Encrypted (64 page)

Was the acolyte furious
that
his missiles did not strike true
,
or did he welcome them to storm the castle? Was the boy arrogant enough to think he could hide behind an army when he had so much to account for?

The sound of gunfire, so much gunfire filled the air, squeezing in between the raindrops. The metal should be tearing through his flesh, searing his heart, yet it did not. Instead the small lead bullets, so very lethal if they hit their mark, were tugged to the right or to the left. They whizzed past leaving his flesh unmarred.

“Dude,” Ronnie said as she trotted to catch up
,
“you have seriously got to wait for the signal.”

“I second that,” Zach concurred.

Francois ignored the two
who
had come to this struggle only so recently and charged ahead.

* * *

Forget a bell, Francois needed a freaking leash
, Zach thought. The nearer they came to the castle, the less time the magnets had to deflect the bullets’ path. Ronnie fell in behind him as the path carved ahead narrowed
to single file only.

Francois hit the bridge at a run
,
crossing over the strangely empty
moat
.

Zach’s shoulder twinged. Did
a bullet hit him
? Then
,
he felt
a zap to his belly. What the…
?

Below them, the
moat
glowed blue
,
and
then crackled as bolts of electricity arced and jumped beneath their feet. Which would have been fine
—
except
for
the
fact that tendrils of current were finding those microscopic metal ions Ronnie was talking about.

“The vests
!
” he yelled as he ripped his off.

Ronnie looked like she wanted to argue, but then
she was
zapped in the chest. The girl couldn’t pull the vest off fast enough. “Fine.
Kevlar
next time.”

The only one
who
didn’t seem to mind
—
or even notice the problem
—w
as Francois. Which was probably best
,
since the magnets seemed to be running out of juice
,
and those bullets were getting closer and closer.

Zach turned to Ronnie. “I don’t think we can get much f
a
rther.”

From
her nod, Zach grabbed Francois by the collar and hauled him back. The guards at the gates grew bolder, stepping out from under the stone arch, shooting faster and faster. This had better work
,
or… Well
,
jumping into the
moat
was
not
an option.

Ronnie handed Zach what looked like a heavy pistol. He passed it to the Frenchman. “On my mark,” Zach stated as Ronnie gave him his pistol. “And I mean,
on my mark
, Francois’, shoot up.”

The Frenchman seemed intent on charging straight into the castle, but even Francois must have sensed the firepower blocking his way.

“Three. Two.
One
.”

Zach fired
,
grappling
with the
gun. A large spike shot out,
and
then brok
e apart, expanding into a three-
point grappling hook. Next to him
,
Francois and Ronnie followed suit. They each hooked the
zip-
line to their reinforced belts. Before the Hidden Hand could regroup, the
zip-
line sped them
up the wall. Rain, already wind-
whipped, lashed into his eyes.

“Keep running!” Zach yelled as the magnets’ pull suddenly increased. Ronnie was pushing them to the limit. His guns and anything metal he carried, tugged him backward. Which meant his quads doing overtime to keep up with the zip
-
line.

The benefit though was not just bullets, but the Hidden Hand’s guns were snatched from the men. The weapons flew across the field.

Finally the trio reached the top and flung themselves over the wall. But the magnetic pull was just as strong on the other side of the rampart. They were pinned by the very magnets they needed to use keep bullets away. Men converged on their position, sans their guns. That didn’t mean that the trio couldn’t be physically overrun.

“Turn off
!
” Ronnie urged the device in her hand. “Come on, come on, come on
!
”

One of those “come
ons
” must have worked
,
because suddenly Zach could raise his gun. Ronnie pushed it down
,
though.

“No. Use these.”

She tossed him a set of what looked like ninja stars. Trusting that they were so much more than just steel stars, Zach tossed them to the rapidly approaching men.

Zach was worried his aim would be off. He shouldn’t have been. The damn things must have been heat seeking as they changed directory on the fly, striking each of the men in the chest. Their adversaries stumbled to a stop in unison, clearly expecting to fall over dead.

Unfortunately
,
they did not.

Instead they regrouped, shouting their rage.

“Ronnie?”

“Wait for it…” she coaxed.

He brought his gun up, shoving Francois behind him, just in case. But Zach never should’ve doubted Ronnie. The men didn’t charge three steps when the stars glowed a bright electric blue
and
then
Tasered
the hell out of them. They dropped like spastic flies to the stone.

Ronnie pulled handful after handful of the stars from her bag and flung them down into the courtyard brimming with the enemy.

“They’ve got biometric sensors,” Ronnie explained as she threw more to the men below. “No sense in wasting the charge if they strike wood or metal.”

No. No sense in that at
all
. Zach shook his head. He couldn’t even imagine the R&D discussions she and Quirk had.

As the last of the men went down, Ronnie repositioned her grappling hook and placed it over the interior lip of the rampart.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Getting down?” Ronnie said with that cock of her head that made you feel like a little bit of an idiot.

Zach threw a thumb at Francois. “I don’t know how much repelling experience Mr.
Loubom
has
—
”

Ronnie hit the switch on her zip
-
line. “They are reversible.” She went over the side and slowly walked down the wall. “See?”

Reversible zip
-
lines. Damn if that woman didn’t keep on surprising him.

* * *

Lino
watched the security monitor as Francois’ boots hit the courtyard’s stone. Fury swirled over and around
Lino
,
like one of the storm’s waves. Had the castle’s defenses been left to him, they would have not been so easily overcome.
Lino’s
efforts to
spread
the plague had gone off with expert precision. He infected the entire world with the Black Death.

How little the commander of this garrison had to accomplish. Repulse three attackers. Deacon
Havar
had all of the funds, resources
,
and power to make that happen, yet here they stood, their inner wall breached.

Perhaps it would be too kind to allow
Havar
to die so swiftly. Perhaps they should give him enough antiserum, just enough to delay the bacteria’s rampage and prolong the agonizing symptoms. God’s wrath was a
mighty
one.

Lino
felt a little more
at
peace with that thought.

“There’s another one,” a subordinate announced as a monitor blinked out then turned to a haze of static.

Down to only three working monitors, which
Lino
had no doubt would go down within minutes,
Lino
turned to leave. Granted
,
the woman was resourceful
—
but oh so brash. She might have found the outer defenses, clearly too reliant upon modern technology, easy to scale
.
H
owever
,
the inner defenses? Those designed to keep any and all from the serum that could grant life or death? Those she would find not so easy to breach.

“Sir,” the subordinate asked. “Where are you going?”

Lino
did not bother to answer. If the man could not see God’s vengeance reflected in
Lino’s
posture, no words could ever make him understand.

CHAPTER 31

Plum Island

4:41
p
.
m
.,
EST

“You know
that
I’m not the traitor,” Devlin hissed as soon as Henderson walked out of the conference room.

Amanda cocked her head. “You’re the one with the antibodies.”

That shut the CIA liaison up.

She went back to correlating the data.
W
ith no new information from the CIA databank, Amanda wasn’t quite sure what she could accomplish. However
,
it felt wrong to sit there doing nothing. What could
she do besides just sit and watch
a
staticky
television?

“I am telling you—
I am
not
Hidden Hand.” When Amanda ignored him, Devlin continued. “Since I was
not
vaccinated, there has got to be another scientific possibility for the antibodies. Damn it, Amanda
,
think
.”

She turned away from him. “So I suppose you were in Sri Lanka in 1996?”

“No,” Devlin said, hanging his head. “I was in China at the time.”

Amanda’s head snapped around. “Where?
Exactly
?”

“Inner Manchuria,” Devlin said narrowing his eyes. “Why?”

Crap. Amanda delved back into the CDC archives. “Did you get sick?”

“Sure. I mean
,
its Asia. There’s a bird, goat, pig flu going around twenty-four/seven.”

Yes, yes there was
.
H
owever
,
in 1996
,
Amanda confirmed that there had been a minor outbreak of pneumonic plague.

“What?” Devlin pushed. “Why?”

Amanda turned back to him. “It took nearly three years to get the confirmation from the Chinese, but you were most likely exposed to the plague during your visit.”

“Great!” Devlin said then frowned. “Then why didn’t I get sick and die? Why didn’t everyone there get sick and die?”

“Because,”
Amanda
explained, “
Yersinia
pestis
is nearly endemic there, infecting upwards of a thousand known cases per year. Occasionally it gets a head of steam and causes and outbreak, but it is a fairly attenuated strain.”

Devlin shook his head. “You lost me, doc.”

“The more a bacteri
um
or virus goes through a host, it tends to become less and less virulent. Also
,
the population has more and more antibodies so becomes more and more resistant.”

“That’s where I got my antibodies, then? China?”

“Yes,” Amanda admitted. “More than likely.”

Devlin sighed heavily, dropping his chin to his chest. Amanda had truly believed the CIA liaison to be the Hidden Hand’s mole. It had all fallen into place. No one else in the facility was healthy. Everyone was either dead or was staring down death on the near horizon.

“How about you untie me
,
then?” Devlin asked.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Amanda said as she knelt
down,
starting with his feet.

To her surprise
,
Devlin chuckled. “Just glad to know you aren’t a traitor
,
either.”