There couldn’t be any hint of conspiracy around the man’s fate or they’d risk turning him into a martyr in the long run.
Bubba sent an encrypted message to the one operative he was most concerned about at that moment and bumped up their timeline. With that done, he took a moment to look around the small apartment. By this time next year, hopefully Kite would be a thing of the past and the United States would be a far better place than it’d been before TMFU.
One thing he was happy about—that he hadn’t killed himself last Christmas like he’d originally planned. If it hadn’t been for Pandora calling him to check on him and chat, wishing him a Merry Christmas, he would have.
I need to remember to thank that girl for that.
Maybe he was a relic, but if he hadn’t been here running this mission from the sidelines, this whole thing could have gone a lot differently.
And maybe it was time he travelled a little, once Kite was handled.
I guess there’s more life left in me than I thought there was.
Chapter Seventeen
Maj. Jim Maddox bore an uncanny resemblance to Victor, the helo pilot. Could have been the man’s older brother.
Which, Leta soon learned, was exactly who the man was.
As they were waiting for her ID badge to print in the security office, she learned that Archie—as he’d instructed her to call him—was the commanding officer of another SOTIF unit like the Drunk Monkeys. It’d been his unit’s pilot who’d picked up the researchers that morning from their secret safe house.
“These men don’t take good care of you,” he teased, “keep in mind I’m single.”
She blushed, which shocked her. She was many things, but not a blusher. “I’m flattered, but I’m good, thanks.”
“Quit trying to snipe her out from under us,” Zed practically growled. “Didn’t your run-in with Omega and Echo a couple of weeks ago cure you of that?”
The man smiled again, holding his hands up. “Hey, I’m kidding now, just like I was kidding then, you know that. You are a bunch of lucky sons-of-bitches. Every woman you’ve added to your team isn’t just smart, but beautiful, too.”
“Canuck’s single,” Uncle told him.
“Yeah, and I never get to see her,” he shot back, still with a teasing tone. “Papa’s bogarting her.”
Uncle turned serious again, explaining it to Leta. “She’s a chemist. The team wanted Q and Mama up here because they’re the closest ones to solving the vaccine question. They’re trying to keep the team separated for security reasons.”
Despite the office being warm, she rubbed her arms as gooseflesh rippled up them. “It’s not safe?”
“The world’s not safe,” Archie said. “We can’t risk any more of them than necessary. Once they get a vaccine formulated and we make the announcement, then we can get them all together again to help with production. Until then, it’s not good practice to have all your high-value targets in one place.” He started to say something else when she heard a phone ring. Archie reached into his pocket and pulled out a sat-phone.
Turning, he answered. “Yes, sir?” After a moment, he spun back around, snapping his fingers at Uncle and pointing at the office door. Uncle raced over and locked it.
As Leta turned, she realized Archie had shifted the phone from his right hand to his left and had drawn a handgun with his right.
“Roger roger,” he said to the caller. “We’ll lock it down tight. I’ll contact you in ten.” He ended the call and turned to Uncle. “Get Omega and the others over here, now. Have Victor fly them in. Everyone needs to come in hot and heavy.” He headed over to a desk and picked up the phone there, dialing, then quickly speaking to someone before hanging up and calling someone else.
She turned back to Uncle, who now had a phone out, too, and was talking to someone. She met Zed’s gaze, shocked to realize he had also drawn his sidearm.
Fear filled her. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know yet, babe, but stay close.” Zed walked over to the door and looked out the small window, peering both ways down the hall.
Over the facility’s loudspeaker, a woman’s voice issued an announcement. “All staff, please be advised code lima delta is now in place until further notice. Repeat, code lima delta. This is not a drill. All patients and their visitors, please remain in your rooms with the doors closed and locked until the all-clear is issued. All others, please remain where you are and follow all staff instructions as given. Thank you for your cooperation.”
A chill ran through her as she turned to Zed. “Lock-down? The facility’s on full lock-down? Why?” At least that was what the code meant for the hospital she worked at in Ft. Myers.
“I don’t know.” They both turned toward Archie, who was still talking on the phone.
When Archie ended the call, he rounded his desk and pulled her ID out of the printer, handing it and a badge lanyard to her. “That’ll get you anywhere in the hospital, even in the drug rooms. Take her upstairs to the lab, right now, and you two stay there with her and the others.”
“What’s going on?” Zed asked.
“Bubba said there’s a credible, immediate threat.” He looked grim. “And one of my guys just found a dead maintenance worker by a fire exit at the back of the hospital. His badge is gone. Go. I’ve got a team heading up there now.”
“I’ll catch up,” Uncle said, still on the phone.
Zed carefully opened the door and looked both ways before leading her out and down the hall to a stairwell. He had to swipe his badge to open the door. She was still trying to get her new badge fastened to her lanyard and hung around her neck.
“Why aren’t we taking the elevator?” she asked.
He held a finger up to his lips and leaned in. “Don’t know where they are, if they’re watching the elevators.”
He led her up the stairs, all the way up to the sixth floor. At the stairwell door, he looked through the window first before slowly opening it. Then he waved to someone and opened the door wide.
“Snarky, this is Lynchpin,” Zed introduced as the armed man in full tactical gear appeared in the doorway. “One of Archie’s guys. She’s a doctor with us,” he explained to the other man. “Uncle’s not far behind me.”
“We’re secure so far,” Lynchpin said. “Any idea how many?”
“No.”
Lynchpin softly whistled, and two other guys joined them. “Uncle’s coming up. Anyone that’s not him that we can’t clear? Take them down.”
Zed led her down the hall, through three secured doors and into another section in the interior of the building. Four armed men dressed like the other three awaited them there.
“Secure?” Zed asked.
“All exits covered on this floor,” one of the men said.
“They got a maintenance badge,” Zed told him.
“We know.”
“How many of your guys are there in the hospital?” Leta asked, fear filling her as the enormity of the situation was settling in.
“Three SOTIF units, ma’am. Thirty total, not counting SOTIF1 personnel.”
“Three?” Zed asked, sounding surprised. “Holy shit, I thought it was just two.”
“Not since two days ago,” he said.
“You know everyone?” Zed asked.
“By sight and name,” he said.
They got Leta shuffled into an office where everyone else was waiting. Clara stood by the door, a handgun drawn and ready.
Leta looked at Zed. “Should I pull my gun, too?”
“No,” he said. “Not unless you need it.” He turned to Clara. “Scrubs? Lab coat?”
“Second door on the right.”
Zed disappeared and reappeared a couple of minutes later. “Here.” He shoved a bundle at her.
“What?”
“You need to look like a doctor.”
“I am a doctor.”
“Right now, you look like a civvie. Anyone gets up here, they’re less likely to shoot someone
they think is medical personnel, if that’s who they’re after.”
“What?”
“Silo wants a vaccine,” Clara said as she peered out the window in the door. “We don’t put it past him to try to grab the team by force.”
“That’s crazy!”
“So’s setting Kite the virus loose all over the country, and drugging his wife for forty years,” Zed reminded her. “We’re not dealing with a bastion of sanity, here. Keep that in mind.”
One of Archie’s guys knocked on the door.
“Get them ready to move in five,” he said when Zed opened the door for him. “Putt-Putt’s inbound with the helo. He’d taken it to the airfield this morning to fuel up. Same stairwell you guys came up.”
Leta pulled the oversized scrub shirt on over her long-sleeved shirt, then put the lab coat on over that.
When Zed started to say something about her jeans, she pointed at her boots. “I’m wearing tactical boots,” she said. “If they don’t notice that, they won’t be paying attention to the fact that I’m wearing jeans.”
“Good point. Stay frosty, everyone.”
“Roger roger,” Clara said.
Leta turned. Mama, Q, and Waldo looked nervous. She held up a hand. “Hello, again.”
Q nudged his glasses up his nose. “No offense, doctor, but I wish this was under more pleasant circumstances.”
“You and me both, buddy.” She wheeled around at the sound of sharp cracks of gunfire from…somewhere. She wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but Mama was practically climbing Waldo like a tree in her terror, and the man didn’t seem to mind in the least.
“Dammit,” Zed muttered. “Stay here.” He slipped out through the door before Leta could grab hold of him.
Clara immediately stepped in front of the door.
“Where’d you get comfortable with a gun?” Leta asked her. “Were you in the military?”
“No. Padre in the town where the clinic was in Mexico. Kind of a necessary evil.” She glanced back at Leta. “How many times have you shot?”
“You mean counting my lesson this morning?”
“Never mind.” Clara returned her focus to the window. Leta reached over and flipped the light switch off.
“Why’d you do that?” Clara asked.
“Makes it harder for them to see us in here if they make it this far.” It was part of their disaster training at the hospital. With an active shooter they were supposed to lock themselves in a room, turn off the lights, and not make any noise.
“Good point.”
More gunfire made Leta jump, followed by the sound of an explosion.
“We must protect the samples!” Q hissed from in the darkness.
“Not right now, Q,” Clara said, her voice sounding strained. “I already did a data dump on my way out of the lab. The data’s safe.”
“The samples!” he insisted.
“Your lives are more important, Q. And don’t go pissing yourself yet. They might stop these assholes.”
Leta knew fear should have set in by now, and expected it would hit her sooner rather than later, but she’d already worked more than her fair share of adrenaline-fueled trauma cases. She knew training had to take precedence, respond instead of react. People who lost their heads caused other people to die, if not themselves.
“Gawd I miss Mexico,” Clara muttered. “Never thought I’d ever say that. Know what my worst worry was? A farking volcano. How’s that for perspective?”
“Sounds spiffy right about now.”
More gunfire, sounding closer, louder. Leta couldn’t help but think about Zed and Uncle, wonder if they were all right or not.
Worry about them.
Not just as a doctor, either.
Well, what do you know about that?
Guess that was her answer to what she thought she might be feeling for the guys.
Lynchpin returned. Clara cracked the door open for him. “Let’s get moving,” he said. “Helo’s almost here.”
“The samples!” Q nearly screamed.
Clara threw her head back. “Fuck! Q, go with them. Now. I’ll go back to the lab and get the latest test run batches.”
“I’ll help you,” Leta said.
“Okay, there, see?” Clara told him. She walked across the office, grabbed the older man by the arm, and shoved him at the door. “Go with him.”
“I’ve got orders to evac the entire team,” Lynchpin said.
“We’ll catch the next chopper out with Victor,” she said. “I know the way to the roof. Just keep the stairwell secure for us. Get them out now.”
Lynchpin looked unsure.
“Go!” she said.
He waved Q, Mama, and Waldo out the door while Clara slipped out and headed the other way, gun still in her hand.
Leta left her jacket lying in the office and hurried after Clara, deeper into the department.
“Fuck it, no time for bunny suits,” Clara said. At a pressurized anteroom entrance, she handed Leta a surgical mask, nitrile gloves, and covers for her shoes. “They vaccinated you with the latest one before you left Florida, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Okay.” She swiped her badge, admitting them both to the anteroom. They had to wait for the doors to swing shut and the pressure to equalize again before Clara could swipe her badge, followed by punching in a code on a keypad. “My code is 9614,” she said as she waited for the door to open. “Use that for now if you need it.” She raced into the lab, Leta on her heels.
“What about contamination?”
“Automatic decon system,” Clara said. “Every night when we leave, we chill the lab down to thirty-four degrees, run a disinfectant system, and an ultraviolet light. Any of those three will kill it if it’s loose. All three together, so far we’ve never found a trace of Kite after it runs.”
Clara headed for a sealed cabinet and grabbed an empty sample case, handing it to Leta before grabbing another one. “This way.”
She led the way across the lab to an incubator. “Glad I’m used to bugging out already,” she muttered as she unplugged it before opening it. She withdrew a sealed compartment. Inside, Leta spotted shelves of trays securely affixed so they couldn’t shift. Clara carefully put the compartment inside her sample case, sealed it, and then programmed the lock and temperature control.
“After LA, once we got settled we instituted protocols. No matter what, we assume we’ll have to move stuff on the fly. All samples are always secured for transport at all times. It’s a bit of a pita, but looks like we got something right.” She swapped cases with Leta and removed another compartment from the incubator, also getting that one secured.
They both looked up as, somewhere above them, they heard a helicopter arrive. “There’s Putt-Putt,” Clara said. “That means they’re safe, at least.”
Leta fought back a round of queasiness. “I’m holding Kite…in my hands?”
“Yep. Let me grab the cold stuff. Vaccine trials.” Clara left the sample case on a counter and retrieved another case, this one about the size of a briefcase and with a shoulder strap. She pulled several racks of sealed vials from a cooler, secured them inside the case, and then shouldered it before grabbing the larger sample case. As she did that, Leta heard the helicopter take off again, the noise quickly disappearing into the distance.
“Let’s get up onto the roof. Victor and the others will be here—”
They both let out startled cries as another explosion went off nearby, close enough to rock both of them and make the lights flicker.
“Fuck!” Clara handed the shoulder case off to Leta and grabbed her gun again, keeping the hand holding it under the sample case. “We have to move, now!”
They shut the lights off in the room and peered through the viewport into the anteroom. They could see the hallway outside that via the windows in the door, but other than some smoke, they didn’t spot anything amiss.
“What do we do?” Leta whispered.
“Part of me says m
aybe we should keep our asses parked right here,” Clara said.
“What’s the rest of you say?”
“Run like fucking hell.”
More gunfire sounded, this time close by, on the same floor.
“Shit,” Clara whispered. “That’s between us and the stairwell.”
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know all of the new SOTIF guys, so I don’t know who’s safe and who might be part of whatever the hell this is. I only know the SOTIF13 guys.”
They both ducked as two armed men, one in scrubs and one in jeans and a black jacket, ran past the end of the hall leading to the lab area.
“And them?” Leta asked.
“Never seen them before.”
Two more men, one of them Lynchpin, raced past.
“Archie’s guys,” she said.
The same voice came over the loudspeakers to announce another code, but Leta was too busy paying attention to Clara and looking out the window to listen to it.
They heard shouting and more gunfire, this time sounding farther away. Both of them let out gasps as gunfire sounded at the end of the hallway and a man fell to the floor, not moving. The position he lay in blocked one of the doors from swinging shut all the way.
Another man stopped and checked him. “That’s one of Archie’s guys,” Clara whispered.
“Which one?”
“The guy still vertical.” Before Leta could stop her, Clara opened the door into the anteroom. Not wanting to be left behind, Leta grabbed the cases and followed. Clara switched off the lights in the anteroom, then tapped on the window, getting the guy’s attention.
He swiveled, pointing his gun their way before recognition set in. Standing, he ran down the hallway toward them.
“What are you still doing here?” he asked through the window. “You’re supposed to be gone!”
“Samples. We need to get to the roof.”
“Come on. Move it.”
Clara swiped her badge, opening the door for them.