“Sounds like a plan. Now, let’s see what we can do about getting your people some supplies. Do you have a length of road that a C-130 can land on?”
She motioned to Pierre, who jumped at the chance to leave the room. I turned to the former Serbian Special Forces soldier sitting next to me. “Ziv, can you go with him? You know what we need. And please don’t kill him. Make nice with the Frenchman.”
“He has more balls than any Frenchman I have ever seen” growled Ziv.
“I am NOT French! I am Quebecois!”
Brit walked back into the room, followed by Hart, who was holding a bandage to her own face. The Sergeant major looked at her, and was about to say something, but I broke in first.
“Hart, the next time you act without orders, you are off this team and on your own in the wilderness. Had we been in a combat situation and you had done something so foolish, I would have shot you myself. You put the whole team in jeopardy by antagonizing our host, and I’d like you to apologize to her. Now.”
Hart looked at me for a second, then she turned to McIntyre. “I’m sorry, Sergeant Major. It’s just that, well, I lost everything.”
“Apology accepted. We all did, and we’re all a little crazy these days.”
Doc whispered to me “She should see Brit in action if she wants to see crazy” followed by a sharp “OW!” as Brit smacked his damaged hand with a plate.
Chapter 26
FROM: betrayer47@gmail.com
TO: Danielle.morano@amriid.army.mil
SUBJ: IMMUNITY
Doctor Morano,
I have information which you will pay gladly for. I know where there is a person who is immune to infection. I want 30 pounds of gold and passage to England. In return I offer you this information, his location, and help capturing him.
FROM: Danielle.morano@amriid.army.mil
TO: betrayer47@gmail.com
SUBJ: RE: IMMUNITY
How do I know you are for real? Contact me through Facebook. Look me up with this email address.
Sasha Zivkovic: I want 30 lbs of gold up front.
Danielle Morano: I know who you are.
Sasha Zivkovic: Gold, and a passage to England. I want to go home to Serbia.
Danielle Morano: Who is it.
Sasha Zivkovic: I want your word that you will pay me.
Danielle Morano: Tell me who it is first.
Sasha Zivkovic: Why? So you can just come wipe us out? You think I am stupid, woman.
Danielle Morano: So what do you propose?
Sasha Zivkovic: When you come to get him, I will help you from the inside. It is someone on the team. If I not help you, then most of your team will die, and he will die also.
Danielle Morano: Tell me. Then I will send a team.
Sasha Zivkovic: The Indian. Redshirt. I have seen this with my own eyes. He has been bitten many times.
Danielle Morano: Why do you want to betray your friends? How can I trust you?
Sasha Zivkovic: The woman, Brit O’Neil, and that Muslim pig, Ahmed. She is a whore and he is an infidel. I slaughtered many of his kind in the war, and I want her for myself. If I cannot have her, I am tired of this place and want to go home.
Danielle Morano: I have plans for Nick Agostine. Leave him, I will deal with him. The rest, I don’t care.
Sasha Zivkovic: Leave the gold at Grid NZ 15875-45627.
Danielle Morano: It will be there in three days. We will be there two days later.
Sasha Zivkovic: How will I know?
Danielle Morano: You will know. 1800 hours, two days after the gold.
Dinner to me had always been the best time. The whole team was together in the kitchen of our farmhouse, and Ziv and Doc were recovered from their injuries. Joe stood guard on the rooftop, and Brit was fixing a plate to bring to him. The rest of the team sat around the table, joking and telling lies about the things we had done in the past.
“Make sure you put some meat on there.”
Brit tore a leg off the turkey that sat on the counter and set it on the plate, muttering “barbarians” under her breath. I looked at her from across the table as the setting sun cast its rays through the window, setting her red hair on fire. She turned to face me, and gave me one of those awesome smiles.
As I smiled back at her, I heard the window shatter behind me and her face vanished in a pink mist as a heavy .50 caliber bullet punched through her forehead. Her body catapulted backward with the force of the round, to wind up against the kitchen cabinets.
At the table, Hart pitched sideways as another round tore into her shoulder and out the other side of her body. Ziv punched Red hard across the skull with the hilt of the big combat knife he always carried, and followed through the stroke by burying the blade in Ahmed’s chest. With his free hand he lifted his pistol from under the table and shot Doc twice in the chest, and the big man fell forward even as he started to rise. A puddle of blood spread out over the tablecloth.
I stared at Brit’s body, unable to move. The gunshots still echoed in the kitchen as Ziv stood, holding the pistol directly at my face. Behind him, the kitchen door crashed open, and half a dozen black-clad soldiers stormed in, laser sights cutting beams through the gun smoke.
Ziv was putting handcuffs around Reds’ wrists. He shook his head at me, a look of regret showing on his scarred face. “Sorry, Nick. It is nothing personal. It is just about money.”
“YOU BASTARD!” I screamed and leapt out my chair. From the doorway, a slim figure in green fatigues fired a compressed air gun at me. The dart hit me in the chest, and everything went slack as I fell to the floor, my face landing in the pool of cooling blood. Unable to move, the only thing I could see in my field of vision was Brit’s small boot, the laces lying open. How many times had I told her to tie them up properly? I couldn’t move, but I could smell. The metallic tang of blood, a whiff of cordite, a faint odor of corruption where someone’s bowels had let loose the moment they died.
As I lay there, someone kicked me in the head, sending stars shooting across my vision and I heard Doctor Moranos’ quiet voice.
“I have plans for you, Nick. Such awesome plans.” And she laughed.
Chapter 27
I woke up with a scream, and Brit immediately sat up in bed, scanning the room with the .38 revolver she kept in a holster on the night table. Seeing nothing, she turned to the light on and put her arm around me.
“Nightmares again?” I nodded my head. Despite her being right there next to me, I could still see her body lying on the floor of our kitchen.
“Nick, I know you don’t like it, but you have GOT to take the Prazozin that Doc gave you. When the shit DOES hit the fan, you’re going to be less than useless if you don’t get any sleep.”
I knew she was right, but I hated taking that crap. It left me completely groggy when I woke up in the morning, and I felt less than useless, unable to think.
“Brit, it was fucking horrible. You were dead, and Ahmed and Hart and Doc, and Ziv betrayed us.”
“You’re just worried about tomorrow. Ziv isn’t going to betray us, this whole plan was your idea in the first place. We have to get that woman into the open, you know there is no way we can get to her in Seattle. Sure, we might take her out, but then we would be done. This way we’re fighting her on OUR ground.”