Retribution (SSU Trilogy Book 3) (The Surgical Strike Unit) (36 page)

Including the mindless decimation of Susan Dias’s archaeological dig.

“So let me summarize,” Remington said. “This Jamieson fellow has been tasked by the President with carrying out the anniversary demonstration. Jamieson has an unsanctioned paramilitary group called Kerberos which is made up at least partially of Kaufmann’s enhanced soldiers. These men are going to unleash Agent Styx on an unnamed target.”

“Not unnamed,” Ryker said. He laid out a map. “We’ve narrowed the possible targets to twelve. By the end of the day we expect to have confirmation of the primary target.”

“How can we help?” Jordaine asked.

“This is what I need…”

SSU Compound

Oregon

R
afe walked down the hall toward the briefing room. The heavy oak paneling and high ceiling with its intricate molding were more appropriate for a university than a special operations group. But Rafe had always liked the warmth of the building and now, after so many months away, he felt the contentment of a successful homecoming.

He was back in business. Yeah, he still had some side effects to deal with, like a brain that functioned like a Cray computer, lingering enhanced strength, and the occasional killer headache. But only the headaches were a problem. He actually didn’t mind being smarter or stronger, just as long as he didn’t stand out as a freak.

So far, no one had commented, so he figured his differences weren’t that noticeable to anyone but him. Probably he just felt smarter because he’d spent so much time unable to process even basic information.

Even his rage wasn’t as big a problem as before. Yeah, his temper was sharper, more vicious and quicker to ignite than before, but it had eased from the once constant pressure. And he’d learned how to control it, so he rarely had incidents where he lashed out uncontrollably.

Since his team had landed, he’d barely had time to breathe. He’d forced the pain of being separated from Gabby out of his mind and focused on working on a plan to stop Kaufmann’s men. His team was now ready to go.

Rafe pushed open the door to the briefing room. Ryker stood at the opposite end of the long table, speaking into a Bluetooth earpiece while paging through a report. He glanced up and lifted the corner of his mouth in greeting to Rafe.

Behind Ryker, heavy drapes hid the leaded glass of the large bay window and its view of the side lawn. Open maps and piles of documents covered the top of the twelve-seater dining room table. The wall to his left contained a giant screen displaying a digital map of the world. Rafe closed the door behind him and studied the latest pinpricks of red light that showed possible locations for Kaufmann’s men.

He frowned as he counted the dots. Twelve. Twice as many dots as before, but while two days ago the dots had been spread throughout the world at known terrorist hot spots, now they were all focused out within the multi-island nation of Salaqut to the east of Indonesia.

“You’ve narrowed the target area?” Rafe asked. As Indonesia had cracked down on terrorists, Salaqut’s main island Jumawat had become the latest terrorist training ground. But these dots covered more than just Jumawat.

“According to the data on the flash drive Tonelli—”

“Tonelli? You’ve got to be kidding me.” The last time they’d met, Mark Tonelli had left Rafe to bleed out on the tarmac in Cozumel. Tonelli hadn’t shot Rafe but he hadn’t done a thing to help him, either. Just pumped him for information and left him to die.

If that wasn’t enough reason to be wary of the guy, Tonelli been responsible for Jenna nearly getting raped during their assignment in Moscow. Rafe would never forgive him for that.

Ryker raised his brows at the disgust in Rafe’s voice. “So far, the information he’s given me has panned out. He has his own reasons for wanting the attack to fail.”

Rafe rolled his eyes. He’d wouldn’t trust Tonelli if the man suddenly sprouted angel wings and a shiny new halo. When trouble hit, the only agenda that mattered to Tonelli was his own. Everyone else had better get out of his way.

“As I was saying,” Ryker continued, “Tonelli’s data shows that the President has given Kerberos orders to attack more than just the terrorist camps. He wants their homes and villages destroyed.”

“That’s what he wants Agent Styx for,” Rafe concluded. Ryker had already briefed Rafe and his team on the deadly chemical found at Kaufmann’s compound.

“Exactly. These aren’t tiny villages. We’re talking thousands of people dead.”

“
Madre de Dios
. He’s the fucking President. He can’t just go off on a vendetta. When this comes out, it will throw the country into war.”

“Tonelli doesn’t know how the President plans on spinning the attack. Whether he’ll pretend ignorance, since only a few members of Kerberos will know the truth, or whether he’ll wave it as a warning to all terrorists that the game has changed and the United States can no longer be counted on to play nice.”

Working outside the rules, hitting hard and playing dirty without sullying the reputation of the United States government was one reason private operations groups like the SSU existed. To hurt the terrorists and other wrongdoers in ways that the government couldn’t. But the SSU didn’t breach ethical boundaries. They didn’t kill innocents.

Rafe met Ryker’s eyes and saw the same bleak knowledge. If this attack succeeded, the whole international power balance would be overthrown, with the United States cast in the role of villain. Destroying everything the SSU stood for.

“What’s the plan?” Rafe asked.

“According to this data, there’s an attack team assigned to each village. At least two men on each team are Kaufmann’s enhanced soldiers. Some of those men are reaching Level 3, which means they’re barely sane enough to be controllable. From what we can tell, the plan is to keep Kaufmann’s men contained until the day of the attack, then set them loose on the villages with the command to first attack the family homes of the terrorists, then kill everyone else they meet. The regular soldiers will act as backup during the attack, protect Kaufmann’s handlers, and kill any villagers that escape. Afterward, they’ll put Agent Styx into the water supply in case there are any survivors.”

“How fast does Agent Styx work?”

Ryker’s mouth flattened into a thin, tense line. “Gabby says this version has been significantly enhanced from what was used in Vietnam. It’s three times as virulent. Fatal even if the fumes are inhaled. At the dosage we’re talking about, ingesting half a cup of tainted water will kill a healthy adult male within twenty-four hours as the biochemical agent eats the body from the inside out. If the water is used only for bathing, it takes Agent Styx forty-eight to seventy-two hours to eat through the skin and start destroying the underlying nerves and muscle to the point the body can’t survive.”

Holy shit. Rafe stared at the map, imagining the horror of watching the ones you loved turn into bloody, indistinguishable mass of flesh like something out of a monster movie.

And he felt a chill snake down his spine. The drugs Kaufmann had given him contained at least one element of Agent Styx. That’s why, if his subjects lived long enough, their bodies started to break down. Once again he realized how much he owed Gabby. She said she’d finally managed to neutralize that aspect of the formula. So he was safe.

For now.

“We can’t field a force big enough to stop those men once they’re deployed to the villages,” Rafe said. “There are too many ways they could slip by us.”

“Agreed. Ideally, we do a mass evacuation, but the situation is politically sensitive. The people on our side who have contacts high up in the Salaqutian government are all under oath to our President. We don’t have time to identify someone open to believing the President capable of such an act. Someone who the Salaqut government also trusts and will listen to.”

“So our best bet is to find out their staging location and hope we’re not too late. Tonelli have any info on that?”

“No, but there are several possibilities listed. I’m guessing the data we received was downloaded before the plan was finalized. I have other contacts culling satellite images. Fortunately, with all the terrorist cells based on the islands, the area has come under increased satellite surveillance recently.” Ryker crossed his arms over his chest and grimaced at the map. “Tonelli also said he’d be heading for the island and would call with any updates.”

Yeah, if the guy wasn’t just yanking their chains.

“In the meantime,” Ryker continued, “we’ve got another complication. Gabby has found a counteragent, but it’s extremely unstable.”

Atta girl
, Rafe thought. There wasn’t a problem his woman couldn’t solve. But…

“Unstable. How does that affect us?” Rafe asked.

Ryker slanted Rafe a wary glance.

Rafe tensed. “What?”

“The formula starts to break down at two hours, despite Gabby’s attempts to keep it in the form she needs. The good news is that her antidote can be added to the water supply to neutralize Agent Styx and also be given as an injection to affected people. But both treatments have to be given within that two-hour window.”

Even their fastest plane couldn’t get a shipment of the antidote to Salaqut in under two hours. Some of the islands would take at least another hour to reach from the capital. Which meant…

“No.
Hell
no. She’s not coming to Salaqut with us.”

Ryker raised his eyebrow and stared Rafe down.

Fuck. Ryker didn’t have to speak. Rafe knew that from a mission perspective he was being unreasonable. But the thought of Gabby anywhere near that hellhole under normal circumstances was terrifying. Add in the potential threat from physical attack by Kaufmann’s men, the real possibility that the SSU team could be exposed to Agent Styx, and his blood ran cold.

He couldn’t lose Gabby.

Yet he couldn’t leave those villagers to the mercy of Kaufmann’s men either. He spun away from the map and slammed his fist down on the heavy oak table. “Dammit! We’re going to weaken our force by protecting her.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Ryker said. “In order to have a workable antidote, Gabby’s team has to produce the antidote in the field. The CDC is loaning us two of their portable hazmat labs. On the flight over we’ll have them tricked out to look like the local delivery trucks. Gabby’s already gathering the chemicals she needs. She and her team will be on a plane within two hours. You’ll meet them at the airport then all of you, along with the portable labs, will fly to Salaqut. Hopefully, I’ll have the staging location of Kaufmann’s men by then. Gabby and Kai will equip the labs in the air so when you hit the ground you can move out immediately.”

Rafe put his hand to the back of his neck and squeezed. Gabby had already suffered enough at Kaufmann’s hands. The thought of losing her to Agent Styx opened up a yawning, spinning void deep inside Rafe’s chest that made him want to throw back his head and howl.

“Great,” he said, letting frustration push back his fear. “Just fucking great. Did she mention if this antidote can be used as a vaccine to protect against contamination?”

“It can’t.”

Not the words he wanted to hear.

“We’ll keep her safe, Rafe,” Ryker said, clapping him on the shoulder. “She’ll be stationed as far from the staging area as possible. She won’t be in any danger. Trust me.”

Rafe looked at Ryker. People at the SSU called his boss the miracle worker. If anyone could manipulate events to keep Gabby safe, Ryker could.

But,
a little voice warned,
she’d been under Ryker’s protection in Georgia and Kaufmann’s men still took her.

Fuck that. If Rafe had to personally stand guard at her side to protect her, he would.

Chapter 31

The Next Day

Washraiti Island, Salaqut

I
nside the air conditioned climate of the mobile lab, Gabby waited for the final hermetically sealed case of antidote to finish the decontamination process. They’d been lucky. The data from Ryker’s contact Mark Tonelli had pinpointed this island as being the target for the attack. Gabby had charge of this mobile lab for supplying Rafe’s assault team with the antidote, while Kai worked a second mobile lab a few miles away to supply Niko’s team.

A few seconds later the green light went on over the decontamination chamber. Gabby grabbed the first case and walked outside to where Rafe and his team were waiting. In just those few steps, the nearly one hundred percent humidity plastered the high-tech, moisture-wicking fabric of her loose olive-green tank top and cargo pants to her body.

“Remember,” she told Rafe as she handed him the case, “the timer on the front of each case will show you how much of your two-hour window is left.”

Early morning sunlight filtered through the dense jungle vegetation, painting Rafe in primitive shadows. Making him look so darkly sexy that she wanted to pull him down for a hot kiss.

Get your mind back on the job, girl.

Gabby sighed. Despite being on the same plane, they’d both been kept so busy that they’d only managed one brief kiss hello. Her arms ached with the need to hold Rafe close. To protect him.

To protect herself from the pain of losing him.

Disgusted with her selfishness when they had lives to save, Gabby went inside and picked up the next case. This time when she handed it over to Rafe she focused over his shoulder, afraid that if she kept looking at his beloved face and worrying that he wouldn’t make it back, she’d break down and kiss him. With his teammates waiting at the edge of the jungle, she didn’t want to jeopardize their respect for Rafe by making a public display of affection.

The trees were actually quite fascinating to someone who’d never lived in the tropics. Thick, lush, and covered in flowering vines. Rafe had chosen this section of dense jungle and volcanic hills for his base because of the existence of rocky overhangs like the one sheltering their mobile hazmat lab. Between the overhang and the surrounding vegetation, the unit was nearly invisible until you were right on top of it. Something of a miracle, given that the truck housing her lab was painted with a bright seascape with frolicking fish on one side and a vibrant jungle with playful monkeys on the other. Not what she considered camouflage, but once they’d hit the highway she’d understood. Every vehicle here was painted in outrageous, exuberant colors. Driving a plain truck through the countryside would have been a mistake.