30. Lucas #2
“There may be more people inside the bank,” Wynn said.
“I know.”
Leyla handed the case to her.
“You may have to choose.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I’m not choosing who lives.”
“There are only twelve doses.”
“Then prepare more.”
“It takes forty-eight hours under standard laboratory conditions.”
“We don’t have forty-eight hours.”
“I know.”
Wynn looked toward the biological-response vehicles.
“You brought a mobile laboratory.”
Leyla studied her.
“Yes.”
“You have the original agent inside the hangar and the treatment formula.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have concentrated Aegis cultures?”
Leyla went still.
“How do you know about Aegis?”
“Not enough.”
“It wasn’t created by Meridian.”
“Who created it?”
Leyla looked toward the containment units inside the hangar.
“My father.”
Ghost stopped on his way to the transport.
“Dr. Kemal Arslan?”
Leyla stared at him.
“You knew him?”
“He disappeared seven years ago.”
“He didn’t disappear.” Her voice hardened. “General Kane killed him.”
The conspiracy tightened around us again.
Kane had eliminated everyone connected to Fate.
Ghost’s team.
Melissa.
Leyla’s father.
Now the Brave.
“Can you prepare more treatment from the concentrated cultures?” Wynn asked.
Leyla looked at the sealed case.
“Possibly.”
“How long?”
“Six hours to prepare usable emergency doses. Longer to verify them fully.”
The bank’s containment system could guarantee less than that now.
“Begin immediately,” Adam ordered.
Leyla nodded and hurried toward the hangar.
Wynn climbed aboard carrying the twelve doses.
I followed.
The jet’s interior had been designed for medical evacuation.
Six stretchers lined the walls.
Cabinets held emergency equipment.
Hawk established communications with the other aircraft.
Adam spread the bank plans across a narrow table.
I sat beside Wynn.
She held the treatment case against her chest.
Twelve doses.
Possibly the only twelve lives we could save if the agent escaped.
“Don’t,” I said.
She looked at me.
“Don’t what?”
“Decide yet.”
“What if I have to?”
“You won’t.”
“There could be dozens of people inside that bank.”
“We’ll contain the agent.”
“And if we can’t?”
I had no answer.
She looked down at the case.
“If Minser opens the unit…”
“We stop him first.”
“You always make it sound simple.”
“It’s never simple.”
“Then why do you say it that way?”
“Because I need to believe it.”
Wynn’s gaze lifted.
The old me would have said she needed to believe.
I would have pretended certainty for both of us.
Not now.
“You’re afraid,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Of the weapon?”
“Of losing you.”
Her eyes softened.
“I’m sitting beside you.”
“For now.”
She reached for my hand.
I held on.
The jet accelerated along the runway.
Outside the window, Boone and Russ’s transport lifted into the sky in the opposite direction.
Two aircraft.
Two missions.
One team divided by hundreds of miles.
Hawk’s voice came through our headsets.
“Secure channel established.”
Boone answered from the transport.
“Try not to have all the fun without us.”
Adam almost smiled.
“Try not to fall down any stairs.”
“My ankle is fine.”
Russ interrupted.
“It is the size of a grapefruit.”
“A small grapefruit.”
Ghost’s voice followed.
“Garrison Eighteen in twenty-eight minutes.”
Adam looked toward our flight display.
“Geneva in three hours and six.”
The timer inside the vault showed five hours and forty-two minutes before the containment system could no longer guarantee the seal.
We would arrive with less than three hours to rescue Elise and Camille, retrieve the drive and tag, stop Minser, and disable the portable dispersal unit.
Tight.
But possible.
The medical jet climbed through the clouds.
For ten minutes, nothing happened.
No alarms.
No bullets.
No explosions.
Boone’s voice came over the private channel.
“Is anyone else uncomfortable?”
Hawk frowned.
“With what?”
“The quiet.”
Russ answered.
“Deeply.”
Wynn smiled.
Then the photograph on the terminal changed.
The image of Janice disappeared.
A live video replaced it.
The underground medical ward filled the screen.
Janice stood beside Samir.
Children slept in beds around her.
The man in medical scrubs remained behind her.
He looked into the camera.
Then smiled.
I recognized him.
General Kane.
Not a photograph.
Not a recording.
Kane himself stood inside Garrison Eighteen.
Boone’s voice came across the channel.
“Adam…”
“I see him.”
Kane lifted a radio.
His voice filled both aircraft.
“You chose exactly as I knew you would.”
Adam gripped the table.
“What do you want?”
“The encryption sequence.”
“The tag is aboard your aircraft,” I said. “Ask your own men.”
“I’m aware of who possesses the tag.”
Kane smiled into the camera.
“But Ghost just ensured it is no longer the only copy.”
Every muscle in my body locked.
Only a handful of people had seen Ghost give me the wafer.
Fewer knew what it contained.
Kane moved the gun from Janice’s back and pointed it toward Samir’s head.
“Hand Ghost’s copy to my operative when you reach Geneva.”
“To whom?” I demanded.
His smile widened.
“You don’t have to wait for Geneva.”
The medical jet’s cabin fell silent.
Adam.
Hawk.
Wynn.
The pilot.
Me.
One of them had seen the handoff.
One of them had told Kane.
The cabin door locked with a metallic click.
Kane looked directly into the camera.
“The only person aboard your aircraft who works for me.”