“Man. I don’t know. You think they lied to me just to get me to do this?”
“I don’t know but I damn sure would want to know if I had a fatal disease before I blew myself up.”
“You are just trying to save your own butt.”
“Damn right but there is more at risk than my life. Somehow I think the remaining people who are not infected are more important than just you and I. I sure don’t want to die down here but Daren, we are just two insignificant people. What you are doing would make you the most hated person the world has ever known. Worse than Hitler, Stalin and Edi Amin all put together.”
“I don’t know. Man, it all seemed so right. Now you’re saying they are using me.”
“I don’t know for sure but if I were you, I would damn sure find out before I became minced meat”
“Okay doc. Let’s look around as see what we find but I will do what I have to do,” he said, lowering the knife.
“Seems fair enough to me. Now let’s see what we can find.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
The two men began exploring. To their amazement the shaft widened out for several yards. Through the light mist they could see large barrels. They walked over to them and Mark stopped dead in his tracks.
“What?”
“Do you know what this is?”
Daren shrugged.
“Biochemical warfare agents. Look at the dates. 1965, 1967, 1972. These are agents that were developed during the cold war. My guess is that after the cold war ended and chemical warfare was no longer a top priority. They decided to bury them. They must have dug down five miles and built this storage place. Ebola, Flaviviridae, ricin, hemorrhagic mediastintis. This is like a terrorists drug store. No wonder we are having such a hard time figuring out what happened.”
“So now what do you do?” Daren asked.
“Let’s keep looking and see what all is down here. Buck, can you still hear me?”
“I can brother. All I can say is you are one cool customer.”
“Listen Buck, put Randal on the line. I’m going to give him the names of what is down here, the batch number and date. He needs to write it all down.”
“Hang on.”
A few seconds later Randal came on the line.
“I’m ready whenever you are.”
“Okay. Name first, batch number, date, in that order,” Mark told him.
“Go.”
Mark started reading of the names on the barrels. He was amazed at what he was finding. There was enough biological material down here to kill the world population a thousand times over. He also found why the Ebola had escaped. A large chunk of metal had evidently flown off the BARD when it slammed into the floor and sent it into the side of the barrel. Another piece had poked a hole in the one labeled Yersinia Pasties bacterium. That helped explain the Chimera virus. Others could have small pin hole leaks from all the shrapnel that was thrown off of the BARD.
“That’s the last one,” Mark told Randal.
“What about those,” Roundhouse said pointing to several storage crates stacked behind the barrels.
“Good question. I guess I should check them out too,” Mark said.
“Ya think?”
Mark unbuckled the strap holding the lid in place and lifted the top off.
“Oh my God,” he exclaimed pulling one of the vials out and reading the label.”
“What is it?”
“Antidotes. Vaccines. This one is for Brucellosis. This is for Anthrax. Unbelievable. Look at this,” Mark said excitedly, “This one is for Tularemia. I can’t believe they have developed these and kept them a secret. Some of these are dated in 1990s.”
“So?”
“President Nixon ended the US involvement in biological warfare agents in 1970. Someone started the program back up without telling anyone,” Mark told him.
“Can they do that?”
“I would say so. The proof is right here in this room. No wonder they wanted you to kill me and blow this place up. Even with Randal knowing, there would be no physical proof.”
“Okay. How about you guys getting out of there?” Buck said.
“That is up to Daren,” Mark told him
He turned and looked at him.
“So, what’s next? You kill me then blow yourself up? This wasn’t national security. This was a cover-up, nothing more. Are you going to be a part of that?”
“Why does everything have to be so hard? Isn’t anything ever easy,” Daren asked.
“Life is full of difficult decisions. That’s why they are called difficult. Look, this one isn’t all that tough. We go up or we die here. That’s really all there is to it.”
“Oh, well that makes it easier,” he said sarcastically.
“Daren, you have the knife and the bomb. I don’t have much choice but you do. Standing here isn’t going to make anything easier or make it go away. You have to make a decision. I’m going to go climb back up the BARD and get on the gondola with as many of these vials and I can. They can help eliminate some of the world’s deadliest diseases. You can stop me or you can help me. Whatever you decide it’s time to make that decision,” Mark said starting to stuff bottles in his leg pockets.
Daren stood looking at him, trying to make up his mind. He had been specially chosen for this mission and he had gladly accepted it. Why wasn’t he just doing it? Finally he came over to Mark and started filling his pockets as well.
Mark didn’t say anything but just nodded. When they had as much as they could load in their pockets they headed to the BARD and started the arduous climb back up to the gondola. It was considerably harder going up than coming down. It took them almost an hour before they were back on top of the BARD.
Mark climbed in the gondola and started hooking his hoses back up. Daren leaned in and helped him.
“Okay, hop in and I’ll get you set,” Mark said.
Daren was busy taken the vials out of his pocket and laying them in the seat.
“What are you doing?” Mark asked.
“I have a rip in my suit. I knew it when it happened. It caught on a piece of sharp metal when we were going down. I’m as good as dead anyway. I’m going to seal this place up after you get back up top.”
“Daren no. We have all kinds of vaccines in these bottles. Look, let’s go back and look at every bottle. One could very well be for Ebola,” Mark argued.
“Nope. This is what I want. This place needs to be destroyed.”
“We can still do that. Once we get up on top we can send the gondola back down with the bomb or just toss it down.”
Daren slammed the door shut on the car.
“Buck, you can pull him up now.”
“Jones, Daren or whatever you are called. Get in the damn thing and we’ll blow the place to hell,” Buck said over the headset.
“Sorry. Just take him up. I have to do this my way.”
“Don’t be stupid. There is no reason for you to die like this,” Mark pleaded.
“Buck, take him up or I will detonate it while he is still here,” Daren said.
The gondola jerked and then started up. Mark looked down until he saw Daren starting to climb back down the BARD. He had taken his helmet off. He rode in silence as the car sped up the shaft. He wasn’t sure but it seemed to be going up faster than they had come down.
Light started to creep in and he could just see the sides of the wall. Mark knew he was getting close. Just a few minutes later the gondola slowed and then stopped. He looked over and saw Buck and Randal. The car moved across the holding bar and was maneuvered down onto a cradle.
“Welcome home,” Buck said opening the door.
Mark nodded and unbuckled his safety harness. Buck helped him remove his hoses and he stepped out into the false light in the tunnel.
“I can’t believe the vaccines you found down there. Why would they keep it a secret? It makes no sense.”