Code Name: Luminous (16 page)

“Follow me, sir. We were notified you were en route.”

Mace ran behind the security guard, weaving
their way deeper into the institute. They reached a section that required the
guard to brush his security pass through the reader. Two men in lab coats
looked up when he bolted through the door.

“Where is my wife? I’ve got the antiserum for
the virus.”

“I’m Dr. Lambert, Petty Officer Callahan. We
have your wife in the quarantine suite. I’ll take the antiserum. Follow me.”

He walked behind the doctor but he wanted to
grab him and run. They reached a room that looked very much like a hospital
room, but it was completely contained. Someone in a bio suit hovered over Nina.
She lay there, not moving, her eyes closed. He placed his hands on the window.
His heart burst seeing her swollen neck and pale complexion. “Is she—is she?”

“I’m sorry Mr. Callahan.”

“Sorry! Sorry,” he yelled. “Give her the
vaccine.”

“Mr. Callahan, it’s too late. We’re just
trying to make her comfortable.”

“No!” he shouted. “Get me a syringe.
Now!”

“I can’t do that.”

Mace grabbed him by the throat. “Listen to me,
she might be a lab rat to you, but she’s a mother and my wife. You don’t know
her or what she’s made of. Let me in there.”

“Petty Officer Callahan, I’ll call security
and have you removed if you don’t back away.”

“Give me a god damn syringe.”

“You’ll be infected.”

“Then I’ll be infected,” he shouted in the
doctor’s face. He’d break the lean little doctor in two if he didn’t do what he
asked.

The doctor remained wide-eyed, but resistant.
“I’ve brought more serum. You can give it to me after you give it to Nina. Let
me in there.”

The doc didn’t move and Mace yanked the card
pass that dangled around his neck with a snap. He turned and sliced it through
the reader. The light clicked to green and the door opened into the pressurized
anteroom. Quickly he slid it through the next reader and the door unlocked.

“Get me a syringe,” he ordered to the man
inside the suite. The guy turned toward the window and Mace saw the doctor nod
his head. He watched the guy load it, and then snatched it from his hand and
gently pierced Nina’s arm.

Nina could barely open her eyes. Her skin was
on fire when he touched her to empty the syringe. “Baby, I’m right here. You’re
going to be okay. I’ve given you the antiserum.”

“What are you doing so close? Get out. You’ll
get sick.”

She forced her eyes open, but they couldn’t
focus on anything. She blinked and shivered when he rested his hand against her
cheek.

“I’m not leaving you.”

“I don’t know if you’re real or not.”

Mace’s laugh rumbled in his throat. “Mrs.
Callahan, I’m real, and I love you.”

She smiled and took a shallow breath. “I feel
like shit.”

There was no way to order a virus to get the
hell out of her body, but his beautiful wife would do it if she could. He could
see the dark, dead skin surrounding the buboes. “You’ll have some scarring, but
we both have that.”

She groaned when she tried to move. “I like
your scars—sexy,” she said weakly.

Every word was a strain for her. He kissed her
forehead and clutched her hand. He would not let the Reaper take her. “You have
to fight now. Fight for
Gabbs
and for me, and for our
baby.”

“No…fight…left,” she murmured.

Mace gripped her slender fingers and squeezed.
Her wedding ring had slipped to the side and he straightened it. He’d bought
her as many diamonds as he could because he wanted it big enough that no man
would miss it. “Nina, you never gave up on me. I’m going to keep pushing and
pulling, and I’ll carry you if I have to.” His words choked in his throat and
tears welled. “Please, I know you don’t want to leave us. Please hang on, baby,
I’ve got you. Fight, fight it off.”

“Mr. Callahan?” the muffled voice came from
the guy in the bio suit.

“Yeah, Doc,” he answered, but kept his eyes on
her.

“If the serum is working, we should see a
change within the hour,” the doctor said.

“House calls?” she mumbled.

Mace brought her hand to his mouth. “You’re
gonna
make it, Nina.”

“The baby?” she asked.

“Don’t know. We can make another baby, but I
can’t do that if the love of my life isn’t with me.”

“Bad guys?”

He wanted her to rest, not talk. “Not yet, but
we’ll find them.”

“Outbreaks.
Dafoe?”

“Baby, would you please stop thinking.”

“Tell…me.”

“None.
He might be on the run.”

“Not running, Mace.”
She blew out a strained breath.
“Lumin okay?”

He didn’t
answer,
instead he kept his sharp eyes on the rise of her chest, and prayed it would
keep moving.

“Mace?”

“Dafoe has her.”

“What happened?”

“He had her friend Star. Least that’s what he
told her. We found her in the Nevada lab. She’s safe, but Lumin’s not.”

“Go. Team needs you,” she whispered.

“Nina, until you prove to me
you’re
going to beat this, I’m not leaving nor will I take
the vaccine until you show me you’ll fight to survive.”

She had no strength left, but she clung to his
thumb. “Tony’s in love.” She smiled. “I’m
gonna
have
a new sister.”

The doctor hovered behind him and offered a
cup with water and a straw. Mace brought the straw to her mouth. “Drink this.”

She tried to swallow and sputtered the water.

He wet his fingers and drew it across her lips
and she sucked it in. “Come on, baby, I know you can do this.”

Nina opened her crystal green eyes and focused
on him. “Put a bullet between Dafoe’s eyes for me, hot stuff.” She squeezed his
thumb. “Go.”

Her hand slackened and his heart jumped out
his throat. He quickly felt for a pulse. Faint, but there. He turned a look
over his shoulder. “Is there anything else you can do?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Callahan. I hate saying it,
but it is in God’s hands now. We’ll keep her hydrated. Her temperature has
dropped a quarter of a degree. It’s a good sign.”

He prayed for an hour and watched his wife’s
slow, shallow breathing. Eventually, he could see she wasn’t struggling for
air, and he sat up. Over the last hour, her temperature had dropped another
degree. The doc injected him with the antiserum, and he nodded his thanks.

“Thank you for bringing these,” the doctor
said, holding three other vials Mace had given him. The doc stood beside him.
“She wouldn’t tell me how she was infected. There seems to be a big lapse in
information. The Plague shows up every once in a while, but I’ve never heard of
it acting so quickly.”

“That’s because it’s a weapon, Doc. Ebola and
the Bubonic Plague.”

“And—we’re not the ones in control of it, are
we?”

Mace shook his head. “Not yet, but we’re
closing in.”

“Will we see more cases?”

“Only if we fail.”
Mace extended his hand. “Thank you for taking care of her.”

“Of course.
I think you may have gotten here in the nick of time.”

“What about our baby?”

“I can’t answer that. The fetus hasn’t aborted
yet, which is often the case, although the data is hundreds of years old. Not
many people survived when the Black Death was romping around Europe.”

“For now, all I care about is seeing her get
well. We’ll deal with the rest together.”

“You’re a SEAL?” When Mace nodded, he said,
“She talks a lot in her sleep. Are you going back out there?”

“Yeah, I promised the love of my life I’d put
a bullet between the guy’s eyes who’s responsible for this.” He paused. “I
always keep my promises.”

He walked to the door and stopped when the Doc
said, “Make sure you kill him. I don’t want to be forced to save his life if he
ends up here.”

“Count on it, Doc.”

* * * *

Admiral Austen and the rest of the squad lay
low in the desert sand watching the vehicle leave the house. There wasn’t
another dwelling for miles. Ghost waited with his cell tucked to his ear.

“Kayla, you back at Base Command?” He paused.
“Good. You got an eye on the car that departed the subject area?” He nodded.
“Roger. We’ll follow at a distance. Any early guesses where they’re going?”
Ghost rose to his feet when it was safe to do so and the rest of the squad did
the same. He listened, then darted a look at Tony. “Roger that. I hope you’re
wrong, but we have to make sure Dafoe is the man in charge. I’m going to split
part of the team and send them to contain the house and whatever is in it.
Dispatch CDC here. Think they’re going to find everything that wasn’t in
Nevada.” Kayla said something and then the Admiral’s harsh features softened.
“Love you, sweetheart.”

The Admiral stored his phone while Tony
patiently waited, but the Admiral wasn’t quick to share. “What’s her analysis,
sir?” he asked. “I want to stop that vehicle and retrieve Lumin.”

“I know you do, Tinman, but we have to be sure
he’s the main operator and not taking her elsewhere.”

Tony mulled it over for a split second.
“That’s not what Kayla thinks. What did she say?” His gut was telling him
something else, and if it’s what Kayla thought as well, he was going after that
vehicle now.

“No. She has another theory.”

Tony’s tension grew, but he remained still although
his heartbeat had shriveled to non-existent.

Ghost raised his gaze to somewhere over Tony’s
head, deliberating his thoughts. “It’s only a theory, Tinman.”

The other SEALs milled about and checked their
gear, talking quietly in smaller groups. Captain Cobbs took a position beside
him, soon to be joined by the rest of Alpha Squad.

“I want to hear her theory, sir,” Tinman said,
bristling at the thought the Admiral held the information back.

Ghost inhaled deeply and said, “
It’s
possible Lumin has been infected.”

“Where are they taking her? Why leave the
house?” He asked the questions, but the answer already sat like a slow burning
torch in his stomach.

Captain Cobbs’ lethal gaze landed at his front
doorstep. “They’ve infected her, and they’re going to release her in a
populated area.”

The Admiral watched him with a steadfast glare
to see his reaction. If he lost his cool, it meant he wasn’t in control. A
mission was a breathing entity, and he had to keep altering course and thinking
ahead. “We have to intercept if that has occurred,” he said calmly. “If Dafoe
isn’t the head of this operation, we may have lost that opportunity, but the
alternative isn’t in question.” The Admiral continued to watch him. What more
did he want? The rest of the squad sensed it as well, and waited. “We’ve got
fourteen men.
Seven men to secure the house and get the
answers, while the rest of us follow Lumin.”

The Admiral and Cobbs shared a look and the
Admiral nodded. “Proceed.”

Tony called the men and explained the plan.
Alpha Squad would trail Lumin. Another platoon of SEALs from DEVGRU had
reported in from the Wholesale Food Factory. They’d found crates with vials of
the Plague. The factory owner admitted he’d been given a large sum of money to
store and disseminate the goods. Those locations were being investigated. The
owner professed to not know what existed in the crates. He’d just been prepared
to send it in trucks to the locations as instructed. None had left the factory,
which was good news.

Kayla called back and advised the vehicle had
a course laid for Nevada. Maybe Dafoe was returning to his other lab, but he
doubted it. With certainty, Tony’s dark thoughts swam closer to Kayla’s theory.
They’d have to stop the vehicle by any means of force if it was bound for a populated
area. Doubt seeped into his mind, and he wished Mace was here to smack him
upside the head. Leading the squad was one thing, but did he have the courage
to stop the vehicle if it meant taking Lumin’s life?

His gaze strayed to Ghost. The man had never
veered from his duty to his country. Tony had seen him do things that had
stopped him in his tracks, questioning if the man had a soul. In close quarters
situations he was ferocious. He’d seen pure terror in an enemy’s eyes when
Ghost took aim. The Admiral was lethal, a killer with control and purpose.
Would he kill Lumin?

Captain Cobbs took a life without a flinch of
emotion, his grey eyes keen as a wolf and his strike just as deadly.
Ed, Nathan, Stitch, and Ditz; would one of them kill Lumin?
Tony released a deep breath. He had to hunt the woman he’d fallen in love with.