The Hungry 5: All Hell Breaks Loose (The Sheriff Penny Miller Series) (34 page)

“Just tell the pilot to be careful. We can’t afford to lose them again,” Dr. Williams said. They couldn’t risk going lower and being spotted. Sheriff Miller had to believe she was escaping. That better suited their purposes. “They have to stop sometime. Let’s tell the boots on the ground to back off a bit. They’re definitely heading here, to Mountain Home, and we have the entire city in our back pocket. As long as the Demons and the Idaho State Police don’t kill them or each other first, they won’t get away.”

As Crespi punched numbers into the phone, the view from the drone shuddered in a strange way. The unmanned aircraft dipped, righted, and a long trail of fire shot from one of the wings. A small dot raced ahead and then arced down, trailing a thin cloud of smoke.

“What just happened?” Dr. Williams’s voice rose to a shriek. “Damn it! Who ordered them to fire on that car? Tell them to stand down at once. I told you, Crespi, we need those people alive!”

“I know, I know.”

Dr. Williams stood up, knocking the executive chair backwards. She watched helplessly as a second missile launched, neatly following the first one toward their target. The firepower of a drone like this was awesome to behold. The police car would be blown sky high. No one would survive.

“Oh, God,” Dr. Williams muttered, revealing weakness for the first time in years. “This cannot be happening.”

Crespi was on the phone. He was shouting about aborting the strike and destroying the weapons in the air before they could reach their target.

On the flat-screen television, the tiny Hellfire missiles reached their target.

A small red-orange puff in the far distance announced that the first missile had exploded. It was followed closely by the second. Crespi stopped screaming. The strike was already over.

Dr. Williams leaned over with her palms flat on the console. She watched the countryside below shift as the drone raised its nose and headed for home. The screen went white as the drone gained height and then black as the camera feed switched off. Dr. Williams turned on the overhead lights and faced Crespi. Despite the circumstances, her voice was preternaturally calm.

“What just happened, Miguel?”

Crespi shook his head and shrugged. He did not meet her gaze. “The pilot doesn’t know, Charlotte. The missiles were fired on someone else’s command.”

“Find out who did this!” Dr. Williams screamed, startling Crespi. He returned to the phone with trembling hands.

The door opened. Raymond D’Amore entered, a look of victory on his face.

“You did this.”

D’Amore spread his arms, showed his palms and adopted a shocked, innocent look. “Oh, come on, Charlotte. Don’t drag me into your little nightmare. I came back to give you a bit of news.”

Annoyed, she ignored his obvious dodge. She spoke calmly. “You arrogant bastard, you’ve destroyed years of hard work with one foolish mistake. Who gave you the authority to fire on that car?”

“I think it would behoove you to look after your own welfare, Charlotte.” D’Amore walked closer and handed her a folder with a sheet stapled on top. “I just spoke with the Secretary. You are no longer chairman of this committee. And if I have anything to say in the matter, this incident will also mark the end of your career.”

Dr. Williams snatched the folder out of his hand. She opened it and read the full document. The memo summary was direct and clear. It relieved her of her responsibilities.

She lowered the file and stared at D’Amore with a cold expression. “This isn’t signed.”

“And yet it is official, I assure you.”

“We’ll see about that.” Dr. Williams pushed D’Amore out of the way. She walked briskly out of the conference room still carrying the file. The door closed behind her with a small click. D’Amore watched her go without comment.

Miguel Crespi remained behind. He released a chest full of air. He regarded the taller man for a time and finally allowed a smile to cross his face. “Well, that went even better than expected.”

D’Amore did not return the smile. “Don’t start patting yourself on the back, Miguel. If you had supported me from the beginning instead of Charlotte, we could have avoided this entire mess.”

Crespi’s face fell. “Raymond, I was always in your corner, I just…”

D’Amore turned to leave. He was enjoying the moment. He placed his hand on the doorknob. “Save it for the inquiry.”

Crespi began to panic. “Inquiry?”

“Of course. Don’t be an idiot. That bitch is going to take this whole issue right to the President, which is exactly what we want her to do. We’ve already leaked our version of the facts. Everyone will duck and cover from the shitstorm that is on the way. She’ll get so bogged down in red tape that by the time she can so much as get an appointment with the Chief of Staff, we’ll already have everything in place.” D’Amore opened the door. “Meet me in my office in twenty minutes. Bring everything we have on the serum 26-alpha. You and I have some serious housecleaning to do.”

Without another word, D’Amore turned and left the conference room. Crespi watched as the door closed behind him. He gathered up the files and stuffed them into a briefcase. Alone in the silent conference room, he turned away from the hidden security camera and allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.

Everything was indeed going precisely as planned.

Meet Sheriff Penny Miller of Flat Rock, Nevada. Miller is the kind of woman who will do whatever it takes to protect those she is sworn to serve, even when that includes a murderous biker, her wimpy ex-husband, a unit of incompetent National Guardsmen, and the scientist responsible for releasing the undead upon an unsuspecting world.

Nevada: America’s number one tourist destination…

if you’re
dead
!

After surviving the first days of the zombie apocalypse, Sheriff Penny Miller and her friends relax in what’s left of Las Vegas. The Army asks Miller and her party to return to Crystal Place, the Top Secret base that was birthplace of the zombies. Even though the mission is to recover data that may lead to a cure for the virus—and Miller herself—she’s pretty sure its a bad idea. The Army assures her that a crack team of mercenaries will be there to protect them every step of the way.

When Miller sees weird religious graffiti scrawled in blood on the concrete walls of the deserted base, she’s sure their chances of survival have just dropped to damn near zero. Again.

The Zombies are Spreading…

Small town Sheriff Penny Miller and her friends Scratch, Terrill Lee, and Sheppard escaped from Nevada moments before a devastating nuclear explosion intended to eradicate the zombie plague. The Government’s plan didn’t work, and the zombies are spreading. When Miller and her men find an abandoned hunting lodge in a remote village in Colorado, they’re hoping to steer clear of zombies, redneck survivalists, and panicked locals, and to simply ride out the winter.

Penny Miller just wants some peace and quiet, a glass of wine in front of the fireplace, and maybe some quality time with Scratch over the holidays.

The Zombies Are Coming…
Again.

Small town Sheriff Penny Miller and her outlaw friend Scratch managed to survive a nuclear blast in Nevada and a brutal attack on their peaceful lodge in Colorado. They head for Los Angeles, looking for a fresh start. It seems the citizens of Southern California remain blissfully ignorant of the coming war. They believe zombies are simply an urban legend.

As usual, there’s no rest for the wicked. When they find themselves in a suspiciously run Malibu rehab facility, Miller can’t relax. She knows the gore is about to hit the fan. It seems that Miller can sense when zombies are near. And they’re almost always near.

When all hell breaks loose around them, Miller and Scratch must survive deadly experiments, resist an ongoing government conspiracy, and battle another horde of ravenous zombies. And that’s just for starters.

—Shakespeare/The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2

Carrie Young’s life is one hot mess. The posh political aide is having an affair with a Congressman who is taking bribes from a major corporation. When a hit man kills her boss and sets her up to die in an apparent murder/suicide, Carrie is rescued by Spider Walsh, a soft-spoken janitor. The two strangers go on the run, pursued by an elite network of professional assassins, skilled men and women who do dirty work for the rich and powerful.

With both the police and the ruthless group of mercenaries on their trail, Carrie and her mysterious protector venture deep into LA’s gang country, where she must trust Spider and his friends to keep her alive. Their enemies will stop at nothing to keep Carrie from revealing vital secrets to the authorities. As they begin to fight back, Carrie learns that Spider is not just a janitor after all. In fact, he is a very dangerous man, with a few dark secrets of his own.