Payback (24 page)

“Put it
in the ditch, we’ll use it as cover.”

Atlas
gave a two fingered salute with his left hand and cranked the wheel as Jimmy
joined them in the shallow ditch in front of the small stand of trees. Dawson
pointed to the southern side as the truck’s bumper crunched against the embankment.
“Jimmy, Niner, you two cover the rear, Atlas and I will cover north. Control,
ETA on the Marines?”

“Three
mikes, over.”

“Okay,
we just need to hang in for three minutes. No heroes today, we’re just
delaying. Keep them pinned down, and keep your own heads down.
One-hundred-eighty seconds, that’s all.”

He
dropped to the ground, taking up a position behind the wheel of their truck, a
clear view of the road ahead. Atlas lay on the road, the rear wheels providing
valuable protection as he took aim under the truck.

Gunfire
erupted behind them, single shots, as Niner and Jimmy engaged the enemy.

“Report!”

“I’m
counting six hostiles still moving,” shouted Niner. Another shot. “Make that
five!”

The
distinctive sounds of AK-47s responding were ignored by Dawson, his main
concern the approaching larger force. His guys could take out six—scratch that,
five—men with little problem. But they had almost two dozen ahead of them.

Atlas
opened fire, a group of four hostiles foolishly clustered together cut down,
causing the others to scramble for safety, the vehicles they had been in just
coming around a bend slightly down the road. “Hit the engine block!”

Atlas
and Dawson opened fire on the lead vehicle, tearing into the engine
compartment, Dawson briefly raising his weapon to take out the driver. Steam
erupted from the hood, the vehicle jerking to a halt as they redirected their
attention to the soldiers on foot.

“Conserve
ammo! Just keep them pinned down for now!” Dawson’s mental count had the Brits
less than two minutes away. “Control, Bravo Zero-One. ETA on those Marines,
over?”

“Less
than two mikes, over.”

“We’ve
got hostiles at our twelve and five o’clock, over.”

“Roger
that, Marines have been briefed as to your situation, over.”

Dawson
fired two rounds at someone stupid or brave enough to attempt closing the
distance. He dropped, writhing on the ground with a new hole in his leg. Two of
his buddies scrambled forward to carry him to safety but Atlas took them out
with leg shots as well.

It
takes two healthy men to carry out one wounded man.

The
three were left to cry for help, the others keeping their heads down.

“Niner,
status!”

“Two
left, hunkered down. They’re not going anywhere.”

“Good!
Keep them that way!”

“Do you
hear that?”

Dawson
cocked an ear and smiled, the distinctive thumping of helicopter blades
approaching.

“Bravo
Zero-One, this is Alpha-One-Zero-Alpha, do you read, over.”

The
distinctive Limey accent was music to Dawson’s ears. He exchanged grins with
Atlas who fired a couple more rounds to keep the enemy heads down.

“Alpha-One-Zero-Alpha,
Bravo-Zero-One, reading you five-by-five, over.”

“Keep
your heads down, chaps, we’re coming in hot, over.”

Dawson
looked to the south and saw two Merlin HM1 helicopters racing toward them, one
breaking slightly to their right, mounted L7A2 GPMG’s opening fire on the
remaining southern position, Niner waving a thumbs up at them. “Ground beef!”
he shouted to Dawson with a grin, returning to covering their flank, just in
case someone had survived. The second chopper opened fire on the column,
explosions drowning out the screams as the first chopper touched down behind
them for a moment, the Marines jumping out, rushing toward Dawson’s position as
their ride rose into the air, its guns belching lead at the hostiles.

Dawson
gave them a wave, returning his attention to the battle ahead as the Marines
advanced in full combat gear, Dawson and his team content to sit back in their
thin shirts as the helicopters ceased fire.

An eerie
silence settled over the area, pierced only by the occasional sharply issued
order by the platoon commander. In less than two minutes the Marines had the
site secure, the second group exiting their own chopper to the north, cutting
off the escape of what turned out to be three survivors.

It was a
bloody day for the enemy.

Just
like it should be.

“Careful,
men, we don’t know if any of them are infected so keep your distance.” Dawson
strode toward the man obviously in charge. Salutes weren’t in order since
Dawson was in civvies. “Are you Mr. White?”

Dawson
nodded.

“Captain
Grimshaw, at your service.” A slight bow was provided, which Dawson knew
wouldn’t have been offered if the Captain knew Dawson’s lowly rank.

“Much
appreciated, Captain. You arrived just in the nick of time.”

Grimshaw
looked about. “I got the impression you had things well in hand.”

“I was
two minutes away from calling you off.”

Grimshaw
tossed his head back, roaring in laughter. “You Yanks, I’ve missed your sense
of humor.”

“Served
with us before?”

“Too
many bloody times in Iraq.”

“Yeah,
been there a few times myself.”

Grimshaw
pulled his shades down slightly, revealing his eyes. “Just a few,
Mr.
White?”

Dawson
winked. “Whatever do you mean, Captain?”

“I’m
sure I have no idea.” He pointed toward one of the helicopters that had landed.
“Shall we give you a lift back to base?”

Dawson
shook his head. “Negative. We’ve still got a mission to complete.”

A smile
slowly spread across Grimshaw’s face. “You have no idea how happy you just made
me.”

“Bored?”

“You
have no bloody idea.”

Dawson’s
comm squawked. “Bravo Zero-One, Control Actual. Sit rep, over.”

“Control
Actual, Bravo Zero-One, situation is secure, over.”

“Good to
hear. We’ve got intel from Langley. They just might have found our doctors,
over.”

Dawson
smiled at the others, Grimshaw not privy to the conversation.

“What is
it?”

Dawson
tapped his ear. “Eye in the sky. Up for some more action?”

Grimshaw’s
smile spread even further. “Absolutely.”

Samaia, Sierra Leone

“Infect these men.”

Sarah
froze, uncertain if she had heard Koroma correctly.
Infect them? Was he
crazy?
Suddenly everything that had been said to her, everything that had
been overheard, made sense. The constant questions about infection, needle
pricks, how long to show symptoms, Koroma’s leaving for America.

They
are
terrorists!

Her
stomach suddenly flipped and her vision blurred as she tried to come to grips
with what was going on. She had spent her entire time here trying to survive,
trying to prove her usefulness so that she might be rescued. It had never
occurred to her that the real reason for her kidnapping had little to do with
who she was.

It was
what
she was.

A
doctor.

They had
needed someone who could answer their questions then infect them.

But that
makes no sense!

Why
would they kidnap her, such a high profile doctor? Her father was the Vice
President of the United States. If they had taken someone like Tanya, or better
yet, a local doctor, no one would have even blinked.

No,
there was more going on here than just needing someone to infect them. She was
still connected to this somehow, but how, she had no idea. But she had the
distinct feeling that after she did infect these men, she’d have served her
purpose and would be killed.

And how
she’d prevent that, she wasn’t sure.

“I-I
can’t do that.”

“You
must.”

“But I’m
a doctor! I swore an oath to do no harm!”

Koroma
pulled his weapon from its holster and pointed it toward the clinic. “I will
put a bullet in every single one of those people if you don’t.”

“You’d
kill your own daughter?”

Koroma
squinted slightly, sucking in a deep breath. “To spare her from the suffering
to come? Absolutely.”

“But she
can be saved!” Sarah wanted to tell him his daughter might not even be
infected, to tell him there might be no suffering at all, but she was certain
telling him this would get her, or at least Tanya, killed for certain.

She bit
her tongue.

“You and
I both know the chances of that are slim. And even if she is saved, she will be
alone.”

Sarah
looked at him. “So you are going to kill yourself.”

He
nodded toward the men. “I ask nothing of my men that I’m not willing to ask of
myself.”

Sarah’s
head was shaking in disbelief. He
was
mad, he
was
crazy. He
wasn’t a religious zealot like most terrorists, but he was a zealot
nonetheless. If his plan was to infect himself and these men with the Ebola
virus, then travel to the United States, he was clearly insane.

And she
told him so.

He
chuckled. “Doctor, I admire you. You speak your mind even though you are faced
with certain death.” He sighed. “No, I am not insane. What
is
insane is
your Western governments allowing what is happening here to have continued on
for so long. It is time they tasted the fear and heartache we’ve been
experiencing for over a year.”

“But
what do you hope to accomplish?”

He
shrugged. “Nothing.”

“What do
you mean? Don’t you have any demands?”

He shook
his head. “No, no demands. It’s too late for demands. The dead are dead and
they will remain so. The dying are already dead. Our own government is locking
down the country, taking the measures necessary to eventually stamp out this
plague until it rears its head again months or years from now. Your money and
medicines will merely speed up the inevitable process. Anything I do will not
stop that flow as you are now too scared to have it arrive on your own doorstep
again. You will do whatever it takes to stop this outbreak from reaching your
shores.” He paused, looking at the clinic for a moment then back at her, his
voice slightly lower. “But it doesn’t excuse you for what you did.”

“So this
is revenge?”

“This is
payback. You sat back and did nothing in Rwanda. Almost one million were killed
in one hundred days and the world did nothing but talk. Why? No oil. No white
people. It’s time you were taught a lesson for your depraved self-interest.”

“Aren’t
you scared you’ll just piss us off? That those very people you blame for not
urging their politicians to take action will instead be the same people who
demand their politicians pull the help we’re now providing?”

Koroma
smirked. “If that is the reaction, then they definitely deserve what they get.
Why punish an entire people for the actions of one man?”

Sarah
couldn’t answer him. “Because” wasn’t a reasonable response, but angry, scared
people weren’t always reasonable. If people linked to the Sierra Leonean
military and government were implicated in a horrific biological attack on
America, what would the response be?

She
suspected nothing. There were no terrorist bases to destroy, no weapons of mass
destruction to find, no oil fields to secure.

Instead
she expected the response would be nothing beyond demanding the perpetrators be
brought to justice.

Koroma
was right. The West would still fund the efforts to stop the outbreak at its
source so it couldn’t be used against them again, and in the end he would have
won. His country would be saved, and he would have his revenge.

And deep
down, she empathized.

She could
never condone it though.

She
could tell from Koroma’s expression he felt he had won the argument. He flicked
his gun toward the clinic. “Enough talk. You will draw blood from the sickest
patient and inject us all with it, starting with me.” She was about to open her
mouth when he aimed his weapon at the clinic again. “Do it, or they all die.”

She
nodded. “I have to suit up first.”

He shook
his head. “We don’t have the time and besides, there’s no need.”

Her
chest tightened as if someone were sitting on it as she realized this was it. He
was going to kill her as soon as she had finished. Her purpose will have been
served.

She
nodded, thinking quickly. “At least let me put gloves and a facemask on so I’m
not cross-contaminating people.”

He
acquiesced, the little lie bought, bare hands or gloves making no difference in
this situation—it was only to protect her in case she managed to think of some
way to survive the next few minutes.

She
stepped into the front of Zone One, snapping on the gloves then quickly donning
the goggles and facemask. She felt naked as she took the syringe from Koroma,
pushing the sheet aside to Zone Two. She glanced at Koroma’s daughter, the
little girl looking at her curiously, smiling at the first human she had seen
in some time who didn’t look terrifying.

Sarah waved
at her then let the sheet close behind her as she continued toward Zone Three,
her mind racing as she tried to figure out what to do. Then she smiled. She
eyed the syringe then her exposed arms and realized that she couldn’t stop what
was going to happen here, couldn’t save her life or that of Tanya’s, but she
might be able to save thousands back home. She stepped into Zone Three, those
inside too weak to even raise their heads to look at her. Looking behind her,
she squeezed her left hand tight, extending the arm as she looked for a vein.

“Once
again you surprise me, Doctor.” She yelped as Koroma stepped up behind her,
grabbing her arm. “I must admit my admiration for you continues to grow. I
promise that your death will be painless.”