Chapter Twenty-Nine
RILEY SWALLOWED HARD. Why would anyone create such a dangerous virus? She shuddered. Her teammates looked around the lab and at each other, their unease clear in their expressions. “Can you destroy it, Violet?”
“I think so.”
Not good enough. She wanted full reassurance that her brilliant teammate would kill this bug before it killed them. “Vi.”
The medic turned to the scientists and their assistants.
“We need your help. You’re worried about the virus affecting your families.
I saw the concern on your faces. You can stop this virus from spreading and making your families sick.
Help us destroy this weaponized virus. Not only will you help yourselves, you’ll save millions of lives worldwide. Will you help?”
The group looked at each other. From their expressions, they were sympathetic but on the fence about whether they should help.
One woman spoke to her colleagues. “We can’t.” She wrapped her arms around her middle. “You know what will happen if we do.”
Her companion nodded and turned to Violet. “Maria is right. We can’t help. You don’t understand what’s at stake. They know where we live, our family members’ names, and our schedule. They know everything. If we help, the soldiers will punish us and our families.”
One scientist snorted. “You’re underestimating the consequences. If you help these strangers, you and your families will die. Javier and Diego have no mercy. Betrayal means death.”
The first woman who spoke shook her head. “We can’t. I’m sorry. Really.”
Violet inclined her head. “So am I. Where is the virus?”
The workers remained silent. Most of them broke eye contact with the Fortress operatives.
Violet’s hand clenched. “You aren’t getting away with acting like cowards.”
Noah shifted closer to his wife. “What do you need?”
“Your Sig.”
He handed it over without question.
Violet grabbed Tall One and pressed the muzzle to the woman’s temple. “None of you wants to die, but you can’t hide from the truth. If that virus is injected into the carriers, we could all die. So, here’s your choice. Tell me where the vials are, and you get to live another day.”
“And if we don’t?” Tall One’s voice was tight.
“I’ll pull the trigger without regret, then choose someone else to help. If I have to, I’ll go through every one of you. Am I making myself clear?”
Tall One nodded slightly, then inclined her head toward the large refrigerators lined up against the wall.
Violet pushed Tall One toward Noah, then handed him his Sig. “Monitor her. If she lied, she’ll be the first to die.”
“Copy that.” His hand clamped around the woman’s upper arm.
Violet glanced at Riley, then headed toward the closest refrigerator. Riley trailed behind her friend. Though the thought of facing a deadly virus horrified her, she wouldn’t leave Vi to face this task alone.
She opened the refrigerator door. Inside were row after row of glass ampoules labeled Obsidian Storm.
Part of Riley wanted to roll her eyes at the arrogance of Garcia and Mendoza in naming a virus after their organization.
Another part wanted to run screaming from the lab to get as far away from the virus as possible.
One broken vial could cause so many deaths.
Riley drew in a slow breath, staring at the vials containing liquid death. “How do we destroy the virus, Vi?”
Gunfire rang outside the lab. The glass windows spiderwebbed but held for the moment. The windows wouldn’t last long. They had to hurry. “How can I help, Violet? We’ll have unwanted company soon.”
“Look for a red button or switch on the wall. It has to be close. The immunologists wouldn’t want it too far out of reach.”
The shouts, curses, and gunfire increased outside the lab.
“Hold your fire,” Seth said. “Noah, get those civilians back into their safe place.”
“Yes, sir.” Noah motioned for the rest of the civilians to move to the back corner of the lab. “Get down on the floor and cover your head.”
“Are you going to kill us?” a young woman asked.
“You made your choice. You’ll live or die by the consequences.”
Riley scanned the wall nearest her for the red switch or button, praying they found it soon. She didn’t want to know what would happen to these ampoules if the bullets peppering the room shattered glass and spilled the virus too soon was high.
She moved to the next section of wall and froze. A red switch nestled among four cream-colored switches. “Violet.” Riley pointed to the switch.
Violet’s eyes lit up. “That’s it. Great work, Riley. Seth?”
“Whatever it is, it better be fast, Violet. We’re about to face a lot of ticked-off Storm soldiers.”
“Everyone needs to close and cover their eyes.”
His head whipped in her direction. “You know how to destroy the virus?”
She nodded. “I need a minute before we flood the lab with UV light.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Watch.” Violet glanced at Riley. “Want to have some fun?”
“Sure.” What could be fun when you had a deadly virus a few feet away with only thin glass walls separating you from liquid death? “What do you want me to do?”
“See those vials?”
Her gut knotted. “What about them?”
“Take them to the far corner and dump them out of the tray and onto the floor. The ampoules must break. Otherwise, the disinfectant can’t get to it.”
She stared. “Are you nuts? That will release the virus and infect all of us.”
“The virus will only be live for a few seconds.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Scrounge up a disinfectant to make sure the job is done right.” She motioned toward the corner. “Hurry, Riley.”
No one should be in a hurry to die. As Riley grabbed a tray, Andre hurried to the women and grabbed another large tray.
Together, they dumped the ampoules on the ground and rushed off for another load.
Each time they left the growing pile for more of the weaponized virus, Violet poured disinfectant on top of the mixed mess.
Outside the lab, gunfire increased.
“Move it, Violet,” Seth snapped. “We might have one minute if we’re lucky.”
“Copy that.”
Andre dumped his load onto the floor and tossed aside the tray as Riley had done. Their eyes streamed as the fumes increased in strength with the growing puddle of disinfectant. Each application of the disinfectant caused the liquid to foam. “Why is the virus bubbling like that, Vi?”
Violet grinned. “It’s dying.”
“That’s the last of the vials, Violet. Now what?” Andre asked.
“Get away from this corner and the fumes. I’m going to shine an ultraviolet light on the virus to be sure we missed nothing. Seth, I’m ready.”
“About time. Everybody, close and cover your eyes until Violet tells us otherwise.”
“Ready? Three, two, one.”
A bright, blinding light glowed above their heads. Andre wrapped one arm around Riley’s waist. The other covered the back of her head.
“What about your eyes, Andre?”
“I’m fine.” He buried his face in her hair. “Never better, in fact. I got close to a deadly virus and survived.”
“When we stop somewhere with a shower, each of us needs a long, hot shower to scrub every inch of skin.”
A moment later, Violet turned off the UV light. “We should be clear.” After searching for a moment, she pushed a button on the wall. A split second later, giant fans kicked on. “The fans are sucking the polluted air into sterilizing filters.”
Most of the operatives cheered.
Noah glared at them. “Congratulate yourselves later. We have a problem.”
Riley, Andre, and Violet looked through the compromised glass to see the Storm soldiers who had gathered outside the lab. Various levels of fury showed on their faces.
“Get ready,” Grant said. “They’ll try to open the doors next.”
The bombs. Riley’s stomach lurched. She didn’t know how strong the bombs were, but she knew they would take out people close to the doors.
“Watch yourselves.” Seth watched the soldiers get ready to breach the lab. “The soldiers will pepper the lab with bullets. They won’t care about collateral damage. When you get a bead on one of the enemy, take the shot.”
Riley switched to her rifle. “It’s a good thing Brent supplied us with MK18s.” The compact, 10.3-inch barrel AR-style firearm was perfect for close quarters combat.
She eased out of Andre’s hold. “I need to get to the computers.”
“It’s a good thing they’re all back here.” The muscles in Andre’s jaw hardened. “I’ll keep them off of you as long as I can, but keep your weapons handy.”
“I will. Promise. Watch yourself, Andre.”
“You’ve got it. Get to work, babe.”
Riley sat on the floor in front of one computer, connected her minicomputer with a cable, and got down to business as the bombs on the doors exploded. People screamed. The injured moaned with pain, while the victims close to the bombs were silent.
As her minicomputer established communication with the lab computer, Riley grabbed her MK18, rolled onto her stomach, and targeted an enemy soldier who was stalking Andre. A second later, the soldier was down.
Andre’s head whipped around, then he flicked a glance at Riley. “Thanks.”
“Yep.” Her minicomputer beeped. Outstanding. She was in. Riley typed in a flurry of commands and watched the screen fill up with the data transfer. Incredible. She’d have to tell Zane how impressed she was with his invention. This sucker was incredibly fast.
When the minicomputer beeped again, showing the completion of her commands, Riley typed in two other commands and watched as it wiped out the hard drive of the lab computer in seconds.
After the process finished, Riley scooted to the next computer and repeated the process, marveling at the speed of the minicomputer.
Zane’s toy copied the hard drive and deleted the original information in about two minutes, then uploaded the information to Fortress.
Once the transfer was complete, the minicomputer deleted the hard drive copy from its memory, leaving room for another copy-transfer-and-delete operation.
She had two computers remaining when a powerful hand grabbed her arm, jerked Riley to her feet, and held her against a hard chest. The cold steel of a pistol’s barrel pressed hard against her temple.
When she gasped, Andre turned on his heel and froze.
“If you move, she dies.”
The way Riley’s captor held her, she couldn’t see his face. Who was he? She scanned the machines around her and finally found a reflective surface at the right angle.
She looked at the reflected face of her captor and swallowed hard.
Javier Garcia.