The Reaper Plague Read Online Free Page A

of the room, the final backup if other control measures
failed. It was twin to the one that had incapacitated the subjects
in the hangar. Though it would ruin some of the more delicate
pieces of medical and scientific equipment if it was ever used,
Spooky was a careful man. Machines could be replaced.
    Captain Alkina met him there, watching as the
technicians bustled about, preparing the helpless men for their
role as the incubators of the future. Nguyen felt her gazing at him
in adoration, and he touched her secretly, briefly, sending a
cascade of emotion through her body. He sensed her response and it
reassured him.
    If he ever failed to detect that reaction he
would take special measures to safeguard himself, for it would mean
that the eventual, inevitable loss of her dependency had begun. For
now, though, she was utterly his.
    Once he was certain that everything was
proceeding according to his wishes, he steered her into his on-site
office, locked the door, and proceeded to remind her of his
dominance, and of her submission.
     
     

 
     
-4-

    Chairman of the Free Communities Council
Daniel “DJ” Markis looked up as his intelligence chief Cassandra
Johnstone entered his new fourth-floor corner office.
    Its entire southern and western walls were
composed of deceptively tough armor glass composites. So clear were
they, she had the impression DJ could roll his desk chair backward
and off into space. She sniffed. Everything smelled new, of glue
and paint and plastic. “Nice. Can I have one like this?”
    “ You know you can, but you
wanted something more secure.”
    “ You should have something
more secure too.” She walked to the west wall to look out over the
grounds. A crew dug the future reflecting pool while a woman walked
her dog along the edge of the construction barrier. Near the next
building, lovers on a blanket under a tree ate their lunch between
bites of each other. She rapped on the glass. “This won’t stop
everything.”
    “ It helps me think, the
feeling of open space. I grew up flying with Dad and it’s worth the
risk. Besides, who wants me dead now?”
    “ I have a list of people if
you want it.”
    Markis laughed. “Between you and Karl I’d
never leave the Bunker if you had your ways.” The Bunker was the
new, high-security lab they were building in the played-out mines
nearby.
    “ Speaking of the Bunker, I
want your authorization to add a special annex. It will be
expensive but I think it’s necessary.” She handed him a folder,
which he looked over.
    “ Containment and
confinement. For the commandos?”
    “ Or people like them. With
that final plague coming in the next six weeks – I think ‘Reaper
Plague’ is catching on in the media – we might need it. I know I’m
not comfortable where we’re holding them right now. It’s
inconvenient to the lab and people that need to study the nanos and
their effects on human physiology. And they tell me there is a
small but real chance that the nanos in their bloodstreams could
escape to replicate elsewhere. Unlike the Plagues, they can
theoretically jump species. Do we really want nano-rats with
nano-fleas running around?”
    Markis sat back slowly. “Dear God. No, we
don’t. Okay, you sold me. Until then, do whatever you must to keep
that from happening. If you have to sedate them until it’s
built…whatever it takes.”
    “ What I’d really like to do
is try to dialyze them and take the nano out.”
    “ And then what?” Markis
asked.
    Cassandra, with a growing smile, replied,
“There’s an old saying. If you want to destroy an enemy, make him
your friend.”
     
     

 
     
-5-

    Even at six in the morning the day looked to
be heading toward hot. It was breezy with a hint of dust when
Master Sergeant Jill Repeth marched up to the scratch Military
Police platoon drawn up in formation in front of their
hastily-erected barracks on Butts Army Airfield, Fort Carson,
Colorado. Time to play the role again . Her uniform