Code Name: Luminous (10 page)

Before he turned to leave, he said, “Some guys
aren’t attracted to strong, Lumin. Some guys, like me, are attracted to the
light.”

Chapter Seven

Callum Dafoe strode through the main
underground artery that led to his quarters. The reinforced walls stopped the
sand from filling in the six-foot-wide tunnel that separated the living
quarters from the lab. He reached the end, and slipped his card through the
lock, allowing him entry to his private domain. He needed to think, and headed
for the bar, pouring himself a healthy finger of whiskey. The east wall was
made of glass offering an uninterrupted view of the desert plateau. Sitting
down, the cool leather of the chair seeped into his skin. Nestled in the center
of a rug with a timber-pole side table, it was his place to reflect.

The alcohol burned its way down his throat and
quieted his anger. Another day
down,
and no closer to
finding Dr. Bjornson. Carmichael was dead, and the woman he’d spent the night
with in Vegas was being held by the Navy in Coronado. He had no idea what
Carmichael relayed to her before his last breath, but it could have been
Bjornson’s hiding place.

A knock landed on the door. He picked up a
remote control and unlocked it.

“Sir?”

“Any word, Billings?” he asked, not turning to
look at his laboratory manager.

“I’m afraid not, sir. The men have reported in
and advised she is still at the Naval Amphibious Base as far as they know.”

“We have to assume she knows something. She’s
probably told that sailor she ran to everything.”

“We don’t know what that is,” Billings said,
rounding the chair to stand in front of him.

“She’ll give us what we need, and if she knows
nothing, kill her. We have kept this operation under the Americans’ noses for
the last year without a leak. We are nearing completion.”

“Do you still wish to deploy the launch
without Dr. Bjornson?”

“If we must.
I’m not waiting a day longer than what we projected.” He clutched
the glass with a death-grip, anger and hate churning in his stomach as it had
for three years. “My wife and son have waited long enough for justice.”

He placed a hard gaze on Billings as he stood
before him with his coke-bottle thick glasses, unruly hair, and white lab coat.
The man looked the same every day of the year. “Apprehend that Vegas slut. Take
her to the decoy factory and question her there.”

“You want me to do it? I’m a scientist, not an
interrogator.”

“
Azeel
can question
her, but I want you there.”

“Yes, sir.”
The soft pad of Vincent Billings’ loafers and the click of the
door closing told him he was alone again. He reached for the picture on his
side table and stared into the face of his beautiful wife and the broad smile
of his five-year-old son. “America took you from me.” He kissed the glass, as
he did every night, and placed it gently beside him.

Three years had passed since the love of his
life died in a pile of rock and fire. Three years of grief propelled his one
and only task. He poured millions into creating this lab and the one in New
Mexico.

Afsana
used to complain he spent too much time with his business and not
enough with her and their son. He wanted nothing but to give them every
comfort.
To provide for them.
He didn’t give a shit
about the war between America and the Middle East, but he used it to make
millions. He gave the Americans the weapons they wanted. He sold the same to
the Afghanis. They could blow themselves to kingdom come for all he cared, but
that’s not what happened.

Instead, the Americans’ missiles landed on his
family’s estate, and took his beloved and his son.
Afsana
was raised in Kabul and refused to leave the war-torn country, no matter how
many times he’d begged her. He wanted to bring her to America where he had been
raised, but she was adamant. His parents had been so proud to be Americans when
they immigrated.

The day she died, he vowed he would give her
the justice her death deserved, and that meant the death of every living
American. They would suffer like she had, slowly, painfully for twelve hours.
He’d walked in horror amongst the rubble until he heard her cries and his
son’s. They had been together. The workers dug but couldn’t reach her, and
finally her cries were no more. He ordered them to keep digging, and when they
pulled her lifeless, torn body from the brick and stone, she clutched their son
in her arms. Even in death, she was beautiful. She haunted his dreams.

Callum drew in the last drop of the whiskey,
then
set his glass down watching the sun stride across the
desert plain, chased by the galloping shadows of the night. The virus which
they called EA2 would do the same to the great nation of the United States of
America. Every soul would die, their life force extinguished in a bloody,
painful death, just like
Afsana
.

* * * *

Date: 07.25.2014

Time: 0200UTC (Coordinated
Universal Time)

Case: Active

Mission: Code Name Luminous

Twelve hours and one more injection later,
Lumin stood beside Nina and Kayla as twenty-five men rallied in the
Loadout
room.

“Operation Luminous,” Mace said, and grinned
down at the floor.

“That’s right.” Tony had written it in big
letters on the white board. “We need to acquire one very lethal virus and bring
Lumin back to Coronado after she leads us to the laboratory. That’s our
mission,” Tony said, walking toward the maps tacked on the white board.
Twenty-five SEALs and two liaisons, Kayla and Nina, stood watching him. “This
is the largest terrorist threat to face this nation in recorded history. The
White House and JSOC have tasked us to stop a pandemic before it starts. No
further outbreaks have occurred since the quarantine of Ramah. If this plague is
released, the clock starts ticking, and we only have thirty-six hours before it
mutates. Worse than that, it kills in twelve hours. Everyone on this mission
has now been vaccinated with an antiserum of the original strain of the Bubonic
Plague. It is doubtful it will save you against the new virus, only slow it
down. The kill ratio is one hundred percent. More than likely, the Tangos will
have a vaccine for the current strain.”

Tony glanced at Ghost, who surveyed him with a
mentor’s eye. “There is zero room for failure. We fail, we die, and so does
every citizen of this country, then it will cross oceans and borders and kill
everyone in its path.” He gazed at the SEALs in addition to Alpha Squad who had
been brought in for their specialties in reconnaissance, demolitions, chemical
and biological warfare, and land navigation. “We will give the men who have
been patiently waiting for an opportunity to apprehend Lumin their chance. At
this point we have no intelligence on
who
the
terrorists are, thousands of miles of desert to find one, possibly two labs
cooking up our demise, and stop the imminent dissemination of a plague. Are
there any questions on your
taskings
for this
mission?”

The crowd of expressions melded into one of
determination.

“July twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred hours.
It’s time to roll, SEALs.”

The squad broke up and headed for their gear.
Vehicles were waiting outside, and everyone had been assigned their duties. He
craned a look in
Ditz’s
direction. With a quick jerk
of his head to the affirmative, Ditz put his attention back on the mobile
computer he carried. Alpha squad surrounded him. The Admiral and Captain Cobbs
fell in as well.

He saw Ghost glancing around. “Where’s Lumin?”
he asked. Tony remained silent for a moment until Ghost’s steely-eyed gaze
dropped back on him. “For that matter, where is that pain-in-the-ass wife of
mine?” Ghost adjusted his pack. “Aren’t you escorting Lumin from the base?”

Mace slid a step closer to stand beside Tony.
“No, sir.
The mission is hot.” Ghost cocked his head,
waiting for more. “Lumin is on her way.” He shot a look at Ditz.

“Exiting the base gates,” Ditz informed him.

“I thought you were accompanying her?” Ghost
queried.

“No, sir.
The men waiting would be suspicious of a trap. You said I was
leading this mission, so I took the best idea and implemented it.”

“Which was?” Ghost said sharply.

“Snow White,” he explained calmly, “suggested
it would look normal if the ladies took Lumin off the base.”

Ghost’s hand shot out and clamped down on his
windpipe. Like a thundercloud growing in the sky, Ghost’s frame grew to an
angry anvil head ready to strike him down. The squad jumped on the Admiral and
yarded him back.

“Kayla is with Lumin?” he shouted.

Tony coughed and gasped trying to get air into
his lungs. He straightened and coughed again. “Lumin has no military
experience. She wouldn’t have stood a chance. Nina and Kayla understand how we
operate. They can protect her.”

Ghost vaulted for him and it took the entire
squad to hold him back.

Tony stood his ground. “Nina has hand-to-hand
combat experience. Kayla will extrapolate every option and help them pick the
best one.”

“Sir,” Mace said with a low warning in his
voice. “Admiral, my wife is there too, but Tony is right. Lumin would never
survive unless Nina and Kayla were with her. I trust both of them.”

Ghost quit struggling and glared at Tony. “You
know what Kayla has lived through. She has no fear, you fucking idiot. No fear
of death. No fear of making the wrong move. No fear of sacrificing herself.”

“It was her idea, and it was a good one, sir.
The terrorists will take all three, and they won’t kill any of them, thinking
one of them knows where Bjornson is.”

Ghost brushed the men’s hands from him and
stepped into Tony’s airspace. “If she dies—”

“Kayla’s vehicle has stopped on Orange
Avenue,” Ditz interrupted.

Ghost’s head swiveled.
“At a
stoplight?”

“No, sir, movie theatre, and they are walking
away from the theatre.” Ditz lowered his head and placed a hand to his ear.
“Roger, good copy, Alpha Four.”
Ditz’s
head rose.
“Confirmed.
They are with three men, getting into a vehicle.
They’ve been taken.”

“Keep the visual,” Ghost ordered, and ran for
the door, the rest of the team behind him.

Tony communicated on the
comm
set, “All Alpha units, the light has been taken, Alpha Four and Five follow.”

The ‘rogers’ came back from Fox and Ed, each
of them leading a squad of men assigned to track the women. Tony, Ghost, Mace,
and Captain Cobbs jumped into a black SUV and Ghost floored it. He said
nothing, and the grave expression on his face implied he wouldn’t be forgiving
Tony any time soon.

Comm
chatter was kept to a minimum. The women each wore a piece of
jewelry that held a tiny transmitter. The GPS chips were tracked by satellite
and their signals fed to several laptops. Mace held one of them. The radius for
tracking was endless. As long as the jewelry remained with the women, they
would know where they were. The drawback was the satellite. If the women
entered a building, or went underground, the satellite would not pick up their
signal.

Ghost cranked a hard right onto the Strand.
“Where are they, Mace?”

“Northbound, toward the San
Diego Freeway.”

Ghost picked up a handheld radio. “Base
Command, this is Alpha One.”

“Alpha One, Base Command, go ahead.”

Tony recognized
Gord’s
voice. He had arrived in Coronado with Kayla and Barry. They’d been hired
together. Gord had one duty, to monitor the satellite and track them.

“You have a pinpoint on the light?”

“Affirmative, Alpha One.
The light took the westbound entrance onto the freeway.”

“Airport?”
Captain Cobbs suggested, sitting next to Mace in the back seat.

Tony turned to see Mace’s gaze glued to the
monitor. They’d run the plates of the vehicle belonging to the men who’d been
tracking Lumin. It was a rental issued to a guy with a fake ID of one Richard
Smith, residing in North Pekin, Illinois. These guys were just the couriers.
More than likely they knew nothing, and weren’t worth apprehending.

“Shit, they aren’t going to make this easy,”
Mace muttered. “They just exited the freeway, bound for North Harbor Drive.”

“Airport,” Tony confirmed.

“Alpha One, this is Alpha Four,” Fox called.

“Go ahead,” Tony answered.

“Light is being taken to the private
terminal.”

“Roger that, ID aircraft,” Tony ordered. If
they got the
ident
on the aircraft they’d be able to
follow, but he’d already assumed they’d take this route. Someone was in a hurry
to question Lumin. The question he needed answered was who and where?