"We can"t. There"s no way out of here. They"re burning a perimeter around the Orchid district walls-almost a half kilometer."
Kate"s thoughts immediately went to the boys, to the couple in the old city. "Are they burning the Old Town district?"
Shaw seemed confused. "No. Just a defensive perimeter around the camp. They"re turning it into a new processing center. Anyway, by nightfall the fire will be at the walls and the plague barge will be here. It"s the only way out."
Kate made her decision. "Then we"ll be on it."
Shaw opened his mouth, but Kate cut him off. "I"m not asking. There"s a bag in my room. You know where that is?"
He nodded.
"Bring it to me. It has the research. Then find some..." She need to try something to slow the disease progression. Normally, for any other virus, the key would be antivirals and patience. But if this disease behaved the same way it did in 1918, Martin was undergoing an immune system overload. His own body was attacking him, much the same way autoimmune diseases behaved. "Bring some steroids."
"Steroids?"
"Tablets." Kate tried to think of the European names. "Prednisolone, cortisone, methylprednisolone-"
"Okay, I get the picture."
"And we need some food. When the loading starts, we"ll take him out. We"ll say he"s a drunk soldier."
Shaw let his head fall back. "This is a really bad idea." He focused on Kate, and seeing how serious she was, simply turned and walked out. He paused at the door and pointed at the iron bar that had blocked it. "Put that back in the door while I"m gone. And stay quiet."
CHAPTER 46.
Immari Advance Fleet Alpha
Near Cape Verde
Dorian walked onto the ship"s bridge and cringed as all the officers, including the ship"s captain, stopped what they were doing and saluted him.
"For G.o.d"s sake, stop saluting me. I"ll demote the next sailor who salutes me to seaman zero cla.s.s." He wasn"t sure if that rank existed, but the looks on the faces around the room told him that his meaning was received. Dorian led the captain aside. "Any update from Operation Genesis?"
"No, sir."
In this case, no news was bad news. The lack of update from his operative told Dorian that his plan to capture Kate Warner was exactly nowhere. He debated changing course.
The Atlantean had been clear: You must wait until she obtains the code.
"Do you have new orders, sir?"
Dorian turned away from him. "No... Stay the course, Captain."
"There"s something else, sir."
Dorian eyed him.
"An update from Ceuta. They say the British have mined the Straits of Gibraltar. We won"t be able to pa.s.s them."
Dorian exhaled and closed his eyes. "You"re sure?"
"Yes, sir. They"ve sent several ships in. They were hoping to find a way and guide us through, but the Brits sewed it up tight. But, we think there"s some good news."
"Good news?"
"They wouldn"t have mined the straits if they planned to face us off the coast of Spain."
The captain"s logic made sense. Options formed in Dorian"s mind, but he wanted to hear the captain"s opinion first. "Options?"
"Two. We sail north, try to go around the British Isles and find a port in north Germany. We could fight our way south from there. But I advise against it. That"s what the British want. They have to be low on jet fuel, maybe close to out. But their subs and half their destroyers are nuclear; a.s.suming they have enough survivors to operate even some of them, they can field a small fleet. Off the coast of Britain, between their sea and air power, they could take us easily."
"And option number two?"
"We park off the coast of Morocco, fly you to Ceuta on a helicopter, and you sail across the Mediterranean on one of the ships they"ve collected."
"Risks?"
"You"ll have a smaller fleet, with fewer battleships and fewer of our well-trained troops-just what we can fly with you in the five helicopters. You"ll dock in northern Italy and make your way to Germany from there. Reports from the ground are that the Orchid Districts are evacuating across Europe. It"s complete pandemonium. Once you get to Italy, you"ll have no problem."
"Why can"t we just fly the whole way? Surely we can find a jet."
The captain shook his head. "There are still some air defenses in continental Europe, and they"ve got backup power to last for years. They"re shooting down any unidentified aircraft-several each day."
"Ceuta it is, then."
When Dorian returned to his stateroom, Johanna was awake and naked, stretched out on the bed, reading an old gossip magazine, for reasons he would never understand.
He sat on the bed and pulled his boots off. "Haven"t you read that thing two dozen times? Here"s an update: all those idiots are dead and whatever they were doing didn"t matter-even before the plague."
"It reminds me of the world before the plague. It"s like revisiting the normal world."
"You think that world was normal? You"re crazier than I thought."
She tossed the magazine aside and curled into him, gently kissing his exposed ribs where he had just pulled his shirt off. "Rough day at the office, Sir Broods-a-Lot?"
Dorian pushed her off of him. "You wouldn"t talk to me that way if you knew me better."
She smiled innocently. It contrasted sharply with the cruelty on his face. "Then it"s a good thing I don"t know you better. But... I do know how to cheer you up."
CHAPTER 47.
Immari Operations Base at Ceuta
Northern Morocco
From the watchtower, David adjusted the binoculars and waited for the battle to begin. The Immari divisions had been slowly chasing the Berber tribes for the better part of three hours. From his vantage point, David could see the trap they had set-a line of heavy artillery and fortified lines on the far side of a high ridge looking down on a small valley. The Berbers would cross the opposite ridge and descend into the valley soon, then the larger battle would begin. The Immari would win, capturing and killing every Berber in the valley.
"How are the tribes faring?"
David turned to see Kamau standing behind him on the platform.
"Not well. They"re almost in the Immari trap. Where are we?"
"Eleven men."
David nodded.
"I can widen the net, but the risk grows."
"No. We"ll have to make do with eleven."
Several hours later, the sound of heavy artillery echoed across the charred field that had been the city of Ceuta. David stood, walked to the edge of the watchtower, and held the binoculars up. The carnage in the valley was near total. On the farthest ridge, a group of riders on horseback charged up the hill toward the big guns camped there, but the Immari shot the horses out from under them, then raked them with automatic gunfire. Behind them, tribesmen fell in waves. David let the binoculars drop to his side, then returned to the bench and waited.
As the sun set, the Immari procession reached the outer gate. David watched from the guard tower. Major Rukin was the first to reach the gate, and as his jeep sped by, he and David shared a glance. The major"s lips curled slightly, but David simply stared.
David sat in his room, waiting. He would take one last nap before the final battle began. The next few hours would determine his fate and that of millions more.
CHAPTER 48.
Immari Sorting Camp
Marbella, Spain
Kate forced Martin to eat a little more of the candy bar-part of the paltry "buffet" Shaw had rounded up. She held the bottle of water to Martin"s lips, and he drank greedily. He couldn"t seem to get enough water.
Shaw stood in the corner wearing an expression that said, This is a waste of time that could kill us. Kate already knew him that well.
She jerked her head toward the silver double doors. Shaw rolled his eyes and wandered out.
"Martin, I need to ask you about your notes. I don"t understand them."
His head rolled back and forth against the cabinet. "Answers are... dead. Dead and buried. Not among the living..."
Kate wiped a fresh layer of sweat from his forehead. "Dead and buried? Where? I don"t understand."
"Find the turning points. When the genome changes. We searched... not alive. We failed. I failed."
Kate closed her eyes and rubbed her eyelids. She considered giving him more steroids. She needed answers. But there were risks. She grabbed the bottle of prednisolone.
The kitchen doors parted, and Shaw stuck his head in. "It"s happening now. We need to move."
Kate nodded her a.s.sent, and she helped Shaw stand Martin up and escort him out of the building. Past the revolving door, the sight of the camp almost stopped her dead in her tracks. The tower of the survivors spilled people onto the grounds in an endless stream. The palm trees swayed above the unseen ma.s.ses that flowed below them. Guards were waving flashlights, herding people. A ma.s.sive cruise ship stood tall at the sh.o.r.e, towering over the coast. Two ma.s.sive ramps loaded people onto it, as if it were Noah"s Ark.
"The far ramp," Shaw said quietly, and began tugging Martin.
Four guards were minding the far ramp, which Kate took to be the Immari loyalist loading point.
The ship came into focus. The once-white luxury liner now looked derelict, and Kate wondered if it would even float.
Shaw spoke quickly with the guards, something to the effect of "little too much cough syrup," and "be right as rain tomorrow."