“She doesn’t hate his guts. And again, this is need to know only. Classified.”
“Uh, why?”
“She’s deep cover.” Papa gave him the short version, even shorter than he gave Omega.
Doc arched an eyebrow at him. “Wow. Well, she’s damn good, then. I had no clue, even though I did think the whole she killed four trained guys thing was more than a lucky fluke, at the time.”
“You can’t tell Tango or Pandora.”
“I got it, Papa.”
“So what did you come here for?”
“I…oh, yeah. Heh. Hey, guess what? We think we’ve got our first batch.”
“First batch?” Alpha asked.
“First production batch. Still running some QA on it, just to be sure, but yeah.” He grinned. “I think we’re now in the Kite vaccine business. Wanted to come up and get you to see if you wanted to watch the final testing.”
“Hell, yeah.”
The men quickly threw on clothes and followed him down to the secure lab area. Tank’s badge was actually coded that she could come down there without an escort, but none of the other students could make it through security unless someone escorted them.
The scientists had gathered around. Mama waved them inside. “We’re about to check the last results now.”
On the other side of the glass window, wearing full protective suits, were Waldo and Q. Everyone watched in silence as the men started the testing process, which finished with them studying the results under microscopes.
Finally, once both men had confirmed it, Waldo looked up, smiled, and gave them two thumbs-up.
The research team burst into cheers. Papa stepped back, leaning against the wall, watching and absorbing.
Alpha walked over to him. “This is a good thing, man. Why don’t you look happy?”
“I am happy. It’s just…” He was having difficulty composing his thoughts. “I think there was part of me who didn’t envision it going this easy.”
“You sure you know what that word means? Because were we on the same mission?”
“I didn’t mean just the last couple of months. I mean everything up until that point. Sparky. Scooter’s friends. Ak’s brother and aunt. The people Tank lost. We could have lost a lot more than them.”
“There’s a whole world out there dead,” Alpha said. “Instead of focusing on that, how about we focus on the hundreds of millions, maybe billion or more, that we’re going to be saving by keeping these people alive and by getting these people here in the first place?”
“Yeah, I know. Glass half full.”
“More than half, at this point.” Alpha stepped in closer and lowered his voice. “We found people who were supposedly dead, kept them safe and working on a vaccine, stopped a batcrap crazy fanatic from spreading more of it around the US, and saved the damn world. That’s a win.”
“Still have to get the vaccine distributed.”
Alpha clapped him on the shoulder and rejoined the rest of the group.
Yes, it was a win, but he refused to jinx the process. It wasn’t a win until Kite was wiped out and they were officially relieved of their mission.
Then, maybe, he’d call it a win.
Or at least a draw.
* * * *
One evening a week later, Papa was working with a Canadian counterpart to plan the first round of vaccine distribution while Alpha grabbed a few minutes alone with Tank. All her people had quit for the night, and the rest of the Drunk Monkeys were either sitting in on the meeting, or grabbing some well-deserved down time. It wasn’t enough time for Alpha and Tank to have a roll in the rack, but at least he could hold her in his arms and feel her there instead of the distant glimpses he usually caught of her.
Alpha had been jonesing for some alone time with Tank, even of the non-sexy kind. The past week hadn’t allowed the three of them to have any playtime. Papa had snagged twenty minutes of cuddling with her the day before.
Right now, she sat curled up in Alpha’s arms, both of them fully dressed, Alpha trying to ignore the time. “What would you have done if you hadn’t gone into the military?” Tank asked.
“You mean what would I have done if I’d had a full-ride scholarship to college?”
“Yeah, that.”
Alpha shrugged. “I don’t know. Damn sure not politics.” He smiled. “Maybe medicine. Science. Just one problem.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I suck at math.”
She tucked her head against his chest. “Me, too.”
“And yet you do pretty good with computers, sugar.”
“That’s different. That’s not really math. Not what I do.”
“And you can shoot.”
He thought that was the faintest hint of a smile he saw curving her gorgeous lips. “Can outshoot you boys.”
“Can’t outshoot Annie.”
“She’s not a boy.” Tank pulled him in for a kiss. “Where do we go from here?” she quietly asked.
“We’re not out of the woods yet. Vaccines have to get distributed. Might need us for that.”
“I thought the deal was Arliss cut you all loose once the vaccine was secured?”
“It’s not secured yet. Once it’s in distribution all over the world, in multiple facilities, then we can breathe easy.”
She looked up at him. “What if I don’t want to stay in the military?”
“I thought you were not-so retired?”
“I’m OTG, like you. Have been since my ‘medical retirement.’ Best of both worlds. I get paid tax-free out of black ops funds, and get all my retirement bennies. If I really want to leave, I’m out.”
“Ah.”
“Arliss has had plans in place for a while. He’s wanted to shake the tree clean down to its roots and knock all the weasels out in the process before the elections in November. Big take-down at once. Barstow sucks, but combined with the fall of LA, it was absolutely everything he needed wrapped up with a bow. If my guys hadn’t gotten caught hacking into Edwards, we’d have more deets now.”
“How’d your guy even get into the servers at Edwards while you were on the run?”
“He…might have had a little help from Bubba. Unbeknownst to him at the time. Info I fed him.”
“I wondered if Bubba was involved.”
“More than involved. Once Arliss realized Bubba was on board again, he was able to fast-track stuff that had gotten shelved because of Kite. He handed my ops off to Bubba because fighting Kite was the priority. Still is, until it’s fixed. But it’s a good thing, in a way.”
“Why’s that?”
“A cleansing. Flushing the shit out of the political pipes. Lot of people are now beholden to Arliss to keep what they’ve got. If they want to keep what they’ve got, they’ll do what he says.”
“Bend over and take it, huh?”
“Without a kiss or lube,” she added.
“Dude. That’s just not right.” But he smiled.
“I told Bubba I want to find my dad.”
A cold chill settled inside Alpha’s soul. She hadn’t mentioned this since the last time they’d discussed it. He’d almost hoped she wouldn’t bring it up again. “Not without us, you won’t.”
“I have to know. I need answers.”
He didn’t blame her. He knew his own family, what little there was of it, was alive and well. His sister and her family were still in Georgia, safe and oblivious to his role in preventing armageddon.
“We’ll go with you,” he repeated.
She lifted her head again. “You might not have a choice if your orders won’t let you.”
“Think again.”
“Ken, we’re going to do the big reveal late in the evening on February first. That’s less than a week away.”
He blinked. “Why so soon?”
“Arliss wants it on the heels of the vaccine coming out so it takes the sting out of it for the party and for the VP. The VP is his candidate. He needs him untainted. Too much bad all at once,
and he’s worried that it might bring backlash onto the VP. He needs Craymer sitting in the catbird seat and taking the credit for the good while being able to avoid any of the bad.”
“Then let’s get the ops part of it handled and ready to go so when we’re able, we can go with you.”
“The timing might not work out like that.”
“Dammit, I’m not going to let you—”
“I outrank you,” she said, still using that soft, sad tone that had the power to chill him through to his very core. “And Sam doesn’t outrank me, and he’s not my CO.”
He wrapped his arms tightly around her. “You’re ours, and we love you, and I’ll be damned if I have to go AWOL to do it, then I’m going with you.”
He locked gazes with her, holding steady, refusing to so much as blink until she finally relaxed against him again. “Okay,” she said.
He didn’t trust that tone, though.
She was tough, tougher than a lot of damn men, and if she wanted to make this mission happen, with or without them, it’d happen.
I’ll have Papa talk to Arliss.
Maybe if he did that, interceded with their mutual CO, went over her head, that might do the trick.
He hoped.
Because it would fucking kill him to lose her now, one way or another.
Chapter Sixteen
With Bubba’s help and financing, although explained away as Ax helping them, Tank’s group set up a website, mirrored all over the world and impossible to take down. Much the same setup Ax had used for his blog, anytime the US government tried to whack it, Tank’s group would be able to immediately move it and have it going again.
The url was registered in Russia, so good luck getting it blanked out there. They wouldn’t do jack shit unless a site was directly threatening Russian interests.
They went over their cache of data one last time. Paxton and Sylvan had worked up the text to go with the evidence, the narrative set up in a full timeline, starting with statements from the scientists and how they were forced to do what they did by North Korea, and the events that unfolded there before their escape.
Emphasizing how they had tried to sabotage the project from within before it went live. And making sure to point out this same team had desperately continued to work on trying to find a vaccine even while on the run. Canada had already agreed to give them all asylum, including any of the others from The List who wanted to come in from the cold. Arliss had assured the scientists that, as soon as the power shifted, the new President would be issuing pardons and asylum for all of them as well.
Although Arliss wasn’t named in the article. He was referred to as “confidential high-ranking contacts.”
By agreement, what they did not do was mention the Drunk Monkeys. Referencing only “heroic special operations teams,” they told the story of the mission. The whole story. Although Reverend Silo’s part in it was anonymized, described as “hostile, religiously fanatic rogue forces” who were trying to destabilize the world. The inference was that the “forces” were the same insurgents who’d carried out the anthrax attack in LA and the bombings in Australia and elsewhere. They also didn’t name any of the women who’d joined the Drunk Monkeys.
And citing wanting to preserve national security and the safety and success of ongoing missions, they left it at that.
Once everyone as a group had signed off on the narrative, and Papa, Bubba, and General Arliss had all gone through it, they were given the green-light to proceed. Everything was uploaded, the mirror sites verified, and then…
The wait began.
Everyone started disseminating the links to the site through their favored channels. It would likely take a minimum of twenty-four hours to gain momentum. Before any of the bigger blogs and mainstream news media carried it, they’d want to independently verify as much of the data as they could.
Tank bid everyone goodnight and headed to her quarters. Tomorrow they’d start shipping the first batches of vaccine from that facility, and the CDC would hold a press conference with the White House announcing that fact. Twenty other labs in Canada already had the initial samples and data they needed to start reproducing it themselves. Fifty labs in the US were currently working on it, and samples had been shipped to the UK and elsewhere that infrastructure was still stable enough to allow production to take place.
The only possible flaw in the plan would be if dark parts of the world where Kite had completely destroyed the population had spawned versions of the virus that the vaccine couldn’t compete with.
It could take weeks to find that out.
Tank called Bubba on her secure sat-phone. “It’s done.”
“Good. I’ll alert the old man so he can finalize things on this end.”
“What do I do next?”
“That’s up to you, major. Have you told the kids yet?”
“No. I wanted to make sure everything went viral first. Eh, no pun intended. Sorry. Bad choice of words.”
He chuckled. “Good plan. I’ll start working on the other thing we talked about.”
“What about SOTIF1?”
“What about them?”
“I…” She hadn’t told Bubba what was going on with her and Papa and Alpha. “Some of them said they want to help me.”
“We’ll see what can be arranged. Right now, I need to get some updated intel first. I’ve got a guy who can point a satellite at the base for me and get some deets, but we don’t have anyone remotely close enough who can fly a drone overhead for close-ups. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I know something. I’d suggest holding what you’ve got for now. There won’t be a mission debriefing, under the circumstances.”
“Okay. Thanks.” She hung up and stared at the phone as she sat on her bunk.
She should feel happy, right?
The two urns, two plain boxes, two lives lost.
The four pictures that haunted her sleep now had names.
Details.
Yes, she could and had killed before. Unfortunately, more than she could count. She’d never enjoyed it, even when it was in a combat situation, in self-defense or in the defense of others. She definitely regretted Kansas City and knew it would likely haunt her for life.
Without the daily issues to cope with of the pressing mission at hand, or without the focus of finding her father…
How the hell would she ever be able to keep her mind off what she’d done?
* * * *
Tank spent a restless night tossing and turning. The thought of seeking out Papa and Alpha occurred to her, except she didn’t want to break cover yet. Finally, at 0330, she climbed out of her rack, grabbed a shower, and headed to the chow hall in search of coffee.
When Tank walked in, what she found were Torphin, Ellsen, and Malyern huddled around a computer in the far corner of the common room. At her entrance, they all looked up, grinning.
She immediately detoured over to them. “What? Did you guys even get any sleep?”
“No,” Torphin said. She spun the computer around. “Take a look. That didn’t take long.”
Tank leaned in and it took her a moment of scrolling and reading to realize just what she was looking at. A smile crossed her face. “No way.”
“Yes, freaking way!” Ellsen high-fived her. “That’s goddamned CMM carrying the story already! And the BBC’s already mentioned it on their Tweetstream.”
CMM had obviously used the FWF data to create their own detailed expose about New York, LA, and Barstow, about President Kennedy and the secret executive order to destroy Barstow, and how she’d secretly ordered the use of scorched-earth policies in LA in the wake of the riots.
The first-person aircraft footage taken that night at Barstow.
All of it.
Everything.
Thank you, Bubba. She knew that had to be his doing, since he was still on the network’s books as an employee.
“And the other networks are already jumping on it,” Torphin said. “Ax really came through for us. They??
?ve tried to shut the site down six times already, but the automatic mirroring is working just like Ax said it would!”
Tank hoped her smile looked real. “Yeah, looks like it.” Now that she knew exactly how deep in this operation Ax was embedded, it was tricky to remember to keep her persona firmly in place.
“We did it,” Malyern said. “For Gatsby and Connell.”
Tank hoped her mask held. “Yeah,” she quietly said. “For them.”
A mixed-bag of guilt plagued her over that whole situation. The four men she’d fragged had been legit trying to kill not just the kids, but her as well.
Self-defense.
Two kids in her protection had died because she hadn’t taken full control of the situation sooner and gotten them out of there.
Two goddamned minutes, where Sylvan and Connell had been arguing because Sylvan had wanted a fucking shower.
Had Tank stepped forward then, firmly taken charge, and moved them, they could have all been alive right now.
All six of them.
“What’s wrong?” Torphin asked.
Dammit. “No, it’s just I’m…relieved. That was a lot of work.”
“Let the government try to kill this story now!” Torphin crowed.
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” She headed for the chow hall.
“Where are you going?” Ellsen asked.
“Coffee. It’s going to be a long damn day.”
* * * *
As the morning dawned and more news sites started picking up on the details, the links spread like wildfire on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Tank stood behind the three and watched as each refresh and new Google search brought new citations, until over twenty pages of results were filled with links referring to the story.
Tank breathed a sigh of relief. “Looks like we’ve done it,” she said.
Some of the others had joined them. Sylvan and Paxton were sharing his laptop, her head resting on his shoulder. “Hey, check this out,” he said, pointing at his screen. “There’s an emergency press conference this morning at the White House.”
Tank sipped her coffee. Of course there is, dumbass. We just made Watergate look like a non-alcoholic Mormon frat party.