“
It was something like: ‘Ego sus-ci-tatio bestia intus.’” The woman looked up with pleading eyes. “And that’s when I ran.”

Commander Oldham closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath. “Please wait outside. I’ll have a chaperone escort you back to your quarters.”

The nurse stood and began walking obediently toward the door but stopped halfway there. She turned and blurted, “Sir, what’s going to happen? Who was he, and who was the girl? Did he kill her? Did the serum do that to him? Why…”

“
Soldier!” barked Oldham angrily. He had crossed the length of the room instantaneously and was now inches away from her face. “Silence your tongue! You forget your place!” he spat.

Startled by his reaction, the woman nodded once and left the room to wait in the seats outside the Commander’s office.

Oldham walked to his desk, picked up the phone and pressed a single button. “The woman seated outside my office is to be terminated immediately. Call me when it’s done.” He slammed the phone down and sat at his computer to think.

The Director had dosed himself with the Infinity Serum, that much was just confirmed by the nurse. Oldham shook his head, shocked. It never occurred to him that the scientist would react like this. He expected sorrow, sure—a grieving period where he mourned the girl, understandable. But this? This was…unthinkable!

Oldham wasn’t a scientist, but even he knew that the Infinity Serum was only tested on expendable subjects. He’d heard there was a huge mortality rate during the initial days after a subject was dosed. And even then, each new meta was volatile and unpredictable for a while. Some went on to be added as a cadet to the Facility. Others were too unstable and were considered inadequate for meta training. Those subjects were terminated. But he never knew of the serum to be given to a subject older than fifteen. What would it do to a sixty-five-year-old man? What was Williams thinking?

The more he thought, the more worried he became. He flipped open his laptop and typed in the search engine the words the woman had remembered. Of all the sites that pulled up, most of them referred to the words as Latin. Refining his search, he found a Latin to English translator. It only took a couple attempts for him to get the general idea of Williams’ statement. He whispered the translation to himself and worried that he was about to get what he had wished for.

“
Ego suscitatio bestia intus” translated to “I awakened the beast within.”

52 Coming in for a Landing

“
Okay, I have some good news and some bad news,” Alik said after having just spoken with his mom.

“
I was just about to say the same thing,” Evan said as he made his way back down the aisle after visiting the cockpit.

“
Farrow played target practice with Cole. She clipped his arm. Mom and Paulie just finished reconstructing his biceps. He’s lucky to be alive. Maze was hurt, too. But thankfully, it was by flying debris from a missed shot and not directly from a bullet.” Alik stared at his brother with wide eyes.

Evan sat down slowly muttering, “I can’t wait to get my hands on that—”

Interrupting, Creed said, “Cole and Maze are stable. Farrow must be getting desperate if she missed her targets like that. She’s usually an expert sniper. This is more telling of her state of mind than anything.”

“
What was the good news?” Evan asked somberly.

“
The good news is that mom made enough smoke bombs to give us near blackout coverage for probably four minutes,” Alik said trying to sound positive.

The cabin was quiet for a moment as the metas imagined being partially blinded for four minutes while trying to get Meg safely out of the ambulance and rolled up the walkway and into the house. It was going to be tricky.

“
Evan, what’s your news? What’s going on with the pilots?” Alik asked.

Sighing deeply to clear his head, Evan said, “The pilots tell me that we’re going to begin our decent now.”

“
That sounds like good news. What’s the bad?” Creed asked.

“
We’re riding in on fumes,” Evan said seriously. “They’ve been fighting crosswinds that have taken up more fuel than the flight planner anticipated.”

“
What can we do?” Creed asked the room.

“
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to check Meg’s safety straps for the hundredth time, then strap myself in.” He looked over at his brother and nodded. “Then we’re going to pray.”

All three boys began moving around the cabin quickly in preparation. The speaker hissed awake and the captain’s voice came on. “Well, boys…we’re in for a bumpy landing, that’s for sure. I’ve been in contact with the tower and they have cleared the path for us to just come on in. They’ll have emergency vehicles standing by to help as soon as we’re down. We’ve already begun our decent and can see the island in the distance.”

At this time, please make sure the safety harnesses on our patient are secure then secure yourselves into your seats. We’re going to do our best to keep this bird behaving as we need her to, and with a little luck we may just pull this off. It’s been an honor serving you. Jacobi out.”

From the windows the passengers saw the ocean move closer and closer into view. From below their feet, they felt the vibrations as the landing gear was deployed and locked into place. The green of the island replaced the blue of the water. The gray of the tarmac was right below them, and then, with the softest of bumps, the tires touched the runway. The flaps were pulled up to slow the plane and just like that, they were taxing casually to the terminal.

It all felt so surreal.

“
That was it? Have we landed, or am I dead?” Creed asked to the stunned cabin.

Before anyone could answer, Captain Jacobi came over the speaker laughing, “Did you feel that? Guys, that was probably the smoothest landing I’ve ever made at this airport. Somehow, a tailwind carried us right to the tarmac and set us gently on the ground. That was the damn-dest thing I’ve ever seen! Trainer? Have you ever heard of something like this? Me either! I’ll be talking about this flight for the next fifty years! That was awesome! Hang on, the tower’s calling me…” and the ecstatic voice of the pilot clicked off.

“
Thank you, God!” Alik said aloud.

“
Amen, brother! Mom’s going to love this story!” Evan grinned widely.

“
You kidding? Who wouldn’t?” Creed said relieved.

“
Williams.” Alik smiled.

“
Except him.” Creed was unfastening his seatbelt.

“
Farrow,” Evan added jumping up from his seat and looked at the ambulance waiting for them at the gate.

“…
and her.” Creed walked over to Meg and gently touched her forehead with his hands.

Leaning down he whispered, “Hi, beautiful! We’re back on land and taking you home. I can’t wait to see you smile.” Without thinking, he brushed his lips softly against her pale cheek.

“
Hey, now—enough with the mushy stuff. We’ve got to get her unloaded and on that bus down there.” Alik was so thrilled to be so close to safety, he felt like running the whole way home.

The ground crew was opening the special ambulatory hatch that acted as a ramp for Meg’s gurney when the two captains came back to help.

“
The tower’s givin’ me a hard time about them having to pull out all their emergency vehicles and personnel for nothing! Ha! They don’t believe me that we have zero fuel left on this bird!”

“
It really was the most remarkable landing I’ve ever been a part of,” Mr. Trainer was saying.

The two men were smiling and smacking each other on the back like a couple of football players who just threw, caught and scored the winning touchdown.

They could afford to relax and celebrate now. They weren’t on their way to face a furious female meta named Farrow who had personalized bullets waiting for them.

53 Orographic Effects

“
How did you talk the driver out of giving you the keys to this ambulance?” Evan asked Creed as they were cruising down the road with Meg, her gurney and all her medical equipment.

Creed smiled. “I gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

“
You don’t mean…” Alik started, frowning.

“
I asked him how much money he made in a year working as a paramedic and gave him double that in cash.” Creed glanced over at Alik and Evan, taking his eyes off the road only for a second.

“
Working for Williams, I had access to as much money as I needed to accomplish my objectives. All that’s about to be cut off, so I thought I’d go out with a bang. I also gave the pilots and Missy double their yearly salaries each. They certainly earned it!”

“
Nice, Creed! So, how does it feel to be a good guy?” Alik teased.

“
I’ll feel better once we get Meg healthy,” he said changing the tone of the conversation.

“
We all will.”

“
What is our ETA?”

“
GPS says eight minutes.”

“
It’s time to text Mom.”

“
Is it just me or does it seem to be getting darker?” Creed said.

“
Oh, no. Do you see that?” Evan pointed upward as they rounded a ridge.

“
Damn it. This isn’t good,” Alik moaned.