The Atlantis Plague (29 page)

Dorian kicked the horse again. It glided through the forest. At the camp, he would make the call first, moving up the extraction time. How fast could he and the pilot get there on the horses? A better question: how long did the man have? Dorian wished he knew. That would be the deadline. The horses would save the pilot’s life. He kicked the horse again and it responded. He pulled the other behind him by the reins and it matched their pace. Amazing animals.

At the camp, Dorian slowed and dismounted before the horses stopped.

“Hey! Get up.”

Dorian made for the satellite phone.

There was no answer from the pilot.

Dorian stopped.
No
. He turned. He knew what he saw, yet he ran to his comrade. He held two fingers to his neck. Dorian felt the cold skin long before he knew there was no pulse, but he held his fingers there for a second, staring at the closed eyes.

Dorian stood. Rage pulsed through him. He almost kicked the man’s body. He wanted to fall to his knees and punch him in the face—for dying, for stringing him along, for… everything. He stood again and the horses erupted, backing away from him. One neighed and jumped. Stupid, smelly beasts. He turned to strike one of them, but they were out of reach. It didn’t matter. He would ride one to death, then mount the other and follow suit.

He raced to the sat phone.

“Fleet Ops.”

“Give me Captain Williams.”

“Identify yourself.”

“Who the fuck do you think this is?! How many fucking wrong number calls do you get these days? Put Williams on or I will split you down the middle when I get out of this hellhole!”

“St-stand by, s-sir.”

Two seconds passed.

“Williams—”

“Change of schedule. I will be at the LZ in less than an hour.”

“We can be there—”

“In less than an hour! One hour or less. They can develop photos that fast, you sure as hell better get your ass down here. If I have to make my own way back to the fleet, your lifespan plummets, Captain.”

Dorian heard the captain screaming to scramble helicopters.

“We’ll… be there, sir.”

“The girl—”

“We’re taking good care of her—”

“Get rid of her.”

“You want—”

“I don’t care where she goes, she just better be gone when I get back.”

Dorian disconnected the line.

He mounted the closest horse and kicked it as hard as he could.

CHAPTER 60

Somewhere off the coast of Ceuta
Mediterranean Sea

“Shaw killed him,” David said flatly.

Kate cringed and glanced at the closed door of their stateroom. “Keep your voice down.”

“Why? He knows he did it. He knows I know it.”

Kate looked him in the eyes. He was so angry. She could see it in his body, hear it in his voice, but she could also feel it—on a more basic level, as if some part of her was in him and vice versa. The anger seemed to rise off of him and seep into her, like heat off an asphalt highway. She felt it infecting her, felt herself digging in against him, subconsciously readying for another fight. Everything was spinning out of control. She had to stop it, had to start somewhere. Kate made a decision: she would start with David. She needed him, wanted him, couldn’t do this without him…
wouldn’t
do this without him.

David was pacing the room, thinking—dark thoughts, Kate felt it. She held her hand out and waited for him to walk into it. Without a word, she guided him to the bed and sat him down. She knelt in front of him.

“I want you to talk to me. Will you?” She took his face in her hands.

David still looked down, avoiding her. “I’ll zip-tie them all, Kamau too, just for good measure. We’ll set them out somewhere. It doesn’t matter where. Be more food for the two of us. Then I need to get in touch with the British and Americans.” He shook his head. “Sloane’s fleet is off the coast of Morocco. Why the
hell
haven’t they hit it yet? Why wait? We could end the war quickly. Are they out of fuel? Jet maybe, but they have nuclear subs—tons of them. We take ’em out, then we start rounding up the Immari camps, do war trials on site. Do it quick.”

“David—”

He was still looking away from her. “It sounds harsh, I know, but it’s the only way. Maybe this is what it’s all about: the plague. It’s the ultimate test. The Rapture, the day of reckoning where people are exposed for what they truly are. You should have seen what they were doing, Kate. Yes, it’s a test, an opportunity—to purge the world of anyone with no morals, no values, no compassion for their fellow man.”

“People are desperate, they’re not themselves—”

“No, I think the plague reveals what they
really are
, whether they throw in and help the less fortunate or whether they turn and desert their own kind, leave them to die. And now we know who they are. We round up every Immari and Immari sympathizer and wipe them out. The world after will be a better place. A peaceful place, a world where people care about each other. No war, no hunger, no—”

“David. David. This isn’t you.”

He looked at her for the first time. “Well, maybe this is the
new
me. That’s sort of an inside joke.”

Kate gritted her teeth. She wanted to smack him. “You sound like someone else I know. He wants to reduce the world’s population, eliminate people that don’t fit his view of the ideal human.”

“Well… maybe Sloane had the right idea, just the wrong execution. Pun intended.”

Kate was ready to explode. She closed her eyes. She had to turn the argument, redirect, draw him out so she could figure out what had happened to him, how he had changed. Focus on the facts. She heard David mumbling in the background.

“I mean if there was a problem with the subs, they could just launch some cruise missiles if they—”

“I know why they aren’t attacking the Immari fleet.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’ll tell you, but you have to tell me what happened to you.”

“Me? Nothing. Just another day at the office.”

“I’m serious.”

“Well, let’s see… where to start… Sloane killed me—twice, actually.” He held his shirt up. “See, no more scars.”

The skin was smooth, like a newborn. Kate hadn’t noticed it before, when they were… With every bit of willpower she had, she fought the urge to draw away from him. What
was
he? “I… don’t understand.”

“Join the club. Heard enough?”

“Tell me
everything
.”

“Okay, after the second death of David Vale, I of course woke up in a mysterious Atlantean structure, which, you know, makes total sense. There was only one way out, like a rat in a maze. Said maze dumped me out in the hills above Ceuta.” He stared, as if remembering it. “It was horrifying. It was a burned-out wasteland. The sum of all my fears, everything I had fought to stop: the Immari, Toba Protocol, right there in front of me, in all its horror. My total failure. Seeing it was surreal. The Immari patrols captured me, took me inside the base. Then I saw what it was, what they were doing there.”

Kate nodded. “And you decided to fight them.”

“No. Not at first, and I’m ashamed of that. Very ashamed of that. My first impulse was to escape the camp and find you.” He looked at her, and in that fraction of a second, she saw the man she had fallen in love with. He was strong and vulnerable, and… David.

He glanced away from her. “But I had no idea where you were, no clue where to start. That’s when I decided to fight, to take the base.”

“David, it’s changed you somehow.”

“Before today, I had killed hundreds of people—hell, I don’t even know how many. Most were bad guys trying to kill me or my team at the time—well, except the ones I shot with a sniper rifle, but same general principle. Ceuta was different. Different than following orders.
I
drew up the plan, sold some men on my plan, and when the hour came, I pushed the button that killed thousands of soldiers and plunged that place into war. It was my carnage, and I thought it was just, that they deserved it. And I want to finish the fight. I feel the impulse burning inside me like a fire, like an itch I can’t scratch, like a thirst I can’t quench. I want more. I want to wipe them all out, now, while we can.”

Kate understood. Her leaving him in Gibraltar, his decision to fight in Ceuta. His wounds wouldn’t heal overnight, and his rage wouldn’t fade fast. But there was an opening, a window she could slip through to get to him. David fidgeted on the bed. He was vulnerable now, and she sensed that her next words would determine what happened to “them” and perhaps the fate of many others. She spoke quietly. “I need your help, David.”

He turned his head, but said nothing.

“In the next forty-eight hours, ninety percent of the world’s population is going to die.”

“What?”

“The plague, it has mutated. There was an explosion in Germany—”

“Sloane. He carried a case out of the structure in Antarctica.”

“Whatever that case was, it emitted a radiation signature that swept the world at the speed of light. The radiation changed the plague. There’s no defense against it now. Orchid has failed. The Americans and British, every nation on earth, they’re facing widespread infection and death. They’re collapsing. But I think I can find a cure. Martin was working with an underground consortium, Continuity. It includes the people at the CDC. I think he was close to finding a cure. I have his notes, but I need your help.”

“You think—”

“There’s something else. Something I have to say. I’m in love with you, David, and I’m sorry I hurt you by leaving in Gibraltar. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Keegan. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. It won’t happen again. No matter what happens, from here on out, you and I will finish this together. No matter what. And for the record, I don’t give a damn how many times you’ve died or what scars you do or don’t have.”

He kissed her on the mouth, and it was like the kiss in Gibraltar. She seemed to feel the rage draining out of him, as if the kiss were releasing some pressure valve that had been about to blow.

When they separated, he stared at her, the softness back in his eyes.

“And one more thing: I will follow your orders.”

“Actually… I think maybe you should give the orders for a while. I’m just kind of… zooming out here, getting a little perspective, remembering some of the things I just said.” David shook his head. “Not the sanest stuff that’s ever come out of my mouth, or entirely rational for that matter. And you seem to know what’s going on. You do the thinking, I’ll do the shooting.”

“I can do that.”

David stood and glanced around the stateroom. “Murder mystery cruise and a countdown to a global apocalypse. Hell of a second date.”

“You’re certainly not boring.”

“Just trying to keep you interested. Now where do you want to start: with the plague or Martin’s murderer?”

“I think—”

The boat suddenly lost speed. Kate felt as though it was coming to a stop in the water. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” David put his arm around her, and guided her across the room. He pointed at the hallway that led to a short flight of stairs and, at the bottom, an elaborate master bathroom. He handed her a gun. “Stay in there. Lock the door. I—”

She kissed him again. “Be careful. That’s your first order.”

CHAPTER 61

Immari Advance Fleet Alpha
Near Tangier, Morocco

Dorian strode onto the ship’s bridge. The men turned quickly and stood rigidly. “Attention on deck!”

“You have a message for me,” Dorian said to the captain.

The captain held out a slip of paper, and Dorian unfolded it.

I have Warner.

She has code.

Request exfil.

She is well guarded.

On yacht near Ceuta.

Destination unknown.

Be ready.

Dorian considered his options. If those damn British hadn’t mined the straits… his fleet could reach them. The Berber control of Ceuta and northern Morocco also further limited his options.

“We’ve sent ships from Fuengirola after them,” the captain said.

“Estimated intercept time?” Dorian asked.

“Unknown.”

“What do you mean,
unknown
?”

“They’re moving at almost thirty knots. We don’t have a ship fast enough to catch them.”

Dorian shook his head.

“But if they slow down or stop, we’ll be on them. Or— if they enter port somewhere, we can corner them.”

“Notify our source. And get me a map of Ceuta’s firing radius. I need to know how to fly around their guns.”

CHAPTER 62

Somewhere off the coast of Ceuta
Mediterranean Sea

David waited at the door to his and Kate’s stateroom, listening, hoping for any sound, any clues as to what was happening on the ship. The engines had completely stopped and the one-hundred-thirty-foot yacht was cruising almost silently now. David glanced out the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that led out to their balcony.

He backed away from the door. If whoever had killed Martin was taking the boat, they would be set up outside the master stateroom, waiting for him.

He exited onto the balcony. There were no other boats in sight. Even the lights from Ceuta had faded, leaving only the moon to light the boat.

David inched forward on the balcony and peered into the saloon—the living space beyond the bedroom. Empty.

Tiny recessed lights twinkled, illuminating the lavish living and dining accommodations.

The main deck was devoted entirely to the master stateroom and living and dining spaces. The lower deck below them housed the crew quarters and guest rooms. David didn’t hear any movement there either.

Assuming he lived through the next few minutes, he would have to move Kate belowdecks, to a room with no balcony and fewer windows. It would be easier to defend her there. However, he could also fold the balcony off the master into the ship, closing off the side entrance to the master stateroom. Which would add better protection? He’d have to sort it out later.